[IC] Dragon's Awakening

[Lugia]

[Robert]

I was in the middle of one of my nicer dreams, when out of almost nowhere, I hear someone shout "WAKE UP!" the voice sounded a lot like Jake's, but when I finally woke up, all that I saw was some sort of white-colored wyvern. I panicked for a moment, only for the thing to add "Robert, it's me, Jake. Sheesh, take a look at yourself before you judge my looks, huh?" with that, I headed towards the bathroom, which was located just off to the right of my room. After maneuvering through the mess that covered the carpet, I took a look into the mirror, only to find out that, for some reason, I was now some sort of mix between a dragon and a bird. Yeah, I had the general body shape of a dragon, but feathers actually covered a pretty decent amount of my body, including a line of them that went down from my neck to the tip of my tail. Whoa... well, this is certainly different from being human. I think I like it, especially if I can fly. I think as I continue to look at myself in the mirror, mainly just to get more used to this new form. There were still some shredded-up clothes barely hanging from my body, meaning that unless I wanted to go around nude, I'd have to get and probably modify myself some new clothing... a shower wouldn't hurt either. I end up taking a blue shirt and some faded jeans, and head back into the bathroom. Jake had already left by now, apparently eager to play with his friends or something.

After using my talons to cut open some holes in the correct places and taking my shower, I finally head downstairs, where I'm greeted by a purple wyvern screaming at me and running, or rather, flying upstairs. "Uh... whoops?" I say to the other creature in the room, a brown, quadrupedal dragon who didn't flee at the sight of me. "It's fine. I'll just have to somehow get her to stop being afraid of birds." His voice somewhat reminded me of my dad's, no, not my supposed 'real' father, the one who actually helped my mom raise me, which only left Berta as the screaming wyvern, which would make sense given that she was always afraid of birds... of course, I wasn't much of a bird, just a feather covered dragon who happens to have bird talons for arms and hands... huh... Dad then walked up the stairs after Berta, leaving me by myself. That was when I remembered that I had somewhere to be, and flew off to my friend's house. Man, I wonder how he'll react to my new shape... I just hope he doesn't react violently. I think as I fly over the city, apparently being some sort of natural flier, which makes sense given that I almost always dreamed about doing so, and no, not just the 'I can somehow fly as a human!' dreams, either... of course, what was more important was the horrible state that the city was in, by now. Most, if not all of the buildings in the city have been reduced to rubble, and worse? There seemed to be mythical creatures just running and or flying around doing whatever the heck they wanted from destroying buildings to possible cases of murder... it was as if the law no longer applied to anyone. A large amount of dust also seemed to have been floating around the city, which both made it difficult to see and made breathing almost a chore.

I finally made it to my friend's house, only to see a gryphon in steel armor apparently in the middle of making a sword. He was hammering away at the thing with the same kind of mallet that my little brother had for a little while... ugh, not right now, dang it... I had to hold back some vomit both from the dust, and from my fear of swords. The gryphon noticed me, and pointed his sword in my direction, shouting "Leave now, intruder, or I will have to kill you!" that was Chance's voice, and probably Chance who was saying it. "Wait, Chance, um, it's-" I get cut off by him jumping right up to my altitude, and nearly slashing at me with his newly-made sword. I dodged at the last possible second, and tried to say something again, only for him to throw the sword at me, missing... until it somehow came back. On its return trip, which I have no idea how that was pulled off, it managed to create a giant tear in my right wing... a tear which was large enough to seriously hinder my flight. The pain alone was almost enough to make me pass out, but I had to continue... he was going to kill me if I simply fell right here and now. I finally decide that I have no other options but to attack, but, I couldn't really attack him without getting close, and I already knew that was going to be a bad idea. I tried to think of other ways to attack when, out of nowhere, a lightning bolt formed at my claw tips and flew right towards Chance, hitting him square on the beak, and leaving a scorch mark on said beak.

---

[Tony]

I noticed that somehow I was moving away from those giant, possibly evil creatures, and decided to look in the direction that my vehicle was moving after the vehicle went down a somewhat steep hill... what I saw was a giant rail system, and one that was not only old, but poorly made as well. Ah, crap, looks like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think as I notice the rails in front of me were broken. There seemed to be a detour coming up, but no way to make the rails switch. Of course, there might be one way to get the mine cart to go down the right tracks, and, I ended up leaning to the left in some sort of attempt to get the mine cart to head down the less-than-broken tracks. Much to my surprise, it actually somehow worked, though, the cart almost tipped over as a result of my leaning, it was worth it to not possibly end up with a heavy, rusty mine cart on top of me. I thought I was in the clear, however, yet another broken part of the track showed itself, making me lean right this time to go down the correct tracks. There were cracks lining the walls of the cave, probably just from the miners, well, mining, meaning that there was probably something precious or valuable in those walls at some point, but not anymore, which left the cave as one flat dark blue color, with the only thing to break up the boredom being the occasional stalactite, which would force me to duck just to make sure I didn't get hit in the head with it. After avoiding a pillar made from a stalagmite and a stalactite growing into one another by making the cart turn left once again, and looking behind for a moment, I look forwards to see an incredibly steep slope down that ended in a broken piece of the track which looked as though it would catapult me right into the air, and possibly the ceiling.

I had no other choice but to go down that slope, and it did just as I thought it would, launch me straight into the air, which of course, scared me beyond belief, however, while I was expecting a huge splat as I crashed into the ceiling, instead, I went right through a hole that was in the mine, and ended up pretty much literally flying through the air on a mine cart. Unfortunately, I looked down, and passed out just from the height at which I was flying. The only thing that woke me up was a huge, jarring crash. It seems as though I had finally landed, and somehow, was safe from injury as the cart didn't flip or turn at all during flight. I got up after dislodging my claws... wait, claws, which somehow found their way into the sides of the mine cart and looked around at my surroundings, and, it would appear that I somehow found myself in the ruins of some town, yet, these ruins seemed rather recent... odd. I looked down for a moment, and noticed a reflective surface on the mine cart, the floor, which showed the reflection of some sort of green, surprisingly scientifically accurate velociraptor of some species instead of the usual human I'd expect to see in a reflection. It appeared as though I was still wearing my uniform, which I confirmed with a quick look at myself, and it was oddly undamaged by... well... obviously I had to change somehow, I just didn't know how. I looked back at the ruins and started to walk around them, noticing several other strange creatures generally wrecking up the place even more. My thoughts raced as I tried to make sense of the situation, but I continued my wandering, amazingly not getting into any fights as I examined these strange ruins.

There was an absolutely unhealthy amount of dust in the air, just waiting for someone to breathe it in, so I did the only thing that I could have in the situation, I reached into my work bag, which I took with me on the cart ride for some reason, and took out a red bandanna, which I promptly covered my snout with, making sure to cover the mouth part, as well as the nostrils. I also took out a pair of goggles, however, unlike the bandanna, it didn't even come close to fitting my new shape. I wondered if the color of the bandanna, which helped keep dust and dirt out of my lungs at the moment, would tick off any of the local populace, and almost immediately got my answer when a shadow creature, who somehow had a blue bandanna tied around its head despite not exactly looking physical, shouted "Hey, this ain't your territory, blood!" I knew I should have gotten it in white... I think as the shadow creature pulls out a gun. I already knew what the shadow was planning to do with that, and somehow, through my panic, created a light which found its way to the creature before it could pull the trigger. The surprise of the attack, as well as the fact that it really seemed to work, was enough for me to run up to the thing and take the gun from him. It was a simple pistol, which seemed to take .9mm rounds, meaning that it was less likely than most guns to kill... well... to kill a human, anyways. Thankfully, I was actually a pretty dang good shot, and I took my place far away from the shadow creature, who still seemed to be trying to kill me.

[Evanist]

Elena was flying for long hours right now, looking around at what once was a beautiful town, filled with parks and trees. At least that what it was before all this. Now, here and there, ruins of the old world filled the streets, creatures screaming all around, She looked around, seeing what seemed to be blood on the walls in a dark corner. She shivers. So much violence.... She was moving to a more violent sector of the town, she knew.... But she needed to get pass it. Something down there was watching her move.... watching her fly away... then started to chase. Elena felt it and knew that there was trouble. Suddenly a shadowy creature threw a dark bolt towards her, that she quickly dodged and threw a water jet towards the thing, hoping to knock it out. Unfortunately, the thing dodged the attack and did not seem to slow down as it got a strange blade in it's hand... with a closer look the thing seemed to be some sort of bat. Elena flew even faster before turning around and then suddenly letting lose a ton of water jets. One of them hit the target right at his wing, making him stumble and starting to fall. This was her chance. She quickly lfew even faster and got out of there, towards the safer sector where people use to be more civilized...

At least that what she though until she saw a huge fight going in the air between multiple creatures, as well as some fighting on the ground. Dragon's, phoenixes.... A lot of those wore blue uniforms, with a certain insigna on them. Old police officers Elena presumed, fighting off the criminals. Behind and in front, some civils were fighting off the shadow creatures. Elena started to fly towards the side, wanting to evade every contact with this hell, until she got stop by a rather large pheonix in blue uniform.
"Where do you think you are going?" the phoenix says.
"Trying to get out of that living hell of those creatures..." she responded. The phoenix stared at her, as the bat from earlier started to rush at her, mad.
"Watch out!" the officer then says, pushing Elena away and then striking the bat, as both of them were starting to fall towards the ground. Elena quickly rushed down, and then surrounding herself with water, smashed on the bat and then pushed it away to the ground before using shadow bolts and pinning it on the ground, piercing holes and making the thing scream. The officer stared at her.
"That energy..." he says.
"I don't even know why. I have that... ;look I only want to get out of this hell here." she then says. The bat then opened it's mouth and threw a dark bolt towards Elena, who quickly protected herself with a water shield
"Just go!" The officer then says. Elena nods and then rushed away, going towards town, away from the chaos. She did not need this to happen at the moment. Everyone had lost their senses since the whole meteor incident.

As she flew farther, less ruins were seen. It seemed that it was starting to calm down a bit, some houses here and there still standing. It seemed less dangerous then the sector she was in. She breath deeply, and then landed on a large roof, relaxing a bit The old sector where he friends use to be... She remembered when she use to play with them everyday, talking, speaking of secrets and such. Good times... that seem to have passed away. Why did it have to happen like this, she did not know, but what she did know is that the world was currently in chaos and that they will need to work to try to repair it. This will be complicated and she knew about that.

[Asuterisuku]

"Ugh, my head," Sandy groaned as he tried to stumble to his feet. Everything from the night before seemed to be a blur. Where had he gone to bed? Had he even gone to bed? From what he could tell even before opening his eyes, he was still in the lab. He could also tell that he was having some trouble standing properly, like his legs wouldn't unfold for whatever reason... Come to think of it, everything felt... off. Not wrong, but not familiar. For some reason he felt like he had a second pair of arms. As his eyes fluttered open, everything WAS a blur. Sandy instinctively groped about for his glasses before realizing that the frames were right at the edge of his field of view. Tentatively, awkwardly, he reached up a hand to remove them.

For a moment, he was confused when he saw a claw in his field of view. This isn't my finger... he said to himself. And yet this impossibility could explain why his body didn't feel like his own. What the hell happened last night? Hesitant as he was, he had to know what happened. Off came the glasses. As they fell to the ground, the first thing he noticed was that his perspective had changed. He had to be no bigger than a large dog. While this in itself was concerning, he could already tell that his eyes were vastly superior to what they were before It was like upgrading from a small CRT to a gigantic 8K display. The difference was incomparable. Whatever had happened, at least it had some benefits. He glanced down at himself, and found his arms covered in feathers, ending in the talons of a bird, the tatters of his coat and clothes hanging around them. "This is impossible," he said aloud. There was no one there to hear him... Or so he thought.

"Professor? Is that you?" It was the voice of someone he knew. One of his brightest students; Marie, her name was. They had previously discussed at length the idea of the ecosystem and the creatures in it were in and of itself being a living thing, regardless of what it was composed of. Oddly enough, she was the only one of his students who insisted on calling him 'Professor,' rather than his nickname, 'Sandy.' And yet, when he brought himself to look in the direction from which the voice had come, there was a sort of... reptilian monstrosity standing in her place. Even from this distance, it clearly dwarfed him; he wasn't entirely sure how it had gotten into the building. It had deep red scales, as well as... were those wings sprouting from its back? That might have explained the second pair of arms he felt attached to his shoulders. For a moment he experimented with opening and closing them, his head turned over his shoulder for the first time; they appeared to be functional. He would have asked, 'what the hell are you?' but he didn't feel he was in much of a position to ask.

He could only assume that the same kind of thing had happened to her... Exactly how far did this spread? This city? This state? The country? The world? However far, he could only imagine the long term repercussions... And he couldn't say he liked the prospect. "Marie, I can't help but feel that a lot of my life's work went down the drain last night."

She grimaced. A toothy thing, but at least it reminded Sandy that that face had once been human. "Perhaps it did, but I have no idea. All I know is that the city is in chaos. I tried getting in touch with everyone who's address I knew, and they either weren't there, or they'd... changed. Just like you, just like... me." She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "I don't think there's anyone left. Everyone's turned into these... things. And they're all out there, killing each other." Sandy stood there, dumbfounded. He must have heard her wrong. Even if they weren't human anymore, most people wouldn't have degenerated so far as to start murdering whoever they saw on the streets... Would they? He took a moment to process this, but his brain would not - could not - comprehend.

He restated, this time aloud, "what the hell happened last night?"

[Riddles]

Ralph's eyes scanned the area around him. There was nobody in sight, which was good. He didn't want to run into anybody after what he'd seen while escaping Metropolis. He shuddered at the thought. As much as he wanted to forget all of that, he couldn't. Now, he was out in the middle of a forest, with no food or supplies. He knew he'd be able to find something in the city, but there was no way he was going back there. Unless he could find a food source out here, he wouldn't be eating for a while. A ferret scurried into view. Ralph watched, wondering if he'd be able to catch it. It seemed to be completely oblivious to his presence. He figured he might as well give it a go. He prepared to take off. He was just about to swoop down to catch it when he heard a scream in the distance.

The ferret managed to get away, but Ralph didn't even notice. He was focusing on the figures moving towards him. He tried to stay motionless as they got closer. If these guys were anything like the people in Metropolis, which, judging by the scream, they probably were, he would be in trouble if they saw him.
There were three of them - a dragon, a golem, and a gryphon.
"Look at all the stuff we got from her." The dragon said, resting by the tree. "I'd say that's enough for today, don't you think?"
The golem sighed. "That won't last long. we need more."
"You two can go ahead and find more. I'll wait here."
"WE AREN'T GOING ALONE! YOU'RE COMING WITH US!"
The golem's sudden anger kind of startled Ralph. He jumped slightly, then felt a sharp pain in his back as one of his feathers got caught on a stray twig. He started to panic as the feather slowly drifted down. It landed right in the middle of the group of bandits, who all looked up and immediately saw him.

He flew away from there as fast as he could. The dragon and gryphon flew up in pursuit, while the golem, lacking wings, pushed trees and bushes aside to follow them. Ralph turned his head around to shoot a fireball at one of them, and a surprised yelp of pain told him that he'd hit someone.
"I'm fine. Keep going."
As he turned around to shoot another fireball, he was hit with a bolt of electricity. This slowed him down enough for the gryphon to catch up. He grabbed on to one of his wings, and seconds later the dragon grabbed the other one.
He tried to break free from their grasp, but as much as he tried, he couldn't. The dragon and gryphon slowly lowered him to the ground, and pinned him there. He could hear the golem's heavy footsteps coming towards them.

[KaBling]

First thing I know. The whole world is on my face. Either that, or lying on the floor, writhing in pain.

"Argh..." I groaned. Although, it didn't sound like my voice. It was... bubbly. "What the fu...?" I couldn't move. Heck, if anything, I could just feel... my head. That was about it. I inched my eyes downwards, to find a black snout growing. I could feel my heart spiking in beats as I tried breathing. Unfortunately, my lungs were blocked by liquids, and I could actually feel my heartbeat slowing down... before disappearing completely. Ohmygodohmygodoh-

Finally. I could start moving again. Well, that was shortly after a beam of metal hit crushed my hip. I screamed in pain as I somehow dragged myself out from underneath the thing, watching my flattened legs go black and squishy. Cracking noises stiffened what remained of my ears, a combination of bones and walls bending horribly. "Jesus. What the hell's going on!?" I shouted, my voice being drowned out by the vibrations of liquid. Making sense of the situation: nil. I dragged myself on the floor to lie against the darkened walls, trying to breath with all my might. I stifled my continuing screams (which went from painful screams to shocked screams), watching a tail erupt from under my back and between my legs and spasm on the floor, flexing away from red entrails covering it before I could start feeling it. I took a good look at my hands, as my fingers became pointed. Tilting my head upwards from them, I could see my feet stretching to accommodate growing claws on my toes. Honestly, I wished it was the work of Richard's formula, making me go crazy with the cocktail of anti-psychotics he had at hand. I gulped, feeling something traveling down my chest before gradually disappearing. Within seconds, I had bounced up, because my entire hospital room was beginning to rumble. I had trouble standing from both the gravity pulling everything down, as well as my new stance of instinctively standing on my toes. Please. Someone explain this to me. Breathing lightly as my 'lungs' opened up again, I nearly tripped upon a computer that was donated to me. It struck me as odd (which itself was odd, considering my room was about to fall several stories) that the power was out, since the plug was still attached to the wall socket. The screen was dead, although that was because it fell from my table. I attempted to lift myself up, although I lacked the physical strength to do it. But, as the room was beginning to open up and reveal the several stories I would fall, I hastily formed a whip with my hand and held onto a bar.

I prayed silently as the room passed me. I bid farewell to my possessions; picture of family, my computer and television, Richard's stray syringe... amazingly, the room completely missed me, leaving me hanging on the tenth floor while it made a bang on the concrete road. The sound it made echoed unnaturally. I chuckled to myself, amazed at my new-found abilities. Yet, I despaired; cars were abandoned, roaming... things were either running or flying, the apocalypse had recently hit (which admittedly left many buildings standing)... I faced upwards, realising my arm was beginning to stretch to the point of breaking. So, I whipped my second arm up before abseiling the broken and teared walls, something I only did once on a school trip. Talk about Chekov's skill.

At the top of the tenth floor, I had realised the severity of the situation. There were dragons, phoenixes and a whole load of other mythological creatures running around dark hallways. "What in the name of...!?" Thankfully, most of whom were actually rather friendly, passing bandages around and flying with stretchers. Several people were screaming at how the hospital just lost an entire column of rooms, losing their loved ones to a disaster. I could tell they were formerly people, because how else were communicating, let alone expressing emotions? Oh man. Noivern's Awakening teaches you so much about reality. Well, after you replace Pokemon with dragons and crap. I let that thought immediately slip my mind. I peeked backwards to the door I hung on, which was obviously a door to nowhere. Dragons flew in the sky with several other things, apparently curious to see the damage. Of course, some were actually doing this themselves... man, did we host a whole load of mental patients.

"Ah God. Richard. Much less myself and everyone I know." I muttered, walking slowly as I picked up my balance. Some people were mumbling words and expressing shock, while others sat silently with eyes wide open. I was the former. "Bloody hell." I muttered, getting an odd sensation to just stretch everywhere. Through a stray mirror on the floor, I could see myself; I was like a Yveltal... a frickin' dragon. Except, I was dripping and... wow. Red and black, with a grey ridge on my back. I felt kinda sick at first.

"Yeah? Ye need meh?" I turned around to see a yellow bird, standing with a belt and a sleeveless straitjacket. I smirked at the fact he survived; he could get out of anything. Heck, he escaped under the watch of three guards. Don't ask how he did that, let alone why there was someone paying my bills under the alias 'RR.' "I'd be crazy not t'be shocked at all o'this." Unfortunately, I couldn't tell if he really was crazy, or just feigning insanity to visit me daily. However, one thing was certain; he always had this weird attitude that calmed everyone down in such situations. Car crash, casual conversation. Murder next-door, make jokes about it. Robbery by same guy who committed homicide, just grab his gun and have fun while he tries to call for help. Richard made everything seem normal.

Not this time. Not when people were in pain, severely injured and pinned under walls. "Whatever." My tone got darker and actually serious, as I began walking up to him. He did terrify me a bit with his electrical arcs across his feathers, almost like an exotic dance. "Is this a delusion? First you make your way to my room and injected me with God-knows-what, and suddenly dragons." Dear God. I was talking to one of my delusions.

"Oh ya, it's an illusion. All of this isn't real. Woooo, I bet there's vampires next." Ah. His trademark sarcasm. I definitely was NOT delusional, because he would only use this in the most serious of situations. I smirked, in contrast to the big gaping hole where my room used to be. As well as several stories/an entire column of the hospital. "Look. Th'point is, y'don't have that bloody amoeba eatin' yer heart. Go have fun." Ricard suggested, happy at how crazy everything was (he's a dragon fetishist, like God at the moment). Or happy at the fact I wasn't dying anytime soon.

"Yeah. Let's go do something. We've been cooped up in this hospital for three years, and only one of us had fun." I said, looking back at the light being generated by small flames and certain creatures. By my feet, there was a dead guy with a gun in his hand. Richard explained he was his roommate, and he was a psychopath; so, he tried frying his brain to make him sane. Out of curiousity to see what I could do, I whipped my arm against the floor. Richard screamed at me for whipping his foot, but I did manage to learn the skill of grabbing stuff with a whip. To which Richard took off my hands as 'payment' for that.

"You're all icky. What happened to YOU?" He repulsed, dropping the handgun and... well, the bullet plunged into me. To which I spat out onto the ground, not being able to hear the clinking over screams of pain and the wind rushing into the hospital.

"Hey! Don't do that! I just felt my whole body shake." Richard seemed to laugh at this, although his laugh was quickly cut off by a hospital ward suddenly exploding by us. I wasn't so sure about leaving. I felt... hungry. Immediately, I stared at a pulsating... bubble, or something that was stuck on the wall. "Ergh. I'll just hang around here for a moment. You go first."

Before I could finish my sentence, he was braying as soon as he jumped through a window and dived straight downwards. I peered over the remains of the window, watching him suddenly gain momentum as he plowed through several dragons. Not a good thing.

"Well. Just this thing and me." At first, I resisted temptations. But then, I found myself hugging that thing as... urgh. I was drinking that through through my chest. Thankfully, the building shook violently enough to make everyone leave, so I was left undisturbed.

[Noire]

"Just keep walking."

That was the mantra the golem repeated to himself every couple of minutes. Connor strode through the anarchic streets of the city, his bulky frame allowing him to easily bypass the rioting creatures. He towered over a fair majority of those monsters battling around his legs, but that didn't stop them from attacking. Most of their claw attacks bounced off of his rocky exterior harmlessly, leaving a long scratch or a slight crack, but it was the magic attacks he had to worry about. Connor was sure he had crushed the bodies of some smaller creatures, such as some Animelious or a Dragon. Connor had been walking at an uninterrupted pace for about four or five hours now. He had taken hours to trek across a city of chaos, but he still wasn't even halfway through it. Burn marks and scratch marks covered his lower back and abdomen, and he was beginning to feel the true effects of being so badly transmogrified. However, he kept at a steady walk. So far, he had yet to be too badly damaged, or have been thrown into a major battle. Connor briefly took a look around. A thickly scaled grey dragon spat fire to a Gryphon. The Gryphon ran about, screeching, covered in putrid ash and smoke, before falling to the ground. Another Golem smashed the body underfoot before throwing a stone fist into a flying dragon. The dragon roared and spat fire as it veered out of control, before being flung into the stone and glass rubble of a building. It was a great chain of events, quite the show. It was a shame they had killed about 6-8 people in that single event. Some people don't realize just how bad this is, Connor thought to himself, continuing his walk. They think that this will all blow over..

Connor heard a massive roar, and swung around just in time to witness a scaly, sapphire dragon charging him. It was surprisingly massive, the biggest he'd seen since Metropolis went upside down. It crashed into Connor at a great speed, sending the two sliding down the street, crushing anyone that stood in their way. Chunks of asphalt were sent flying as he was grinned into the road. Connor laid flat on his back, the dragon on top of him, pinning down his weak legs. The dragon opened it's mouth, and he watched as a glowing, white hot embers engulfed it's mouth. The flames were rapidly growing. "Goodbye, Golem." It hissed, it's voice slightly drowned out by the flickering fire. Connor clutched a bulky stone fist and broke forth, smashing his rock knuckles into the side of the dragon's face. The dragon was knocked to the left of Connor rather than on him, flames erupting from it's mouth and nostrils. Connor steadily got up, using both arms to raise himself, and rested a foot on the dragon, which was still struggling to get up. While his legs were weak, he made up with it for his overall mass and weight. His bulk kept the dragon down. He ripped a charred, ruined tree from the ground on the sidewalk. It was one of the few remaining trees that hadn't been engulfed in lightning or drowned. He raised the tree over his head, gripping the wood tightly, and smashed it into the dragon multiple times, roaring over the din of the crowd. The dragon struggled to get up as he smashed the tree into it's face. While the tree was weakened from the attacks, it still hurt when you beat it into your eyes or weak areas, of course. The dragon's struggling slowly began to fail, it's wings retracting lower and lower. Soon, Connor let go of the in tree, in favor of some more physically damaging attacks. He bended down and smashed his fists at the dragon's face, beating away at the snout and vital areas, his stone fists doing massive damage.

Several minutes later of furious attacking, the dragon was well dead. Thick grey scales were scattered around the road, which some of the smaller creatures were using as shields. Connor panted heavily, glancing around him. Some creatures were just staring at him, with various faces of contempt, or disgust, or hatred. Connor stared down at the dragon for a long moment. Surely, no creature would dare to attack him now, that he'd just defeat.. killed a dragon. But they would all forget about it in a long couple of hours, so it didn't matter all that much. People would forget, and people would return to their usual ways, constantly trying to take down e massive golem trying to get home. Connor sighed. He began to walk at a steady pace once again, making his way down the asphalt, broken road, swinging his arms back into his usual rhythm. It was as if he never attacked, never strayed off from his walk. Just had to keep walking.

Just had to keep walking.

[Lugia]

[Robert]

My attack only seemed to serve to anger Chance, who decided to try to form some sort of shadowy orb of magic at the tip of his blade. He then slashed with the blade, propelling it towards me, and deforming the ball into more of a crescent shape which looked sharp enough to cut through a house. I fly out of the way, and was under the impression that I dodged the attack, that is, until I felt something cutting away at my left leg. I shout in pain, which seems to bring a smile to Chance's face. "Ugh... the pain..." I say, with Chance adding "Hey, intruder, you can leave now and I'll spare you your obvious fate." unfortunately for him and me, I was supposed to be here. "Chance, dang it, I'm supposed to be here!" I shout to him, with him laughing, and adding "Well, I'm pretty sure I don't know any... wait, what the heck are you?" I then decide that he's distracted enough for me to try a melee attack, and I swoop down to slash at him, only managing to scratch his armor... and get smacked on the head with the mallet that he used to hammer out his sword. "Chance, we were supposed to meet here..." I say before I pass out from the head pain. At some point, Chance must have put two and two together, as I was woken up, dripping wet, and freezing cold. Next to me was a bucket labeled 'In case of sleeping Robert'... of course, I know what this meant. He used his usual bucket of ice water to get me back to my senses, and he knew it was me. Due to my abrupt awakening, I only managed my usual non-sequitor "Who what when where why how?" I then add, after calming down a bit, "Oh, hey Chance, you're not going to attack me again, are you?" Chance laughs at that, and says "Nah, sorry about that, you could have warned me that you were coming early, I mean, usually you'd sleep until noon on a day like this." I chuckle and get up on my feet only to notice the bandages that now covered where Chance attacked, earlier... though, the places that the bandages covered felt just fine...

---

[Tony]

Unfortunately, I had to do it. I had to shoot the thing, though, my bullets didn't seem too effective against the walking shadow that was my enemy. All it did was make him laugh, and make me waste bullets... though, I'm sure he still has a bullet supply, one that I could take once I'm through with him... or... maybe even right now, if I needed to. I stunned the shadow with a blast of light, and then ran up to him and dug through the backpack that he was wearing. I find about twenty rounds of .9mm ammunition, and manage to take the bullets before he even comes to. Did I just... steal from someone? Well, I mean, it's not like he was going to use those bullets anyways... right? Yeah... I think as I place the bullets into my own work bag. The walking shadow looked confused when he finally recovered from my attack, and felt around in his own bag, noticing that something was missing. I take this time to form an actual attack, one that was aimed to hurt, not just to stun someone, and launch the attack before he finished with his bag. That seemed to be enough for him to run away... but I knew he'd be back, and, given that he's a gang member, he'd come back with a whole lot more of... whoever the heck they were. I sighed in relief and walked around for a while, passing by ruins, as well as something that looked like it used to be a forest. The trees were mostly dead, and covered in dust, but they were all still standing, which was a good thing. With more trees, there would be more oxygen, and we, as creatures that (I assume) breathe oxygen could used all the oxygen we could get. I then hear some sort of commotion up ahead, and, after passing by some sort of near-human made of bronze at full speed (which was much higher than it used to be, of course), I find a dragon and a gryphon pinning down an innocent-looking phoenix. "Hey! Let him go, he hasn't done anything!" I shout at the two. They ignore me, so I pull out my gun, and aim right for the gryphon, who only laughs at me, but, thankfully, gets off of the phoenix. I end up shooting at the gryphon, not knowing if the bullet would be powerful enough to actually do anything.

[fawcettp]

It was the pain which awoke Jacob from his sleep followed by the bright light of dawn breaking over the edge of a small hill; his heads both throbbed violently as he slowly rose up from the curled position he found himself in. as he rose he raised one of his hands to his head, covering his face, as the other attached to the end of his tail worked its way forwards to look him over him and inspect the damage he had taken from the storm. His mind flashed to the storm and the pain flared once more,

flashback 1

With the failure of the experiment and the change to his body Jacob lost his tempt, but unlike the many times before when he could calm himself and maintain his focus, this time it was more fierce and destructive than ever. Pounded his fists against the wall beside him his eyes slowly darkened and clouded over, his mind went blank except for his anger at the lab and his failure; that’s when the winds began. At first it was a small breeze circling around Jacob, nothing more than the force of an average fan, but it slowly began to build in strength and began to lift the lighter items not stuck down from the room; this continued for another minute before the wind finally broke away and formed a whirlwind around Jacob, trashing the room and equipment. Jacob blind to the destruction around him walked across the room to the metal support beam beside the door, grasping it in two hands he wildly began to pull at it, at first it wouldn’t move causing him to increase his rage and the tempo of the storm now building around him before finally it cracked and pulled away from the wall. With the half crumpled beam of steel in his hand he began to swing it wildly about him, crashing it into all the machines to release frustration over the failed experiment, as he swung the storm around him lashed out at the metal in his hands striking it over and over again with blinding flashes of lightning; the lightning heated and shaped the metal as it was swung, crashed, bashed and heated again until by the end his hands bruised and burned held a great cleaver forged by his rage and the storm.

As the flashback ended the pain eased slightly, allowing him to think slightly more clearly as to his surroundings and what he was seeing as he withdrew his hand and looked to the sky; the dawn breaking the blackness of both night and sleep revealing the level of destruction his rage and the storm had caused, to the point that the build he was in now lay in a ruined circled around him and beside him on the ground lay the now cooled shaped of a cleaver as long as he is tall. Shaking his head slightly to clear away the last of the fog of his sleep he reached down to the ground and picked up the huge blade, thinking only that if it had survived the destruction of the building it would be worth keeping. Jacob having picked up the sword began to walk stumbling at first towards the edge of the rubble ring around him, climbing its 3 meter height to see what was happening; what he saw there shocked him, the block no the whole city was being trashed by monsters of every description. He looked around the bottom of the pile to see if anyone else was as shocked as he was, only to see a strange winged lizard chasing down a small moving rock, he immediately jumped off the top of the pile and on reflex spread his wings so he could glide the distance to the lizard; as he approached his grip tightened on the sword just as he began to swing it full round screaming in the early stages of rage.

[Evanist]

As Elena was moving farther and farther away from the frontier of chaos and pain, Elena had been thinking of her past... Of her brother and her parents. Where were they? When she arrived at her friends houses, most of them were gone, some of them had shut their door in front of her afraid when they saw her, even if she tried to explain. She found one of her old friends though, that had changed into a pheonix. She was able to talk with her for a long time, trying to get to know what happenned. That is.... They talked until they were attacked by shadow beasts as well as some dark green pheonix. Both Elena and her friend had to fly quickly, getting away, until they had to split up because of the number of them there was. For all the police, they could not help everyone. She continued to fly until she had not much energy left, landing on a building and then looking down. She saw a strange griffon as well as a feathery creature that seemed to look like a dragon also. She breath deeply, taking her breath back. She knew she might need to go back to flying quickly, but he needed to take her breath back. She just hoped that she would not be attacked suddenly. It was already enough of being overwhelmed with a group of dragons and phoenix, she did not need it to be worst right now with a kind of creature she never seen before as well as a griffon.

[Riddles]

"So, where'd you hide all your stuff?"
"I don't have anything. I left it all back in the city."
"You know, you're not the first one to tell us that. We know you've got it hidden somewhere."
The dragon and gryphon were both holding him down, and the golem was there to back them up if he tried to escape. For a moment, Ralph thought he wasn't going to make it out of this alive. Even if he did have stuff on him, the scream he heard before suggested they'd killed their last victim. He then heard another voice, which lifted his spirits a little.
"Hey! Let him go, he hasn't done anything!"
A strange dragon-bird hybrid had emerged from the forest. He had a gun, which he pointed at the gryphon. Ralph's right wing was now free due to him letting go of it, but he was laughing for some reason. Had guns stopped working like electronics did, or were they just less effective on the creatures everyone had transformed into? He didn't have much time to think about it, because seconds later the dragon-bird pulled the trigger.
The dragon immediately lunged forward, freeing Ralph's other wing. He flew upwards, only to be grabbed and thrown back to the ground. The golem was standing over him, and was about to attack again. He tried to get away, but before he could react he was thrown again, this time hitting a tree. Now, he was far enough away from the golem to fly up before being thrown again. He shot several fireballs, but they just seemed to bounce off the bronze armour.

[Asuterisuku]

Sandy wasn't an engineer. He wasn't entirely certain why he had elected to take a look at the solar cells on the roof of the facility that fed the massive capacitors that powered the labs in case of a blackout. He certainly couldn't make heads or tails of them himself. Maybe it had more to do with the fact that he had to verify what Marie had said for himself. In the half-hour since she'd found him in the lab, he'd grown more accustomed to what had become of his body, though that didn't mean he had to like it. From here, he certainly didn't like what he saw. The campus, and the city beyond it, was in ruins. It was a miracle that the labs were still standing. While some buildings still stood, he could see the crumbled up concrete and steel, and the creatures that now inhabited it. He watched solemnly - in far more detail than he would have liked - as a.... thing seemingly made out of stone beat a creature that looked a lot like Marie to death first with an uprooted tree, then with its... were those fists?

It was as bad as she'd said. But he still could not get a grasp on what had driven these people to this degree of violence...

"I didn't find anyone else," he heard Marie shout, apparently from the front entrance. Somehow, she must have known that it was not just his eyes that had improved.He had to wonder, though, who or what else had heard her. A quick stroll to the edge of the roof confirmed her location. In some ways, he almost envied her; she was several times his size now, she'd managed to remain bipedal while he'd been reduced to crawling on all fours like... "If you're done up there, you should probably get down here so we can find somewhere to hide out until we can figure out what to do." She was clearly taking charge here, a notion that somewhat relieved Sandy. If she was the one thinking about their survival, than he could set his mind to other tasks, such as the possibility of flight, which was being demonstrated by several beings he could make out hovering around the cityscape. I can do that. This peculiar thought startled him at first; the building was at least sixty feet [about eighteen meters] tall, and if he were to take flight, he would only be going higher. Then he remembered that he wasn't human anymore. His wings unfurled almost reflexively. He felt like he was meant to do this. Like he'd always been. His talons pushed off the side of the roof.

And he flew.

Sandy could feel the air rushing around him as he, rather than falling, glided smoothly and cleanly; it was almost like another sense, built into this body. He could almost 'see' the thermals, the currents, every tiny breeze.He wanted to enjoy this feeling. But he knew he had a job to do. "I'm going to go ahead and scout out the area. I'll be back when I find somewhere safe," he called to Marie, hoping he'd be heard over the wind, before picking a direction and setting off. Finding a temporary haven was only the beginning. He needed power. He needed equipment. And probably most of all, he needed fresh corpses.

He was going to get to the bottom of this. No matter what.

[Noire]

Connor slowly strode down the ruined streets.

Each step he took, a chunk of asphalt gave way, breaking free of the charred, flooded, road.

Surrounding him were warring monsters, crumbling buildings, rioting streets.

Connor was beginning to grow tired of the steel and glass structures, the shoddy road, the thousands of creatures fighting for dominance. The sounds of screeches and bloodied cries were beginning to grow dull. He really needed a place to rest, somewhere to get away from all the shouting and the screaming. The blood staining his hands and feet were beginning to dry. He needed to go or he might be driven mad. Far down, past fighting beats and mythical monsters, a forest stood solemnly, down the road ahead. He could see several creatures retreating there, and some already towering above the trees, flying ahead. The things that still retained a sense of morality and intelligence, that weren't rioting. Connor continued on down the forest. Arcing, sharp bolts of lightning swept the sky, piercing through the fluffy clouds. On the way, Connor could hear some visible screaming from under foot. He stopped for a moment. Fresh, wet blood visibly stained his stone foot. He glanced behind him. A couple of feet away, a large blood stain was visible on the concrete.

Oh. Connor thought, staring down at it. Uh oh.

Connor kept traveling down. It seemed to take forever to get to his sole moment of peace in the forest. His bulk weighed him down, making it hard for his smaller feet to pick up the pace. Connor briefly glanced up. A Gryphon soared by, sweeping the sky. His first instinct was to attack it. It was probably attacking him! It could probably do some damage to him. He raised a stone arm into the air, attempting to catch it, but it easily flew by him. "Stupid birds.." He muttered to himself, before continuing down the roads. So far, everything had seemingly tried to attack him. He had to stay on his guard, or anything could easily set him alight, or bolt him, or drown him with ease. Drowning. Connor shivered at the thought. The things that had shot water at him were the ones he feared most so far. After several minutes of walking, he reached the forest. The wooden, rough trees stood tall, but he stood taller than most. Connor began to walk once again.

Connor could hear some shouting, and something that sounded a lot like a.. gunshot? Gunshot? He hadn't seen a creature wielding a gun yet. That could certainly be useful, but he doubted his massive, clumsy stone hands could operate one. Nearby he spotted a massive bronze golem shoving aside trees, his feet causing the ground to shake. Looked like it was causing trouble to some little things on ground level. Not your problem. He thought to himself. Not your problem. Just someone else's. Connor briefly glanced at the copper, gleaming golem. And what if it was your ki- someone else in that situation? He glanced once again, before sighing. He ran at the other humanoid, swinging his stone fist back, before throwing it at the golem.

[KaBling]

After absorbing every other pulsating thing I could find around on the floor I was on, I had wandered down the stairs and into daylight. Those things were usually found in hospital rooms or something.

The morning. The city WASN'T on fire for starters, despite the disappearance of humans and the rise of mythological creatures. Which got me thinking: So... if we're purely based on mythological creatures, then wouldn't that mean stuff like China would have snake-like dragons, or that Europe would have really aggressive dragons? Wait, most of us ARE from Europe - I suppose that explains the aggressiveness. I pondered for a bit, stepping out the way of a giant letter falling beside me. I looked up and saw the remains of the hospital, which had several letters missing from the walls. Instead of saying Mercy West Metro Hospital, it said instead 'Wes Metro Pit.' Most of the letters were scattered on the road, which had flattened cars and a few unlucky dragons and birds. But, those letters were so big and green, so I couldn't blame them. I took a stroll forwards, listening to echoing sounds of gunfire and screams. At least guns still work. I knew the power was out, since back-up generators of the hospital hadn't started up. Everything else didn't work too well either, whether that be the current status of society or the lack of INTERNET!

I sighed, checking out rest of the hospital from the front. By the looks of it, the giant cross in a circle was partially broken. The hospital was missing a column of rooms, and had scorch marks covering it. Several craters had also surfaced on the walls. Looking around, everything else seemed to be doing a lot worse than the hospital; some buildings didn't even exist anymore. My guess was that people still had a degree of humanity, leaving the hospital alone for those really hurt.

"Looting... ah, what's the point. Half the stuff I want requires electricity." I rubbed my eyes, whipping my hand as it began sticking to my head. To my right was East Metropolis, which was split from West Metropolis due to a bridge. We always had some sort of bitter rivalry; whether that be politics (we were liberal, they were conservative), sports (we were more outgoing, hosting sports such as ultimate Frisbee and even rugby for some reason, while they just focused purely on football and soccer), history (we were passionate about technology, while they wanted to stay in the 20th century) or even economical (Mann Dyna Co was our big business, Aberdeen & Dan Inc was theirs). It was several blocks to the bridge, which was clearly having some sort of intense battle being fought out. Meanwhile, their city seemed to be burning. I chuckled nervously at this, taking a few steps back and walking slowly towards the west. I really did not want to be near the hot zone, what with all the gunfire and occasional explosion.

Where I was going was towards our national park. Well, more of a national forest; we had set aside 150 hectares of land to grow an entire park, although Eco-terrorists forced the place to become a forest. Thankfully, no one was hurt, they were arrested, and now we all liked the forest.

Only problem was, there was a little barricade in front of the road. Formed out of the column that fell out the hospital...

[Lugia]

[Robert]

"So, um, I guess thanks for healing me?" I say to Chance, though, the tone of my voice made it sound as though I was asking a question. I then notice a figure approaching, and almost immediately Chance draws his sword again. "Die, intruder!" He shouts as he runs towards the figure. I fly to catch up to him, and block his path to the unknown dragon, explaining "Chance, I know things have gotten a little haywire, lately, but that doesn't mean you can just attack anything you see! Remember the last time you did that? You could have killed me." He then sheathes his sword, and says "Fine... what is your name, stranger?" I could tell that he didn't really want to do this, but it was better that he did. I then take a closer look at the figure. She was a blue dragon, about my height, and was very blue... no, not sad, but her scales were pretty much all blue. She had a large spike on the end of her tail, and her eyes, which showed that she was scared at the moment, were also a blue color, making it difficult to see them. I also notice a small, broken necklace around her neck... it seems as though it was once in the shape of a moon, and seemed to shine with whatever little light it could get with all the dust that surrounded the city at this moment. I approach her, and hold out my hand to start a handshake with her, saying "Um... I'm Robert, and that griffon that fancies himself a smith is Chance." I then ask "So... what's your name?" I hoped that she wouldn't just fly off, after all, she had pretty much every reason to do so.

---

[Tony]

My gunshot seemed to attract the attention of both the dragon and the griffon, which served to free the phoenix that I was trying to save. Unfortunately, a golem, that same bronze one that I saw earlier, started to run ahead of the group to continue pursuing the bird. I swore under my breath as I couldn't do anything about it, not with these two on my feathered tail. I cast that light spell again, this time aiming for the dragon, who flinched from the attack, but didn't seem all too effected by it unfortunately. I then hear the ground shake, and look up to see a giant, titanic, granite-made golem heading towards the bird and golem duo. Thankfully, the titan seemed to be on our side, as he threw a giant, rocky fist at the bronze golem, cracking its otherwise tough hide, and apparently hurting the thing quite a bit. The golem turned its attention away from the fleeing phoenix, and tried to focus on our new helper, throwing a bronze fist at the thing's... er... arm? Well, either way, our golem seemed to walk around like a gorilla, using his knuckles to help him balance. The dragon surprised me with a sudden attack, and I panicked, somehow forming a rock wall in front of me. I manage to deflect that attack with the wall, but end up getting hit with a bolt of electricity from the gryphon, who was flying twenty feet above me by now, and was already preparing another attack. I pull out my gun again, and aim for the right eye. I take a deep breath, and shoot at the gryphon again before he prepares another spell. This time, my aim was much better, as I manage to hit his eye, the result was a half-blind gryphon falling to the ground, screaming in pain.

[Evanist]

Elena saw the griffon going forwards, going to yell that she was a intruder, and was about to try to fly away, but then saw the other combined creature moving and stopping him, telling him about something about the guy trying to kill anything that moved. She breath deeply, still feeling weakened after all this, and then took her breath, before the other creature that called himself Robert goes and asks her name. He looked at the blue scales and the sky blue feathers that he had, and then relaxed a bit. He was not going to attack her at least... cause she could not stand having to fight again after all that. It was already hard to not fall on the ground and just try to get some rest, and risk being attacked in her sleep. And it did not help that all this happened while she was sleeping and that things started to get chaotic. She looked at Robert, calmer now, and breath deeply.
"Name is Elena Letendre... I am sorry... I was just trying to get somewhere to rest a bit after all the flying I been doing. Dang gangster creatures and crazy people...." she says, regaining her energy slowly, hoping that everything would end up alright.

[Riddles]

Another golem came out of the woods and threw a punch at the bronze one. As they both fought, Ralph realized that the dragon-bird was fighting off two of them at the same time. He quickly turned to see the gryphon flying about twenty feet above the ground, shooting bolts of electricity below him. Ralph was about to shoot a fireball at him, but before he got a chance, there was another gunshot. The gryphon let out a cry of pain as he fell down to the ground. Ralph flew a little closer, and saw the gryphon on the ground, clutching his eye in pain. He was still able to get up, though. Ralph shot a fireball at him just as he was about to lunge at the dragon-bird, knocking him back and setting his feathers on fire.

The gryphon rolled on the ground, trying to put the fire out. Once he'd gotten back up, he had a large burn on his chest, and some of the feathers around it had been burnt off. He glared up at Ralph, and fired a bolt of electricity up at him. Although he was momentarily stunned by this attack, he was still able to shoot another fireball, which the gryphon tried to dodge. The fireball just barely grazed his wing, burning off some of his feathers. The gryphon tried to fly up and get closer, but couldn't get more than a few meters off the ground.

[KaBling]

So, it was either East Metropolis (which wasn't doing so well) or down south. Maybe north, because... well, nobody really liked the north of West Metropolis. The crime rates were higher than most other districts, but only slightly. Despite this, people like myself keep away from the north.

Let me give you a little history of Metropolis: it's split between West and East Metropolis. There wasn't a civil war or anything, but it was just that Denver got pretty big in the 60s. So, they ended up splitting, although I reason to think differing opinions (such as those I described earlier) was a factor in the city splitting. Either that, or the river was getting annoying.

In the 80s, Dyna Co settled in along with Aberdeen and Dan Inc. One was based on science, the other was based on money. Guess which ones. Both managed to encourage a period of growth. Not exactly a boom, but it was easy to confuse the two during this time. They only made the split worse, for obvious reasons.

Unfortunately, we were hit pretty hard by the recession. VERY HARD. Most people left, and the two cities shrunk by 40%. At least Dyna Co's recycling technologies made it easier to demolish empty houses without damaging the environment, but... otherwise, we were kinda devastated. Especially East Metropolis; they had these old and empty buildings that were beginning to run rampant with crime, refusing to take them down because they were conservative. (ZING!) In the end, you could clearly see how our city stood against theirs: capitalism took a swing at East Metropolis. Meanwhile, us at West Metropolis were more sustainable, sharing our wealth and letting others have a slice of the good life. Where we had tall, sociable and sustainable white apartments, they had grey one-story houses reminiscent of the Atomic age, which still retained traces of asbestos.

Our economy fares rather well. Not as good as in the past, but sufficient enough to keep the city floating. East Metropolis practically lives off us, because Aberdeen and Dan are too damn greedy to bother sharing their wealth. Most of the time, they don't even live in East Metropolis; they live in West. There's been some plans to reunify the two cities, but seeing as we're all no longer human, it'll be a miracle if West Metropolis even stands by the end of all of this. What would be better than a miracle would be just clearing out East Metropolis, allowing us to start over again.

...

As I said earlier, I would be going south of the city. District of the Houses. What? It's not like EVERYONE wants to live in an apartment, especially now when they're beginning to collapse. After two minutes of walking and getting away from fateful encounters, I was now lurking in the... eh, I didn't know. It had a few shops and office buildings on both sides of the street, with cars stuck on the street. Except for one, which had rested on the sidewalk. I tried starting the car, but for some reason the ignition wouldn't work. The keys were still inside the Dyna Henex's ignition, but when I turned them the car wouldn't work. I groaned, leaving the car and leaving behind a trail of slime.

I was stubborn to the fact that we were hit by an EMP. I tried two other cars, but they didn't work. I was wondering why this place was rather empty, seeing only a few dragons around. Then I thought about human psychology for a minute. If a disaster happened, people would normally return home to make sure their loved ones. were safe. I don't think anyone lives here... Since I didn't have a home, I'd be lurking around West Metropolis.

After a few minutes of walking and fighting off a vulture or something, the place became populated with houses. There was fire picking up on a few wrecked houses, but otherwise they didn't pose a direct threat to the entire suburban district. I wandered around again, getting bored and sitting by a tree. Someone had left a plastic chair here, so I decided a seat would be all good for today.

I spied in my sights a frantic dragon, a psychotic... gryphon (excuse me, but it's not like I know mythology that well), and another hybrid of God-knows-what. I ended up slumping in the seat, almost trickling down... I wonder why I'm like the only slimy creature around. Either that, or I haven't been looking a lot.

[Lugia]

[Robert]

"It's fine, you can rest here... right, Chance?" I say, first to Elena and then to Chance, who hesitated, but eventually nodded. I could tell that he didn't really want her here, but, wasn't adamant enough about it to fight me over it... well, fight me again, that is. From the corner of my eye, I see two shadowy figures fly past us, and then turn around to look at us. Chance drew his sword again, but, this time, I didn't stop him. These two looked like trouble, and they had something weird and shiny. "Ha, do you three even know of the power we wield?" one of them asked us. That was enough for me to look over and see that there were two of them. One was a dark purple-colored dragon with blood red eyes, claws, and wing membranes. The dragon stood at about a half foot taller than I did, and also sported a pitch black underbelly, and some sort of black... aura? What was that? The other one was a phoenix. He was a pitch black color, appeared to be about five feet tall, had bright orange eyes, and dark purple crest and tail feathers. His talons were actually a dark grey, and he had some sort of weird red pulsating pattern on his underbelly... which was distracting, to say the least. "Elena, you should rest, we'll handle these two jokers." I say to Elena, turning my head for a moment to talk to her. As soon as I start turning my head again, I notice a ball of some sort of shadowy energy flying towards me. Chance thankfully got in the way of the attack, and didn't seem fazed by it. "What? We were supposed to rule with an iron fist, and you were supposed to die from that attack! Holy ones like you can't take that kind of attack!" The phoenix, who was apparently the one who launched that attack, shouted at Chance in surprise. Chance calmly, and simply responds with "Tyranny, huh? Can't say I'm a fan of that." he then throws his sword at the phoenix, who dodges at the last second, and seems more than a little mad about this turn of events. I, of course, try the lightning thing again, successfully hitting the dark dragon with the attack, and obviously hurting the thing quite a bit. The dragon quickly responded to the attack with one of his own... an oddly copycat-like dark lightning bolt, which I didn't even see coming. It hurt like heck, but I wasn't down yet... but... if I can use or control lightning, why can I be hurt by it? Was it simply because it was a dark lightning bolt and not a normal one?

[KaBling]

Just before I nearly died sleeping (I didn't actually nearly die), I felt something plunging itself into my head.

"Ah, hell." I mumbled, since I didn't really have much of a shape for a dragon's head. I had to rip the thing out, accidentally dropping it and letting it float around inside me... which, I thought rather horrifically of. I don't even want to know how I'm still alive. Twice. I stamped my eyes onto the two twats trying to beat up the seemingly innocent gang of three. I didn't know who actually threw the sword, but I'd find out soon.

"You bloody, goddamn things just can't help yourselves!" I shouted as I began steadily running towards the fight, jamming the oddly sharp sword out of my body and holding it in one hand. Of course, I instantly knew I had got myself into a brewing storm. I was the third party, and so far I didn't seem too calm about it. There's always the awkward third party: Protoss in SCII, Gray Mann's robot army in TF2, the Spanish in... er, all I can is the... Inquisition. Huh. I played very few games while confined to my hospital ward. "Stop throwing junk as if it was CHRISTMAS!""

And with that loud and raging line, I delivered my first attack on someone/something; an underarm swing of a sword going upwards, considering how I didn't really take into account the weight of it. I looked like I was still shouting at the dark thing for being such a nuisance. Who's wing did I cut again? The violence and (somewhat delicious) blood covering my vision involved somehow frightened me, despite my reputation (on the Internet) of playing such violent games. I remember hearing a flew clatters of scales on an asphalt ground, but otherwise I knew I hadn't been able to take down the thing; It was just an appendage I cut, not a neck.

[Evanist]

Elena looked as the fight started, and Robert said that she should rest. She backed away, until she saw Robert take dark bolt, and that suddenly a slime creature rushed and attacked. Suddenly she saw another dark bolt coming from the phoenix, straight towards Robert again. She suddenly rush and concentrates. Suddenly the bolt stopped right in the air, as Elena sended the bolt back at full speed towards the phoenix, who got hit full force and backed away.
"Ho... how!" the phoenix says, as Elena concentrared on her water energy and suddenly let a huge water jet towards the phoenix, who dodged and sended another dark bolt at her, hitting her and stumbling back a bit. she growl a bit.
"When I wanted to rest... but i can't just stand there while others get attacked." ehe then says annoyed. she hated when people abused of what they had... they were corrupted by these new powers, snd they had to stop them before they cause more damage