I'm... not injured? But how? To be frank, it didn't make even the slightest bit of sense to Felt, who was now slowly trying to get up -- at which point a large rubbery pink thing which he remembered as one of Whitney's Pokemon appeared in front of him to try and lick him in the face. As much as he figured the creature only wanted to help him, the alchemist really didn't think that its saliva was going to do any good to him. As such, Felt moved slightly backwards in an attempt to dodge the creature's ridiculously oversized tongue, again not feeling any pain in what was supposed to be a horrible wound judging by the pain he felt at that moment. Which raised the question: exactly what was the cause of that, if not being actually stabbed? If he had more time, Felt might think about it a bit more, but right now everthing was so chaotic that he didn't have that luxury.
With that, the young alchemist forced himself upright again, using the Azoth as a makeshift cane -- something which said sword was not pleased with at all --, then turned towards the most recent source of chaos. An actual dragon had arrived to the scene, which was immediately blasted by a beam of cold shot out by the cowlike Pokémon. Or at least it would have been, if it wasn't blocked by Saber. Seeing as that stopped the group from starting a disorganized brawl against what was obvioulsy a dragon, but quite likely not the legendary one, that was probably a good thing though.

"So, we have a goal and a destination now," Felt muttered, still not sounding quite right. "shall we go then?"
-"Ahem," his blade made his presence known again. "Although splitting up is no longer an issue, I do not think that advancing towards the beast's cry without some kind of strategy is advisable. For one, the other noises make it clear that we are not alone in this world. We need some kind of back guard to prevent something from attacking our flanks or rear. In addition, I agree with the mentioning of using our flying comrades as aerial scouts, and using the rocky path to further make use of their abilities. Finally, those with ranged abilities should stay in the center of our formation, so that they can strike any opponents whilst being protected from hostilities themselves. Any objections?"
"...No?," the Azoth's wielder stammered at what was one of the sword's longest monologues in quite a while.

Being able to got lost easily. Something that Agnès possessed in great portion. She continued to walk and wander around, but she wasn't even knowing where she was. Everything seemed the same. When then, she noticed something on the ground. A bone, to be exact. "This seems very old... I guess that I am on a archeological site, like the ones I saw in the books...?", she questioned herself. She wasn't able to see much, but for her, that single bone would lead her onto something. She held it with her and kept moving forward.

In her progression, she kept following a trail of bones, until she found something. It looked like a dragon skeleton. This dragon... if I am not wrong, he was burned by a strong fire. But I do not see any volcanoes around. Which leaves one guess left..., she thought while observating. Just as she thought onto something, her mind was stopped by a loud roar. "It is just as I thought! There is another dragon, responsible for killing this one.", she said to herself. More roars could be heard. Without even thinking twice, Agnès ran towards the roar, not mattering the direction she was going.

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Saber?" Archer replied, look of surprise barely more than a flicker. So she remembered the war, too? That was strange; her entire situation was unique, for want of a better word. Though with a situation as inexplicable as his appearance, perhaps it was only to be expected that she would remember, too.

The talking sword was giving opinions on strategy, and wanted... to put everyone whose abilities relied on having a clear view in the middle, where the mass of bodies would simply get in the way. Archer's estimation of the sword dropped somewhat, though as a talking sword it was still quite amazing. It wasn't a type of weapon he'd come across, before.

---

Up above, Nanoha gave the pink-haired girl an odd look. Not for the colour of her hair--she knew Signum, whose hair was somehow even more pink--or even for her size or the vast amount of hat she somehow wore. No, it was simply a look of total confusion. No-one was allowed to fly on her level? What was that even supposed to mean? Was flight height so important on the world she'd come from? Probably not a Mid-Childan mage, in that case; it didn't really fit the world's culture.

"Can you tell me where we are?"

Whitney was pretty sure that steel was resistant to ice, not immune, but Saber’s sword seemed to think otherwise. Knight’s words returned her to the reality. That creature was pretty clearly just a regular dragon. It didn’t look very legendary at all, really. But it had come in a very surprising matter, so Whitney stubbornly decided not to apologize her attack.

Felt was getting up and seemed to feel better. Whitney rushed back to him, taking all her Pokémon but Miltank back in their Poké balls. She was really relieved. If someone like him could just get injured at the any moment, what could happen to her? And there is something… special in Felt. I kinda don’t want him to be in pain.

"So, we have a goal and a destination now. Shall we go then?" Felt asked. Whitney nodded. The boy was truly admirable, focusing in the important thing. Well, most of the others were as well, but Whitney didn’t like their conversation about tactics. It was too complicated. Why couldn’t every single fight here just be a single battle? Double and triple passed too, but more was getting way too complicated. How on earth could anyone focus on so many things at the same time? She wanted to just agree with Felt’s sword about the strategy, but she wasn’t actually sure about all of it. Putting Bibarel, Whitney guessed she has what sword meant by range, at the middle and then ordering it to use surf would pretty likely wash everyone away. “But the sword clearly knows more about the subject, so maybe I should just stay silent”, she thought and nodded nicely to the sword.

A thought about running after Vash and the scary motorbike guy crossed her mind. Less people around would mean less things to worry in a battle, plus they had went to the safest looking path. Forests tended to have poisonous things, which were pretty hard to heal, and the rocky part seemed like a perfect place for various strong fighting types, and fighting types terrified Whitney. It looked like your Pokémon had high defence and HP and then “Bam!” at the next moment your main team member had fainted. Caves weren’t nice either, but they weren’t usually the home of too strong creatures, just lots of weak ones. Those two also seemed pretty strong, so she shouldn’t be in danger with them. The motorbike guy was just scary himself. But she wouldn’t hurt a little pretty girl like me, right?

“I’ll go after those two”, she said and hopped on her Miltank’s back. “Is anyone coming with me?” The girl looked pleadingly at Nonon and Felt before ordering her Pokémon to rush after Vash and Ghost rider with a speed no one would have believed overweighted cow to be able to run.

.

Saber

Archer... The last she had seen of Archer was his clearing a path for Rin, and she had briefly seen him as he faded away from the world... His acts... he had attempted to kill Shirou. But in the end that intent had seemed to vanish... and now he was here. For a few moments, Saber simply stood in shocked silence as she gazed at the unexpected figure. What could she say? And he simply stated that it had been a long time... It was several more moments before she managed to speak. "... So... you're here too..."

It... it was unexpected, but... Saber had to keep pushing onward. She could... address this when they did not need to hunt a dragon. "... I... we must not delay any longer. Vash and the fiery newcomer have run off, we must catch up to them and regroup. For now, those with flight should scout the air while they are retrieved."

With that, Saber turned towards the path that the rider's motorcycle had left in the earth, proceeding after them.

---

Jakuzure Nonon

"No."

Nonon folded her arms and glared down at this new girl. Who did she think she was, anyway? Trying to fly higher then her, making these kinds of demands... Nonon was not pleased. Not pleased at all. This girl really should be taught a lesson or two... but it wasn't really the time for that, she supposed. They had to hunt this dragon and shepard around a bunch of idiots.

"I have no idea where we are. It was some city and now it's this place, so I don't think figuring it out's gonna help," she continued, turning dismissively away from the brown-haired girl. She was aware of Saber saying that they needed to scout or something. Yeah, whatever, fine. As long as this idiot didn't go higher then her.

"This has to be Giratina". That was enough to get Nobuo pumped.

"Alright! Let's go and kick his ass!" Nobuo pumped his fist in the air. The roar of more dragons had him hold up his doll Action Figure of Aoi-Tan, ready to use it for the first time. He was about to follow Ghost Rider and Vash when the word "Archer" rang in his ears. He turned and saw...

The most badass person he has ever laid eyes upon. Tanned skin, white spikey hair, even his voice was epic. As soon as Saber ran to where Ghost Rider went, so did Nobuo, though keeping his eyes trained on Archer.

Sazh merely watched in idle at the splay of commotion presented here. At least, for the moment, it was all starting to point towards a specific direction in topic. For the sake of his own mental preference, though, he did not engage further, nor did he listen too carefully; at least, not beyond the point where it was agreed to stick together rather than split up. In more simple terms, it was probably a better idea, just for the sense of safety in numbers. Something that could be subject to change at any point during the future, but for now...

As the Ghost Rider drove off in a wake of flames and skeletal cackling, though, Sazh perked up again. In a very timely moment, too, as some of the people present here thought their allegiance held better with the rider and moved to follow him. With the apparent ideal of sticking together being thrown out the window, the l'Cie debated between joining that cave-ward party to up their numbers, or stick with the main group already comprised here.

Looking to Saber for some opinion on this matter, Sazh found her caught up with the appearance of someone that might've been pointedly meaningful to her, from Sazh's view. She tossed aside that choking emotion, though, and decisively moved to pursue the other leaving individuals along the fiery trail.

Welp. Follow the white rabbit sword-wielding lady soldier, I suppose...

As Saber departed in the direction of the cave, the l'Cie broke into a jog to follow suit, albeit lagging behind somewhat. "Hold on, now, I'm coming with you guys!"

The Caves

As those who entered the caves found themselves literally walking the dark for a few seconds before glowing fungi lit up the place with dull light every now and then. Otherwise, most of the light for vision came from the flames emanating off from the pyrokinetic skeleton man's head as he was treated as an impromptu torch by just about everyone else. For a goodly distance, those who trekked forward would find nothing of note besides slick rock and glowing fungi- until tremors began to happen. They were too constant and short to be something like the aftereffects of a normal earthquake and if anything felt like something extremely heavy was shaking the ground with its prodigous weight.

A small opening leading into a bigger chamber was right around the corner and if one would peak through the cracks in the wall, they would see something HUGE moving about in the other chamber on two feet. And then red light lit up the room to show what looked like a bipedal dragon fused with a small volcano glare about as though it heard something. Big would be an understatement considering it was the size of an average two story house. Polished an obsidian black, the thing snorted and turned about as the magma like glow from the cracks in its armored scales died down and let the darkness drown out the majority of the chamber's vision once again. It then began settling down into a curled up heap with its back facing the group and curled up, thudding down and camouflaging itself as just another rocky protrusion in the shadows. Another hole could be seen on the other side of the chamber, leading outside once again. If people were to try to sneak past the thing, there might be a chance they'd get out without enraging the obviously territorial rock wyvern.

The Meadow

Ranma Saotome was a man among men. Or at least when she wasn't forced to be a petite redheaded girl less than five feet tall. As such, she was well accustomed to roughing it out and surviving against belligerent wild life.Frowning as a whole slew of people headed towards the caves, the martial artist turned her own attention to the forest in contemplation. With her skill set, she was suited more towards the open areas rather than constricting places such as caves. In the open, she could use her quite substantial speed and agility to flit about slower things, and her power to pummel them into submission. Not to mention caves and underground places tended to cave in when she got involved, even without P-chan digging about. Also the fact she was feeling peckish and was intent on snagging a bit of dinosaur meat from whatever killed them, the girl supposed.

"Yo, Imma heading into the forest since I don't like cla... claustro... tight spaces like them caves." The pseudogirl quickly explained as she began hoofing it towards the dark and slightly overgrown forest. Effortlessly leaping up into the branches at the opening and then shooting through quietly like a ninja, the girl made great progress into the biome while doing her best to hide traces of her presence without resorting to certain sealed moves. Given her bird's eye view, she followed discretely behind the boy who was showing surprisingly good hiding skills as he burrowed his way through the greenery. As she moved through the place for a few minutes at her very much above superhuman speed, she found several younger trees broken and snapped in half as though something was thrown through them or crashed into said arbor. Some even had giant spikes embedded deeply in the bark and puncturing all the way through.

Several corpses of the dead animals were strung about as something larger than a bull elephant with a dark greenish pelt snacked upon the biggest body, its stinger tail waving to and fro idly. With its head hunkered down and busy crunching up tendon and bone, the aquasexual girl couldn't find out anything else about the beast save that it was quadrupedal with the forearms having some sort of bat like wings strutting out from them. Still, the thing had pointed ears that peaked out and constantly swiveled about to take in any and all sound. It was obviously alert even when feasting and enough noise might alert the coiled and powerful beast to the Challengers' presence...

GhostRider obviously wasn't going to sneak by the big ugly rock wyvern, so he decided to distract it instead so the less glowly people could get away. "HEY! FUGLY!" He swings a length of chain at the beast, wrapping it around it's neck. He pulls with all his might, trying to get it's attention. If he succeeds he would attach the chain to his motorcycle, then start driving off. All the while whooping and goading the dragon to follow him. If it proves too stubborn, he would just make a big show by tossing fire balls into it's face and causing it all sorts of problems. Including playing with it's face.

With the plan and most strategy decided, it was only a matter of waiting until everyone was ready to take off. ...At which point several people, including Whitney, decided that they had enough of standing around and broke off in several directions. "So much for sticking together," the alchemist muttered to himself before turning in the direction Whitney had run off to. "Wait!" Felt called out after the Gym Leader. "Don't run off like that!" What are you thinking, going fter that... that being just like that?

A while later, the group found what can only be described as a small living mountain, complete with small lava-tipped horns running across its carapace.
"...And that right there is why you shouldn't run off, Whitney," the young swordsman whispered to the girl, trying to do his best to sound both serious yet friendly. "I want to protect you, really, but I can't do that if you go off on your own. You understand that, right?" He really hoped that that was the case; he liked the girl, but if she kept running off like that...
"I hope the test is not to beat this ridiculously oversized thing. How are we even supposed to hurt it?," he muttered, turning back to the giant beast. At least it seemed to be relatively calm, so maybe it would let them past as long as they didn't bother it? A man can hope, right?
Of course, the living skeleton took this opportunity to attack the beast, making sneaking past by the creature utterly impossible. "...Idiot," The young alchemist said, sounding very annoyed before turning to Whitney. "Run! Just run!," he told her, gesturing for the exit. He himself of course didn't follow his own advice, instead trying to protect the Pokémon Trainer from harm. Not that he figured he had any real hope from defeating the beast, but he wasn't going to let it attack them all in the back either -- or at least not the people he wanted to protect, a group the fool skeleton was not part of.

Archer

The man in red followed into the cave, disliking the way everyone had filed obediently into a natural chokepoint, but feeling there was no satisfactory alternative: if the dragons were anything like those from his world's past, they would be far above and beyond what anyone here--except perhaps Saber, and only then by activating Excalibur--would be able to reasonably challenge on their own. So, despite his preference to work alone, there was no way to succeed at their assigned task.

The idiot on the motorcycle--really, they were using that in an off-road environment?--rushed ahead and started picking a fight with the beast. Great, now sneaking past was impossible, even though it was incredibly unlikely that a challenge could be solved just by attacking the first thing they came across. If the rider failed in its attempt, then people less able to flee from the creature were the ones that were going to get attacked. Irresponsible and reckless,

So Archer decided to make things harder for the dragon, and possibly prevent it from noticing everyone that would be trying to get past: he slipped into the cavern and produced a bow from the air itself, magic forming a weapon, and an arrow, where previously there had been nothing. Neither was particularly special, aside from how they were created, but with Archer's aim--even against a moving target--it was going to be quite possible to get a perfect shot.

Unless the reptile was extremely tough or had some sort of other sense, an arrow was going to pierce one of its eyes from across the room. Half-blinding it and enormous pain ought to help with getting through.

---

Nanoha

Listening to the request to scout, Nanoha wondered what the point in asking the aerial group to scout was if you were going to go into a cave right away, that made scouting hard. Instead, she indicated the small redhead to Nonon, and suggested following her, instead--thus making better use of their mobility in the event of a fight than in the confines of a cavern.

Regardless of whether or not Nonon or anyone else in the air agreed, the training instructor shadowed Ranma, the redhead rather easy to track when you already found her. Then... well, that was certainly an ugly creature. Right in the small girl's path, which couldn't lead to good things.

Which was why anyone looking up would notice a charging pink ball.

Surprisingly, not everyone listened to Ba'al, some charging into the cave after the man on the flaming bike, and a few moving into the forest. Well, he wasn't going to waste any more time debating while people were moving out to the hunt, and he wasn't about to be left behind. So he wrote off those who didn't go with them, wondering how many would remain to be found at the end, but definitely not making it his concern any more. Now, he would be concerned with himself first, and then with those who came with him. A Goa'uld had to have priorities after all.

"Well then, I am headed off. Any who wish to follow can come now," he said, gesturing with the hand that held his Zat, before heading on the path that led to the rocky trail. Tougher going, but they would be better able to make use of their air assets, and they would have better line of sight as well. He just had to hope that there was nothing too challenging along the way.

Saber

The cave was... not the best location, strategically. But needless to say, Saber did not have much choice but to pursue those who had ran off into it. They needed to stay together and form a plan. After all, a dragon was a dangerous beast... and so they were lead to a deeper portion of the cave. And there... it was like a dragon, but it did not seem as if it was the beast they sought. While Saber did not back down from a fight, she also did not seek unnecessary conflict. This creature did not seem to care about their presence. It had swiftly fallen back to sleep. If it was undisturbed, they could simply pass it. It would not have been so worrying if Saber felt that everyone present would be able to combat the beast...

... And then the flaming skeleton man attacked it. Yes, because that was the correct choice here, attack the unknown creature while there were many possibly quite vulnerable people in the area, awakening it. They could have simply turned around and not risked those who may not be able to combat the creature, or moved past it to the exit. There were many options that did not involve putting these people in danger.

Saber was left with little choice then to engage and slay the creature as quickly as she could, or at least keep its attention on her until everyone else was out. Putting on a burst of speed, the King of Knights raced forward across the cave floor. Clutching Excalibur's hilt in both hands, she made to cleave through the draconic beast's chest, slice as deep as she could to do as much damage as possible before it could turn its aggression on anyone else.

"Leave! Now!" she called to the others, "The rider felt like it was necessary to attack, and now we have no choice!"

---

Jakuzure Nonon

Going to the cave was stupid. There was no room to move for anyone who specialized in flight. And, well... it's not like there was anything else to do but what the brunette had suggested. And so Nonon drifted after Nanoha. Above her, of course, she wasn't about to fly below the girl. Especially if she was following her, that made it even more important. The forest was rather lush and full of vegetation... and also some huge ugly thing. Well. That was that, then. It didn't seem to be any kind of dragon, either, but it was eating, and facing away from the redhead. Well, time to blow it up!

... Hey, it looked like the magical girl had the right idea. And she even fired pink stuff. Well, she was dumb about other stuff, but choice of color was certainly good.

The cannons on Nonon's shoulders lit up and erupted forwards, a shower of hearts and musical notes tearing through the sky towards their ground-bound target.

Morito had plucked several of the giant spikes from the shattered forest as he moved through it, taking them for potential improvised weapons given their obvious lethality. He had purposefully left his trail a little easy to follow in case he eventually needed rescuing, but at the moment his attention was on the strange hybrid of dragon and jungle cat feeding before him. A wide grin split his face, though it was really more of a pre-emptive baring of fangs at the prospect of combat, and he hefted a severed tail-spike in each hand, adjusting and checking the balance in his grip.

As he threw both spikes toward the beast's membranous wings, he noticed the odd flying girls pull suddenly overhead and begin charging up for a ranged attack. Frowning, he kept moving as quickly yet stealthily as he could through the undergrowth even as he let the spikes fly, with the hope that neither the dragon nor his apparent audience would be able to pick him out, and that he could get out of the way of whatever probably-explosion-based thing the two girls would unleash. It always seemed to go this way, strange girls charging in when he was perfectly capable of handling himself...

'Freakin' magical brats, flying up there with no sense of cover at all and charging up their easily telegraphed mahou-shojou-peace-love attacks in the middle of a battlefield. If they get themselves eaten or blow up my fight before it starts or startle the thing or something it's their own damn fault. Figures that any time I try and contribute, some little girl gets in the way and does half the job for me..."

As he grumbled he readied more spikes and the two flying girls shot some fairly heavy seeming ordinance, though he didn't even break his self-pitying commentary during what would for most people be an alarming battle. He doubted things would be as easily resolved as a single attack from any of them anyways. Things could never be that easy during a real fight.

Several of the "challengers" rushed off toward a cave in the distance, leaving Sorin to shrug nonchalantly. Perhaps after they died he could reanimate their corpses into more useful pawns, but that remained to be seen. As it was, only thr System Lord remained among those he had found interesting in the original group.

"Ah, to be young and mortal; always rushing off in a terribly great hurry to meet certain doom." He joked.

He followed after the System Lord without protest, sheathing his sword. This really was the most logical course of action for the time being. It seemed this place was a bit too chaotic for his geist to latch onto a particular aura. They could scout from high ground and plan their moves from there. Sorin wasn't terribly worried; Innistrad had exceptionally fierce dragons, and even they seemed like whelps compared to the Hellkites of Jund.

The trail was Dar from difficult for Sorin. Little wilderness came close to the literal aggression of Zendikar's landscape. There, you were as likely to be picked up and swallowed by a mobile mountain than any manner of beast. Though the Roil was the least of that Plane's problems these days. That thought brought Sorin back to thr reality of his situation. He needed to leave this place and return to his duties in stopping the Eldrazi. Every hour wasted was another Plane infested by their brood.

Sorin decided to feel out his momentary companion's opinion on their situation, if only to know whether he would be a threat to Sorin's plan to escape this farcical nightmare realm.

"Does it bother you, System Lord, knowing this place exists? This crossing of worlds? It is often a difficult truth to swallow; knowledge of the Multiverse. Madness is a common and natural response, so don't be shy, I won't judge you."

In the dimly-lit cave, the sight of the monstrous dragon-creature lighting the place up with its volcanic glow was enough to make Vash stop in his tracks, partially intimidated and partially mesmerized by its massive presence. …He hardly had much time to just watch the creature, though, before his attention turned to Ghost Rider’s whooping and hollering, as the flaming figure decided it would be a good idea to try wrapping the creature’s neck in chains right then and there, attempting to drive off with it.

“C-cutting straight to the chase, I see!” Vash exclaimed a bit nervously, as Ghost Rider’s sudden actions soon caused everyone else in their group to almost immediately shift into attack mode. Thinking fast, his gaze landed on Archer, and at almost the same instant that the arrow was fired, a gunshot could be heard echoing the cavern, as Vash stood with his revolver in hand — a bullet having knocked that arrow straight out of the air. “Hey, hold on a minute!” Vash called to Archer. “Flameo over here’s already getting the beast restrained with his chains. Assuming this is our legendary dragon, there’s no need to launch an arrow into its brains or anything! I mean, if anything, wouldn’t that just make it more hostile?” he suggested, putting on a nervous smile.

…And then he noticed Saber going in for what looked like a lethal blow as well. “Hey! You don’t need to slay it!” he yelled to her. “You’re just… just gonna put yourself in more danger!” he called, attempting to think up a reason for her to withdraw other than ‘please don’t kill the dragon’, as he brought his gun out in front of him again, aiming to launch a bullet at her sword, thus knocking her away from her target.

The red dragon had no choice but to comply with the choice of going into the skies above the cave area to scout around. It was rather hard to not get tempted to go and fight the legendary dragon that was in the cave, but fighting something of that power in a confined space such as a cave, it was a foolish decision even for an arrogant dragon. So, Angelus had to try her best not to rush into the cave, and also taking in mind that Caim was riding on her back.

"Whatever those foolish beings are doing within that cave, they better leave me that dragon for me to deliver the killing blow," Angelus said to Caim, even though the latter couldn't talk. It's just that the red dragon really really wanted to kill this legendary dragon to boost her ego even more.

Ba'al should not be surprised, and he gave a mental sigh as two of the flying ones left to go over the forest, rendering their help less than useful due to obstructed sight, and he was left with Sorin as he headed up the rocky path towards the mountain in the distance. He held his zat at the ready, scanning the area for ambushes, predators, or other unsavory things, showing more caution than he would have normally since he didn't have a personal shield or a Sarcophagus handy to prevent or heal damage. so caution was the name of the game.

He looked back to Sorin as the man...vampire, inquired as to his opinion on their whole situation. Well now, there were several ways he could answer that, but he chose the one that seemed to be closest to the truth.

"Not particularly," he replied with a shrug. "Where I come from we confirmed the existence of alternate realities a long time ago. Certainly none as radically different as those these other competitors seem to come from, but given the sheer amount of alternate realities involved, it's understandable. Indeed, the Ancients created a device to allow easy travel to and from alternate realities before they ascended, but I have no had the opportunity to use one." So that was his piece. Time to see how Sorin reacted.

EVAHLD NELSON
Evahld leaped over the treetops, 30 feet up and 80 feet forward each time. Each bound caused his Pegasus Cloak to flap. However, he jumped straight up upon reaching a branch above the strange creature with the green pelt, descending quickly. The lower foot began to coat itself in ice, until his entire leg was covered in a vicious-looking icicle just before it connected with the beast.

"RIDEEEEEER... KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!"