[IC] A Hero Tale {Complete}

[tex]

Luke nodded, but before they moved, Blup interfered. "Bluuuuuuup! Mikey is on his way here right now!" He blooped, "I've lost contact with my bodies attached to Jeff, Bruce, and Oswald!!" Luke turned to Jenso and then ran towards the door. But before he could get out of the room, he was launched across it by a torrent of water. Mikey walked into the room slowly and glared at Jenso, his expression blank, and his Sage-armour fully active. Unlike his battle with Jeff however, the armour seemed more fluid, and transparent, as if he could be seen through.

"We can't leave this room," Mikey said, his voice echoing much like Jeff's, "Not until they're finished." Something else poisoned his voice however. Something familiar...

"They'll be done soon."

---

~ End Of Chapter 160 ~

[tex]

~ Chapter 161 ~

_{Nexus Diary 4 - Who?}

~Events Before The Citadel Fiasco

Zelriane stood over Oswald's body while Rajaka clapped on the sidelines.

"Didn't think you'd get serious for that," Rajaka teased, "He was just a stupid kid." Zelriane rubbed the small scratch on his cheek angrily.

"Shut up. I wasn't about to let him score anything beyond a glancing hit. Underestimating him was foolish. You should know that by now. This universe is filled with people like him, and taking them lightly has only lead to pain. I wouldn't expect you to understand, but after having both of your arms torn off-"

"I'm fine!" Rajaka roared, jumping off his resting place and stomping towards Oswald. He picked up the man and continued towards the girl that Zelriane had kidnapped. "So, I guess that's it then? We're killing them now?" Rajaka asked, "I thought the whole point of this was to bring Red-eye some viable specimens, or give us a challenge! So what, we're just gonna-" Rajaka stepped on the woman's head and spun towards Zelriane, flopping Oswald's body around, "-Squash 'em?"

"Of course not," Zelriane barked. Suddenly, Shaidra and Nexus appeared behind the short martial master. He spun to greet them. Shaidra disappeared right afterwards, back into her own little world. "This is the one, Nexus." Nexus approached Oswald and looked over his body. "Your eyes are better than mine, and I am not about to pull Yzeira away from his reading for a false alarm." He knew it as well, better than Zelriane ever could. Rajaka dropped Oswald and crossed his arms. Nexus nodded.

"He's got Meta Energy. There's no doubt about it. It's dissimilar to any of our own. I'm not exactly sure what it's capable of, yet, nor do I know if it will have the same affect on his Psyche as it has on anyone in the order." Nexus turned towards the horizon. Several golems approached, adamantly, looking for targets. It was Geode's army. "This might work out perfectly."

"What?" Zelriane looked towards the golems and narrowed his eyes "That Geode character's work, no doubt. Why is this-"

"Leave him here," Nexus ordered, "They'll take him back to the citadel. That golden kid will end up going there as well as soon as this situation goes public." Nexus cringed and shook his head. "Prisma was unsuccessful."

"You can't be serious," Rajaka grunted, stomping towards Nexus, "There's no way in hell!" Nexus nodded and Rajaka spun away from him. "Damn it!" He roared, "Fuck! Fuck!..." Rajaka slowly walked away as he cursed continuously. Zelriane remained silent. And then the golden giant turned back to Nexus and pointed at him. "You," He grumbled, "This is your fault! I had a plan! Me and Zelriane were gonna take care of this!"

"We needed you here-"

"NO YOU DIDN'T FUCK FACE, NOBODY NEEDED ANYONE ANYWHERE, WE'RE ALL-POWERFUL GODLIKE TITANS. TWO OF US WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR THAT LITTLE IDIOT! YZEIRA COULD POP IN AND SOLO HIM!" Rajaka shouted in a tantrum. His muscles expanded and he grabbed Nexus by the side of his armour, lifting him to eye level. Nexus said nothing. "YOU CONVINCED HIM TO DO IT ON HIS OWN, YOU POINTED HIM TOWARDS THAT PSYCHO VAMPIRE! THIS. IS. YOUR. FAULT."

"You're right," Nexus blurted, "We'll do it your way, now." Zelriane's eyes flickered. Rajaka grunted and dropped Nexus back onto his feet.

"Zelriane, you heard him. We get to do it our way now."

"Not yet," Zelriane murmured, "The whole point of Nexus' plan was to provide results, subjects, specimens- We're not abandoning that now." Zelriane turned to Nexus and Nodded. Rajaka looked to Nexus, and the Zelriane, then to Nexus, and back to Zelriane, shaking his head with one eyes half-cocked at the nonsense he'd suggested.

"AM I THE ONLY SANE ONE HERE?" He shouted, flustered and flailing his arms about angrily.

"Oz will grow if he meets Jenso. They will fight with Geode, I'm sure of it. We'll send that vampire to make sure things go according to plan, just in case. In the end, either Jenso and Oz will be killed, or Geode will be defeated. If Yzeira wishes it,
we'll approach them then, with the offer. If it fails, I'm certain Yzeira will chose to end this reality." Zelriane closed his eyes. "It's the safest way. It gives us options." Nexus nodded and coughed into his hand. Rajaka flailed about silently before finally nodding.

"Fine, fine!" He grunted, "But if they don't accept his offer, we're getting at least one good round with those little fuckers. I'll get Ada and Shaidra to help too. And you," Rajaka pointed at Nexus, his eyes focused intently and every muscle in his body tensed. "You're helping us, whether you like it or not." Nexus' brow furrowed. After a brief pause, he nodded.

"Fine. Have it your way."

---

~ End Of Chapter 161 ~

[tex]

~ Chapter 162 ~

_{Am I Real?}

Mikey stood quietly, blocking the entrance, looking back occasionally to see if anyone was following him into the room.

[Jensoman]

Jenso's eyes widened as Luke was sent flying, and dashed after him immediately. He caught his father and placed him on the ground on the side of the arena. He dashed into the center of the room, and glared at Mikey as he showed up in his sage form. "Mikey...no, you're not him. Who are you?!" He asked, and got in a combat stance. He clenched his fists in frustration, keeping a close eyes on his movements. Was he being controlled by the Order somehow? It didn't seem to be Ada's doing.

[tex]

Mikey looked back at Jenso. "I am Mikey, well, in a manner of speaking," Nexus' voice finally came through, much clearer than before, despite the echo. But it was definitely Mikey's body. Blup was nowhere to be seen, though. Was he re-absorbed?

"Blup!" The clone on Jenso's head called out, "He destroyed Blup!!! That Mikey's energy is not normal! Ki levels otherworldly! Strange readings! Blup!" Blup paused and spoke once more. "But.. Blup.. It is the same Mikey..."

[Jensoman]

Jenso's stance showed less agression as he began to recognise Nexus's voice, and he frowned. "Nexus? Why? Did Yzeira order you to do this?" He asked, confused. He listened to Blup's words, realising that he would need to be careful to avoid killing Mikey.

[tex]

Mikey didn't respond at first. His eyes lowered and he looked towards his hand. "It's complicated," Nexus started, "I'm not really... Nexus. I'm Mikey. I'm just doing... What I want to do." His blue, transparent form began to bubble up with purple splotches that appeared and disappeared constantly, like he was poisoned. "Something threw me over the edge, recently. I don't think anyone's... Controlling me. I just feel like I'm different. Like I know what I want now. And It's not anything that we've been working towards."

[Jensoman]

Jenso took a casual stance now, but kept his guard up. "What do you want, man?" He asked in a calm and caring tone. He didn't want to hurt his friend. "And...who are they?"

[tex]

"I want what they want," Mikey said, staggering his voice, "Th-they are... My family. They're here now. I'm sorry, Jenso, but our friends have to d-d-d..." Mikey clasped his head with one hand and groaned in pain. "This is how it's supposed to be, right? This makes me real?"

[Jensoman]

Jenso walked closer to Mikey, albeit still keeping his distance. "You ARE real, dude! If you weren't real, we never would have gotten this far!" He shouted, causing some of the white flames to burst out briefly from his body, due to the sudden stress that Jenso was under. "I'm sorry, Mikey...I should have noticed that you felt this frustrated.."

[tex]

Mikey shook his head and lowered his hand, sending a shock wave of moistened energy towards Jenso. "Get away!" He shouted, "I'm not real... I'm just a doll. Everything I was ever made to be. It started with you. I'm just a copy of you." Mikey's arms began to tremble. He looked down again, to his feet. "When we first fought, I remember it.. I remember it clearly. We were the same. I was stronger. So much stronger. And... Then we fought again. I was weaker, that time. But I felt it, who I was supposed to be. Somebody fake, not real at all. Just a doll. An empty casket. Trying to work towards being stronger than you. False memories that inspired everything I do. The way I fight. The way I think. My behaviour, it all came back to something I thought- No. What they thought was better. A more perfect version of you. But it's all fake.." Mikey looked at Jenso again.

"I've been used this entire time as a proxy. To help you. To make you stronger. But not because I wanted to. It was only because he wanted to. So, what am I? I'm just a tool. But If I can help my whole family, my real family, I can be real again."

[Jensoman]

Jenso glared at Mikey and got in a combat stance immediately, as the flames within his body began to flare up. He stood resolute, as a condensed heat barrier surrounded Jenso's body, heating up the moisterized air as his left foot slid back to support himself to avoid tumbling back as the shockwave reached him. "So they planned this since Feraldia, huh?" Jenso muttered at first, and sighed. "Mikey, it doesn't matter who or what you are. You choose who you want to be. You're my friend and I don't want to hurt you...please step aside. I won't let the Order do as they please." He stated.

[tex]

"Ever since we fought... Ever since Ada created me to mess with you..." Mikey's body began to emit a subtle blue aura that took the shape of blue flames. He looked back at Jenso and got into a combat stance. "I think I know what I want." Mikey dashed towards Jenso with his energy pulsating violently.

"I want to win."

---

~ End Of Chapter 162 ~

[tex]

~ Chapter 163 ~

_{Nexus Diary 5 - Why?}

~Several hours earlier~

"So you just... Want me to leave it?" Ada asked Nexus, curiously eyeing the man as they stood at the foot of the tower of chaos. "Seriously?"

"If Rajaka and Zelriane fail, we need an edge," Nexus explained.

"Mmmm.. That's fine. I suppose." Ada shrugged and strut out of his room. Nexus sighed.

"I didn't create Mikey to have him used for your personal games," Nexus thought to himself, "But I won't be able to stop you, will I?"

~

"Oh Zelriane! Ra-Ra!" Ada shouted, stepping back into Shaidra's pocket dimension through the little wraith's portal, "Nexus said it was ok! We're good to go, hmm~mmm~mmm~."

"Alright! You know the plan, bud. Grab two of them at a time, and then smash them," Rajaka said, smashing one fist into the base of his other hand.

"Does it matter which one we take first?" Zelriane asked.

"Leave it up to Shaidra. She's got a good sense for this sort of thing!" Rajaka assured him, "Aint that right, squirt?" Shaidra swayed left and right rhythmically and nodded.

"....Take...."

---

~ End Of Chapter 163 ~

[tex]

~ Chapter 164 ~

_{Welcome To Hell, Fuck-Face!}

Bruce and Jeff were sent into cascading spirals, landing on top of one another in an instant, atop a massive floating block of black rock, composed of bricks and debris. Across it, stood two figures. One that Jeff might recognise almost immediately as Rajaka. The other, short, wearing a green Gi, with his hair slicked back, and a trademark mask covering his face. His eyes glowed a sinister green through two narrow slits, eyeing both of them carefully. The small black-coated girl, who seemed to wear the shadows themselves, slipped away before either of them could react. Had she kidnapped them and sent them here in an instant they way she'd done in the past with Dacer and Tiger?

"Hey, how you doin' kids?" Rajaka said, introducing himself in the only way he knew how- Sarcasm. "I'll be the one smashing you today, alongside my best friend in the whole wide world here, Zelriane!" Zelriane rose one of his hands and offered a subtle wave, before letting it drop again.

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce ignored the larger man's rambling, inferring from it only who the two left standing in front of them were. He took stock of their surroundings, feeling an unsettling disconnect from his natural element.
"Please stop talking. I'm trying to think." Bruce muttered vaguely toward Rajaka. He turned toward Jeff. "You good? We need to get back to where Jenso and the others are. Any ideas?"
Bruce's eyes flickered toward Zelraine- he had a distinct scent to him that gave Bruce the feeling he was potentially the more dangerous.

[tex]

Rajaka was about to point in the hero's direction, but as Bruce interrupted, the giant's entire body froze in place, and his index finger and left eye began to twitch. For a moment, he felt as if he hadn't clenched his teeth so hard in hundreds of years. Zelriane glanced towards his gigantic ally slowly, back to Bruce, and sighed.

[SuperFlash]

The wind sage stood there for a moment in shock as he stood face to face to the man that single handily sent his life into utter chaos by turning his home town into less then rubble. "Y..Youu... I was preparing myself to face you again, but I wasn't expecting it to happen like this..." The sage finally spoke before turning to Bruce to respond to him quietly. "No, dimensional travel has sadly been one of the few things I've mostly been unable to dwell much into. Our best bet here is that beating them will free us, or to wait for an opening of them to open a way back. Think we can take them both?"

[tex]

"Nope," Rajaka grunted, taking one step forward, and shaking the entire ring, "Nope, nope, nope, nope!"

"Careful not to break the ground, Rajaka," Zelriane advised, "Keep yourself under control, or Shaidra will eject you."

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce took note of the familiarity between Jeff and the yellow one. He focused his attention back on Zelraine.
"I have a feeling we don't have a choice. You've got a handle on the big guy, right?" Bruce asked, pulling his sheath from his side and pointed the end of it at Zelraine. "I don't suppose either will be kind enough to let us fight two on one, and I'm more concerned about him anyway."
Bruce swung his sheath back over his shoulder, glancing at Jeff. "I've no qualms with the odds right now. Do you?"
A subtle smile crossed Bruce's face.