The Chosen

Emily and Link only sat, Link really not having any energy to move, and Emily a little confused at everything. As the man who seemed to be in charge talked, she raised her hand a little hesitantly, before sticking it straight up in the air, snapping a few times and waving it a little. She glanced at everyone, unsure if she would be called upon, as Link merely shook his head, a soft smile on his face.

"Actually...I do have a giant dojo built into the tree. My life energy emanates the most in the most, so don't worry about breaking or getting hurt. You get healed and the wood regenerates. If not, you can find a clearing past the tree with a six pointed star on it. Be careful, I don't control trees pass that point." Alzack nodded and waited for a response. "If needed I'll be in the tree-tops." Alzack turned and began walking for the stairs, ready to rest.

Deron looked down at the table as he finally felt himself returning to a normal state. The ammount of energy he used took alot out of him both physically and mentally. Suddenly, he pulled his head back and an idea came to him. Just the fragments, begenings of an idea, but an idea none the less. "Wait a second." He mentioned to himself. "So how would I keep this from backfiring...." The others didn't necessarely think of him as a devious mastermind, but he had his occasional moments. "Yeah! That's it! Brain, you damn son of a gun, I like the way I think!"

He got up from the table and sprinted twords the hall with a wide grin over his face, proud with himself for coming up with the concept. He had to find Miles... well, he was going to talk to him anyways about Hannibal, but this was importaint!Finally, he found himself outside Miles' door. Didn't seem like he was home, but he would probably be there soon enough. As a sharp pain shot through his spine, Deron leaned against the wall... he wasn't completely over the effects of the building collapsing after all.

After what seemed like forever to Miles, he FINALLY saw his door come into sight. "Thank god! Bed, here I come!"

So he said before he spotted Deron leaning near the threshold. He limped, rather slowly, to his door and stopped, cocking his head. "I'm not the only one who got hurt, at least! You ok there, De? Look kinda pale." He leaned against Hannibal's cane, waiting for an answer though he was about to walk into his room to sit down.

~

Raize paused mid-step and looked at Emily, mentally hitting himself for not paying more attention. "Question would be...?" he asked.

Gasping, Vera searched through her dresser with renewed vigor. "It'll match my PJs!" She declared chipperly. Just then, there was a knock on her door. Three of them, actually. Vera furrowed her brow and stopped looking through the drawer, walking slowly to the door. She wasn't expecting anyone.

She looked at Vivien with a confused face, "You've already got visitors?" Vera asked. She didn't even open the door yet and she started to rattle off, "Some ground rules! No sex in my room. If you're going to have sex, do it somewhere else. I don't wanna ruin my beauty sleep cause ya'lls can't wait till you at least get into the hallway. Second rule is if they're going to be mean, I'll kick their ass. Third rule is... um..." Vera scrunched up her nose, "If you guys do plan on going out into the, ahem, hallway, then wrap it before you tap it! Well actually, I guess you won't be wrapping anything because you lack the parts for it. But..." Vera waved her hand dismissively, "Nevermind. Just... no babies, even if they are adorably ugly!"

She then opened the door, looked at Cyrus, crossed her arms and arched a brow. With as deep a voice as she could muster, she demanded, "Password?"

"Password?" Cyrus said, "Hmm, let's see."

He looked over Vera's shoulders to see Vivien. He waved at her then looked back at Vera.

"Pajamas." Cyrus said confidently.

"Yeah, I went almost all the way with my power." Deron responded, "anyways, I got to mention something to you. Well a couple things, actually. It's kind-of funny how much happened while you were over here recovering. I mean, there's just no way you can pass this up!"

It took him a moment before he blinked a few times and got his thoughts together. "Long story short, I think we could get another of them to simply give up. Now hear me out, Miles... these guys are just kids. They're hormonial, not thinking straight. In fact, when I told one his girl was probably dead he completely lost his marbles!" With a quick laugh, he continued, "can you believe THAT!"

"Anyways, as I was saying, he likes that girl we took. And I was thinking a bit.... I mean, to catch a fish sometimes you just need the right bait. Or was it lure? Well, you get what I mean!" Deron extended his fist like he was crushing something. "He's do ANYTHING to try and get her back, see where I'm going with this? So, why don't we let them be together? I open a portal and walk out with the girl. He gives himself up to be with her or he never sees his sweet little crush again! In our world, there's no way he can escape!!!"

"Oh yeah, and Hannibal's a filthy-stinking traitor...." He mentioned under his breath.

"So, whaddaya say? Sound like a good plan or what!?!?"

Celestine nodded curiously. All this time she's been wondering what her power was. It was bugging her. "Are we going outside?" she said quietly.

david nodded slowly.
"Im not really invisible, its just that people that see me, they dont notice anything out of the ordinary. But sure, ill do whatever i can to help."

"WRONG!" Vera declared, slamming the door in Cyrus' face. She paused for effect and then cracked the door back open, "It was penguins. Good try though. You can come in," She said, opening it and inclining her head towards the room.

"You wanna get your nails did too?" Vera asked, grabbing a couple bottles and holding them against Cyrus' skin.

"Hey, Gramps isn't a traitor! 'Sides, he caught another one of those kids. And I think that plan wudda worked out better if there'd been less of them, De. As long as we have those two, they'll have to come to us some time. It'll be easier to get all of them at once, especially since our weapons are stronger here. And we have more members here." Miles shifted his weight on the cane.

~

"Better question," V cut in, "what're you doing here?!" Ok, so she wasn't going to lie--she was happy she wasn't the ONLY one of them there. But that didn't mean she as happy to see another one of them caught. Unless of course Hannibal had brought him back, but she couldn't ask him that with Vera around yet.

Cyrus put a finger over his mouth and winked at Vivien as he entered.

"Long story," he said, "I'll tell you all about it later. It's great to see you're safe."

He turned to Vera, "I would love to get my nails done." He lifted his hands and looked at his nails. "I've always wanted to see what it would be like to have my nails painted black. Like, if I ever wanted to go goth." He laughed at himself, "But how stupid that would look on me."

He moved next to Vivien and whispered in her ear, "Don't worry. I came voluntarily. Everyone else is going to come up with a plan." Then he spoke out, no longer whispering, "But for now, why don't we enjoy our time here?"

Emily took a deep breath, before launching into a monolouge, "so, lemme get this straight. Link says we all have super powers, and there's another world and Vivien got kidnapped, and you are, like, Splinter or something and are going to teach us everything? And how come those other guys want us dead? And is everyone sure we can trust him? I mean, it might just be me being the ignorant new girl, but I don't think I know him very well and who's to say he isn't with the guys who keep trying to kidnap us? And who was that old dude that took Cyrus? And when can I learn how to use a sword? I reeeeeeeeealllly want to learn how to use a sword."

She scratched her chin, a pondering look on her face, as Link smiled to himself. She stuck her hand up straight again, saying, "OH! OH! And, um, Link wants to know when he can get his bow from our grandparents'."

"Erm, I can't teach you EVERYTHING, but I'm going to do my best to prepare all of you...And they want you dead so they can collect the energy your powers will form once you pass, to try and revive the Core; the object that keeps Valentia alive. And Alzack, if you were referring to him, is like the rest of you--I promise he can be trusted. That 'old man' was Cyrus' grandfather, and like I said he's going to try and help us out. About the sword--I'll get to that, and I can get Link's bow for him. I have to go back and get the weapons I left behind anyway."

But something was bothering him. He knew he kept telling them things would fine once conflict settled with their pursuers, but he needed to figure out another way to revive the Core's strength without any casualties. He was sure it could be done--there was never just one solution to a problem--but the issue would be to figure it out. He looked at Celestine.

"Yeah, we're going out. Just wait out there for me and I'll be back in a few minutes."

As promised, he returned several minutes later, weapons, including Link's bow, in hand. He headed inside, setting the other blades on the ground, and handed it to the boy. "Took a while to find your house, but here you are. Now then, I'll be outside...Hopefully I'll be able to get through to Emily--seems like she's rather...Uh, distracted, when it comes to things. ...No, that wasn't the word I was looking for...Just forget about it. Like I said before, call if you need anything." This said, he headed back out and crossed his arms.

"Alright Celestine, see if you can do anything."

~

Vivien had to say, she was impressed at his optimism. And his willingness to let some girls paint his nails, at that. She wanted to tell him about her own plan--of how she wanted to try and get as many members to turn on Alex as she could, but now wasn't the time. She looked back to Vera, still taking in the situation.

"Um...You can pick what color his are, since I'm going yours with penguin faces."

Link grinned as he was handed his Matthews fiberglass composite bow. He had always had an affinity to the bow, and ranged weapons in general. All the arrows were there, and he had even brought the quiver with all his extras too. Emily squeeled, going to crouch over the swords and inspect the blades curiously. Link, stretching a little, braced himself on a table, standing with a grunt. He wobbled a little on his legs, but stood, taking a few cautious steps. He leaned against the wall, inspecting his bow, before signaling to Alzack to come over to him.

Alzack noticed one of the people beckon for him to come. He did as was told and bowed.

"Is there anything you need?"

Link smiled at the man's bow, trying to return it but grunting in pain. He shook his head, a stupid smile on his face, saying, "yeah, um, so where are we exactly? And how am I standing right now, only a couple hours after being crushed by a building?"

He watched Emily be a total ditz, shaking his head with a chuckle as she looked over the blades, not knowing what to look for in the slightest.

Alzack laughed as he raised a platform of wood to sit on, crossing his legs like a bow.

"We're in a secluded remote forest a few hours from the town where you guys were in. And you're healed up because this tree is chocked full of life force, most of it my own."

Link grunted as he stood up to his full height, his back cracking the entire way. He pulled on the bow a few times, testing the weight, before scratching at his chin.

"The thing I'm wondering, to be honest," he said, feeling the scraggly beard already forming, "is how long I'll feel like shit. I want to be out there, learning how to fight. Maybe it's just the tiger in me."

Vera was a little shocked by the kid's immediate acceptance of what was going to happen to him. It was apparent on her face as he walked in and whispered to Vivien and she didn't say anything about it. In fact, she just gawked at him like he grew a third head.

Shaking her head out of her thoughts, she closed the door and bounced happily over to her dresser. She pulled out a few and then announced, "Aha!" With a triumphant glee. In her hands was a bottle of nailpolish, bright red and screaming, "Look at me!". She skipped to them, ordered to Cyrus to sit, and rearranged a bit of Vivien's bed so that all three could sit comfortably.

She set down the red polish as well as white and black. She sat Indian-style, looking between the two teens and asked, "Who wants to go first?"

Realizing she didn't announce what she was planning on doing to them, she looked over at the similarly V named female and said, "I'm going to do a French manicure on you and have little black swirly accent thingies on the side," She said, moving her hand in an almost S motion, "And you're going to get red like Mairlyn Monroe's lips," She grinned.

Alzack sighed, cracking his fingers.

"This will hurt me more than it will you." He encased Link within a pod of hollowed wood. He concentrated his life force into it, healing all wounds and healing all broken bones and damaged organs. The pod dissolved, leaving Link like brand new. However, Alzack was trembling on his feet, bracing himself against the tree, visibly fatigued.

Deron gave miles an awkward look. "But I saw him with my own eyes. While I was being mauled by a freaking tiger, Hannibal left to heal the fire twerp! I don't know what kind of joke he's playing, but...." Stopping, Deron grabbed his head. He still felt pretty nautious and moving around didn't help him any.

"I'm telling you he's gonna stab us in the back. Once for each of his cheap hidden blades! Which would be-" The effects hit him again! This time, he had to rely on his scythe to stay upright.... There was a blur in his vision. "Sorry... I overdid it back there. Seems each time I go past X-5 it hits me harder.........." Now he felt out of breath! Deron hadn't been out of breath in ages. "You need to do something about him... before we lose the ones we've caught."

With a good huff of breath, the scythe master knew he wouldn't be able to talk for a while. Which was a shame since that was one of his favorite things to do!

Vivien nodded, wondering if they should do something black-and-white for Cyrus as well since she and Vera were. But she said nothing. Instead, she held out her hand.

"If you do mine first, they'll dry while you're doing his. Then I can paint yours once you're finished with Cyrus."

Really, this felt a little odd to her. Painting nails when they could possibly die? Maybe she was just in denial. But she knew one thing: she was glad Cyrus had such a positive attitude about the situation.

~

"It's fine. You should probably rest, De. Man, this really sucks for us. You won't have the energy to talk for a while, and I'll have to stay still for a long time." But he didn't comment about the 'take care of him' part. It bugged him--he liked the old man, and believing he would betray them...He couldn't believe it.

"..And I'll think about it, sure," he finally said. "Just make sure you rest."

Miles was right... hopefully they wouldn't wait too late, though. Deron made a sound somewhat similar to "myeh...." to let him know he aggreed. Then, he tried to regain some balance and walk off back to his room. There wasn't anything he could really do about Hannibal anyways. Although part of him felt a little sorry for that girl an- No! What was he thinking? They're not like us! Damn animals, can't even comprehend what's going on........

Finally, Deron laid down on his bed. A vast assortment of random metal objects lined the walls of his room. They made him feel safe in case something ever happened. Almost as soon as he laid down, Deron fell asleep.

David took a deep breath.
"So...what should i do? And um...do i need...yknow...some sort of weapon?"