(OOC: Sure, fine by me.)

R.D. grinned at the spectacle. "Alright! Flood Zone!"

He forced his hand out in front of him, thrusting the sphere of water out at the Ninja Crows. It exploded violently, and inexplicably, a huge amount of water was released, far more than what made up the initial sphere.

The torrent of water loomed menacingly over the Ninja Crows before crashing down, surging forward through the streets and washing them away. "That takes care of that lot!" R.D. shouted.

Hugo retracted his grapple. "Shift over to the wing!" he shouted. "Hit it hard so we can-"

He caught a glance of something leaping up from the roof they were flying past. The familiar form of a massive, angry green dragon bounded up at the Helmaroc King, landing on its wing. She clenched into flesh with her claws and thrust her fangs into the eagle's wing, biting down hard.

The Helmaroc King screeched as Helena's jaws sank into the flesh beneath the feathers of its wing, and the sudden movements caused its side to become weighed down, forcing the bird to involuntarily break off from its pursuit of Ileyna.

As the bird swooped by, Alasea ran along the rooftop of the building she was on and jumped, grabbing a hold of one of the long, streamer-like tails that trailed behind the bird. Moments later, the ground shook as R.D. smashed the Godhand into it, propelling him up into the air, where he also grabbed an armful of tail a little ways behind Alasea.

"Hey!" Bad Bird shouted at R.D. and Alasea. "Get off of here!" He was met with a reverse roundhouse kick from Matt, which sent him careening towards the ground.

"Keep hitting him!" Matt called out, and slammed his foot down hard on the Helmaroc King's spine. Everyone holding onto the bird began smacking any part of the enemy they could find with limbs and weapons.

The Helmaroc King easily shrugged off the brunt of the attacks as it flew, growing only more and more irritated with its troublesome passengers. After a few moments of suffering through the attacks as it regained its bearings on Ileyna, the Helmarock King screeched and dove suddenly, forcing everyone to hang on for dear life.

It pulled up at the last minute over the rooftops, and its intentions became clear--the tail swept through and smashed R.D. and Ileyna through the walls, quickly dislodging them amidst the debris created.

With several, powerful flaps of its wings, it attempted to beat off those lodged on them as it gained altitude. Twisting its head to look back, it sent a quick strike with its beak at Helena's backside.

Helena took the blow head-on. Through it all she held on. But Matt wasn't going to take that so easily. "All right, THAT'S it!" He raised his hand and switched to the earth gem. With a crackle of power, a massive hammer of rock manifested in his fingers, and as he grabbed it, he crawled up towards the Helmaroc King's head.

Matt stood and reared back, aiming the hammer. "Say goodnight, Gracie!" he shouted, bringing down the hammer full force towards the bird's big stupid head.

The Helmaroc King chose that moment to do a barrel roll, tucking its wings in as it spun. Loosened feathers were dislodged, scattering them about in the air as it spun about over and over.

Coughing, Alasea shoved a collapsed beam out of the way, only to feel R.D.'s gloved hand grab her by the upper arm and haul her up. "Thanks," she said weakly, wincing at the new bruises forming all over her body.

"Don't mention it," he replied as he climbed out of the wreckage of the building. "Keep me covered from any of those damn crows if they show up.

"What are you going to do?" she asked, watching him.

R.D.'s hand opened, and a sphere of lightning crackled in it, growing in strength as he fed energy into it. "I'm gonna make fried chicken outta that damn bird," he growled.

Matt and the others shouted as they were all flung off. But he wasn't going to let it end there! With a battle cry, he flung his hammer at the Helmaroc King, and it spun as it charged towards the bird.

The leg of the Helmaroc King was clipped by the hammer as it was flung, and the bird screamed in response, its flight faltering for a moment.

"Suck on this, ya giant parrot!" R.D. shouted, stepping forward and throwing the sphere of lightning in his hand as hard as he could. "Plasma Rain!"

The orb soared far overhead, past the Helmaroc King as it flew. Reaching the clouds, it exploded, and the energy spread out across it, warping the air as blue-green lightning rained down on the Helmaroc King, spearing it over and over again as it electrocuted the bird.

"Great! Now we can--R.D.!?" Alasea started, watching as the blue Chaos Emerald dropped down into R.D.'s fists. Rings of energy were sucked into the gemstone for several moments as R.D. unleashed Chaos Control.

There was a flash of light, and R.D. was nothing more than a blur that was streaking down the street. Dust kicked up as he ran, clouding the path before his fist smashed down into it, launching him up into the air as both Chaos Control and the Plasma Rain ended.

With a roar, R.D. sent the Godhand screaming down at the at the center of the Helmaroc King's giant mask. It struck soundly, the blow reverberating through the air.

R.D. screamed as he felt every bone in his forearm shatter upon impact. Gripping his arm, he fell back through the air, and the Helmaroc King retaliated, swiping with a claw and sending him hurtling down into the street below.

"R.D.!" Hugo shouted, now that his senses had returned. He fired his grapple and swung back onto a roof. "Now! Hit it NOW!"

Helena crashed onto the roof, spilling tile as she spun about and aimed her jaws at the Helmaric King, firing a mighty blast of flame.

The blast collided with the Helmaroc King's chest, and it screeched once more, flapping its wings to gain altitude. It halted in midair suddenly, as glowing chains exploded up from the ground to wrap around the beast's talons, holding it in place.

Alasea wiped the sweat off her brow as she concentrated, her other hand thrust forward and glowing faintly as she maintained the chains. She wouldn't let this one get away!

"Speedy, now's your chance!" Polly shouted.

"Where the heck did you go to?" Speedy asked, standing on the roof again. "Well, it doesn't matter. All right, you big palooka, here's one for the skipper!"

Speedy held up his katana and clenched it with both hands, bringing it to his side. As he did this, he became surrounded in a fierce red flame. The flame trailed away from the aura towards the scabbard of his blade, spiralling about it.

Wimpy! Lame! Unneccessary! the narrator chimed. These are words that should not be used to describe the Magical Ginzu Sword, a weapon so powerful that all who oppose it suddenly wish they had stayed home sick!

At the end of the scabbard, golden sides flipped out, and Speedy pulled on what became the handle to the hidden Ginzu Sword. He crossed both blades in front of him, and they crackled with power. "I've got the touch!" he said, bringing the blades down, then waving them up and around until both weapons were poised above his head. "I've got the POWER!"

Speedy slashed with both blades and fired a golden wave of power at the Helmaroc King. "YEAH!"

As the wave of power washed over the gigantic bird, it released a drawn out, avian scream, its head thrown backwards as the feathers stood out on end. Down the street, Alasea suddenly cried out in shock as the chains exploded, the backlash of the broken spell knocking her backwards onto her rear.

With several flaps of its wings, the Helmaroc King rose erratically into the air, sending a torrent of feathers down to the ground below with each flap. R.D. looked up as it got higher and higher.

"What the hell...?" he muttered painfully as he pushed himself up with his good arm.

When it seemed the bird could get no higher, it let out a long screech and finally exploded, its body disappearing into a thick, purplish-black mist that burst out like a giant cloud. Three wisps of the smoke shot up into the air before inexplicably curving downwards and plunging back into the cloud, which quickly dissipated into nothingness.

Light caught on something where the Helmaroc King, and R.D. could see something plummeting to the ground. End over end, it tore through the air until striking the dusty ground, sticking straight up into the air.

"What the hell...?" he muttered again, this time in bewilderment, as he examined the sword that had fallen from the destroyed bird.

The group regathered near R.D.. "Last time I checked, swords don't fall out of birds," Matt remarked.

"Unless it's Wednesday," Speedy said. "Then you've got to be careful."

R.D. reached over with his left hand and grabbed the weapon by the hilt, yanking it up out of the street. It had a pristine-looking, silver blade that was wider than his Phase Blades, and roughly the same length of them as well. It was naturally heavier than his Isle-made blades, and one side of the sword had a large, slotted hand guard attached to the crossguard, a hinge clearly visible on it. When he did, a scabbard materialized and clattered to the ground.

"Weird," he muttered, sliding the sword carefully into its new sheathe before picking it up. In doing so, the hinged hand guard automatically flipped back and fitted neatly on the blade, covering the small gap in the scabbard's side. "Well, whatever. I got a new sword."

"Come here, R.D.," Alasea said. "Let's check out that arm of yours."

Edited by RisingDragon on December 31, 2009 at 18:38:26.

"What happened to it?" Helena asked.

"It cracked when he punched that thing." Matt held up his hands, now glowing with green healing energy. "Sounded pretty bad. Let's get this fixed up."

Alasea ran a delving through R.D.'s arm as he held it out to her, and she winced at the results. "You managed to shatter every single bone from your elbow down..." she murmured. "How'd you accomplish that?"

"Beats me," R.D. said. "I thought Ileyna's Stand had turned it soft, not hard."

Ileyna squirmed a bit. "I dunno what happened," she said, letting go of her powers. "Maybe there's more to Mass Effect than I realized."

"Well, at any rate, let's get you healed," she said, using her Healing Palm technique. "Matt, I'll need your help with this. There's way too much damage for me to fix on my own."

"No problem," Matt said. He waved his palms over R.D.'s arms. "Disclaimer: I am not to blame if this stings."

"By the way..." Polly aimed her thumb over her shoulder at Helena, carefully walking around the group with some air of impatience. "Is that normal?"

"What?" Matt glanced at the weredragon. "Oh. Yeah. That's normal."

"Feels like par for the course around here," Guido remarked. Matt was going to follow up when the bell on Speedy's collar suddenly jingled.

"That's strange," Speedy said, tapping the side of his helmet. "Francince hasn't called us after a fight ever since the ovens exploded." He walked away from the group. "Hey, Francine. What's up?"

A pause, then: "Wait, what?" Then: "What?" Then: "No...NO..." He fell to his knees and curled his fingers, crying to the heavens. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"What's wrong?" Hugo asked.

Speedy rose and turned towards the Mettaur. "The VCR's broken and it didn't record this week's episode of Furious Felines! Also, there's a huge army attacking the palace."

Alasea's hands faltered at that, and she looked over at them while she straightened out and finished up healing the damage in R.D.'s right forearm. "And you're more worried about your show," she said irritably.

"So, that whole fight was a distraction?" R.D. asked after Alasea finished. He clenched his hand a little to test it out; it still felt tender. "Wonderful. We better find our things and get going."

"Let's find Bad Bird and ask him what he knows," Hugo said, chambering his pickaxe.

Guido dismissed that notion with a wave. "He's already gone by now, I bet. But he'll be back. Each and every week."

"Well, I dunno if you'll be able to fit in my ride," Matt said. He held up his index finger. "Wait a minute. R.D., if you saw the palace, couldn't you warp us all there with Chaos Control?"

"I think so, yeah," R.D. said with a nod. "I'm not responsible for what happens to these three, though."

"Better idea - you beam 'em to the castle while the rest of us take the Firebird," Matt said.

"Let me find my bike first," R.D. said. "Had to ditch it when that bird kicked the damn thing."

Matt gestured with his thumb towards the Firebird. "Take 'em to the car, Alasea. I'll handle Helena."

Alasea nodded and led the rest of them to the car while R.D. and Matt split off, Matt going to calm Helena down while R.D. wandered off to the building with the large gash in its wall to retrieve his bike.

R.D. winced as he slipped his glove back onto his hand, having removed it earlier for it to be healed. He closed and opened his hand a bit, frowning at the results. Regardless, he used both hands to strap the sheathed sword onto his back before climbing into the damaged building. The bike had cut through a number of rooms before coming to rest haphazardly at an angle. "Stupid bird," he growled as he reverted the bike back into its cube form before returning to the group.

"You guys ready to go to the palace?" he asked the three Pizza Cats.

"Ready when you are," Polly said, sheathing her small blade back into its scabbard.

A bit later Matt and Helena walked out of one of the alleyways, the girl now wearing sharp black pants with a striped, formal kind of shirt. As she walked towards the car, Matt raised a hand in recognition, then ran up to follow Helena. "It was a LEGITIMATE question, all right?"

"It's fine, don't worry about it," she said. "Just keep that to yourself next time."

"Right," R.D. said, fishing out the yellow Chaos Emerald. Using a boost of wind energy, R.D. propelled himself up into the air and landed on top of an intact building.

He scanned the horizon in a full circle until he spotted what had to be the palace. He gauged the distance for a few minutes, then nodded to himself. "I'm sending you three to the Palace's roof," he called down. "Hang on to your butts!"

He flipped the Chaos Emerald into the air as he channeled energy through it, and as he snatched it back out of the air, it blazed with green light. "Chaos Control!"

Rings of power were sucked into the blazing gemstone, and with a flash of green light, the three Samurai Pizza Cats disappeared with a clap of thunder.

"So where IS the palace, anyway?" Matt asked, leaning on the door of the Firebird.

"Did you see that large tower with the golden horns while we were fighting?" Hugo asked.



"Yeah!"

"Let's head over there, quickly."

R.D. nodded and tossed the Thunder King cube to the ground, activating and expanding it into his personal motorcycle. "I'll keep behind you guys," he said, getting onto it. "Your Firebird'll be better at plowing through that army if it comes to it."