Saga: The Meeting

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: This saga thread is now open for any and all members to join!)

The moon was finally at its highest point in the sky; midnight. Through this land the stench of an ancient death held supremacy over the nostrils of any poor man, woman or child to wonder into this desolate land, though there was no recent death, no freshly scattered corpses. It was hard to believe that a place of this existed in a country such as Metapha, a country notorious for its immense beauty. The surrounding mountains covered every inch of the horizon line and stretched out in all directions, only breaking for what seemed a few miles at most, towards the south.

This was known as the land of the dead to those who inhabited Metapha. It was a land where no life could remain, whether it was flora, fauna or even Dragonian, living in this land was impossible. The cause of this section of Metapha turning into a symbolisation of death was unknown, said to have happened thousands and thousands of years in the past. Of course there were theories, many revolving around something biblical, but in the end they were only theories. People found it difficult to grasp that there were just some things in nature, in life, that they would never be able to truly grasp; this was one of those cases.

High within some ancient ruins resided two men, Natas and Dramanius. They waited patiently for the arrival of, well anyone. Had they truly seen Loki before, or had that been a figment of their imaginations? The latter was unlikely as they had both witnessed his suddenly arrival, but they were starting to wonder if the message he had sent out had truly reached the minds of the planets remaining warriors, only time would tell, but time and their patients were running short.

[Tidus Revok]

Tidus gripped the ledge of the slope he had been climbing for some time now. With one last effort and a heavy grunt, he pulled himself up and onto another trail that seemed to slope upward like a stairwell to the sky. He was already exhuasted from the long journey, and thoughts of his old life coming back to him flooded his mind.

"What are you doing here, Tidus? Having your parents returned to you will be nothing more than a pleasant dream, and a good memory. You waste your time!"

Tidus clenched his fist in sorrow and rage. So far his life had been wasted, searching continually for ways of brining his parents back, having only Jen to push him on through the trials and hardships of repeated failures, again and again.

"Come on Tidus, what are you thinking? If you drop out now, Jen will never let you live it down. Besides, it's my family. Anything but my utmost effort would by a complete disgrace!"

Tidus walked slowly, head down, hair blowing in a strong dusty wind that carried a foul stench. He would continue, if not for anyone or anything else, but to prove his utter love and longing for his family. The moon had reached its highest by the time he got to the top. It was midnight, as the voice commanded, but he could not see a living soul. Tidus stood still, wind blowing against his red overcoat, and his blue eyes sparkling with hope, hope for a future with the ones he loved.

"Is there no one here to meet me? I bring help for your ally! Show yourselves!

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: I had hoped more would have posted in this thread by now, but the three day rule is a rule, and to progress things further it looks like that it'll be just me and you for the moment Tidus. Hurry up and join people! You can jump in at ANY point!)

The wind had picked up somewhat, but from being hardly noticeable to something just a little bit stronger than a brisk breeze, which didn’t help put ones mind off of the horrid stench of death that filled the area; the smell was unrelenting on the senses. Though the moon had now hit the middle of the night’s sky it still hadn’t managed to completely light up the surrounding area of the ruins with its silvery glow, an unnatural amount of darkness and shadow filling the area.

At first no one answered Tidus, his voice falling on nothing but silence and the sound of the breeze. Had it all been nothing more than a prank? If it was it was most certainly quite an elaborate prank. But just then two beams of light appeared from within the darkness. For a few moments they merely hovered there, occasionally flickering on and off, and then suddenly they began to move forward. Not one, but two figures appeared from the shadows, the two bright lights actually belonging to one of the two figures, his eyes to be exact. After moving into plain vision the two stopped.

“Welcome friend.” Dramanius began.

“You say you bring help for our ally?” Natas then spoke, his bright eyes having somewhat dulled down as to not completely illuminate the entire area.

“That is most commendable. We welcome the help of one such as you.” Dramanius tilted his head down somewhat, as if attempted to bow his head in a gesture of respect, though having trouble; this was not in his nature, but the situation called for some level of deceit. “But I digress, tell us friend, what help do you bring to us for our ally?” he spoke quietly, calmly and slowly. “Is it some form of help specifically, or help in the form of yourself?”

[Garoten Reklor]

Kyle checked the chronometer in the upper right hand corner of his view and frowned. 11:46 pm, and the distance to target display just below it showed nearly two hundred and fifty miles remaining. At his current cruising speed of three hundred miles an hour, he'd never make it. So much for keeping a low profile...

="No more time for being cautios. Kick us up to supercruise, level 2, on my mark...3...2...1...mark."=

In response, his flight speed slowed for just a breath of time - then a tremendous boom echoed over the ocean west of Metapha. In seconds, his flight speed reached Mach 2.

***********************************

Ten minutes later, The White Knight reached the shores of Metapha and dropped his speed to a measly hundred miles an hour. Quickly he rocketed across the northern tip of the island, bearing down on the bright blue waypoint that Rhia had marked: a mysterious wasteland that fit the description Kyle had passed on to her from the Voice. Even two thousand feet up, the area was notably different from the rest of the continent. Using a topographical map that overlaid his own view, Kyle pinpointed the highest area on the northern tip aligned himself above it in a quiet hover.

="Okay, scan for lifesigns."=

Even before he requested the scan, the Knight knew there were three - people didn't seem like the right word - presences down below him. Three distinct sensations nagged at the back of his consciousness, the same way his assasin's instincts still did, and he knew one of the three was the boy from the earlier battle. He was still a good distance from the other two - at least it felt that way.

="Three bio-signatures detected. The boy from the forest is still a distance of nearly thirty meters below the other two, ascending slowly. A visual is necessary before any further information can be gained on them."=

="Okay then, bring me down to 100 meters and open the light filters all the way. Activate night vision and increase magnification to ten times."=

Slowly he descended to what still felt a safe height, especially in the darkness of midnight. When his visor shifted to clear and night vision clicked on, two sillouhettes came into view. The zoom clarified their faces, and Rhia began cross-referencing immediately. It was nice to have access to information he shouldn't know. Appearing omniscient never hurt one's chances, after all.

="Got it. The one on the left shows up once, well over eight years ago. Name, Dramanius. It appears he nearly destroyed the entire planet, but was killed in battle by three others of his own kind. His physiology now appears to be human, but historical records refer to him as a Chaos Spirit. There's nothing on the other one, I'm afraid."=

The entire planet? This is absurd.

Kyle noted somewhat cautiously that Dramanius didn't feel like he was powerful enough to destroy an entire planet - but it wasn't wise to trust feelings that had only recently started becoming recognizable. Still, one suspicion was proven: a character like Dramanius probably wouldn't have come back the dead for any humanitarian cause, and that coupled with his supicions about the Voice led to a reasonable conclusion that this whole thing wasn't going to lead to a better Dragonia. Just as Tidus reached the summit, the White Knight decided to intervene in the affairs of this world one more time.

He landed heavily beside the boy and crossed his arms, displaying a confidence he wasn't sure had any real merit.

"I don't know what he brings, Dramanius, but I'm giving you a chance to explain yourselves before I try to stop you and your 'allies'. What exactly are you after, and to what end?"

It was an impolite, discourteous entrance for Knight to be making, but it didn't exactly violate the code specifically. Besides, these types responded best to a show of strength most of the time.

[Aion]

(OCC: Sorry it's so short...I'm in a hurry and had a few seconds of free time. I'll add more later.)

"Ahh, so this is Dramanius? I must say, you don't look very trustworthy." Aion joked as he made his way out of the darkness; choosing to stand a little ways behind Kyle and Tidus. His comment wasn't so much an inquiry as it was a request to both Dramanius and Natas; basically, if they kept quiet about his identity Aion would stay silent as well. He wasn't doing this out of greed, but protection; offering a false sense of respect often shared within this group. There was one thing he didn't want compromised, and that was his status in Lavertia. Dispite being what some called a "lord of hell", Aion did care deeply for his country, and more specifically, the royal family.

Thanks to the knight, there would be no need to carefully structure his questions in an attempt to fool Dramanius, nor search through his answers for a key phrase or two; this question was straight to the point. A smile spread across Aion's face as his eyes rested upon Dramanius awaiting his answer."Oh...let's see what type of BS you can pull out today..."

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Come on people! Lets have more of you in this thread and more posting!)

For a few short moment both Natas and Dramanius, although unknown between the two of them, had shared the thought that perhaps only this one boy had, or would come. This would have been both a good and a bad result, good in the sense that another person to help them on their quest but bad as more than one would have obviously have been better, especially since the one who had come to help was but a mere boy. Fortunately within a few seconds more of the boy showing up others had suddenly appeared out of thin air, quite literally in fact.

A man in an iron suit suddenly descended from the sky above them, thudding next to the young boy and addressing Dramanius by name. At this point both Natas and Dramanius looked at each other, this time both knowingly sharing the same thought; how did this person know Dramanius name and who exactly was he? The answer to this question would have to wait as suddenly another, albeit unexpected person suddenly appeared from within the shadows. This time Natas knew who this person was, though it was clear from the man’s words that he and Dramanius did not know each other; Aion.

“It appears many of you know my name already, though how rude it is that you have not introduced yourself to me.” Know your enemies , it was phrase that had stood the test of time throughout history, and though Dramanius was attempting to do just that, to know his possible enemies, he was also trying to sway the direction of conversation away from the path it had so nearly began to journey down. Anyone who knew who he was, or what he had done, would surely not be here to help them, though he and Natas had one advantage on their side, those of good nature were suckers for a rehabilitated soul.

All the while Natas had not taken his bright eyes off of Aion. He knew who Aion truly was, yet why had he arrived? Was he here to help them free Loki? Surely not, yet his mere presence around other lords of hell would surely awaken some inner demons. The situation contradicted itself, but perhaps that was Natas merely thinking things over too much. At either rate it benefited no one to reveal Aion’s true identity as of yet, so for now he would leave it a secret.

“We aren’t here for a fight,” Natas suddenly spoke up. “But if forced to we will defend ourselves…and you wouldn’t want to talk that path.” His voice was cold and didn’t change in tone. “This is not a threat, but a friendly warning.”

“What my associate here is trying to say is that we come in peace.” Dramanius’ voice had somewhat more emotion in it. “What the message said still stands. Our master,” though it pained him to explain his relationship to Loki under that term. “Is in need of help. The reward of glory, riches and power still stand to any and all who commit themselves to our worthy cause. Believe me when I say that our lord has more power than even me and my associate.” Dramanius hardly believed this, but sweetened words were what were needed here.

[Archer]

The sea air struck hard against Archer's face, the ocasional splash of water striking his face as hard as a bullet as he skimmed across the water's surface, sending ripples flowing out from him like waves of unknown energy. It had been almost exactly three hours since his encounter with Gray and Prometheus in Bedoe, and although he was still behind his self-made deadline, he was making fairly good time. His coat billowed in the rushing gale that his journey had produced, slapping the air with resounding cracks of rapidly moving fabric; on his belt, the Archangel did it's best to keep hold of the chain that bound it's place.

It had taken a lot of effort, and stretched memories to his study from years gone by, but his last minute effort to reach Metapha appeared to have paid off; his hands grasped a pair of cold, metal handles, which extended down into a single metal rod, connected to a panelled device designed to divert the flow of air. He sat on a fabricated seat, connected to a vehicle of slightly strange design. At it's base, square panels took in and dispersed a flow of air, the pressure keeping the bike a few inches away from the surface it followed. The rapidly produced fuel caused the impromptu engine to cough and splutter as it was pushed to it's limits.

And at the helm of the hoverbike, the torso and head of a small robot were secured to the framework, metal hands clapping together excitedly as the air rushed around the concaves and convexes of his form.

Although the rest of his construction had been an unprecidented success, one thing puzzled Archer profoundly; he had been able to transmute the metals required for the bike's construction, the fuel required to power it's internal devices; and yet when he had attempted to transmute the annoying droid into a useful, if unusual, aspect of the machine, the process had simply refused to work. In the end, he'd had to resort to even more bizzare methods for his ideas to be made reality.
Damnit, he cursed in his mind, What are you?[/i]

As had happened many times on the journey thus far, the robot's mind wandered from the thrill of the speed, and his head turned to face the vehicle's rider.
"You do promise me muffins, yes?" he said cautiously, careful not to infringe on their agreement too soon. Archer sighed.
"Yes, you stupid robot," said Archer for what he hoped was the last time, "I promise."

At this, the Robot returned to his inane clapping, as his feet moved furiously back and forth beneath the hood of the machine, secretly revolving something that somewhat resembled a hamster's wheel. How did it come to this... the alchemist thought in despair.

However, the fruits of his labour soon paid off, as the bike cast up it's last spray of foamy water, opting instead to blow billowing clouds of sand into the surrounding environment as they entered the continent of Metapha. Slowing the bike's progress for a moment, Archer looked around himself; it appeared his guess of direction had been almost exactly accurate, as he could see what appeared to be a slowly increasing group of people within the ruins not overly far away. Twisting the bike's handle, he headed in that direction.


As he drew closer to the edge of the ruins, he began to see the figures more clearly. The most prominant of whom wore a heft suit of metal armour, like a knight of legend.
"Who invited Iron-Man?" he muttered, swinging a leg over the side of his self-made craft and placing both feet once more on solid ground. Attempting not to gag on the putrid smells that began to invade his senses, he turned to his 'steed'.
"You need to stay here. Or no muffins." he said plainly. Taking the robot's overenthuseastic nodding as an acknowledgement of his order, he turned on his heels, his coat rippling around him as he did so. Unclipping the orb from his belt, the air filled momentarily with a golden glow as the Archangel took it's true form, and Archer slowly approached the gathering masses.

[Tidus Revok]

(OOC: I was waiting to see if anyone else would join in, I suppose this is it.)

Tidus sighed. He was getting frustrated at all the intrusions and interruptions. He lifted his head at Dramanius and Natas after they had explained their coming in peace.

"Look, you two, I don't know what your master needs. I have an item that can grant you anything you want, with no exceptions. But
if I patt your back, you patt mine. I have several terms that must be met before I consider handing the item over. After they are met you can keep it and do whatever you want with it. That is none of my concern. Do we have an accord?" Tidus starred at them. The wind was blowing in his face, and with it, the smell of death. He tilted his head down trying to keep dirt or dust from getting in his eyes. Tidus reached in his satchel to make sure he didn't lose the item on the climb. He was sure he didn't, but rather safe then sorry. "Yep, still there. Just hope it'll convince them." He felt the round object making sure it was in tact, while his other hand rested on his staff. It was retracted and concealed, of course. But if Natas or Dramanius didn't play along, or one of the others started a fight, it might come in handy. Tidus wanted a reply before anymore interruptions. He spoke in desperation"Well? I don't have all day."

Then again, they could try to take it by force. It was brutally obvious that he had it in his satchel, but Tidus had considered that, and he left his options open just in case. This was his last chance at bringing his family back, and he would not let it slide away like all the others. He considered simply using the scroll himself, but without the quill he couldn't break the law of equality. And his guess was bringing his parents back would mean killing off Nishaio, Allina, or even worse. Tidus shuttered at the thought. He rested his hand in his satchel as he looked up, anxious at their reply.

[kihaku]

As I came closer towards what looked like some kind of ruins, a sickly scent wafted across my nose, and I could almost innately feel it course through all of my senses, other than my sight. It distracted me for a brief few seconds, in which time the items slowly fell behind.

I berated myself, and used a small manipulation of my hands to bring them closer to my chest. I kept pace, fortunately, with Gray as the two of us flew on to Metapha. It had been thrilling, uneventful, until I could just barely spy Archer jetting past us just north of our position.

He arrived a few moments before the two of us, but it wasn't long enough to misinterpret we hadn't traveled together. My feet touched the ground, and I let out a sigh of relief. I looked to Gray, giving him a thumbs up and a smile. "Not bad for a first-timer, ey?"

I gently set down Archer's belongings before putting my hands in my pockets, turning my head every which-way to gather as much about my surroundings as I could. I mean, I'd been to England, Scottland, France, Japan, and to more than half of the fifty-one provinces, but I was on an alien planet. No matter what I laid my eyes on, my mind was still abuzz with the thought that I could be the first human to see these things.

People were speaking, making comments that almost crackled in the air with a tangible electrifying sensation.

"Who invited Iron-Man?"

My eyes grew the tiniest bit wider, and my left eyebrow lifted in skepticism. I looked about, and noticed for the first time the man bedecked in an armor that seemed almost... unreal to me. People actually wore out-dated stuff like that here? Swords, maybe platelets of advanced body armor, things like those I could handle, but not full-on knight's armor.

Nothing like Iron Man, a small disappointment.

'You're seriously upset that you didn't just see Tony Stark on an uncharted alien planet!?'

I scratched the back of my head and looked to the ground by my feet, trying to play off the fact that I really was a little disappointed, making it seem as if I was more uncomfortable with being around these people. Having not noticed the heavy fighter before, I gave a cursory examination of those assembled with my normal vision.

Archer, Gray, myself, and five others I didn't recognize in the slightest. Black hair, tall, lean, they all were as different as one could be from one another. However, two stood apart from the others and shared a common trait: they seemed to exhude... well, I don't want to say evil, per se, but I couldn't find any other word for it.

"Well? I don't have all day."

Everyone suddenly fell quiet, as if this guy had been saying something very awkward and now no one was really sure of what to say to break the ice. I leaned in towards Archer, and asked him, none too quietly, "Did we miss something?"

[Aion]

Aion listened quietly to the conversation at hand. Many questions ran through his mind; all of which were trumped by one more prominent: "Was coming here the correct chioce?". He could feel Natas' cold gaze. To say it left him with a simple eery and uncomfortable feeling was an understatement. He could feel the effects of both mens presence on his soul: demonic voices, horrific screams, vicious snarls; the sounds of Hell, while the others couldn't hear or feel these things, Aion could. It was as if the devil himself was tugging at his very existence.

His hand slowly rose upward, stopping once it reached it's destination: his face. Pulling his glasses down just enough to reveal the dim crimson glow emitting from behind them, Aion locked eyes with Natas. Clearly, who was the more powerful between the two was known to each warrior. However, Aion wasn't about to lose this battle, his well known calm demeanor wouldn't be tainted by the influence of Natas or Dramanius; he worked his ass off to maintain it, he refused to lose it so easily.

Aion's attention shifted to Tidus after hearing his words. An item that can grant any wish? If this were true now was the time to jump in. The problem was figuring out how. Simply talking Tidus out of this deal seemed doubtful; nobody in their right mind would offer up such an item without having their mind dead set on a goal. He could attempt to out bid Tidus, but what good would that do? There was absolutely nothing he could offer that these two would take; and attacking Tidus or anyone else was out of the question.

His hands were tied. All he could do is wait for an opportunity to appear.

[Garoten Reklor]

While Tidus was issuing his ultimatem, Kyle Edwards was silently scanning every piece of information Dragonia's various archives had to offer on this Dramanius character - and not one word had been complimentary so far. Thus, he wasn't surprised when the dynamic duo offered a non-answer to his challenge. far from answering his questions about what they were after, the former would-be destroyer of worlds only repeated his impossible offer. Still, he said more than he meant to:

="Okay, I'll take the results from that voice analysis now, Rhia. Do we have an honest, reformed Dramanius on our hands?"=

="Voice patterns confirm your suspicion, Sir. He's definitely lying. I'm also detecting slight tones of aggression - be on gaurd. It's conceivable he's anticipating a fight."=

="Surprise, surprise. Anything yet on his associate?"=

="Negative. I've triple-checked every available database within range. Shall I check again?"=

="No, that's okay. Just keep recording audio and video for future reference, and alert me if you get a match on any of these new arrivals."=

It was almost an understatement. Three more unknowns had showed up in less than a minute, further confirming Kyle's suspicion that the voice he had heard had been a large-scale phenomenon.

"Who invited Iron-man?"

No one would know it, but inside his his armor, Kyle chuckled at the reference to his childhood hero. He had to admit having drawn some inspiration from one of Earth's comic book heroes...wait - Earth's heroes? There was another human here? He turned his head and scanned for the speaker, fully aware of the intimidating effect the silent action could have. He was hoping to intimidate as much as possible here.

Tidus had issued his demands - sort of. The kid seemed to be a decent negotiator. If the background information he had on the boy was true, it wasn't hard to believe. Now all that remained was to hear the response of the two recruiters. Fortunately, no one had to wait long. Dramanius chuckled - a grandfatherly sounding chuckle that would convince anyone he had only the best of intentions and a pocketful of hard candies on his mind.

"Well, you're straight to the point, aren't you boy. I admire your fortitude. Whatever power you're offering, I welcome the opportunity to have such a strong heart to aid us. We'll discuss terms at a point more opportune. What of the rest of you? Will you aid our noble cause, and gain reward in exchange? Time is short, and our master cannot wait much longer!"

="Mr. Edwards, extreme caution is advised!"=

="I know, but there's no option. That boy has already taken the bait! I can't let this go on. Just get me information on these others before it gets too hot"=

He took a deep breath and keyed the external comm system again:

"Sorry, Dramanius, but I'm afraid it's worse than that. Time is up. Unless you can explain exactly what it is you're after, none of us..."

He turned the unblinking gaze of his visor pointedly on Tidus, then the new arrivals...

"will be helping you. At all."

Dramanius silently cursed the meddling fool. Did he really think that armor was enough protection to allow him to interfere like this? Still, deception was his greatest tool for a while longer, at least.

"I understand the desire for details, but I'm forced to admit there are those who would interfere with our master's plans without fully understanding the situation. Until we're certain who is here to help and who is here with..."

Now it was his turn to stare pointedly at the do-gooder in the tin man outfit.

"...other intentions, we simply can't discuss specifics. It's a sensitive matter after all and it just wouldn't be prudent. You do understand."

It was a carefully crafted response. Now if the wanna-be Knight continued his pressure, he would be seen as the aggressor, only swaying the others to Loki's side after all.

Evidently he didn't get it or didn't care. The Knight burst into motion, producing an energy sword seemingly out of nowhere and rushing to deliver a clearly non-lethal blow to Dramanius's left arm.

"Not good enough! I know what you are!"

The Knight knew what the two were up to, but he also knew the longer conversation continued, the more of a corner he would be pinned into. Hoping to soften his losses in the opinions of the undecided, he delivered light swings at trivial targets, only wanting to show his threat of force could be carried out if necessary. The swing at Dramanius's arm was followed by a shield check to his companion, only to take him out of the equation temporarily while he fired a net at Dramanius to bring a sudden stop to what was potentially the beginning of a brawl.

Still, a brawl would be better than letting everyone believe this monster. He could only hope one or more of the others knew what he did and would back him up.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

"STATEMENT: DENIED" a femenine, cold voice called from about five feet above and behind the Knight. Pariah appeared then, fresh from high-speed movement, her arms extended out in either direction from her sides. With it, arcs of energy like solar flares shot from her sides and palms, forming two massive, wall-like protrusions on either side of the knight, in the middle of his offense. He had been burned red again, and he would be shown no mercy or pause. He was her foe then, yet again, for her controller had her orders. She was trying to flatten him like a pancake then.


(ummm... more later?)

[kihaku]

I must not have missed much, because Archer declined to state anything, and Gray was reserving his thoughts for his own personal use. I felt more than just a little outside my comfort zone (probably light years), and a tension was about to break that would probably throw off sparks.

Then the armored guy spoke, and I realized he was speaking through a microphone and speaker. The armor was mechanical! "Sorry, Dramanius, but I'm afraid it's worse than that. Time is up. Unless you can explain exactly what it is you're after, none of us," he looked around, as if he was making sure we were following what he was saying, "will be helping you. At all."

'Whoa, what now?' I raised my eyebrows, cynicism clear on my face. Whether this guy could see me through his visor, or HUD, or whatever he had in there, he could plainly see that I had no intention of being spoken for. I didn't even know this guy, and he was already acting as if he had the right to speak for me. I was just about to put in my two cents, when,

"I understand the desire for details, but I'm forced to admit there are those who would interfere with our master's plans without fully understanding the situation. Until we're certain who is here to help and who is here with," he too looked around at everyone, as if trying to sniff out dissdents other than the tin-can, "other intentions, we simply can't discuss specifics. It's a sensitive matter after all and it just wouldn't be prudent. You do understand."

'Uhm, sort of, but I'm not about to-'

I was finish that though with, 'risk my life for something I know nothing about,' but the metal D-bag interrupted my trend of thought by activating his sword! People think of the strangest things when confronted with stressful situations. I should have been shouting in my mind, 'Weapon! Shiv! Danger! Run! Flee!' but no.

Instead, all I had was, 'Huh, that's almost like a lightsaber.'

"Not good enough! I know what you are!"

Then things got out of hand. The metal guy was running for the evil-looking dude, a few people were actually doing anything, but that was nothing compared to what came next.

"STATEMENT: DENIED"

All of a sudden, some girl with huge anime-like ears popped out of nowhere, and flung what looked like energy beams from her arms. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I instantly started to hop backwards as quickly as I could without falling, and held my arms out in front of me as if to ward off attack.

"That's it, this shit has gotten too crazy for me, Gray, Archer," I looked at them, clearly fed up with the insanity, "you can come with me if you want, but if not, then I wish you the best of luck in life, you'll need it."

With those parting words, I turned, flashed on my Sight, and ran as fast as I could. Ahead of me was a boulder, I stepped on it, and launched myself as hard as I could into the air. Using my newfound power, I instantly converted all of the gray gravitational energy weighing me down, and it sloughed off to reveal my body almost radiating a teal motion energy, which trailed behind me as some of it was transfered into the air in my wake.

I had no idea where I was flying to, but anywhere was better than here.

[Ryan - Loki]

There were many things rushing through Ryan’s mind as he made his way, by means of flight, across the greats sea to the land of Metapha. What had happened to Seriyu’s sword? Chances of it having been the work of a mere thief was low, it had been Ryan who had impaled the sword into the ground meaning it would have took someone of equal, if not more physical strength than the samurai, which, now thinking about it, wasn’t as unlikely was Ryan had originally thought just moments ago.

He had already spent far longer than he had both meant to and wished to worry about such things and not pursuing the others to the ‘meeting’ , and now he was almost certain that it was likely to have already started as the moon was no longer at the highest point in the sky; he would surely not have much longer to arrive before it finished and all the answers that he craved would be lost from him.

And so lit bright like a shooting star across the darkness of the night it wasn’t long before Ryan reached the shores of Metapha, and the blue darkness of the deep sea below him changed slightly in colour to the green darkness of the land; it was but the slightest change, but a change that Ryan noticed nevertheless. Before long Ryan had left the beautiful rolling fields of Metapha behind and had reached the dead, forgotten part of Metapha. The stench of death rapidly drifted up his nostrils causing Ryan to recoil his head somewhat. No matter how many times he had been to this land, though it wasn’t much it was far more than most, Ryan could never become accustomed to the foul smell.

Nevertheless Ryan quickly regained his thoughts, which had been stolen by the less than welcoming factors within this environment, and he had done so just in time as he quickly came across the location where everyone had seemed to stop “the meeting must still be in progress,” he thought. “Perfect!” So as slowly as he could Ryan lowered his inner energy as much as he could and landed towards the back of the group. Obscured by a certain amount of shadow and keeping a low profile would serve him best in this situation.

However in an instance he landed all hell had apparently broke loose at the unorthodox meeting, this followed by the abrupt fleeing of a young boy, who never knocked Ryan over, that Ryan had never seen before who jumped upon a small’ish rock and dived into the air, flying from the area. The fact that Ryan did not know the boy wasn’t too surprising really, many of the people he once knew had moved on or died and there were several billions of people on the planet that he didn’t know.



Natas was outraged by the sudden attack from the moving tin can. These few had pretty much no idea who they were, yes they knew Dramanius’ name and what he had done to the planet in the past (or at least one of them did), but they failed to hold the knowledge that was most important, that both Dramanius and Natas were both once Lords of Hell. Though Natas was no longer a Lord of Hell, and logic pointed towards these maggots not knowing he ever was, he was still greatly angered that they would attempt to attack such beings that were rightfully above them.

In a moment of pure anger Natas stepped forward to pounce on his foolish foes but as he did so he caught Dramanius eyes, and they spoke for him without the needs for words; Natas could not blow their cover, nor their rouse of peace and unwillingness to fight. Quickly controlling himself Natas merely flung his arm forward and collided it with the blade that had been swung by White Knight. The blade and the hardened exoskeleton clanged off of each other like metal on metal, though the sound was a little deepened than that. With the attack halted Natas returned his arm and merely continued to stand beside his comrade.

Meanwhile Dramanius took some matters into his own hands as well. With White Knight having spent his attention attacking towards both Dramanius and Natas he had failed to notice the attack on himself by an unknown woman, who was somewhere off behind him. With very little effort of movement Dramanius used his Walling Heart ability, causing several hexagonal shield-like platelets to form either side of White Knight. The energy attack from the woman smashed into them, but with very little display or noise they quickly faded from existence, as if the shields had cancelled them out. All returned back to a quiet still.

Both Natas and Dramanius had helped still the situation, and it pained them inside, but in times of great need certain measures needed to be taken to succeed. As everything had been within this meeting, their actions had been leaning towards influencing those in the group who doubted them, trying to lure them into a sense of false renewed goodness on their part.

Whether it would work or not they would find out in the next few moments, or they would have, but something quite strange and unexpected suddenly happened. An extremely old looking man suddenly strolled into the middle of everyone; where he’d actually come from no one knew. He was cloaked from neck to feet, though upon his head he wore a metal headband, which actually looked like a dirty-silver crown on closer inspection. Across the wrinkles on his face he had one scar that covered his left eye, a battle wound perhaps? Either way the wound, when caused, had claimed his left eye in the process, leaving it white and blinded. For a few moments he looked around at everyone, a dim grin across his face quite like he didn’t truly understand where he was or what was going on, then suddenly he spoke.

“What have we here laddies?” he asked, still scanning the group as he suddenly noticed the Priah, the female with the rabbit ears, which clearly just added to his confusion. “And, err, lass-rabbits?” despite his clear confusion, over everything, the man plopped himself down on his rear-end, directly centre of everyone. “I think-” he suddenly stopped mid-sentence, not moving a single muscle. He looked like a life-like statue, or like he had died there and then, then suddenly he spoke. “In my day we didn’t have time to stand around and chat about an old suit of armour, we were too busy looking for air to breath!” the old fool was talking nonsense, and so Dramanius sighed, shook his head and paid no attention to what he had said.

“I explained already, we are not here to do battle.” Dramanius spoke out again, keeping an even closer eye on the group now, especially the one in the iron suit. “You are quick to judge me on my past, but remember it was I who saved you from an attack from one of your own group!” even against his best attempts to sound sincere Dramanius couldn’t help but sound somewhat superior as he over-emphasised the letter ‘I’ in his sentence. It was then that he realised what the old man had said.

“A suit of armour?! We never mentioned the armour of origins!” he suddenly thought. Instantly Dramanius became suspicious of the old man, he was obviously more than he appeared to be, but he wouldn’t say any of this out loud. There were clearly some within this small group who wouldn’t follow them to help Loki, and if this man knew about the armour it was clear that it needed to be kept a secret from those who would wish to stop them from freeing Loki; even if it meant the secret died with the old man. Slowly Dramanius took a single step forward, unsure even with himself if he was going to act or not.

Ryan’s eyes widened. “That…that is impossible!…” he muttered, but his eyes and ears weren’t deceiving him, Dramanius was standing before him, having stepped out of the darkness. Almost instantly memories of that dreadful battle came rushing back to the surface of his mind; the pain, the sacrifices. Slowly he looked down at his arm. He couldn’t see it as it was hidden beneath his coat, the golden quill still resting beside it, but he couldn’t forget the moment where Ultima-Ryan had caused him the injury.

“Dramanius!” Ryan bellowed over the silence of the group.

Instantly Dramanius looked up, his eyes also widening as they fell upon Ryan. Now his mind flooded with images of that battle, mainly of the moments where Ryan defeated his superior clone, Ultima-Ryan, and then defeated and killed Dramanius by beheading him. A snarl crossed his face. “…The Jiaoimasu…”

Everyone was probably looked between the two at this point, and it was clear that the two had history; however slight it actually was. “Get everyone out of here.” Ryan said to anyone who would heed his words. “Now.” it was more of an order than a request, something to which he was accustomed giving. Ryan had seen Aion Zakiya amongst the group previously, at least there was one man who he knew enough to trust within this group. “Aion, take the old man and leave with the others. Please.” this time it was a request.

Natas knew who Ryan was, and perhaps Ryan knew who he was too, but up until this point he had remained partially in the shadows. He knew that something was about to go down, more than likely a battle, and knowing his and Dramanius’ position and situation he knew that the most important factor now was to get out of here in one piece, with the boy know as Tidus. “All of you who wish to help us and gain the rewards fellow me!” he quickly looked down at Tidus. “Quickly boy, follow me!” and with that Natas took off into the darkness of the night, the light from his eyes quickly beginning to vanish.

In the blink of an eye Ryan exploded forward from his standing position, Dramanius doing the same. The two let out individual shouts of anger and with an almighty thud the two collided against each other, first against cheek, the two falling to the floor as they scrambled about, each trying to quickly gain the upper-hand in their scuffle.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

The rabbity ears, the visible portions of the Inquisitor analasys system, had split long ago, each 'ear' into three, metallic protrusions, swiveling and twiching as they drew in and analyzed every little speck of data in the area. They were much more sensitive in this form, reading everything from radio stations to television broadcasts, broad-band psychic communications to the heartbeats of those around her. All weighed, it was sorted for relevance, and most of it was. Ryan could not hide from that kind of system, not with those kinds of efforts; his heartbeat was too obvious.

Nonphysical signs told Pariah, and those behind her, about his intentions long before he even raised his voice to attack Dramainus. Honestly, she filtered out most of what was said, including the old man's simple presence. It was irrelevant, after all; how could he know... anything? There was no possibility.

Just the same, she split her concentration between White knight and Ryan, who almost immediately got a red mark. When she would have attacked though... priorities shifted, and relevant chatter reached her supports, some hundred miles away (readings were more precise and higher-range nearer to the Zolan lands as they were). Quickly, they were irrelevant; Ryan was occupied, and White knight... well, he remained burned, but he suddenly moved quite low on her priority list. She could not just let him have his way, though, and pursue to stop her and the being, Natas.

Again Pariah leapt, in high speed movement, the tendrils of energy already forming before her feet even left the ground. As quickly as she could, she manifested sizeable spines of energy, keeping their casings quite stable, but thin, and their innards extremely unstable. Any attempt to breach them before they exploded on their own would have just the same result. With computerized precision, she hurled them down at White Knight, forming a ring of the pinkish, crystalline spires in a teepee, with very little space inbetween each, meeting at the top, sealing the warrior in. When it went off, some five minuites later... it would explode inwards. She somehow doubted it would end him... the "Jiomatsu", whom she picked up and read to be Ryan Jiomatsu, a legendary warrior, would probably have to stop and help him; his reputation implied that... and that would take him a few minuites.

Satisfied, she followed Natas without further ceremony.