Guild Wars III Roleplay (Rated T)

[Strife]

((Spacefleet HQ - Central Security))

"Hold," said Commander Fraze. The subcommander and everyone else in the room held their breaths for a response, trying to drown out the screams so they could hear.

Then, much to their relief, the alarms ceased, and the sentry guns in each of the rooms retreated back into the ceiling. Despite this, the agonizing screams of thousands of people continued to penetrate the walls of the station, and it was growing worse. If something wasn't done, there would soon be a full-scale riot on their hands. The shooting had lasted for an eternal 17 seconds.

"The evacuation is already more than 90% complete," continued the Commander, "but abort it nonetheless. The rest is up to you. Crowd control as best you possibly can. Get every able-bodied troop to calm people down. Get every doctor, every medic, everyone who knows what a compression bandage is and get them working on saving these people, give me an injured and a fatality count as soon as possible. Clear out the emergency medical supplies from all sections and put them to use. NOW."

"Don't need to tell us, Sir, we're on it immediately!" replied the subcommander, still having to raise his voice over the surrounding ambience. "Is Chief Medic Leoness still on the surface? We could really use her right now! We'll do our best regardlesss!"

Just then, the lights in the security room flickered momentarily. The officers near the central terminal jumped back when they saw a brief surge of electricity jump through the entire console. They didn't pay attention to it for very long though, as they had far worse matters to attend to.

Unbeknownst to them, Cyclops' green sludge slowly seeped out of the terminal and poured onto the floor. It was no longer a solid green color, but very transparent and watery.

Inside the terminal itself, his eyeball rested within the conduits with the same pale, white glaze that any dead human would have. He was gone.

((Spacefleet HQ - Central Nexus - Sector 4C))

When the lights returned to normal, dozens of the refugees lay dead on the floor, and dozens more were limping around or wincing in pain. One could only imagine the countless thousands that were dead or dying in the other rooms.

The Spacefleet personnel in the room did their best to gather the injured and distribute healing supplies, but the chaos and general panic made the task extremely difficult. Some of the magically-inclinged refugees were attempting to heal injuries with their own personal spells, outright refusing the medical assistance offered to them by the Fleet. Others were completely enraged and began pushing the officers and being physically provocative towards them, shouting things about broken trust and wanting to go back home on the surface. It took every ounce of willpower for the officers to restrain themselves from fighting back, as it would only make the situation worse. Not that the Fleet looked any more innocent to their eyes.

((Tower of Strife))

Somewhere in the shadows of the city hall, the Underdeep's most cunning and powerful messenger curled his lips into a chilling smile.

Cyclops was dead, but he had carried out his plan with complete success. All that was left to do was to observe the resulting battle from afar, all while continuing his role in the great cleansing of the planet.

[Omni]

In front of Mage Manor

As Omni healed the Merc on the ground, someone else came to help, and the wounded feline stirred. "Wha? Where am I?" he asked.

"You're in front of Mage Manor," she replied. "Don't worry, the ooze isn't coming closer."

She listened as others spoke, both surprised and confused.

"The world is turning to stone. Half the planet is already covered and it will only be a matter of hours before the other half is as well. We're offering help to anyone who wants it, take it or leave it. We have medical supplies if you need them, and we can give you passage to safety. But - we will not allow any unprovoked attacks against either civilians or Spacefleet personnel."

Ikkin took a moment to reply. "The planet is turning into stone... Yeah, and whose fault is that? No one who calls this planet home would do such a thing, even if they cared about no one but themselves... but you don't live here. What do you care?"

"And look what you get from this. You get to come down and soar in from the sky, offering your assistance to everyone who wishes to accept. You get to be heroes. Everyone loves you.

"And then, when everyone trusts you, and flies up to your amazing flying city, you show your true colors. You kill off the people who you've spirited away just as soon as they're unable to fight back."

"Now wait just a minute!" Omni said, bringing up the courage to stand up and interrupt, for once. "I admit I may be out of the loop, but I don't see a reason why the 'Fleet would suddenly attack the Mages, or anyone else here. I've interacted with them due to the trading, and overall, I've sensed very little that suggests anything malicious about them, and even then it was in individuals, not the group. Even now I didn't sense anything in this guy's aura to suggest that he was lying."

She turned to the 'Fleeters. "Though also, while you're offering help, I'm not going to just leave while the place is being taken over by Underdeep ooze. For all I know, this may very well be the only thing keeping the ooze from completely taking over; maybe even the only thing keeping it from becoming completely irreversible. I'm going to at least try to keep it going while we look for a way to try and stop the ooze. If we end up drained and out of ideas with little time left, maybe then I'll go with you. But for now I'm going to at least try!"

----------

Spacefleet

Ethan was surprised when weasels suddenly rushed past him, later followed by screaming refugees that had been fired at. With this chaos, he wasn't likely to be able to do much by going to the commons area. It seemed that with this chaos, some might try to escape on ships, whether or not the planet was turning to stone. He began to head to the docking bay, making sure that Siber followed.

[Draco]

<<Mage Manor>>

"lying? I'm a Ninja. Lying would harm my honor. I have no reason to do that."

"Hey! That's my honor your ruining!"

"I know what I heard, from both Strife during our fight, and the officers that were stationed in Tabloid Town. Saving the people of this country is all just a trick. We can stop all this if we stop the Fleet. Besides, the people of Brassport should be able to keep everyone safe. What with their flying vehicles."

Draco motions to the large one behind them, and the smaller (next to the Nameless Ship) Phantom Merc, which was still being worked on by Gil, Lina, and the Ninja.

"If we need to get away quickly, I trust them more then I trust the Fleet."

With that said he turns his back on the officers and walks back towards the group.

[Fraze]

((Mage Manor))

Another person stepped forward now, quietly seething with anger.
"The planet is turning into stone...Yeah, and whose fault is that? No one who calls this planet home would do such a thing, even if they cared about no one but themselves... but you don't live here. What do you care?"

"I live here!" one of the 'Fleeters called out. Several people tried to restrain him, but he shook them off and took several steps forward. "I grew up in a farming village in Dunburrow. When I came of age, I joined Spacefleet to protect this planet and its people. I know this land like I know my own reflection, and I love it with all my heart." Several more 'Fleeters began voicing their agreement at this. His voice started to crack, and he was visibly working to control his speech. "I still don't know what happened to my village--I assisted with the evacuation of a different region--but my home and probably all of my family have been turned to stone by now. Heroics be darned, I want nothing more in the world than to find out if they're is safe. But I was ordered to come here to offer assistance to you Mages, and I'm doing so because my duty to Spacefleet and this land is more important than my personal worries. I would die for this planet, how DARE you say I don't care about it?!"

The Peacekeeping team's leader put a firm grip on the agitated 'Fleeter's shoulder. "That's enough," he said firmly but with a hint of empathy. He turned to the mage. "Most of us grew up here," he said. "I was an East Tabloid Town brat myself. Miss...Ikkin, is it? I seem to recall you coming to Spacefleet some months ago for the purpose of negotiations. Unless I'm mistaken, you met with the man who's now our Commander.
"Spacefleet would have absolutely nothing to gain from petrifying this planet or harming its people. We are devoted to doing the very opposite of that. And what use would a dead planet serve? If you refuse our help, then so be it--we will not deny aid to anyone, but we will not force it on anyone either. But please, think about this logically. Spacefleet has existed for over a century. If our purpose was to kill the planet, we could have done so long before now."

--------

((Zagora's Shop...Barely))
"Is Chief Medic Leoness still on the surface?" We could really use her right now! We'll do our best regardlesss!"
"I don't know her location. She was planetside yesterday at around 8:30 PM, that was the last I saw of her."

As Fraze's mind calmed, he began considering the repercussions of this attack. If, by some unfathomable miracle, a riot did not form, people would want to go back home. But where could they go? The habitable areas of the planet were quickly shrinking and would be gone in a few hours. This shop and Mage Manor were the only places the 'Fleet had found that seemed to be immune to the spread of this stuff, and neither could possibly hold 400,000 refugees.
'Fleet Security was trained to deal with crowds and riots, but nothing of this scale. But even so, they knew far better than he what would be the best course of action. He would have to place his trust in them.

"Sir," a voice spoke. It was a secure line, meaning that an observer could see that a message was being sent to somewhere from somewhere else, but the origin, destination, and content were not known. "This is satellite monitoring. We have found the location of the former Commander Strife."
With his mind still reeling from the attack, it took Fraze several seconds to digest this information.
"Are you sure? Is it a positive ID?"
"It's as positive as we can get. But whether it is him or not, it's the only thing standing in Tabloid Town that's not petrified, aside from the shop you're in." Had the situation been different, Fraze would have been both amused and impressed by this quip. "See the tower?"
Fraze had seen it--looking like an obscene homage to a bladed avatar of death, which was perhaps quite fitting. "Yes."
"From the looks of it, he's inside it. The face is a positive match according to our database, but it's..."
"Show me." After a moment, a video screen appeared in Fraze's vision. Yes, that was definitely Strife. "Excellent work. Send those coordinates and a video feed to External Security."

If he had had this information just minutes earlier...

It was apparent that Strife had some degree of contact with Spacefleet, given that he seemed to be able to manipulate Subcommander Cyclops. Fraze decided to act on the assumption that he would be monitoring communications. As such, he opened another secure line to External Security. Nobody should be able to intercept this transmission. Hopefully. The message was text-based. "You should be receiving planetside coordinates and a video feed of a tower from Satellite Monitoring. Target the tower with laser cannon banks 1-3 and plasma cannon banks 2, 4, and 6. Concentrate half of the firepower around or directly at the person in the video feed. Spread the rest evenly across the rest of the building. Ten second duration or until there's nothing left standing, whichever comes first. Do as little damage as possible to the surrounding area." The message contained his authorization. After a short wait, there was an affirmative response.

Three hundred laser beams, each ten centimeters in diameter and each capable of cutting through steel, were fired at the Tower of Strife. They were followed by another three hundred plasma beams, jets of ionized gas heated to 7000 C--each again ten centimeters wide.
Contrary to movie depictions, laser beams are invisible as they travel through air, unless they have something to reflect off of--fog, dust, assorted atmospheric particles. The sky was mostly clear, but these particular laser beams were nonetheless just barely visible in the predawn light.
Plasma, on the other hand, is very bright, and at these temperatures glows with what humans would see as bluish-white light. Two seconds after the laser beams hit the tower, the plasma beams followed them.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Mage Manor

"I know what I heard, from both Strife during our fight, and the officers that were stationed in Tabloid Town. Saving the people of this country is all just a trick. We can stop all this if we stop the Fleet. Besides, the people of Brassport should be able to keep everyone safe. What with their flying vehicles. If we need to get away quickly, I trust them more then I trust the Fleet."

Lupehunter had enough of the ninja's accusation of the Spacefleet, so he went over and promptly slapped him on the cheek to put some sense into him. He definitely deserved it.

"Draco, just because one person from Spacefleet is trying to ruin our home or is planning to rule the world with an iron fist doesn't mean that all of Spacefleet is working against us. Besides, we need to work together to destroy this evil," he told the ninja.

[Huntress]

((Fleet HQ))

The officer didn't seem convinced that this weird ragtag bunch of amazons and rodents could be dignitaries to any guild, and his eyes kept darting to the spiky monstrosity that was strapped across Hunty's back.

"Look, I'm going to have to see some ID," he said. And then all hell broke loose.

Hunty, who had survived many a time thanks to her reflexes only, was already diving under the nearest battleship when the bullets started to rain. From the corner of her eye, she could spot the officer do the same thing, and the tiny part of her brain that wasn't preoccupied with raw survival had to commend the guy for his good training.

The sentry guns, attempting to follow the pirates, hit the parked spaceships instead. And the chromed beauty Zylaa had dived into suddenly came to life as several cannons moved around on its surface.

"Authorizati- Attention, ship is under attack," chirped the very same robotic voice with unnerving coolness. "Initiating countermeasures."

There was a nasty little sound of zwpzwpzwp and liquid metal was all of a sudden dripping from the places where the sentry guns had been.

Silence reigned. There was still shooting to be heard somewhere in the distance, but that stopped shortly as well. The ship's metallic voice had now switched to "Unauthorized persons in the ship. Attention, you are monitored and will be shot if you touch anything. Authorization, please."

Hunty rolled herself out from under the other spaceship and remained lying on the floor in an odd cross between a "taking a moment to get herself together" pose and a "don't mind me, I'm just chillin' here" pose, eyeing the molten guns in the ceiling.

"Now this," she said, waving a hand towards the pale-faced officer who was also emerging again, "this right there is a serious security hitch, y'know. If any bad guys were to break in here someday, that's just the way to take those guns out."

The officer leaned against the side of the ship, a shaky hand resting on the holster of his plasma gun.

"I'm still going to need to see some ID," he said.

"I have a Wanted poster, but I'm afraid I didn't bring it," jabbed the captain, thankful for having someone to snark at. Right now it was either that or breaking into hysterics, and she really didn't need the latter. "Do excuse me." Her communicator was talking. Mildly suprised that the connection was all of a sudden working again but thankful for every bit of distraction that got her mind off her recent brush with death and proved that Fraze still hadn't croaked somewhere in the heat of recent events, she dug it out.

"Oh great gods, Huntress, are you all right?" Hunty had never heard this much panic in his voice. Whatever just happened had to be bad. Well, okay, getting zapped by lasers is bad in any situation, she corrected herself, but this sounded bad on a gloriously large scale.

"Yeah, I'm cool," she said in a voice that was hopefully calming but nonetheless still had a shaky note in it. "Really, you can't worry about me all the time, with the kind of life I lead." She heaved herself up from the floor as the sense of duty caught up with her. "Listen, news. The Underdeep has a weak spot. Or rather, a spot that's... anthropomorphizing, same thing really. If we can get to that, we can get this fixed. Or at least get something to clobber. I'd start with frying all those messengers it's been sending out. Anyway, we're grabbing a ship and coming planetside, catch up with you there."

"If you ask me, your relationship could use a bit less honesty," Bloody Mary said, showing up on her shoulder again. The code-red attack hadn't bothered him much, meepits are small, agile and low-priority targets, but he was a little dizzy because Hunty had ducked directly on top of him.

"You know where that got us," Hunty said, turning to look at the officer again. His face was currently a fascinating display of mixed emotions. "I'll make it short because I don't think any of us has a lot of time to spare. Authorization, please."

The officer seemed hesitant. "This is Subcommander Haggoth's ship," he said.

Hunty's face remained politely blank.

"He's the head of the entire Security sector," said the 'fleeter.

"And doing an awesome job, no less," Hunty snarled, then realized what the problem was. "Don't worry, it'll all be my fault."

The man tossed her a magnetic card. "Voice code 65B7 also works, but you didn't hear it from me. Good luck."

"Good luck to you, you'll need it," said the captain, holding the card against the ship's control panel. "Authorization, please" turned into "Welcome aboard, please specify destination" in the background. She stepped into the ship.

"O-kay, now how does this... let's see. Activate all systems?"

***

Panic stretched its dark tendrils through the entire Fleet HQ. The shooting hadn't even been as bad as the chaos that followed.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, a hazy bluish sphere shimmered among the throng of people. Rane had instinctively pressed Kienne against him and created a protective sphere around them both so now they were mostly safe from the trampling and shoving going on all around them. But the crowd was still threatening to push them over.

In Rane's head, TMC was blazing with rage. He was so close, so very close, but now they couldn't move, not without flat-out squishing other people, and Rane was pointedly against that.

Look, if you weren't such a wuss- he began.

Look, you're the Horseman of the Apocalypse here, Rane bit back, full of newfound fierce protectiveness. Find a way to use that omnipotent gem without harming anyone. Don't you have any creativity?

There was a moment of silence.

TMC?

Keep your mind quiet, said TMC. I'm gonna shoot from the hip.

The bike was close. Only about a floor away and some few hundred yards to the left. Not quite the best distance, but it could well be workable. He could feel the connection, albeit a weak one.

Give me a big enough lever and a place to rest it on and I can move the world.

What he was attempting now was solid Horseman business, something the gem wasn't capable of and something he couldn't do when trapped inside it. But with the bike fueling his powers from the outside, he could just get enough leverage to...

The bike, still standing in the distant lab, spluttered for a second and then gave a quiet 'brrrooooOOOooowwwww'.

-time rippled across the space-time continuum like a rubber sheet that's all of a sudden been loosened from one end.

-something glitched in the reality.

-in two points of the TMC-bike line, time all of a sudden moved at different speeds.

-and the gem, now getting the temporal equivalent of being twisted from both ends in opposite directions, gave way and cracked.

In the depths of his mind, Rane could hear a very distant, echoing voice that started out something like "YIPPEE-KI-YAY!" He didn't catch the end of it, and instantly got a splitting headache.

And time froze.

Hundreds of people currently in the process of climbing over each other, trampling or clawing or pushing each other, froze on spot, turning into an eerie 3D still-life. The effects only spread to either end of the hallway, and in the middle of it the hazy blue sphere faded. Small black stone fragments fell on the ground.

The pirate lord looked up, blinking in confusion.

"You really don't look at all like I imagined you," he said.

TMC stretched himself, grinning like a maniac. He pushed some of the nearby people aside like furniture to make room.

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

[Draco]

<<Mage Manor>>

Draco stood in place, shocked by what just happened. He expected something else to happen. He expected a number of things that could happen. A slap was one thing he didn't count on, and he had a lot of random things that expected to happen before he was slapped.

"Kill him. I'm going to kill him! Sure it will blow my cover, but he has got to die! Calm down. Killing him won't help either of us! Besides, what were the chances for a tear in space and time to appear and Betty White attacking us?! And with a flame thrower no less! It... Could have happened. Anyways, he has got to die! Once again, won't be good. Don't do it."

He adjusts his glasses, glad they didn't fall off.

"Ok, maybe I spoke out of line. Maybe these guys are not evil. Maybe those Fleet officers back in Tabloid town were joking about attacking Mage Manor. Maybe the Marshal Law was a lie."

He turns his head in the direction of Tabloid Town. Staring at it, hoping something would happen to win everyone in his favor. A smile spreads across his face as he points. Bluish white beams fall from the sky.

He stares at the beams. Without a single noise leaving his mouth, he mouths "Looks like I win."

Gil has just finished the last touches on the Phantom Merc. Lina, the Ninja, and Gil all stand watching Draco, and then the plasma blasts.

[Strife]

((Tower of Strife))

Like a king on his throne, Strife sat at the foot of the large staircase in the main lobby of the city hall. He planted his sword between the wooden planks beneath him, resting both of his hands on the hilt. He closed his eyes.

Time slowed down for a moment. Aided by the growing power of the Underdeep inside of him, Strife could sense a huge amount of energy coming towards his location. He had doubts that a single being of this world could discharge so much energy at once - therefore, he came to the logical conclusion that the Fleet was retaliating against him.

He was about to act, but the voice of the Underdeep inside of him told him to stay put. He remained seated, unflinching as the moon base unleashed a barrage of laser fire at the tower.

The transparent energy of the lasers burst violently into the spire beneath the city hall, causing it to crumble and fall to the ground in a cloud of smoke. Despite the destruction of the spire, however, the city hall itself remained floating in the sky. Strife continued to remain still and silent.

Dark Sev let out a shriek and flew just outside the entrance of the halls. He inhaled the chaotic energy around him as a second wave of attacks - this time, visible plasma rays - made their way towards the floating citadel.

When Dark Sev exhaled, a massive, barely visible disc of energy materialized in front of the structure. Due to the assumption that the city hall would have started falling at this point, many of the plasma shots missed their target, but the ones that would have hit the hall were instead reflected by the energy disc towards the buildings of Tabloid Town below.

The result was devastating. The plasma rays crashed violently into the city below, causing massive pillars of smoke and miniature mushroom clouds to rise into the air - mostly caused by the flammability of the objects in some of the affected structures. Hundreds and hundreds of petrified citizens evaporated instantly from the powerful energy of the beams. To the distant eye, it would appear that Spacefleet had committed a second atrocity against the people of this planet.

As Strife's city hall levitated ominously in the clouds above, the city below remained cold, lifeless, and now, littered with ash and craters.

[Kiddo]

There was a very cool post here, but the laws of physics disagreed. You all can BITE ME.


Kiddo squinted as she looked across the mountain range leading down from the dojo. Secluded as it was, it provided a good vantage point. The ooze had halted its advance with the Angelis Luci planted firmly in its way but that wouldn't stop it from consuming other regions of the world. If she knew how to use it, she could probably just whisk the ooze out of existence entirely and restore everything that had been petrified. But she wasn't able to. The spear - no, the power that was the Angelis, for it was far more than just a spear - needed someone that could unlock it's dormant power. And Kiddo wasn't that person. Too bitter. Too tired.

"Tasty," she said to the weasel, "Can you go back to pirates? Tell them they have a friend that help stop who did this, waiting for them here. Just... don't tell them my name. Make one up."

As far as she knew, only a handful of people knew who she really was and if working with pirates, she'd best keep it that way. She stared up at the sky. If they knew she was just some creature that had appeared, that was fine. If they knew she was a ninja at one point, well, they might not react well. Stealth was a ninja's trademark, but to be be invisible so long as the sun was in the sky? Now that would be a threat.

[Celestial]

((Mage Manor))

Celestial stood to the side while the talks continued, trying to figure a way out of all this. By the looks of things, nobody was going to take her bait and everyone seemed suspicious of Draco. She might be trusted little more than him and she had to work on that assumption. The fact that the 'Fleeters were here just made it more difficult for them to convince the Mages to attack.

Then there was this guy who came in and shouted at Draco. He was finished, no doubt. Ikkin and Omni and everyone, especially those new officers who had arrived, were just too convincing.

If you couldn't beat them, you had to lead them all to their doom.

"How about instead of quarreling about it, we take down the evil mastermind and get him to reverse the ooze? We are getting nowhere but if we fight him and use our numbers then that will be a lot more productive. So, who is with me to lead an assault on this guy? We have flying vehicles and flyers aplenty," she shouted out across the people, "I will contribute, of course."

Speaking those words, Celestial morphed into a dragon and crouched down, allowing anybody who wanted to get on to get on.

"How does that sound?"

Yes, lead them to him and to me. We'll take care of this horde.

If he wishes to be an omnicidal maniac then we might as well help.

((This is an ex-dropship))

What an awful reference.

"Th-this is - well, I'd say 'unbelievable', but hell, how many weird things have happened to me today? Tons. Maybe I should be getting used to it or something. Hell, I dunno.

"And, uh, Author? Ms. Author? What should I call you? A-anyway, if we're going to - if it's just you and me, then, yeah, maybe I should tell you my name too. I'm Nasuella. People call me Nasue." the coati stammered upon jumping at The Author's voice. She was apparently very shocked to discover that there was life in old computer parts too.

"Yes, yes you should. Just Author will do. And I know your name, I've looked through the Fourth Wall," The Author replied, taking in their situation. They were just outside Tabloid Town, on the edge of the ooze's front line. So they better get out before something happened.

"Listen, you better hang on to me. And if you have somewhere you ought to be, better say where now," The Author said, completely ignoring the light show and the evil mastermind's floating base in the sky for the sake of the plot.

[Zylaa]

((Ninja Dojo))
"Tasty," the creature said to the weasel, "Can you go back to pirates? Tell them they have a friend that help stop who did this, waiting for them here. Just... don't tell them my name. Make one up."

"I don't know your name," the General pointed out. "I will make one up and send the pirates here."

He closed his eyes and let his focus drift out... and out... and out til he found Spacefleet and the crew. He vanished with a tiny 'pop' as the air rushed back to fill the space he had left.

((Spacefleet))

Fortunately the impending doom was over quickly. Plus, apparently it had convinced the officials, because Zylaa barely had enough time to register that the ship was threatening to shoot her before Huntress had used the authorization code.

"Welcome aboard, please specify destination"

"O-kay, now how does this... let's see. Activate all systems?" Zylaa heard whirring and clanking outside the ship, plus a computerized hum on the inside. She had no idea what had just happened.

"All systems activated. Please specify destination."

Zylaa opened her mouth to say "Tabloid Town," then realized that she had no idea. "We're headed to take out the Big Bad Spaceman, right?"

A faint noised announced the arrival of another weasel. She looked down to see the general, looking very sooty but very much alive.

"What's happening planetside?" she asked.

"All places black and not-shiny but ninja dojo. Ninja dojo has friend! Friend is big purply fanged scary-looking creature who used magic spear to stop ooze. And fire! Fire slows ooze! Explosions slow ooze!" he practically bounced as he said this.

"Your newfound pyromania isn't exactly comforting. Who is this friend?"

"Um.... um.... name is Fluffy." Zylaa stared at the weasel for a long, long moment.

"Fluffy?" The weasel squirmed under her gaze. "You know, you're a horrible liar."

"Creature said, make something up. I don't know creature's name," the General wailed.

"It'll have to do," Zylaa said. "So this creature could talk?"

"Yes! Like Shiva, very hungry, but talked and used hands. Fluffy will be good friend. Very dangerous to bad people." Zylaa grinned.

"Considering some of our other friends, I'm pretty sure this 'Fluffy' will fit right in," she said, turning to Huntress. "Well, Captain? Shall we go put down the commander or get Fluffy to help us out?"

((Mage Manor))

Kassandra had let fear carry the mages, and was pleased at the result. Sure, the kitsune wasn't about to hate the pirates... but the Spacefleet, on the other hand...

"Draco, just because one person from Spacefleet is trying to ruin our home or is planning to rule the world with an iron fist doesn't mean that all of Spacefleet is working against us. Besides, we need to work together to destroy this evil."

Pacifists, Kassandra thought with a sigh.

"Ok, maybe I spoke out of line. Maybe these guys are not evil. Maybe those Fleet officers back in Tabloid town were joking about attacking Mage Manor. Maybe the Marshal Law was a lie."

Kassandra turned at a faint glimpse from the corner of her eye, and gasped at the sight of plasma raining down towards Tabloid Town, horror radiating from her delicate face as she thought of the innocent souls below.

The Underdeep mage turned into a dragon and offered to lead everyone to attack Strife, but Kassandra remembered those plasma blasts. She stepped forward again.

"Go after what? Because that blast didn't come from some enemy in the city. That beam just came from Spacefleet. I don't need to tell you how many people just died from that. How many more people." She took a deep breath and looked at the Spacefleet officials, and though she appeared as but a delicate flower, she found inner strength harder than diamond.

"You all may be from here, but your commanders aren't," she said. "There are good people just following orders in any army, no matter how evil. But do you really want to follow leaders that have gone behind your backs to destroy so many lives? Because if so, I'm very sorry, but I won't let that happen. I won't let anyone stop me from saving my home."

[Huntress]

((Fleet HQ))

"Well, Captain? Shall we go put down the commander or get Fluffy to help us out?"

"Mrm," did Hunty, rattling her nails on the ship's complicated control panel. Thank gods for voice commands. "Well, if we attack in this ship, it doesn't much matter how many of us are in here, but then again, I'm not stupid enough to assume that we get to just fly in there, zap-zap, save the day and fly right back out. The more backup we get, the better."

"I was hoping that this was exactly how we should pull this off," Bloody Mary grumbled.

"Me too, but I'm not putting everything on one card. All right then." Hunty paused to think. She wasn't sure just how long it might take; back when they first came to the moon in Keng's ship, the flight had lasted about an hour and given Bloody Mary a bad case of spacesickness. The evacuation shuttles, however, could fly at lightspeed. This ship looked a bit too small for highly advanced equipment, but then again, it was a warship.

"Okay, destination: the dojo of the ninjas, in the mountains of Dunburrow or thereabouts," she said. "Uh... do you have lightspeed support?"

"Yes. Initiate?"

Until now, Hunty had vaguely suspected that this ship's AI was one of the low-grade versions. The newest AI programs were human enough to chat with their owners, have personalities and sometimes drop irritating Wisdom-Of-The-Day type quotes. Now it began to dawn on her that maybe this ship was just as hi-tech, but programmed with sheer efficiency in mind. This was an AI of few words.

"Yes," she said.

"Commencing takeoff. Estimated time of flight: three minutes." The robotic voice fell silent and somewhere in the depths of the ship, engines hummed to life.

"Ohgodsohgodsohdeargods," Bloody Mary mumbled, sinking lower on Hunty's shoulder as the hangar door slid open, revealing the black star-dotted void and the currently equally black, marble-like planet obscuring half of that void. The ship lifted off silently and moved out of the hangar. Then everything went blurry.

When the vision cleared again, the black void had been replaced by an equally black and shiny world of mountains and petrified forests. The sky, however, was still blue and cheerfully springlike. Hunty gave it a sulky glare. Sure, it was better than blood red or filled with grey looming clouds, but apocalypses should have standards.

The dojo was in sight, sitting in the middle of a circle of green grass. The ship descended.

"One lifeform detected," it buzzed.

"Land there," Hunty said.

The ship touched down just within the circle of grass. The captain stepped next to the door and promptly lifted Bloody Mary out of it as soon as it opened. The meepit gave a thankful 'hleaurgh'. Hunty patted him on the back, then looked up at Kiddo.

"You must be Fluffy," she said.

***

((Zagora's shop. Mostly because tacking this part to the end of my last post would've made it oh-so-long. My NPCs will be the death of me.))

While Fraze was dealing with commanderly things, Zagora disappeared to the depths of the shop. Moments later, the explosions hit. Most of them were farther away, but one plasma bolt scaled the shop's roof and hit the pavement just in front of it, sending chunks of petrified black ooze flying.

The witch reappared, carrying a small iron kettle that sloshed quietly, and ambled out the door. She squatted down and put the kettle on the molten patch of ground.

"Don't vorry about ze payment," she said over her shoulder as if nothing noteworthy had happened since their business talks. "You can deel wiz it after ze vorld is back to normal. I von't need any new supplies if all my potential customers are stone, right?"

The kettle began to whistle. Zagora got up again and strode back into the shop with it.

"Ov course, I only have maybe one hundred and zhirty or forty of zhose amulets in stock," she said thoughtfully, picking a grubby goblet from a nearby shelf. "I can sell you zhose right now, for a total of six zhousand five hundred zhinees on our new terms, oh dear, and ze bulk discount still applies, eh? So zat's five zhousand five hundred. Guess zis'll be my price to pay for helping to save ze world." She poured the contents of the kettle into the goblet and handed it to Fraze. It looked vaguely like herbal tea, with nondescript leaves floating on the surface, and smelled rather like swamp.

"Drink it, vill do you good," she said in a no-arguing tone. "Clears ze head. Vell, and if you vant more amulets, you'll need to get me zat tree."

[Moonlight]

((Okay, I'm gonna try something and hope it goes as planned. Well, there's not really any plan, but I better not mess it up or something...Meh))

~Tabloid Town: Floating City Hall

Liyer wandered the corridors of the City Hall, biding his time and occasionally bracing himself with each progressing explosion or thunderous racket from below. A pale white light clung to him like a second skin; a temporary shield against the poison air courtesy of Rivanth. It was brighter than he was comfortable with, but at least he wasn't stone...

The mage's words stayed in his mind still,

"For now, all you need to do is figure out more about this place-this person(what a shame I didn't hear his name)-the motives behind it. The latter should be clear, but do it anyway. Return once you're done. Don't do anything rash, and try not to die once or twice, please. "

He scowled. Going to Mage Manor would save all this trouble, but a certain someone chose to stay and do it himself. Well, not really by himself. The coward. He was probably somewhere on the outskirts of the city right now watching the show.

Liyer hefted a sword in his hands, which he had borrowed from a petrified person back in town. He wouldn't need it anyway. The blade was a pure black material like the rest of its original owner, with the appearance of obsidian. Upon swinging it against a wall and finding it didn't shatter, he claimed it.

The hallway twisted a bit, passing by a cracked window. Wary of the outside air, Liyer leaned out to get a look. To his surprise, there was no building below him. Only clouds and roofs spanned the cityscape below. The City Hall was floating...

"That probably shouldn't be too surprising now," he muttered and tapped the sword on the cold floor. "But I guess that eliminates any escape route. Any safe one at least."

He was pretty well trapped. Of course, it was only a matter of time before Strife or his underlings pinpointed his location(especially with the bright magic shield), so might as well be alert.

Then he leaned against the wall and waited.

[Draco]

<<Mage Manor>>

Draco turns his head away from the direction of Tabloid Town, and to the Fleet officers.

"I wonder where those came from?" said sarcastically, "Now I'm not sure what was just hit, but I am pretty sure Tabloid Town was damaged. And with petrified, quite literally I might add, people there... They are gone now."

He thinks to himself for a moment before saying his thoughts out loud.

"Come to think about it. I don't want to be around those shattered bodies when the petrification is fixed. Do you?"

Gil has been standing there for a few minutes now, not saying a word. His group had moved over and joined the others during the light show, not totally sure what to do. While walking he did notice one thing about Draco.

"Uh, Draco. What was it you were mouthing a second ago?"

Draco's eye twitches under his glasses, but he doesn't respond.971

[Kiddo]

"Fluffy," Kiddo repeated without emotion, "Yes yes. You take us where evil man who made ooze is now?"

Her glowing eyes glinted and she slunk closer to the ship on all fours.

"Don't trust you. Don't know you so well. But you come and Fluffy needs to fly and has no wings. So... we go."

And Kiddo slipped past the pirate and onto the ship, growling low in her throat.