Trouble in the Woods

[Tidus Revok]

-3 hours later-

The two made their way down the dirt road, nearing the great city of Bereteca.

"Listen Tidus," Nishaio spoke in a low voice to keep from being overheard in spite of the fact that they were completely alone on the road. "I'm going to tell you about someone who came to be known by the name Markis Leone."

"Who? I've never heard of him." Tidus tried to look up in Nishaio's eyes. But due to his small stature he could barely make eye contact with Nishaio when he was standing.

"He's from my homeland Tidus, a land named Civea. I've told you about it before - it's the same place that art you use is from."

"Oh yeah, of course." Tidus tried to look as if he knew exactly what Nishaio was talking about, unfortunately his mind sometimes....often...almost always wandered during his training lessons. But lucky for him, Nishaio didn't seem to care.

"It has long been told, that in Civea's very founding, In the days of creation, there were seven beings, called Monarks. You or any Dragonian would probably call them angels, but with four wings, not two."

"Wait - how would you know?"

"Quiet! The seven Monarks were given seven white scrolls and instructed to each write in the scroll that which Alegar told them. Each Monark was instructed on what they were to write about and they were given one day for each Monark to complete the work - seven days in all. Unfortunately, one Monark got jealous of another's work and started writing his and the other Monark's assignments. The love of Power got the better of him, and out of envy he tried to write Alegar dead with his own scroll. This tainted the scroll and caused it to turn black. Since Alegar knew of his treachery even before he committed it, the Monark, named Lucas, was cast down along with other rebelling Monarks who stood up for him. They were banished to the world that had been corrupted by the things written in Lucas's scroll - a world known as Civea - along with his black scroll. The other six Monarks were instructed to hide their scrolls in Civea, since it was the very last place Lucas...Or Vaelen as he was later renamed, would expect. Later though, one of his servants, a creature called a Durai, found one of the white scrolls and sought to bring it back to Vaelen. He was intercepted by the Malaci, which is a two winged creature that serves under a Monark. They fought, and though the mortals of Civea could not see nor hear it, it is said the battle shook the very foundations of Civea. In the end, the Malaci was defeated and in a last attempt at hiding the scroll he hurled it back down into Civea. There are many myths and legends about where it landed, but the fact of the matter is the scroll somehow found itself in the hands of a kid about your age named Markis. He first used the scroll's power to create for good, to pay off the band of pirates that were terrorizing the Islands of Cape-Hall and Cape-Lara. But as we all know, absolute power corrupts. He used it to take back the lands belonging to my people, stolen from his ancestors. I agree my ancestors wronged his, but the generation he slaughtered to get the lands back was innocent. After that, he began to think of himself as a sort of god, and tried passing judgment on wicked by writing their deaths in the scroll.

"Wrote their deaths? What are ya talkin about? How does this scroll work?"

Nishaio sighed again, more aggravated at himself then Tidus for not explaining thoroughly enough. "It works like this. Whatever is written in the scroll shall come to be in this world. But the scroll has three tenets by which it must abide. Firstly, The Law of Equality. If you take from someone, you must, in the same sentence, take something of equal value from yourself. The second Tennant is The Law of Creation. The scroll's entire purpose is to create, or transport something. Destroying or removing something from existence is against the second Tennant. The third, and final Tennant is the Penalty for breaking either of the laws, and that is death."

Tidus stopped dead in his tracks. "Wait! you said he slaughtered people. Shouldn't he be dead? How is he still here?"

Nishaio motioned for him to keep moving. There was no time to waste. "You're right. He should be dead. But somehow he came across an item know as the Harbinger's Quill. Legend tells that whoever writes with the Quill cannot die. Since even the scroll cannot kill him, it appears the legends are true. The way the third Tenet kills is that it drains all life from one's body. That's what happened to Markis, but thanks to the Quill he cannot die. So he has become something of an Undead. Sadly, he lives in excruciating pain, and the only way he can stop that pain is to become human again. But that's impossible - or so we thought."

Tidus sighed "Let me guess. He found a loophole."

Nishaio gave a slight nod. "Indeed. By writing that a person's life force is transported to him, he can, to a small degree, restore his own life. Still, he has broken the Tenets so many times that it would take, at the very least, a thousand normal lives. Considering the fact that some lives are not equal with others it could be more, could be less."

Tidus looked up at Nishaio again, breathing heavily from trying to keep up with him. He had shorter legs so it was hard to keep up with Nishaio's strides even without considering the quick pace Nishaio kept."Bereteca huh? Just a wild guess that he's heading there, I take it?"

"You said the killings continued south?"

Tidus nodded "That's right."

"That's reason enough to inspect it. Markis is getting impatient, he needs a lot of people in one place. It's where I would go."

Tidus suddenly nodded in agreement. "So, a scroll that makes whatever you write come into existence. Any rules about how you write? Besides the Tenets?"

Nishaio nodded. "Just one. You are supposed to write it as if it were the story of your life."

"Hold on a second, why doesn't this Markis guy just write that he steals the life from all of Dragonia's citizens?"

"Good question, but the reason is that it's not enough detail for the scroll. When writing about someone else the author either has to write their full name, or have their face in mind, or describe the person. Even with this limitation, Markis has gotten so fast he can see someone, describe them in perfect detail in writing and kill them off in less than a second."

"And a Quill promising eternal life.. sounds like a pretty sweet package..." Tidus whispered to himself, "Just what I've been lookin for in fact.."

"Not entirely."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

Nishaio stopped and motioned to be quiet with his finger to his lips.

"What's wrong? I don't see the city yet."

Nishaio grabbed Tidus' hair and yanked him down prompting him to shriek and hold his head. Nishaio pointed to what seemed to be a tall figure wearing a face mask and with something in its hand, and another figure lying on its back trembling.

Tidus immediately caught on and was filled with rage! "That's him! Markis! And he's murdering someone right now! Why that..." Tidus began to sprint for Markis but Nishaio caught his coat, interrupting him.

"Get down fool! You want us all dead? You can't take him!"

Tidus ignored Nishaio's warning and darted forward "No, but we can!" Tidus shouted at the top of his lungs as he extended his staff behind his back, drawing the entire attention of Markis."Leave him alone you psycho!" Tidus leaped in the air winding up for an overhead swing with his staff as Markis wrote in the scroll.

Less than a second later, the young black haired and blue eyed boy, who so foolishly charged Markis suddenly had his life forced transferred over to Markis! The murderer laughed as Tidus realized what he had written. The text Markis wrote began to glow brightly and the section of parchment he wrote on began to fade into transparency.

"Darn it! I'm a goner!" Tidus closed his eyes, awaiting the inevitable. Just then, the section of scroll mysteriously detached and disintegrated into ashes.

"What!?" Markis turned his head to see a blond haired warrior, with two swords in hand, leaned over, swords out vertically as if he had just made an attack.

"Tidus! Listen up! It's his weakness, when a section of the scroll starts to fade, destroy that section!" Nishaio swung one of his swords at Markis, but before the blow found its mark his blade shattered, and shards of it shot into his chest throwing Nishaio off balance and onto his side.

Tidus cried out in despair!"Sensei!" He held his hand in the air, palm pointed directly at Markis. A transparent ring of ancient lettering that almost looked like Greek appeared in front of his palm, moving in a counter-clockwise motion. The outside of the ring rippled as if the air were made of water, and inside of the ring a ball of fire formed. "Die, you vile waste of matter!" Tidus quickly tapped the ring with his palm and the ball of fire shot toward Markis.

He was amazed to see his attack curve to the left barely missing Markis, almost as if it were drawn away from him. He heard the sound of an explosion, and saw the light of fire in the distance. The fire had swerved around its target and hit a tree behind Markis instead.

"I just set the forest on fire! Crap!" Markis laughed wildly, enraging Tidus even further. :What's so funny? Now all of us are gonna die!" Markis laughed again.

You mean you're gonna die?!" He held up a small golden quill with a three inch gold chain coming off the end and laughed again. "I'm immortal! Remember?!"

Tidus charged another 'Combustion Grenade' as he called it, and shot it into the air, igniting it once it was in the clear sky just below the clouds.

"What the heck was that?" Tidus grinned at Markis' question.

"Just a little wake-up call."

(ooc: ANYONE FEEL FREE TO JOIN IN! Markis is too powerful for Nishaio and Tidus alone.)

[Ryan - Loki]

The rushing of wind through his hair, it was a feeling that Ryan had not truly felt in a long time. No, that wasn’t true; he had felt it on several occasions. Then what made this circumstance feel so different? The adrenaline and the feeling of danger, it had to be those factors that Ryan had not felt in a long while and were in turn causing him to be quite, well, excited at the premise of honourable confrontation. It was the most basic of natural rushes, one that only few truly craved. He was moving fast, much faster than he usually bothered to travel, and though it had hardly been a minute since the initial explosion Ryan was already upon the forest.

The forest was one of many small patches that resided across Lavertia, dense with flora and fauna alike; though Ryan hardly slowed. Pulling to his side Ryan entered the forest at incredible speeds. The trees in this wood had sprouted at unnatural angles, almost as if there was an invisible battle between them all for space and sunlight contact; this, despite nature’s incredible show of willingness to live on, made things incredible hard in turns of manoeuvring.

From left to right Ryan swerved, up and down, turning his body; he was yet to crash. As he moved deeper and deeper into the forest the fire, the obvious cause of the thick black smoke within the sky, was becoming more and more intense, which meant Ryan was nearing his destination. Suddenly he exploded out into what seemed to be a small clearing, the flames licking around his body as the suddenly gust of wind created by his momentum was force out in front of him as his feet hit the ground, skidding through the dirt until he came to a complete halt.

His eyes darted back and forth across the area as he attempted to assess what was going on, and whether or not there was any danger. Unfortunately Ryan didn’t know the half of what had transpired here. There were three men, no four; two lying on the floor and two men standing, facing off against each other. From Ryan’s experience it was usually the people wearing masks that were fundamentally the bad guys in these types of situations.

Ryan instantly made for his weapon with his right, and only useable hand, unsheathing it and holding it out in front of his body. “What is going on here?!” he called out. “What ever is happening here I will not permit anymore of it.”

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

"Don't worry..." a calm female voice came from near the fallen master warrior. "... You won't die." she said again, and a darker pair of hands, the golden brown color of a zolan dragonian, reached out over the wounded man's chest. They belonged to a woman with kind eyes and long, fluffed ears that twitched every once in a while. On her back was tattered clothing, ammounting to a few shirts several sizes too big, and a satchel-backpack made from what looked somewhat like a faded rug.

As she bent over Nishaio, her hands splayed out, fingers wide. Within seconds, she started to tremble as compassion crept into her expressions for him. Light appeared, soft at first, but growing abundant quickly, spreading from her hands and pouring pinkish gold light directly into the man's wounded flesh. Bits of the blade forced their way from him as the light grabbed at the hilts of his swords, and each piece started to melt and reshape.

Billions of nanoengineers, tiny machines working in concert with her compassion, dissassembled the blades, then put them back together, bit by bit. She barely understood how it worked... all she knew was that she had the power to heal people and their tools... and heal them she did, to the best of her ability. The sympathetic energy had soon sealed the wounds, and left the man's twin swords in pristine condition, gleaming as if they had just been forged.

It was awefully easy to miss a woman like her. She had no traditional energy signature, at least not a potent one, and her voice was soft and caring. She smiled warmly at the man, and offered him her hand to stand once the light all ceased, and stood bent over him. "You'll be okay! On your feet, now!" she chirped, quite cheerfully.

[Garoten Reklor]

The late night air on the road to Bereteca had a pleasant feel to it as Kyle Edwards came within sight of the city. Thanks to his willing assistance in the cleanup of Itopu after the village's half-destruction, the people had been more than willing to answer his questions and point him in the direction of the nearest large city. Their refusal to talk about technology wasn't exactly heartening, but then again, one couldn't expect the denizens of a little village in the middle of nowhere to be avid readers of the latest science journals. In fact, he had already detected a wireless network and gained access to something like the Internet, much to Rhia's satisfaction. Even while he walked, the AI hidden safely in his pendant was downloading and compiling terabytes of information on Dragonia's history, culture, geography, economy, and technology. The fact was that if the type of equipment and research he needed to get home was on this planet, it would more likely be in a city after all – the bigger, the better. Once he confirmed the location of a nice, big, laboratory, the next hurdle would be gaining access to such a place. The task was more daunting than one might think, considering this place seemed to run on some very different rules than Earth. Unaided flight, people spewing fire from their mouths and running around waving internal organs about...the whole of Kyle's experiences on Dragonia so far seemed like an episode of a badly dubbed Japanese cartoon show.

Kyle's thoughts returned to his time on Dragonia so far. He deeply regretted his involvement in the incident at Itopu. Taking a cheap bounty-hunting job was beneath him to begin with, but taking it on a rumor from a tavern a continent away had proven to be a terrible mistake. If he hadn't taken the time to confirm Rizuk's identity, he might have attacked or even killed an innocent man. He shuddered, a result of both the thought of such a crime and a sudden shift in the wind. Something in the air caused him to stop and snap his thoughts back to alertness. The night that had felt so calm and tranquil a few moments ago suddenly took on an eerie sense, for no apparent reason. But his battle sense told him something was very wrong. As if in response to his unasked questions, a fireball suddenly rocketed skyward from the nearby forest and exploded, illuminating everything as bright as day for a long moment. It could have been anything: a natural phenomenon, industrial accident, celebration of some kind – but he instantly knew better. That sense developed over years of split second, life and death decisions told him that this particular fireball was a call for help. Without another hesitation, he broke into a run for the area below the fireball and tapped the hidden button on his pendant. In mid stride, the Armor of the White Knight enveloped his body, jets ignited, and he was hurtling along just above the forest canopy. In less than a minute, he was above an area of the forest besieged by a quickly spreading blaze. Six people stood in an open space where the blaze appeared to have started. The obvious first concern was to stop the fire from spreading. Barely slowing his speed, the Knight dove into the forest and whipped Shadowbane off his belt, forming the weapon into something resembling a giant plow. A tremendous crashing noise echoed over the countryside as he rammed the point of the instrument into the ground and ripped a long four foot wide trench through the forest just ahead of the spreading flames, creating a firebreak that only a hurricane force wind would drive the fire across. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to stop the burning of the part of the forest already ablaze, but at least the greater part would now be spared.

That done, Shadowbane became a sword again as he turned his course back toward the group of people he'd spotted. Sensing it might not be the right moment to make an entrance, he hovered far above the clearing and zoomed his optical display in on the group. Reticles popped onscreen and analysis began of everyone present.

“What ever is happening here I will not permit anymore of it.”

In spite of his location hundreds of feet above, the White Knight heard clearly as the man with the sword spoke. His voice carried an authority that resonated with his instincts. This was clearly a man of position in this area. Rhia voiced her confirmation a second later.

“I've got a match, Sir. That's Ryan Jiaoimasu, one of the recognized 'Heroes' of Dragonian History and official aide to the Lavertian Royal Family.”

The reticle on the blond man on the ground zoomed in as Rhia continued her analysis.

“That's Nishaio Shimata, another of the recognized heroes known for his great speed...No records exist on the others, but I think you'll recognize her.”

Focus on his HUD shifted to the girl who was knelt over Nishaio.

“That's the girl from Itopu! What's she doing?”

A quick scan highlighted energy flowing from the girl into the warrior, but not electrical or weaponized energy at all. In fact, Nishaio's vital signs indicated she was healing him, and quickly.

”So, she's suddenly benevolent? That's a bit strange. Any sign of that military vehicle from before?”

”None, sir.”

”Okay then, let's just see what happens for now and figure out who the one needing help is.”

Silently, he descended until he was just out of the light of the fires and waited to see what would develop between the small collection on the ground.

[Tidus Revok]

((OOC: This: ~ indicates what markis is writing on the scroll - just so you know...))

"Looks like the Chivalry has survived!"

Markis grinned behind his mask, ignoring Tidus's failed attempt at another metaphor. He loved a good fight, and this one was getting better and better. Tidus was no threat to him, he was too predictable. He had also dealt with Nishaio, or so he thought. Thanks to Ryan's intrusion Markis was oblivious to Nishaio's being healed. Markis chuckled.

"I will not permit it! Ha! You think yourself greater than I? Allow me to enlighten you!" Markis' hand moved so quickly as it wrote that it was hardly traceable by the Human/Dragonian/V'alcan eye.

~Just then, two enormous trees started to fall on the black haired warrior who had so foolishly challenged Markis.~

The section Markis wrote on glowed then faded into nothingness. Just as he had written, two enormous burning trees began to creek, then lean, then fall right above Ryan's head.

-Meanwhile-

Nishaio awoke slowly to see a slim Grey haired woman, with bunny ears?! He had to be dreaming. Nishaio jerked up and regained his senses: Markis was still standing there, back to him. Tidus was facing him with a prideful smirk. There was also a new warrior who opposed Markis, but Nishaio's eyes couldn't make out the figure for all the smoke. He knelt and clutched his swords with both hands, looking up at Markis in rage. The murderous villan had caught him by surprise once, but there would be no more of that!

"So long warrior, send Nishaio my greetings in the afterlife!" Markis laughed fanatically at Ryan as the trees fell. Suddenly, he was cut off by the pain of cold metal piercing through his flesh as he heard a low pitched whisper in his ears.

"Why don't you?"

Markis was enraged. He swung both arms down snapping Nishaio's blades again, but only at the very tip, making them not entirely useless. He performed a 180 degree spin, quill aiming directly for Nishaio's skull as Nishaio performed a diagonal counter swing at Markis. At this rate the quill would make contact with Nishaio's skull first. There was something wrong, Nishaio was holding back...but why? Suddenly something struck Markis in the back and ignited, throwing him completely off balance. His attack missed and Nishaio's followed through, cutting off the arm that held Markis's quill. The arm flew off and landed beside Pariah as the quill spun through the air in Ryan's general direction. Markis regained his footing and glared at Tidus who had just foiled his attack.

Tidus grinned. "What's wrong Markis, nothing without your godlike powers?" Just then Tidus saw Markis reach for something in his robe. Nishaio jerked and in less than a millisecond, both were right in front of Tidus. Markus had a dagger to Tidus's head with only Nishaio's sword barely in between.

Now would be a great time for someone to intervene! Nishaio thought to himself.

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Could we please try to stay in order here? Remember, LoD has rules about this. If the person who is meant to post (i.e.: this time me) doesn't post within three days then he/she skips their turn. I'll let it slide this time as we're all new to returning to LoD )

Within the few short seconds that Ryan had arrived it seemed that Pandora’s box had been opened and pandemonium was released. Evil had once again returned to Dragonia. Had it been merely chance that it had returned so close to Bereteca? And not only that but on a night when Ryan just happened to be outside of the city gates and close enough to intervene? Perhaps there was a little more at work here than caught the eye, perhaps there was a little divine intervention. Either way it hardly mattered currently.

Ryan’s first interpretation of everything that was transpiring had been correct, the mysterious figure in the mask was in fact the antagonist of the situation, this being clarified by his sudden retort aimed at Ryan. With great speed the stranger began scribbling something down onto the scroll that he was carrying, though he wrote with such speed that not even Ryan’s keen vision could keep up with the movements of the quill; what had he wrote and what was so special about that scroll?

In an small flash of light from the scroll Ryan suddenly heard extremely loud clicking and creaking on either side of him. In a forest inferno he wouldn’t give much cause to take notice of such trivial noises, they were to be expected, but with the noises coincidently coming to pass exactly after Markis wrote on the scroll it he threw caution to the wind and looked up to his left and right.

Two trees, one either side of him, had begun descending down upon him in an attempt to crush him: Ryan no longer believed in coincidences. He was probably strong enough to raise his arms and stop the trees from crushing him, though with one are out of commission his chances were slim-to-none; so that option was out. In reality there was only one thing to do.

Quickly bending down Ryan shot up into the air, blade held tightly within his palm. There was suddenly two flashes of white, and then the trees thumped down against the ground, only in four separate pieces, each tree in two pieces, cleanly sliced; Ryan landed down in front of the trees, bending his knees into a crouched position before standing and directing his vision back towards Markis once more. He seemed to be locked in a stalemate with another warrior, though through the ever thickening black smoke he couldn’t make out who it was. Then her saw it.

It was laying on the floor directly in front of him, the golden quill that Markis had used to write on the scroll with. Hesitantly Ryan bent down and picked it up. For a few brief moments he forgot about the destruction and the battle that was insuring all around him and purely focused his attention on the quill. This was no ordinary quill, that much was sure, but what was so special about it? It could take an eternity to truly figure out such things, and with that in mind Ryan placed it within his cloak out of sight, beside his lifeless arm.

Ryan looked up, Markis and the unknown warrior were still in a stalemate with each other, now a beaming light of some sort of rose floated aimlessly behind the warrior. It somehow seemed so familiar to Ryan, but he couldn’t place where he had seen such things in the past. Perhaps I am finally going senile. he thought to himself, a small grin cracking across his face briefly; it soon vanished.

The fire was burning out of control, and soon enough it would surely burn through the entirety of the forest, and after that it could burn across the fields until it perhaps even reached as far as Bereteca; Ryan couldn’t allow this. Raising his arms into the air Ryan began to concentrate, though in truth only one of his arms raised up; even after seven years he still hadn’t become completely accustomed to only having the use of one arm. Suddenly the entirety of the inferno began to pull towards Ryan, almost as if a strong wind was blowing it.

Pulling his arm towards his body the flames ripped away from the flora that they had been using as fuel to continue their burning rampage and, without direction, floated in front, and around of Ryan. Ryan lifted his head and merely looked through the flickering flames at the battle ahead of him, his face illuminated in the reds, oranges and yellows; he held a terrifyingly re-emergence to Loki at that moment, other than his obvious physical differences.

“I warned you…” Ryan muttered, though his mutter was more than enough to carry across the sounds of the battle to the ears of all those taking part. Suddenly the flames began to move through the air directly in front of Ryan, and soon enough they began to take shape; the shape of a dragon. The dragon was large, as large as the amount of fire Ryan had at his disposal, and as it looked on at Markis and the other warriors it opened its jaw and a deafening roar exploded from within; the roar was merely a reaction from the fire against the air in it’s new state.

“Now you will reap the suffering of your decision!” He bellowed, and the dragon shot forward towards everyone. The fire it was created from engulfed all the surrounding flora, and any fauna that had remained, though like the warriors whom Ryan knew walked the path of truth and justice, the flora and fauna of the forest would not be scorched or hurt from the fire; thus was Ryan’s will.

(OOC2: That's fine Vaya, no worries!)

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

That was that: She had officially adopted Nishaio from that point onward. He was a handful! The moment she healed him, he went and threw himself at that warrior again who had almost crushed him the first time. A light did appear through the blackness of the forest fire, originating from a space inbetween outstreatched hands.

It took the shape of a lucent pillar of light before her, focusing on a space about the size of her forearm in length and width, condensing ever harder in upon itself, soon taking the shape of a brilliant flower of light. She shook as this went on, eyes shut tight in concentration on this act. So much did she concentrate, that she almost missed the rampaging dragon entirely.

She heard, through fire and flames, a familiar voice speaking, speaking of destruction... and she knew she heard it somewhere, but the trouble was... where? She felt a yearning, but put it out of her head for the moment. But a second or so between Ryan's assault and Nishaio's predicament, she did her part.

Putting one arm down, the other was held foreward, palm out, pointed at Nishaio, the delicate crystal flower hovering, glowing, before her, Jenny let out a little grunt of effort. In reaction, the crystal began to resonate, creating a clearly audible sound in the deafening roar of flames all around them, reaching Nishaio's ear the strongest. As this happened, suddenly Nishaio was being wreathed in a metallic, golden-pinkish light. It surged into him through every pore, and enveloped every inch of his body, if allowed to, suffusing him. Muscles would stop straining and heal faster than he could wear them down.

"I'm still here, mister!" she called with a heavy Zolan accent, and raised her other hand, trying her best to maintain the special flower as she gave the swordsman energy. "Hang in there!"

[Garoten Reklor]

((OOC: Just for clarification, when = appears, Kyle is talking to the AI on a closed channel, not to everyone else.))

From above the clearing, The White Knight watched calmly as Nishaio regained his feet - and then all Hades broke loose. In a few blurred movements, the masked man was minus an arm and his writing instrument, the little boy responsible was nearly killed, and -

Thank goodness - someone could put the fires out after all...What the?

Ryan, reflecting the wisdom and virtue for which he was known, took the inferno from the woods, saving lives and landscape all at once. But then he turned around and formed an enormous dragon from the flames and hurled it at the entire group present! While such an irresponsible and indiscriminately violent action was inconsistent with the man's legendary reputation, the fact was - as far as the Knight knew - that he had done it anyway. Of course there was a nagging feeling in his mind that there must be more to this attack than met the eye, but the risk was too great not to act. Even good men made mistakes sometimes...and sometimes those mistakes were big ones. Jets to full, he rocketed toward the ground, outpacing the dragon by only seconds.

="Shift to Teutonic configuration...NOW!"=

Just before he hit the ground, the Knight's armor underwent an immediate, but dramatic change. His overall size increased noticably, large, rounded pauldrons, elbow and knee joints 'grew' from the Armor, and his kite shield expanded to a massive tower shield. Even though he reversed thrust at the last moment to avoid injuring them, he still plowed into Nishaio and Tidus with impressive speed, knocking them to the side of the dragon. Then he planted a foot and and whirled to face the fire, shield raised, in front of Jenny. As the flames poured over him and the masked man outside of his protection, the Knight noticed a lack of heat and any damage to himself, his armor, or the surrounding foliage.

="Rhia, confirm damage report? I'm seeing none to myself or the environment."=

="That's correct. That energy appears to be attuned very specifically for that purpose."=

="Heh, makes sense. Just add that to our list of things to investigate further. I guess we could have trusted his reputation safely after all. Okay, shift back to basic configuration and open the external channel."=

He waited for the attack to disippate and formed Shadowbane, which he brandished dangerously close to the masked man before addressing him.

"Sir, you are clearly outnumbered and outmatched. Your weapons are gone and you've suffered great damage. Please prolong this no further and give yourself up. The proper authorities can sort out innocence and guilt with a little time. There is a better way than this needless battle. Will you not surrender quietly, while you still have the chance?"

[Tidus Revok]

(OOC: I got permission for the auto hit from Ryan.)

"Don't let him live, he's taken to many lives! are you crazy?"

Tidus began to raise his hands to luanch an attack,but it was too late. Markis hurled his dagger at Tidus, then decided to take Ryan out of the picture. Since he didn't have the Quill, he was limited in use of the scroll - he had to follow the rules now, or nothing would happen. That meant taking Ryan's life was out of the question, so instead Markis scribbled on the scroll using a peice of burnt wood:

~Suddenly, a large branch fell down from a tree above Ryan and landed on him, knocking him out.~

Just as Markis had written, a massive branch above Ryan snapped and came crashing down on him, knocking him to the ground and out of consciousness. Tidus noticed three more large trees begining to fall, and all coming down on Ryan. Markis again! Tidus ran to Ryan's body and planted his hands on the ground. Instantly, ice covered the trunks of all three trees and stopped them mid-fall. Unfortunately, the weight of the trees was too great, and the ice began to crack. Tidus expanded and reinforced the ice trying to keep the trees up for just a bit longer. It would have to be up to White Knight and Nishaio to take care of Markis. Nishaio, sensing this, sprinted to Markis with his sword drawn and stopped beside White Knight as Markis stood to his feet. The masked man drew a longer sword at the two.

"Crossing blades with me, Nishaio? In the few hundred years we haven't seen each other, one thing for sure hasn't changed. You're still as foolish as ever!"

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

Some distance off, about, oh, fifty miles or so, was that same group of people. They had changed vehichles several times now, tracking their super-weapon. They had to stay close to maintain status on her, had to keep a certain ammount of speed up to get a reading, for she was always moving.

What better opprotunity to study the ghost in the machine than to let it cling to its own devices? This was a learning experience, and the trial phase of this project dictated that this was a factor that needed further exploration. The Lavertian official had since departed from their company, along with many of the high-ranking officials, replaced by airmen and soldiers that were stationed at various underground caches and stations, but the spirit was generally the same; walking on eggshells.

"She's stopped, Doctor. Pushing twenty percent capacity, and holding steady." Goon said, now holding the visor in his lap, which he looked at carefully; he'd been wearing it too long, and his eyes had started to get injured from constant light exposure, so he'd been allowed to use them this way by Doctor Alkai.

"That's strange... Is she using it, or is this venting?" she asked, leaning foreward in her chair over the next one ahead of her in the rows, staring off into the horizon, where the black smoke was rising. Something told her this was where their objective lied.

"Using it, this is active." Goon added, a bit confused. "I thought she could not use the systems in this state?"

Dr. Alkai nodded, her brow furrowing with some concern. "She can't... It's hardwired to be so-" she turned to one of the airmen sitting at the communications console, and continued "Can we get live feed yet?"

He nodded "Just a moment ma'am."

There was an akward couple of moments, filled with silence and the repetetive whumping sound of the helicopter's engines turning the heavy blades in the air. It felt like it lasted for hours, before at last, a screen on the back of each chair kicked on. Dr. Alkai sat back, and gazed into it as filters were applied to the images of black smoke. The first thing she saw was light - bright, golden-pinkish light, burrowing its way through the smoke. Filter after filter worked onto the image, and soon, the source was revealed: a crystalline flower of some kind, levitating in front of a pair of hands. As the image came into focus, and zoomed, it displayed Pariah creating this. She was not alone, either.

Five people stood in the general vicinity of her: two were on the ground, one hunched over the other in a defensive position, and two stood, armed with (so help her) swords, facing down a third, wielding the same. One of these men against the one donning a mask was familiar: his suit of armor was unmistakable. This was the man from before, and it was pretty obvious that he had no intention of harming Pariah, seemingly locked in a defensive position of her. Was this the person who had helped her get so far, so fast?

Her orders came quick. "Remove all previous targets from the lineup, and set full burn on the subject with a mask." Alkai said, but continued before Goon could do it. "But... do not activate the Headhunter... yet. For now, maintain this perimeter around the scene and keep monitoring the situation." she barked, all about the cabin, and soldiers set to work. The chopper swerved, starting to circle the scene some fifty miles out.

--------------------------------------------------------

Where the group was, the chopper's sounds would not reach; the sound of the roaring forest and the tension in the air made sure of that. In a flash, the situation changed. Markis had scribbled in the scroll, knocked the one called Ryan out cold, and now, Tidus was doing all he could to prevent falling timber from crushing Ryan flat. Nishaio and a man in white armor stood now against a foe she somehow knew was singularly more powerful than either of them... perhaps more than both... and there she was, stunned, the flower fading.

Stupor gave way to a flash of frustration, and light began to pour from her hands and eyes. Brilliant light in an irregular lunge, like a solar flare, lunged out from seemingly her body itself, and batted the massive logs aside like tinkertoys, splintering them to pieces where it struck. Her energies kicked up to meet the demand, and as the hammer of energy faded, she raised both hands, this time both at Nishaio and the man in white armor. The flower she had been maintaining before flitted to the ground alongside Tidus, full energy he could use if he grabbed it up.

Her frustrated energies were focused, refined, redirected then. Jenny's expression calmed to one of determination, and the muscles in her arms tensed up some as she started to pour her sympathetic energy into both of these men this time. They needed to be strong... really strong. She somehow knew they could not do this on their own.

As the sympathetic L-Photons surged around and through the pair, a pale pinkish glow started to gather on the surface of their auras, slowly, steadily growing in intensity as she not only fed them energy, but gave surplus. White Knight in particular would derive particular benefit as the nanites went nuts on his armor. It appeared as if liquid mercury then, shining and tuning up as if newly crafted, the Nanoengineers quickly sizing up the suit's devices and its capabilities, and doing their best to optimize them. It was temporary: a state that needed to be maintained constantly, but the results were dramatic.

---------------------------------

This was certainly no display of military power Pariah displayed, but it was something to consider. The ghost's uses of the L-Photons had creativity and care behind them. This was a living person who was doing these things, not just a machine's programming glitches, as Dr. Alkai had previously believed. This was a persona, truly there as she herself was. She kept this realization to herself, but the thought was disturbing; She had not gone so far up the ladder that people had yet become tools to her, let alone weapons.

For the first time, she questioned her research into the field, but immediately put the thoughts out of her head. Now was the time for science through observation.

"Fourty-five percent, and climbing, Ma'am"

[Garoten Reklor]

((Sorry for the short post - busy week.))

Why did badguys never take the chance for a peaceful surrender? Honsetly, it was like they enjoyed getting whipped. This masked man was just another in a long line, it seemed...although he was unusual among the Rogue's Gallery of enemies the Knight had faced. An enemy who attacks by writing was definitely a new one. The feel of the encounter shifted when the man put his scroll away and pulled out a sword instead. He seemed only to respond to Nishaio, but to the Knight that was unacceptable. He had issued a challenge, and Chivalry demanded it be met or followed through. It loooked like the latter would be necessary. As the Code dictated one must never fight with a weapon unequal to that of his opponent, Shadowbane remained in sword form, and the shield disappeared as the Armor returned to its basic configuration. As he readied himself to attack, Rhia's voice broke a tense moment of silence:

="Something's going on with the girl, sir. I'm picking up a large spike of energy from her - and it's directed at you!"

Not a moment later, a surge overran the armor and Kyle - but it wasn't a bad feeling. In facr, it was pleasant, empowering even.

="Now I'm picking up swarms of nanites. I'm attempting to repel them, but they're years ahead of our technology. The good news is they're not malignant."=

="Just keep an eye on it."=

The fact was, the Knight's instincts already told him the girl was helping - and he had better strike while the iron was hot. Without a further thought, he leapt forward, sword aimed straight for Markis's head.

"Don't ignore me! I issued the challenge, I'm your first opponent!"

The sword thrust forward, he whirled into a sweeping kick, an open-palmed strike for the face, and three short, quick swings at the torso. Last of all, the crossbow on his left arm let fly an electric net attack, which hopefully was hidden enough by the sword strikes to connect. With luck, it would slow Markis enough for a surrender or a killing blow - whichever was necessary.

[Tidus Revok]

((Take it easy - We've got to keep posting order after all. I'm not gone!)

Markis grinned at the Knight's demand to recognize him. He was a fool to demand Markis's attention, now he would kill him. Markis spun, his sword gleaming in the moonlight, with the full end of it guarding the outside of his arm, Civean stlye. He blocked the Knight's sword attack easily. A kick? Pathetic! He whipped his sword down and blocked the kick with the same ease. The torso attacks he blocked as well, three with his sword and two with his scroll, he attempted a counter-attack. Unfortunately, just as he was in his mid- spin with his scroll in one hand, and sword in the other leading the attack, he noticed something he had never seen before! It was a bow? No...much too small! Oh well, it mattered not - he would have sliced the Paladin's arm clean off before he could...suddenly, something able to move as fast as Markis, not much faster even, was moving towards him. It was electricity! He tried to move his arm away from it, but the bolt still struck his wrist, numbing it. By the time he had regained his senses the scroll he had been holding rolled to Tidus's feet, Nishaio was rushing him, and the Knight was still before him, untouched! Markis gave the scroll up for lost for the moment, now he would rid the world of these heretics. He quickly spun, slashing at the White Knight's torso and at the same time, kicking Nishaio away into a nearby tree, knocking it the the forest bed.

"Now do you see what happens when you meddle in the affairs of diety!"

Markis hurled six more slashes at the Knight, and swung to backhand him following with his sword aimed at his chest. Finally, purple aura glowed around Markis's sword as he sent a final devastating thrust able to finish off the Knight, Nishaio, and Tidus combined. Before the attack could be completed, however, a wall of ice rose around Markis foiling his attack and forcing the sword tip to barely miss White Knight. Markis heard a voice beyond the ice:

"Shut up with your god complex!"

Tidus came rushing at him with his staff raised at Markis's skull.

-Meanwhile-

If it hadn't been for the nanites surrounding his body, Nishaio would have been hurt by that last attack, maybe even knocked out! There was no point in denying it, he was rusty. But this, creature, this woman had possibly saved his life - and he was grateful. Seven years ago he would have probably tried to kill her after Markis, for no reason at all but that she was there. She did cover him in pink and he didn't like her ears, but Nishaio would have tried to kill her even without those weaknesses. That was then. He was a changed man now. The sorrow of the sins of times past had once flooded his heart and mind, but through a handfull of true friends - Garoten, Tidus, Allina, Falkan? No, Falkan was hardly a friend. In fact, Nishaio would still gladly duel Falkan to the death. He didn't like Falkan, and he still wanted him dead. Though many things had changed about Nishaio, his opinion on the value of human, or V'alkan life had not. Another thing hadn't changed too, he was still not a quitter! A simple kick wouldn't knock him out of the game. Nishaio looked up just in time to see that Tidus had the scroll.

Perfect!

Markis was still as strong as Ryan, maybe, then again maybe not. Either way his "god-like power" as Tidus had called it, was gone! But just as quickly as the hope arose, a shocked and terrified look dominated the old warrior's his face. Tidus was rushing? What a fool. He had the key element to the rest of this battle, and he was throwing his life away - and the scroll with it! Nishaio sat up and rushed toward Markis shouting at the top of his lungs, hoping to draw attention to himself instead of Tidus.
Nobody here was faster than him, but others were closer. Somebody had to keep that scroll away from Markis!

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Glad your computer problem is over with dude. As you're all probably aware of a Message has been sent out to all of your character - it is posted in all sections of the forum - so please take notice of it in your posts. Ryan hasn't as he was unconcious when it happened, thus didn't get it.)

The darkness had once again taken him, though this time it seemed that he had no choice in the matter, and like the many times of the past the dream quickly took hold. The corridor, the circular room that looked like a tomb, the corpse seemingly impaled by something within the middle of the room, the shadow, the darkness, the whispering; how Ryan hated it all.

With a soft groan Ryan’s eyes flickered and opened as he finally stirred from his unconscious state. …Where am I? it was a logically enough question to be asking himself. He remained within the forest, though now the inferno had been put out and several large tree branches lying on top of his body as he lay there upon the floor. At first he remained confused, blinking continuously in an attempt to clear his blurred vision, but with his slowly returning vision so did his confusion slowly fade away.

It had been he who has extinguished the flames, using them against someone. There was a man in a mask with a scroll in hand, and a golden quill, which was now hidden inside Ryan’s cloak. Others where here, others helping him stop the man in the mask; though he had not properly seen what they looked like, and did not know who the others were. Very quickly it was all rushing back.

With a grunt, a mixture of pain and effort, Ryan used his hand to push the logs up off of his body, sitting his body up in the process. It seemed that during his incapacitation all hell had managed to break loose. Markis no longer held the scroll in his possession; another, much younger warrior now did, though this young warrior was foolhardily charging at Markis with the scroll in his hand.

No! He will give the weapon of the enemy right back to him! Perhaps it was partially due to his own legend or veteran-ship that Ryan doubted the young warrior’s capabilities. Across from the both of them another man charged towards Markis with immense speed, obviously having noted what Ryan had and moving to intercept the problem. The person was moving so fast that not even Ryan could make out his face, or who he even was, but was he moving fast enough? Not willing to take any chances Ryan decided to take matters into his own hands; or at least help the situation.

While all of this had been happening Ryan had been pushing himself up onto his feet and steadying himself, as he was still somewhat suffering from the blow to the head he had taken. “Masked man,” Ryan called out in hope to gain Markis’ attention. “You have not defeated me yet” He bent down and quickly picked up one half of the Twin Reavers that had been lying on the floor beside him, and spinning his body round three-hundred and sixty degrees Ryan used his momentum and sliced his blade through the air, before stumbling backwards and holding onto the trunk of a nearby tree.

The attack hit nothing, though it was not meant to. Ryan had forcibly sliced the flat end of the blade through the air, creating and sending a gust of wind directly off towards Tidus, who was charging towards Markis at great speed. Ryan’s hope was that the gust, although relatively small, would knock the young warrior off balance at such high speeds.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

The transmission was on all psychic wavelengths. Even in its semi-active state, it was child's play for Jenny, and through her, the entire Zolan military network, to pick up the emanation. Calm, practiced ears listened to the words, made decisions, and forwarded them onto the people who would be concerned by such decisions.

The order was simple. It came across the Doctor's earpiece, and she sighed deeply, sitting back just a tiny bit to let it sink in and plans form in her mind. After a few moments, she nodded to the others: they'd heard the order as well. No more needed be said.

"Get us in for a dustoff." Dr. Alkai ordered suddenly, and they seemed anxious about all this. "We're going in hot." she added, and the footmen's eyes narrowed on her. Some grinned, some were nervous, some could have cared less and kept smoking, but all readied their arms. One side benefit of the Pariah program was the existance of the Shards of the Pariah entity, which still produced and outputted energy... at least enough for a few advances in military technology.

The chopper lurched, and throttled up, propelling them towards the battlefield.

-----------------------

Jenny was not a fast woman, she was not a wonderful warrior. What she was was a clumsy peasant with superpowers. What in god's name was she even doing in this place, facing down this random... person? Right then, she'd have been glad to see the military fly up in a helicopter to take her away from there... take her maybe back home, where she could get a decent night's rest without something blowing up or hitting her in the head and making her black out.

Tidus and Nishaio weren't good at taking hints: this masked man was a powerful warrior, even went so far as to call himself a god. Nishaio said it was arrogance, but Jenny was beginning to doubt the swordman's words pretty thuroughly. With the way he thought, he sure looked like a god to her. He was more than a match for them alone, without his special weapons; that scroll and the freaky quill he lost at the beginning of the battle.

But why did her head hurt? She'd been busy before... she had not noticed it until now... but there was an all too familiar, searing pain burning in her head, centered right behind her eyes. The Ache as she called it brought with it a sense of dread. If it got intense enough... she'd pass out, and then what? Her powers seemed to come more naturally when the Ache was present, but the pain was almost unbearable.

Her vision began to swim, colors distorting slowly from what they should have been as the roaring grew louder and louder, the sounds of the helicopter's approach soon drowning out the sounds of the battle and the creaking, groaning forest all around them. It was clearly visible over the treetops, the bay doors on the sides wide open, revealing armed men in black uniforms, their weapons trained upon Markis. They knew enough to know the threat in the reigon, if only from the Inquisitor's joint analasys with their own sattelite imaging systems. This was a huge chopper, made to transport a large number of soldiers into and out of hostile situations on Dragonia, built and armed like a flying fortress. Among the men in black was a dark-skinned woman with long, raven hair and intense, gleaming brown eyes. She wore a long white coat, unbuttoned in the front, and in her hand was a flaregun-type firearm.

Jenny's eyes met this woman's just for a moment, and it seemed to last a good long while to the both of them. This was the first time this had ever happened. Until then, the Ghost was an entity on a screen or a data readout to the Doctor... and to Jenny, this was all something new. Somehow she knew though, over the blinding pain, the sound of the scream rising in her throat, and the roar of the helicopter, that this woman in white was here for her, and... well, it was hard to explain, but something about her reminded her of someone she knew a long time ago, it seemed. She felt warm, and just like that, the scream rising died out, choked by the sensation of this knowing Jenny had just been given, and the ghost went into hibernation once more.

Click. The headhunter went live before Dr. Alkai even had to fire the Catalyst device. It had turned itself on. Had, somehow, the Ghost triggered it? Was this a glitch? The possibilities, and their rammifications, quickly ran through the good doctor's mind, but she gave doubt hell, and death by logic. She formulated a plan to run some diagnostics, and the uncertainty of the situation was obliterated.

As fear faded to nothing at the hands of her mental training, Dr. Alkai too got something out of seeing the Ghost this close up, face to face; a kind of satisfaction, like pride perhaps, but gentler than the cacophony that most military sorts might have gotten out of this. This was almost maternal, a sensation she had never before felt in her thus far sterile and analytical life. A smile spread across her lips, and she looked to the others near where Pariah stood, whom she had helped and whom had defended her in this battle, and a spark of inspiration struck.

"Mark the others up as Green, the chopper included, and keep the masked man Red; let's get these people out of here." she commanded, eyes never leaving the billows of black smoke that now concealed Pariah, now that her lights had faded.

In an instant, energy spiked in the area, like the flash of an atomic blast, raising the temperature a couple degrees as smoke, dust, and debris blasted away in all directions from where the weapon now stood, her energies manifesting in an aura all around her, the ground buckling and cratering some at her feet as small stones slowly rose into the air. The display was immediately followed by action, the Headhunter inside Jenny's head turning her from the clumsy post-teenager peasant into a weapon. The sympathetic energies ceased very suddenly and absolutely, no longer maintained by her now machinelike persona. The white, fuzzy ears that adorned her head split, becoming three long, metallic antennae each, sweeping backward with a mechanical hiss. Her skin lost color, and patterns of circuitry spread across her visible skin, eyes already lifeless and cold.

"OBJECT: MASKED HOMINID." her voice came, harsh over the sound of the roaring chopper, her aura starting to flare out, like before, only much larger, more rigidly controlled. "FUTURE PROSPECTS: NONE. DESTINATION: NONE." she said, quite plainly, issuing her challenge.

[Garoten Reklor]

The White Knight quickly discovered that his opponent was not, in fact, much weakened by the loss of his pen. The masked warrior deftly blocked and parried the Knight's attacks - all but one. Even though the electric net failed to capture Markis, it did accomplish one meritable end. The scroll was knocked from the man's hand and sent spinning away. Fortunately, Markis was occupied by him and Nishaio just long enough for the boy - presumably Nishaio's student - to pick it up and make an escape.

Only he didn't make any escape at all. He picked the scroll up and charged headlong at its master. Nishaio, seeing the danger as clearly as anyone, charged as well, while Ryan regained consciousness. In the midst of all this, Rhia's voice interjected:

="Sir, there's a helicopter approaching from the North on a possible attack vector. Detecting some of the same bio-signatures from the truck in Itopu."=

="Perfect. We really need that now. Just give me an ETA!"=

The White Knight clipped his sword to his belt, deployed his kite shield, and dove not for Tidus, but for Markis. While he might not be fast enough to knock him away from the kid, he could at least distract his focus long enough for Nishiao or Ryan to do something. At any rate, he was aiming to slam his left arm, shield first, into Markis's chest and use the momentum to ram him into the smoldering stump of a tree behind him.

Suddenly the world seemed to stop. His heightened senses kept Kyle aware of his movement through the air, although it seemed greatly slowed. Sound and light faded until the center of the Knight's entire focus was one voice, echoing through his mind like boot-clad footsteps in an empty hall.

“Warriors of Dragonia, hear my words. I am in need of your immediate assistance. For those who wish to help me I promise glory, riches and power beyond your wildest possible dreams. All of you who are interested meet up with two of my allies in the most northern part of the country where the land dies, the mountains surround and time appears to stand still; the old ruins in the North of Metapha. That is where your journey begins. They will be there at midnight, but they will not wait for long. Without your help all will be lost. Hurry.”

Suddenly the world snapped back into focus, and while his attention was once again on the battle, the voice and its words haunted the back of Kyle's mind. While he was unfamiliar with this world and any of it's denizens, his instincts were screaming something suspicious was on. The blanket promise of glory, riches, and power only increased his suspicion. There was only One Who could promise such things, and He never used them as bribes. Even if this was a different world altogether, some truths simply couldn't be ignored. Even before his dive had been completed, the White Knight had already made his decision. He kicked his feet around and ingited a burst from the jets in his boots to reverse away from the masked man.

="Rhia, did that message come across the comm system?"=

="Negative. The Comm is secure, however I did detect a sudden spike in the subconcious areas of your brain activity."=

Some form of telepathy then. Nothing is surprising anymore.

He dropped into a defensive stance and withheld any further attack. While he wouldn't abandon the goodguys in this battle, he needed them to gain the upper hand or win quickly - he only had a few hours to reack the meeting place. He would go to there, but to investigate, not cooperate. Getting home would have to wait a little longer.