Ryteb sighed, as he looked at the three enemies. Considering that this was supposed to be just a simple grab the kids mission, he hoped that they weren't that strong as combatants. Though the fact that that they seemed to possess superhuman abilities did put evidence to the contrary. Making another stance, he created a wall of stone, reinforced with a mesh of steel, to cover the door to the room where the kids were.
"So, how we doing this?" Ryteb asked with a cheeky smirk on his face, "Honestly I don't particularly care for sword guy, but at least he isn't as un-bear-able as that girl." He gave a short chortle at the end, seemingly amused by his bad pun. Summoning his keyblade, in the backhand style he had previously only used in his mental training, his expression turned serious, seeming to get much older than he actually was. With his free hand, traced patterns in the air. While the stances allowed for more variety, this was the true strength of Elemental Arts. Unfortunately he only managed to learn one of them during the time he had trained.
"Elemental Arts Number 29, Astaroth." he commanded, as the traced patterns formed a glowing glyph in the air. Out of this glyph, came forth a dragon made from fire and lightning, that roared towards the summoned teddy bear, and exploded in a blinding flash of destructive force.
"Mai, I'm stealing your opponent. Mind taking sword guy for me?" Ryteb said, as he continued to blast fireballs. The dust hadn't cleared, but he wasn't taking any chances with this foe.

v2's weapon flashed into his hand the moment he heard voices in the hallway. He took one last look at the two kids, mentally cursed Seth for dragging the fleet into his wild goose chase, and strode out of the room. He slammed the door shut behind him and tapped his blade against the doorway. A satisfying click echoed down the hall as the door locked behind him. He took the measure of the three people at the opposite end of the hallway and felt a smirk that was completely beyond his control grow across his face. He had to smile when fighting villains. It was in his programming.

Then the hallway exploded, and with it went the grin. He reached out and grabbed Ryteb by the shoulder. "This is a hospital, you can't just throw around attacks like that." He looked down the hallway, his scanners cutting through the dust to pick out the shapes of the opponents. He locked on the big guy. The one that had made those disparaging comments about robots. "Divide and conquer, and for heaven sake take it outside." With that his rocket feet flared to life and he shot off through the debris like a guided missile, aiming to hit his target and carry him out through the window at the end of the hall before he even knew what was happening.

@Ryteb Pymeroce@Rex@SMS@ShadowVentus

Mai was busy noting how futuristic the hospital had been compared to the type of hospitals she knew back in her world, when a child had suddenly appeared from the corner of the hallway that she was close to. Her first reaction was to wave back and give a smile of her own. "Sure ki-", but then she remembered that everything else that wasn't her team was supposed to be frozen.

"Is she immune to it?" Her eyes narrowed a bit, and her smile turned into a frown when a older man appeared and walked up behind her.

Something was off. "I don't like this." Although the kid looked innocent enough, she was carrying something else with her. An ominous aura. Perhaps murderous? It was the same with the older man behind the child.

"Please tell me I'm wrong."

She didn't want to harm human beings, especially innocent civilians. But the atmosphere they carried were suggesting that they were anything but innocent. Her hand was shaking, turning white from her clenching it into a tight fist. In all of her years of fighting, and even earlier on in their journey, she had only fought mostly Heartless and Nobodies. She had been in many duels, but only a handful of times when she had to actually fight another human being that had murderous intent towards her or something she was protecting. And she didn't like being involved in the latter.

Her thoughts were confirmed when the older man began to taunt V2 while cracking the joints in his fingers, as well as the kid, apparently named Alice, summoning a large bear that oozed trouble for her. Alice's smile grew wider, and it terrified Mai that a little child like her could possess such a psychotic grin. A third member had also appeared, and also showed his own malice towards her group by creating his own sword from what looked like liquid metal that came from his body.

"Please tell me I'm wrong."

Before she could summon her own Keyblade, a dragon that was made of magic had rushed towards Alice's summoned animal and caused quite the explosion. The girl brought up her arms to shield herself from the blast and was pushed back a bit. The explosion didn't seem to damage the building they were in that much, at least from what she could tell, since the floor didn't begin to crumble under them. Not yet anyway.

She shot a glare towards Ryteb, whom she assumed was the source of the magic. She couldn't exactly fault him for wanting to get the upperhand in battle immediately, but she also wanted to chastise him for endangering the other people in the building with his reckless casting. Especially the two in the room that they were supposed to be guarding. V2 seemed to have done the latter for her, and she mentally thanked him.

Before the dust settled, V2 had flown forward into it. She couldn't see what had happened to her robotic companion as she turned to where he flew into, but she materialized her Keyblade in her hand to defend herself should something or someone rush out to fight her.

"Please tell me I'm wrong!"

If the trio wouldn't make any hostile moves towards them, then she would be relieved. They had only expressed their desire to kill them so far, and no act of battle yet. If they were to do the opposite, then she would do whatever she can to avoid harming them while disarming them unless it was absolutely necessary to kill them.

The porcupine bear wailed in pain as the flames burned at its fur and melted part of its flesh. The lightning electrocuted through its spines as it fell to the ground, steam rolling up from its charred body. Lightning still swirling around its spines. Alice looked towards the bear and said, “Oh, Mr. Teddy went down.” Alice didn’t seem to mind or care that the bear was hurt. A ripple appeared under the bear and it sunk down into it.

“Now who should I get to play now?” Alice asked herself before she snapped her fingers and said, “Puffball!” another ripple appeared on the floor and a hamster's head bopped out from the ripple. For the size of the hamster's head, it looked like it would be at least four feet tall. However, it was an amalgamation of something far worse. The hamster crawled out the ripple as it’s slender; seven foot long armored millipede like body pulled it out of the ripple. Long, dagger like legs pierced into the floor as it coiled around Alice. It let out a low hiss as mandibles grew out its toothless mouth, green slime dripping from them.

“And Mrs. Fluffy too,” Alice cheered as another ripped appeared, this time on the ceiling. A cat’s head popped from the ripple a cued at Alice. It was as twisted looking as the Hamster millipede. Long, hairy spider-like legs slowly slipped through the ripple and pulled the cat’s spider-like body from it. it's body was as large as a German Shepherd dog. The spider cat purred as four more eyes opened in its face. Each one ember colored and slanted. Alice stroked under the hamster millipedes chin squeaked in joy.

“You don’t mind playing with my pets do you?” Alice asked Ryteb with a warm smile.

Mark grunted as V2’a metal shoulder jabbed into his abdomen and propelled him through the window. As he flew through the air he cursed, “Shit, this is going to hurt.” Just before he slammed into the ground with a thud. He lay on the ground for several seconds before he coughed and sat up. He began to stand back up and sighed, “Yeah, right. Forgot about that.”
Mark looked towards V2 and said, “Alright you walking tin can. Let me give you some insight as to why I chose you to stomp on rather than the girl and kid.” Mark began to rotate his shoulder until it popped and a Chester cat smile formed on his face as he explained, “in my world, you can destroy a robot and no one will bat an eyelash at it. I love the sound of metal crunching as the robot questions why I’m ending its existence.”

The man with the silver sword coughed as the dust and debris flew into the air. Once settled he saw Mark had was gone and Alice had summoned more of her pets as she called them. He just sighed, “Great, I go from having to battle a kid to battle a little girl. How lovely.” He then looked towards Alice and asked, “Yo Alice, switch with me.”
“I would if I could Zack, but I don’t this Mr. summon a dragon thing wants to fight you,” Alice mocked as she giggled before she said warmly, “Besides, it might be fun to kill someone that isn’t older than five.”

“Damn it,” Zack cursed before he looked towards Mai and said, “guess you’ll do then. I really hate easy fights.”

@SMS@Gentlemanvaultboy@Ryteb Pymeroce

@Rex

"Oh, you're one of those perverts." v2 said, landing heavily before him in what looked like a parking lot. "I though you were just a luddite. Now this feels kind of dirty."

v2 looked him over. He didn't seem really hurt, which was worrying, and despite having yet to display any sort of ability like the others v2 didn't doubt that this guy knew how to take apart a robot. Really, this was the logically the worst possible opponent he could have picked out for himself. He wasn't thinking with his head right now, though. This was his heart, or at least the lines of code in his head that anticipated what the heart might feel, and his heart was telling him to deck this guy like the good little shonen protagonist that he was. Damn this heroic programming of his.

"It's really going to feel good beating him, though, so enjoy it."

Another aberrant thought, but also not a one he could honestly deny. v2 walked with an affixed swagger toward the guy, keyblade resting comfortably on his shoulder. "How could you tell I'm a robot anyway? Billions has been spent on making sure people don't think I'm a robot. Literally. Billions. I'd love to see the look on the old guys faces when they learn I have a tell."

Although Ryteb had reinforced the room they were fighting in, he could understand where they were coming from. There were a bunch of ordinary people inside this hospital, trapped within this time bubble. If he used a bunch of explosions, the reinforcements might not hold. So, he'd have to limit the amount of fire he put into his attacks. In his hand, Ryteb blew a bubble and whispered into it. The orb flew off over to where V2 was fighting, before it popped next to his ear. Instead of a regular pop, it recounted his whisper. "If possible, meet up with Taka. We don't know if there are more of them."

When he heard the little girl insult his age, Ryteb stuck out his tongue at the response. She didn't look any older than he was. Honestly, stuff like that ticked him off. The youth was unimpressed by the sudden appearance of the new creatures. Compared to some of the horrors located in the woods surrounding the Llychbaen Tower, these were merely cuddly toys. He smirked at the girl. "I also like breaking toys belonging to spoilt brats." he darkly smiled, the air around him crackling with electricity, "Don't be shocked after you see this attack!"

Using water magic to create minute ice particles in the air, lightning began to create an aura around him as the particles clashed with each other. Using the power of wind, he increased the amount of clashing around him, so that it looked like it was a cone of solid lightning. Finally, he utilised the power of lightning to turn this cone into several spears, which he sent towards the beasts that the girl summoned. He was going to pun his way through this fight, so help him gods.

((Collab between Rex, Double, and Letter Bee))

Seth

"Well, someone's confident in themselves." chirped Seth when three strangers appeared. They all looked strange, even by his standards. The closest one to normal was the woman, but then her literal forked tongue went and made her equally strange as her masked buddies, "You guys are acting pretty casual considering your whole world is being threatened by your so-called allies."

Seth sighed, almost annoyed by all this. Apart from Moscow, he thus far didn't have to take any of the battles particularly seriously, especially when his teammates were generally very good about doing that for him. But the Incubators just had to threaten an end to multiple universes, and these strangers from Drake's world just had to show up and complicate this even further. The Nobody literally had no other option except to take this mission more seriously.

When he and the two Tocsax's were offered a "painless" death in exchange for handing over Drake, Tocsax was quick to refuse. Seth on the other hand, just shrugged, "Okie dokie..." his hands had both been stuffed in his pockets at this point, remaining unseen. Good thing, too, since Seth was able to prepare his trump card as a surprise maneuver. Without any hint or verbal warning, the Nobody pulled out both hands and slapped them together to instantly mix the Stop and Haste spell they were holding onto respectively. Things were about to get a tiny bit crazy... just like in Moscow.

Tocsax, meanwhile, had decided to use overwhelming force, and used Multivortex on each of the three, quicky slicing the enemy with blades of energy before spinning in a vortex that launched a whirlwind of small stars that would harm any enemy but not hurt friends. The moment this stopped, the Nobody would disappear into a Corridor of Darkness and reappear beside Data-Ascot, who would point his Kingdom Key at the earth, and say:

"Quake!" and the earth would then quake.

As for the Superweapon, Seth, his time slowed down, would observe that only the outside was a hard-light construct, that, if he stretched his magical and observational senses, veins of crystaline nanobots can be seen closer to the core, a core made up of one giant hexagonal crystal...

The woman smiled before she glowed purple and changed into a small purple robin that dodged and weaved the attacks as it flew high into the sky as blades followed suit. The man in the white mask flung his shovel at a building. As it made contact. The man seemed to fizzle into sparks before he appeared where the shovel made contact with the wall of the building. He quickly dislodged the shove as a door appeared under him. It opened and he fell into the door before it closed and fizzled into fog. Another door appeared as the man in the white mask jumped out of it before he quickly conjured up another door to avoided more of the blades.

The man with the hockey mask smiled as five re circles appeared around him, each having strange lavenders colored symbols around the circles radius. Bones popped out of the circles before they began to contact to one another. In a second, the bones created five condor skeletons that seem to hang in the air. Lavender lights flashed in the eye sockets of each skeleton as they were suddenly engulfed in flames. The condor skeletons let out a bone rattling screech before they flew towards the blades. They would intercept the blades as they’re body’s would implode into ashes.

The man in the hockey mask seemed pleased with their progress up until the ground began to shack and stars rained down. He cursed, “Damn persistent humans.” He would turn to the man in the white mask and yell, “Maze, doors! Now!”

The man in the white mask nodded before three doors appeared. The robin quickly flew through one while the man with the hockey mask jumped through the second. The man in the white mask leaped into his before they all shut and fizzled into white fog. After several second the doors reappeared and the three leaped out of them as the woman sighed, “I’ll still never get use to that.”

The man with the hockey mask looked towards the man in the white mask and ordered, “Find this princess and bring her to me. We’ll use her as a bargaining chip. So bring her back alive. Limbs on the other hand are optional.” The man in the white mask nodded before a door appeared on the ground in front of him. The door swung open and the man in the white mask jumped down into the door before it quickly closed and the door fizzled into white fog.

“Pity Maze won’t be here for the fun,” the woman said as her forked tongue flickered from her mouth once again.

“Don’t worry Viper, he’ll have his fun. You know how twisted Maze is,” the man with the hockey mask said before he looked at Tocsax and added, “You do realize I’m trying to help you.” he would sigh and begin to explain.

“How long before Drake is offered a much larger sum of Credit and turns on you?” the man in the hockey mask said before he continued, “do you honestly think he’ll chose you over money? Or for that matter, do you honestly think he’s some kind of hero?”

The woman laughed before she said, “Drake? A hero? Please, he’s a heartless monster. He’s just in it for the money and nothing else. I wouldn’t get too attached to the guy. He’s nothing more than a weapon”

“Precisely. Has he even told you what he’s done to make a living? Or has he left out?” the man in the Hockey mask said as a crooked smile formed on his face before he added, “We’re his family. We can help him. You’d actually keep him from us?”

((Collab between Rex, Double, and Letter Bee))

Seth

Within his personal bubble of perception, Seth saw a world halted around him, as if it were trapped within a single moment in time. He could spy blades of light beginning to take form as Tocsax made his move, albeit very slowly from the Nobody's perspective. Speaking of moves, he also spotted bone-like constructs slowly taking shape around the guy with the hockey mask to intercept the blades. With a shrug, Seth began to zip toward the super weapon, pausing briefly as he passed by a shovel that had been thrown through the air, tilting his head and then moving on.

He must have circled the weapon dozens of times, from dozens of angles all within the span of a moment or two from his perception of time, "Hmm..." the only thing he could discover about the weapon was that the hard light shell was just that: a shell. It seemed there was some kind of core within it, with crystaline veins running outward producing very tiny robots. Was it perhaps hollow on the inside of the shell? An idea began to take shape, but for Seth to pull it off he needed to make sure he wasted none of his time.

The Nobody's eyes darted around quickly, locating each of his Snipers currently in action. They were taking aim but hadn't fired yet, which was just as well. In record time, Seth zipped about in the structure, manually grabbing his Snipers one at a time and gathering them in spot before putting a Hastega on all them to speed them up slightly. He then willed them to converge together, a bit slowly from his perspective but at double time from everyone else's perception of time. Once the Chaos Buster was cosntructed the Nobody threw open a Corridor of Darkness directly in front of it, one leading to what he hoped would be the inside of the hard light shell so that the shot would hit the core directly at point blank range.

The Chaos Buster started charging up, again slowly to Seth but at double speed to everyone else thanks to the Hastega spell it was benefitting from. The Nobody's little space/time gambit wore off just as the big cannon finished up charging, "Trick or treat!" Seth said with a grin, pointing a finger forward like a gun and pulling an imaginary trigger in order to fire the Chaos Buster into the Corridor of Darkness that hopefully pointed the shot directly at the super weapon's core.

This being Tocsax's first time witnessing the Chaos Buster, he might note the attack's remarkable similarity to his own Ultima Cannon technique.

Amazing! Tocsax was at a loss for words as to how Seth's guile and creativity had allowed him to punch above his own weight, as the Planet Killer's holographic surface blinked in and out, before fading, and the crystaline core, bleeding luminous nanobots, fell towards the core of the Incubators' giant labyrinth of a city with a loud crash.

But, Tocsax can only spare a few seconds at that, before confronting the trio, now duo, and saying:

"Tell us, why should we trust you?"

Data-Ascot just stod there silently, readying another spell.

The man with the hockey mask smiled before he explained, “I’m pretty sure you’ve seen it: His Shadow Nexus. I’m sure you’ve also seen the destruction it brings. Why keep that destruction so close when it could erupt and destroy all of you?” the man with the hockey mask seemed to git a kick out of knowing how destructive the Shadow Nexus was.

“I’m also sure you know about his occupation. Do you even realize how many people he’s killed for money? So why would someone like you who’s fighting for the light let such a person on their side? How long before he turns his blade on you or worse: he turns his Shadow Nexus on you.” the said before he continued, “I’m sure you can sense the blood lust in it. The pure anger and rage it holds. Why not let us take it from you?”

“Get to the point!” Viper hissed. She was growing Impatient with the current situation as she added, “If he’s not willing to give us the weapon. Then let’s just take it. We get Drake and put him in the chamber, he’ll simply go back to his old self. “

“In due time Viper, but we must be rational about this. These people might not want to part with the weapon. The Shadow Nexus is powerful. If we can extract it, we can control it,” the man with the hockey mask stated before he turned back to Tocsax and added, “you might not trust us, but how much do you trust Drake? A person who lies can’t be that trust worthy or has he got you believing in the whole not killing children spiel?”

“Oh my god, can we just get the weapon and go!” Viper yelled.

“Viper! In due time, we need to negotiate. Hence why I sent Maze to get the girl. We trade her for Drake,” the man stated before he added, “The others are keeping the rest busy. So we just need to wait.”

Maria di Italia had teleported Drake to the platform everyone else was in while this exchange was going on, and Tocsax would look at the bounty hunter and say:

"Drake, can you tell these thugs what you think of them and their exaggerations as regards you? Shadow Nexus or no Shadow Nexus, we don't hand over people to be harmed or hurt."

Mai's frown remained on her face and even intensified a little, as she desperately hoped that this was still all a joke. Despite their threats and threatening atmosphere, they still haven't actually done anything hostile besides vocally abusing them. She knew she was being stupid, but she didn't want the blood of innocent people on her hands.

Not again.

Never again.

"Just stand down." Her grip on her weapon was getting tighter, and it was visibly shaking. She gently brought her other hand over the one holding her weapon, in an effort to calm it down. It proved to be effective, but her attitude remained the same.

Although the man named Zack taunted her, she remained in place. At the back of her mind, she was glad since it meant he is underestimating her. But at the same time, this also showed that he is confident in his abilities and very arrogant. She waited for him to initiate, both for herself and for her to learn his battle style.

((Collab between Rex, Double, and Letter Bee))

The man with the hockey mask sighed before he reached down and unstrapped his hockey mask from his pant loop. He placed the hockey mask over his face while saying, “I’m trying to save you, but it seems you’ve chosen your path.” A red circle with lavender symbols appeared next to him before his weapon rose up from it. It was a six foot scythe that looked to be an amalgamation of bones and steel. The handle was a mixture of a spin and metal with a skill at the top. The skull’s mouth was open in a silent scream as the scythes blade protruded from it. Ruby red diamonds were in the skills eye sockets and its teeth were amethyst colored. The man in the hockey mask took the weapon and spun it before letting it rest on his right shoulder.

“bout damn time,” Viper stated just as Drake was teleported next to Tocsax.

The man in the hockey mask smiled as he saw Drake and chuckled, “Speak the devils name.” Drake’s eyes fell on the man wearing the hockey mask and he glared at him. There was no hello to Tocsax, or witty retort towards the man in the hockey mask or viper. There was only a crackle of thunder that rumbled the earth and shattered some of the glass around them.

The man in the hockey mask suddenly swung his Scythe and as he did: Drakes Blade Blue sword collided with the Scythes blade. And eruption of crackling thunder and sparks of lightning came from the collision. The man in the hockey mask chuckled as he said, “Is this how you treat an old friend?” Drake snarled as he pushed away from the man in the hockey mask. Drake flipped through the air before landing next to Tocsax.

“You’re not my friend Nails,” Drake hissed just before he disappeared again and another loud crackle of thunder erupted. Nails sighed before he swung his Scythe again. Once again, Drake’s blade collided with the Scythe’s blade.

“So predictable,” Nails mused before he grabbed Drake by the collar and pulled him towards him as he brought his knee up and slammed it into Drakes stomach. Drake gasped as he felt the air escape his lungs. Nails then flung Drake towards Tocsax. Drake hit the ground and skidded until he stopped a few feet in front of Tocsax.

“What happened to you Drake? Where’s the Bounty Hunter that would do anything for the Credits?” Nails questioned.

“Drake started to slowly get up as he hissed, “Shut up.”

“Where’s the murderer who killed countless people?” Nails asked. A smile formed on Vipers face. She knew what Nails was doing and she seemed to enjoy it.

“Shut it,” Drake hissed again as he started to get to his feet, but fell back down to his knees from the pain in his abdomen.

“Where’s the monster that burned down that Orphanage?” Nails yelled. Drake’s heart skipped a beat as the vision of the burning building once again flashed in his mind. That was the napping point.

“Shut up!” Drake roared as his eyes changed to blood red. His shadow exploded from the ground and changed into the snake head tendrils. Their roars sounding like the screams of tortured souls. However, the tendrils began to change. Along their backs grew green spines and from their temples grew a green horn.

“There it is,” Nails said with a smile. The snake head tendrils shot towards Nails, but a large red circle appeared in front of Nails and bones quickly shot out of it. They connected into an eight foot cobra skeleton. A lavender glow appeared in the cobra’s eye sockets just before the cobra skeleton was engulfed in flames. It quickly wrapped around Nails just before the snake head tendrils reached him. The tendrils slammed again the cobras flame body, but it did not budge. As the tendrils tried to break through the snake’s defense, Nails mocked, “You’ll have to do better than that.”

Drake, however, didn’t hear Nails mocking him. All he heard was the shadow Nexus in his mind: Rip, tear, kill, murder! The tendrils slammed even harder against the snake’s body as a tendril in Drakes shadow slowly slithered up towards him. It began to fuse with his right hand as the shadow started to crawl further up his arm.

Tocsax knew he had to do something. But what can he do that won't sound melodramatic? He didn't want to be false, but at the same time...he wanted to help Drake. That much, at least, was genuine. Looking at Nails with hatred, Tocsax, his eighteen-year old body standing straight, would shout:

"Drake isn't the person he was before! And he will never be if you don't try and make him! So you, man of Chronos, just leave off!" And with that, Tocsax looked at Data-Ascot, then said:

"Please, cast Pain Link, now!" Data-Ascot didn't quibble, and, with his Keyblade, cast as spell on Tocsax and Drake, a spell that connected the two of them with an invisible, shimmering thread. This link, one of Data-Ascot's specialties, would allow the sharing of pain and even painful memories between those connected; an impractical spell to cast in the middle of battle...except when an ally is suffering from both magical corruption and mental trauma.

Tocsax would then will himself to absorb Drake's emotional pain and see his memories (no, he wasn't going to take away those, just the pain), and Drake himself would feel said pain receeding, to be replaced by a feeling of calm and trust, trust that came from Tocsax. The Nobody was trying to take on the bounty hunter's suffering, no matter how briefly!

@Ryteb Pymeroce@Rex@Letter Bee@SMS@Gentlemanvaultboy

"Ah...you've arrived. You don't seem to be the negotiating type. I can't recall the last time I fought against something that wasn't a Heartless or Nobody, so forgive me if I'm a bit rusty...I'll try my best not to disappoint an elder." Taka responds, hastily summoning his blade as though he were about to begin some sort of fighting exam. Pieces of his true memories floated into focus, resulting in more garbled dialogue. However, he could not place a name to this voice. "Taka..*zzrt*..as your *zzrt*...I ask you to protect *zzrt*...even if your life is *zzrt*..that is my mission for you..."

((Collab between Rex, Double, and Letter Bee))

Viper was about to attack, but Nails stopped her and said, “No. let’s see how this show ends. I have a feeling what this boy is doing might come back to bite him.” Viper looked at him quizzically before sighing and backing off.

“I bet the rest of the team is having fun,” Viper hissed.

---

Drake’s memories showed Black Falcon City. Artificial rain fell from the dome that kept the people, inside the city safe from the outside world. Everyone in the city seemed to be in a trance as they walked the sidewalks towards their destination. Robots managed the local shops and some were doing business with passersby that stopped to browse their selection.

The large ten foot clock in the middle of the park slowly clicked as the hands slowly moved forward. One of the clock’s hands looked like a large key with cogs and gears on it as the gears turned with every click. Drake stood in front of the clock watching the hands move. His emotions clogged the air with hatred, anger, and blood lust. However, under all that was regret. Regret for something he had done so long ago. He didn’t look at Tocsax as he asked, “Ever wonder if the side you’re fighting for, is the right one?” Drake then shook his head and added, “Not right in a justice sort of sense, but right as in a fate sort of sense”

“Do you think the old man knew about my past” Drake asked as he turned to face Tocsax before he continued, “Do you think he knew about the Shadow Nexus? I’m not sure, but I wonder if I’m even worth in fighting anymore for the light. The darkness is so much easier to adapt to, to understand. Yet, what the seekers of darkness want to do is, in my mind, not right. However, can I judge them?” Drake sighed before turning towards the clock and staring at the key that replaced one of the clock hands.

“If you wish to see my past, then I will not stop you. However, you must be warned: what you are about to see will change your perception about me. I’m not proud of it and I certainly would change it if I could. However, I have to ask you again: are you sure you’re up to this? Because I sure as hell don’t want to relive this hell again,” Drake said.

---

Nails watched the three before he turned to Data-Ascot and asked, “I know the boys thoughts on Drake, but where do you stand? Can you actually trust someone who murdered countless people for money? Can you stand there and truthfully say you trust a man you know nothing about?”

Seth

Seth, in the meantime, had problems of his own. Apparently using both of one's most powerful abilities back to back was not the greatest idea in the world. Who knew? Breathing heavy, the Nobody gave himself a sarcastic chuckle. It was like the Pyramid all over again, Seth was drained and unable to conjure a single magical spell. That, on top of his previous super speed taking its toll on his physical stamina didn't exactly bode well for him.

"Great... you're still here?" the Nobody grunted as he watched the image of Jeanne slowly approach him. He was right about one thing: the Incubators really did pick the one magical girl who was the biggest pain in the arse. As she was about to raise her sword, Seth practically groaned as the hologram suddenly copied itself until he was staring down not one but three Jeannes, "And... there's three of you now, naturally..." he glanced around as the trio of holograms closed in for the kill. He moved to stand up straight, but lost his balance and fell back to his knee again. But when he did, something fell out of Seth's pocket and plopped down on the floor in front of him: a certain rust-colored capsule he'd been given a while back in Moscow.

Seth grinned, "Whelp... time to see what this pill can do." he swiftly plucked the capsule off of the floor and dropped it into his mouth... and swallowed. His magic was still drained, which was actually not that surprising. But the Rapture Pill did restore something else. As all three Jeannes brought their swords down, the Nobody found himself able to move again and he dodge-rolled out of the way, his physical fatigue completely restored and then some thanks to the pill.

"I'm getting really tired of this game..." he muttered, peeling off his black gloves and dropping them on the floor beside him. All three holograms lunged again, but missed when the Nobody suddenly flash-stepped out of the way, and all three were surprised when each suddenly found a fist buried deeply in their abdomens. Each flew back, and each dissolved away into data before their holographic forms even touched the floor.

He moved over to where Data-Ascot stood alongside one of Drake's so-called brothers, "Then you obviously don't know him very well." the Nobody said with a grin, "If they're willing to trust me, then the sky's the limit." it was true, the Nobody thought of himself as the least trustworthy and most unreliable member of the team. He was lazy, far too playful for his own good, and to top it all off he couldn't even say for sure that he trusted himself, much less deserved the trust of others. And yet, here Seth stood.

((Collab between Rex, Double, and Letter Bee))

Tocsax

"If you think I'm completely clean, you're mistaken," Tocsax would say to Drake. "I keep trying to excuse myself that my past lack of a Heart lessened my blame, but I know in my heart that only this quest can truly balance the scales." He would then look up at the man.

"Show me. If by 'the old man', you mean Apokaukos, he isn't clean as well." A slight smile.

"If you worry about being a good person, and are actively trying to stop doing bad things, then you're a good person."

Data-Ascot

"Let he who is without sin throw the first stone," Data-Ascot said. "That isn't you. And Tocsax is taking care of the 'we don't know anything about Drake' part now." He would then turn towards Seth.

"You're better than you think you are."

Drake took a deep breath and sighed before he stated, “Trust me. You’ve got a much stronger heart then I do.” He then razed his hand towards the clock and the scenery changed. They found themselves standing in a sort of lab with a much younger Drake inside a large tube while his parents prepped the experiment.

“As you know, I was infused with the Shadow Nexus by my parents,” Drake said as his father began to type on a hologram keyboard. Black and silver liquid swam through the small tubes towards the much larger one holding the younger Drake. The liquid mixed and was filled into several syringes before they injected the mixed liquid into Drake. The world suddenly went dark before it came back as the two stood in the remains of the laboratory.

“I can’t remember what happened after I was injected with the Shadow Nexus, but when I came too. I found myself in the destroyed lab. That’s when everything went downhill,” Drake explained as the world changed once again to a tavern were Drake sat with Nails, Viper, and the rest of the Surge Guardians. An elderly woman talked with them while Drake explained to Tocsax, “We had a woman come to use and hire us to take care of a scumbag business man that threatened to take her orphanage from her and change it into a brothel. She said he’d use the children in the orphanage as slaves. We accepted and dealt with the business man.”

“However,” Drake continued as the scene changed to Viper, then Drake trying to get their payment while Drake went on, “She was unable to pay us the credits. We tried to get out payment, but we could never get it. After the final attempt.” Drake stopped. He didn’t want to see it again, relive it again, but he took a deep breath and closed his eyes as the Scene once again changed.

The orphanage was on fire, the screams of the children and their care taker were muffled by the roar of the flames. Drake tensed up as he looked away and stated, “I burned the orphanage down with her and the children trapped inside. An order for Nails that I didn’t even question.” He turned to watch the building burn as the scene changed back to the clock at the park.

“Everything crashed into me three months after that. I left the Surge Guardians and became addicted to Columbia to deal with the pain and regret. A friend of mine found me and helped me get over my addiction, but the regret is still there,” Drake said as he stared at the large key in the clock. He looked back at Tocsax and said, “I don’t deserve forgiveness after what I did. Nor do I deserve that key my dreams keep bring me back to.” Drake pointed towards the key in the clock

---

Nails laughed and stated, “Won’t do you any good. Your boy won’t come back the same and will give Drake to us. Once that happens, we can utilize his powers. You see, his Shadow Nexus is special. Only he has it, but if we experiment enough, we can extract that power and infuse it into us and we’d be unstoppable.”

Tocsax

"Tell me, then," Tocsax looked unconvinced. "If given the chance to do it again, would you burn down that orphanage a second time? I don't think you would, and that would be proof enough that you've changed." He looked at the key in the clock tower, then said:

"Drake, other people - our enemies - they don't feel bad for what they did, they don't feel grief or sadness even when they are capable of doing so. I cannot forgive them...but I could forgive you. Because you're no longer the person you were." Looking back at Drake, he continued.

"You do not deserve to drown in this self-loathing. If I cast you into the pit of despair, I would not just be a hypocrite, but also no better than they are. So...take the Key."

Data-Ascot

"No, Tocsax is better than that. He will never give someone over to be tortured and used," Data-Ascot said.

“If I was given the chance, I’d bolt out of the lab before my parents had the chance to infuse me with the Shadow Nexus,” Drake admitted before he continued, “Of course I wound ’t burn it down again. They didn’t deserve that, no one deserves that pain.” Drake listened to Tocsax before he looked back at the key in the clock.

“Funny, you sound like Jinx. She said the same thing to me,” Drake said before he chuckled a little and added, “But she used more colorful language.” Think of his friend made him feel, good. He always kept the burden of his past to himself and carried the regret with him.

“I’m done running, done fearing the past. I’ll mourn their loss by becoming a better person and stopping anyone who tries to go down the same path I did,” Drake said as he reached out towards the key in the clock.

---

Nails shook his head and laughed, “Trust us, you’ll relinquish him to us in due time,” Nails said before he added, “Whether you give him to use or he comes of his own accord.” The shadow tendrils let out a wail as they began to slowly dissipate into the air. Small flakes of shadow rose into the air like ash from a flame as it slowly disappeared.

“No! What have you done?!” Nails screamed in disbelief.

Drake opened his eyes and smiled as he stated, “Get rid of a weapon that could harm people.” Drake lifted his hand up and his Keyblade (i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee244/rexd..) appeared in his hand. His smile soon faded as he looked over to Tocsax and asked, “So do I just stick this in him and it will unlock his death or is there something more?”

"Nothing more; just stick it in him and it'll unlock his death," Tocsax said, before he looked at Nails, smirking:

"Sorry to be childish, but nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah! Drake proved better than you guys..." He then stuck out his tounge.

Data-Ascot chuckled.

Nails snarled as a door appeared next to him and Maze walked through it. Nails looked to Maze, then to Viper before he ordered, “Maze take him.” he pointed to Data-Ascot. He then turned to Viper and ordered, “Take that boy.” He then pointed towards Toscax.

“What’s the point? We’ve lost the weapon,” Viper Argued.

“We can still salvage this. We have Brook back in Chrono attempting to recreate the Shadow Nexus with those creatures that invaded. We’ll extract the memories from Drake and use what he knows to create another one,” Nails said.

“Like hell I’ll let you create another weapon!” Drake yelled before he used his right foot to flip up his Blaze blue sword. He grabbed it in his free hand and charged towards Nails. He’d never duel welded swords. He’d done it with his revolvers, but never swords. First time for everything Drake thought as he swung his Keyblade towards Nails.

Nails brought his Scythe up and the two weapons collided. Nails pushed Drake back and questioned, “You might have been helped now, but what happens after all this? You’re an enemy of your own world. Do you honestly think they welcome you back with open arms?”

“Like hell I care,” Drake said as he skidded back before he charged Nails again. Their weapons collided again.

“Maze turned to Data-Ascot and removed his battle shove from his back and waited for Data-Ascot to make the first move. He said nothing as he waited. Out of all of them, Maze seemed to most calm and collective.

“Well I guess you’ll do,” Viper sighed as she removed part of her hair from her face and added, “Try to show me a good time.” She then glowed purple and changed into a purple gorilla.

Mark looked at V2 and laughed before he added, “Please, you honestly think you can hide your smell from me. Listen you hunk of junk: where I come from; we have robots that try and blend in with humanity. They’re disgusting thought of actually being equal to us is preposterous. They’re nothing more than our slaves. They’re only good for working and being dismantled. Which is where I come in.” a smile broke on Marks face again as he began to laugh.

“They actually think they deserve to live because they claim to be A.I. but, when you get right down to it. If a robot wants equal rights, then you just destroy them and replace them with the next model. I hate them all, but more importantly: I hate the humans who think they can live peacefully with the robots. They disgust me even more. So breaking the robots in front of them is such a thrill. Then watching as they beg for their own lives is such a thrill,” Mark ranted before he sighed. He just stood there for several seconds before he suddenly charged at V2 and yelled, “So let’s get this over with! I’ve got more pressing matters to take care of!”




Alice smiled as a ripple appeared under her. She looked down and smiled warmly; “You want to play too?” she quickly jumped back as a human sized fiddler crab crawled up from the ripple. Its two large claws quickly bungeed towards the hamster millipede and spider cat. Its claws clamped onto each creature and pulled it back before its cranium opened and a turtle shell shield appeared around the creatures and Alice. The spears hit the shield and it began to waver with each attack. The shield finally broke and the reaming spears rocketed towards the creatures. The fiddler crab suddenly convulsed as two leathery bat wings ripped from its back and wrapped around Alice. The spears hit the wings and the crab seemed to let out a scream of pain.

Once the crab thought it was safe. The leathery wings unwrapped Alice. She seemed more excited then she had been when she first appeared as she joyfully said, “Oh what fun we’re having,” Alice looked towards the crab and tapped it on the head and added, “You can go home now.” The crab seemed to nod as it crawled back into another ripple. The Hamster millipede hissed before charging towards Ryteb as did the spider cat.

“Alright, enough talk,” Zack said before he charged towards Ryteb. The hamster millipede and spider cat suddenly crawled into a ripple before they reached Ryteb. They then crawled out of another ripple and charged towards Mai.




The Elderly man reached into his pocket and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and blew his nose before he apologized, “I’m very sorry you have to fight me in this state. I fear I’m coming down with a dreadful cold. When you get to my age, you seem to get the worst of it while the younger crowd just gets a sneezing fit.”

“My goodness, where are my manors,” the elderly man said before he bowed and introduced himself, “I’m Damien, a Surge Guardian from the world of Chrono. I have been sent to kill you and your rag tag group and take the princess. So please don’t take this personally. I’m simply doing my job.” Damien stood back up and a few of his joints in his legs popped before he tapped his cane on the ground. It slowly started to fuse with his right hand and morph into a sword. From each side of the swords base were metal bat wings.

“Let’s have a good fight,” Damien said as s small group of bats seemed to hover around his body.

((Collab between Double, Rex, and Letter Bee))

Seth

The Nobody's grin never left him, even as he took a quick flash step back as the fighting once again resumed. There were three of them against four including Seth, which meant that someone was going to be the odd man out. Looked like that was Seth's role here, since Nails took on Drake, the quiet Man targeted Data-Ascot while the woman turned into an ape and went after Tocsax. Seth sighed, but then chuckled to himself.

"Ignored again, eh?" he quipped sarcastically, letting his unsettlinng grin grow wider and his left eye's blue glow get brighter, "...Your funeral." these Surge Guardians were about to learn that leaving someone like Seth to his own devices was not a wise decision. This left the Nobody free to do whatever he pleased, with no enemy interference to stop him. If no one was going to fight him directly then they would just have to put up with him indirectly.

Having no more energy for magic, thus no way to utilize sand or Corridors of Darkness, Seth had to fall back onto another tactic of his. This tactic was to call in his entire freaking legion of Snipers to start opening fire on all three of the Surge Guardians. With them focusing their attack and defense on keeping their chosen opponents in check, they'd probably have a rather hard time of dealing with the literal dozens upon dozens of potshots coming from all directions.

Data-Ascot and Tocsax

Data-Ascot would launch a bolt of white lightning at Maze, before he saw the Snipers send out bolts towards the bounty hunter and his compatriots, giving him an idea.

"New spell - Makerlight!" he would shout, causing Maze, Viper, and Nails to glow with a red light, a red light that would attract the Snipers' bolts towards their bodies, giving said bolts a 'homing' function.

Tocsax, meanwhile, would just try and blow a rushing Viper away with a point-blank Ultima Cannon.

Maze flung his shovel to his left and when it connected with the ground he disappeared in a fizzle of sparks before he reappeared were his shovel had landed. He looked down at the red mark on him. He seemed not to react to the red mark as a door appeared behind him. He quickly jumped back into the door before it closed and fizzled into fog. Another door appeared and Maze jumped out just for the sniper bullets to loop around and follow him. Another door appeared on the ground and opened as Maze jumped into the door. The door closed and faded away. The bullets should have hit the ground were Maze was, but instead hovered in the air, waiting for Maze to reappear.

The purple gorilla went to swung at Tocsax, but quickly jumped back as one of the Sniper bullets hit the ground in front of it. The gorilla looked at the red mark on its chest and grunted before it instantly glowed and disappeared. However, it simply didn’t just disappear, but change into another animal. A small purple house fly buzzed around as it dodged and waved the sniper bullets. However, the bullets would loop back and try to find purchase. No matter how good the fly dodged the bullets, they still looped around and attempted to hit the small, purple fly.

Nails blocked another one of Drake’s attacks before he pushed him back and jumped back just as three sniper bullets hit the ground in front of him. Seven red circles appeared around Nails as bones spat out of the circles. The bones connected to one another and created seven werewolf skeletons. The bones were engulfed in flames as the wolves let out a bone chattering howl. The wolves jumped into the air and intercepted some of the sniper bullets that soared towards Nails. The bullets slammed into the wolves as they let out bone chattering wails of pain as the wolves disintegrated into ash.

However, some of the sniper bullets shot past the ash and pierced into Nails body. Three pierced into his right arm, two into his left leg, and one pierced into his right eye blowing out part of his skull. Nails fell to the ground as Drake smiled and said, “Guess you lost your edge.” Nails suddenly sat up making Drake jump back. His wounds were shooting out flames as he started to stand up.

“Shit,” Drake cursed as he turned to his friends and said, “That’s not the real Nails! It’s a Hell Clone.”

“Took you long enough to figure it out,” the Nails Clone chuckled.

“So you’re so weak you can’t face us man to man?” Drake said.

The small fly glowed and changed back to Viper as she looked at the clone and ranted, “The hell! You send us into the fire, but not yourself! Selfish bastard!” Viper cartwheeled back as three sniper bullets slammed into the ground in front of her. She quickly glowed and morphed into a snake that slithered around avoiding the sniper bullets.

“Calm yourself Viper, I have my reasons,” the Nails Clone said before a door appeared and Maze appeared next to Nails. The Sniper bullets waiting for Maze suddenly shot towards Maze and pierced into his body. The bullets went right through his body as sand started to pour out of Maze’s body. Nails sighed, “Alright Maze, we need to think this through. So do it.” Maze looked up at Nails and nodded before two doors appeared. Maze walked to the door and walked through the door as it closed and disappeared.

The purple snake didn’t argue as it quickly slithered into the second door just before it closed and fazed into fog. The Nails clone looked at Drake and said “Looks like a tactical retreat is in order. However, I’d suggest you choose wisely on your next move.”

“I’m not becoming another weapon,” Drake hissed.

“If that’s your wish, then I can just find another vessel for it,” the Nails clone said before he added with a chuckle, “Maybe that merchant you hold so dear.” Drake gripped his Keyblade handle tightly as he suddenly disappeared as a large crackle of thunder roared in the air. Drake appeared behind the clone and sliced it in half. The Nails clone simply laughed as the two half’s of the clone disintegrated into ash.

“We need to find the others,” Drake said as his Keyblade disappeared and he sheathed his sword before he added, “If these three are here, then the other Surge Guardians are here.”

Seth

It wasn't long before Seth's legion forced the Surge Guardians into a retreat. For once, the Nobody sighed with relief instead offering his usual laugh or chuckle, "Did we win? I think we just won..." he was honestly about to plop down on his posterier - right there on the spot - and start resting, but Drake was adamant about meeting back up with the others. It sounded exhausting.

"Yo, Drake, buddy - we aren't exactly in a great spot ourselves here." he started to shrug, but then that gesture turned into him rotating his shoulders and rubbing them as if they were sore from heavy lifting, which they kind-of-sort-of were, "I'm not one to complain, but that Rapture Pill you gave me before is literally the only thing keeping me on my feet right now. Without it I'd have dropped some time ago and that magical girl hologram would have finished me off..." as if proving his point, his Snipers also began retreating en masse, as if they too were also exhausted.

Tocsax and Data-Ascot

"One shouldn't forget the Incubators," Tocsax said. "They're still a threat."

Indeed we are, from the ruins of the Incubators' labyrinth emerged several thousand more of the feline creatures, ready to move again. But you and the other Keybladers have shown an ability to defy Entropy equal or greater than that of our Magical Girls and Witches. The Heat Death of the Universe will be much delayed by tapping into the energies of your weapons...

So we will let you go for now, and cease our attempts at interfering with the life of Madoka Kaname, though not our interventions on Earth, while we assess this new data...

"Well," said Tocsax, "best not to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"I'll be staying here, then," Data-Ascot said. "Someone has to guarantee that the Incubators won't stab us in the back. Plus, the fleet is still restoring its systems."

Tocsax then looked at Seth, saying:

"You did well. I think you deserve a rest."

Drake quickly tensed when the Incubators appeared, however, as they spoke. He eased up and sighed when they disappeared. He looked towards Seth and agreed with Tocsax, “Yeah, you need a break from all the shit you did for use. Just relax while we get the others.”

“Alright Tocsax, we should go find the others. If the other Surge Guardians are here then they’ll need backup. Especially if Panic found Mai or Cheese. They’ll be in deep shit,” Drake said before he summoned his Keyblade again and examined it. He then let it disappear and as he said, “Going to have to get used to a weapon just disappearing on me.”

@Double@Arty Fox@SMS@Rex@Ryteb Pymeroce@ShadowVentus@supertinyking

[Collab between Rex and Arty Fox]

“Lift with your knees.” Cheese instructed with a desperate twinge in her voice.

“I am!” Mac snapped back in reply. “But it’s not budging.”

Mac had his fingers curled under the metal door to the warehouse trying to force it open after it had closed after Homura managed to slip her way in under it. The controls for the door were locked in a, now very dented and abused, metal security box on their side but as their efforts to get into it had been fruitless the pair had decided to try and force their way in in a different way.

Even in the darkness of the evening the building looked as if it had been abandoned for some time; broken lights dangled by their cables and all the ground floor windows had been boarded up.

A sound of shattering glass nearby caught their attention, something had been thrown out of the warehouse from another side, and they bickered hurriedly about possibly dropping in through one of the skylight or windows high above them.

“And what? Shatter my kneecaps.” Mac abandoned the door and flexed his aching fingers. “We should call the police, they can get us in and han-”

A muffled scream from inside cut him off.

“We haven’t got time!” Cheese exclaimed with her hands thrown out. She felt a twinge run down her spine.

The man appeared from the gloom across from them and spoke. He didn’t seem friendly.

The young man looked towards Mac and Cheese and stuck his blade into the ground before he bowed and stated, “It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Pain, a member of the Surge Guardians and this is my brother, Panic.” Pain gestured towards the sword. After several seconds Pain sighed and added, “Don’t be so shy.”

The blade started to shiver before it glowed a brilliant fern green as the sword morphed into a person. He was a six foot three tall man wearing a straitjacket and white hospital pants. Chains wrapped around his body. The chains had glowing golden numbers on each link of the chain. He had a Hannibal-like mask on his face, his eyes were covered with a black blindfold and his ears were covered with headphones. Pain walked next to his bother and bowed as he said, “It’s an honor to meet to.” Panic on the other hand just stood there like a statue.

Mac looked at Cheese and Cheese looked at Mac; both as unsure as the other about the situation. Cheese then turned back to the two men and stood very still. Mac touched the two charms tied around his neck; the little ring of the good luck charm and a small glass bead of a shield charm.

"Nice to meet you too." Mac replied with a warning tone in his voice, and summoned his twisted Keyblade. He held it tight in both hands. "We're busy here, so what do you want?"

In the darkness no one would notice a little shadow moving from beneath Cheese to behind Mac. Mac knew however that, despite what his eyes were telling him, Cheese wasn’t standing beside him anymore and felt someone slip something into his back pocket.

“Use the spells.” The empty space by Macs ear whispered. “Or I will skin you.”

(( Little note for Rex = Shield Charm: A Fairy artefact to defend against magical and physical attacks, but it can only take so much before it shatters, so probably 2/3 big hits but I'll try and keep it reasonable.))

“Why are we?” Panic said a little confused before he looked at Panic and back to Mac and Cheese and said, “You don’t know why we’re here?” Pain seemed a little shocked that they didn’t know why they sought out these two.

“We’re here to kill you and then kill the princess of this world,” Pain said nonchalantly like there was nothing wrong with it. He then sighed, “Great, now I’m going to feel back after this. I don’t like killing people who don’t know it’s coming. Ok, we can fix this.” Pain then surprisingly asked, “Can you just beg for your lives or something. This way I don’t feel so bad.”

Panic twitched as the chains rattled and Pain sighed again, “Alright, alright. Keep your pants on.” Pain walked over to his brother and grabbed the chains and Hannibal Lector like mask. The two glowed before the two morphed into gold orbs. The orbs then morphed into objects. The chain morphed into a sword while the mask morphed into a shield.

“Just remember to take your jacket off. That shits not cheap to replace,” Pain said to Panic. Panic shimmed in his straitjacket before he was able to free his arms. He slipped off his straitjacket and let out a satisfying sigh. Under his straitjacket he wore nothing, but all over the top half of his body were tattoos of shark’s teeth. He quickly ripped off his blindfold and headphones before he looked at Cheese with his Ruby red eyes and smiled a toothless smile.

Panic started to twitch and convulse as his skin changed from tan to dark gray. He hunched over as his back began to rise and from the middle of his shoulder blades grew a dorsal fin. Matrix of tiny, hard, tooth-like structures called placoid scales grew from his skin as black claws grew from the tips of his fingers. Serrated shark like teeth grew from his gums. From the base of his back ripped out a shark’s tale. His ruby red eyes changed to pits of pitch black nothingness.

“You’ve got to find a better way to morph dude, the sound of your bones cracking as you change is disturbing,” Pain stated,

“Shut it,” Panic growled before he added, “Take the walking TV. I want the girl.”

“Whatever,” Pain said.

[Collab between Rex, Arty Fox, and Letter Bee]

If Mac had teeth he would've been clenching them tightly. Even after a trip throug the Fae realm seeing someone change into a shark monster was an unsettling sight. For a moment Mac was aiming to charge at Pain, but several hard prods to his right shoulder told him otherwise: go for Panic.

"Just like Saturday night." Mac lied to himself. There weren't any sharks on Saturdays.

With a shout Mac sprinted towards Panic, aiming to deal sideway blow to the face.The Illusion of Cheese vanished from where it stood. Two other appeared on either side of Mac, following his charge, with violet eyes and daggers forward. Upon reaching Panic the two illusions simply passed through him and vanished. Mac was left to attack on his own.

Small as thumb and shining bright Cheese appeared just in front of Pains nose. Her overly large violet eyes sparkled with glee when she threw a piece of glass shaped like a flame into his eye. Cheese quickly lurched backward to avoid the flames that would suddenly pour forth.

“Son of a bitch!” Pain screamed as the flames exploded into his eyes. He flailed wildly as he tried to hit Cheese. He stopped and tensed up and he yelled, “Damn it Panic. This chick just blinded me! Why are you always attracted to the crazy ones!”

Panic meanwhile would swipe at the cheese illusions only to have his claws faze through them. Panic grunted as Macs weapon slammed into the left side of his face. Panic staggered back as he shook his head to clear the cobwebs in his head. He lifted his right claw and wiped the blood that was oozing out his wound. A smile formed on his face as his tongue slithered out his mouth and he licked the blood from his claw. His tongue was dark blue with silver spikes on either end of it. Panic looked over to his bother and said, “you’re not blind you moron. Did you forget you’re right eye can’t be destroyed?”

Pain shook his head and removed his hand from his eyes. His left eye was singed shit from the flames, but part of the right side of his face had melted off and revealed the metal skull under his fabricated skin. His right eye glowed green as he scanned the area around him. Pain sighed and said, “Yeah well, if anyone found out about me. I’d be dismantled.”

“Sure you would,” Panic said a little annoyed before he turned to Mac and said, “Look, I’m not interested in you boy. I’m more interested in your girlfriend. So, unless you want to be my next meal. I’d suggest you swap and kill Pain.”

“Hey!” Pain argued.

Mac almost ‘whooped’ for joy: he had hit the enemy AND caused damage. He then cringed in disgust. This was very different to fighting the Heartless. He could hear his heart pounding away in his chest as it drove adrenaline rampant through his body as Panic rambled on in front of him. He breathed in, and then out again.

Instead of replying Mac decided to try and take another swing at Panic: an overhead one that left him open for an attack. Panic snarled as Mac went to attack him again. Panic this time jump back and smiled as he saw an opening to attack Mac. He took it and charged forward as his claws twitching with anticipation. With a yelp of surprise Mac stumbled, but managed to keep his balance. The strike from pain brutally knocked the air out of Macs lungs and him rolling across the ground. Thankfull the shield charm had done it's job preventing any actual harm being done to him.

Mac dragged himself up from the ground. "Damn that hurt."

The green glow of Pains eye had wiped the cocky smirk from Cheese’s face. Cheese knew that humans had hundreds of different technologies capable of making the invisible, visible. Additionally, while Cheese knew she could fight off anyone with a metal weapon, as several rowdy customers had learned, she didn’t want to push her luck against someone with a metal body. Cursing herself for still being rusty, Cheese swore loudly. She could feel a small migraine coming on.

((I moved it up a bit Rex just to make it flow a bit better :) ))

“Mac.” Giving up on being Invisible Cheese zipped over to the other pair. “Terminator, swap.”

Mac didn’t get a chance to respond before he was shoved to the side.

In the blink of an eye Cheese now stood in front of Panic. She had altered her appearance again, standing at full human size Cheese had opted to smooth out all her sharp angles. Her clothes were torn in ‘strategic’ places.

“I’ll handle big boy here.” Cheese held her dagger loosely in her right hand.

“Wear protection.” Mac knew exactly where this was going.

Following Cheeses advice Mac scrambled up from the ground and decided to concentrate his attacks on Pain instead.

However, Panic skidded to a stop when he saw Cheese push Mac and stand in front of him. Panic’s smile grew as she showed off his serrated shark teeth. He licked his lips and his tail seemed to twitch with excitement,.

“Thought you’d never come around sweet cheeks,” Panic taunted before he added; “I had thought when Pain mentioned a tag team like us. I’d just be bored out of my mind and remain in in that weapon form. However, with you here, things have gotten a hell of a lot better.” His eyes went from Cheese’s head to her feet and back up as he examined her from top to bottom.

“Got to say: I’ve never seen a specimen quite as exquisite as you,” Panic said before he raised his right hand and pulled one of the large placoid scales from his body. He then did the same thing with his left hand. He held both large placoid scales in his hands like daggers. From the large holes where the placoid scales where ripped off. Grew more to replace the one’s he had lost. He spun one of the placoid scales in his hand and said, “Let’s get this dissection party started.” With that he charged towards Cheese.

Cheese let her lip curl with disgust and decided to abandon her previous plan; she had standards, and besides there were plenty of other enemies whose names she could take. Additonally Seth owed her that favour. She let her illusion drop and her harsh edges returned.

"There won't be enough of you left." Cheese held another glass flame, three times the size of the one she had thrown at Pain, and pushed it forward towards Panics mouth.

“Oh thank god,” Pain said with a sigh of relief before he said, “I don’t think I could hurt a girl. Even if she did try and blind me, and burn me alive, and attempt to kill. However, I can’t really fault her for it, but at least I’m fighting a comfortable fight. Even if you kind of look like Jukebox.” Pain readied himself and charged Mac. He kept his shield up as he charged forward, but when he got in range. He quickly stopped and jumped back as his shield glowed and morphed into a revolver. He fired three shots in hopes the bullets would find their targets.

While Mac had held up his Keyblade to defend against the charge it did nothing against the bullets that zipped through. Two of the bullets bounced off the shield charm with high pitched squeals the third however dropped to the ground when it had hit with a low thud, like someone hitting a piece of meat. Three steps back Mac felt himself starting to bruise and an odd preassure pressing around him; the shield charm was breaking. In desperation Mac considered reaching into his back pocket for a spell but hesitated with one hand just above the pocket.

"Oh just shut it." Mac again took hold of his keyblade with both hands.

Mac barely had a moment to prepare his attack when something stopped him. A burst of light erupted to his right coupled with a blast of heat strong enough to singe the hairs on his arms.

Only for Pain to suddenly find that several C4 explosives had appeared on his body out of nowhere, exploding at the very next second. Once the smoke cleared, he would find Homura, with Madoka sitting quietly in the far corner of the abandoned factory, holding a cattle prod that sparked with electricity. She would then vanish, and yet another moment later, Pain's metal skull would feel the shock of lightning, enough to knock out a full-grown bull.

Should he turn around, he would find that Homura had vanished again.

It was then that Tocsax and Drake would appear from a Corridor of Darkness, right behind Pain and Panic!

"I'd advise you to surrender," Tocsax then summoned a dozen Samurai Nobodies to accentuate the point*. "Or teleport away like cowards; that works too."

Cheese held her shriek caged behind gritted teeth. A horrible stench of burning wood filled her nostrils and searing pain consumed her left arm up to her shoulder. Cheese knew that only a charred stump was all that remained of hand. Despite this Cheese still stood tall with her blade held tightly in her right hand prepared to strike.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." She should've pulled her magic together before striking not during. A cocky rookie mistake that was now costing her. "Get the princess away!" Cheese screamed.

With that, Madoka was teleported to the Ruler of the Sea.

*khwiki.com/Samurai

@Gentlemanvaultboy

Mark looked at V2 and laughed before he added, “Please, you honestly think you can hide your smell from me. Listen you hunk of junk: where I come from; we have robots that try and blend in with humanity. They’re disgusting thought of actually being equal to us is preposterous. They’re nothing more than our slaves. They’re only good for working and being dismantled. Which is where I come in.” a smile broke on Marks face again as he began to laugh.

“They actually think they deserve to live because they claim to be A.I. but, when you get right down to it. If a robot wants equal rights, then you just destroy them and replace them with the next model. I hate them all, but more importantly: I hate the humans who think they can live peacefully with the robots. They disgust me even more. So breaking the robots in front of them is such a thrill. Then watching as they beg for their own lives is such a thrill,” Mark ranted before he sighed. He just stood there for several seconds before he suddenly charged at V2 and yelled, “So let’s get this over with! I’ve got more pressing matters to take care of!”

"Well we agree on one thing." v2 said, jumping back as the man charged forward. His rocket roared to life, letting him hover in the air as his shoulder antenna sparked up. Lighting was channeling into his keyblade as he whipped it toward the man, the crackling blade tumbling end over end like a boomerang. "THUNDER HEART RIPPER!" he heard himself yell before bringing down his finger in a gun shape. Electricity arced to that too, lighting it up a brilliant blue and ready to unleash a LIGHTHEART JAB when he moved. If it worked right he would dodge the keyblade, get stunned by the lightning v2 was about to shoot, then get hit by the blade as it flew back to him.

[Collab between Rex, Arty Fox, and Letter Bee]

Pain yelled as the explosion ripped his fake skin from his body. It wasn’t a yell of pain, but surprise at the sudden explosion and flames. When the dust and smoke steeled, the right side of his body was completely torn of the fake skin and revealed his metal skeleton. He looked at his metal hand and snarled and screamed, “You little shit! Do you know how much that skin costs!?” he wasn’t able to act as he violently convulsed from the sudden electricity. His green eye slowly dimmed before he stood motionless.

“Pain!” Panic yelled. He rushed over to his brother, but didn’t get far as a crackle of thunder erupted and Drake appeared in front of Panic. His blaze blue sword unsheathed and swinging towards Panics head. Panic, in surprising speed spun around and swung one of his placoid scale daggers towards Drakes sword. The two collided, but Drake’s sword couldn’t match Panic’s weapons. The placoid scale dagger shattered Drake’s sword and sent him flying backwards.

Drake skidded on his back before he quickly rolled to his feet. However, he dropped to one of his knees as he felt the pain shoot up his arm. His right had had dropped the broken sword as blood oozed from the open wound in his palm.

“You son of a bitch!” Panic screamed before he soared towards Drake and spun like a vortex as he added, “I’ll tear you to shreds!” Drake’s watch glowed and a reddish black skinny cylinder dropped to the ground. He used his good hand to quickly grab the cylinder and take a pill from it. He quickly popped the pill in his mouth and bit down on it. What he was about to do was dangerous. He was going to do something he could only do once. Not once a day, once a week or once a month, but it was something he had done five years ago and it nearly killed him.

The blood oozing from his wound continued to ooze, but it started to lift up into the air as the pain in his hand started to get worse. He quickly stood up and pointed his opened palm at Panic and said, “Bloody Sceptile.” The blood suddenly shot from his open wound and morphed into five flying snakes that soared towards Panic and pierced into his body. Panic screamed in pain as the vortex looped around and slammed into the ground.

“Damn it!” Drake cursed as he fell to his knees clutching his right wrist. The pain from the wound has intensified to the point it felt like his whole hand was on fire. He did all he could from tearing his skin off the stop the pain. He coughed and blood splatted the ground in front of him as he felt the after effects of the drug.

Panic groaned in pain as he lay on the ground, blood oozing from his wounds. He coughed and started to get up, but fell back down as he glared at Drake and the others. A white door appeared under Panic and Pain. The doors opened and the two fell into the doors before they closed and fizzled into white fog.

“Oh that was a bad idea,” Drake coughed as he winced when the pain flared up so much tears where started to form. A small trickle of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth as he added, “Really bad idea.”

Tocsax came over to Drake, saying:

"I can open a portal to Data-Ascot back in the Incubators' labyrinth; have him cast Pain Link on us again while I heal you." He would then, if Drake permitted, cast Regen on the guy.

Mac and Cheese had made sure to keep clear of the fight when the calvalry had arrived, or more accuratley Cheese had tugged Mac quickly out of the fight when the ripples of pain travelling down her spine became too much. For Cheese the most annoying thing was she didn't get a chance to turn Panic into a smouldering pile of meat with her spell before Drake arrived.

"Who were those two?" Cheese demanded as she approached them. "They were after the Princess and they knew us, even surprised when we didn't know them."

"Nearly killed us before you guys showed up." Mac added alongside Cheese.

"Because you were being a childish prick who won't use magic!" Cheese rounded on him with her face red with rage. "We. Are. At. War. Out of everyone on this team you are the only one who refuses to acknowledge this. Children get enlisted into armies. People get hurt. Rules get broken and we all have nightmares."

"Well I-." Mac began but was quickly cut off by Cheese wrapping her hands around his throat.

"No. You listen to me." She spat out each word, grimacing even when she lifted Mac off the ground. "I can't fight because of you being so weak and helpess, and it is driving me crazy. I can only use a loophole so many times Mac before it burns through me. So you had better get your finger out of your arse and start fighting before you get us both killed!"

Mac simply gurgled in response. He struggled in her grip whilst his heart beat thump, thumped loudly all around him. Cheese took several aganisingly shaky breaths of her own.

“Will you two shut up!” Drake roared. The pain was worse than before and the fact that he had to listen to them didn’t help. Through gridded teeth he hissed, “If you haven’t noticed. We ALL were attacked. It was a tactic known as testing the waters. They only fought us to see our power and if you haven’t noticed. four other members of our team aren’t here. So they’re still fighting.” Drake took several breaths before he was able to stand.

“So if you too are done with the lovers quarrel. We need to get to the others because after seeing who you two where fighting. V2 is in a hell of a lot of trouble, plus Taka is all alone so if they wanted to: they could jump him,” Drake said before he turned to Tocsax and said, “Trust me. This pain isn’t something you want to feel. I’ll use the Rapture to help me heal, but it isn’t going to be a quick one.” Drake’s watch glowed and the cylinder with the rapture pills appeared in his good hand. He quickly took three Rapture pills before they were teleported back into his watch.

Drake tried to conjure up lighting in his good hand, but winced when the pain from his wounded hand flared up again. Shit, not good Drake thought

While Cheese was very much annoyed at Drakes comments she had to admit he had a point. With a painful grunt she let Mac drop unceremoniously to the ground to take in greedy gulps of air.

"Then we'll need as much firepower as possible to drive them off." From seemingly no-where Cheese had once again pulled out her box of tricks. "I had meant to give everyone of these earlier but I didn't get the chance, and I'm no spell-crafter either."

From the old wooden box Cheese pulled out a small silk bag filled with glass flames of various sizes, and a glass bead on a string.

"Just throw the glass flames at Pain and Panic and they'll explode, the glass bead is a shield charm." She explained as quickly as she could, pulling out another silk bag which she handed to Tocsax.

"Hurray, fire and glass." Mac sarcastically cheered as he rubbed his throat. Already ugly purple marks were appearing. "However did we survive without them."

Ryteb used the power of air to fly back, into the hole where V2 had made his exit previously exited the room, making sure to get as much room between him and the sword guy as possible. Although he had been trained in some physical combat by Odin, and by the weeks trying to survive in the Llychbaen Woods, he was more suited to tackling brutish animals rather than trained mercenaries. Especially ones with unknown qualities. Which was why he decided to target the girl instead, as at least he had some idea of her powers. Though the extent of her menagerie was another unknown factor, which could lead to a pretty bad situation if it came down to a war of attrition.

All the while Ryteb had been launching the spears though, he had been releasing more of the ice particles to make the room similar in condition to the centre of a thundercloud. Sparks were created of their own accord by the ferocious crashing of ice on the microscopic scale. Ryteb looked over at the mercenaries, and gave a mischievous wink. With a subtle shift of his blade, a Faraday Cage was formed around Mai, insulating her from the coming attack.

"You know, I hate to repeat a trick multiple times." Ryteb smirked, raising his gloved hand ready to make a click, "But it seems you guys need a bit of... en-lightning about the power of magicians."

Inside his head he thought; 'This is going to hurt an imperial fuckton.' As he clicked his fingers. An emerald spark emerged from his hand, exploding into a solid sheet of plasma that spread across the entire room. A deafening boom could be heard all over as Ryteb used the power of the water and air to create a lightning strike. Everything in the room was blasted by the powerful electic field, save for Mai who was in an area that seemed to push away the electricity, but the raw heat of the strike permeated through. The young mage himself was blasted out of the hole he was standing in, the front half of his body scorched by the blast. His breathing laboured, he managed to get out; "Yeah... that hurt..." Before passing out from the pain. Hopefully he had taken care of the bad guys.