The Gathering

Aya had remained quiet the entire exchange of arriving in the strange realm, slightly annoyed that she'd been torn from her work in the prison, she was working on a new prisoner who had broken more rules then she cared to count, but she just quietly watched everyone else as she 'walked' with them, trying to make herself seem less 'intimidating' then others as she thought it might be best to introduce herself, after listening to everyone else do it, though her thoughts began to fall back to where she was dragged from. Her thoughts were making her feel somewhat angry about it, but she'd live with it for now.

As she followed the 'company' in silence for the moment, the only thing breaking the silence was the sound of dragging chains, but Aya couldn't quite help this, she wasn't the 'haunting' chain warden for nothing. She simply walked alongside and listened to the one in charge of bringing her to this strange world, upon hearing why they were brought here, Aya knew she'd be staying long enough to battle, depending on how this went, she'd stay longer and become known as a 'ghost' for the enemy, planning to make them fear the sound of chains, and her very appearance on a battlefield.

Upon hearing about the kingdom, Aya shook her head and then as she saw the enemy and heard about their combat abilities, Aya couldn't contain it anymore as she suddenly broke out laughing, almost chuckling as she watched this and turned to the queen deciding to finally introduce herself and let them know about her plans, spinning her lantern and scythe around gently as she did. "I'll stay, their souls look useful to me... They will know true suffering when I get to them..... I'll help your kingdom, and payment? Consider it their souls... I may or may not come up with extra payment for my services later.... I am known as Aya from where I come from, I'm also known as the Chain Warden.... But, Aya is much simpler in these circumstances.... This seems to be worth my time..." Her voice staying in it's usual 'spectral' tone as she spoke.

A wide smile formed across the thief's face, both Ursa Minor and the queen surrendering to his term. Nothing quite filled him with satisfaction like winning something through brains, not muscle. Only second to cracking a bank safe, perhaps, and he had no problem with bragging about it.

''Let's do a little test, shall we?'' with a certain sleight of hand, Kailan walked towards one of the smaller paintings in the room, twirling razor in hand before placing it at the upper left corner of the painting, elegantly and swiftly cutting the picture off its edges before rolling it up and packing it away along with anything else he may have borrowed while everyone was talking.

A few more characters introduced themselves into the mix, or reintroduced in the case of Maximilian Von Alistair, for the man had went quiet during the debuckle between Kailan and Ursa, who offered to throw his help into the a mix, a self proclaimed reaper....
But he wasn't the only one making interesting propositions. A demon, under the name Amat Ceras Arasu, and she certainly looked the part, with several wings posturing out of her body with white feathers and very prominent hellish looking horns, she seemed to have a bone to pick with the samurai of justice, well looks like i'm not alone the burglar thought....

But more figures found started speaking, that very same mad man rambled on once more, Lord Coake, was his name, and another one of divine nature spoke out, Mist was what he went by.
Another new character spoke out, however. The crackling sound of chains following her every step, she introduced herself as Aya, another soul hunter, only much less pacific in appearance compared to Alistair.
''Two soul harvesters? is this some kind of social call?''

But then his attention was brought back towards queen Helianth, what she particularly said drew his attention in between all the chatter. She was adamant the queen was on keeping that little girl, Marya was her name, on the team.

''Kid, can you even control your powers? do you know quite what you're dealing with and getting yourself into? just quit while you're at it, no one's going to babysit you, Marya.'' blunt and to the point, his throaty voice being more prominent this time around.

Ayperos frowned as the thief blatantly abused the prilvilage that had been given him. In a whirl the dagger he was toying with had soared through the air and landed quivering in between the thieves fingers. Another knife was flickering between his fingers before the first had landed "You may have been granted sanctuary thief, but I will no tolerate the abuse of the kindness that has been shown you. I will respect the queen's promise of safety, but if you steal, do try to be inconspicuous about it. "

He turned to the queen, "ma'am I am willing to help, however my bent is tht of solo targets. Do you have any particular leaders that you know of? Or is this a blind shot in the dark?"

Up until this point Marya had not noticed the woman with the chains. She stood there, situation nearly forgotten while she steamed about her lost apple. Then the 'Chain warden' spoke up and she nearly jumped out of her skin. "Ghost!" She screamed and jumped behind Ursa Minor. She ducked low, trying to hide behind the shorter girl. "Don't worry I don't think she's seen us yet." She whispered. Then the mean thief chimed in and stole a picture tight in front of them. Her hand was on Ursa Minor's shoulder and she could feel the little hero tense up. The fury coming from bear-girl was almost palpable.

Suddenly he turned on Marya and started mocking her. She stared at him wide eyed, not even sure why he seemed to ate her already. Sure they found themselves in a serious situation wracked with danger and almost certain death for some of them. And sure she had panicked, passed out, and blew a chair to a million pieces without meaning too, but she had been very polite the whole time!

She stood as tall as she could and squared off with the jerk. "For your information I can control my power! I just sometimes forget not to blow things up and sometimes it doesn't work when I want it to and sometimes I accidentally knock people through walls... ummm... hey have you seen my apple anywhere?"


Queen Helianthus stood by frowning as the thief boorishly flaunted his newly won freedom. Perhaps he was not going to be worth the trouble after all. She sighed, she had already given her word anyways. She had no choice but to let him carry on. All she knew is once this mission was over, he had better not get on her bad side. She had agreed not to give him any grief for committing crimes, but it was not a crime to piss her off, it was just a stupid idea.

So far everyone had agreed to help in some capacity or another and despite the obvious tension in the group, she believed they were going to be able to help. She waved her hand again, now turning her strange illusion in the middle of the room into a map showing the bulk of The Black Army.

"As I do not have any trained scouts, I was forced to go and gather this information myself. This is The Black Army. It is at least two million strong and growing quickly. They feed their ranks through this." She waved her hand and showed them a large dark chasm billowing black smoke just behind the army. "Too be perfectly honest I do not know what this is, all I know is that day and night more and more of these wretched creatures crawl up from the depths of this chasm. This is where you gods come in. Your task is a simple one, though it may not be easy with the limitations I have put on your power here. I need this army destroyed and this chasm closed. Frankly the rest of them here simply do not have the destructive force to handle this task. Lord Coake, Mist, Aya, Bookman, and madam Amat this will be your task."

She then turned to Mist. "In answer to your question. I have little to offer that might interest you. Perhaps though, since you are the god of mysteries, I could tempt you with simple information. My mother was... an anomaly among creation. I could not even begin to describe her to you with the time we have but suffice it to say that she liked to travel. She is the only creature I know of that has visited nearly every time and place. I can not even tell you how long it took her because she did not live on a linear timeline. I have in my possession dozens of books handwritten by her. The knowledge you will find there will reveal mysteries that even you may never have imagined. If that does not tempt you then I can only ask for your kindness and hope that you take pity on my kingdom. As for the creatures, this army is built for destruction. They may not be a threat to you personally, but trust me when I say that should they go unchecked their numbers will far exceed what you seen so far and they are not a simple band of mindless thugs. They are intelligent and powerful. They will ravage every world they come in contact with, of that I have no doubt. Even if your fellow gods destroy, it will not be before they ravage your new planet. You will all be given the location and a map to help you familiarize yourself with the lay of the land. You are free to do as you please but I would request that no one leave until morning."

She then turned to the remaining group that had not yet been assigned a task.

"The rest of you will not be joining them on the front lines. I will require your assistance in another matter." With yet another wave of her hand she showed them a large wide open field covered in blackened grass and strewn with piles of charred corpses. In the center of the field stood a castle not unlike her own, except that it was as black as hell.

"This is, I believe, their capital and home to whomever is commanding them. It is also the location of about five hundred of my people being held prisoner. These are mostly woman, children, and the elderly. The men in the attacked villages were killed, though not before the beasts took time to torture them and eventually burn them alive." She pointed to the piles of burnt flesh on the field. A look of deep sorrow crossed her face and for a moment she could not speak. Then with a deep breath and a steely look she pressed on. "Ursa Minor, Marya, Ayperos, Maximilian, and Kalian, this task is assigned to you. Free my people and kill the owner of this abomination." She indicated the black castle. "In fact kill everyone in there if you can. Then destroy it and leave it in ruin. As with the other group, I request that you leave in the morning. I have quarters arranged for everyone. Ursa I would also make two requests of you. One, that you lead the group heading for the castle. And two, that you allow Marya to bunk with you tonight. I do not trust everyone here." She stared at Kalian pointedly.

She instructed her servants to show her guests to their quarters and without waiting for a response from any of them she left the room, a pained expression painted on her face.

It began as a normal day.  At least, normal by one man's standards; to the bear-brawned man laying in the hotel bed, his feet hanging over the edge and his head brushing the headboard, it was entirely normal to wake up with the knowledge that he had to go again.  To E-1120 it was a daily routine, needing to run from Helvar Technologies and their goons.  It was also, as of two weeks ago, entirely normal to wake up to a voice that should belong to a military commander saying "Bookman!  Bookman!  It's time to get up, Bookman!"

The escaped experiment groaned and reached up, rubbing the sleep out of his tremendous eyes with his colossal hands, his yawn seeming to make the atmosphere around him tremble and quake with it's sheer weight.  His body tensed as the yawn blew forth, jump-starting his steely cables of muscle and the biological supercomputer of a brain directing it all.  "Hush, puppy," he groaned to the other, "I'm up.  HelTec hasn't shown up since the day I found you, don't worry so bad..."  Bookman rolled over onto his side and settled back into a comfortable doze before he felt fangs sink into his exposed calf.  He sighed, then, and sat up to look disapprovingly at the siberian husky currently clamped onto his leg.  "Jev," he told the dog, "what did I say about biting?"

His canine companion dislodged itself from his leg before looking him dead in the eye.  "Not to," Jev responded in a matter-of-fact tone, "but HelTec has agents everywhere, even in this city.  And now that they know you're still alive they'll be starting their search anew with even more vigor.  They need you dead, Bookman, and they want me alive.  The moment you forget that we're both dead."  The huskie hopped onto the bed, headbutting the man's arm to try and budge him, "Now get moving!  You need to take me on a walk, too."

And so he did.  The tremendous beast of a man rose up out of the bed, hunched under his full seven foot height to avoid breaking the ceiling with his thick head, and dressed himself before leaving the small hotel room and starting another long walk.  It had been two years since his escape from the lab in which he'd been created, the ultimate result of a project to produce the perfect man, but even after two long years of sending dozens upon dozens on soldiers after him to keep their dirty little secret safe, Helvar Technologies still keps sending more to hunt him down.  And every time they found him, men died in swathes.  As he reached a particularly run-down section of the exotic city of Bavuba, Bookman sighed to himself a wistful "I just wish there was a way to escape all this, Jev.  A life away from the constant walking and fighting."

The canine at his heels let out a grumbling whimper in assent, "Peace in our day would be nice.  But, Bookman, you need to remember that we're the only ones who know the full depth of Project Prometheus.  You need to destroy Helvar before we can rest.  You're the only one who can."

Bookman frowned, a morose creasing of his brow as his hulking shoulders slumped and he stopped in his tracks.  Of a sudden, he felt like an entire world was resting on his shoulders.

Project Prometheus.  Those two words were hung in his mind like white-hot brands, the name of the tortuous process that had resulted in him and thousands of other prototypes, all tested until they broke and then destroyed.  Bookman and Jev were the only ones to have escaped that nightmare, Bookman has a fluke prototype for a superhuman soldier, Jev as a prototype for a new line of super-pets for the wealthy.  The escaped E-series clenched his titanic hands into powerful rocky fists, his tombstone teeth clenched in a grimace of remembered fury.  "Helvar and Jeraal," he growled, the earth at his feet resonant with his mountainout anger, "will suffer for their crimes."  Not a threat.  Nor self-motivation.  Simply a promise to himself and the fallen.

And then something weird happened.  Bookman knew exactly how his powers worked, knew absolutely how his entire universe spun.  But this was inexplicable.  He felt something... shift.  Briefly, he opened his awareness to the rest of existence, peering into and eavesdropping on the infinite other planes and universes that exist, and suddenly he saw it.  Through the eyes of a man he knew as a writer of middling capacity, he read through the beginnings of a story he would now become knvolved in.  Quickly, Bookman snatched Jev up and slung the dog onto his broad shoulders, with only an utterance of "Be still!"  before there was a sudden...

A sudden nothingness.  Bookman felt himself be yanked out of his world, then pulled through a void of some sort, an absence of reality.  And then he landed, and found himself standing in a room in a castle basement, arriving just in time to see people going up the stairs.  Knowing already that his powers were still in force in this realm, Bookman wreathed himself in moderate stealth before following, Jev at his heels.

At a glance most wouldn't notice his presence, in spite of his bulk, but it they actively searched for something he'd be plain as day.  When the party arrived at the apparent briefing room, Bookman snuck in after narrowly avoiding smashing the doorframe with his face.  Throughout the entire meeting he preferred to observe, not really knowing what might be prudent to say or ask.  Though for most of the meeting he was distracted by the prospect of that reward.  If she was willing to offer up even a portion of her kingdom, surely then she would be willing to offer him a place to live?  An end to his running, a final escape from HelTec; he had to admit, that possibility alone was beyond impossibly enticing.

At the briefing's conclusion, Bookman forfeited his stealth, stepping forward.  His voice rumbled out with a hearty  "Well, I guess my introduction will come last since I'll be working with all of you.  Call be Bookman!  Escaped experiment from Helvar Technologies, here to fight just a few more times before peace in my day!"  He doffed his hat and bowed with it pressed to his chest, "I look forward to seeing all this done and over with."  A friendly grin cracked the giant's face in twain, his head brushing the ceiling as he stood straight again.  "Awful high ceilings in this place.  I kinda like it!"

Lord Coake heard someone speak up in a loud voice behind them and quickly turned around. He saw a very tall man with a dog. Lord Coake calmly approached the man and asked "Hello there, I am Lord Coake, God of Insanity on the Planet Iaras. Could I interest you in an invention to help you aid us?" He then gestured to a few weaponry inventions he had brought with him and said "How about the Battle Blade, or the Nunchuks, or even the Buster Sword. That last one was first owned by a fellah with big spiky blond hair. Think they called him 'Cloudy-day' or some other sky-based thing. No clue how he was able to wield a sword twice his size......" Coake shook his head and said "Never mind that. Now, about these inventions....?"

Aya smiled as she heard her task and let out laugh, swinging her scythe and lantern around, being precise enough not to hit anyone around her as she stretched herself slightly. "This will be perfect... All the souls waiting to be shown what true pain is... They will regret trying to stop me..." Aya stopped her chain from swinging as she got ready to get on her way, not caring if the others were ready or not, as she wouldn't need rest, being a spectre, it kind of eliminated her need for it. She began walking away from the group to ready herself, and by that, she was going to get ready for the best time of her 'life. "So much pain is going to come to them... They will regret coming here.... And I won't leave.... But I can't guarantee I'll be quite over the night.. I'm quite restless.... There's a reason where I live, everyone fears nighttime and the sound of chains."

After saying this Aya walked off to find a quiet place to 'ready' herself, she let the sound of chains echo freely as she walked away, laughing as she did, almost cackling in the spectre-like voice she had. "Oh, this will surely be a nice change from my usual day... It's going to be so much fun..." She then just laughed and began pacing in a quiet area.

''You think you can threaten, goody two shoes? you can play with your blade all you like, but I have been given asylum by the good lass over there,'' nodding his head towards the Queen, even though he can sense her distaste towards him, ''Your threats mean nothing'' he followed up with, as Kailan enclosed his fingers around the blade, quickly pushing it to the side and depending on the posture of the mysterious assassin, it would probably slightly push him away to the side, and with that pesky little annoyance away, he started refocusing his attention to what was going on in the room, as Marya stood up and started addressing the thief.

"For your information I can control my power! I just sometimes forget not to blow things up and sometimes it doesn't work when I want it to and sometimes I accidentally knock people through walls.''

Although he was tempted to snark back at the girl, he soon realized it was a hopeless case, as she had the queen's blessing to stay and tag along with the misfits.
''Ugh fine, have it your way, as long as i'm not responsible for you, Care Bear over there can take care of you'' spewed out of his mouth in a begrudging tone, from the prize and description of this task it seemed like no easy feet. And Kailan liked to minimize all uncertain variables, and in this case Marya was one. But nonetheless, the queen interrupted this little exchange, explaining more thoroughly what lies ahead...

''As I do not have any trained scouts, I was forced to go and gather this information myself. This is The Black Army. It is at least two million strong and growing quickly. They feed their ranks through this." She waved her hand and showed them a large dark chasm billowing black smoke just behind the army. "Too be perfectly honest I do not know what this is, all I know is that day and night more and more of these wretched creatures crawl up from the depths of this chasm, and that's where you gods come in.''

Wait, 2 million in size? Kailan suddenly had a wide eyes expression on his face, this really was a very severe situation, but he couldn't help but interrupt.
''Wouldn't it make more sense to just let them have their full powers, wipe those bastards off the face of the planet and everyone goes their merry way? i'm not exactly an expert on inter dimensional travel, but seems logical to me.''

"The rest of you will not be joining them on the front lines. I will require your assistance in another matter." Kailan felt relief, as being on the front lines would put him completely out his element, before using her powers over this domain to open up a vision, a horrific one. A barren wasteland, charred so badly its very air seems poisonous, with corpses mounted on top of each other like mountains, and it soon sank in that those were the corpses of Helianthus' subjects, a look of despondency painted on her face, the sneak thief refrained from saying anything during the entire ordeal, he didn't want his advantages revoked, and after a deep moment of silence, the beauty from another dimension explained that their task is to free all the surviving townsfolk and supress the source of this catastrophe...

All seemed fine and good until she paired everyone together.
"Ursa Minor, Marya, Ayperos, Maximilian, and Kalian, this task is assigned to you.''
He tried to play it cool, I mean no one could harm considering the Queen's terms, but that doesn't mean there is clear distaste between half of the group.

''I just want to note that putting a bunch of people into a cohesive group when the majority of them dislike each other isn't a very wise idea.'' he was at odds with Minor, he saw Marya as a liability and there was tension in the air between him and Ayperos. The only person who was on good terms with everyone was Maximilian, but that's just due his disconnect with the rest.

''But, do as you will, it's your kingdom, not mine.'' the thief was quick to turn his back on the group, escaping the walls of the room and heading towards his quarters.

Mist nodded as he heard the queens answer, it was fairy good as far as he was concerned. New mysteries for him to uncover and a reasonable explanation as to why he should care, not tht he would have declined his assistance either way.

Mist then turned to the thief to utter words of caution, he obviously did not completely comprehend his situation. "Dear thief" he said "While the queen may have decided not t punish you for your crimes now, her point regarding the keeper of justice applies to each of us. We can easily act on our own and hence it is in your best interests not to flaunt your profession before those who find it distasteful. In terms of the groups to which we are assigned, if you wish I could easily join both but my power would be somewhat less."

“A thief, an assassin, a reaper, a soldier of justice and an anomaly walks in a black castle… it sounds like the start of a terrible joke… but I like it!” Maximillian muttered to himself after hearing the assignment the queen had given to his group, led by the young girl named “Ursa Minor”. While he doubted the decision to leave such responsibilities on the shoulders of someone so young, who might be prone to irrational thinking as a child, the ex-Reaper had this foreboding feeling that the young one was actually a lot more mature and adult-like than what her appearance would make others believe.

With the meeting seemingly adjourned, a few had already left after voicing their thoughts on the matter. The damned guide took a small moment to analyze the others that were standing in the briefing room, his red eyes scanning the individuals one by one. An insane god, a god of mysteries, a deathly warden, an experiment, a demonic angel, a samurai of justice, an anomaly child, an assassin and a thief, those were the people beside the ex-reaper who were summoned into this plane of existence. Maximillian was honestly surprised that someone, or something, had enough power to summon all these kinds of powerful individuals from their home world and bind them here. Summoning a God was quite a feat, but summoning two was even more impressive.

After being done with his examination it was Maximillian’s turn to leave the room, accompanied by a servant who was ordered to lead him to his quarters. As he walked through the corridors and halls of the castle, the reaper did not felt like he was so out of place. This medieval setting was something he was quite used to, living himself in this era on his home dimension. He had heard of places that are astounding compared to where he lived, places where technology was much more developed, and worlds that were undisturbed. Even though this realm wasn’t quite as different as his own, Maximillian could not help but feel somewhat excited at the discovery of a whole new world.

After being introduced to his modest room, the servant left the Reaper to his designs, and truly to his designs the spiritual guide would go. The Queen had asked everyone to stay here for the night, but she didn’t seem to have told anyone that they weren’t allowed to visit the castle. Curious by nature, Maximillian left his room to wander in the halls of the castle, exploring the place for some time. And by wandering, it meant assuming his ghostly form and passing through walls and floors, a whistling breeze accompany his every movement, making it seem like haunting voices were murmuring in the corridors of the castle. With the Warden’s chains rattling against the floor and the haunting wind created by the Reaper, the castle seemed do have suddenly become haunted to its inhabitants, much to the delight of the undertaker.

After a while, Maximillian had spotted two auras he was familiar with. Those belonged to the “samurai of Justice” and the young anomaly. Seeing these two reminded the Reaper that he had something in his belongings that belonged to the little Marya. With a grin, the damned guide’s upper body popped out from a wall, facing the two girls, apple in hand.

“I believe I haven’t been given time to give you back what is yours, little miss.” Maximillian said with a haughty grin, handing the apple to Marya.

The word god had lost all meaning to Ursa Minor. In her tenure as a hero she fought both against and alongside beings who called themselves gods or were worshiped as gods by others. She felt confident in her ability to hold her own in the first group, so it came across as a slap to the face when did not make the cut. She once again felt betrayed by the queen who had spoken so highly of her just moments ago.

Her fragile pride was repaired when the queen appointed her as the leader of the second group. Surely the queen knew she was more than qualified to be in the first group, but felt that no one else could be trusted with such an important role. She had little experience with leading others but was prepared to give it her all. The opportunity to put the thief in his place simply added to her motivation.

The Samurai of Justice blocked Marya out almost entirely on the way to the room they would be sharing. Her focus was on planning for the mission that would start tomorrow. Even with access to the detailed military history of countless world's preparing for the task ahead was no easy feat, largely because of how little information she had to work with. The hologram gave little information about the layout of the castle much less where the important targets were inside. She had no idea how many monsters they would have to face, and she knew next to nothing about the abilities of those she was working with. She was only able to deduce some of their abilities based on their physiology, but any magic they may possess were beyond her capability of analysis. For the time being she worked with the one thing she did know, the hostage situation. She would plan around that and modify her strategy upon gathering more details in the morning. The historical precedents for the situation were not promising. Five hundred hostages were too many to sneak out, and they lacked the numbers for a proper escort. Normally such a large group of hostages would be armed to aid in a counterstrike, but the condition and demeanor of the group took that option off the table as well. She could have only think of one approach that might spare the prisoners, and she did not like it. If they kept enough pressure on the opposing force, and presented their objective as an assault rather than a rescue , there was a chance that the enemy would disregard the hostages until it was too late. The current plan was simple enough that it did not merit writing down, and she decided to keep it to herself until she was able to fill in the details.

Ursa Minor tuned back into the conversation around the time Marya started rattling on about her helmet. She did not respond to the other girl but her ramblings got her thinking. She did not get the opportunity to chose the aesthetics of her helmet, but would she have chose differently if she had the chance? It was true that her appearance made it more difficult to instill reverence in her foes and comrades at times, but it had the benefit of soothing innocents and gaining their trust, which may be even more important in a hero. She took great pride in knowing that children felt safe around her. The two girls continued side by side down the hall. Emi never said anything in response to Marya but she mused over every word. She never had a friend like her before.

When they finally reached the room it was revealed that they would indeed be sharing a bed. Before Marya could continue any further the younger girl placed a hand on her shoulder. To her amazement it worked, and the chattering stopped if just for a brief moment. Without thinking to shut the door behind them Emi took of her helmet knowing that she would have to reveal herself at some point during the night. When she did so her armor revered back to a plain dark blue school uniform complete with a blazer, skirt, and thigh high stockings, and her futuristic sword turned back to a simple shinai. Facing Marya with her helmet in hand rather than on her head enhancing her physique she realized the difference in size was greater than she anticipated. She now stood several inches shorter than the other girl. The top of her head barely reached Marya's nose. She smiled softly at the other girl, the height difference did nothing in the way of intimidation, especially after witnessing just how childish the other was. The situation changed for the worse when Maximillian approached them. As polite as the man was, Emi found his manner of speech and admitted association with the dead somewhat unsettling to say the least. Having been taken by surprise she stared silently up at the man who loomed over her and carelessly allowed her helmet to roll out of her hands and onto the floor.

Upon surprising the two girls, Maximillian could not help but let out an amused chuckle when he saw the girls' face. Ursa's helmet rolled on the floor beneath the Reaper and Marya tripped over an end table, making the situation more hilarious. For the first time he has seen Ursa Minor without her helmet and battle attire, making her seem less rigid and hardened than her armored self. But even so, it did not change the ghostly guide attitude towards either of them. In fact, he probably felt their human side warmer than the cold seriousness they were trying to prove to the others.

"My apologies for my intrusion. I was visiting the castle, when I happened upon you. Then I remembered I still had something that belonged to you. I'm truly sorry if I interrupted your activities." Maximillian said, bringing his hat down as a gesture of apology. He remained silent for a few seconds, his body still trapped between this room and the other beside. Then he snapped his fingers, just as if he had a sudden idea. "Well then, now that it is done, I shall go take a stroll, or a float, depending how you think of it. I wish you two a good night of sleep. Tomorrow is going to be quite a day." the undertaker said as he waved the two goodbye, floating up to disappear through the ceiling.

While he may have disturbed a few guards and inhabitants of the castle, Maximillian kept going upwards, until he would finally reach the outside of the castle. The night had already fallen, and the man dressed in funeral garbs had reached the highest peak of the castle, at the top of a tower. When he settled atop the tower, Maximillian reverted to a more physical state, lying down to gae at the night sky and the stars. Although he was unable to sleep, the revenant would mentally relax by standing there for hours, until morning would come and his presence needed back to his fellow misfits.

Helianthus wandered aimlessly through the torch-lit halls of her castle. The night was pleasantly cool and a mild breeze soothed her tumultuous mind. Her kingdom under attack for the first time in known history, an enemy she has almost no knowledge of, and the only ones she can rely on are an unruly group of misfits. She had to admit she was impressed with the power levels of some of them. Two gods was more than she had dared hope for. The thief was an unpleasant surprise but she believed he would show himself more valuable than he appeared. The dark girl was either a godsend or a disaster waiting to happen. The one true ray of hope in all this was Ursa Minor. She had never dreamed of pulling through one of the universes greatest heroes, let alone the very girl that had been victorious in her mother's tournament so many years ago. That is why she entrusted the clumsy child with Ursa, if anyone could keep her in line and teach her a little maturity it would be the Samurai of Justice.

She sighed audibly and turned a corner. There, only a few feet away stood Lord Coake. He was wresting with some strange contraption she had never seen before and did not seem to have noticed her. She lifted a hand and was about to greet him when suddenly the wall behind him seemed to melt in black liquid and he was sucked into it! She felt herself being pulled toward the black arch in the wall that seemed to be perpetually draining thick black liquid onto the floor. She jumped back and grabbed hold of a torch fixture on the wall. Staring wide eyed at the portal, she did not notice the creature who walked up beside her.

"Oh forgive me your majesty." Said a voice that sounded like wet gravel being ground up. "How rude of me." A black hand reached out and pointed at the wall. The strange arch closed in on itself and diapered, leaving no evidence that it had ever been there. She slowly turned her stunned gaze in the direction of the voice. The weight of fear was like a boulder on her chest, making it hard to breathe.

The creature that stood before her, not two feet from her face was like nothing she could have envisioned in her worst nightmares. His face, if you could call it that, was a dark round window into some nightmarish hell. She felt dizzy just looking at it because its depth seemed to have no limit. In the void under his wet black hair she could see tiny specks of white and red floating around. Soon her eyes focused and she nearly vomited when she realized she was looking at people. They were somehow trapped inside this devil's head and they were all screaming! She could hear them screaming her name and begging to be released! But she only stood there, paralyzed by fear.

"Wha...who...?" She could not even force out a whole sentence past the bile burning her throat.

"What? Who?" The creature sneered mockingly. "What or who is not really relevant to you dear queen. But for the sake of manners I will introduce myself. I am Evorsor. King of Aes and all her armies. You know then as the Black horde or whatever such nonsense you say. They are in fact the rightful owners of you land, and all the others for that matter. My point is, you and your people no longer have a place here. I am not here to kill you or we would not be having this conversation. I am only here to get rid of your little group of misfits and to give you a stern warning against any such resistance in the future." He reached up and grabbed her small delicate hand with his own which was icy cold and leathery. He twisted her fingers and three of them snapped like twigs. She shrieked in agony and by the time she opened her eyes again the beast was gone. She had been entirely powerless around him...

Then she remembered what he had said! She had to warn the others!

Mist sighed, there was little he could do for fools who refused his warning in his currently weakened state. "Perhaps I could suggest that I assist both groups to that queen." he mused as he began to walk off in the direction he had seen her leave. The walls of the castle were old, ancient as though they predated the land on which they were built yet the decorations around the structure were from various ages yet all tasteful in choice and placement.

The god could feel himself nearing the other like him, the insane deity. Mist hoped he would not need to converse with the god but if that is what happens so will it happen. Absentmindedly did the god collide with some sort of black seductress, what would be a beautiful woman of obsidian scantily dressed in cloths as black as sin. Her eyes however ruined her beauty, radiating anguish and suffering that fit with the disturbing mixture of blood red and the atrocious black that seemed to fill the space between that cold death.

"You should leave here." the thing cooed, her voice was like sweet honey, the playing of a harp and a deadly poison all at the same time. "This world has always belonged to us, and again shall we claim it little boy."

Suddenly there was an explosion and they all died or were possibly blown to mars or some other place. The end.

Ayperos wandered the surface of mars with a bemused expression on his face. "The fuck just happened?" There had been a flurry of words in the air, an explosion, and poof he was on mars. He looked around for everyone else.