"Unfortunately, but what else is new?" X massaged his lower back as he got up. "Dammit, looks like I'm stuck with this outmoded armor for a while then. 'Less there's a conveniently placed lab around here somewhere, which I doubt."

"Hell if I know," R.D. muttered, shakily getting to his feet. After several moments he started to feel fine, as Lumiya quickly rejuvenated his depleted stamina. His gaze surveyed the plains and the bleak sky. "Hopefully we won't run into anymore Ing," he muttered as he turned around in his observation.

And stared as his eyes saw the massive, thousand-foot-wide crater that spanned out before them. Its lip was little more than a tenth of a mile away, but the crater itself seemed to stretch out to the horizon. He felt his heartbeat increase steadily as he gazed at the black shadows of its depths, and he backed away slowly.

"What... the fuck...?" he muttered, his eyes wide, still staring at the crater in shock.

Edited by RisingDragon on June 17, 2007 at 7:47:55.

A painful shock went through Meta's body, and as the images ran through her head, she felt like it was being split apart, a migraine with a 10 on the Richter scale. "What... what are you DOING?!" She cried out loudly, straight into Awai's face. She couldn't stand straight anymore, not still anymore. Her legs trembled, her whole body trembled, even her voice was trembling as she spoke, and finally her knees met with the ground, her hands shooting upwards at her head to hold it, as if trying to draw the pain out that way. "Why are you implementing false thoughts into me?!" She exclaimed, her eyes in such a narrow glare she was looking through her eyelashes at Awai angrily, hatefully, not understanding the reason behind his actions.

Hugo drew out his whistle as he balanced his pickaxe, observing the sheer vastness of the crater. "Wonder what the hell made this..."

"I dunno," Matt said, dusting himself off as he stood, "but I think I'd like to get outta here before I find out."

X smiled. "Now, where's the fun in that?"

"There is no fun in this world," R.D. said, finally tearing his eyes away from the crater. "We better figure out where we are, and how to get out of here."

Particles of blue energy gathered around R.D.'s body, and soon the Dragon King Armor materialized on him. The black visor slid into place, and he looked over at Matt. "Get the stuff ready, I'll see if there's anything hiding out there we should know about."

The interface in R.D.'s helmet began scanning the area, and clad in his cobalt, violet-blue, and silvery blue armor, the amnesiac slowly turned in a circle. Soon, a gathering of lifeforms caught his attention, and the interface quickly began logging each one. "Huh," was all he said as it scanned.

Matt jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "Hugo, get the stuff ready."

"I don't have any HANDS, you moron."

"...you win this round."

As Matt shuffled over to the first of the many scattered items, Helena craned her long neck so that she could look at X. "So, who are you, anyway?"

"Who am I? Well, funny story that. Um... suffice it to say that the reason I'm here is that my teleporter malfunctioned, and I really have no choice but to either wander aimlessly, or tag along. I know, I know. It sounds like a lame reason. I'm not a hero, all right? I'm just some guy. I just needed to learn that the hard way." X fell silent. He wandered near to the crater and kicked a rock in.

R.D. sighed as the scan completed. He turned back to the group. "Well, we've got what looks to be an army off in that direction," he said, pointing an arm in the direction of the gathering, "And its not moving anywhere. It's not very far, either. Think we should see if it they're monsters or not?"

Happy at the change of subject, X's voice became analytical again. "One of us should. The rest of us should take up defensive positions. Just in case. Don't have your weapons drawn, but be ready to do so at a moment's notice."

(OOC: Dokuro himself could least well answer that question, methinks. =o)

The pain seemed to slowly go away, flow out of her head, out of her mind, the mental stress lessened slowly by the passing of each second. However, the fear, the anger, the hate she felt inside her, which she thought to make her suffer more than anything else she thought Awai to have done to her. Her eyes could open up wider now, tears of pain ran down her cheeks, her eyes were even redder than they already had been from as far back as she could remember.
"Great... just... great." She slowly started to utter. She looked up at Awai. "You know... you must've made a great actor. I've never seen someone lie so outrageously and yet look and sound so incredibly believable." She spoke.
Her hands had let go of her head already, and now she slowly started to rise up from the ground, small chunks of sand that had come to stick to her knees falling off them, until she stood in her full height, about 5"9', her back straightened, her chest stuck forward and her shoulders backward, her head held high, and she opened her mouth to speak again. "My name is Meta, daughter to Xastra, the Sadistic One, and I have been so for my whole existence, tracing back for as far as I can remember. And there is one thing I know for sure..." She said, and her eyes narrowed once more into a glare as she looked around, not only at Awai, but also at Reckoning and Dokuro and others.
"Good as you claim to be..." She started, "you are no better than evil, the murderers you are."

Meta looked at Awai calmly, trying to refrain from taking any action that she might ever regret. "Although it is your duty to keep the balance between the good and the evil, I would assume that that task requires you to do deeds that are of a slight bad moral."
She turned to look at Derek. "As for you, although all you claim to have slain were evil, does nigh every holy book say that it is a deed of evil to take another's life?"
She looked around her. "No man can claim to be utterly good. But on the other hand, no man can claim to be utterly evil." She said, at last looking at Awai, and Reckoning and Dokuro also. "Especially liars." She added.

Edited by Morphman on June 18, 2007 at 12:13:46.

(OOC: Eh? What's the Ryan talking about, Willis?)


"Perhaps. But perhaps not." Meta said calmly to Awai. "Is that lord of yours not supposed to be all good? Is he not supposed to be almighty, and the creator of this world?" She asked. "Then if so, why did he create evil? Why did he allow it to exist, to grow? Why did he not lift a finger and with one word have all that is potentially evil be eliminated from existence in all stretches of time and space and the memory of all, as if never had existed, and never would?" Her voice grew slightly louder as she spoke up, spouting out her thoughts, which were sure to be claimed heretical by some. "And if that lord of yours couldn't do that, then is he still almighty? I, to be frank, deem it not to be. And even moreso ironic and idiotic that he'd allow others to write down for him that it is a sin to take anothers life, yet grant those who slay countless no punishment."

Edited by Morphman on June 18, 2007 at 15:31:31.

Edited by Morphman on June 18, 2007 at 15:32:06.

"Hold the phone," Matt said, swaggering over to X and brandishing his pointer finger. "I dunno who you think you are, but I am the leader of this group, and if you wanna hang with us for a while, you gotta do what I say, you dig?" He jabbed a thumb at his chest. "I'm the one that tells us mainly what to do."

"So what do you want us to do, then?" Hugo asked. "And don't you repeat what he just said."

"Son, you always gotta be paranoid in these situations," Matt replied. "You always gotta be ready to rock and roll. Let's just keep doin' what we've been doin' and we'll be fine."

R.D. gave Matt a flat look--futile due to the dark visor in his helmet, as he knew that so far, their usual habits seemed to attract every possible enemy on this particular world. "Let's go then," he said, deciding it was best not to mention it, "We've got a bit of a distance to cover if we want to get there tonight."

"I was just offering my advice. Before I shut up, I'll offer you another bit for free: Get that finger out of my face." X walked with the group, with them but clearly keeping some distance. "Idiot." he muttered under his breath.

(OOC: I was actually referring to the reason behind him being angered and wanting to do that. Aside from obsessions with women's behinds.)

"Perhaps I came here with questions," Meta said to Awai, "but none of which were supposed to be directed to you."
Following her words, she drew the broadsword she carried on her back and held it in her right hand. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to take a look at this here hole." She said, and proceeded to walk past away, not willing to pay further attention to him, whatever position he claimed to be in. She strode over to the large crater's edge, and stopped about two feet from the edge. Her legs were spread a little bit wider than normally, and she held the blade in her right hand ready, weary for things that could come out of the large gap in the Earth.
What caused this? She wondered, as her gaze allowed her to let in the full results of the impact of whatever it had been that had caused the creation of the crater.

"Hey, FUCK you!" Matt snapped. "If you don't like it, you can PISS OFF!"

"Are you ladies done?" Hugo interrupted, his voice rising. "I'd like to find out where we are and get some sleep."

Helena glanced back toward the crater. "Should we really sleep near that thing?"

The Mettaur sighed. "We can't really get away from it too much, but we can try."

R.D. sighed and shook his head, watching Matt's antics. "Find a place to set up camp," he said decidedly, "I'm going to go check out that army. I'll be able to find my way back, and I'm pretty sure I can take care myself long enough to get away if their hostile."

X decided a few things at that moment:

1. Matt was a terrible leader and, in lieu of evidence to the contrary, a piss-poor person.

2. Fighting him was not going to help anyone. He was just going to have to be ready to salvage whatever situation Matt decided to ruin.

And 3. That it was suddenly a perfect time to start working on upgrading his armor.

"All right," Matt said, deciding to ignore X for the time being. He glanced about him at their items scattered all along the ground. Eh, crap. This wasn't what he needed.

Helena had moved over to her backpack (thankfully mostly intact) and, with great care, withdrew a pair of dusty brown pants. "Matt," she said. "Wall, please."

"Okay." With a gesture from Matt, walls of rock rose around Helena to give her some privacy.

"Thank you."

R.D. nodded and turned in the direction of the gathering of lifeforce, which was also somewhere along the rim of the crater. The thrusters in his boots ignited, and he shot off across the plains at rapid speeds, quickly disappearing out of the sight of the group.

As he raced alongside the crater's edge, he examined himself introvertly. He realized that whatever happened during the fight with Diablo, his own lifeforce was unrecognizable, now a blending of his own and Bahamut's, making a new, unique energy signature. And that with his armor on, he'd be unrecognizable. So if he were forced to fight any of those in the gathering, they wouldn't realize he was a target of both enemy factions on the planet.

R.D.'s eyes narrowed as he spotted the gathering, and he picked up speed. The interface activated and began scanning the lifeforms once more, learning that the group was mostly human. Mostly, one seemed to be a monster, while another seemed to be undead. And judging from the energy readings of some of them, they probably already knew he was approaching.

Time to step it up a notch then, he thought, causing the violet and blue aura of power to surround him, and he blasted across the plains like a fireball, quickly reaching the group. He was soon there, immediately spying two people on the ground, a woman examining the crater, and someone clad in white trying to speak with her. Off to the side, he spied the person whose energy reading's were that of a monster, lying in the dirt.

His armored feet slammed into the ground, causing him to skid to a stop. Standing tall, with his armor glinting in the sunlight and visored helmet obscuring his face, his presense was known to the army.

(OOC: Meta was actually only adressing Awai. >.>)

Meta considered answering, as much as she considered not answering, as she stared down the crater. I'd like to know what there is in the centre of this thing... Her thoughts murmured within her head. It'd certainly be... interesting, I suppose... She thought, and her curiosity had increased slightly all of a sudden.
Meta stood up, straightened her back, and she had just determined to jump down into the crater and go take a look, find out whatever it had been to cause the crater, and to find whatever there was left in it's centre, when all of a sudden, she felt a sudden vibration with the very fibres of energy in her right hand. She looked down, held the gauntleted hand in front of her, and looked at the Hallow Arm, the clawed fingers somewhat curled. In her eyes the weapon, this hand of chaos, seemed to glow, to resonate with a power she hadn't felt up to now. It felt as if it drew her a certain way, a certain direction. She turned and when she felt it's vibrating resonation with whatever it was that caused it was the strongest. She looked up, stared about the planes, and noticed a lone figure in a wicked, alien suit of armor of mostly blue and violet colouring. Her eyes narrowed slightly, yet again. Who... and what... is that? She asked herself.

Edited by Morphman on June 20, 2007 at 9:51:13.

As the woman near the crater turned towards him, R.D. felt energy resonate within him. In his mind's eye, he could see the bright power resonate within his very soul. He could feel it growing, reaching out. What's going on? he thought, realizing that this was Lumiya's doing. Its never done this. Why?

His eyes flickered towards the woman, and more importantly, to the strange glove on her right hand. That was were the energy was resonating to. And he could feel the glove resonating back. However, he felt this unimportant, and tore his eyes away from her and back towards the group.