"Earth and fire energy," he shouted back, as the windows were down on his car, "I'm starting to get the hang of elemental energies! So got an idea on where to go??"

"I was planning to drive blindly around until I triggered something!" Matt shouted. "However, I realized that was really stupid!"

"No argument there," Hugo muttered, though he figured Matt was joking around.

"Anyway, I think we should head into a town or city or something and reload our supplies first!" Matt continued. "From there I suppose we can just try locating the next gate like we always do!"

"Works for me!" R.D. shouted back, "Got a map?"

"Absolutely not!" Matt replied. "However, I'm pretty sure if I got an aerial view of the place I can try to find a place!"

Helena nudged Matt in the arm. "Matt?"

"What?" Matt shouted in Helena's face, before realizing his error. "Oops. Um, sorry," he said in a normal voice. "What is it, Helena?"

"I could get an aerial view for you," she offered. She glanced away. "I kinda feel cramped in here anyway."

"Okay!" Matt shouted again, then looked back out the window and hollered, "Helena's gonna look in the air for us!"

"Alright!" R.D. shouted, then to Helena, "Just be careful!"

As the cars zoomed farther and farther ahead, Diablo continued to teleport long distances to keep track on them.

Meta smirked. "Playing dirty, aren't you?" She said. "And with two on one, too." She added, then looked around. "Well, it might look as if there are more than one of me, but still." They returned their gaze to the 9th. "However, know that since last time we met, when Namonai tried to poison me, I have been taking small amounts of poison, with a slowly rising amount over time. And as such," She chuckled lightly, "I am now immune to practically any poison."[/s]

(OOC: BLAH. So then, ignore this. Y? See there V.)

Edited by Morphman on April 23, 2007 at 21:13:45.

After stopping the car, Matt opened the door on his side and swung his feet out just as Helena left the car to prepare for flight.

"I totally need a pack of cigarettes or something to pretend to smoke so I'd look cool sitting like this," Matt remarked to Hugo.

"Eh, maybe if you have a ponytail and a leather jacket," Hugo replied. "And didn't wear glasses. And shaved. And-"

"Hey, yeah, I get the picture," Matt interrupted. Standing up, he chanced a look over toward Helena, who had walked a short distance from the car. "You okay over there?"

With a subdued grunt, Helena's wings stretched to their full shape. "...yeah, I'm fine," she called back, turning around. "I won't be long." She bent down, and with a mighty leap, shot into the air-did it seem to ripple with such a motion? He was probably seeing things, but still, he wouldn't doubt Helena's draconic powers.

He put two fingers to his lips and pretended to take a drag. "...it doesn't really even work without a cigarette."

Hugo scoffed. "No shit."

Edited by The Helldragon on April 23, 2007 at 1:24:36.

R.D. also stopped his car near Matt, and sighed in exasperation at his comments. "Gee Matt, what'd you think would happen? Smoking tends not to work without cigarettes," he said sarcastically, "Not that it's a good thing to let you near an open flame."

Diablo watched in interest as the two vehicles stopped, and as the mutant girl took off into the air. Watching her, the entity waited until she was quite a ways off before moving into action.

A shield of translucent magical energy, shaped like plate-sized hexagons, silently formed in a two-mile radius around the field that the group had stopped in, trapping them inside at its edge and cutting Helena off without even realizing it. With the shield up, Diablo made another gesture and disappeared.

A bolt of blood-red lightning struck down a short ways from the two cars, revealing the black-cloaked being with his dark sword drawn.

"It's been a while, Willard, Dragon," he said, a smirk seen under his shadowed eyes beneath his hood, "How rude of you to leave without even saying goodbye."

"Who the hell are you?" Matt demanded, pointing a finger at Diablo.

Hugo's eyes narrowed. He wish he could've snapped at Matt for having such a worthless memory...if only he could recall who this cloaked being was. Instead, he replied, "So what do you want, then? You wanna scrap?"

"He's one of the idiots who attacked us on Kattelox," R.D. said, quickly extracting himself from his car and drawing a Phase Blade, "Diablo, I think he called himself. And he's good."

"Oh, at least one of you remember me," Diablo sneered. He held his dark blade out by his side. "Although I shouldn't be surprised, after the beating I gave you, Dragon."

Magical energy gathered in Diablo's body, and his sword began to glow a malevolent black.

"So, which one of you would like to die first?"

"I don't know what the hell your problem is," Matt said, drawing his energy blade, "but if you want your ass kicked, I'll be happy to oblige!"

Hugo allowed himself a short laugh while he began to charge energy into his pickaxe. "About time we got some action!"

"Alright," Diablo said, "I'll go first."

His hand suddenly thrust forward, aiming at R.D.. A red lightning bolt lanced from his hand, streaking past the amnesiac teen and striking the car behind him. The Pontiac was consumed in a gigantic blaze of fire, and R.D. was thrown back from the blast, slamming hard into the ground. Even as the car exploded, the cloaked being shot forward at Matt with speed belying his cloaked frame, his blade streaking at his head like a black blur.

Matt's eyes widened as Diablo suddenly burst into action toward him. Shit! Reflexes faster than his train of thought saved him, as he rolled under the blade, past Diablo. Quickly he stood, and rapidly slashed the air before him, sending crescents of energy at the cloaked one.

Hugo almost rotated in place with the speed of Diablo's attack, but his sensors quickly reoriented. Damn, hopefully he could nail this guy with his shots! With that in mind, Hugo let loose his charged blast.

Diablo's blade stopped as the attack was dodged, and he spun around and attacked, parrying Matt's blade of energy with his own blade of demonic steel, destroying the energy waves before they could even launch. Lightning crackled between the two blades for second, then with his free hand, Diablo launched an explosive fireball at Hugo's charge shot, detonating the attack prematurely even as he threw off Matt's blade with ease and renewed his assault, slashing rapidly at Matt's torso three times.

R.D. vaulted himself up and shook his head, reorienting himself from the explosion. That's it, he thought angrily, seizing the Second Cipher energy violently, causing the pupils of his eyes to contract as he gathered plasma energy into his left hand.

Edited by RisingDragon on April 23, 2007 at 10:23:41.

(OOC: Hm, very well then, Mr. Anderson. Try a piece o' this pie.)

Meta's eyes slightly widened. She put her right hand against her chest. "So, poisoned again, huh?" One of 'em said. "Good thing then that my physique allows some resistance to it. I may not be immune to your little piece of work, but you won't stop me from what I tend to do." She said, and her eyes narrowed into a glare. "And that is to kill every... single... one... of those abominations known as the Seven." She spoke as their eyes shot a glare at fake-angel Electra. "So please, don't interfere," She said, and coughed for a moment, "because I prefer not to include you on my death list." She finished, and coughed again.

Damn, this guy's fast! It was all Matt could do to quickly swing his blade back around and block Diablo's attacks, each great impact sparking with power. His spare hand gestured at the ground, and rose in a sharp motion. Gotta throw him off so I can try attacking from a distance... Underneath Diablo, the earth suddenly shot upward in a rough, cylindrical pillar.

Hugo's eyes narrowed as his attack was cancelled. "All right...if that's how you wanna play..."

The Mettaur smashed the handle of his pickaxe into the ground, and his body turned a bright, brilliant yellow to signal his shift into Lightning Hugo. This time, a thin, pointed cone of metal burst forth from the end of his pickaxe, attached to a long, electrified cord-a whip of lightning. "I'll play," he said, swinging his whip at Diablo's legs.

(OOC: Actually, Juno, that's for diseases, not poisons. A person can have a resistance to a poison even if its newly created if they've conditioned themselves. And poisons start in the body, diseases start in the mind.)

Diablo growled as he braced himself as the pillar came up, his hand slamming into it to keep him balanced. As a result, he wasn't flung into the air, and he quickly righted himself. As Hugo's whip came in, his hand launched several tendrils of dark energy at it, wrapping themselves around it. With a swing of his arm, Diablo attempted to fling the Mettaur overhead and away from him.

Suddenly, the pillar he stood on exploded in a violent burst of plasma as R.D. rammed the Godhand into it. With an angered cry, Diablo sailed through the air, landing roughly--but upright. He looked back up at his opponents, his hood having been thrown back. Cold, red eyes glared at them, framed by his growing stubble and ragged black hair.

"Not bad," he said, "You've improved."

"Matt, get some of your Core voodoo ready," R.D. said, readying his blade and charging forward, "I'll hold him off!"

R.D. leapt and slashed at Diablo, who caught his blade against his own. Growling at each other, the two of them forced each other off their blades, and Diablo quickly went on the offensive, lashing out with quick, serpentine strikes that R.D. barely managed to parry. With each connected slash, the two swords created blue flares, like sheet lightning.

===At Egypt===

Michael watched in amusement as Meta began to counter the effects of the poison--he knew what she was doing. It was ingenious.

Didn't even realize that was possible, he thought with a grin, But its certainly an interesting trick. Should've known something like that would be possible with one of the Seven Perfect Weapons.

"Ah, CRAP!" Hugo shouted as he was swung away from the battle, his small body easily taking to the air. Noticing this, Matt rushed foward and leapt into the air, catching Hugo in mid-flight.

"Thanks," Hugo said.

"No problem!" Immediately, Matt flung Hugo right back at Diablo. "Now make yourself useful!"

"YOU SUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" Hugo wailed, as he flew back towards their enemy-as he revolved in the air, his whip trailed outwards at full length, creating a deadly electric projectile of sorts.

Caught offguard, R.D. and Diablo threw themselves off of one another as Hugo came in. R.D., being the younger, was quicker and managed to duck in time--Diablo, on the other hand, was cut deeply in his arm. Despite that, he shrugged off the minor pain he felt and turned his hand at Hugo, firing another bolt of red lightning.

Chance! R.D. thought, shooting forward. His blade screamed through the air, like an azure blur, at Diablo's head.

And was stopped cold by Diablo's black sword.

"Did you really think you were quick enough to get past me?" he growled, his eyes glowing.

R.D. screamed as lightning surrounded him, dancing all over his body from head to toe. In a few moments, he was flung through the air violently at Matt.

Edited by RisingDragon on April 23, 2007 at 14:48:14.

"Damn it!" Just beginning to drop back down to the ground, Matt forced himself back into the air with a push of willpower, and grabbed R.D.'s body, whoofing breath at the sudden impact. "Stay up here for a minute, will ya?" he asked, tossing R.D. up a short distance. Underneath the other boy, a large pillow materialized, moving up to solidly catch him.

With that done, Matt reached behind him, and produced a long, silver rocket launcher, the barrel flanked by two long black compartments. "Rocket Barrage!" The compartments opened up, revealing clusters of miniature, flat-tipped missiles that shot in a swarm at Diablo. This was followed by the main barrel releasing a more conventional rocket to join the clustered attack.

Edited by The Helldragon on April 23, 2007 at 21:51:40.

R.D. grunted as he landed on the pillow, looking up at the darkening sky and breathing shallowly, trying to throw off the pain.

The initial volley exploded around Diablo, covering him in a shroud of debris and smoke. He suddenly shot out of the cloud, his cloak slightly ragged and singed. As the rest of the rockets came in, he thrust his hand out at them, and they all veered wildly off-course, exploding harmlessly around him in a wide area. The battlefield was aflame now, and framed by the fire, Diablo smiled.

Diablo swiped his left hand upward at Matt, creating two serpentine waves of flame that streaked around Matt, trying to create a suffocating inferno around him.

Up above R.D. forced himself to his feet, looking down at the ground unsteadily as Diablo attacked.

Matt crossed his arms as the flame surrounded him, caging him in intense heat. "To abuse a pun..." Clenching a fist, he punched through the inferno, soaring right at Diablo with a flying jab. "If you play with fire, something something BURNED!"

"You're right," Diablo returned, rearing his hand back, "Prepare to be burned."

With a powerful throw, Diablo launched a large sphere of concentrated fire at the boy, the attack leaving a slight red trail along its flight path.

Turning smoothly from the attack, Diablo swung his blade around through the air and easily caught R.D.'s descending slash, but was unprepared for the Godhand-enhanced punch across his face, and he staggered backwards. He quickly retaliated, however, backhanding R.D. viciously across the face with a glowing blue hand. R.D. fell back from the blow, his face numb and particles of ice falling away from the chilling attack.

"UNNNH!" The fireball smashed into Matt, who tumbled backwards to the ground-though the Core had provided some sort of defense in that he didn't seem to suffer any burns, the impact, plus the fall back to earth, was enough damage to send him reeling for a bit.

Standing back up, he grit his teeth. "So...you think you're hot shit, don'tcha?"

He placed his fists together and drew them out again, as if he was drawing his energy blade. This time, however, he conjured two energy blades, and they shimmered with light blue force-as they swung through the air, chilled air followed the path of the blades, for the blades were created out of cold energy, the classical counter to fire. New weapons in hand, Matt entered an easy pose, languidly weaving his blades before him. "Come on!"

Flames rose in a small circle around the cloaked being as he turned and gazed on Matt's new weaponry. He smirked. "Your friend is better with the sword than you are, and I've got him far outclassed," Diablo sneered, "And you think you have what it takes to defeat me with the ancient art?"

Diablo stepped forward and grinned. "Your funeral," he laughed, gesturing at the young man. The ground beneath Matt suddenly exploded in a violent burst of hellish flame.

The being's acute ears caught the sound of movement behind him, and he spun around and slashed downward, catching the cross-slash of R.D.'s two Phase Blades. "You're not the brightest warrior, are you?" he muttered, using his incredible strength to throw the amnesiac teen off of him. As R.D. staggered, Diablo brought his hand up and fired a concentrated sphere of darkness at him, sending him flying back.

"Come on! This is pathetic!" Diablo snarled, "Show me the power that's made you such a damn nuisance to the Seven Beasts! Show me!"

"Heh heh heh..."

Matt was suddenly behind Diablo, his freezing blades crossed. A smile crossed his face. "Well, okay...if you want me to get serious, I will." He slashed, his blades crossing in an X pattern across Diablo's back.

Like a blur, Diablo pivoted and slashed, parrying the cross strike with his sword and forcing both blades away from him. The lightning that erupted from the counter sheared through the ground in several directions.

"A bit better," he muttered as he gestured, causing a number of three-headed snakes made of elemental black flame burst from the ground. Each serpentine head began spewing waves of fire at Matt to preoccupy him.

As Diablo turned, he was suddenly sent flying through the air as R.D.'s combined plasma orb slammed into him and exploded.

R.D. growled, holding the Phase Lance in one hand and his free arm thrown out to his side. Blood seeped from his forehead, running down between his eyes and down either side of his nose. Diablo landed on his feet and glared at the boy, readying his black sword in his right hand.