"Yeah," R.D. said, turning to Fire Man. "Mind showing us where our room's at?"

"Right here." Fire Man opened the door across the hall and flipped on a light, revealing the other guest bedroom. "I'll see if I can find an inflatable mattress for you, Matt."

"It's fine. I'm used to sleeping on solid ground. I'll just use the extra pillow on the bed." Walking in, Matt placed his pack in the middle of the floor, where it stuck out in plain sight.

R.D. looked around as he entered, then settled down on the bed, slipping his satchel bag off of his shoulder and setting it on the bed. He took off his shoes and glove, then looked over at Matt.

"So, who wants to go first?" he asked.

"Go ahead," Matt said, folding his arms.

"I didn't tell you earlier, because we were kinda pressed for time," R.D. said, meaning back at the McDonalds they had lunch at earlier that day. "But during my trip down to Antarctica to face Sheena, I was attacked."

R.D. fell the rest of the way back on the bed.

"I was attacked by Helena."

That brought Matt's attention into a focused point. "...what?"

"Apparently NightShade found out Helena was killed in the final battle," R.D. said, looking up at the ceiling. "He created some sort of clone of her and gave her his power. And then she came after me."

He sighed. "I was forced to kill her. Didn't really have much of a choice. But, if it weren't for Malvettix, of all people, I'd be dead, back on Persior."

"What?" Matt said. "Malvettix helped you? Why?"

"Because according to him, you're the only one he wants," R.D. said, sitting up. "He considered Hugo, me, Alasea, and Helena enemies only because we got in his way and we supported you."

He laughed sardonically for a second. "Oh, was he pissed when he confronted me about... what happened," he said. "But he said he had better things to do. Since we were under the impression that you were dead, well, he was willing to help me out against the Seven Beasts and against Ziatoch. But, since you're alive... well, I think its safe to say that he'll be gunning for you again. And I don't think he'll be stuck on my world this time around."

Matt scoffed. "Magical." He sighed and pressed his knuckles against his waist. "Well, if Malvettix comes on by, I guess I'll have no choice but to drop him. Any other bombs you want to drop on me?"

"No, that's all, really," R.D. said. "Though I'd like to hear a plan on how we'd even beat Malvettix at this point. Neither of us stand a fighting chance against him anymore."

Edited by RisingDragon on December 2, 2009 at 23:25:17.

X didn't respond. Too intoxicated to move or think, he continued sleeping.

Deep within his mind however, an opportunity awoke. A shadow passed over his face, a darkness unlocked inside. He'd been locked inside and saw his chance.

"God, I can't believe how much this bastard drank." He sighed, "And now we got a goddamn invasion on our hands?" He called out to Aram, "Oi! I'm in here!"
~~~~
Fass stared at the sky. Four shapes emerged in the distance. At first they appeared as nothing more than tiny pinpricks, but as they came closer and picked up speed, they looked more like meteors.

Fass braced himself for impact as all four objects strongly impacted the ground in front of him.

They were here.

"Damn it, you're right." In all the hooplah, he hadn't even considered how to fend off their most dangerous foe. "I guess this time it'll take an even greater team effort." All the more reason to get Hugo back on-every little bit counted.

Lance's face turned slightly pink, and he made no noise, now suddenly finding everything except the people in the room much more interesting. Siegfried glanced hesitantly at Lance and at the newly found color in his partner's face, Siegfried set his own to grim determination and spoke without emotion. "To find a friend."

R.D. nodded, then looked over at Matt. "So, what is it that you wanted to talk about, anyway?" he asked.

===NationStates General===

Aram wasn't quite sure how Evil X managed to create a telepathic link with him, but he disregarded it. "Get X and get up. We need to hide him before the enemies get here," he said to X's comatose form.

He heard and felt a rumble outside, and swore. "They're here!"

===Argentina, South America===

There was more deliberation from the council. Finally, after several minutes, the Mayor stood up. "Very well. Please, return to your room in the hotel for now. Rest," he said. "It is the least we can do for defeating this Shadowrend before he could assault the village."

The two gratefully smiled to the council and mayor, giving their thanks, and swiftly turned and left, only truly exhaling after they were out of the building. Lance questioned quietly as they made their way back to the hotel, "Do you think--"

He was cut off abruptly, his partner considering a quick elbow as opposed to his hushing noise, but decided against it with Lance's supposed condition in mind. "Later. When we leave this place. These people don't need to know anything more than we told them."

A look of resignation but annoyance came back from Lance, but he swiftly changed the subject, "I think that girl with the fruit liked me... I wonder where she lives."

A groan came from the knight, and he said, "You. Should be dead. If it wasn't for the Core you wouldn't have lasted as a Sustainer for more than two seconds. Besides, she's not even your age, and there's no way she liked you."

"You're just jealous. Besides, the Core is mine now, I'm just taking advantage of it. I'm almost completely restored you know."

Siegfried briefly contemplated resuming his train of thought that would lead to an elbow in Lance's face. Instead he muttered, "Oh geh und bonswegt ein Kuh."

Laughing, Lance said as they entered the hotel now, "A little vulgar, don't you think?" He watched with mild pleasure as Siegfried's face reddened, stammering something about how he wasn't aware that Lance knew German. He raised a finger to his forehead and flicked it off, toward Siegfried.

Infuriated, the German sputtered, "That was low Lance. Low, low, low. Don't push me too far. It's been known to cause unfortunate side effects." Neither spoke thereafter, reaching the room and silently sliding into bed.

"About Hugo, of course." Matt jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "How the hell are we gonna convince him to come with us?"

"Whatever his problem is, it stems from your becoming Dragon Drive FINAL," R.D. said matter-of-factly. "No offense, but you were pretty fuckin' scary to see in that armor. I can't blame him for being kinda pissed at you."

R.D. suddenly reached behind him, and pulled off both of his shirts at once, exposing his chest--and the very ugly, jagged-looking scar running from just under his left collar-bone down to the middle of his pectoral muscle. The healed-over remains of the same wound that left the incriminating blood on Matt's gauntlet while he wore Dragon Drive FINAL's fearsome armor.

"You also were tearing the shit out of everything left and right," R.D. said, gesturing to the scar once before slipping his shirts back on, covering it. "He doesn't know that you weren't in control, or that you managed to pull Dragon Drive FINAL's defenses back long enough for me to end it. So you're gonna have to explain it to him."

===Argentina, South America===

That night, after all of the household chores had been completed and after having differ, Audrey laid in her bed, lower torso covered by her sheets, and just stared up at the ceiling. She hadn't gotten to sleep for the last two hours, and it was now just a little after midnight.

Who were those people? Why did they come here?

She groaned in frustration and tore her eyes from the ceiling, turning over and muttering.

R.D. was right, of course, but Matt would've prefered not to think about FINAL as much as possible. That scar would just make it harder to block it out. "Oh, thank you," Matt remarked. "That makes my job SO much easier." He pointed at R.D.. "You get to help me then. He'll probably listen to you over me."

"Maybe," R.D. said. "Even then, I'm not sure if we'll convince him. Something Elec Man said to me has been bugging me."

Laying back down on the bed, he recalled the conversation. "Hugo's... changed since the fight. Elec Man said that the entire family missed the Hugo 'they used to know'."

That was new. When did Elec Man spill that kind of info? "What do you mean by THAT?"

"He'd never seen Hugo act the way he did when he tried to shoot you," R.D. said, "And he wanted to know why. Once I explained the situation, he told me that when Hugo got back and was repaired, he did anything he could to occupy his mind."

He sighed. "He also said that if the situation was as horrible as it seemed, Hugo might not join us. And that the family might not be call that keen on the idea."

Wonderful. Heaving a sigh, Matt ran his head through his hair. "Well, I'm stumped...maybe we shouldn't tell him at all what's going on. I mean...he's already worked hard enough helping me put the Omega Core back. He deserves some kind of peace. We might just have to do this thing without him."

"Maybe. Think the Chronomancer would let us get away with that?" R.D. asked, still looking up at the ceiling.

"He'd better," Matt snapped. "I can't force Hugo to do this, it's not right."

"Not much we can do about it right now, Matt," R.D. said. "We'll have to worry about it in the morning."

About a half of an hour passed after Lance and Siegfried retired, both appearing completely exhausted. However, Lance was nothing of the sort. He felt as if he'd just woken up from a twelve hour rest instead of a one hour one. After thirty minutes had passed, Lance was quite sure the blonde-haired blue-eyed knight was sleeping soundly.

Lance slowly removed the sheets he had loosely placed over himself upon laying down, and slipped from the bed. A moment later the door shut behind him and he stole away out of the hotel and into the night. The cooler air greeted him comfortably as he'd been practically scorched through his clothing the entire day, and a slight drizzle had just begun. "Figures," he muttered, "with the amount of electricity I put into the clouds, there's going to be quite a storm tonight.

Reaching into his pocket, he removed his pair of sunglasses carefully and placed them on, the interface lighting up with cool blue colors, identifying the wearer. A moment later his previous settings were retrieved, and a blue line traced the ground with flickering arrows.

He followed them quietly, the invading darkness covering his presence on the street. A minute or two later he found himself outside of the home of the woman he had first encountered. The arrow revealed a window directly into her room, and Lance made his way there. He paused for a moment and thunder cracked the sky. A few more seconds and another came. Timing his knock on the glass to be distant from the thunder, Lance rapped his knuckles softly on it to signify his presence and request he be allowed in.

"Yeah, you're right." Matt always prefered to sleep on things until the morning. "Tomorrow we'll make the jump."

Just hope the jump worked, that's all.

R.D. got up off the bed and pulled the covers down, and slipped in bed with a yawn. "Right," he said, his voice showing signs of exhaustion, "G'night."

===Argentina, South America===

Audrey heard what sounded like knocking, but disregarded it, thinking it nothing more than the thunder playing tricks on her ears. Instead, the girl turned over to the opposite side of the bed and gathered more of the covers over her upper torso, sighing once.

She wished this night would come to an end soon. The sound of the rain and thunder was no longer soothing to her, not in these trying times.

(I kinda pictured it as eX going into the hallway and seeing Aram but it's not too hard to justify either way what with the little mind trip from earlier)

X stirred and his eyes shot open. They were a poisonous yellow and his pupils were little more than slits.

"X isn't gonna be 'round for a while. He partied a little too hard last night. Just as well, since that pussy prolly woulda gotten me--us killed. Now get yourself ready. We've got trouble."

~~~

Fass got a good look at them for the first time. There were four of them, for starters. Tracer stood at the front of the pack. Fass noticed that he seemed to be wearing some kind of gauntlet over one of his arms but not the other.

Behind him stood a bald man. His face was impassive, without any emotion whatsoever. He stood staring at Fass in silence.

But it was the other two that stood out the most. They were different from Tracer and the Bald man. They were both large and muscular, the first one with his shirt open and slicked-back silver hair that fell to the base of his neck. In his hand he carried what appeared to be a large scythe.

The other one was entirely robed with a hood covering his face. Fass noticed the oddness of their demeanor. The silver-haired one was grinning from ear-to-ear and leaning on his scythe, while the second one simply looked bored.