KillamriX88

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

@Scarifar@Dezuel@AtomicNut

---

Vera was caught off guard by Mina dragging her and Michael away to somewhere more quiet. She seemed... uhh... simple. Simple wasn't bad, though. Simple was honest and easy to work with... kinda. As long as you didn't need rocket science.

It was the other one she had her guard up around, and trying to link arms with her would be like trying to grab smoke for him.

"What are you doing? You're gonna hurt her feelings," Vera told him with a frigid glare. "Wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea." Speaking of Mina's honesty, and what she'd witnessed, it was clear that the beefy girl valued the guy in some way... for... some reason.

Once in that more "private" location, Vera managed to pry herself free and help get Michael laid down. It was then that she decided it was time to retreat, if she could. She just had to do it right.

"Look, Mina was it? You seem like a smart girl." Hardly, but Mina had no reason to expect Vera to know better. "Do me a favor, would you? Make sure Michael here makes it to his next match in one piece," she began, slipping Michael's glasses into the boy's pocket as she spoke. "You knocked him out, so it's only fair you make it right, don't you think? You might be fighting him yourself after all, and you don't seem like a cheater to me. Don't let anyone mess with him, not even this guy here." She pointed a thumb at Suzakura. "After all, it'd be a mistake to hurt a contestant outside of a match, and friends don't let friends make mistakes."

She did her best to be straightforward with her wording, but without appearing condescending. The last part wasn't too hard, after all. She just had to siphon all her anger toward Suzakura, which helped keep it from showing up as she spoke to Mina. She didn't really know him, but he'd made a terrible first impression so far.

"I'd stay and watch him myself, but he'd be embarrassed if he woke up and found me doting over him, and then he wouldn't be able to focus during his fight." She sighed. "But... if you really need me, I'll be over at the bar, OK?"

Once she was at least half-confident Mina mostly understood, she turned to leave, "Try touching me again and you'll be walking cross-legged for the rest of your life," she hissed icily to Suzakura as she walked past him.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

@Scarifar@Dezuel@AtomicNut@Letter Bee

---

Vera grunted as she finished dragging her friend onto a stool and draped her over the bar to sleep off her overdose. She'd found her all right, and her purse, with almost all of her "product" having already been consumed. What a pain in the ass, as usual when it came to this one.

Half the time she never even paid.

She looked over her shoulder in time to see someone getting punted through the crowd, only to take it out on the very crowd he'd just inadvertently assaulted.

"Fuck me, of course he's here too..." The guy didn't exactly keep a low profile, sowing discord wherever he went, which at least made it easy for Vera to avoid him. In fact, she was pretty sure he barely knew she existed, if he knew at all. She watched as he and the almost literal cow of a woman who followed him around harassed Michael. She scoffed, almost turning away. Nothing more than the nosey punk deserved.

And yet something about it felt far too familiar...

---

Years Ago

---

"Alex, right? What are you two doing?" a boy asked.

Alex's eyes popped open. It was the beginning of recess and Alex had been sitting with her friend Wolfram, using their abilities to weave together a dream world. It was far more exciting that playing on the slides for the nth time, even if it sometimes gave them a headache.

"Making a dream world! Wanna see!?" Alex asked.

"Uhh, sure. Why not?" the other kid shrugged. Alex smiled and held out her hand. The boy did the same, but as their hands touched, Alex recoiled, trying to pull back, but the boy clamped down... and just long enough for the bit of chewed up gum he'd had concealed in his palm to stick to Alex.

"Ew, ew, ew! Why did you do that?!" Alex wailed, trying to pull it off only for it to get stuck to the fingers of her other hand as well. Tears began to brim in her eyes as the disgusting mess only grew worse the harder she tried to get rid of it.

"Pfft, you're too old to play make believe, you baby!" The boy chortled at her misery. Meanwhile, Wolfram was frantically looking around, trying to think of what he could use to get the gum off of Alex, but to no avail.

"Hey," a new voice entered the scene. Alex looked up, sniffling, but quieted down a bit. Her other friend had finally arrived, Vera. "Where'd you get that? Isn't gum against the rules?"

"What, you gonna tattle?" the boy sneered.

"Nah, I want some. You don't mind, do you?" Vera tilted her head. The boy looked surprised, but then shrugged, reaching into his pocket. Vera was tall for her age, and her family had money, so she naturally just fell into the "cool kid" category that let her get whatever she wanted most of the time. This poor fool just didn't know any better. He pulled out one stick to offer it, but Vera just snatched the whole rest of the pack.

"Wh- HEY! Give it back!" The boy lunged, but Vera leaned away, causing the boy to stumble forward and trip, landing face-down on the ground. Vera then stomped on his back to pin him. "St-stop it! What are you doing!?"

"Teaching you a lesson," Vera responded nonchalantly, pulling the gum out of the pack, one at a time, and popping into her mouth. Soon she was chewing on the whole pack, forming a massive wad of pink justice in her mouth as the boy struggled, but failed to claw free. When she was done, she leaned over and let the slimy, sticky mass plop down on the back of the boy's neck. It stuck to him, his hair, and the collar of his shirt. He would not be free of it easily.

Not to mention it was just about the grossest feeling in the world.

Finally Vera let him go and the boy scrambled to his feet, running away with tears in his eyes. She then held the empty gum wrappers out to Alex, "Here, scrape it off onto this."

But instead, Alex just lunged at Vera, throwing her arms around the girl.

"Wh- No! Stop! You're gonna get it on me! Off, off, get off!"

---

Vera took a deep breath and strode over the ongoing fracas. Michael was currently KO'd on the floor, and the other guy, Suzuki or whatever his name was, had stolen his glasses. That never ended well for the glasses.

Just as his grip began to loosen, Vera swooped in, catching his wrist and snatches the glasses from him with her other hand, "Give it a rest already," Vera sighed and then let him go. "And you two better hope he wakes up soon. He's still a contestant. Otherwise a bunch of very pissed off gamblers are gonna want to get to know you real well." She crossed her arms with an unimpressed frown on her face. "If you need to get off that badly, I'm sure there's plenty of other people whose day you can ruin."

Not like he could ruin hers any more than it already had been. She'd been much happier thirty seconds ago when he hadn't known what she looked like.

---

@Spin The Wheel

---

Duke would find the loser of the match with a couple of people around him. They'd pulled him onto the cushioned seat of a booth at the edge of the bar where it was a little quieter and were trying to coax him back to consciousness. One couldn't even really say he'd been thrashed, so much as completely blitzed, with a massive, swelling bruise on the side of his face. The fight hadn't lasted long, and it was now abundantly clear why -- the other guy had hit him like a truck.

Finally, the loser blinked, cracking an eye open, "Wh-... ow..." Unsurprisingly, talking was a little painful for him at the moment. It was then that he noticed Duke standing nearby, "You, ugh, got something you wanna say, man?"

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

@Dezuel@Lewascan2@Letter Bee

---

The man in the suit's charge was suddenly interrupted by a shower of ceiling debris raining down on him. Reverio's light had cut all the way through the first floor ceiling and into the second, so the debris seemed to just keep coming. One might have even noticed an entire computer desk and filing cabinet falling down onto the man.

For a moment, it almost seemed like the battle was won. A few hundred pounds of wood, sheetrock, concrete, and metal had just toppled down on the man's head.

Then... shadow's began to seep out of the cracks and crevices of the mound in front of them. Then, the mound began to shrink, as if being drawn inward. Before long, it was all gone with the man in the suit left before them, covered head-to-toe in shadows. The shadowy armor then receded, leaving only his hands dripping with them.

The blood dripping down his brow suggested he'd been caught off guard at first, and he was down on one knee, breathing heavily. Reverio's light had slowed his shadows down, though at the same time, the pile of debris had given him the darkness he'd needed to recover... kind of. The damage had been done.

He snarled and then threw his arms forward, his shadows suddenly regurgitating some of the debris he'd just absorbed in a shotgun spray of rock and metal. Afterward, his arms fell slack to his sides, the man looking more and more exhausted as the head-trauma began to catch up to him.

For a moment, there was thus a lull in the battle.

The moment was soon broken by a man clearing his throat. They would see that the door to the room was now open with Dr. Nightman himself standing in the doorway.

"I must hand it to you children. You're quite tenacious. Especially you, Mr. Galand; I dare say I underestimated you." He walked into the room, standing just behind the man in the suit.

"Sir, I-"

"Be quiet," Nightman told him harshly, placing a hand on his shoulder. The man's eyes unfocused and all his shadows dissolved away. A moment later, however, the shadow's returned, flowing from Nightman's hands to crawl over his subordinate's body, then spreading across the floor beneath him.

Then, suddenly, the man was sucked into the void, leaving them alone with Nightman.

"It would seem I have to pick up where he left off, but no matter. This will soon be over," Nightman said, adjusting his glasses as he did so. "However, three against one doesn't seem fair."

With that, his skin seemed to stretch, as if something was trying to force its way out from inside. Then it almost seemed like the man was about to split in half before finally "it" broke free and before them were two Nightmans.

Suddenly, both turned their heads toward Chinami, "You're a quick girl, Chinami. I wonder..." Both lifted their hands, one finger outstretched, though at slightly different angles.

A moment later, Chinami might be able to calculate that he was actually pointing past her... and in that moment two thin beams of light were fired past her, aimed to pierce through Ken.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

The underdog jumped slightly as Duke made his presence known. He still had veins pulsing at his temples and every muscle in his body seemed to tense up. He looked ready to spring, only for Duke to completely throw him off by putting a soda in his hand. His brow furrowed in confusion, but it seemed Duke had earned himself the start of a conversation, if only by power of bewilderment.

"What the hell do you want? Who are-?" The guy then frowned, looking Duke over again. "Wait, I know you. You're that bastard who's always betting on the fights these days." He grunted, cracking the soda open and chugging it all in one go. "Hmph, whatever. I get it. Can't make money winning, might as well make it gambling, huh? Your record was almost as bad as mine before you quit. Heard you're raking it in nowadays, though. Also heard you lose it just as quick," he chuckled. "Tell you what, one former loser to another. Bet on me tonight, then quit while you're ahead."

He then seemed to lose the ability to look Duke in the eye. A moment later there was a crunching sound as the boy slowly crushed the empty soda can in his hand absentmindedly, "Anyway, thanks for the drink or whatever. So unless you actually needed something, fuck off, huh?"

---

@Spin The Wheel

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

@Spin The Wheel discord.gg/sR7f7WwKvC
If you care to, now that you're accepted, I suggest joining the RP discord. We're all used to chatting there so the OOC here gets pretty minimal use.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

@Spin The Wheel We never filled up, so yes, I believe we should still be accepting. If you're interested in joining, just go ahead and throw down a CS and someone will review it as soon as they can.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

@AtomicNut

---

Wolf had a bit of mental whiplash after being tossed from one person to another like a sack of potatoes. He finally just crossed his arms and resigned to be carried by Celestine. They were right, after all; the other option was the strange goo below them.

He just hoped it couldn't detect them flying above it and move after them somehow.

What if it ran up the walls and dropped from the ceiling?

He could have attempted to maneuver over it on his own, but for now he still wanted to save his energy. He might need everything he had when they found the person behind this. And, at that point, he'd make them regret doing this.

This was his school.

"I won't struggle, but you'd better not drop me..." Wolf mumbled. It was mostly just awkward because of how much bigger he was then them.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

@Scarifar

---

Vera actually seemed to... disengage as the boy spoke. Physical therapy? That suggested they must have met while she was in medical care. While he was in medical care as well? Alex hadn't just run off and found someone new to spite them. She also hadn't considered what state Alex must have been in when she woke up-

"And why did you never visit her?"

"For... 'some time' you say?" Vera's expression went cold again, though she still seemed a bit distant. "I'm sorry, and what was even your name again?" She turned her body to face him directly, looking down at him. "You know what? It doesn't matter. I'd just forget it anyway. If you're so concerned about her, why not go talk to her? Apparently you're her friend now, aren't you? I don't see how I am any of your business. I wasn't before, and I never will be. And if she hasn't told you, then maybe she isn't either." She then leaned over to stare him in the eye. "So if case you haven't gotten the hint yet, go away."

Vera didn't really care if he took the hint, she was done with him either way. She needed her purse back. She stormed off in search of it, mind more tumultuous than ever.

Why was he acting like it was her fault she and Alex hadn't seen each other in so long! What kind of bullshit narrative was Alex spinning? Living in some fantasy world again, no doubt, where she was the perfect, tragic princess whose friend's had abandoned her in her time of need!

Well Vera had been stuck in the real world!

And she'd said she'd missed her?!

Vera was starting to think Alex had never really woken up at all.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

@Scarifar

---

Vera's head slowly craned around to stare through the boy who'd just addressed her. She showed a chilling lack of overt emotion, making it difficult to gauge what she was thinking as she spoke.

"Oh. A friend of Alex's, are you?" She continued to stare through him like he was a sheet of wet tissue paper rather than a person standing before her. "Well I don't really know what I could share. It's been so long and she's changed quite a bit. I think I'd rather ask how long you have known her. Hm?" She took a step toward him, looming over him ominously with that same, chilling look in her eyes. One might have thought she was deciding whether or not to eat him, while waiting to hear his answer to sway her decision.

---

@Dezuel@Lewascan2@Letter Bee

---

As the teenagers discussed the situation at hand, with Chinami removing their ability to be scried, time ticked away. Their only warning before time ran out was the lights briefly flickering. A moment later a scythe of dark energy arced through them, forcing the three apart lest they be hit by it. The floor where the wave of energy passed by was dyed a dark, inky black. It was so dark it left one to wonder if they were actually beholding something, or simply the absence of anything.

A second later, the door to the room was swallowed by a similar darkness before a figure stepped through it, like a portal made of black ink. It was the man in the suit.

"There have been enough disruptions," the man spoke as he narrowed his eyes. "I'm afraid you must be dealt with."

He stood between them and the physical exit to the room, however, behind him the door remained swallowed in shadow, begging the question if they could use it even if they made it past him.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

@AtomicNut@Crowvette

---

Wolf grimaced. He was way too tired for this. The girl started gathering energy under the intent of "saving" him from Kiwi. He really didn't want to use his powers right now. His headache had just started to fade... slightly. That said, Kiwi moved to shield him despite her being the target!

It was a bold strategy, but it seemed to work out as she recognized, with some dismay, the other girl(?).

An individual she called "The Bane." Ominous.

However, "The Bane" offered to help them figure out what was going on.

"Alright, fine, you can help us figure things out. I don't know if you were close enough to hear, but there was screaming a minute ago. It's back that way." Wolf's exasperation was apparent, as they'd had to waste time on these two instead of going directly to the source. Maybe he'd get over it if they actually proved useful in dealing with whatever it was. He then narrowed his eyes at the first girl, Alyona, "And don't even think of attacking Kiwi."

Hopefully, in the end, none of them would be needed.