Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

The Asgardians pause from their drinks in order to contemplate Locke's question. Nice again, it's Thor who speaks up first.

"G.E.M. is rightfully Ishizu's organization. It only seems right to let her know that we're going to overthrow the usurper before he completely rips G.E.M. apart from within and renders all of her hard work meaningless," he says.

"I don't see why not. She and her child are going to be safe and sound within Pseudo's headquarters the whole time," Loki chimes in, stirring his tea. "It isn't as though one of us is going to visit her quarters and say, 'Hello, Ishizu. Tell me, how would you and your baby boy like to accompany us on a mission that will undoubtably prove dangerous? Think of it as a hands-on learning experience for young Mattheo!'"

He then flashes a grin.

"As for my plan to save Claus and Lucas' hometown, well... look who you're talking to, Locke. I'll think of something that will end with G.E.M. pulling their forces out."

Sylvie merely rolls her eyes at Loki's little boast.

"You really think Ishizu knowing that we're going to stop this plot against G.E.M. will put pressure on her?" she inquires.

"You all make fair points. I will tell her then once I return.", Locke says, then looking at Sylvie. "As for my thought process, I figured she may feel anxious about the risks we'll have to take. I'm sure she'll at least feel relief that we all agree to not kill her employees."

Locke puts down some money on the table. He did mention he'd pay for the drinks.

"Speaking of which, I should probably make my way back now. It's been a few hours since I left the base and I'm the only one there that Ishizu knows well. She'll be more at ease in general if I'm around."

The Asgardians take a moment to finish downing their respective drinks.

"Would you mind if I came along? I've been meaning to have a proper conversation with Ishizu ever since we got her to the base," Thor says.

"Likewise, I was considering stopping by before heading to Asgard for the Tesseract," Loki says.

"Depending on how good their tech is, I might be able to use it completely fix the TemPad there," Sylvie adds, holding up the device in question. "So..."

"No objections from me. And I doubt Pseudo'd be against it either.", Locke says with a smile, waiting for them to be ready to go, and after that they'll be off.

Rising from their respective chairs, the Asgardians proceed to follow Locke out of the cafe.

DNC

If Taye ever had any animosity for Medicine, it all vaporized the moment Shanghai appeared. Her eyes sparkled with delight as she watched the doll make its way downtown.

While the precious doll was on her walk, Laddy popped the dragon transformation question, and Hange started getting excited. Taye couldn't help but chuckle - while her medieval-era timeloops gave her the experience of being a dragonshifter, how transformation in that setting worked was simply "it's magic, isn't it?". After all, whether it's turning into a dragon or a slime person-

Oh yeah, Kaisui. What happened, especially with the psychic connection snapping like that? But there was only so much Taye could do - not only are the lands crawling with orcs, at hand is an urgent situation called "Emilia is poisoned and needs to be cured ASAP". She should at least help with that first.

After Shanghai returned and Medicine relayed relevant information, Taye gave a moment to think. "Eliminating multiple orcs at once without raising any alarms... feels like a tall order. Yeah, I'm also with sneaking past them."

Humans being confused or baffled at her transformation wasn't very common in her world due to there being apparently more people who could do the same. At least, in continents other than the world where she was born. These descendants of Dragons had their heritage considerably more diluted than hers, and one could argue her heritage was mighty, but Kana didn't see herself as "superior" to any of them. It just made it sometime complicated to interact with other Manaketes, for they were quite cognizant of the difference in bloodline.

But as the ages went, it wasn't uncommon for people to ponder the mechanics of her abilities and how she could seamlessly take on that much armored mass at once without any issue, dispelling it or gaining it on a whim and altering her body in massive ways that looked baffling to the human eye. Kana had, admittedly, thought little of it. It was just how it worked for her.

And with her current mood, she thought even smaller of it. Why, she wasn't that far off from basically doing the draconic equivalent of a cat hissing and batting away an annoying hand, initially giving Hange a wide-eyed side glare that was quite similar to what her mother could do when annoyed, but it quickly softens seeing Hange isn't a bad person. That, and admittedly she had something else she wanted to ask of her, since she last saw her carrying a certain someone off.

Kana grab and lift her shirt to show Hange part of where she was struck on the side. Lacking any supernatural affliction, the wounds are closing appreciable fast, scales growing over damaged flesh, freezing around it as two large circular areas, which hang in place until they eventually reabsorb themselves back into regular skin, with the damage gone. In Kana's mind, it's something of a silent trade : she shows Hange something that would be interesting, then ask her following question.

Except that Kana hesitates.

Because she knows what likely happened, and knows what had to be done, but doesn't want it confirmed to her. Between a painful reality and a pessimistic realization that could be proven wrong, Kana chose the latter. And decide to assume that Frielda is elsewhere, distracting the enemy troops in her daring escape.

Thus, she's left with no real end to her bargain, her red eyes looking to the left and right in awkward acknowledgment of this. Keeping herself silent when even the knight was curious... wouldn't help her.

My dad can do that. So I can too. Kana says, missing the point, almost sounding dismissive before she realize she has to follow-up. My mom can't though. I'm an hybrid. But don't worry - my dad can look human too, so it wasn't awkward.

... Awkward to like kiss and hang around each other. Kana says, raising an eyebrow in clarifying herself.

DNC

At Kana's last statement, Taye stifled a giggle, though her face still betrayed a mischievous grin.

Beyond that, she did not elaborate. Probably for the best.

Pica-Verse

"How dare you?!"

Sora tries to run up the building and after Goyo Richard, but he's already gone by the time the boy gets onto the roof.

Still, he picks up the remote. He also looks at where Goyo's portal was, then down at his Keyblade.

He turns to the others down below and shouts, "I'm going after him!"

"No!" Altina shouts back up. "Do not be reckless, child!"

Makai

Previous

Peppino slumps off as if grease-slicked, leaving him dangling in The Mountain's grasp by one leg.

And then he swings forward and into The Mountain's face, attempting to grab on and headbutt him. Repeatedly. While screaming.

Confluence of Fates

Reyna's Kinsect finally gets got, but seeing as Reyna still isn't being targeted directly, she hastily runs over to it through the falling crystals while recalling it.

Nice cloud of powder around Soulstealer's tail. If only her Kinsect didn't just get taken out of the fight for a bit.

While she's ruminating on how to make the most of this situation, a stalactite falls right on her head and smashes to pieces. Ow.

Fort Dawnguard

Perceval ducks and slides out from under the grab attempt, making his slash as he passes by.

Once he stops, he holds out one hand and sprays dark Ether (black magical energy), which forms a swirl around him like a vertical vortex. Then he pushes forward and the vortex erupts outward into a horizontal tornado of darkness.

This attack, Dark Serpent, is made for team fights, as enemies struck by it are incited to focus on Perceval and his Driver over all other targets (in MMO terms it draws aggro). In this 1v1, though, it's basically just a large AoE that deals solid damage and nothing else.

Hub Centralis Coastline - Mission: Pursue the Giant Monster

The first thing the mage senses from Godzilla is    STOP FUCKING DISTRACTING ME   

After that, she gets some actually useful information. So many lesser monsters running amok, thinking they have free rein of the Arena. Making a mess. Waking him up. He's on a mission to restore order around here, starting with these assholes.

Godzilla wails as Skullgreymon digs into his flesh. He easily pries it off with his hands, but then bites down on its neck, spins around with it in his mouth, and hurls it at Desghidorah.

I assume the autograb is approved since psyco planned for skullgreymon to get bodied by some means this round

Malzeno uses his wings to shield himself from the Pyroclastic Shot, forcing him to descend since he can't flap them to stay airborne. "Damn it!"

He unwittingly lands right on an unfortunate Kirike, who happened to be slow in evacuating due to her usual deer-in-headlights response to danger. "Erk... Foolish girl," he hisses.

FOOL Count: 20

Kirike Death Count: 七

Besides that mishap, the area is mostly clear of civilians by now.

Edited by KiriK on May 3rd 2024 at 11:57:46 AM

sosrword

Oh hey, a haphazard drive-by slash courtesy of Cardboard? Just what he needs to shock him back to his senses! ... At the cost of some HP. And skin. And blood. And muscle tissue. Only a Flesh Wound.

I would LOVE to target Mshez, but he's a little far away. ... Oh, wait, This ALWAYS works.
Mr. McWarrior proceeds to pull a blue mage* and retaliates by swinging his broadswords like a dual-baseball bat, trying to use the wide hitbox to smack C-board back over into the Shezes and Vergilganger as a human projectile.

• Not actually a mage.

Hub Centralis Coastline - Mission: Pursue the Giant Monster

Desghidorah roars in defiant anger at the foolish annoying tiered deck guy Albaz' slash attack but seems largely unscathed from it. It's prevented from further retaliation by Skullgreymon being used as a projectile. Desghidorah responds by fucking moving to grab Skullgreymon itself with one of its front legs then swing the bone man and toss him at Albaz.

Further actions are interrupted by owie sword. It sinks into Desghidorah's side but gets stopped by its very solid bones, all three heads now glaring at the Titanslayer. As a fun aside, its blood is apparently superheated as it melts the streets below where it drips.

Anyway before Croque Pot can do anything else, Desghidorah's three heads lunge (did I mention much like big G he's really fast for his size?) to grab the mech and bite down hard, aiming to start draining the energy from the thing via vile WIZARDRY.

Confluence of Fates

Terapagos Tera's up once again (despite the risk this poses) and creates a Terastal Barrier. It first uses it to block the Mark (the barrier makes it immune to status attacks, after all), then raises that barrier up as it attempts to protect itself and Rayne from the stalactites.

It'll be stuck defending them both this turn.

Astil, northern-most side of the forest.

"Okay, stay steady.", Areui says, helping Yazur stand up by letting the smaller angel keep his arm around his shoulder. The latter weakly groans.

"I still feel really weak."

"Well yeah. It's been only a few days since you were eating again. You were freaking malnourished."

"How do you even forget to eat?", Iris asks as she lazily flaps her wings to float above them.

"I didn't say I forgot to eat, I'm saying I can't remember what I've been doing. I just feel like I've been sleeping for a long time."

"Meaning you didn't get to eat. So you forgot to eat. And therefore I'm right.", Iris smirks. To Areui's surprise, that response causes Yazur to weakly chuckle.

"You have some funny friends, Areui."

"You say that as if Iris and I have known each other for more than a few days.", Areui smirks.

Kirue, meanwhile, is sitting against a tree with the Deliderp in his lap. He finds that he kinda likes the derpy little bird. He'd help Areui out with Yazur, but Areui had stubbornly told him Yazur is his friend, so Kirue didn't fight him on the matter.

Hyrule, Pappetto Grove

A little while ago, in an entirely different forest on what is basically the other side of the Arena, a portal opened up that two people fell through. It closed behind them again before they even realized they're somewhere they've never even heard from before. That was a few hours ago.

At present those two are still there, having wandered around in an attempt to find out where they are. They'd made it to the base of a small mountain that borders said forest and choose to rest for a little bit, having gotten tired from walking.

Edited by DevilPsyco on May 3rd 2024 at 11:54:57 AM

Astil

The sounds of familiar grunting and a distinctive weapon cutting through branches are audible, getting closer, before Roxas and Xion arrive.

"Ah, Iris!"

Pappetto Grove

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Arena, a boy who looks almost exactly the same as Roxas◊ is passing by when he walks upon the two portal-fallers.

"Hey, are you two okay?"

Edited by KiriK on May 3rd 2024 at 5:08:23 AM

SWORD

Corrin sees himself being attacked yet again, and with a downward attack at that! He respond by raising his sword up to face it, tip to tip.

Or he seem to, because he actually get killed by Odio's random attack and spawn... south-east?

sigh

...

Adam doesn't care too much for what Blade has to say. I'm an elf, not a man! He says. She doesn't seem to have a gimmick though, could it perhaps be his chance at having a fight with someone who doesn't engage in excessive powerplay with their sword, treating it as a wand and not as a -

Oh, nevermind.

Well, Adam can play this game too! He focus his sword overhead, letting a soft purple glow surround it, and then surround himself. If Blade was using some magic or technological trick to gain that godly speed, then it'd be forcibly turned off a very short perimeter around Adam, and he'd bring his sword down unto her skull.

If she was simply very good, then, well, so was he. And he move his sword down to block her, though it requires some fine timing. He's able to avoid the attack but is unable to strike back, instead being sent sliding backwards.

Pappetto Grove

The two flinch upon hearing an unknown voice, and-

Whoa! Did a bolt of lightning just go right past the Roxas look-alike?

... no, actually, it looked like a bit of lightning, but it seems to have been pure energy. It also didn't really look like it was purposely aimed either.

Once the boy has had time to process that seemingly accidental surprise attack, he'll find that the two people in question are also a pair of boys. But... oh. They don't look to be in very good shape.

One of them◊ is still sitting against the side of the mountain, practically curling up in fear. He has painful-looking marks on one of his eyes, and it's worrying that it's not clear whether that's a black eye-kind of mark or a burn scar mark.

The other boy◊ is now standing up and in front of the other protectively, and he looks no better. Actually, he looks even worse, because with him it's very clear that his skin is marred with severe burn scars. There's also something weird about their eyes. The first boy's pupils look unnaturally clear, while only one of the second boy's pupils also looks like that, with his other pupil looking more normal. They also both have a faded scar running above their noses and are wearing some sort of collar? This definitely isn't normal.

"Stay back, whoever you are!", the second boy says, trying to show an intimidating glare, but he can't help but look anxious and almost terrified as the first boy looks as well.

Pappetto Grove

Blondie jumps to the side to dodge the lightning. "Whoa!"

But he doesn't brandish a weapon. He can see that they're hurt and afraid. "Hey, easy. I'm not gonna hurt you."

He shifts his foot slightly forward, then reconsiders and steps back.

Astil

The Asgardians are taking a stroll through the forest as well, unaware of the angels' presence.

"So, how exactly are you going to pull this off?" Sylvie asks, throwing back the hood of her cloak.

"In a way that ends with everyone leaving without a fuss, provided things go according to plan," Loki replies, holding up a certain glowing blue cube◊ for her to see before stashing it in his coat.

Thor says nothing, instead preferring to continue moving forward while thinking to himself.

Kirue is the first to hear the sounds and suddenly gets up, alarmed about a potential threat.

"Kirue?", Areui asks as he, Yazur and Iris now all look as well. The Deliderp looks as unconcerned as ever. Either it's unaware that anything's happening, or maybe it somehow knows...

Roxas and Xion then reveal themselves and before Kirue has a chance to ask them who they are Iris already flies up to them, smiling.

"Oh hey! Talk about some old faces! How've you been?"

"... more friends of yours, I assume?", Kirue asks.

"Yeah. Roxas here once asked me advice about the-"

She catches herself just in time when she realizes what she was about to say.

"-about some nondescript divine power assistance.", she quickly corrects, slightly glancing at Roxas to silently ask him to play along. She hopes he gets the message.

Kirue and Areui, for their parts, look a little confused. Yazur, however, doesn't. Maybe it's 'cause he's too tired to be perceptive right now.

"Well... I suppose any friend of hers is welcome to hang around, so to say.", Kirue says.

"Nobody says 'hang around' anymore.", Areui comments with a childish grin. Kirue chooses to ignore him.

-

Locke isn't with the Asgardians anymore, as he'd ended up going on ahead to see if Ishizu was in a state to talk while the three gods had procured the Tesseract.

... well, Loki had. Thor and Sylvie probably waited somewhere for him?

Either way, the trio will eventually hear the voices, most of which they (or at least Thor and Loki) should recognize.

The standing boy doesn't seem to be very convinced, though he doesn't try to attack either. The other one, the one basically curled up on the ground, breathes a bit hoarsely, another clear indicator that his (and likely the other boy's) health is not okay in the slightest. ... it's probably also not a comforting thing that the boy is faintly glowing.

"What do we do now? My legs feel like pudding... I don't think I can walk anymore today."

He's... not acknowledging that the blond boy is there at all. And it doesn't feel like he's purposely ignoring him either.

The standing boy looks back at him with serious concern. He then looks back at the blond boy and seems to be considering his options going by his expression.

"W-we promised him not to talk to strangers, but...", he mumbles. But it doesn't seem like there's much choice in the matter now.

"Hey, uh... whoever you are. Is there any safe place nearby where he can sleep?"

Notably he only mentioned a place for his companion despite the fact that he also looks exhausted.

Roxas nods to Iris. Seems he gets the message.

"By the way, we need to talk about Sora when we have the chance."

"...I have a portable tent. But otherwise, I'm as lost as you."

Not-Roxas uses the Tent in question.

If you're at all confused, a Tent is a common item in Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts that restores a party's HP and MP but can only be used out of battle. Sometimes it's a full restore, sometimes it's a moderate restore with the Camping Set and Cottage being higher levels.

The boy approaches the tent cautiously, not getting too close just yet. He clearly doesn't trust Not-Roxas. But a pained grunt from his companion basically forces his hand.

"If it turns out you're lying...", the boy warns him before turning back and going back to the other boy, carefully trying to help him back on his feet. He practically has to hug the other to help him get back up without him just falling back on the ground.

"Just a little further, I found a tent.".

"A real tent?", the blue-haired boy asks, almost as if he's never seen one before but does know what it is.

"Yeah, you can take a quick rest in it."

"What about you?"

"I'll keep watch. Now c'mon."

The blue-haired boy mumbles an 'okay', after which the pink-haired boy starts helping him get to the tent. This... takes a little while and clearly takes a lot of effort from both boys. However, if Not-Roxas tries to approach to help in any way the pink-haired boy will stop walking and tell him to stay back.

Eventually they do make it to the tent and the pink-haired boy helps the blue-haired boy go in, carefully putting him down while still refusing any potential help the blond boy may offer. The pink-haired boy lies down, shivering and still breathing harshly, but the moment he closes his eyes he already starts drifting off to sleep. The pink-haired boy comes back out of the tent and looks at Not-Roxas as he sits down in front of the tent's entrance to block the path in.

"... you're really lost too?", the boy asks, looking and sounding uncertain.

The blond kid sits down against a tree outside the tent.

"Yeah. Name's Ventus, by the way."

Normally he'd say 'call me Ven', but he would prefer to minimize small talk around this guy who is clearly out of patience for it. He's nice like that.

"I'm here looking for my friends, but I don't have the first clue where to look."

Edited by KiriK on May 3rd 2024 at 6:38:55 AM

The pink-haired boy... looks at him funny for a moment.

"... I hope you're not expecting me to tell you my name. We're supposed to stay hidden so that we can't be found by just anyone.", he huffs. His impatient suspicion vanishes the instant he hears the other boy make another pained groan in the tent, but when he peeks his head through the tent opening to look he's relieved to find that the other boy just turned in his sleep.

He takes his head out of the tent and looks back at Ventus. He still doesn't trust the blond boy at all, but he does look a little calmer at least.

"... your friends? So a lot of people get lost here? ... I hope you find them soon."

"Nah, I get it."

Ventus sighs.

"You're on the run, right? Is someone coming after you? Maybe I..."

He looks away. "Maybe I can protect you."

The boy's surprised that Ventus guessed that... which pretty much confirms his guess is right. And given the way both boys look, the ones who are after them are likely dangerous.

"I-I can protect the both of us just fine!", he quickly declares, but he doesn't sound 100% convinced of it himself. He glances away too for a moment before he continues talking.

"Nobody would help someone they don't know. ... well, almost nobody, but..."

He frowns.

"There's no way we'd get lucky thrice in one day."

While Thor does indeed hear Iris, the angels, and the Keyblade wielders, he doesn't address them. Instead, he continues pressing forward.

Loki and Sylvie also overhear the conversation.

"One of them sounds kind of like that friend of yours."

"It is, but we probably don't have time for a chat."