"Oh, what the hell is it NOW?" Matt waved his arm foward. "Up the steps! Now!" As Helena rushed up the steps, Matt felt the air for any signs of water. Over there-that pond! That would work. Drawing power from it, he ran up as well.

R.D. aimed his arm cannon at the incoming figures and charged energy into it. The ten orange pistons slammed down and unleashed a large plasma burst from his fist, letting it streak at the blue figure, who gracefully dodged it by leaping up over it and letting fly with a similar blast, followed by a second one.

The first one exploded against the ground in front of R.D., forcing him to drop down on one knee and block with his shield, only for the second one to smash into it and send him flying backwards.

Grunting as he landed on his back, R.D. looked up while aiming his arm cannon, only to see the blue figure standing over him, aiming an arm cannon down at him.



"Freeze!" the blue figure shouted in a male's voice.

A stream of water shot from the pond into Matt's hand. Clenching it, he lashed it toward the blue figure. "Freezing Salvo!" The arcing water droplets froze and extended into thin icicles that blitzed R.D.'s attacker.

Quick to the draw, the blue-armored person swung his arm cannon up and began firing rapidly, breaking apart each of the icicles with small, yellow plasma bullets.

Taking the chance, R.D. fired his own arm cannon at his attacker, only for him to jump high out of the way using dash thrusters on his boots. Landing on the ground, the blue figure began charging energy into his arm cannon while R.D. stood up.

"Shit," he muttered, looking to the side for a brief moment. "Where the hell'd the red one go!?"

"Hugo!" Matt shouted, drawing his energy blade.

"Right!" Hugo's pickaxe transformed into its gun mode. "Get behind me! Stay grouped together!"

Her eyes darting about like a deer, Helena pulled Ileyna closer to her.

Despite her shyness, Ileyna gripped onto Helena tightly.

The blue figure fired his arm cannon at R.D., who skid to the side using the dash thrusters on his boots, then rocketed in to attack with his Phase Blade. As he slashed, the blue figure, dodged to the side, then fired a trio of plasma bullets into R.D.'s back, knocking him to the ground with a cry.

With a erratic battle cry, Matt leapt off the cliff, leading the way with an elaborate aerial kick at the blue figure.

Swinging his arm cannon around, the blue figure charged and fired, sending a pair of plasma blasts flying up at Matt.

It was at this time that Matt realized that he was not, in fact, as invulnerable as he used to be, as the bullets crashed into his body and sent him flying back.

"Matt!" Hugo shouted.

"Hyah!" a female voice shouted behind them. Hugo turned about and saw a new figure leap onto the cliffside. It was the red one, whose armor resembled the blue armor that the other one was wearing, except the helmet extended at both sides into a point, and this one brandished an energy saber.

At once Hugo began firing, drawing his shots along the cliff as the red attacker dashed away, only to leap up and attempt a downward aerial slash.

"Grapple Option!" A three-clawed grapple burst from the end of Hugo's pickaxe and seized the assailant by the torso. With a mighty pull, she was pulled down to earth with a loud impact.

The rubble smoked and shifted, a blue-armored man rising from the smoldering ruins. Stabbing his sword into the ground, he leaned upon it, panting and gasping lungfuls of air.

"That'll...*WHEEZE*...show...*GASP*...him"
~~~~

Dearg-due smiled to himself as dirt and mud rose from the ground onto his flesh, hardening and pressurizing into a fine coat.

"The other guy's sword couldn't break through my skin, and unless you can find a way to break through it like he did, you're not going to be able to either."

Dearg-due paused a moment before thoughtfully adding, "This little binding spell... it doesn't happen to be powered by negative energy, does it?"

A voice called out from across the way. "Need some help getting out of that, Dear?" Wedo yelled while deftly evading Andaras's every blow.

Dearg-due replied with a nasty growl, "No. No I do not need your help, you stupid piece of shit!" He sighed and stared straight into Aram's eyes, "not that it matters much anyway. I'd be less worried about me, and more worried about your friend over there."

~~~~~

The rubble began to sift again, another hand slowly pulling itself to the surface.

As the blue attacker's back was turned from his retaliating against Matt, R.D.'s foot shot out and slammed into his back, knocking him forward as R.D. used the momentum of the strike to get back onto his feet.

Taking advantage of the moment, R.D. activated his boot thrusters and skated across the ground to the makeshift stairwell, flying up it towards the top. The blue attacker was following him, dashing up it after him with his own dash thrusters. R.D. reached the top of the cliff just in time to see Hugo's Grapple Option immobilize the red attacker.

===NationStates General===

Aram's eyes went wide with surprise as his blade was stopped short by the earthen shield that Dearg-due created. The warrior kept his mouth shut about the Bone Spirit; though it wasn't a negative energy spell, it was already beginning to wear off, he could see the wraith dissipating bit by bit.

Grunting, Aram pushed off of the immobilized enemy and readied his blade as the dissipation of the Bone Spirit became more rapid, and soon the wraith disappeared completely, unable to take the man's soul with it like it was supposed to do.

Dearg-due laughed as the spirit disappeared.

"A damn shame it is, I really was hoping to learn how it was done..." he sighed. "Oh well!" he cried as he seized Aram by the neck.

~~~~
The second body finally finished pulling itself from the wreckage. It moved somewhat oddly, making strange jerking motions while the head continued to hang limply.

eX stumbled over to it, panting heavily. "Haven't...got enough, you...filthy...bastard?"

A terrible moan emanated from Tracer's mouth and the air around began to change, all of eX's hair standing on end. Small rocks hovered above the wreckage and shattered. Tracer's hair began to pull itself upward while his shrieking became louder. Suddenly his head shot up, both eyes and mouth wide open. His eyes were completey overtaken by a bright pink glow, as was his mouth. As he raised his head, a giant shockwave occurred, knocking eX off his feet.

"Oh no you don't!" Standing back up, Matt leapt and channeled the power of the earth, turning his body into the weight equivalent of a giant boulder, and he beared down on the blue figure with a giant bodyslam.

As Hugo retracted his grapple, the red one stood, and drew her blade again. "I don't care if you are a Mettaur, you'll pay for that!" She dashed at Hugo.

"Shit!" Rolling to the side, Hugo narrowly avoided her swipe, and raised his pickaxe high as the top produced a large mallet. "Hammer Option!" He struck the ground, and with a release of air, sent a small shockwave bursting about him, causing Helena to stumble. However, the red swordswoman had leapt up, and was targeting Hugo again.

The blue figure looked up and saw Matt barreling down on him, and with a cry, jumped back off of the stairway using his dash thrusters. Landing on the grass below, he turned and began charging energy into his arm cannon.

Ileyna stumbled and fell with a yelp as the Hammer Option shook the ground, her grip on Helena dislodged. She scrambled backwards away to give Hugo some room. As the red attacker began targeting the Mettaur again, R.D. activated his back thruster unit and rocketed forward, drawing out a Phase Blade and activating it, swinging it out to parry her blow.

===NationStates General===

A strangled cry escaped Aram's lips as Dearg-due grabbed his throat, his own free hand coming up to grab at his enemy's wrist. He struggled to get himself free.

Matt landed and entered a combative pose. "Before I kick your ass, I'd like to know whose ass I'm going to kick. That okay with you?"

The swordswoman was startled as R.D. blocked her slash. "What?" She fell back to earth and charged R.D., blade singing through the air.

Bringing his weapon up to bear as Matt landed, the blue figure took aim, only to finally get a good look at his opponent. His green eyes locked onto something on Matt's forehead--or rather, the lack of something.

A human!? he thought, surprised. He'd been fighting a human?

"It's Vent," he said. He wasn't sure if he should shoot, now. Humans couldn't be Mavericks, could they?

R.D. saw the energy saber coming in, and charged to meet it, swinging his own sword out to parry the strike. As he locked their blades into position, R.D. looked into the red figure's face and noticed that it looked similar to the blue figure's own face.

"So, who are you?" he said, struggling to keep her blade from his own head.

eX stumbled to his feet and limped over to Tracer, sword in hand. In his mind he summoned all of Sylvontis's strength to empower his blow and kill Tracer. He raised the sword high above his head and swung, the blade stopping just short of Tracer. He tried to push his arms down farther, but they did nothing. They disobeyed.

"What the hell?"

"I can't let you do that, shadow," came a familiar voice from inside his head.

"You? Dammit, why can't you just wait until this is over? We're going to finish him!"

"I won't let you kill him. We're not murderers!"

"Oh? Like that time you killed all those people with the Qu--"

"I...wish that it had never happened."

"So that's what this is about, isn't it? Look, we'll sort our your little guilt issues later. Right now we're finishing him with this sword."

"No!"

eX's hand suddenly released the sword which clattered to the ground. Tracer's hand came up and grabbed his neck, choking him. Gagging and searching for any sort of counter, another voice called to him.

I CAN HELP YOU, CHILD.

"Yeah. Whatever. You just want to take over my body. It's a pretty obvious trap. Unlike X, I'm not retarded."

HAVE YOU ANOTHER CHOICE?

eX paused for a moment. He had to admit that she had made a very good point. "Fine," he said. "But only this one time."

He felt her power surge into his arm again and he grabbed the arm that Tracer was choking him with. eX's face cracked a wicked grin and he hissed "Viral Crusher". The effect was immediate. Purple energy flared out of Tracer's body and formed a shell around him. The shell dissolved into a bunch of tentacles that flailed around before shooting back into him. Finally, they turned into a purple flame that consumed all of him.

eX collapsed to the ground and panted. Slowly he came to the horrific realization that his arm was glowing. The purple infection spread from his shoulder to his arm, and began spreading to the rest of his body like it had in London. He grinned weakly to himself, "that two-timing bitch..."

~~~~~~

Andaras took another swipe at Wedo, who dodged it effortlessly. Wedo twirled, knocking the axe out of Andaras's hand. With another slash, he ripped a large gash in Andaras's torso. Wedo grinned wickedly, bringing his arm behind him. "This next slash'll do the trick!"

He charged, but suddenly froze in place, mid stride.

~~~~~~~~

Dearg-due continued to strangle Aram. There was a blur of motion and a spiky-haired red-head suddenly appeared next to them. He had piercings all throughout his face and wore a seemingly permanent look of contempt. With one quick and smooth motion, he brought his palm down vertically, slicing the offending hand off as though it were butter being sliced through by a knife.

"All right, Vent! Since you're using a cannon, I think it's only fair if I used one too!" Matt chambered his fists, and they began to glow intensely as particles of energy trailed toward them. "Megaton..."

With a spark, the swordswoman broke off from R.D.'s blade, backing away. She smirked, and pointed at R.D. with the tip of her saber. "Name's Aile. Not that it matters to you. You've got a lot of explaining to do, you know."

"Time for talk's over," Hugo said. With a flourish, a blade of energy-long when compared to a Mettaur-flared from the end of his pickaxe. "Now I'm mad."

"Look at you!" Aile said, awed but with a sense of mockery. "Someone must've done quite a bit of work on you. You're probably the only Mettaur I've ever seen that can talk."

"I'm full of a lot of other surprises," Hugo said.

"What're you gonna do, hurt me with that little toothpick?"

Hugo brought his weapon before him, taking a step. "Sounds fun to me."

R.D.'s visor closed down over his face as Aile threw him off her weapon and aimed at him. He began scanning her, trying to determine just what she is. Within a few moments, the answer came, shocking him:

Human.

She's a human? Good lord, he thought. He was pretty sure they weren't supposed to be fighting against humans. Even if they did have cybernetic implants, like this girl did.

"So, is human fighting human pretty common here?" R.D. asked, keeping his sword ready.

Vent's eyes narrowed. Just what was he doing? And how was he doing it? He was pretty sure no human could do what this guy was doing... right? He steadied his arm cannon on Matt, getting ready to encounter.

===NationStates General===

Aram suddenly fell back to the ground, thinking Dearg-due had released him. Then he realized there was still a pressure on his neck, and he reached up and yanked off the offending hand, tossing it aside. He looked up, seeing the man with the strange face full of metal ornaments, as well as Dearg-due.

Seeing his opponent stunned, Aram reacted with swiftness. Taking up the King's Sword of the Heavens in his right hand, Aram brought it up and slashed downwards, intending to cleave him right down the middle.

"Cannon!" Throwing out his hands, Matt launched a large, blue beam of energy at Vent.

As the Megaton Cannon fired, Aile shot a side glance toward the sound. "I don't like fighting humans," she said, "but if your friend's attacking my brother, then you probably aren't up to any good!" She leapt at R.D., blade flashing.

"Gyaahhh!" Vent yelled, dash-jumping to the side of the Megaton Cannon. He quickly landed and aimed at Matt, firing a pair of charged plasma blasts at him from his arm cannon.

R.D.'s Phase Blade shot up and parried Aile's attack, and then his free hand threw the shield off of his left arm and grabbed the second Phase Blade at his hip. Drawing and activating it at the same time, he slashed upwards at the parried beam saber, trying to dislodge it from Aile's hands.

The Megaton Cannon continued to fire. Roaring, Matt brought it up, sweeping it toward Vent. His blasts struggled against the cannon's awesome power, only to be engulfed.

Startled, Aile's saber flew up into the air, but she recovered quickly enough as reflexes took over, and she shot a fast, hard punch at a gap in R.D.'s defense.

Growling with frustration, Vent began dashing across the grass, trying to escape the beam as it wrought destruction on the environment they fought in. He leaped towards the wall of the cliffside and somehow bounced up alongside of it, getting out of the range of the beam attack. Looking downwards while his right arm and his feet slid down the wall, he took aim with his arm cannon and fired a rapid series of plasma bullets at Matt.

R.D. grunted as the punch connected with his chest, staggering him backwards. Damn, this girl hit hard. He planted his foot behind him to stop his fall, then slammed the pommels of his two swords together to form the Phase Lance. He swung it out behind him and then up over his head, spinning it, then bringing it slashing down into a combat stance as Aile's beam saber began falling back down to Earth. Igniting his back thruster, he charged forward at Aile and brought the Phase Lance up, slashing downwards at Aile with the lower blade, cutting it through the ground in the process, and then swinging it back around horizontally to follow up.

As the Megaton Cannon ran out of juice and tapered down, Matt spotted the plasma bullets fly in at him, and he quickly shielded himself. Even as the hasty energy shield blocked Vent's shot, it sent Matt charging backwards from the steady impact, until he smashed into a bio-mechanical tree.

Aile grabbed her saber as it came to eye level and swept down and up to block R.D.'s slashes. She leapt back as Hugo slashed at her feet. A quick strike with her boot sent the Mettaur tumbling, and she brought it back toward R.D.'s side to give her some room.

Vent let go of the wall, charging up his buster at the same time. As he landed on the grass, he raised the weapon up and fired, sending a blazing azure sphere of plasma flying at Matt.

R.D. pivoted back around the slash, bringing the Phase Lance up into a ready position. Dashing forward again, he made to swing the double-bladed sword out at Aile again... then pulled back before the attack completed and swung his foot upwards in an attempt to kick Aile backwards.

The blast smashed into Matt, sending him through the trees, deeper into the thick of the forest.

As expected, Aile attempted to block but was caught by surprise by the kick. As she stumbled back, a pair of lasers narrowly missed her-it was Hugo, now using his Laser Option. As he continued to fire, she swerved and weaved toward R.D.. "You can tell Serpent that we're not going to tolerate people like you showing up in our city!"

Bryant was talking with Veronica as Brandon was outside with the tank. R.D had left awhile ago and things were getting mighty stale. Bryant's thoughts kept coming back to the scepter and he was talking less and less, making more and more awkward silences with Veronica. She was noticing and eventually stopped and let Bryant's mind wander off, thinking and thinking. Brandon came inside covered in some grease. Bryant glanced over at the noise, but went back to his thoughts.

"What were you doing out there?" Veronica asked, looking surprised. Brandon shrugged.

"Took apart the tank then let it go back into its cube to repair. I just wanted to see how the thing ticked I guess. It didn't seem all that different at first but with some digging I found a lot of exotic parts. I didn't take them out to examine them though. Didn't...look safe." Brandon explained.

"How?" Veronica asked. Brandon shrugged again.

"Dunno, just got a cold shiver up my spine every time I went to do it. So I gave up on it." He washed his hands.

"I wonder when we're gonna get the rest of the scepter." Bryant then said, seemingly from the blue, "We've been waiting too long, and its time we've moved I think." Bryant added.

R.D. brought the Phase Lance's upper blade down low in front of him, looking at Aile as she rather impressively weaved through Hugo's attacks to get to him. "Serpent? Lady, I don't know what you're talking about," he said, jumping forward and spinning his weapon in front of him before slashing downwards at the red-armored girl, "But we don't work for anyone!"

"Had enough?" Vent said, dashing forward after converting his arm cannon back into a normal, blue-and-gold bracer. "Don't think you Mavericks are gonna get away with terrorizing Neo Arcadia!"

===Pillar of Dawn, Japan===

Alasea was sitting down on a stump that she had materialized around the Pillar of Dawn. The magnificent structure pulsed with light and warmth, holding back the dark miasma that was Shayol Ghul in the distance. There, at that destroyed and transformed floating continent, there was still tense silence--ever since Gouki had attacked it, it had been waiting, like a cornered animal, for an attack that so far had never come. She ignored it. She could feel the power of the Pillar of Dawn, but she did not look at it.

Her eyes were closed, concentrating. In her head, there was much in the way of discussion.

So, these Hartnetts were charged by the Isle and by the Dragon Tribes to find the lost pieces of the Chronoscepter? Aisha asked, trying to confirm what Alasea had told her and the other Daughters.

Pretty much. Apparently Sheena had the first part, a long blue crystal, and one of the dragons secured it when they rescued Veronica, Alasea confirmed. She sent mental images of the pieces along with her words through the telepathic link they shared. Another piece, a long gray rod, was at R.D.'s house, in his basement. He didn't know what it was.

So... that means there's two pieces left, right? Ellie's voice, usually overly abundant in energy, seemed docile now. There's only supposed to be eight pieces.

Yes, Ellie, Aisha said. The Chronoscepter was broken down into eight pieces and they were scattered across Earth.

What do they look like? Tomoko asked. She sounded strangely curious.

Colleen and Aisha both responded, this time sending mental images of both the completed weapon, as well as the individual pieces. That's what they look like, Colleen said. Kinda weird-looking for a staff, huh?

Holy crap, Tomoko said. I think I have one of those pieces.

Four female voices exclaimed at the same time. What?

Yeah, yeah, I'm surprised too, Tomoko said. Alasea could almost feel the Katteloxian girl rolling her eyes. It was some trinket my mom purchased from a Digger. Said they found it in one of the ruins under the city after that whole "Master Key" incident.

She sent the mental image of which one it was. I'll go tell the Hartnetts, Alasea said. Be right back.

Opening her eyes, Alasea stood up and began moving purposely down the hillside towards her cabin, a grin on her face. As she reached the house, she swung in, holding onto the doorframe, just as Bryant spoke about leaving. "Looks like I'm just in time then," she said. "We've figured out where one of the pieces are at."

Bryant stood quickly as his family turned. He had slammed his hands on the table as he did so and had a strong nearly uncontrollable urge to yell 'Objection!'. Where this urge could have possibly come from was beyond him, but still, he was able to contain it. But he'd have to find a place alone and yell it hysterically later, it was boiling within him.

"Where?" Bryant asked quickly still. It was perhaps time to move. Time to rock the casbah.

Gasping, Matt struggled to rise, clenching his chest. "I don't know what the hell a Maverick is," he said. "Or Neo Arcadia or whatever." He shook a finger. "I think we may have a case of mistaken intentions here, my friend."

"Don't act stupid!" Aile shouted, her saber grinding against R.D.'s Phase Lance. "Serpent's been throwing everything he has against us for the past week now! If you think that you're going to win where everyone else's screwed up, you're dead wrong!"