Lance's mind raced, looking for some sort of logical excuse as to why he was in her house, apart from his own stupidity. He had to think of something, maybe she would buy it, maybe she wouldn't, but he doubted that their situation would get much better if he simply told her that he'd wanted to come in and talk to her in the middle of the night while she was sleeping.

Some thoughts slowly began to form together and he closed his eyes, speaking in Spanish to the girl. What he was about to be saying he had no evidence for, but maybe she could just dismiss it as ignorance and let him leave without much more trouble, "I've noticed something different about you since I first saw you. Not... just your stature or appearance, but something deeper. You don't seem to be exactly like everyone else here, but I can't explain it, so I came here to find out. I am sorry I came into your house, and I can leave now if you wish me too... but you've resisted things that most people wouldn't, and I can't explain this..." He trailed off into the distance with his voice. True, she had resisted his hypnosis, but it probably didn't mean anything. Hoping she would buy it, he kept his hands raised in a non-aggressive pose as he waited for a response.

Audrey listened to what Lance had to say, as he haphazardly tried to explain his way out of the mess he had created this night. Her mind fully calmed down now, able to process things more rationally now that she was done panicking and trying to escape.

So it was only natural that her response was the left hook she swung at Lance's jaw. She was done panicking; now she was pissed.

===Antarctica===

"Yes, let's," Relayia stated with a nod. She made a command in the draconic tongue, and soon a large, black-skinned dragon, the same one that had carried the Hartnetts from Sheena's lair earlier, marched over to them and laid down his tail for Sheena and Kujo to climb up.

"Hopefully, Lord Dargor will forgive our intrusion," Relayia stated. "I personally have never met the man, but he and my father were acquaintances."

Relayia listened intently as Gatz explained the new situation to them. Frowning as much as her draconic form made it possible, Relayia tossed her head to the side in irritation. Of all of the things to go wrong...

"Seril!" the Queen of Dragons suddenly snapped.

The blue-haired woman's head snapped around in Relayia's direction before she made her way through the snow, returning to her Majesty. "Yes, my Queen?" she said, looking apprehensive.

"Something has occurred at Kattelox Island," Relayia explained shortly. "Go with Gatz and find out what has happened. There are other things there that need looking into."

Seril nodded quickly, understanding exactly what Relayia meant with such words. Turning, the strange-eared woman walked some distance away from the Queen before transforming. Her clothing began to melt and meld into her skin as her neck, arms, and legs began to thicken and lengthen with her body. A tail and wings began to emerge from her back, small at first before growing much bigger. Her skin began to darken into blue scales, and her hair became a small mane as her face elongated and became feral-looking, the partially-warped ears lengthening and enlarging and transforming fully into crest-like ears. Within moments, Seril had returned to her large, blue-scaled dragon form.

"I'm ready," she said in a low rumble, looking at Gatz with green eyes.

Matt tried to shield himself, only to take a torpedo head-on, and was thrown down the sewerway, draping across the opposite wallway with a sickening noise.

"Matt!" Helena shouted, sitting back up. She cast an eye toward the battle-was it already turned back to the Machine King's favor?

As the torpedoes blasted about the chambers, R.D. did what he could to stop them, using ice energy to freeze some of the water into blocks, or using other energies to create shields against explosions.

Suddenly, R.D. felt his feet lurch, and looked down. Beneath him, a whirlpool had started to form, sucking him down into one spot. He tried to pull himself free, but to no avail.

"Shit!"

Helena eased herself up by supporting herself on the wall. She had to try again. "Get back," she said to Mamoru and Ileyna, and stepped toward Pinchernone. As she did so she peeled off her soaked jacket, dropping it behind her. She just had to get close, not draw Pinchernone's attention, and then let him have it with everything she had. Better be safe.

Ileyna stepped back, making sure to distance herself from the older woman as she realized what exactly Helena was planning on doing. She didn't want to get caught in the path of the dragon, and for a moment, she felt pity for Pinchernone.

The Zonderian in question was laughing shrilly was another torpedo smashed into R.D., knocking him loose of the whirlpool. As the amnesiac tried to regain his footing, the Zonderian smashed into him with a brutal tackle, slamming him into the wall, where he slumped into the water, winded.

Helena shouted a threatening cry as best as she could, unleashing a torrent of flames that tore across Pincernone's hide. She pushed into the fire, intensifying its force, her body slowly succumbing to her other half.

The raging inferno smashed hard against Pinchernone's hull, knocking him aside. Turning to look with his golden eye, the Machine King made a startled cry as he took in the sight of the transforming girl.

"Mutation? Inconceivable! Bre-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e!"

Once more, torpedoes tore out of the water at Helena, in an effort to distract her so Pinchernone could escape the brutal flames.

Helena cut off the flame briefly enough to leap away, and once more the sewer was littered with explosions. She landed on all fours before rearing up and smacking the walls with her claws. Flames billowed to life in random spots along the sewer's brick walls and ceilings, each spiralling about a certain point like a blooming flower. Each of these flames released prolonged tongues of flame at the Machine King.

Pinchernone shrieked in surprise and fear as the inferno spread along the sewer tunnel, melting at the brick walls, turning them into hardened slag. Slowly, the Machine King began to retreat, launching more torpedoes at the rampaging dragon.

===Antarctica===

Seril spread her wings and took off with a single, powerful flap, using more flaps to catch up to the moving Servitor. Though it was a bit tiring thanks to the lack of thermals over the icy plains of Antarctica, it didn't take the dragon long to fly in beside Gatz.

Relayia issued a single command in her native language, causing the rest of the dragons to look up and begin taking to the air. "Its time we made our way to the Grey Mountains. We'll have to take the long way around, to avoid Gouki's forces."

With that, Relayia took to the air and settled down on the back of one of the massive bronze dragons, which took to the air with the others. The black dragon carrying Sheena and Kujo quickly followed.

"Undoubtedly," Seril said with distaste, twisting her body about to avoid the incoming attacks of pressurized water. She peered down at the seas at the forms moving in the waters, and superior vision allowed her to peer right through the ocean, to discern their attackers.

The dragon banked off, separating from Gatz in order to divide the enemy forces between the two of them and thus getting less attacks directed at each one. She swooped down low, readying herself to attack. As she neared the water, her claws lashed out and raked against a smaller sea serpent's body, lacerating its hide and spreading blood out into the water. Spreading her wings out to catch a thermal, she rose up and aimed her head downward, launching a bolt of lightning into the waters at the serpents, intending to fry the lot of them while she let the one wounded serpent's blood do its work.

Meta walked closer to the other two and went to stand next to Kuro. "Y'know, I've met quite a few mad people, in both senses of the word, but this guy right here? He's not number one." She said, directing her voice to Awai. She gave a pat against Kuro's arm, as she couldn't reach his shoulder by raising her hand high. "Besides, isn't hearing voices some gift from God, too?" She continued, frowning for a moment in thought about it.

"Grah!" Meta let out a cry in surprise as Awai picked her up and lifted her off the ground before flying off with her into the sky. Kuro's hellish scream had torn apart the land on which she had just stood and she would definately have fallen into the hole it had created. She wanted to punch Awai in the face for doing that so suddenly, she could stand on her own two legs just fine, despite there being no ground to stand on. She heard the Light Balance scream something at Kuro as he flew off at high speeds. "Power? What the hell is going on here with you guys?!" She cried out, quite angry about all that had happened to her in such a short period of time. It was rather stressful to a young lady such as herself.

The dragon nodded to the Servitor and pulled up sharply, releasing another blast of lightning at the water to ward off any pursuing attackers. Banking about to rejoin Gatz, Seril looked back, knowing that soon enough, the wounds she caused will have taken effect.

The sea serpents would be too busy dealing with the sharks that would be attracted by the blood in the water, even if they were minor nuisances to the terrible beasts. And with a little luck, the blood would attracted a wild Gan to come after them.

As Seril landed, she began her transformation, her body warping and shrinking back into a blue-haired young woman with strange ears, now clad in a simple blue dress and sash, instead of the heavy robes she had sported down in Antarctica.

"That's fine by me," she said with a nod, using a surprisingly youthful voice. "You'll be able to prevent the Reaverbots from attacking, correct?"

"Would it not be easier to simply power the Sub-Gate up with a temporary surge?" Seril asked as she followed the Ancient through the path. "My magic would allow me to power it in such a way."

Meta gave Awai a glare after he had put her down on the ground again. She hadn’t liked it one bit that he had picked her up so suddenly to then fly off so fast and quick. Ah well, at least he had sort-of gotten her out of the way of the hellscream attack that Kuro unwittingly released. She stared off into the distance in the direction Kuro had disappeared off to. Awai’s words did reach her, but she was only listening with one ear. She pressed her lips together in thought. “So the more evil a dimension has, the stronger the Dark Balance is, and the more good there is, the stronger the Light Balance, huh?” She considered aloud. Xastra’s daughter, or so proclaimed at any rate, turned her head to gaze at Awai’s human face. “I came from the Nightmare Realm and had a little accident. But how do you know my name? I never told you it.” She said as a frown appeared on her face.

Helena ran as Pinchernone kept firing, easing more and more into a animalistic stance.

As Pinchernone fired a new torpedo, a peal of lightning shrieked across the air, piercing the missile and detonating it. The heat of the explosion washed over Helena, but not much else.

"Now I'm a little mad!" Matt shouted. "Helena! If you'd be so kind, help me scrap this jackass!"

"Okay!" she said with effort, her wings bursting free.

"R.D.!" Matt said. "You still with us?"

"Yeah," R.D. groaned, pulling himself out of the water. "Dammit, that hurt."

As he stood, R.D. saw the flicker of motion, and turned to face it. What he saw made his heart freeze--somehow, Pinchernone had conjured up a veritable tidal wave, making a wall of water rush down the tunnel at them with crushing force.

"Aw, shit! Matt, freeze it!" R.D. shouted, throwing up his hands as he lashed out with weaves of ice energy.

"The Main Gate would be best," Seril concluded after a few moments of contemplation on the matter. "The Reaverbots there may be under Juno's command, but they'll be hard-pressed to stop me."

Edited by RisingDragon on March 21, 2009 at 22:53:26.