"Mmn." Ileyna nodded, opening herself to her power. Once the blue aura was around her, she took to the air, zooming over to the Stand User.

"Recro! Singulus... restituo... animus... substantia!"

===The Gray Mountains===

Everyone looked up as the shuttle began its landing sequence behind them. As the Bronze Dragons dropped into protective stances around their Queen, Relayia sighed. This wouldn't really help settle the people of the Gray Mountains, that's for sure.

"Seril," she greeted as she stepped out of the shuttle. "I take it your mission is complete?"

"Yes," she nodded. "There are... problems. Did you--?"

"Yes. We all felt it."

"A dimensional anomaly," Relayia said quietly. "We all felt a similar disturbance when Ziatoch invaded and destroyed Australia. What did it this time, though... I cannot say for sure. We were warned, though, by the spirit of Kuro."

(OOC: I will be very disappointed if R.D. and Bruno don't get a rematch, Juno. D:)

"Yes, but its distracted by something else," Relayia said. "Let us pray it keeps this entity busy for a while."

Edited by RisingDragon on September 24, 2009 at 14:00:24.

"That could've gone better," Matt muttered, lifting himself up and walking over to the girls.

"Really." Helena looked at Matt. "...Matt, what's that on your forehead?"

Matt's hand slapped over his eyes. "What's that on your forehead?"

Helena pulled Matt's hand down, studying his face. "Does it look like a crosshair surrounded by dashes?"

Matt blinked. Indeed, the same kind of mark was now dashed in black directly above Helena's eyebrows. "...yeah, it does."

"What happened?" Alasea asked, running over to them. Ileyna also floated over, the Essence held tightly in her hands.

"That can't be good," the Daughter of Dawn said as she examined them. "Hold still, let me see if I can't find out what's going on."

She placed her splayed fingers on either side of Helena's head and closed her eyes as she channeled, weaving flows of power through the girl in an effort to find out why they were marked, and what it could mean.

===Ruins of Aube===

"Really?" Michael said, taking a puff on a cigarette. "That's disappointing. Wonder how something like this got created."

For all of Alasea's efforts, her powers didn't give her any insight about the mark. But Matt was already getting nervous. "Oh, shit," he said. "Oh shit. You know what this is? It's that asshole's Stand power. When he hit us with that key, it marked us, and now something's gonna happen to us."

"I was afraid of that," Alasea said, looking worried. "We might have to keep you and Helena away from the others. There's no telling what would happen if we got close to them."

"You're not done yet," Ratayu said, frowning as he looked at Luxuria. "Part of the reason why you've been sent out there is to learn how to fight like one of us."

The armored man had been waiting in Luxuria's chamber in case he decided to return, at Daemonus' order. "The more you learn on how to battle with your new form, the easier it is for Lord Ziatoch to create your new body."

"We still have to help Jotaro catch the other Stand user!" Helena said.

Matt tightened his lips. "Yeah, but we need to see if we can help from a distance. We can think of something as we're driving over there."

They walked back to the battle-damaged Firebird. As Helena walked along the passenger side, she felt herself tumbling forward-her foot had caught on something large. Her head bashed against the round side view mirror, knocking it clean off the car. She cried out and cradled her forehead, slumping to her knees.

"Ah!"
"Helena!"

Alasea quickly made her way to Helena's side, crouching down and putting her hands on either side of Helena's arms. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Oooowwwwww." Helena rearranged herself into a sitting person, ignoring that the blow had, in fact, drawn blood. "I tripped on something. I'll be okay, though." As she wiped off the blood, Alasea could see that one of the four tickmarks surrounding the crosshair had disappeared, leaving an obvious three.

"Hey, hold on a second," Alasea said. She fished out a cloth from her purse, and channeled flows of water energy through it, dampening it. She carefully wiped away the blood and examined the mark.

"... the crosshair changed," she said. "Its missing one of its marks."

"What does that mean?" Ileyna asked.

"I think that the Stand makes it... well, this will sound crazy, but I think its gonna give you four cases of bad luck," Alasea theorized. "And Helena, I think you just used up the first instance."

Alarms were indeed raised within the large, but dull city of the Gray Mountains. The alarms were simple church bells, though they rung strong and low. People were in their houses and Knightriders stood before the gate. Giro and Volant, captains of the riders stood at the front, ready to confront whatever was outside their gates. Then suddenly an arm parted them and Dargor took the lead.

"Your majesty, get back to the castle!" Giro said quickly.

"We will have them dealt with!" Volant then added.

"Enough out of you two! I swear, I sometimes think I have three mothers. I am Lord of this realm and not even the beasts have been able to enslave us. I shall face whoever this is myself!" Dargor said firmly, his pride and ego glowing like a neon-light.

"But your majesty-"

"No!" Dargor silenced them both with a quick wave of his hand then turned back to the gates. He put a hand at the butt of his black sword and waved. The gate opened.

"Stay back, I'll settle this." Dargor said and stepped out through the gate. He continued until he was about five yards away. He looked over the group, considering them, trying to recognize them, but it was hard. Dargor didn't see much beyond the Grey Mountains.

"Now...who the fuck are you and why are you in my realm?" Dargor asked with little respect at all, his red eyes looking through his dark gray curtain of hair.

The two gigantic Bronze Dragons did not look terribly amused with Dargor's attitude, but they never did when it came to someone disrespecting their leader.

Relayia, in her child-like form, took it all in stride, knowing how Lord Dargor was from the tales her father had told her. "My, my," she said with a hint of a giggle. "You're just as I expected you to be, Lord Dargor."

Without much worry, she stepped forward and held her hand out to the man. "My name is Relayia. I believe you knew my father, correct? He was Bahamut, the King of Dragons."

"Damn it!" Matt snapped.

Helena pulled herself up using Alasea's shoulder as a brace. "What're you so worried about, Matt? It's just bad luck."

"But that's the thing!" Matt brought a finger close to his face, in full panicky-lecture mode. "Stands are unpredictable-we have no idea what kind of bad luck we'll get!"

"Is there any way to stop it?" Helena asked.

Matt looked over at the biker, bound and unconcious. They could kill the user, but...

"Not to my knowledge," he said, opening the car door and sliding in. "We'll just have to ride it out."

"Matt, I don't think we should take the car," Alasea said, picking up the severed mirror. "Like you said, you've got bad luck now. We shouldn't risk it. At the very least, let me drive instead."

Well, something was bound to go wrong anyway. Still, best he could do was oblige. Matt slid over to the passenger side. "All right, let's go."

Alasea nodded and placed the broken mirror in the car before entering the driver's seat and starting up the car. Ileyna flew over before releasing her power and getting into the back seat, and once everyone was in, they were off.

Dargor ignored her hand. "So your daddy's little princess then?" Dargor responded with a scoff. Dargor then turned and gestured to Volant and Giro to come closer. They did quickly, standing behind Dargor, silent but on edge. That force they felt earlier...it was not of this world. Dargor was also troubled by it, and occasionally skipped back to it in his mind. His Shadow people were strong, defiant, full of will, yes, but even they could break to this...thing.

"Well, I doubt your here to eat my people," Dargor then said, without a better attitude, "so I assume your here in peace...something that's rather rare anymore I must add. Let's hear it." Dargor looked past Relayia at the other comers with weary eyes. His gray forehead crumpled slightly in thought.

If Relayia seemed put off by Dargor's initial attitude, she didn't let it show. She spoke as she lowered her hand. "As you know, the people of this planet are beginning to fight back against the Seven Beasts of the Dark Apocalypse. Already, two of them have fallen, causing them to revert back into the humans they once were." She gestured to both Electra and Sheena both.

"The time is coming, however, that none of us can hide out for much longer. Gouki's forces are beginning to mobilize, and I'm sure you felt the disturbance earlier," Relayia continued. "So, as the new Queen of Dragons, I'm here to create an alliance between our two peoples, until we've won back the world."

The car promptly sputtered and died before they could travel very far.

"What happened?" Helena asked, poking her head between the two front seats.

Matt smacked his hand on the dashboard. "Damn it! The car's dead!"

"... this is going to be a hassle," Alasea muttered, turning to look over at Matt and Helena, and see if any more ticks were missing from their crosshair marks.

A tick had removed itself from Matt's head, but he was too angry to notice. "That's it. We're gonna fly over there."

Helena looked at Matt. "Fly?"

"Yeah. What's the problem?"

Helena looked at Alasea. "I...I don't think I can fly. I mean, I haven't used my wings at all. They've just been there. I don't even know if I can catch the wind on them."

"You were capable of flying in your previous life," Alasea said, but she shook her head. "I can't fly, though."