Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Ventus shakes his head. "That's stupid. I'll always do the right thing to do, just because I know it's right. And if whatever you're running from followed you here..."

He summons his Keyblade, Wayward Wind, holding it in reverse grip up to his chest.

"I'll stand in its way."

"About Sora? Did something happen?", Iris asks.

"Wait who's Sora?", Areui asks.

"Areui, let them talk for a moment first.", Kirue says as he puts down the Deliderp, which starts waddling away with only Yazur noticing, his eyes following the tiny creature.

The Deliderp waddles right into a bush...

And comes out on the other side of that bush, which is conveniently in front of the Asgardians. It looks up at them, almost strangely expectantly. But, y'know, it can't really physically stop them if they choose to try to ignore it considering the bird doesn't even come up to their knees.

The boy's about to say something in response, but then he suddenly yelps and falls on his back when Ventus summons his Keyblade.

"D-Don't you DARE get close to me with that... that..."

He pauses, then narrows his eyes... actually, his eye. He only narrows one of his eyes.

"... giant... key?", he mutters, sounding perplexed. He sits back upright and takes a better look at it. Once he's determined that he is, indeed, looking at a giant key, he quickly turns away.

"I-I thought you pulled a sword on me or something.", he mumbles, sounding embarrassed. "B-but can you blame me? I mean... what do you even use a key that big for?"

"You would know."

Oh yeah, that time they found Sora fighting Sephiroth and he spoke in Roxas's voice for a moment!

"S-sorry!" Ventus stands up and takes a few steps back before showing off Wayward Wind.

"This is a Keyblade. It may not look like much, but it's a magical weapon."

Well, at least judging by the "blade" in the name, it doesn't shoot magic.

Edited by KiriK on May 3rd 2024 at 7:31:46 AM

Thor just looks down at the Deliderp before shaking his head.

"I really don't have time for your oddities right now, bird."

Sylvie raises an eyebrow at the sight of the strange, eccentric avian.

"So, this is the bird I've heard so much about? It looks even weirder than I thought it would be," she remarks.

Loki just waves the Deliderp off.

"Do be a good little critter and run along now, would you? We have more important matters to attend to," he says.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on May 3rd 2024 at 5:33:46 AM

"Huh? ... Ooh, you mean... ah, no, I thought something bad had happened to him or something. If I didn't know about how that connection of yours works I would've though something bad had happened to you when I saw Sora."

"... so who is Sora?", Areui asks in the background.

"Areui, hush.", Kirue chides.

"So, uh, what did any of that mean?", Iris asks, but then she suddenly turns pale and approaches Roxas, putting her hands on his shoulders and looking scared for him.

"Wait, is this some sort of sign you're gonna turn into one person again or something? Is one of you gonna be assimilated?"

"Assimilation's not always as bad as it sounds if the pieces are supposed to go toge-", Areui starts to say, having figured out some of what's going on just by listening. His comment, however, is unnecessary and kinda blunt, so that earns him a smack across the head from Kirue. Yazur lets go of Areui now, managing to stand by himself well enough, and Areui takes that chance to turn his attention to his older brother and give him a glare. Neither of the two angels notices that Yazur slowly heads for the same direction the Deliderp went to.

-

The Deliderp tilts its head, then wags its flippers above its head a few times, at least until Loki tries to shoo him away. In response to that it suddenly digs into its tail-sack-thing and takes out-

Oh, it's the Staff of Navitus.

Which it puts down on the ground and starts pointing at.

"S-so it's still a weapon.", he says, still suspicious... but also seemingly curious. Though he probably wouldn't admit it out loud.

"... so... uh... how do you use that? Do you just smack people with it?"

Church

   -Several Species of Small Furry Animal Ga-   

Well, that would have worked, had Tilra thought that far ahead. As it stands, Emma punches Tilra in the face.

Really hard.

Time seems to grind to a halt just to comprehend the vastness of the speed of it. Normally a sight you'd see on Ynn, Tilra's face shatters at the point of impact. Half of her face vanishes into dust, revealing the sparkly emerald-green organs inside of it arranged in what reveals itself to be a mere facsimile of human shape.

She looks upset about this as she's flung parsecs away, stardust and blood falling from the wide open head wound.

   .You're kind of mean.   

Honestly, Tilra weighs her options, putting a hand on her chin as she flies away at nonsense speeds. She isn't entirely sure whether or not Emma's punch was lethal, but doesn't really want to find out how much blood she can lose before dying, either. It's got to be somewhere between a lot and not as much as she would hope.

She lets out a sigh.

   .Your Possible Pasts.   

Speaking into existence a profound temporal paradox, Tilra envisions a world where she chose to predict Emma's attack in advance.

She'd have used Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict to absorb the attack, and retaliated with Interstellar Overdrive... yes, it seems concrete to her. She cannot simply rewind time to put herself in that version of events, but she can see what it would be like, and watch herself perform.

The possible and impossible unite in as elegant a form as they can, and Tilra reappears upon the battlefield, the left side of her face cracked, bald, eyeless and bloody, rather than absent as it was.

   .That really hurt.   

Tilra says, her voice flat and focused. She looks at Emma, Arlina's magic a prickling sensation at the back of her mind.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Complete) - 8/10

Edited by Whoma on May 3rd 2024 at 5:54:58 AM

Astil

"No, no, no! Nothing like that!"

Xion speaks up. "Sora vanished and we've been searching for him. Roxas felt that you found him. So...how was he? Did he seem...all there?"

Pappetto Grove

Ventus rubs his head. "I mean, basically, yeah."

There's so much more you can do with it, but Ventus is being nice and trying not to freak them out with the details. If he has to fight in their defense, then he can show them.

Thor immediately gestures for the Deliderp to put the Staff away.

"Have you lost your damn mind? Get that thing back in your bloody bag now," he hisses. "I don't have time to talk with Iris, if that's what you're saying. Besides, she's already preoccupied with some other friends."

Sylvie narrows her eyes.

"Oh, look at that. Must be one of those artifacts neither of you are telling me the whole truth about," she remarks, folding her arms.

Loki pointedly ignores Sylvie's comment. That was a conversation for another time.

"Now, now, we can't go waving an Artifact of Navitus around like those glow sticks Midgardians are so fond of," he says. "And as my brother pointed out, Iris appears to be otherwise engaged. It would probably be rather churlish to barge into what seems to be an important conversation for the sake of idle chitchat. So, if you would be so kind, we'd like to continue on our way."

"Huh? ... I mean... I think so? I don't fully know what he's normally like. He was fighting someone I know, but we broke the fight up and talked to them.", Iris says.

Areui and Kirue are stuck in a silent argument right now. At least until Areui takes notice.

"Uh... Yazur? Where'd you go?"

-

The Deliderp's sole response is to continue pointing at the staff, at least until there's suddenly some rustling from the other side of the bush. Yazur now half-peeks out, eyes still a bit tired and weak. He rubs one of them with his hand as he looks the Asgardians over.

"... Loki? ... Thor? ... Miss that I don't know?"

Now the Deliderp stashes the Staff of Navitus again. Yazur doesn't seem to notice.

"What're you doing all the way out here in the forest?"

"Huh..."

Beat

"That doesn't seem very effective in a fight."

Ouch. Well, at least he seems to be less on edge thanks to being highly unimpressed by the Keyblade.

Suddenly the other boy crawls out of the tent.

"Hey, what're you doing, you're supposed to rest!"

"I did. My stomach and head don't hurt as much anymore. I think my fever's gone down.", he says.

"Huh? How?", the pink-haired boy asks as he puts his hand on the other boy's forehead to feel that, indeed, his head's cooled down a lot. He then looks at Ventus.

"Is the tent magic too or something?"

"Magic?"

Roxas nods along. "Hold that thought, I heard something."

He, too, passes through the bushes, emerging to find Thor, Loki, and Sylvie. "Oh, hey."

Meanwhile, Xion addresses Areui. "You're not wrong. Roxas and I both came from Sora, and when his memories and body were fragmented and incomplete, we both had to return to him to fix things. It was up to him to save the worlds."

She puts her hand over her chest. "But Sora wasn't content with that. He believed in us—that we had the right to exist as our own people. And he helped ensure we could."

Ventus makes a point to ignore the harsh honesty.

"Yeah. All it takes is a quick nap to heal you and restore your energy."

Edited by KiriK on May 3rd 2024 at 8:46:27 AM

The two look back at the tent in astonishment. Despite the fact that the blue-haired boy's faded scar and burn? wounds are still clear and present, neither of them makes any claim that Ventus is lying. Maybe even magic tents can't heal scars.

The blue-haired boy then looks at Ventus.

"Uh... thank you, mister.", he says despite not being that much smaller than Ventus is. "But, uh... when did you get here?"

"He found us. You couldn't see him because... you know."

"Oh...", he mutters with a little nod. He looks back at Ventus, still shy and frightened, but something seems different from the way the other boy'd been glaring all this time.

"His name's Ventus.", the pink-haired boy says. "Don't worry, I didn't tell him anything about us."

"Not even our names?"

"No, he told us not to, so-"

"But he helped us."

"Yes, but... agh, you of all people should know that doesn't mean-", he starts, but he stops himself when he sees his companion tearing up a bit.

"Shoot, sorry, I...", he mumbles, looking guilty. The other boy glows a bit and then a small spark suddenly shoots off of his aura, with the boy gasping. It hits the other boy... but the pink-haired boy doesn't seem to be bothered at all. He doesn't even physically recoil from it, it's as if nothing hit him at all. But that spark was definitely there given that he pauses and blinks for a moment, then sighs.

"Sorry..."

"It's okay."

The pink-haired boy turns to Ventus. He looks wary, but he's not really glaring as much anymore.

"... uh... do you maybe at least know the way to a safe place like a town or something? 'Cause we got to get food soon. If so, could you... point us in the right direction?"

Hub Centralis

With the civilians evacuated, is time to get up again!

But, in its fall, one of Malzeno's wings rips through the air balloon, making the group crash on the street.

They notice Malzeno squashing Kirike.

Hey you, what you did with that girl!?

There is no time to arguing! Better help me to repair my balloon!

Edited by BombonBombin on May 3rd 2024 at 9:15:10 AM

Ventus smirks. "No, but that doesn't mean I can't find one."

He throws his Keyblade up above the trees and jumps up after it. In midair, it takes its Keyblade Glider◊ form, which he rides like a skateboard.

Then he drops down, the Keyblade reverting to normal and falling after him, whereupon he catches it out of the air. Show-off.

"There's a dirt path leading out of the woods. Follow it and you'll eventually arrive at a place that looks like a big tent with a giant horse head on top."

bro doesn't know what a stable is

"Maybe someone there will have better directions."

Thor's gaze flickers to the newly arrived Yazur, and he lets out a quiet sigh.

"Going for a walk. You're looking tired, Yazur," he replies. "I'd get some sleep if I were you."

Sylvie greets the angel with a little wave.

"It's Sylvie. I'm a variant of him, actually," she says, pointing at Loki with her thumb. "Maybe there's a female version of you out there somewhere."

Loki smiles his usual smile.

"Ah, Yazur! What an unexpected surprise," he says. "If you're looking for a place to rest, well, you're not exactly short on options."

The Asgardians then glance at Roxas when he enters the scene.

"I remember you, boy. You assumed I was up to no good after we had fought off a cadre of Cyber Angels together."

Edited by IchigoMontoya on May 3rd 2024 at 8:31:46 AM

"I already slept for the past two days. If I sleep any longer my wings'll probably start sticking to each other.", Yazur mutters to Thor and Loki before looking at Sylvie.

"Huh? Oh, wow. This is the first time I've spoken to a god's differently gendered counterpart."

Judging by the way he says that, he's at least familiar enough with the concept, since he's alluding to having seen at least a few of them too. Makes sense since he's a messenger angel.

Areui and Kirue listen to what Xion says, then glance at each other for a moment.

"That's... very different from your case."

"Yeah..."

As vague as that was, it should tip Xion off that Areui may be more than familiar with the concept of a person being split into multiple versions of themselves.

Anyhow, with Roxas having noticed them, Areui and Kirue follow and catch up with the rest too, gesturing for Xion to come with them. They then spot everyone who's gathered near the bush.

"Oh, hi! Thor, Loki, and... uh..."

"Sylvie. Different version of Loki.", Yazur quickly sums it up for Areui and Kirue so that the Asgardians don't have to repeat themselves.

"I see. It's nice to meet you, miss Sylvie.", Kirue says.

"Thor, hi!", Iris says as she suddenly appears from above. "I have some great news! I've already found most of the people we wanted to ask help from, and even some extras to boot!"

She counts on two of her fingers.

"We only need Callis and, if we can convince her, Pandora, and then we'll be ready to confront Odin!"

That may remind Thor of just how much they're dealing with right now. Odin, G.E.M... it's a good thing the Assassins have been keeping quiet or that would've been added to the pile too. Though at least, with Iris having done most of the ally-searching, Thor won't have to stress as much about finding the people they're looking for. Maybe that's at least some load off of his back.

Iris' smile, however, vanishes not long after.

"... Thor, did something happen? You look tired, and not in a physical way."

She's beginning to know him well if she can tell the difference from just looking at him.

The two kids stare up, dumbfounded.

"... is he boarding on a flying key thing?"

"... a magic flying key thing."

Ventus lands again (his catch seeming to impress the kids) and gives them directions.

"O-oh... uh, thank you.", the pink-haired boy says. "... then we should be going."

They start to walk away, though both of them glance back a few times as if to check Ventus isn't following them. When it's clear he's not and they've gotten a bit of distance between them, the blue-haired boy turns to him.

"M-my name is Yumuse, and he's Emeru! I-it was nice to meet you!", he shouts, even waving just a little bit.

"Why did you tell him our-agh, at least it wasn't... let's just keep going.", Emeru grumbles as he grabs his companion's wrist and starts walking a bit faster.

"I just thought it was the least we could do. Thanks to him we can keep moving, otherwise we might've been found.", Yumuse says as he speeds up a bit to keep up.

"... I guess. Just... be more careful, okay? We can't let anyone know who we are and where we came from."

"I know... I won't do it again unless you're okay with it too."

"Thanks."

With that, they're off.

Edited by DevilPsyco on May 4th 2024 at 11:39:24 AM

DNC

Wait a minute... You are the dragon!?

Grace can't give credit to what Kana said.

This is one of the more awesome things I ever saw! Do you have, like, cool abilities as a dragon?

Pica-Verse

Hatch chimes in.

"I'm with Altina here. Do you know where... Or when did he go? What if it's a trap..."

If you go, I'm with you!

The Hunter said. Carolina just says:

We need to help those three. And this artifact you are holding... It could have answers.

Centralis - Kaiju

The armor plating creaks under the pressure of angry dragon jaw, but doesn't crumple like a tin can because it's not some mass-production model because it's a layering of steel and tungsten compressed roughly 10 times its normal density.

"Oi!"

Croque sees the reactor output drop. Well that isn't very good. Luckily, this thing is constantly powered and not running on a reserve, so it's not like it'll do too much in the long run.

In the short term, though, the mech visibly slumps as power drops off from the main servos. Croque pulls the cockpit latch and steps onto the now-open edge of the cockpit (located in the head, with the mouth opening up)

"Get off my damn mech!"

She points a targeting laser down at Desghidorah, ducking back inside the cockpit and sealing it back up.

A moment later-

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

-oh, she has an orbital laser. For moments like this. Immediately afterwards, she follows it up with a heavy uppercut from the mech.

The Mountain - Makai

The Mountain flinches real badly upon being struck by Peppino's desperation attack, giving the Toon Force-empowered Italian chef a good opportunity to continue his counter assault.

"A dirty trick," asks The Mountain before praising him with faint damnation. "I like it. You can be one of us, if you weren't our enemy."

Albaz - Mission

In an instant, Albaz is forced back by the sudden Skullgreymon projectile before throwing him back at Desghidorah in retaliation. It looks like the Springans are wearing off on the Branded boy. He has to admit their shenanigans can be annoying, but are hilarious in their own special way.

The raven-haired mage(?) winces as she gets some rather unpleasant feedback from her subject of interest, then frowns faintly while processing the rest. Restoring order... She's certain that entails a lot of violence, ergo a lot of chance for innocents to get caught in the crossfire. But at the same time, what would the other monsters apparently native to this particular nexus do? Probably cause problems of their own, if left unchallenged. Besides, she has her own problems to worry about in the form of other visitors from her own world, especially the one she tracked in here in the first place. She does not have the power to handle them on her own.

She needs allies for the future, wants to minimize collateral damage, and is in a position to push towards both goals at the moment. The conclusion is obvious to her - she should try to get in the good graces of big G and hope he'll eventually be amenable to reciprocation.

"Let me think... He could probably use..."

She can quickly rule out trying to boost Godzilla's raw strength or durability, since he already has so much of those that further amplification would be a bit redundant under current circumstances. She doesn't know about his association with nuclear energy, having no prior experience (and the one other entity she knows of that does have nuclear abilities is far more mechanoid in nature). Perhaps...

"Empowerment - Haste."

The crystal on the end of her staff glows bright as she channels, needing to put together quite a lot of energy given her current target and the probably-safe distance from the battle. Then, when ready, she releases a ball of orange light that zips across the terrain of the city at blistering speed. The spellcode apparently has some very strange self-guidance abilities, ensuring it'll actually get to who it's intended for.

Upon making contact with Godzilla's body, the ball of light shrinks and vanishes from view, and (assuming it works as intended) would grant him quite the nifty boost in speed. All things speed, that is - greater mobility, faster strikes with his claws and tail, a quicker charge on his Atomic Breath if he elects to use that at some point, maybe even quicker reactions to other events in the battle. It's only for a limited time of course, but she's banking on the battle ending before that becomes an issue.

Of course, doing that has also painted a very obvious target on herself for everyone who considers Godzilla an enemy.

Nobody took the time to interrupt whatever Jack had planned. Lucky him.

It's difficult for him to decide what to do with the accumulated power buildup inside him, but he needs to do something, so he scans the battlefield with his eyes. He can see Arlina preparing some kind of ability with her magic, and Emma and Tilra appear to be getting into physical altercations now. Speaking of which, he's also distinctly aware that the latter has been charging an ability he doesn't know about for quite a while. He should... probably not keep that to himself.

   {Careful now. She's preparing something.}   

Jack then closes his eyes. He's going to make sure has has one hell of a finale.

   {I barely have anything left. After this last shot of mine, I'll be forced to bow out. GOOD LUCK, EVERYONE.}   

You'd think I'd use a Nuclear Fusion cover for this, but I couldn't find one that I liked the vibe of enough, and this was easier to find.

An omnidirectional pulse of nuclear energy shoots out from Jack's body, ripping numerous additional holes in his body in the process. Then another, and his head completely turns to ash from the heat. Then, what's left of him propels itself upwards into the air as a final blast shoots out and cracks the battlefield, much greater in force than the last two. As he assumes a position in the sky, the silhouette of his body almost looks whole again...

•    GRAVITATIONAL RETRICTIONS REMOVED   
  •    OMNIDIRECTIONAL MOVEMENT ENABLED   
    •    SPECIAL ATTACK - SUPERCRITICAL MELTDOWN   

The other three fighters in the church would have a moment to comprehend the fact that they've suddenly been granted total three-dimensional freedom of movement, then Jack begins his attack proper.

Six concentrated beams of nuclear energy blast out from Jack at equal spread from one another, swirling around his body and laying waste to the ground below and the skies above simultaneously. As they do so, spiral patterns of green fireballs burst out from between the gaps in triple and quintuple spread patterns, filling the air with a chaotic mess of shotgunned projectiles traveling in all directions, some offset vertically as well as horizontally. That total freedom of movement is going to come in very handy for navigating the chaos, not to mention just plain not being hit by those.

Something metallic explodes inside his body, and the beams stop while the bursts of flame become more erratic. Bizarrely, at the edge of the battlegrounds, some of the nuclear hellfire projectiles seem to be pulled back towards where Jack's body is floating, forming a large sphere of solid flame around him. Then the chaos subsides briefly as the sphere of flames careens directly into the ground.

The very ground below the fighters explodes, powerful upward winds kicking up a hailstorm of glass and molten rocks, then those winds twist around to form a gigantic blazing tornado. Now the freedom of movement helps out the other fighters by letting them not fall into the abyss or get launched into the stratosphere / out of the battlefield entirely, though the upward storm of projectiles is still something to watch out for, alongside great waves of hellfire released from Jack's body. Especially the lashes of flame that whip out from the tornado around them and becoming increasingly violent as the cyclical wall of wind closes in.

But, alas, the power of his body was almost spent even before he went for unleashing this great storm. With one last cataclysmic omnidirectional burst of energy and heat, he finally falls lifeless, and with his death comes the death of every bit of heat he'd released. The edges of the battleground below slip inward, filling the void his last hurrah had created, granting the fighters somewhere to settle once more while gravity and movement dynamics return to normal. The smoke clears from around where he landed, revealing that...

The damage he dealt to himself was even worse than one would have predicted. Only his legs remain, and after buckling at the knees, the upper parts of those legs fall off and disintegrate into ashes on contact with the ground. His lower legs stay standing, drained completely of the inferno that had one raged within him, now only functional as a gravestone.

...

By some miracle, the business card survived fully intact, and can be found laying at Jack's feet. It might be worth running a material analysis on that later.

The Reach, Sky Haven Temple

Ben◊ restlessly paces about before the sleeping quarters' fireplace, silently fuming to himself. How in blazes had Laxin managed to survive the academy's destruction? It seemed as though whatever he and his allies threw at the slimy piece of worm-ridden filth, he just recovered as though nothing had happened. Darth Malgus surviving a grenade going off in his face and being blasted through a cliffside by Satele Shan in the battle of Alderaan was one thing, but unlike Malgus, Laxin practically walked away unscathed from everything that should have at least scarred him to some degree. At this rate, it was beginning to seem as though an orbital bombardment from an entire fleet of Republic warships might be the only thing capable of ending Laxin's reign of terror for good, and even then, Ben had a feeling he would probably survive that as well.

Kriff, he could slice Laxin's head off and his body would likely just continue fighting as if he'd received the tiniest cut imaginable at worst.

Coming to a stop, Ben looks into the fireplace, the roaring flames reflecting in his hazel eyes as he begins taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm his emotions. As usual, he found himself of two minds about drawing on the dark side. On the one hand, it did need lend the wielder unimaginable power; Laxin's Force Storm wiping out an entire city alone was proof of that. On the other hand, he hadn't yet forgotten the fates of Jedi who had fully succumbed to its temptations. Exar Kun's spirit remained trapped in a temple on Yavin. Ulic Qel-Droma had died a lonely recluse on that ice ball Rhen Var, felled by a vengeful spacer's blaster after reluctantly instructing one final pupil in the Jedi ways. Revan's story practically spoke for itself. Malak realized much too late how far he had fallen, with only the close friend he had betrayed for company as he succumbed to his wounds. And those were only a handful of examples.

"Still... this war has been dragging on for kriffing ages, and Laxin is no closer to being dead. Besides, it's not though I want to rule the galaxy or bring about mass devastation, is it? I'd only be using Laxin's greatest weapon against him to end his tyranny before he can raze Coruscant and Tython to space dust, and destroy any other worlds that defy the Empire."

Ben sighs deeply, feeling mentally and emotionally drained with just about everything right now. Right now, a good night's sleep was starting to look pretty good. He could always discuss things with someone at a later time.

Mission: Pursue the Giant Monster

Skullgreymon gets fucking yeeted by Godzilla, with Etemon comically hanging on for dear life. ... granted, he'd survive that kind of fall but it'd still really hurt, as well as make him look bad, and a star like him can't be embarrassed in such a way.

When Desghidora catches Skullgreymon the halting force makes Etemon's grip slip away, resulting in the monkey Digimon continuing to fly and crash straight into a building.

As for Skullgreymon, it gets yeeted a second time, straight towards Albaz, only to basically get bounced back. Absolutely livid, Skullgreymon blasts the ground near it with a missile to propel itself off of the path, though inadvertently ends up crashing into the same building Etemon crashed into a moment ago, with that building collapsing as a result.

For a moment it seems the two Digimon are already taken out of the picture... until some debris gets sent flying and an angry Etemon stands up out of it, looking a little roughed up and with a crack in a part of his sunglasses, but otherwise shockingly fine for someone who got tossed into a building and then had that building collapse onto him.

   "Now I've had it up to here with all this monkeying around, y'hear me!?"   , he shouts in genuine fury. He half-raises one hand and creates a dark sphere on it.

   "Now it's about time I show 'em a thing or two. You freaks'll wish you never crossed the likes of me, baybeh!"   

He takes a step forward, genuinely about to try to engage combat with Godzilla, Desghidora, Albaz, and likely with all of the other opponents here too.

But then the ground starts to shake as pillars of light burst out from underneath the collapsed building. Etemon pauses and looks back, then gasps in shock when he realizes what's happening when the Black Gear manifests within the beams of light and disintegrates.

   "Now hold on just a sec-nonono, this isn't part of the plan! I can't control a Dark Master-AAH!"   

The debris goes flying, with some of it hitting him while he's still talking and sending him flying again.

Dark Digivolution

The beams of light converge in the sky, where dark clouds form. Rings of datafied energy spawn within, which fly back down to a now glowing Skullgreymon and are assimilated into its body. The glowing turns into flames as the now fiery silhouette of the zombie-like Digimon starts to grow, twist and contort into something very different and much, much bigger.

After but a mere few seconds, a new and metallic creature, once Skullgreymon, now stands where it stood. Skullgreymon has Digivolved out of pure hate and fury and has become something much more powerful.

The Dark Master - Machinedramon

Machinedramon (or Mugendramon, depends on what you prefer) lets out a mechanical war cry before opening its right hand and taking aim, then launching a cluster of powerful energy blasts at nearly everyone on the field.

And I do mean nearly everyone.

Godzilla, Desghidora, Albaz, Malzeno, Titanslayer and even the raven-haired mage? girl. The only one it doesn't target is Etemon, and that's only because Machinedramon doesn't bother looking to see where he is.

Even the naval and air forces that are around the area will have to be careful of stray shots.

—

Meanwhile, down on the ground levels, Pseudo's forces (or at least the ones capable of teleportation such as Ninten, Ness, Poo, Larice, Rico Jr etc.) are doing their best helping with evacuations. Pseudo must have noticed the ongoing battle, which, given that Topique isn't that far from the Hub Centralis, shouldn't be much of a surprise. Whether they're taking those people to Pseudo's base or just to a safer location isn't sure, but it doesn't exactly matter. There's some active Vahki on the rooftops as well, ordered to fire attacks on any incoming attacks that could potentially get in the way of the evacuation efforts.

Then there are some others, those more vicious and eager to hide in the darkness of alleyways and within the sewers, who simply choose to retreat into said darkness, not going to risk getting involved with any of this.

Further in town there are even some G.E.M. soldiers who had been tasked with finding Ishizu doing their best to help evacuate people. Because despite the ongoing problems involving them, in the face of a situation like this one, anyone with any sense of humanity and experience in crisis situations would do whatever they can to help as many people as possible.

Edited by DevilPsyco on May 4th 2024 at 1:04:51 PM

Mahito and Kenjaku's super-special presentation II : Ketheric Thorm

Hello, true believers! Time sure does fly, huh? I'm inches away from pulling off my crafty scheme, and yet, I'm only at the second part of what I visualized to be a series! Weird, huh? Kenjaku stands in front of a camera, with something like a board laid in front of him on a black table. There's several more versions of these set around him, with an empty one most nearby.

He waves at the camera. A depressed Mahito stand behind him, not sad, but hardly showing his usual smug sneer.

So! A good game of chess require pieces, right? You can't play a game of Chess without some pawns or a King of your own - and neither can the enemy. And as it happened, I thought I was lacking some pieces myself! For there's only so much evil memory ghosts you can stuff into your simulation before it become too random. I decided I needed something durable. A King for the rest of the Pawns to aggregate and listen to.

Kenjku spins his hands vertically in front of him for a hot minute before throwing his arms back then forward, pointing at a particular miniature boarde of Moonrise Towers, with Ketheric standing on top of it.

And my vote fell on Ketheric Thorm! An undead, immortal warlord with a devotion for Myrkul, the god of the Dead... well, before some pantheon changes happened. I hear he embodies decay! Crazy, huh? Luckily for us that he's a minor god. Because it means that he couldn't stop us from just snagging Ketheric like that. Yah! Kenjaku's hands clam down on Ketheric, lift him up, and take him to the empty board. He's become a part of my experiment! And with a little encouragment from Mahito, he won't even remember the world he was from. Practical, huh? Then, we only have to do the same to his minions until we've built a good base of mindless fanactics and a man who think a lie is the ultimate truth to bring back his daughter!

Kenjaku take every minion on every board and put them unto his own. Said minions and Thorm himself are depicted as smaller and stupider than they should be, with cartoonish proportions and a head at least five time bigger than the torso should be.

And need I remind you that this is only possible due to Mahito's ability to freely travel across dimensions in a blink? What a peculiar yet useful ability! The camera zoom in on Mahito, who can only glare at it.

Now, Gor has generously agreed to masquerade as Ketheric's deity, so he'll think he's calling upon a higher being during the event. And the others will think so, which is neat! But, we can't have Ketheric owe his immortality to Gor. He'll need to have a eternally living anchor to tie him to the world, wouldn't you agree? So... Kenjaku raise his hand and wag his fingers dramatically, pulling a mold of a tall, blonde woman with a cracked face and splendid armor which he puts down on the board.

There! A Nightsong for Ketheric to torture! And because getting Shar's cooperation will be difficult, she'll be put somewhere reachable. But where should she be? I'll leave it up to luck before the mission start - who knows, maybe she could be somewhere obvious? I'd kinda want to see the expression on Ketheric's face then, haha! And I'll be able to do that, why? Because I'll be right in the event, but thanks to Mahito's powers, I'll be a constant blind spot in the visions of whoever's involved in it! So long as they're a part of a batch of contestants, I'll be able to spy on them easily! They can't and wont notice me! Isn't that great? A round of applause for Mahito!

Nothing happens, but Kenjaku, to his credit, does does clap his hands a bit.

I hope you won't be such a grouch at the event! You're kind of key to it, you know? Because, to resume my point, Ketheric, his allies and the Demented Spirit in that world will think they were on it all along and act accordingly. They don't remember the Cult of the Absolute or their allies - their motivations might stay the same, but they'll go at it... differently.

Thus, Ketheric truly believe he's this world's lord. And he truly believe that Myrkul will swoop in once he's eaten the fruit of temptation! Which I've changed a bit from earlier drafts, mind you.

And that's that!

Astil

Xion sighs glumly. She was hoping she'd found a kindred spirit, but it sounds like Areui's case was different.

"Oh, right. Sorry, but you just have the look and abilities of a bad guy."

Roxas points at Loki's face. "Also the mouth of one."

Harsh.

Mission: Pursue the Giant Monster

Raven Beak shoots down any missiles aimed for the Kirov cruiser while disregarding the rest of the fleet, a number of ships and fighters of which get blown down.

"It was an accident!" Malzeno protests. He uses his dragon breath to destroy the missiles headed for him and those targeting the Explora Colores, giving them time to get to their balloon.

Meanwhile, Godzilla feels the maybe-mage's power-up.

vwvwvwvwvwVWVW FSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Out comes an instant Atomic Breath, first spraying around at the missiles, then Godzilla takes a deep breath before firing it again with additional power straight at Desghidorah's middle head.

Edited by KiriK on May 4th 2024 at 6:34:12 AM

Loki cracks a wry smile, not looking the least bit offended by Roxas's comment.

"Flattery? I like it! Yes, I'll admit, I have always taken pride - a healthy amount, mind you, otherwise I'd be no better than a certain dead charlatan - in the effectiveness of my liar's mouth and silver tongue," he says. "Ah, but where have my manners gone to? I don't believe we've ever been properly acquainted."

Thor groans, both because Iris was probably going to want to get involved with the G.E.M. if he told her truth and out of sheer exhaustion with everything he was presently grappling with - including the shattering of his faith in gods and the ensuing revelation he had in regards to just how correct Gorr the God Butcher had been about everything. He could've easily just flown them to Pseudo's base or had Loki use the Tesseract for a shorter trip. Instead, he just had to take the scenic route.

"It's... a long story, Iris, and you already seem preoccupied with your other friends here," he replies, giving a dismissive wave of his hand. "I-I'd hate to impose on such important proceedings, so please, worry about me later."

Sylvie quickly waves to the angel brothers.

"You're Areui? I thought you were going to look a little more... angst-ridden and pissed off than you really are," she comments. "Heh, maybe I'm getting you mixed up with one of your variants."

Edited by IchigoMontoya on May 4th 2024 at 5:08:25 AM

Astil

"Thor, you are literally one of the only people I'd go out of my way of to help.", she says with brutal honesty. "So this is important too, and I want to know. Besides, finding our friends has been going great, so until that loud Thor comes to get us to go to Odin I have all the time in the world."

Oh, she does not know that this Thor is not gonna be able to come get them.

She then crosses her arms and smirks, though her smirk is meant to be encouraging instead of teasing.

"I'll find out somehow even if you don't tell me, you know that."

"We're all friends, aren't we? You can share what's bothering you with us.", Yazur speaks up too. "Though if you'd prefer to just tell Iris I can cover my ears or leave and ask Areui and Kirue to do the same."

Areui caught Xion's sigh. He does want to know what's wrong, but he can also tell that it's something personal. Maybe he has a sixth sense for this sort of thing considering his own past. So he decides to show her a supportive smile of his own.

Then he looks at Sylvie, comically surprised.

"Angst-ridden and pissed off?"

"No, she's right about that.", Kirue casually says.

"Shut it, you.", Areui grumbles as Kirue smirks a little at him in return, after which the latter looks at Sylvie as well.

"It's only been a few years since Areui really started to emotionally recover."

"It's been about 20."

"As I said, only a few years.", Kirue shrugs. And he's not wrong. For an angel, 20 years is nothing.

"As for variants, I've met two so far and know a third one exists. One of them was like that but has chilled out too. The other one, who I met a few days ago, feels less like he's angry and more like he just likes to tease people. And the third one, uh... if they're from the same world as you but they are still also the same person as you in a way, do they still count as a variant."

He's talking about Alt.Areui, PC!Areui and lastly New Devil Areui, the one that was freed by the people who were after Alex. Ishizu did mention the third one of these, but the trio may not realize he's talking about that one unless they're really, really good at piecing that together from the few pieces they have. Regardless, it's not really important, since that version of Areui is long gone.

Edited by DevilPsyco on May 4th 2024 at 2:34:36 PM