"I sense a great disturbance in the Force," Matt answered. "The Dragonforce."

Hugo sighed. "Matt detected the Gateway around here."

"But why now?" Helena asked. "I thought it was all the way toward the north."

Matt leaned back, rubbing his chin. "...I think it was to the north," he said. "I could've sworn it was. Maybe it got attracted to me somehow..."

He shrugged. "Or maybe the gods got tired of this quest and said 'fuck this, let's just bring the gate to him this time'."

Still rubbing his head, R.D. sighed. "I hope so," he growled, "Considering all the shit we've been through, karma owes us big time. How far is it?"

Matt raised a finger and paused, sensing the current of energy. After a bit, he pointed foward. "Right over there."

The place he pointed to was, apparently, dead between a convienence store and a small pharmacy, where the team could restock their supplies before moving on.

It was like a sign or something.

R.D. quirked and eyebrow and rolled down the window, leaning out of it to look. He could feel... something. He wasn't sure if it was energy or not, but he could definitely feel something, like a presence of some sort. He suddenly felt uneasy, and slipped back into the car with a frown. "I don't like this," he murmured, "Something's up."

Edited by RisingDragon on September 17, 2007 at 11:47:45.

Helena peered past Matt to look out the front window. "What is it?"

"The energy's different," Matt said. "It's stronger. Stranger." He couldn't put his finger on it otherwise, but this Gateway, he felt, was of most importance than the others.

Maybe it was way he felt the Core resonate within him when in contact with the strange energy.

R.D. closed his eyes for a moment and crossed his arms, thinking.

Okay, there's a Gateway up ahead that's bothering us.

We're near two stores we can use to fill up on what we need.

And we haven't been attacked in a week since I... well, blew up that canyon. Coincidence?

The amnesiac snorted softly and shook his head.

I think not.

Sighing, R.D. opened his eyes and opened the passenger door, and stepped out. "Let's get this over with. Park the car over by the pharmacy, I'll check out the store." And with that, he proceeded the store, drawing a Phase Blade from his left hip in the process and activating it. Its crystalline blade gleamed as it caught the light, and he looked around warily. When he neared the store, however, he grunted in shock, and stopped in his tracks. It was as if something had punched him in the gut. His feeling of unease had increased tenfold, and he carefully held out a hand, slowly pushing it forward.

His hand was shaking, and involuntarily at that. He could feel Lumiya resonating within him, not unlike it had when he had seen that strange woman with the gauntlet at Juno's camp in Sudan. However, the feeling was different in ways, and it unnerved him. With the thoughts, he grimaced. "I'm getting paranoid," he muttered, but he knew that something indeed was up here.

Matt, failing to notice R.D.'s reaction, parked in front of the pharmacy. "All righty, then." he said. "Time to loot." He pushed open the car door and stepped out. "I think we need some backup Pepto Bismol or something, just in case."

Hugo followed. "Let's just get what we need, okay?"

As Helena exited the car, she frowned. Like Matt, she was feeling strange things, though maybe it was her nerves as opposed to feeling actual energy.

Something was going to happen...something bad.

Ignoring his feelings, R.D. pressed on into the store, gathering supplies into the travel satchel Alasea provided him, while getting more stuff to put into the car. As he did, he kept his Phase Blade ready at all times, and his more than once did his eyes scan the store carefully, as if they'd get attacked by Malvettix or Akuma or Kalmar.

He felt much more relieved when he left the store and returned to the car, stowing the supplies in the trunk and the others' packs. Once he was done, he kept an eye on the street, watching carefully for potential threats, but too often he kept looking back in the direction of their much sought-after Gateway.

The three Brothers motioned with their hands, making an intricate pattern in the air before them. Light trailed along the path of their fingers, each in their respective color. The runes that they created began to spiral around them, and light slowly flared around the three of them, as well as Houka, Legion, Draco, and Lee. And within a single instant, all of them had disappeared.

Re-Tuul screeched gleefully as his eyes locked on, and faster than the speed of light, the demon blasted across the battlefield and struck, making a vicious downward slash with the two-pronged spear.

===Paradise Lost===

On a cracked, cold plain dotted with dead trees and high plateaus, light flared and the Brothers and the revived minions appeared. Overhead, a tumultuous sky rumbled, blue-gray storm clouds roiling. In the distance, sickly light pierced through the cloud-cover, and a light rain fell on the dead land. The ground was eroded, and tufts of purple grass could be seen every once and a while. Occasionally lightning struck down onto the deathly wasteland of Paradise Lost, the personal war-grounds of the Destroyer of Worlds. Standing side by side, the three Brothers watched their foes in silence as the laws of the land took hold, forcing the resurrected minions of the Seven Beasts shrink back to their original sizes, unable to be influenced by the Staff of Chaos and unable to grow. They'd have to rely on their own powers to win the battle.

Diablo stepped forward, back straight and proud, ahead of his two brothers. Still the Lord of Terror remained silent, his eyes flickering their challenge to the monsters.

===In Japan===

Alasea blinked and looked down at Mercy, giving him a curious look. Steffanos? she wondered idly, only for the the lifesigns of the resurrected beings to disappear. She looked back around, eyes narrowing. "What the... what happened?" she asked. "Where'd they go?"

Looting: completed.

Now the problem.

The Gateway was in an alleyway between the convienence store and the pharmacy, which lead off to a dead end.

The very narrow alleyway.

"I ain't leavin' my car here," Matt said, staring down the alleyway.

"Can you shrink it?" Hugo asked.

Matt scoffed. "I'm gonna, 'cause I ain't leavin' my car."

Facing the classic Firebird, Matt flattened his hands, and brought them together. In a cartoonish fashion, the Firebird was squished into a narrow shape. As Matt rummanged his hands over themselves, the car folded like paper, folding and folding until it was the size of a small square.

Matt grabbed the black square and jammed it into his pocket. "All right, let's go."

R.D. nodded, and after a quick moment, deactivated his Phase Blade and proceeded to the alleyway with the others. As he did, his unease kept growing and growing, but the amnesiac squashed those feelings down. And yet, for him, as they grew closer it felt as if the sun's light was absent completely. He felt cold, and rubbed his arms for a brief moment.

There it floated, like the rip in the universe it was.

All Gateways were familiar up to this point-holes in space-time with innards of prismatic color-but this one was a simple electric blue, almost calm in the way it shone, illuminating the dank alley. It seemed like the only light, at least for a bit.

Matt paused before the Gateway. Before, he felt offset, but now, standing next to this thing, something was incredibly amiss and wrong and destined all at the same time.

He didn't really know what to make of it, but there was nothing else better to do, and no reason to give up now.

That strange feeling mixing in his heart, he glanced at his companions. "Get ready to rock, if need be."

Hugo's pickaxe clicked, loading up. "I'm always ready."

R.D. nodded, agreeing with Hugo's assertion. "Right behind you, Matt," he said, "Just be careful on the other side."

After a split second, R.D.'s eyebrow arched and he looked over his shoulder at Helena. "You ready?" he asked. The girl looked rather nervous, and he wanted to make sure she was okay before they made the jump into the next world.

(OOC: Juno, Paradise Lost is Ziatoch's version of the Blood Beach. They can't get out like that. Edit plz.)

Clenching her lip, Helena released it when R.D. spoke. "Oh...um, yeah." She took a breath, looked toward the Gateway. "Yeah. I'm ready."

"All right, then." Lifting a leg, Matt pushed it into the Gateway. Carefully. "Into the unknown...to the max."

Taking his own breath, he threw himself in all the way, and promptly fell out again on the other side, landing on hard ground.

"Ow!" He sat up, rubbing his shoulder. At least it wasn't on his face. What sort of crazy place had he been transported to now? Granted, a lot of them were weird and bizarro, so it'd only be a matter of time before he'd see them all-

Matt's incoherent train of thought paused as he first saw the realm before him.

The skies rolled with color, the same rainbow he had seen within the Gateways before. It almost seemed to...sparkle at times? The light reflected off the smooth glass-blue ground beneath him, drawing his gaze up ahead, toward the long-rising staircase of crystal, toward the looming temple of blue, stretching toward the strange heavens.

Matt got up, and took a few steps foward, his eyes trying to absorb as much information as possible. Somehow, he knew this place. Deep within him, the Omega Core, tool of the Multiverse, resonated with this strange world, and called it home.

(OOC: Then I'm sorry to say that they'll have to suffer the consequences.)

R.D. nodded as Helena spoke, and turned back. "And we're back into the shitstorm sweepstakes."

He took a deep breath and leapt into the portal, and when he landed softly on the strange, crystalline ground, and his eyes widened in shock. Like the Core in Matt, Lumiya too resonated in this realm, as if it wanted to call this place its home, but could not. This had to be it; what Matt, and his friends, had been searching for and had finally found.

"The Eternal Sanctuary," he breathed in an awed voice, almost child-like.

===In Quebec===

The moment the resurrected beings reappeared in the air around the black-armored Khaglessi, Re-Tuul vanished in a cloud of darkness. The beast was suddenly in the ruined skies, wings stretched out wide with the Shadowbringer held casually in his right hand. The demon's left hand was pointed down, centering on Draco's massive head. Re-Tuul's toothy grin stretched wide as he bellowed in a throaty, deep voice as he channeled Gouka, Kuro-Raikou, and Yakunan-Kaze.

The massive black torrent, as thick as Re-Tuul's wrist, ripped out of his scythe-bladed hand, streaking down for the draconic monster. The winds would force the beast to the ground, where the fire and lightning would scorch through the skin and burn the bone.

Edited by RisingDragon on September 2, 2007 at 21:09:58.

Edited by RisingDragon on September 2, 2007 at 23:34:09.

Awestruck, almost forgetting that she held Hugo in her arms, Helena took in the scope of the wonder that was the Eternal Sanctuary.

Amazing.

Just amazing.

She hadn't seen as much as Matt, but he seemed as astounded by the Eternal Sanctuary like she was. Immediately a sense of calm overtook her-just standing her made her felt so at ease...where was the anxiousness that had been gripping her before?

Hugo scoffed. It was too damn bright out here...but yeah, it looked interesting.

"So this is it," Matt said, softly. He placed his hands on his hips, glancing toward the temple. "This is the crazy-ass place I've been searchin' for all along."

"Looks like it," R.D. said, stepping close. "All of the blood, sweat, and tears."

R.D. stepped ahead and turned, facing Matt with a severe look on his normally-serious face. "I know you've been looking for this for a long time, but we have no idea what's waiting for us and we have to be absolutely sure. I'll follow whatever you decision is; I decided to stick by you for a reason. So I'm ready for whatever. Are you ready for this?"

"Damn straight." Matt raised a brandishing finger to prove his point. "I've been doin' this a lot longer than you have, my friend, and I have been ready for this since day one. I am all for not dooming the entire Multiverse."

"Besides," Helena said, "we haven't known what to expect before and we've managed to survive until now. We can't give up yet."

"We're not giving up," Hugo muttered. "We're just being careful."

Matt made a wide gesture. "Still, I'm locked, loaded, and ready to make shit dig!"

"Who talks like that?!" Hugo demanded. "Come on!"

"I heard it somewhere, okay? Geez."

R.D. nodded, permitting him a slight smirk as Hugo and Matt got into it. He could feel the tension draining from him, and he was sure the others were relaxing. "Come on, guys," he said, trying to break up the fight, "Let's go finish this for good."

The winds, flames, and lightning reversed, combining with the shadow energy of Draco, and as Re-Tuul's hand cupped the beam, it was redirected upwards into Houka's attack, blasting it apart while streaking upwards at the fire demon. Re-Tuul himself began to fall back, wings furled slightly as he descended, the tips of the draconic wings catching the inferno that Legion fired.

The snowy ground was destroyed as Re-Tuul's talons impacted into it, rending it apart to scatter or kill the earthbound of Legion. Wings spread out wide as the ocular designs glowed, and thousands of energy rays blanketed the ground at them as the demon soared over it, charging at Lee with the Shadowbringer gripped in both claws.

Edited by RisingDragon on September 3, 2007 at 0:18:57.

(OOC: I am surprised that a bunch of memories have wills.)


Meta smirked confidently as Hydro's attack neared her. I'll show him. She thought to herself, remembering what had happened at Giza. She extended her right arm, and charged her hand with two elements, those of light and lightning, effectively carving the blast in two just enough for the rest of her body not to get hit by the two halves. "Hydro, pal," She then said with a serious face as she looked at the great Beast, "not one single spat of water there." She mocked him, and she knew it. But then again, that was the whole point of what she said. She placed her one foot in front of the other and slowly started to walk towards Hydro, unsheathed one of her swords. "Not one... single... drop." She repeated slowly, emphasizing the words.

Edited by Morphman on September 3, 2007 at 16:14:50.

"I did not forget." Meta said, and light shone from her body. "It is just that you do not know my abilities, nor their extent." She twisted her body into a pirouette and slashed straight through the blast of darkness as she got into a crouching position, allowing most of the blast to go over her anyways.