"I swear to God, other me. If you say anything stupid, I'm going to kill you when we're done here."

"Wow! For someone with no heart, you're a lot nicer than I'dve thought!"

"I'm going to kill you when we're done here."

Aram paused in his actions, and gave X a sidelong glance for a brief moment before returning his gaze back to Sin Incarnate.

"Fine then," he said. "Now, I need to find all the Shade Lords. Take me to them."

"Very well then, Sin," Aram said. "I want you to keep in mind that there may be enemies that will come after us. If this is the case, we intend to let Akumu deal with them, while we take the Love Elemental from his Altar."

Hugo walked up to it, pushed it aside with a tilt of his pickaxe. The tiny chain swung, pulled by the weight of the end. Something was wrong here. He knew it.

Shafts of rock erupted from next to them, erected like a cage surrounding a figure wrapped in a tight form. The pillars lifted higher into the sky, forming gaps, and the figure peered out - a strange male with long, jagged green hair. With a swish of his chin, the earrings he wore swung, earrings that closely resembled the keychain.

Hugo's G-Stone aura flared, and he aimed his gun just as an invisible force crushed into his helmet and flattened the Mettaur underneath it.

"Hugo!" Ileyna cried, seeing the attack happen. Immediately, the blue aura of light burst up around her form, wings extending from her back, and she took to the air, her right hand held out in front of her in a simple hand gesture.

A small ring of energy burst out from her palm, followed by a coherent beam of light that lanced through the air, up at the green-haired man.

Another pillar cracked into Ileyna's elbow hard and kept going, forcing her arm - and the beam - into the air. Immediately, the man reached out and seized the girl by her collar.

"You little brat," he cursed. The flicker of his tongue revealed the piercing that went through the tip. "If I didn't need you, I'd pluck your wings right now!"

"Ahh!"

Ileyna cried out as the pillar struck her, causing pain to shoot through her arm before the man snatched her out of the air.

She glared angrily as he yelled at her. "Let go of me!" she shouted back, swinging her legs up to her chest before shoving them out at his.

The man ignored Ileyna's kicks - he was pretty built under that leather vest and massive shoulderpads. "Shut up!" His free hand smacked her across the face. "If you don't shut up, I'll-"

A grapple seized his chin and pulled. Surprised, the man dropped Ileyna, his face smashing into the pavement, dragged by the grapple which retracted through a hole. Blood shot out of his mouth from the surprise attack.

As it returned to Hugo's pickaxe, the Mettaur stood back up to full height. "Run, Ileyna! Get out of here!"

Ileyna winced as the man struck her across the face, causing her lip to be cut open and tears to well up in her eyes. She glared once more at the man, but then gasped as the grapple yanked him down, releasing her. She fell some ways before she collected herself and hovered in the air, looking down at her opponent.

"I can't just leave you here!" she yelled back at Hugo's command. Instead, she aimed downward with her right hand again, and fired another sapphire beam of energy down at the Stand user.

The beam slammed into the man and threw him into a tree with a mighty crack. Amazingly, the tree remained standing as he slumped down against it.

Hugo raised his pickaxe and the chamber slid home, revealing the barrel of his machine gun. "Die, you son of a bitch!" He fired at the man, riddling his body with energy bullets, sprinkling his own blood over his vest and jeans.

Only a couple of energy bullets struck--within a moment, a barrier of light formed between Hugo's shots and the Stand user. "Don't kill him yet!" Ileyna said. "I need to take the Essence first!"

She quickly flew over to the man, halting before him and spreading her arms out as she gathered her power.

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

Those few bullets that did hit home seemed to hit in all the right spots. The Stand user glanced up, blood flecking his teeth, as Ileyna attempted to remove the Essence from him.

She found nothing.

As the reverberations of her power ended, Ileyna looked confused, and held her left hand up to her face. "Nothing happened...?"

She set down on the ground and the light of her power disappeared, along with her wings and halo. "But then... where's the Essence if he doesn't have it?"

Something grabbed Ileyna's face, something invisible. The man was grimacing with effort, clenching his fingers. He was still clear-headed enough to use his Stand, keeping the girl's head in its phantom grip.

"In the keychain..." he said. "...that's how I got you here. Got a friend...took it out for me."

"Hey!" Hugo's jump-jets flared, and he leapt towards them. "Let her GO!"

The man slung out his other hand. "Bust-A-Move." Pillars rose from the earth in all directions, diagonally or straight, just quick enough to force Hugo to weave through them, almost colliding with the first one.

Ileyna shrieked in surprise and pain as the invisible hand clutched her face, almost lifting her into the air. As the hand continued to clench down, her cry grew higher in pitch.

The symbol within the Ao-Gem hanging from her neck began to flicker to life, growing in strength until it was a constant shine. The aura of light blazed out around Ileyna, causing her wings and halo to appear, as well as the Ao-Gem's symbol on her forehead. The light grew in intensity while a high-pitched whine sounded through the air.

With one more cry, the air around the girl began to shake before she flung her telekinetic power outwards in all directions.

The man left Fass's tent, papers in hand. Shutting the flap behind him, he nearly collapsed. Crawling, he moved over to a walking stick he'd leaned against the wall. Taking it, he began to walk to the outskirts of the city. He had a noticeable limp, something he'd apparently concealed with Fass.

He walked for what seemed like hours, finally coming to a rest in a secluded clearing. He found a large rock and sat on it, spreading out the papers in front of him. He took off his sunglasses, exposing his golden eyes and set to studying the diagrams intently. He pulled out a small notebook and began to replicate the individual parts of the diagram.

After a great deal of time had passed, he felt confident in his understanding of all the different sigils. He then began to meticulously create a new pattern in his notebook. It was similar to the one X bore, but with minor, yet significant, differences. He often erased symbols and redrew them. Satisfied at last, he set the notebook in front of him. Then, grabbing his left arm with his right hand he closed his eyes and focused.

A searing gold light engulfed the clearing.

"Then let's go," Aram stated with a nod, stepping forward until he was beside the third Shade Lord.

X nodded and stepped forward.

"Seril."

The firmness in Relayia's voice caused Seril to visibly still, and Relayia used that to her advantage.

"Do not think for one moment that I have not thought this through. Due to where we shall be attacking, his use will be of much benefit to us, and should we lose control of him, he will be dealt with by NightShade, or by one of the Five Beasts. The world will be in no more danger than it already is."

Seril grit her teeth in order not to make any more protests. Any dragon would know that the tone of voice Relayia was using at the moment meant that she would not tolerate further argument. When it came down to it, the command of the Queen of Dragons was law.

"Yes, your Majesty."

"Now, I must leave to prepare the Bronze Dragons for their task," Relayia said, turning around. "And inform Lord Dargor of what needs to be done."

The young girl strode out of the room, leaving Seril alone with the Ancients. After a few moments, she looked back at them. "You wanted to know what the Dragon Soul Summoning is about?"

The pillars cracked and burst apart. Hugo was thrown away by the force, and the Stand User was crushed back into the tree. The force was enough to crack the tree all the way, and slowly, it fell down with a dull whump.

Ileyna spun about in the air, staring angrily at the Stand user. And suddenly, standing at her side with its arms crossed was a metallic man, with metallic, white-silver skin encased in plates of orange. Long fin-like blades extended from his knees, and a massive diamond-shaped plate hung from its left arm. A chiseled face with soulless eyes stared down at the fallen Stand user.

"Mass Effect!" Ileyna shouted, pointing at her enemy. The Stand beside her responded, thrusting its shield-like arm at him. And suddenly, the Stand user could feel his skin and clothing weakening, becoming like paper.

Mass Effect darted forward through the air and struck, pistoning its fists out over and over again to pummel him into the ground.

Edited by RisingDragon on October 21, 2009 at 19:41:54.

The Stand User could only gape in surprise as the Stand attacked, tearing into his softer body, crushing him into the dirt.

Hugo picked himself up just as the display took place, blinking stupidly at what he was seeing.

When the attack was over, Ileyna stared down at the dead Stand user for a moment, then blinked in surprise. She turned and stared in wonder at the new power she had acquired.

"Whoa..."

She turned around to look at Hugo, suddenly smiling. "Hugo, I think I got a Stand! A real Stand of my own!"

Hugo just stared. Then:

"-wait, what? HOW? What happened?!"

Ileyna blinked again, dumbstruck by the question.

"... I don't know," she said finally, shrugging. Then she suddenly snapped attention. "Oh! I forgot, the Essence!"

She flew over to where the keychain was on the bike, and once more readied her power.

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

Energy was torn out of the keychain, where it condensed into the air. There was a flash of light, and a shard of Omega Essence hovered in the air. Ileyna grabbed it and held it tight in her hand, laughing in triumph at her victory.

"Come on, let's go find Matt and the others!"

Hugo returned his pickaxe to normal mode, shut off the G-Stone, and slung his weapon over his imaginary shoulder. "I'm too old for this."