Quietly, Alasea helped divide up the purchased meals before taking her own and beginning to feed. Within a few moments, R.D. pulled up into a parking lot beside them, a bag in his hand.

Matt rolled down the window and leaned out, resting his elbow on the door. "So I'm gonna bop around and see if there's any hotels we can crash at, all right? We'll split up. Call me if you find a place."

"Sure," R.D. said, getting his burger out. "Try not to land in too much trouble."

"I won't."

They ate and drove. Matt called R.D. first-there was a decent-looking hotel fairly nearby. Matt finally managed to polish off his share when they secured a room for the night.

"I gotta say," he said, flopping down on a bed, "I am visiting far more hotels on this trip than at any other time in my life."

"Better than sleeping outdoors, isn't it?" R.D. commented, throwing his stuff down on a couch.

"That's for sure."

As Hugo scrambled onto the nearby armchair, the phone resting on the table dividing the two beds rang. Helena reached over and picked it up.

"Hello?" she asked. "...we didn't order any room service...oh! Well, okay, that'd be good. Hold on, let me ask them." She covered the speaker. "We're getting free room service, because the hotel's running a special. They want to know if there's anything we want to have."

"Ice cream!" Matt immediately called.

"Ice cream!" Ileyna called at the same time as Matt, causing the rest of the occupants to stare at them.

Matt laughed. "See, she knows what she likes!"

"Okay." To the phone. "Let me get some..."

"Cookies and cream," Matt promoted.

"Cookies and cream ice cream, and..." Helena paused. "Hold on." She looked back at them. "What do you want to drink?"

"Coke," Matt said, as expected.

"Coke's fine," R.D. said. Alasea remained silent on the matter, looking out the window from where she sat.

"Three Cokes," Helena said into the phone. "What about you, Ileyna?"

Matt waved the air back. "Get her some Coke too."

"She'll get hyper if she drinks that stuff," Hugo cut in.

"I'm not giving her a lot. Besides, I drank Coke when I was a kid and I turned out fine."

Hugo arched an eyebrow. "Did you?"

Helena looked at Alasea. "What about you, Alasea?"

"I'm fine," Alasea said, shaking her head and waving them off. "I don't need anything."

"Four Cokes." Another, longer pause. "Hello? Oh, okay, thought I lost you there. Okay. Okay, bye bye." She hung up.

"You ever made a root beer float, Ileyna?" Matt asked. "I'll show ya how to make one with your ice cream. Okay, it'll be using soda, but you know what I mean."

The girl, however, shook her head. "I know how to make one," she said.

"Good." Matt leaned back. "I don't like 'em anyway."

Eventually there was a brisk knock on the door. After looking through the peephole, Matt unlocked the door and let the server come in, pushing a cart of drinks and ice cream.

"Hello!" he said. He was dressed in black pants, with a red vest over his white shirt. "My name is Alex. How are we doing tonight?"

"Pretty good!" Helena said.

Matt twiddled his fingers. "Ooooh, that looks good." He had poured the soda for them and everything!

"We just refilled the fountain, so that's sure to taste really good," Alex said. "Give it a try."

Ileyna, being the child she was, was the first to take up the man's offer. Slipping off the bed, she took one glass from the cart and sipped at it.

Matt and Helena grabbed their glasses and took a drink. Matt set his down back on the cart and webt for the ice cream-again, it had been scooped out beforehand into bowls. Matt was glad to see that there was more ice cream there than neccessary.

"So, what're you folks doing in town?" Alex asked.

"We're just passing through," Matt said, shooting R.D. a look.

With a shrug, R.D. picked up the remaining glass and drank a little from it. "We're on vacation, so we're just looking for a good time while we pass through the city."

"Sounds good, sounds good!" Alex chimed. "You should check out the zoo. This week you can get in half off. Great lion exhibit."

Matt glanced over at Helena, who had laid a hand on her stomach. She looked pale. "Hey," he asked. "What's wrong?"

"...I don't feel good," she said.

Matt stood...well, tried to. He stumbled, catching himself on the bed as the colors in his world ran all together. "...neither do..."

He finally slid off of the bed and hit the floor, as lots of things became numb all at once, and before the black hit, he realized it:

...damn Coke was spiked.

R.D.'s eyes slid in and out of focus, and he reached up with his gloved hand to grasp his head. "Damn," he muttered, stumbling back against the wall.

"Guys!?" Alasea cried, standing up as she saw them begin to collapse. Her eyes snapped towards Alex, and narrowed. "What'd you do to them!?" she demanded.

An invisible force grabbed Alasea by the neck and threw her into the next room, smashing her against the sink. It held her firmly in place, restraining her.

"If only some of you got beer," Alex said, stepping over Matt's body. "Then I actually could've killed you right then and there." He slicked back his blond hair. "Ah, well. Might as well kill you first, then."

The familiar sound of an energy bolt stung the air, and Alex's tattered leg was soon flying into the bathroom in a stream of blood. He cried out and fell to the floor, clenching his thigh.

As the invisible force released Alasea, Hugo pressed forward, leading with his smoking gun. "Move so I can shoot him again."

Alasea made a strangled sound as something grabbed her neck, but her struggles against it ceased when she was slammed into the bathroom by it. She grit her teeth, even as her vision swam from the pain. It felt too much like a hand gripping her neck.

Luckily she felt herself get freed as Hugo's bullet found its mark in Alex's leg. She quickly pulled herself up using the sink and fell back, gathering up the pitiful amount of power she could hold while off the world holding her Pillar of Dawn.

Alex shot a glare back at Hugo with desperation in his eyes. "Pathways Into Darkness!"

The bed that Helena was sitting on suddenly lifted off the ground, carried by the same invisible force. The entire bed lurched and fell right at Hugo, who leapt to the side as it smashed against the wall, cracking the nearby window with a splintered sound.

Alasea struck, a sound of rage coming from her throat, her hand and arm moving in a circular motion. Flame filled the air as it circled with her hand, and she shoved it forward, immolating everything around Alex.

The soldier nodded. "Then follow me."

~~~~

Wedo, Dearg-due, and the two men stood in a clearing. The red-haired man nodded to the others.

"Begin the ritual"

Meanwhile, Dearg-due held the severed hand in his in other hand. He closed his eyes and focused. Out of the stump dark tendrils crept out and impaled themselves into the hand. Then they reeled back in, pulling the hand onto the stump and pushed through into some kind of stitches. He flexed his arm and tried to move all of his fingers.

"There we go..."

Aram nodded and placed his helmet back on his head before following after the soldier.

The raven-haired man glanced up towards the sky.

"They're coming."

The red-haired man nodded. "Kyoka, I give you leave to fight them. You may kill all of them but X. He's an important sacrifice. His death would be... troubling."

"Wait," Dearg-due said, "keep the short one alive. I want his abilities."

"Heh," Wedo snarked, "you would."

Kyoka, the raven-haired man, glared at him. "I make no promises, demon." Glancing back at the red-haired man he added, "Kalari, you should take them and leave. It will be easier to fight without having to watch for you."

Kalari nodded grimly.

Alex cried out and covered his head as flame surrounded him. Random things nearby cracked and broke with heavy, invisible impacts-the wall gained a massive new dent, the table split in half.

Then the door flew foward as it was kicked open, revealing someone entirely new.



The newcomer bolted over the wrecked furniture as Alex fumbled to stand up. Before the waiter could even widen his eyes, unseen blows and dents rained all over his body from...seemingly nowhere as the newcomer stood in place.

One last force sent Alex right into the wall with a final stream of blood.

Alasea yelped as a sudden invisible force obliterated Alex, leaving him a bloody mess on the floor as the new intruder stood over him.

But for all her shock, she wasn't taking any more chances now. She thrust her hand out towards behind the bed she had been sitting on, and her sword flew out from behind it, coming out of its sheathe. The moment it came into her hand, she spun and brandished it before her, between herself and the newcomer.

===NationStates General===

"X," Aram said as they traveled, looking over at the blue-armored man. "You were the one who fought Remnant and his men in the past. Did you recognize any of our enemies?"

X narrowed his eyes. "No. I remember, the Queen didn't have a whole lot of individual minions. Remnant, and some other former allies she'd managed to infect. The previous Troll Chieftain had fought on her side as well before Fass and I had managed to stop him... but Remnant was the only true minion..." X began to tremble slightly, a painful memory beginning to grip him.

"I thought I'd killed him last time, but I guess it didn't take..." X's mind swirled. He wasn't the real fighter, that was eX. eX was the savage one who loved battle... but this was different. "...I'll make sure to finish it this time."

At the same time, Hugo cursed, and fired again. Before his bullet could splatter the newcomer's head, that same unseen power knocked it away, right into the wall with a crash.

"Calm down!" he shouted. "I'm not here to fight you!"

"Bullshit!" Hugo snapped. Grabbing the ceiling lamp with his grapple, he launched up to the bed, and as he landed, his G-Stone began to glow.

"Jotaro!"

Standing in the doorway was an older man who looked very strong for his age. "Are they already poisoned?"



"Yeah," the one called Jotaro said. "We don't have a lot of time."