[IC] The Crossroads (Multiverse-Style Battle Royale Crossover RP) (Unlimited Slots, Always Accepting!)

[LouisTheDummy]

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Hiccup fell silent too, just watching the child inspect Toothless - while he wanted to give some information about the massive beast of a dragon, he simply felt he should let the him get used to the dragon, given they are somewhat of a myth nowadays. Though that was the case until he saw Toothless becoming increasingly angered with the way he was circling him, and to make matters worse- Wait did he just lick his hand?

Hiccup watched, confused, until Steven began to.. move.. his hand towards the dragon - Oh no. Toothless, rightfully so, was becoming increasingly angered by this unwanted touch, especially after they just licked their hand - and he could see him flattening his appendages as he snarled, getting ready to snap. "Ah-- No, no!" Hiccup quickly grabbed Steven's wrist and pulled him away from Toothless, who in a split moment of anger, snapped at the pair before shaking his head and moving further away - giving a low growl at the pair, but mostly Steven.

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@Ladypug

[Ladypug]

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Steven saw the dragon's ears rear back, but he continued his advance anyway. Like, it'd only take a couple seconds of contact for his healing powers to kick in and it'd be done! But then he heard the growl, and his blood ran cold. Before he could pull his own hand back from the fear, he let out a little surprised yelp as Hiccup grabbed his wrist, grip ironclad as the man wrenched Steven's hand back, bending his arm awkwardly in the process. Steven was quick to then take his hand back from Hiccup, rubbing his wrist with the other as he looked at Hiccup with a confused look on his face. All he was trying to do was heal the Night Fury! Was that really not obvious-?

Steven's face fell as he realized that wait a second, no, it wasn't obvious. Of course it wasn't obvious. This wasn't Steven's home, obviously. This was that Crossroads place that he was texted about. Whether or not it was a Gem thing or some other bizarre situation, it wasn't HIS home. There was no way that Hiccup and this Night Fury would know of Steven's whole.. Shtick. Like how would they know about his healing powers, or his status as a Diamond, or frankly anything about him? Like, to them, this random kid just came up and donked them in the head with his weird magic shield, then slimed the palm of his hand with spit and went to touch them with his spitty hand. It was weird! No, it was beyond weird, and- Oh, stars, he probably seemed like he was some kinda cuckoo.

Steven's expression shifted into a meek sort of smile. He wiped the palm of his hand on his jeans as he spoke, using his other hand to gesture, "Wait, just- I swear I'm not crazy. I can explain-" his eyes lit up as he added with a smug little smirk, "Better yet, let me show you."

He quickly looked around for something that looked damaged or already half-dead- OH! That tree that the Night Fury blasted at looks pretty rough, but not totally beyond fixing. That'll do nicely! Steven did a little half-run over to the tree, then re-wet his hand before smacking it against the baren section where the dragon's breath attack had damaged it. He put his other hand up only holding one finger up to signal for Hiccup and the dragon to wait a second... It turned into five seconds. Steven's confident grin falters as he shifts his weight, laughing nervously.

"Any second now. I swear, it-it'll-" he makes a little popping noise. "and it'll be fixed." He rests his free hand on his hip, and then looks at the tree trunk expectantly.

...Aaaannyyy second now.

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@LouisTheDummy

[Rothurage]

Skulduggery Pleasant

&

Valkyrie Cain

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Skulduggery and Valkyrie knew that would be found out sooner or later. Especially with the troopers slowly closing in on their position. So instead of sitting around and get captured, they thought to get the jump on these unsuspecting soldiers.

They both swiftly jumped out from behind wherever they were hiding to start their surprise attack. Valkyrie ran up to the trooper that was closest to her and grabbed a hold of his weapon before he could fire it, putting him in some kind of hold and shifted her body in a way so that she could flip him over onto the ground.

Meanwhile, Skulduggery wanted to handle things a little differently. Rather than prolong the confrontation, he wanted to end it as soon as people. They were outnumbered after all and that usually wasn’t good. He used his Elemental magic and sent a gust of wind towards the troopers in an attempt to push them back enough for him and Valkyrie to make an escape. Now with a small opening, Valkyrie and Skulduggery made a break for it in the opposite direction. Hopefully they wouldn’t be pursued any further by these troopers after this or things will really start to not turn out well.

[Lmpkio]

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Mentions: @tipssyCalibrator

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The Slayer could see his shots penetrate through his target's skin, causing him to stagger, but not fall over immediately. As he fired his second shot, his opponent would dodge, leaping over him with surprising grace. He would turn to try and counter, but his opponent was ready for him as he took out his own pistols and fired upon him. Despite being too late to dodge completely out of the way, most of the bullets were unable to penetrate through the praetor suit's "adamantium-esque" strength. One was able to bounce off the side of the Slayer's helmet, barely missing the glass portion of his visor. Nonetheless, it did cause the Slayer to reel in relative surprise.

But he would immediately retaliate with his own strength. Using his right armored forearm to block a few of the bullets, he would proceed to kick Dante with all of his available strength and fury, attempting to pin him against a building.

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Mentions: @Hokagae, @Zoey Boey

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As two of the stormtroopers kept their eyes on the tracks - being FN-453 and officer FN-924 - the others formed a circular formation to guard the two guides.

"Keep on guard, men." the officer warned as he peered his gun over the surrounding area, "Watch for any sudden movement and set your blasters on stun."

He needed eyes on the field to make sure they wouldn't be picked off by any surprise ambush. While the tracks indicated only two members, that didn't mean much in the grand scheme of what they looked like and what they've armed themselves with if they are indeed armed. For all they knew they could be either wielding dainty blaster pistols or something like a smart rocket launcher, or even both. And he trees were positioned very close to one another, there were also plenty of bushes or large boulders for someone to hide behind and catch them off guard. They had to prepare for the worst.

As the most cautious of the troops, FN-602 was tasked in covering the rear-left flank. In front of him was the gravelly-voiced, FN-768, who seemed far more relaxed then his comrade behind him. Directly opposite of 602 was FN-149, a quiet-spoken soldier who barely spoke about anything, with flametrooper FS-451 "Scorch" guarding the front-right flank. They had all eyes on the field, yet outside of a few animals ranging from small rabbit-esque creatures to an occasional deer-like creature running back into the bush, they saw nothing else of their quarry.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." FN-602 groaned as he continued scanning.

FN-768 would simply reply back on his direct channel with an annoyed look, "Stop being such a wuss."

602 would look towards the back of his partner's head as if he was insulted.

"We're in unknown territory following these two guys who we only know by footprints!" he answered with a concerned and rapid tone, "We don't even know what they look like or what they may wield. I mean they~"

"Shut up..." 768 demanded as calmly as he could be as to not draw too much of their commanding officer's attention before continuing with a sigh, "You're always so damn paranoid about everything."

602 took a second to compose himself. "Aren't you a little cautious considering our circumstance too? Being stranded on a world you know nothing about and following assets we also don't know about?"

"Sure we are." 768 acknowledged calmly, "But you don't see us complaining. If anything you're the most fidgety compared to all of us." He'd because for a minute to check his blaster before continuing. "Just don't worry about it."

It was then when 602 thought to have heard something moving in the bushes as he moved his rifle towards the disturbance. However, he saw nothing emerge.

He made an audible nervous chuckle at his partner's request. "Heh, easy for you to say."

"You're acting as if this is your first assignment on the ground." 768 blatantly assumed.

"Pfft, no." 602 casually let out. Both went radio silent as if 768 was expecting an actual answer. The former would catch on, sputtering initially before saying "Second."

Now 768 was directly looking back at 602 with a snicker. "Really?" he asked, as if he didn't believe it before turning around to the front, "Where were you first deployed?"

It took a second before 602 answered back.

"It was on~"

But before he could say anything, a dark-haired female emerged from the bush just a mere few feet away and dashed towards 602.

"What the~?" the smaller trooper replied before the girl attempted to grab the blaster out of his hand, "Hey! What are you~? Let go!"

Within seconds, the trooper would somehow find himself in a choke hold before screaming as he was flipped over behind her. He landed with an audible thump, losing his breath in the sudden impact with a pained moan. The commotion caused the rest of the stormtroopers to turn to face the girl, with their blasters at the ready.

"Enemy hostile!" the officer announced with a bellowing voice, "Take her down!"

The blaster troopers would begin to fire upon the girl before another figure emerged that resembled a literal walking skeleton. And yet before they could get a good look, they would be blasted back by a powerful galeforce wind, throwing them back by several meters. This prompted the two individuals to bolt out of the area, but their attempts wouldn't put the troopers down for long. FN-768 and the Officer were the first to get up, followed by FN-149 and "Scorch", as the first three began to fire at the fleeing duo. Whether or not they would hit them wouldn't matter however as soon they would find their targets to be out of range.

"Blast..." 768 cursed as he lowered his weapon.

Scorch however began to briskly walk in their directions with a peeved-off expression.

"Damn punks!" the deep-voiced flametrooper boomed as he prepped his flamethrower, "I'll roast ya'll alive once I've~"

The officer would bang him on his chest, stopping him from going on a fury of arson.

"That's enough." he ordered as the two locked eyes with one another.

Scorch seemed to protest his officer's order.

"We can't let those scum get away with this!" he objected as he pointed in their direction. "We gotta stop them before they bring reinforcements!"

"Negative Scorch," the officer's tone shifted with a more serious tone, "They're out of range. They'll be long gone by the time we start advancing."

The flametrooper still seemed adamant on going after them before finally accepting the painful reality. He lowered his flamethrower and grumbled as he walked back to the center. Meanwhile, FN-453 approached where 602 was and offered her hand.

"You ok?" she asked him with visible concern.

602 groaned as he grabbed her hand and was slowly pulled back onto his feet.

"Y-Yeah..." he sputtered as he shook his left arm, "A little shaken... a-and a little outta breath... but I'm, I'm ok. Thanks."

FN-453 lightly patted her comrade on the back before returning to the squad leader. The troopers began to huddle around one another to discuss about what they should do next.

FN-453 came up and asked, "Do we report this to the Supreme Leader?"

The officer made a surprised turn towards her, before FN-768 barged in.

"Are you crazy?" he spoke out as if what she said was blasphemy, "I don't want deal with another one of his hyper-enraged tantrums. Or you know, be killed for what he'd think was the result of our 'incompetence'."

"We're the only troops that he has at his disposal currently," 453 explained rather calmly, "I don't think he would actually kill us."

"Well I don't wanna find out either way." 768 answered before rolling his head and sighing, "He could just... summon more troopers to take our place or something."

Just then, the officer held his hand up for the rest of the troopers to fall silent. As soon as everyone stopped, he would point towards the tower that's still seeable in the distance.

"Don't worry about that," he mentioned, "We still have that tower we can take over."

The others glanced at it and began to murmur to one another their thoughts.

"And what if that girl has crazy jedi-like powers up her sleeves?" 602 asked, finally speaking up, "Or if more guys are hidden within said tower?"

"Then we'll retreat back," the officer answered as he primed his gun, "If you're all scared about failing him, then this will be a second chance for us to get results back to him. Besides, once we take that, we could set up a proper command center and help scout around for our next objective. So even if the girl escapes, at least we have something of use for us."

Once again, the troopers began to whisper to one another before seemingly agreeing with his statement.

"What are we waitin' for then?" Scorch eagerly asked with an evil-sounding chuckle, "Let's go raze some hell! One gal against six of us? Better odds of winnin' I think."

With seemingly universal approval, the stormtrooper squad proceeded to sneakily head towards the tower in the distance. The only person to have doubts was 602 himself, who shook his head.

"One gal against six of us..." he muttered to himself, mocking Scorch's statement, "Oh, what can go wrong?"

[tipssyCalibrator]

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Location: City Ruins

@Lmpkio

As Dante expected, the bullets didn't really seem to make much of an impact. Still, it was pretty valuable to learn how tough this guy's armor was and how he would react, so Dante still considered the attack a success. What happened next, however, he'd consider much less of a success. After giving a quick surprised reaction, Doom Slayer retaliated surprisingly quicker than Dante was anticipating with a powerful kick. It took him by surprise and so Dante took the attack full on. As the kick launched him backwards, he also felt his back slam into the wall of Devil May Cry with a forceful 'THUD'. That wasn't good, Dante knew that Devil May Cry was a pretty shoddy building, and he could already feel the thin walls of the place start to shake and come apart from the force already. Normally Dante would probably care more about the safety of the building, but considering the predicament he was in he didn't exactly feel like it was the most important thing to worry about

[Zoey Boey]

Eltariel

@Lmpkio

Eltariel knew she had been spotted by the people on the ground. Rarely was she on the back foot like this. The Uruks rarely paid much attention to her Silver Tower, but here it stood out like a sore thumb. The people on the ground- as they approached, she spotted their strange white armor and their unfamiliar weaponry. What were they? Were they Men? Elves? They could be Orcs as far as she knew. Or some other race or creature she had never heard of. Perhaps they weren't wearing armor, and that's just what they looked like! She strongly doubted that last assertion, but it was important to remind herself that she really didn't know what she was getting into.

There was one thing the Elf knew for sure, though. There was absolutely no chance she was giving up the Silver Tower. She would kill them, if she had too.

Eltariel vanished from the top of the tower and dropped down on the otherside. As sneaky as the stormtroopers believed themselves to be, Eltariel was a master of reconnaise and infiltration. Her dark blue outfit combined with her skills would quickly allow herself to be lost within the trees. Focusing her Spirit Sight, Eltariel caught a glimpse of the bulkiest trooper there, the one with the large weapon and the cylinders on his back.

Moving with supernatural speed she circled around the flank to get behind the approaching squad.

As the First Order grew closer to their goal, they would notice the tower was mostly featureless. There was no doors nor windows. It was almost flat, save for the odd indent or hand hold. If they were to look at it, they would realise the only people capable of scaling the top of this tower would be those with access to a portable, large ladder, or those with force-like powers that granted them extraordinary agility. There was no ladder nearby, so the assumption had to be made that the woman inhabiting this Tower was one of advanced skills.

Becoming one with the shrubbery, Eltariel was practically invisible. Her breath was slow and practiced and her face was obscured by shadow. As the troopers neared the tower, she would use her light powers to create an audio hallucination. About halfway up the tower, the stormtroopers would hear the whisperings of a language that was unknown to them, visually sourceless. It would sound like the tower itself was beckoning them to draw closer, as if it was speaking to them directly. The elven warrior remained hidden within the forest, watching closely to see what they would do. As far as she knew, the stormtroopers had no weaponry capable of destroying the Silver Tower, and that was all that mattered. For now she could take her time. But she needed them to leave eventually. Whether that be voluntarily, or their corpses vanish underneath the snow. Both would work. But Eltariel had never ended a human life before. Only the bloodthirsty Uruk Hai that slaughtered for fun. Only the forces of the Dark Lord Sauron. To end the life of a civilized being was something she never had to do, but as she unsheathed her blade she realised that in the end, whether they have green skin or white armor, ending a life was ending a life, and thousands upon thousands of people have met their end at the razor sharp tip of her sword.

[LouisTheDummy]

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Hiccup gave a sneer towards the child, but it softened. Kids. With a role of his eyes he walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Did you hit your head, bud?" Hiccup didn't mean this in a totally rude way, he was just genuinely concerned that a child had found his way into the forest, hit his head, and now believed he had magical healing abilities. All while royally pissing off Toothless in the process, who of which was eyeing them closely upon his contact with the child. He gave a look around. "Do you uh.. know where your village is? Because I'm kinda.. lost-" Within a split second Toothless got up, pranced over, gave a mewl of sorts and nudged Hiccup in the direction of which he came - growling promptly at Steven. Oookay then. Looks like I'm going over this way.

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How dare this human child throw a shield at me and try to befriend Hiccup! So rude. The dragon, after growling, nudged his head over towards Hiccup as a gesture to follow on - but he'd be at the back, watching. Waiting. Almost.. anticipating a screw up. He seemed to stare daggers into the child, clearly not forgiven about how he caused a pained lump on his head and a pretty annoying headache. Hmph!

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@Ladypug

[Rothurage]

Darth Vader

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As Vader trudged through the desert, only one thing came to mind about his current surroundings. He did not like the sand. It was course, rough and irritating. Even though he wore a suit, he could almost feel the sand beneath his feet and all he wanted to do was get off this desert as soon as he could.

Eventually Vader had reached the city and upon looking around, realized that this place was indeed very different from the environment he was used to being around. Just then, the Sith Lord felt a presence in the Force that he had not felt a moment ago. However, the presence was not here in this city but somewhere else. Somehow another force use had ended up in this strange land as well but Vader couldn’t determine what much besides that.

Vader again brought out the tokens he had received upon arriving here and lifted only three of them into the air.”Give me a squad of stormtroopers on my position.” Vader said and just like that, the three tokens disappeared from his grasp.

”Lord Vader!”

Vader turned to the source of the voice and saw a group of six stormtroopers already standing at attention. Their armour was marked in the familiar style of the 501st. The Sith Lord examined the troopers before he took a step forward towards the squad leader. Before Vader could speak however, they were all alerted when a flare was shot into the sky from the top of a tall building in the vicinity.

This, in combination with what he could sense earlier, confirmed that were were indeed others here. Vader didn’t want to take any chances on what could very well be a threat so he kept his guard up.

”Prepare your squad, Commander. We are moving.” Vader ordered, beginning on his way towards the building that the flare was shot from.

The Commander gave the Sith Lord a nod of acknowledgement, turning around to the rest of the squad. ”You heard him. Let’s get a move on!”

The first thing that was noticed when they reached the outside of the building was the vehicle that had been left there. Weapons at the ready, the troopers moved to enter the building with Vader following closely behind them.

Once they entered, the troopers started on securing the first floor and making sure there were no sign of any immediate danger. After the first floor was clear and after looking around a bit, the troopers soon realized that the only way to reach the top of the building was to climb their way up the incredibly long flight of stairs.

”Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” one of the troopers exclaimed in annoyance upon seeing how far they would have to walk.

The trooper that had just complained was then whacked lightly on the arm by the one next to arm. ”What’s wrong? Are you scared of some stairs?” This little response garnered a few snickers from some of the other squad members.

”Both of you, be quiet. We’re moving out again so let’s go.” The commander ordered, prompting the others to quickly get back into formation and follow along. They had quite a long trip up these stairs to get through if they wanted to find who set off that flare.

[Ladypug]

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LOCATION: Snowy Forest, going towards New Berk

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Steven returned the sneer when he felt Hiccup's hand on his shoulder and heard the condescension in his tone of voice. Like, did you hit your head? Seriously-?! "No," Steven replied curtly, shrugging the man's hand off his shoulder and standing up straight. He sort of pouted as he continued, "No. I did not hit my head, and I'm not crazy! I promise you, just- Look, if you look real close-" As he turned to show where, exactly, Hiccup needed to look on the mangled tree, he beamed.

The tree was slowly starting to patch itself up! It looked best where his spit had made direct contact with the damage, but the healing was radiating outwards to the rest of the tree all on its own. The healing was certainly taking longer than he remembered it ever taking before, but.. It worked, just like he knew it would! And honestly thank the stars, because not being able to heal other people or himself would be less than ideal. Especially in this positively bizarre situation he's found himself in. Plus, like, he definitely would've looked insane if his healing powers had decided "alright, it's time to not work and make Steven look like a loon and a fool!"

He let out a little laugh of relief before turning around with a smug grin and a grand gesture towards the tree - a sort of playful observe my magical prowess and bask in my radiance sort of posture. The mask dropped as soon as he saw how the man and his dragon were both leaving, though. The dragon looked especially insistent on leaving - for very valid reasons, of course, but Steven huffed out an irritated breath anyway. Like, y'know, of course. Of course they'd turn around and walk off before they could see he was telling the truth-! You know what? It's fine. It's cool. He's not mad about being brushed off as a dumb kid...

He almost let the pair walk off into the forest purely out of petty spite before he realized something. There could be far less friendly people, and far more bloodthirsty dragons in this forest, and if his healing powers were altered-

"Hey!" Steven's voice cracked slightly as he shouted after them, running to catch up.

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@LouisTheDummy

[tipssyCalibrator]

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Location: City

@Hokagae

As Chief was waiting around for someone to come find him, he decided to start looking around at the horizon, just to get a better sense of where this place was. What he saw was...quite hard to comprehend. Tons of random locations placed next to each other with no coherent reason. Desert next to a city, next to a snowy woodlands, next to a medieval castle? Even farther out, Chief's advanced eyesight could also pick up some kind of airport, next to a Shinto Buddhist temple or something. None of this made any sense, and Chief couldn't really make heads or tails of it

Unfortunately, Chief was given little time to think any more about this, because only a couple seconds passed before he noticed a group of 7 yellow dots suddenly show up on the motion tracker in his helmet visor. They were relatively close too, apparently only 5 feet away. Chief couldn't see anyone on the roof or above him, and the motion tracker tended to be pretty reliable, so that could only mean that they were on ground level. Near the building. Chief rushed over to the side of the roof where the doorway was and looked over to the ground. Hoping to see some familiar faces, or at least friendly ones, instead he saw a squad of soldiers armed in white armor and weapons that were all unfamiliar to him, being ordered by a man clad in black and a very threatening looking helmet. ::Don't suppose they're just here to talk, do you?:: Cortana reacted sarcastically

Chief didn't want to just immediately attack them as soon as they reached the building, but at the same time he didn't want to be unprepared for the worst case scenario. Chief stepped over to the side of the doorway to the rooftops, so he wouldn't be seen when the troops walk through it, and trained his rifle on the entrance. He decided he'd simply wait to see if they made the first move before attacking them

::I've got a bad feeling about this...:: Cortana said in a worried tone of voice

[Lmpkio]

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Location: City Ruins
Mentions: @tipssyCalibrator

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With a mighty kick, the Slayer pushed his opponent straight into a relatively worn-down wooden building. What he knew was that this building wouldn't last against another well-placed collision. What he didn't know, was that he was facing his opponent within the bowels of what is considered his home. Thankfully, the Slayer didn't know or truly care much causing such collateral damage. Not like it would've mattered much to him anyways. If anything, it was the one other thing that he enjoyed second to slaying demons.

As the armored warrior begins to enter the building - his dark suit piercing through the thick smoke and debris - he stands, for a moment, in the rickety doorway looking down at his fallen, bloodied, opponent. For a demon of his stature, he sure was fairly sturdy. Nonetheless he will find a way to get his bloodied hands upon his neck and spine and rip them clean in half. And with a cock of his shotgun, a sound that echoed off the walls of the room, the Slayer makes another mad-dash towards Dante with such ferocious tenacity as he prepares to fire his gun at point-blank range for maximum effect.

He was going to make this demon eat a nice face-full of hot, burning lead.

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Location: Snowy Forest -- Eltariel's Silver Tower
Mentions: @Zoey Boey

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"You ever feel like you're being watched?" FN-602 wondered aloud as he griped his blaster rifle tightly.

The stormtroopers were slowly trodding their way through the snow, as they began to get closer and closer to their objective. At the rate they were going, they would be at the Tower's doorstep within another few minutes. And thankfully for them, the snow was beginning to let up little by little. Still, they had to be extremely cautious and had to make sure that there were no other surprises waiting for them. For all they knew, one might easily pop-up from right under their nose, but they must stay ever vigilant. But despite the casual jittery statements from the squad's runt, considering their run in with the mysterious duo, they too were more on guard than usual.

Still, FN-768 scoffed at his comrade's fidgetiness. "I think we're going to have to call you 'Fidget' if you keep this up." he joked, causing a slight ripple of quiet chuckles from the rest of the squad.

602 made an exasperated sigh as he tried to keep his temper in line. He'd always been bullied and teased like this ever since his days at the academy. But he couldn't help it. He was born and raised this way. How he was able to survive training from near-birth - let alone his first mission - was a mystery even to him. He's working on it, sure, but his efforts thus far hadn't been sufficient. He'll get there, one day. One day.

One day...

As the squad began to close in on the tower, they were first to notice that it wasn't your everyday stone tower. FN-453 was the first to comment on the oddity of the structure.

"Huh..." she sighed as she squinted at the tower, "Uh, permission to ask a question, Squad Leader?"

The officer nodded in confirmation. "Permission granted. What's your question, FN-453?"

"Is it me," she began as she pointed at the tower, "Or does that tower seem a little off?"

The Officer looked towards their target, still obscured with several trees that prevented a good picture of the tower.

"Elaborate." he ordered questioningly.

"I don't see the confirm any signature resembling doors or windows, sir." she replied assuredly.

FN-768 would then retort, "Maybe consider that we're on the side that doesn't feature any windows or doors?"

"Negative," 453 answered back in a more confident manner, "Not even the sides seem to have any hint of indentation."

"We'll get a closer look once we reach the tower." the Officer added in, "Surely there's got to be a~"

"Uh, guys?" 602's voice would break the conversation as he looked around, "Do you guys hear something?"

Scorch would chuckle at his seemingly silly statement.

Meanwhile 768 would growl before give his own remark, "Other than the sound of your voice?" he sarcastically mentioned, "No, we don't. Now for the last time, shut~"

"Wait." 453 interrupts as she began to listen while holding a finger up. Outside of the chilly wind and the surrounding wildlife, she could hear something that seemed unusual. They were what could be compared to as a language. They were seemingly whispering to one another, in a language she didn't understand. It was gentle and elegant, yet mysterious and oddly welcoming. The female trooper then looked back at 602 with a concentrated look. "Do they happen to sound like voices?"

602's face lighted up as he felt like he wasn't going crazy.

"Yeah..." he confirmed, "Yeah, I think they're coming from the tower?"

768 sighed once more. "Oh c'mon you two loonie buckets," he complained with an increase of frustration, "You guys need to get your helmet's audio receptors checked out. I don't hear anything that's~"

"Quiet." 453 hushed loudly.

The other troopers halted their advance and adjusted their helmet's audio receptors to get a better frequency concentration on the potential sound just in case. And after a few seconds, even the none believers began to hear the same odd voices both 602 and 453 were reporting.

"Well blast me," 768 quietly commentated on the matter, "There DOES appear to be something whispering around."

"What are they saying?" 602 asked curiously, "Is this some kind of jedi-mind trick?"

453 shook her head. "Don't know..."

"Cut the chatter and steady formation." the officer demanded as the others quickly ceased talking, "We're almost at the tower. Stay alert."

Indeed the troops would find themselves out in a small clearing and see the full height of the tower. It was no more than 50 feet tall, but as they inspected the perimeter they too would find that there were no doors or windows that led into the tower. In addition, they could hear the whispers grow louder as they approached, with the source seemingly being halfway up the structure. The troopers began to talk amongst themselves once more, mentioning how strange this all felt.

"How does one even get up this tower?" 602 asked as he looked all the way up to the crow's nest.

"I don't know..." 453 replied unsurely before giving out a few ideas, "I don't see a place where someone could've stored a ladder. Nor do I see a button or secret indentation that could reveal a secret entrance."

"See, I'm telling you," 602 began warning everyone about his hunch from prior, "This woman has to be a jedi or something! How else would she be able to reach the top without steps or have us imagining these whispery voices?"

"Shuddit." Scorch blurted out before approaching the tower. He stopped as he knocked the dark stone material, trying to see if it was really hallow inside or not. He couldn't quite tell, but underneath his helmet Scorch would issue another grin of malevolence. "I say we blow this joint up." he suggested while facing his comrades, "Any of ya'll have some charges or detonators?"

The officer once again interrupted Scorch as he rose his hand out to him. "Hey, I'll be the one giving out orders." he commanded before commenting on his plan, "We shouldn't jump to blowing stuff all the time, Scorch, you know this."

"And if there's really voices inside." 768 added, "Shouldn't we keep them alive for interrogation or something?"

Suddenly, a booming voice could be heard directly behind their side of the tower.

"You are being deceived."

The stormtroopers froze in place as their Supreme Leader emerged from behind the structure, his dark cape flapping in the cold air. His men stood to immediate attention as they watched him stop short of the Squad Leader.

"There is no one in the tower."

The Officer was still lightly shaking as he saluted Ren.

"S-Supreme Leader!" he sputtered as he gripped tightly onto his rifle, "With all do respect, I saw a woman on top of the tower prior to contacting you. Are you suggesting that we were seeing no one there the entire time?"

"No." Kylo Ren replied flat-out as he surveyed the area, "Someone is here. Just not in the Tower."

602 bravely stood up to Supreme leader as he was shaking in his boots. "S-Sir, does... that mean that the Tower isn't hollow or~?"

In the blink of an eye, Ren ignited his cackling lightsaber and swung towards the tower. 602 cowardly backed away as the saber made a deep cut within the stone tower. The plasma blade cackled and screeched as sparks flew from the initial collision. All the troopers were silent at this point, as they looked at the cut. It was a deep cut at that, yet it appeared as if it didn't reveal anything inside other then rock. They quickly concluded that the tower was in fact not hollow.

"It was all a lie." Ren finished as he began searching around the vicinity with the force. "I know you're here." he spoke loudly, as if he was calling out to the owner of the tower who was nearby. He knew she was there... he could sense it. He slowly scanned his surroundings, looking for the strongest source point of his victim. And then, like a sudden turn of a compass, Ren's gaze quickly locked on to a location in the bushes.

The direction where he believed Eltariel was hiding.

[tipssyCalibrator]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Location: City Ruins

@Lmpkio

As the wall came crumbling down, Doom Slayer's kick forced Dante backwards, causing him to do an awkward backwards roll on the floor. Well, great. Now he's gonna have to fix that. That'll be fun. Just as Dante was getting back up on his feet however, he noticed something in front of him. No, not Doom Slayer, a quarter on the floor. A sly grin crept onto Dante's face as he picked it up. He held up a palm to Doom Slayer who was walking towards him, as if to say 'hold on'. He looked over to the jukebox placed on the other side of the room and flipped the quarter over towards the jukebox. The quarter sailed through the air, gleaming in the light as it flew, and landed directly into the jukebox's coin slot. A couple sounds of machinery moving around came from the jukebox, and a second later a loud, aggressive rock song started to blair on the jukebox's speakers. The song motivated Dante to start tapping his foot and nodding his head to the beat. "Haha, now it's a party!" Dante said with newfound enthusiasm, before stabbing forward with his sword, which started to glow with a bright, crimson red energy

[LouisTheDummy]

---

LOCATION: Snowy Forest - heading towards New Berk

---

As Hiccup wandered away, he began to think more on the child he had met - this was a pretty weird teenage phase to be going through - sure, at his teen years he had tamed a dragon and changed an entire village's mind at the expense of his left leg - but it was much more believable than slapping a tree with saliva and claiming that it would be healed in mere seconds.

Despite this, Hiccup gave a smile when greeting the kid as he ran up. "Yeah I uh.." He rubbed the back of his neck. Did you hit your head, bud? Those words seemed so awfully passive aggressive. It was disgusting - but he meant nothing bad by it, he was truly concerned about the child - until Toothless promptly nudged him towards a direction he wanted him to go in. "I'm sorry - I didn't mean that to be, er.. Rude. Especially not in that way - I was worried you hit your head and had a bad accident that rendered you - well.. hurt." As a new father - with his eldest child being a mere five years old, he was simultaneously great and awful at parenting. Though, despite this, you could tell when his parental fears came into play - such as him explaining himself to the child that was by his side.

______
@Ladypug

[Ladypug]

---

---

LOCATION: Snowy Forest, closing in on New Berk

---

Any negative emotions that were buzzing around in Steven's brain faded as Hiccup explained his rationale and apologized, and Steven's own expression softened considerably. He let out a sigh, looking up at Hiccup before replying, "It's ok. I'm sorry too."

Like, y'know, of course he didn't mean what he'd said like like that, and Steven could tell just from the tone of his voice- both then and now. Steven was just.. well, there wasn't any one emotion, it was a mess of them all fighting in his heart and mind and making it hard to pretend he wasn't being affected. Maybe frazzled would be a good word? It certainly sounded like a word that could combine confusion, fear, anger. tension, and anxiety. Like, he knew he'd figure out how to get out of this, cause he always has in the past, but right now he doesn't. Stars, he was pretty sure that if he were to stand still and look down at his hands, they'd be shaking and he'd probably start crying and-

And his fists clenched and then dove into his jacket pockets. Him focusing on how bad he feels hasn't helped in the past, why does he keep doing it? He needs to find something else to think about, like- Like how these little plastic poker chip token things felt between his fingers - smooth, but with evenly spaced indentations on the front and back sides; or maybe he could think on how Hiccup had asked if Steven knew where his village was, cause, that was weird, right? And that made him think back to his first thoughts of Hiccup - how odd it was that he was dressed like he came from the medieval era or just got back from a LARPing session- except, y'know, he had a real life dragon, which was still just.. Mind-boggling. Absolutely mind-boggling.

Steven's furrowed brow betrayed how the little gears in his brain were turning- like, ok, he was in these Crossroads, he knew that and he's more-or-less accepted that at this point. He just met this dude that was definitely not from home, there was no way. And this world? It looked all kinds of broken up and mashed together from what he saw before, and... Oh. Oh stars.

Steven felt his stomach sinking. This definitely wasn't Gem stuff. Sure, Gems could have their own little pocket-dimensions and stuff, and they could definitely have weird names like "The Crossroads," but this was totally different. This place wasn't on any starmaps, and he's certainly never heard of any Gem's personal pocket-dimension being like this. Worse? Maybe Ronaldo was, once again, shockingly correct about something. He didn't want to believe it, but as the snowy forest gave way to a warm breeze and greenery, there was that nagging feeling that this thought Steven was having had to be the truth... Right? It had to be. It made too much sense to NOT be.

He decided that it was time to metaphorically shatter the silence and start asking questions. Specifically, it was time to ask Hiccup questions. Maybe Steven can find a way to confirm the newfound suspicions he has about this situation they've found themselves in. Maybe.

"So," Steven started, clicking his tongue as he struggled to get his words out in a way that didn't sound as frazzled as he was, "Uhm. Chief of Berk, huh? I've.. I've never heard of a Berk before. What's it like there?"

---

---

@LouisTheDummy

[Zoey Boey]

Eltariel

@Lmpkio

Eltariel smiled smugly to herself as her fear tactics began to frighten the stormtroopers. Simpleminded people who knew nothing other than following orders, most likely. Their stupidity would save them a great deal of trouble, for when they ran with their tails between their legs from the scary noises they may lose their dignity but they would keep their lives. They reminded her of the Uruk hai. You had the cowardly one, the orderly one, the "smart" one, the violent one. But they didn't seem like they would turn on each other and rip themselves to little tiny pieces. They did that even without the influence of the Gravewalker, who merely pointed their sadistic tendencies in a direction that suited himself.

But their leader showed up. Unlike them, he was dressed in all black, and with an outfit that seemed to the Elf woman to be more civilized. More familiar. Long sleeves, tunic, cloth, a helm. Cape. He seemed to be more put together, and as she listened her face became serious and grave. She could sense his strength. He was dangerous. She retreated slightly into the bushes as he began to talk. Did he have some sort of clairovoyance?

Then the man unveiled his truest weapon. A blade of crimson materialized from thin air and cut a deep slice into the Tower. Her Silver Tower. The only connection she had to this mortal realm besides her own beating heart, and he dare strike into it with his magical weapon? Despite the permanent scar on her Tower, he revealed that her swords were no match for his. She would have to act with precision and agility, and staying out of his range. The other people were holding their weapons like crossbows, so she assumed that they were ranged magical weapons of some kind. Either way, if they had to aim at her, there was a good chance they would miss.

But it was too late, now. The man wanted her aggression, and all of them had earned it. She could not lose this Tower. Despite her more kind-hearted nature, mercy was something Eltariel rarely possessed towards those who presented themselves as her enemies. In the blazing Light of Galadriel, all evil will be purged.

Her spiritual powers had an interesting composition to them. In a way, given their Spiritual nature, they struck the souls of their targets directly. Those with strong willpowers, whether it be to do good or to do evil, would fare better against her assault. Followers and lackeys would succumb quickly and wither away, but those who took charge could better resist her attacks. Her swords on the other, cut the throats of dictators and peasants alike without indiscretion.

That was why Eltariel focused on on the stormtroopers first with her alpha-strike ranged attack. A ghostly apparition of a golden bow appeared betwixt her fingers, and a transparent golden bolt would thrust itself quickly forward at the head of the officer of the storm trooper. Were it to connect and were it to be lethal, it would strike the man lethally and bloodlessly, ending his life like a marionette puppet having it's strings cut. The only indication anything had happened would be a quiet but sharp burst of a ringing sound for those nearby. No helmet could protect him from her spirit arrows, only the fierceness of his spirit could do that. Lackeys of evil overlords rarely possessed such a thing, Eltariel had noticed. Were any of the troopers to survive the initial hit, they would be blinded by a sourceless light and their minds would be drowned by the loud high pitched chime of a bell within their own brains.

Within rapid succession, two more of these arrows would fire out of the bush, Eltariel worked with immense precision and accuracy. 453 and the one they called Scorch would take two arrows to the head aswell.

Then, she focused her sights on Kylo Ren himself. Spirit Strike was a fickle thing. Even holding onto her blades become difficult in the journey. A follow-up strike with a sword was always difficult, and only felled unexpecting or untrained foes. Instead, her feet were much more easy to move and a powerful kick could knock anyone of their feet. This was what Kylo Ren would experience. From the bush he focused on, a thin ghostly trail would move it's way towards him faster than any plasma bolt, and apparating from thin air would be the dark-blue dressed female, spinning and slamming her heel directly into his chest with immense power.

With Kylo hopefully knocked away, Eltariel unsheathed her blades and lunged towards the closest stormtrooper, 768, the lethal ends coming for his shoulders, neck, and head. Her eyes were wide and her heart began to beat faster. She had to win. Couldn't lose this one.

[LouisTheDummy]

---

LOCATION: New Berk.

---

He was about to open his mouth before Toothless let out a hearty noise, rushing ahead into.. well, New Berk. As they broke the treeline, Hiccup gave a chuckle, nudging the kid softly to a halt and stepping in front of him, gesturing to the quaint village.

Oh yeah, time to do this thing again. With a clearing of his throat and a groan from Toothless - he began to speak. "This is New Berk. What once used to be twelve days North of hopeless, and just a few degrees South of freezing to death." Hiccup was lost in his own world as Toothless, who stood by idly, stood up right and began to mock and mimck his movements - all unbeknownst to Hiccup, of course. Regardless, the man continued. "Though, thanks to yours truly, located on the new and improved Meridian of Misery." He loved that. It'd been years since he had introduced someone formally like that - but he was far from done. "Here on New Berk, we have fishing, charming views of the sunsets - the only problem-" It then hit him. There.. were no problems. Sure there was the occasional viking fight, or someone threatening war - but without the dragons.. Wow, that's kind of sad. It must have been obvious because Toothless stopped himself and plopped himself back onto all fours, moving towards Hiccup and nuzzling him, giving a coo.

The man gave a brief smile, petting the loving Night Fury in front of him and sighed softly. "The only problem is that there is no problem. No dragons trying to steal our stuff for some tyrannical queen.. No dragon racing, not even an overcrowded Berk. I kinda miss having the occasional bad guy- I don't wanna sound weird but I really miss all of.. This." He gestured to Toothless, to which the dragon gave a grumble. Hiccup gave a chuckle and hugged the dragon. "Exactly.."

[VibrativeAxis85]

---

---

---

---

LOCATION: Bellwood, Desert

---

. . .

Slowly, Ben wakes up. He had no idea of what just happened, but woah nelly, these smoothies are a lot stronger than he remembers. All he was doing was getting a drink after saving the town for, like, the 9th time that day. Was there really a problem with having a break? Ben gets up off the cement, looking at the wasted beauty. This beautiful grape delicacy will always be remembered in his heart. He stretches as he walks away from the establishment, his shoes kicking up a lot of sand as he walked-
Wait.
Sand? In the middle of Bellwood??
Ben jumped back, startled by his new surroundings. Sure enough, this Mr. Smoothies and about a fourth of Bellwood are in the middle of the desert.
"No way..." Ben said, trying to take in what had happened. How did he get here? This shouldn't be possible at all. This isn't even the 23rd dimension-traveling Mr. Smoothies, it was, like, 11! How could this happen??
Ben jerked his phone out of his pocket, seeing his low battery. Ooh, might need that later, Ben thought as he pocketed the device. For some reason, it made a clinking sound. Weird... He put the Omnitrix close to his face, activating the com-link.
"Plumber HQ, this is Ben. I'm stranded in unknown space and they took Mr. Smoothies too. This is any kind of Code Red we have."
After some silence, He started to panic. "Grandpa? Rook? Anyone??" Great, that's useless too.
As he looked around, a screen came up on the watch. He looked quizzically at this; he's never gotten a message like this before. Hesitantly, he opened it.
"What in the world is this?" After some reading, he wasn't sure what to think. Was this a test? A new villain? Eon 2.0? And what is this about tokens? Where are- Oh, the clinking! Ben thrusted his hand in his pocket, grabbing what felt like a poker chip and pulling it out. Sure enough, that's where the tokens were. They were green and white with the green and black Omnitrix symbol on it. This day keeps getting weirder.
He was tempted to grab two more and try summoning something useful, like his time-bike, some plumber tech, Rook, or even his car. Heck, just summon Paradox and get out of here. But with the mention of other ticket holders, that means that there are other people here. They could need his help. But where should he go? Where would people be?
Guess he's just gotta look himself.
With a swift motion, Ben hardly looks as he puts his index and middle fingers on the cover of the Omnitrix, activating the device. He quickly lifts his hand up, the cover going up and the dial popping up. "Here we go again!" Ben slams down on the dial, light green electricity lightly scattering. In a bright flash, his body morphed from that of a teenage boy to a bipedal dinosaur-looking beast. He had a jet-pack looking device on his back, that of which wings came from. He took a stance before going into the air with a green blast.
"Woah, this place is creepy, squawk! Even with Astrodactyl's eyes in the sky, I'm not sure if anyone is- wait, who's that?"
He looks off in the distance, and sees some black blob in the sand. Ben is hesitant; should he go there? He looks a little ominous, and he's just giving all sorts of bad vibes. Nah, he'll just go back to the desert. He wants more smoothies later anyways.
He turns his head, getting a visual of his surroundings. Torn up city, more dessert, snowy forest with giant tower-
Oh yeah, that's the one.
Ben squawks in delight. "This ought to have something good! After all, I could get a good visual of everything as normal old me, squawk!"
With the dessert heat on his back, Ben starts his way towards the forest, silently hoping he can get out of here and get home as soon as he can.

[Rothurage]

Vader’s Fist

Location: City - Office Building

---

The stormtroopers made their way up the stairs gradually. They made sure to perform a sweep of every floor just in case there were any potential hostiles hiding in the building.

”Are we sure there is even anyone here? It looks pretty empty to me.” One of the troopers asked, a little skeptical of such a large place and not a single person in sight apart from them.

”Of course there are people here, TK-009. Who else do you think set off that flare.” Another trooper retorted to the ridiculous claim made by his comrade, getting a small grumble from the one who was just mentioned.

The troopers continued searching room to room every time they ascended a floor. However, each time they did they never found any sign of anyone that could have potentially been here before aside from the vehicle back at the entrance. Nevertheless, the squad pushed on, making sure to clear the place out. For all they knew, Rebels did in fact occupy this building and they didn’t want to upset Lord Vader if that were to be the case.

It took some time but soon enough, the troopers were approaching the top of the building. The Commander made sure to signal his troopers to prepare for what he thought was likely a surprise attack waiting for them on the roof. Taking positions on either side of the door, they were going to perform a breach in to the roof.

With a nod, the troopers swiftly began the breaching maneuver. One after the other, the troopers moved themselves onto the roof with their blasters aimed and ready to fire at… nothing? The troopers didn’t see any potential targets or anyone at all anywhere on the roof.

”What the- Behind us!” One of the troopers shouted out in surprise after having turned around and seeing the threat.

This alerted the rest of the troopers and they all promptly turned around to see an individual in green armour with a weapon pointed right at them.

”Drop the weapon!” the Commander ordered as his and the rest of his squad’s blasters were all fixated on the armoured man in front of them. They didn’t know who or what this thing might be but they weren’t about to take any chances.

Meanwhile, Vader had remained back down at the entrance of the large office building, completely unaware of the commotion happening on the roof. He wanted to further examine the vehicle that was left behind to see if he could discover anything about where it came from and what was used to create it.

Skulduggery Pleasant

&

Valkyrie Cain

Location - Snowy Forest

---

As they ran, Skulduggery and Valkyrie made sure to maneuver in a way that would make them really difficult to hit and they continued until they could no longer hear any shots being blasted in their direction. Once the coast seemed clear, they finally stopped to catch their breath a bit.

”Well, that could have gone better.” Skulduggery jested, brushing some snow off his suit as he did so.

”You’re telling me. I almost got shot back there. Lucky you pushed them back, I have no idea what those guns they had would have done to me.” Valkyrie explained, looking back in the direction of where they had just run from. ”Let’s not go back that way.”

Skulduggery nodded in agreement. He would rather avoid getting shot if he could help it and he was sure Valkyrie did too. So, with nothing else to really do, the two set off through the forest once again in any direction but the one with the armor-clad troopers. Though, this time they made sure to keep their guard up in case they run into any more trouble like that.

[tipssyCalibrator]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Location: City

@Hokagae

Chief waited and waited, keeping his eye on the motion tracker at all times. They took much longer than Chief expected, he assumed it was probably cause they were probably checking through each one of the rooms. That's definitely what he would be doing, anyway. The 6 yellow dots kept moving around and around for minutes before Chief finally heard the sounds of footsteps coming from the doorway. As the sounds got closer and closer to the door, Chief mentally prepared himself for the fight that could possibly start

The doors immediately swung open, and Chief finally got a good, clear look at the troops. Their armor was way different than anything Chief had seen, the plating appeared to be much thinner than his own, or even a regular marine's armor. There was actually much less white on the armor then it looked like from the ground floor, under the armor plating was all black. Chief still wasn't able to identify the weapons at all, which made him slightly uneasy as that meant he had no idea what they were capable of. All Chief did know is that these troops were definitely not UNSC

”Drop the weapon!” shouted one of the troops. Chief pegged him as the squad leader, based on the way he was ordering them and where he was standing in relation to the others. Chief didn't necessarily want to start a fight, but he also didn't want to back down. "You drop your weapons" Chief replied in a quiet but still commanding tone of voice

[Lmpkio]

---

---

Location: City Ruins
Mentions: @tipssyCalibrator

---

---

Just as the Slayer was in range to blast Dante's brains out, he was forced to step back as his foe revealed a crimson sword that jutted straight at him. It scrapped his right side while he proceeded to strafed left. For a quick moment he inspected the damage caused, which clearly indicated that the blade was capable in piercing through his praetor suit. However, he wasn't going to give in to slicing and dicing his opponent at this moment. Once again attempting taking the advantage of his arsenal, the Slayer once more began to start unloading his shots as fast as he could while backing up to expand the potential gap.

If this didn't quite work, the Doom Slayer has a few other weapons up his armored, demon-murdering, suit. And not all of them happen to be guns either...

---

---

Location: Snowy Forest -- Eltariel's Silver Tower
Mentions: @Zoey Boey

---

---

As Kylo Ren peered into the bushes, his stormtroopers were all on high alert. They rose their blasters and pointed them in the direction their Supreme Leader faced, ready to fire at a moment's notice. They couldn't sense Eltariel's presence quite like Ren could, but even with his given hint that the enemy was somewhere in that direction the troopers trusted their leader's judgement and relied on him for guidance. For if he wasn't here, they would have to rely only on their gut instincts and training, which - while sharp - is still worthless against an enemy they knew nothing about.

The Officer held his weapon steadily while he signaled his squad to stay in formation. All of their behavior had changed completely being now in the presence of their Supreme Leader. Gone were most of their chatty behavior and their individuality. Now they were near-silent, loyal soldiers, each trained from birth to do their duty for the First Order. Their leader's presence gave them both increased valor, but even then with those attributes did they show signs of stress, with some more than others.

"Hold your position!" the squad leader ordered through his comms as they began to slowly spread out in a fan-like formation behind Ren to cover more ground, "We mustn't fail the Supreme~ UGH!"

Battle Theme

No later than a mere second later, the Officer would find himself being the first person to get hit. He felt something violently pierce into his skull as he fell unceremoniously on the ground.

"Officer down!" FN-453 yelled as she pointed at their fallen officer, "Take evasive action!"

Ren had sensed the shot the very moment it fired, whizzing directly past the right side of his face. Yet the speed at which it flew was far faster than a typical plasma bolt and was nearly invisible to the untrained eye. The only visibility he was able to detect was a vague warp-disturbance that seemed to resemble an arrow of some kind, like those found in a bow and arrow. Ren assumed that the opponent's arsenal was primitive, with only her magical abilities assisting her.

Meanwhile, the troops quickly assumed control of the situation as they took their respected roles. The silent FN-149 was the first to assist his fallen comrade as he began to pull him out of the battlefield. He could feel the Officer's body twitching violently as he screamed bloody rancor at how he felt his soul being literally ripping out of his body. Even his body began to rapidly decay into the very air around him. He was struggling as much as he could to stay alive.

"Keep it together, squad-leader!" FN-602 begged as he proceeded to escort the two to behind the tower, leaving the other half of their squad on the frontline as they fired blindly into the bush.

An enraged cry bellowed from Scorch as he made it to the front before finally having a chance to fire his bulky flamethrower. A stream of steady flame emerged from the weapon's clear-white nozzle attempted to douse the bushes in front in liquid fire. His call to arson however would suddenly be in jeopardy, alongside 453 beside him. From the corner of their eye, they could see a flash of light blinding towards them and the sudden sharp ringing sound of imminent danger. Too late to react, they had little preparation to brace for impact before wincing in the face of seemingly inevitable doom.

Lucky for them, fate wanted them to remain alive.

The arrows could be seen floating in mid-air, stopped by something dead in their tracks just inches from their faces. Turned out their Supreme Leader was just quick enough to hold them in place using the force. They glanced over at Ren who was looking at them with his hand extended out towards them.

"GO."

The troopers didn't need to be told a second time as they hastily moved out of the way. Ren would release his grip as the arrows dissipated into the tower. While he normally didn't care much for his troops in battle - as he was used to the fact they they were practically expendable - the fact that he had only a handful at his disposal prompted him to grant his troops mercy from their rugged lives being cut short.

Yet Ren's distracting act of mercy would cost him. As he swerved back to face the trees, he would be greeted by a ghostly aberration of the girl slamming her heeled boot straight into his chest. The powerful thrust was able to push him back considerably, but he was quickly able to regain balance as his boots skidded across the snowy surface for a few meters.

Being the closest to see the action up close, FN-768 proceeded to fire upon his Supreme Leader's attacker.

"Die, primitive scum!" he shouted as he fired.

But the girl, despite her arsenal, had speed and agility at her side. As she unsheathed her blades, she easily dodged the trooper's initial bolts and proceeded to lunge at her target. The trooper, still aiming at his target, watched through his gun-barrel.

"Ahh frek..." 768 muttered hopelessly as he began to accept his death.

But Eltariel's ravenous attempt at causing death would be her undoing. For a split moment, she would feel her body just suspended in mid-air before being violently tossed to her left and towards a tree. The trooper glanced at the girl's flying body before looking at Ren walking ominously towards her. Another trooper saved by their glorious Supreme Leader once again.

With FN-602 rushing to get back into the action, the four remaining troopers on the field began to get behind the dark-masked leader with their blasters raised. But before they could fire, Ren rose his hand for them to hold their fire. Being the loyal soldiers that they were, they obeyed as they continued looking down at their opponent as if held at gunpoint. The dark warrior then began walking slowly towards his opponent as he whirled his crackling saber in place.

"Not bad," Ren admitted as he continued to pace forward, "For someone of your skills. But you cannot best the power of the dark side."

He'd pause for a minute before stopping half-way between his troops and Eltariel.

"Who are you?" he asked in a casually blunt tone as his saber remained ignited by his side, ready to block a surprise counter that could be thrown against him.