The man frowned, looking down at the floor at Matt's comment.

"So, got a name?" R.D. asked.

The man looked back up. "Uh, yes. I'm Cairn," he said. He then looked at Matt. "And you're right, I am a survivor. Aren't you guys as well?"

Blazen jumped above the stone thrown and jumped from it to the monster. He would crash his foot into the beast then plant a hand on he top of its head and give a shot-gun like burst of fire. He would use that burst to throw himself off and to the side.

"Um...no." Matt scratched the back of his head, embarassed that he treaded on what seemed to be a delicate situation. "Sorry for makin' a joke out of it..."

"It's not that," Cairn dismissed, "It's just no one likes rememberin' what happened."

"Well, we didn't know," Alasea said. She looked over at R.D., a question in her eyes. He reluctantly nodded.

"We're... from another world, Cairn," Alasea said, "We wound up here just before nightfall."

Cairn looked at them with wide eyes. "Is this true?" he asked.

"Yeah," Matt said, figuring that there was no harm telling this to a survivor.

"Why are you a survivor?" Helena asked Caim. "What happened to this place?"

Cairn didn't answer Helena right away, as another rock shifted off int he background. He sighed and spoke up, but not to any of the ones around him.

"It's alright, Ange, Levi," he said, "You can come out. They're not Ing."

R.D. raised an eyebrow and looked behind him, seeing two people slowly come out of the darkness. Both of them were female, and around the same age as Cairn. One stood behind the other, looking over her shoulder.

The first woman wore a dark teal shirt and skirt, black boots similar to Alasea's, and choker with a red jewel on its front. Her face was framed by short dark brown hair, and her light blue eyes had a sad quality to them. A red teardrop tattoo was under her right eye. However, what stood out about this woman was that she had wings. The right wing was covered in black feathers, with white ones lining the wing joint, but the left one was batlike... but there was no flesh on it; it was just the skeletal structure of the wing. Barbed wire seemed to be caught here and there on the damaged wing.

The other girl was as pale as Cairn, and wore a blue dress and a transparent shirt over it. Her long blue hair flowed down to her legs, and her blue eyes also had the same sorrowful quality as the other woman's. However, her ears looked like that of a fish's fin, and her shoulders, neck, and arms looked looked to have scales on them.

"They're... not going to hurt us?" the winged girl said.

Edited by RisingDragon on February 8, 2007 at 14:41:34.

Matt eyed the two girls over the rim of his glasses, allowing himself the standard look of surprise before his morals kicked in (don't judge others based on appearance) and he revised his position. "Nah."

"What the hell are Ing supposed to be, anyway?" Hugo asked.

The two women sat down near Cairn. The winged one desided to answer Hugo's question.

"Ing are--" another one of the beings outside made its hissing sound, causing everyone to shudder again, "--Those things out there. I'm sure you've seen them."

The other woman sighed. "Ing are shadow creatures that seek out light and destroy it," she said. Her voice had a strange warble to it, as if she spoke underwater. "They hunt down people like us. That's why we're always hiding."

R.D. looked out of the window at the beings--no, the Ing down below. "So, if they see us, they'll attack us," he said.

"We'll kill 'em if we have to," Matt said, clenching his fist.

"Matt, you don't even know how to fight those things," Hugo said.

"...blast the crap out of them?"

"...I guess that works."

"We'll have to get past them somehow," Helena said. "We can't just stay in here."

"We're stuck here for the night," R.D. said, "Even if they fall easily to us, there's way too many of them."

He turned back to the three natives. "What... just what in the hell happened?" R.D. asked, concerned, "We've been to a few worlds, and Matt over there has been to a lot. None of us ever encountered a world like this. What happened?"

The three of them looked down at the fire. They remained silent for a while, then Cairn finally spoke.

"War," he said bitterly.

Huh. Good God, y'all. "What kind of war?" Matt asked. "You against the Red Scare out there?"

Cairn blinked at Matt. "Red Scare?"

"Don't listen to Matt," R.D. said, "He can be... eccentric at times. Go on."

"Well..." Cairn started, "No one knows why it started. One day the southern continent's government declared war, and they invaded. It wasn't too bad at first, both continents were peaceful... well, until then."

"But then we found out that something else was wrong," Leviathan, the girl in blue, said, "Something was manipulating the southern continent. They caught on and stopped the war, and tried to fight it. But..."

The girl couldn't seem to go on.

"The Ing appeared," Angellina, the winged girl, said. "Along with other monsters. We don't know how it happened. Portals started appearing, monsters were slaughtering people, and... it was just awful."

"We didn't know what was going on. People started changing, though. I mean, look at us. Think we always looked like this?" Cairn asked. He shook his head. "Then... then it came. We don't know what it was. You guys... saw the moon, right?"

"Yeuh..." Blane said barely dodging the beams.
______________________________________________________________
"And I would have nothing to lose, it's truly a pity, i'd expect you to be smarter than this...Chains of tsukuyomi..." Kite said as White chains grabbed diablo;s arms and moved the sword away from Kite's throat, Kite picked his gunblade up and chuckled and the chains held Diablo, "Truly, you're technique inspired that, I just made it my own..."

"Yeah," Hugo said. "What about it?"

"There's supposed to be two up there," Ange said, "But when the darkness came... well, you saw what happened to the one. The other was slammed the southern continent."

===At Italy===

Diablo grinned beneath his hood. The chains suddenly released him and wrapped themselves around Kite, and more tendrils of Binding Darkness appeared and further pinned Kite. Diablo motioned with his hand, causing the entire rooftop to burst into flame, and in certain areas the rooftop collapsed into strange portals. Demons began pulling themselves out of the rifts, and they swarmed over towards Kite.

"You truly have a lot to learn," Diablo muttered while pointing his free arm at the battlefield below. "And one of them is to expect the loss of others.

As Kalmar's scythe pierced the monster's back, it froze up from pain as its blade cut into its spinal cord. As a result, it couldn't avoid Blazen's attack, and its head burst in a shower of gore, causing its body to fall over dead.

Their victory would be short-lived, however, as an orb of evil energy formed in Diablo's hand, and the cloaked entity promptly fired it into the battlefield below. A dome of energy expanded where it hit, disintegrating everything and threatening to consume the three warriors down below.

Edited by RisingDragon on February 8, 2007 at 19:38:18.

Portals that started appearing...is this my fault?

Matt found himself clenching his fists tightly. While I was showing off and fighting against other people, did I fuck this place up? Did I mess up these people's lives?

Helena noticed this. "Matt...what is it?"

"...nothing." He forced himself to relax.

"After the Moonfall," Leviathan said, "It was... horrible. The Ing were slaughtering everyone, and then... then it appeared. Some floating island in the sky, and a giant cross above it. That cross came down..." she couldn't continue.

"What happened?" R.D. prodded. Cairn glared at him, but Ange laid a hand on the man's shoulder. She looked at R.D. and said, "Once the cross collided with our world, nearly all of our civilization was wiped out. Our planet was left dying. The island disappeared, and the monsters left. Only our destroyed homes, the surviving mutants, and the Ing are left."

"Damn it," Matt said. "There's gotta be something we can do."

"There isn't, Matt," Hugo said. "And even if you could do something, it wouldn't be a very good idea, remember?"

"I know." He didn't have to like it, though.

"Well, we should probably get some sleep now," R.D. said.

"You really think we're gonna get any sleep now that we've heard this?" Alasea asked in exasperation.

"Of course not."

"I can!" Matt proudly delcared, pointing a thumb at his chest.

"Well, you've got the power to do that," Helena sighed. "Not us."

"You've got powers."

"They're not good powers."

"...oh, yeah." Matt cleared his throat. "In any case, y'all should still try to rest. We'll keep on guard."

Kalmar chuckled darkly as the beast died. What a waste, he thought, confidence flowing through him, I need to find something worth my time.

Suddenly a flash of light caught his attention, and he reflexively summoned his scythe. But when he saw what it was, the weapon disappeared and he held out his hands to his sides. As the energy blast connected, Kalmar's barrier came to life, the Demon Hunter throwing all of his energy into it.

When the wave of evil energy flowed over his barrier, he sunk to one knee, the barrier wavering. Yet still he maintained it.

Later that night, R.D. and Matt were keeping an eye out, observing the Ing go about their hunt. They remained silent for most of the watch. Eventually, R.D. said, "You looked troubled back there."

"I entertained the possibility that I caused this," Matt remarked, his tone grim.

"From your failed attempts at using the Core?" R.D. questioned.

"Yeah." His frown deepened. "I mean, what if I made those girls into monsters? That's like messing them up like Helena is, and I really hope to God I didn't do that. I hope to God I didn't fuck up this place."

"I don't think this was your fault," R.D. said, watching as a pair of Ing got into a fight, "They were talking about portals appearing on a global scale. And judging from some of the things you've done, I don't think you've done anything to warrent something like this."

The amnesiac teen sighed and shook his head. "To me, this sounds like the work of something else."

"...maybe you're right." He hoped he was right.

"Well, should we give the girls they're chance to keep watch, or do think we can do another round?" R.D. asked, still watching the fight between the Ing.

"Helena needs to sleep," Matt said, folding his arms. More like he didn't want her involved, he thought.

R.D. nodded. "So, have a better idea on what we have to do here?"