Guild Wars III Roleplay (Rated T)

[Draco]

<<Strife's Manor of Doom!>>

Draco walks quietly through the halls of the building, making sure to use his ninja skills to not make a sound. He wasn't really sure what he was being so quiet about, no one should be in the building. Lord Strife was outside having fun, from what he could tell.

"This really was a stupid idea..."

He begins to walk down the hall normally.


<<Outside Strife's Manor of Doom!>>

Gil hops out of the ship along with the NNPC.

"So here we are. Perhaps we should go inside and look for Draco."

The NNPC nods his head in agreement.

"I do not trust master Draco. He has been acting... Oddly."

Gil turns his to the NNPC, "True. He was being accused of working with the enemy earlier. But I feel.... Well I don't know him enough to really say if he's acting odd or not, but he is a little different."


<<Inside Strife's Manor of Doom!>>

Draco enters a room and looks around. When he was sure it was clear he sits down.

"Now what should I do? All the fun is outside, and I'm in here."

"You can use the powers I've given you to cause some chaos."

"Create chaos? I don't think I need to, plenty of it all ready. Besides, I don't even know what to do."

"Don't think. Let it flow out."

"If you say so strange voice in my head"

Draco closes his eyes and breaths slow and deep. He holds out his hands, both glowing with a shadow like mist. The shadows in the room begin to swirl around, filling the room until there is not a single trace of light, not even from the open window. A very low clicking noise could be heard, followed by a low groaning. Around the rooms blood red eyes could be seen, but no sign of actual bodies could be seen. Almost as fast as it has begun, the room returns to normal. The possessed ninja falls to the floor and sits.

All over the building the same eyes begin to appear from the shadows. Out of a shadow, near a certain rouge ninja, a spider like leg scratches the floor. Soon the rest of the creature emerges from the shadows, four legs of a spider, a small skinny body, a small head with large red eyes, and curved spines run from the top of it's head and down it's back. It turns it's head and opens it's mouth, which curves around about half of it's head, filled with razor sharp teeth. It stands about two feet tall.

These creatures slowly start to crawl out of shadows all over, crawling along the ground, walls, and ceilings.

[Strife]

((Sky Battle))

Strife stopped his manipulation of the hatch door as soon as Hunty jumped in and blocked it with a series of vanishing shields, which were created with a few graceful swings of her sword. The massive door was knocked out of the ship.

Meanwhile, Rider took several swings at Strife's ankles, but her sword merely bounced off the thick metal of his boots. He could feel the enormous amount of fear in the pirate girl's mind - fear over what he could possibly do to her. The Underdeep inside of him used this fear as a catalyst in order to increase his power even further.

Slowly, an invisible energy began to surround Strife's body, and he levitated several inches off the floor of the ship. The surroundings grew slightly darker as the Underdeep channeled itself into his body more intensely.

The pirate captain spoke up.

"Strife? My offer still stands. Leave now and so will we."

Strife appeared to comply, and used his jet boots to rocket out of the large opening in the ship caused by the missing hatch door. When he was a fair distance above the ship, he then turned his body around, stretched out both of his arms, and allowed the power of the Underdeep to flow straight to his fingertips.

A powerful force rocked the spacecraft, and it was violently knocked away from its current flight path. It started to fall from the sky like an anvil, unable to keep itself airborne under the crushing strength of Strife's enhanced psionic force.

Once the ship had traveled close enough to the ground, Strife turned again and rocketed straight upwards, making his way back to the floating city hall. He was fairly certain that the ship would crash into the ground, at which point the petrifying ooze would consume it. Even if the group inside managed to survive, they would be hard pressed to make it back to the city hall before he managed to kill all of the intruders up there. Besides, Dark Sev needed him. He could sense it.

((The Skies))

As he approached the city hall, Strife sensed someone in the distance that was flying downwards towards the ship. For a moment, he was unsure who this individual was, but after the figure moved out of a thick cloud formation, he could clearly recognize her. She was the kitsune-like woman he had fought in Castle Kestrel during the previous war. No doubt, she was here to save the pirates inside the spacecraft.

Strife stopped mid-flight, keeping a far enough distance between the kitsune and himself so that she wouldn't be able to see him with her eyes. Then, the Underdeep inside of him focused itself on her, searching her mind for the one thing that she feared the most. The problem here, of course, was that her fears were not as easily distinguised as others. Nevertheless, Underdeep Strife found something that would hopefully prove to be a good enough distraction.

When Ikkin was close enough, a portion of the Underdeep jumped out of Strife's body. A thick, dark mist appeared in front of him that was barely distinguishable from the surrounding clouds. The mist made its way towards the kitsune woman, expanding far and fast enough so that she wouldn't be able to dodge it.

If the process worked, the mist would block the kitsune's ability to detect auras, tricking her into thinking that the group aboard the spacecraft is no longer alive, or at the very least, dying.

"It has been a long time," began Strife. The mist near Ikkin enabled him to talk to her while still keeping enough distance to remain hidden in the clouds. "During our past conflict, you made me realize something about myself... That I should never have denied who I really was. No longer will I conceal my true power from the world..."

Slowly, he adjusted his position, trying to hover directly behind Ikkin while still staying far enough to conceal himself. He prepared for either a surprise strike or a mad dash back to the city hall - it all depended on her reaction. He continued speaking.

"This world is being cleansed. The more your people try to interfere with it, the greater the consequences will be. Look at the countless lives that have already been lost at the hands of Spacefleet. And your friends... well, they tried to cross me, and they paid the price. Every last one of them. You can fly down to the surface and see for yourself." His last sentence ended with a short, deep laugh.

He paused, awaiting a response.

((City Hall Battle))

Sev moved back just in time to avoid Dark Sev's spiraling nosedive. At the same time, he spouted a jet of flames in the direction of his evil counterpart.

Dark Sev countered with his own jet of fire, which blocked Sev's flames right before they made contact with his beak. Dark Sev pushed more of his Underdeep energy into the blast, giving his fire a sickly mix of black and red. Slowly and gradually, his jet of flames began to push back Sev's until both streams were an even length. In the process, embers and sparks soared across the room in every direction.

Meanwhile, an army of small, spider-like creatures had apparently emerged from the darkness and were now swarming towards the other intruders.

[Ikkin]

Ikkin was just about to fly through the hatch door to the pirates' rescue as the door suddenly flew back out of the spaceship at a very rapid speed, surprising her so much that she fell several feet - and, fortunately, out of the way of the projectile - before she took full control of her winds again.

Before she could do anything else, a massive power started growing inside of the spaceship, and then the Commander himself appeared out of it, propelling himself high above the ship. He didn't seem to notice her at first, and she decided to stay above him, intending to keep it that way so she could have the advantage of surprise.

That would have worked out much better if she wasn't so surprised herself at the force with which he knocked the spaceship downwards.

She came back to her senses much quicker this time, fortunately, and quickly started creating a wind beneath the spaceship to counter the Commander's Underdeep-powered psionic force. It wouldn't be enough on its own, of course, but she hoped it could help even the ship out enough so that it could right itself on its own before it crashed.

This had the rather nasty side effect of draining a rather massive amount of her power from her, at a point at which she could very much use every bit of it that she could find. Plus, the winds that she had created also served to take her much higher up in the air than she'd intended to be - she couldn't see what was happening very well, and had to fly downwards again in case she had to do something else to help out her friends on the spaceship.

Before she went far, however, she found herself surrounded by a faintly dark mist, and the awful sensation that her friends' magical signatures had suddenly vanished. She couldn't feel anything, and for a few seconds, she wondered if they had crashed... but she hadn't heard anything, and Sev's signature was gone, too, along with his opponent's.

She didn't have a chance to analyze it too much before the source of whatever-it-was started talking. "It has been a long time," he said, hiding in the shadows. "During our past conflict, you made me realize something about myself... That I should never have denied who I really was. No longer will I conceal my true power from the world..."

Well, it was good to see he learned the lesson she really wanted to teach him, Ikkin thought sarcastically. She tried to extend her senses to pinpoint his location so she could attack him while he was wasting time talking, but found that she couldn't do that, either. Figures. She could, however, turn to face him by listening to the direction of his voice, which he hadn't thought to conceal.

[/i]"This world is being cleansed,"[/i][/color] he continued. "The more your people try to interfere with it, the greater the consequences will be. Look at the countless lives that have already been lost at the hands of Spacefleet. And your friends... well, they tried to cross me, and they paid the price. Every last one of them. You can fly down to the surface and see for yourself."

Ikkin suppressed a shiver when he laughed at the end of that, but her fear quickly turned into fierce anger.

"Oh, I bet you'd love that, wouldn't you. You know, it's not a bad little trick. Erase my power to sense magic, so I think they're all dead. But I've got news for you," she said, her voice low and dangerous and her hands on the hilt and scabbard of her sword. She drew the sword out in a single swift motion before finishing her heroic monologue, enormous hungry flames trailing behind the swing and extending her reach about twenty feet as she finished, "the bonds of our hearts aren't so weak that you can break them that easily! They're alive, and they'll stay alive long after I've sent you to your well-deserved grave!"

***

As Sev's dark doppelganger blocked his flames with its own, creating a tug-of-war effect in the middle of the room, Sev was reminded of some old manga Ikkin used to like to read.

He'd never thought those beam battles were a particularly good idea, come to think of it.

Well, he knew how to handle this situation. He allowed his own jet of flames to weaken little by little, playing up his weakness as much as he possibly could without coming off as totally obvious. Just as the jet of dark fire was about to reach him, he went up in the signature flash of flames let off by a dying phoenix...

...or a teleporting one, he thought with a smirk, as he reappeared in a dive right above and behind his opponent, proceeded by a fully-powered blast of fire and aiming to drive his claws into the other phoenix's wings.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Strife's Floating Tower
Lupehunter got out of the Phantom Merc and transformed into his wolf form. He did not want to use it as using his shadow ability left him weakened, but he felt that he had no choice because he wanted to observe Draco.

It took him a while, but he finally reached the pinnacle. With his ability, he silently moved around until he found Draco. When he saw Draco create those spider like creates, he knew he was possessed. Lupehunter decided to stay within the shadows for the time being until the time was right to attack.

[Kiddo]

The click click click of legs carried down the corrider to where Kiddo was holed up. She had heard some activity through the tower – sound carried well through the stone – but hadn’t emerged to investigate. Not until she got her bearings better. That city did look far too familiar, but it was all stone. Was this just a trick of the Gray Lands? Or had she landed herself into something far beyond her comprehension? And for that matter, how did she manage to wake up in what appeared to be a bloody smear?

Too many questions. And the sound of too many legs was now in sight. Kiddo swallowed hard and raised her crossbow. Her hands were shaking but it wouldn’t impair her aim. It never did. She just had to breath and wait for the tip of the arrow to pass over her target.

But spiders? Big ones? And what’s worse, they seemed to change each time she blinked… growing skinner legs, or larger mandibles, or colors, or any other variety of nightmarish creature she had ever feared. This had to be a hallucination. That’s it. She was still out in the Gray Lands and lack of water and food had induced a very… realistic… hallucination.

Right.

She fired. The bolt struck the lead spider right in the face and before it even finished its death throes she had the crossbow hooked on her belt and the string pulled back. One more arrow and then it was time to draw the sword. And another spider fell with an arrow again – in the face. It worked. She stuck with what worked. Then she dropped the crossbow, drew steel, and charged the remaining spider.

It was a battle of very epic proportions. In complete silence. Because that’s what ninjas do. But Kiddo stood there, panting, and pulled her scarf up over her mouth to hide how winded she was. The click click click had not stopped. There were more out there. As loathe as she was to reveal herself when she wasn’t sure who was friend and who was foe, she didn’t want to fight off a horde of spiders by herself, either. She sheathed her katana, grabbed the crossbow and ran, loading it as she did. There were other people in this tower. She’d find them.

[Draco]

<<In The Tower of Strife Manor Hall Thing>>

The creatures hiding in the shadows around Kiddo let out a very light mist of Underdeep, hardly noticeable, from their curved spines. The mist wasn't strong, but it was strong enough to affect those near it to picture the creatures something else to be feared. Even if they were all ready something to be feared without the Underdeep hallucination added.

The creatures didn't know how the prey saw them, nor did they care. In fact, they hardly thought at all. The only thought that ran through their brains was to create fear and kill.

---

Elsewhere in the building, Underdeep!Draco sat on the floor. The power used to create the monstrosities was a lot, but the Underdeep was now feeding him back power to regain his strength. He slowly stood back up and rubbed his head.

He thinks to himself trying to remember what had happened. It takes a few moments for it to come back to him. He shakes a little and a large smile spreads across his face.

"Kukukukuku! This power is great!"

[Kiddo]

<TOWER OF DOOOOM.... I mean, Strife>

Kiddo paused for a moment, trying to get her bearings. There seemed to be a branch up ahead and she swore she could still hear the tick tick tick of feet pursuing her. How many of the beasties were there? Then she noticed it. There was frost rimmed around her feet. She sidestepped, stared down and watched the frost start to spread once more.

The ninja then used some very choice words that should be not be repeated here lest they hurt sensitive ears.

But Kiddo broke into a full run, dropping only a handful of caltrops and choosing the turn from which she had heard a shout. Something about power? She didn't care. She had to get the hell away from whatever was creating the frost. Those beasts were bad enough and if they were connected to every little subconscious fear she had... then the frost was a very, very bad sign. She had too many nightmares from it.

So she ran, heading straight for Draco.

[Draco]

<<Outside Strife's Place>>

Gil watches as LH turns into a wolf and runs into the building. He turns his head to the NNPC, and both nod their heads. They run into the building together. They run around, unsure where they are going, and end up upstairs in a hall.

"Something seems off."

The ninja nods his head.

"Do you hear, clicking?"

The ninja nods his head.

"Is it getting closer?"

The ninja nods his head.

"We're surrounded, aren't we?"

The ninja nods his head, taking out two kunai to fight with. He turns his head to Gil. "Do you need a weapon?"

Gil's eyes move around the hall, not moving a muscle. "No, I'm good." He unbuttons his coat, to reveal two belts in a X shape, filled with small throwing knives. Then he holds both of his arms out as if ready to fist fight, and two katars stick out from his coat sleeve.

The two stand back to back, as strange two foot tall creatures begin to surround them.

[Gelquie]

Gelquie listened in on the conversation concerning Draco, but she didn't pitch in; she barely knew the person, and the best way she could describe him was now by name, which was leagues better than "that ninja who likes heights".

She only watched as the ship ducked lower and lower until it was below her view. There was now only one ship left in the sky, though Gelquie quickly decided that staring at it wouldn't help her discern what was going on any more than before. She looked over towards the two people who had started an air battle, but they were quickly obscured by what seemed to be a darkness. There seemed to be something odd about it, in terms of its magical signature, but her thoughts were interrupted by a strange clicking noise behind her.

Gelquie whipped her head around and found herself staring at a horde of horrifying creatures. They appeared to be third-rat, third-spider, third-demonish, and fully terrifying. The hybrids were ugly enough, but she was very worried about the spikes and horns. As she thought about it, the spikes seemed to only get bigger, disregarding the fact that they were heading ever more closer to her.

Her eyes widened in horror, but then it quickly turned into a face of absolute concentration, accessing a part of her mind past the headache. She then put her hand into one of the pouches on her belt and quickly threw it up into the air. Then...

SCREEEEEECH!

A large falcon appeared directly above Gelquie, seemingly glaring as it prepared its long sharp claws. Then it started swooping just above the spider-things, staying just out of reach while only threatening to grab one at the same time. It was trying to lead the spiders away.

Gelquie, meanwhile, focused on maintaining her illusion while she quickly backed away towards the Phantom Merc.

"GET THIS THING BACK IN THE AIR!" Gelquie shouted until she turned her head and realized that the pilot and many others had already left. She blinked. She would have more expected that they took off without her; on an isolated land however-many miles up, staying grounded here was suicide. She briefly pondered piloting the ship herself before reminding herself that she had never flown anything, and she wasn't sure that her piloting skills wouldn't lead her to crash into a building.

Nevertheless, she jumped back into the Merc and stared out the invaders, who still seemed to be creeping closer and closer. Her face creased further as she held out her hand, adding the image of a wall of fire between her and the creatures. Maybe it'd buy her time to think of something.

[Speck]

The Goose Juggler flew out of the way of the ship as a precaution; Speck watched in horror as Haggoth's ship sank in the air. Her view was soon obstructed as soon as the Goose's hatch folded shut. She regained her balance on board, and forcefully slid open the door to the cockpit.

"Can't you do anything?" Her voice shook.

Nadine turned in her seat, "What do you want me to do, papo? Pull them in with a tractor beam?"

"Yes!"

The copilot interjected, "We can't. Even if the Goose had a tractor beam, that ship would just drag us down. Do you have any idea how much bigger that warship is compared to us?"

"We need to go back to--" Nadine began steering the ship away.

"No. We don't," Speck spoke up. Nadine turned around once more, "We need to go down and help them."

Speck and Nadine held eye contact for a second; it was enough. Nadine nodded to the copilot, and the ship started to descend.

The copilot thought to himself, grumbling, Since when do we take orders from low-ranking criminals?

[Strife]

((The Skies))

Ikkin drew her weapon during the middle of her response, while flames erupted around her in order to extend the blade's reach.

"...the bonds of our hearts aren't so weak that you can break them that easily! They're alive, and they'll stay alive long after I've sent you to your well-deserved grave!"

Strife could practically feel the fury hidden beneath her voice, like a volcano that was teetering on the brink of eruption. He himself was eager to charge into battle with her, but the Underdeep inside of him had other plans.

Fuel her anger, the Underdeep said to him silently. It will consume her... and when it does, I will do the same. She will become our strongest messenger yet.

Strongest? As if he wasn't strong enough already?

He didn't dwell on the thought for long, though, as he didn't want to delay himself more than necessary. He complied with the Underdeep's wishes.

The mist surrounding Ikkin grew thicker, which would hopefully impair her senses even further and possibly start to affect her actual vision. Meanwhile, Strife continued to speak, this time using the mist to transfer his voice so that she wouldn't be able to pinpoint his direction.

"I've already been to my grave, darling," he continued, the mist causing a faint echo in his already disturbing voice, "and look at what it did to me. You have no idea what I am capable of now... but allow me to put in perspective for you.

In less than a day, I have single-handedly conquered Tabloid Town and transformed the entire continent into my own personal playground. My power is so great that within minutes, I completely annihilated that group of worthless thugs you call pirates without breaking a sweat. Even the Commander of Spacefleet himself, who was also inside the ship, was not quick enough to stop me. And you still think that you can stand against me? Alone?"

Strife let out another laugh. "You should have seen the look on that pirate captain's face... and the way she screamed and dropped to her knees when I snapped the soft little neck of that red-caped mook. I personally brought her worst nightmare to life, right in front of her eyes, before I finally gutted her from the inside out like the animal she truly was..."

((I'll assume that at this point, Ikkin won't be able to hold back the urge to say/do something, so I'll stop here for now.))

((Floating Hall of Strife))

Dark Sev was surprised at how incredibly quickly his flames were overpowering the flames of his duplicate. Because of this, he concluded that his "brother" had a trick up his wing.

Dark Sev continued to play along, keeping his tunnel of flame at full blast and waiting for the real Sev to act. Eventually, just as his flames were about to make contact, Sev went up in a bright burst of fire. Immediately after, Dark Sev teleported himself forward and upwards a bit.

Sev's fully powered blast of fire only managed to hit the swirling vortex of energy Dark Sev left behind when he teleported. Once that happened, Dark Sev performed the exact same maneuver that his brother was trying to pull - a strong blast of flames followed by a cluster of talons aimed at the wings. Because Sev was still spewing flames at this point, Dark Sev's flames were blocked, but he moreorless used them as a shield while he lunged talon-first at Sev, screeching at the top of his vicious lungs. From there, he'd go completely berserk with melee attacks.

In the distance, the screech of a falcon could be heard.

[Huntress]

((In a massive time freeze ...yeah, okay, somewhere in the streets of Tabloid Town))

So he finally left. Good.

...so he gave a somewhat-predictable parting gift in the form of a psionic force smash that sent the ship rocketing towards the ground. Not so good.

And now Ikkin created an airbag beneath the ship, making it rattle between the two forces. Hunty, clinging to the pilot seat now and hoping that she won't accidentally cut herself with her own sword in the middle of all this, didn't even have the time to work out whether it made things better or worse when the ship hit the ground. Or rather, it bounced into the ground like a skipping stone and skidded along the street.

The roar of the ship's engines rose into a high-pitched whine and the captain sunk behind the chair. Something black flew past her face. She turned to squint at it and her eyes widened.

The black ooze. The ship was plowing through it now, slowing down rapidly because the thick ooze worked as a surprisingly good cushion, but its windshield was broken and this was the ooze that turned everything it touched into stone...

And now they came to a quiet halt. The engines came down through an entire opera singer's vocal range before shutting off with a low 'bwwrp'.

"Right," Hunty said slowly, mostly to drown out the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. "That went well."

She dragged herself upright and turned to glare at the patch of black goo on the ground. The floor around it was already turning into stone. She brandished her sword as determination flared up in her eyes.

"Right, then. Let's see what you're made of."

The puddle of ooze twitched, then crawled rather quickly towards the control panel, across it and straight out of the broken windscreen. Hunty followed it slowly with her eyes as it went. Silence reigned.

"Hah!" she finally said, just because she felt like something should be said.

"Blarp!"

The captain spun around to see a huge black furry wall where the door had once been. It turned a little to bring a beady black eye into view. Somewhere out there, really rather far away, a series of heavy thump thump thumps sounded through the air like some kind of a mining machine from the demon realms. When the blarf really decided to wag his tail, windows shattered nearby.

Hunty was hardly a sentimental person but she'd just gotten out of a number of sticky situations so she felt that an emotional outburst was in order. She trotted over and gave the blarf's huge furry nose a hug.

"You big fusspot, you," she said more gently than most people who knew her ever thought possible. "How did you pull that off?"

"He didn't," said a voice somewhere outside the ship's walls. "I did."

The blarf backed out a bit, letting the bright daylight in again. Hunty raised her eyebrow at the short stocky gypsy woman who was sitting on the blarf's neck, looking rather prim, with her numerous skirts hiked up to her knees to show the whole world - or at least whatever part of it that was still looking and interested - that she wore bright red knee-high boots. There was an anti-Underdeep amulet hanging on her chest.

"Zhought I'd take ze blarf out for a valk," she said coolly, with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Hunty looked down to notice that their entire ship and the blarf was surrounded with a huge circle of completely clean pavement. The ooze was bubbling a good fifty meters away. "He has one of zees as vell," Zagora nodded at Fraze, "so inside ze ship vould've been safe anyvay, but I don't zheenk you'd vant the outside to turn to stone."

Hunty seemed thoughtful for a moment, then patted the ship's side where she stood. "Hey, can you still fly?"

There was a pause. "Running analyses now," said the ship's voice, still calm as ever. "It may be possible."

"With a broken windscreen and all this battering," said Bloody Mary, heaving himself on Hunty's shoulder. The captain hadn't noticed when he'd dropped off again in the hurricane of recent events, but here he was now, looking rather shaken and angry at the whole world.

"I am a warship," the ship buzzed matter-of-factly. "Detecting friendly spacecraft nearby."

Hunty craned her neck to see the Goose Juggler descend. She gave them a lazy wave and then sat down on the doorstep of the ship.

"All right then," she said, as if she'd just lost a game of cards and not a battle. "I think I have a new plan forming, but I honestly won't like it."

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]Tabloid Town[/glow]

Bump. Bump. Skiiiiiiiiiiiiid - smash. Rider added a dozen new bruises to her steadily rising count. She took a moment to go through some more of the voodoo balm - but it would only help so much. It eased the pain, but it wasn't going to heal the broken bones.

There was something bizarre about the way her captain so calmly stood in the middle of the wreckage and declared that she had a new plan. She looked strangely in control of the situation, and that in itself was terrifying. Still, nothing to fear but fear itself.

"What's the new plan?"

[Kiddo]

<Inside the Tower>

Kiddo ran into a few more packs of the nightmare-beasts, as she had dubbed them in her mind. So far they weren't so tough, but there were so many of them! Just breaking through their mass assault had cost her some deep cuts on the leg but she dared not stop to bind them, not even for a moment. For now, her speed as a ninja was keeping her ahead of the game and she thought about the ice that had been forming earlier. Things were going to get worse.

There were some stairs ahead leading to a large room. This was where the cry had come from. She skidded to a stop and fell into a crouch, slipping along the wall up the stairs, staying low and bringing her breathing to a very soft whisper so as not to be heard.

Was that...? Kiddo stared at the person inside the room. She should know his name! His face was familiar but... oh gosh, what WAS his name? She never was very good at remembering them, but at least she knew that she knew him and hopefully he might know her. She gave up her stealth and walked cautiously into the room, jabbing a thumb at her back.

"So, uh," she said to Draco, "Ninja. There's a horde of gribblies running amuck in this floating... tower... thing. Report as to what you know about them."

Quietly, she thanked her luck that she had run into someone that she could count on their loyalty.

[Draco]

<<Manor of Strife>>

Adjusting his glasses he turns to face the ninja who walked into the room. He stares at her for a few moments with a strange smile on his face.

"Kiddo. I haven't seen you around for some time." He bows slightly before standing straight again. "I seem to be explaining a lot these days. These creatures, they come from the shadows. Most likely associated with the Underdeep in some way. Commander Strife from Spacefleet has taken over the continent, and turned most of it into stone in the process."

---

The nameless ninja slashes at several nightmare creatures, trying to clear a path. Meanwhile Gil seems to spin around in a fluid motion taking out numerous creatures in his attack. When enough enemies have been cleared away, they run.

"We need to find Draco!"

The ninja nods his head in agreement as the two run up some stairs.

---

"We are currently in Strife's base of operation. I do not believe he is in at the moment however."

Draco begins to pace around the room, keeping a eye on Kiddo.

"What are you planning? Wouldn't you like to know."

"It would seem we have some more guests."

Gil and the NNPC run into the room, shutting the door behind them, keeping the nightmare creatures out.