"It's a good while out. We can probably jump there later with the Emerald." Matt glanced around the landscape. "You think we're far out enough to take a breather?"

R.D. looked around using his scanner for a few moments. The interface could not detect anything, and he nodded. "Yeah, looks like it," R.D. confirmed, "There's nothing showing up."

"Good enough!" Hitting the brakes, the Firebird skidded to a stop. "All right, boys and girls...time to set up shop."

Quick reflexes are the only thing that prevented R.D.'s helmeted head from smashing into the dashboard. The moment Matt hit the breaks, R.D.'s arm shot out and braced himself with the dashboard. Once the car came to a stop, R.D. gave Matt a sour glare before exiting the car.

"Anubis." Meta greeted Anubis with a bit of surprise to her tone, a slight frown being formed by her brow. "What brings you here?" She asked the jackal god whom she had recruited in Tartarus.

"I have come to you in this hour to tell you that your armies are ready." Anubis said. "Tartarus is going through major changes. Instead of a prison that many used to fear, it is slowly changing to become like a place unlike any other. Nearly all of those who had been imprisoned there have pledged their allegiance to you, my queen, not just those whose allegiance you came to request."

Meta's expression quite brightened upon hearing this news. Her eyes sparkled with a newfound confidence and ambition. "That is great." She replied to the jackal god. "And all of them are battle-ready, you say?" She asked carefully.

"Every single one of them has taken up their weapons and cried out your name as if you were more than someone who freed them from a life in a prison." Anubis answered. "Then again, Tartarus is unlike any other prison. You are quite worthy of being revered like that."

Meta looked at Anubis. "I would not be too sure of that. I have yet to accomplish anything I ever have greatly wished for to be able to accomplish, although what happened during the fight with Electra is a step in the right direction." She then turned to glance into the crater's dark depths. "There is yet a great many things I have to overcome. Before I am to command armies, I must first find myself able to defeat one of the Seven myself." She said, before casting a glance at Anubis that showed the god that she meant what she said, and he gave a little bow. "As my queen wishes."

"Not yet a queen." Meta warned the god. "Though I surely would not mind being addressed as such in the near future." She said, and she smiled meaningfully, and the look on her face almost seemed to reflect her evil heritage for a short moment as she stared of dreamy into the distance.

"...sorry."

They exited the car. As the sun began its descent, they set up camp.

"What are those?" Helena asked, as Matt produced a metal staff, which he stuck into the ground along with a few others.

"Sentries." From behind his back, he pulled out another. "If anything comes here...we'll know. Also, they have machine guns, because I really don't feel like fighting anyone tonight."

"Works for me," R.D. said, his armor now disengaged as he began unloading their gear from the car. "How good are their tracking abilities?"

===In Japan===

Alasea ducked and rolled past Cora during her descent, turning back around and shooting forward at her. Her blade now glowing red, Alasea's sword flashed out as Alasea spun with the Shippuuga attack.

The Megami Tsurugi shot out across the air as Cora came in, parrying the cross-slash, then crossing it back over to block the thrust. She spun around and caught the diagonal slash and forced it down towards the ground to prevent the horizontal strike. Her blade suddenly became electrified and she swung the sword upwards towards her Cora's chest and head, leaping high while slashing. As she shot upwards and over Cora, lightning rained from the blade down at the demoness.

Meta turned around in a sudden movement of surprise, her hand moving towards the handle of one of her still-sheated weapons. Her eyes narrowed when she took in the figure of her father, and her face distorted into an expression of hathred and a sliver of disgust, and her grimacing mouth exposed some of her teeth when she spoke up, rather softly at her first words. "Father." She brought out softly, her voice trembling a little. "What brings you here?" She spoke a little louder, disregarding the question he had asked her, his daughter, as she felt uncomfortably intimidated by his sudden, and rather surprising appearance.

Meanwhile, the jackal god that accompanied her, who had just brought her the delightful news of Tartarus' inhabitants having changed their realm in her name, stared at the figure of Xastra's host body, the young physique of Maya, the girl whom had come to be possessed by the Za-Fuzenian-titled being. Anubis tried to take in the appearance of the girl-man-demon as best as a god could ever do, to remember it for eternity. The jackal god's eyes were somewhat narrow, but that was rather normal for him, being a jackal god at that, but it almost could seem to another that the god was leering, or glaring, although he was just staring, finding himself to be curious at what had happened to the outside world ever since he had been locked away in the depths of the most godawful prison one could ever imagine. Curious, in particular, as to pertaining the history behind the one that had freed him and those closely affiliated with him. The jackal god was surprised, he oddly found himself to be, when he heard Meta addressing the peculiar little creature as 'father', and Anubis could not help but wonder how the surface-dwellers had come to even as much as be able to address females who looked younger than them as 'father'. Yet he soon concluded with his godly mind that the being in front of them was unlikely to truly be as what he could see with his own eyes at the moment. There surely was more to the particular character of the young girl that he saw standing near them.

"They track stuff pretty far," Matt said. Bending down, he picked up a rock. "Observe. This is an enemy."

He threw the rock, and it sailed over a sentry.

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" the sentry blared in an obnoxious Australian accent. A large machinegun unfolded from its top (seemingly fro out of nowhere) and dumped an excessive amount of rounds in destroying the rock.

"...gotta fix that voice."

"Let's just hope it doesn't go off in the middle of the night," Hugo spat. "If that happens I'm gonna have to pop you."

Edited by The Helldragon on August 6, 2007 at 0:24:23.

R.D. raised an eyebrow at the sentry's voice, and shook his head. It's going to be a long night, he thought exasperatedly.

===In Japan===

Alasea gasped as Cora shot by at sonic speeds, and the only thing that prevented her from being cut in half was her own motion and her Cyclone Armor spell. The end result was a large cut in her jacket and tube-top. She dropped the ground and rolled, coming out in a kneel. She spared a brief glance at her jacket and swore. Dammit! She cut my favorite jacket!

Alasea stood and aimed her sword at the still-moving Cora, firing an Aura Strafe beam at her at twice the demoness' moving speed.

That night...

"INTRUDER ALERT!"
RATATATATATATATATATATATAT
A bird dropped from the sky.

"INTRUDER ALERT!"
RATATATATATATATATATATATAT
A salamander scampered away.

"INTRUDER ALERT!"
RATATATATATATATATATATATAT

BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG

Laying the smouldering shotgun next to him, Matt drew his jacket back over his eyes. "...fucking sentries."

R.D. rolled over to face Matt.

"Not one of your greatest creations," he muttered before turning back over. He had been only a moment away from destroying the sentries himself. Yawning, he closes his eyes and fell back into a troubled sleep.

Images of a pretty, redheaded girl plagued his dream. Oftentimes she seemed to be laughing and enjoying herself, running in a field, talking, reading books, watching TV. Twice R.D. woke up, looking around distantly. He frowned and slept once more, only to wake up again at three in the morning. He sat up, looking at the sleeping forms of Matt, Helena, and Hugo, and at the broken pieces of the sentries.

Something wet slipped down his cheek. Surprised, the amnesiac teen wiped it away, looking at his gloved hand and the water stain in the fabric.

A tear? Why... was I crying?

Only the silence of the night remained, and grunting, he turned over and slept until dawn.

But when Cora turned to talk, Alasea was not there. She was gone, and then she was overhead, above Cora. She fell down at rapid speeds, her blade cleaving the air as she plummeted past Gouki's second.

"Please," Alasea said as she landed and slashed the geyser as it erupted, turning around on the newly-formed AngelWater and staring at her with a smirk, "We're girls. We always play dirty."

Edited by RisingDragon on August 6, 2007 at 15:07:27.

(OOC: Didn't see that part. >.> It's fixed.)

Edited by RisingDragon on August 6, 2007 at 15:07:49.

Kalmar looked around again, and upon seeing nothing shook his head in frustration.

"Where is it?" The Demon Hunter slowly walked forward, examining his surroundings with great care. Yet his frustration only grew as nothing could be found.

"Do you see anything, Blazen?"

"Sorry to disappoint." Meta said to her father in an innocent voice through which some of her dislike talking to him sounded. "But I am not forming any armies." She said in all honesty.

"Just a friend." Meta said to Xastra, looking over to Anubis for a short moment before returning her gaze to her father's figure.