"This'll hurt. A lot."

"A wha-?"

He was cut off before he could finish. The goddess had plunged her hand into his chest. Twiddy's eyes started to glow as he yelled at the top of his lungs. Screaming in the soul wrenching agony.

"Now, the nice one."

She placed her other hand on his shoulder as she began to wrench his light side out. Slowly the soul was pulled out and rested beside him. Before he could catch a breath, she had already replunged her hand. Twiddy's screaming was louder this time. He was obviously in more pain as the goddess twisted her hand to pull out the resisting evil one.

Then, with the two souls resting beside Twiddy, both of her hands began to glow, but with a white light now. The two Twiddies slowly were pulled into reality. First their faces, then their arms, their torsos and their legs.

There they stood, three Twiddies again.

"Now, unimaginable pain for a minute is a fair trade for triple power, isn't it? Oh wait, let me do something real quick."

Mesden snapped her fingers. Random glowing lights came from nowhere and dove into the Twiddies.

"There, now you aren't soulless shells like how Raiden made you. You are as powerful as you can be. Now, we must hurry."

Her head turned towards the army of Gaians and a sigh escaped her lips.

"I guess we have a lot of grunt work to do."

"Well, I guess I'll go with...."

POS pointed at Fenris, "You, furry hobo. Into the ship."

"Wait, what? Don't I get a choice or--"

"No," Pedro said bluntly, "Hobos aren't real people. Now get moving."

"Aw fucksticks..." Fenris cursed under his breath as he shuffled up the boarding ramp. At that moment, someone else decided to show up, and POS neither knew nor cared who he was, but the man apparently wanted to join up with the cause. He could only wonder how many body bags Phoenix had on hand. Knowing her, probably quite a few.

"Well," he answered Newb, rather effectively ignoring the agonized screaming of the three Twiddies, "Those guys over there are going to fight a thunder god with their bare hands and maybe some sticks and rocks that they might be lucky enough to pick up along the way. The rest of us are going to try to put some sort of amazing plan together while Operation Human Shield keeps Raiden occupied."

For a brief moment, neither man spoke, the only sound that could be heard was Twiddy's screams echoing ceaselessly across the newly-created wasteland.

"If you want to go with them, I think I saw a stick over there you can use. You know, if you want."

Newb glances where Pedro pointed and then towards the amassing meatshield before grinning and shaking his head.

"You don't realize who I am, do you? I could pick up a twig and make my way through a horde of enemies, provided I started with the weaker ones, and at the end I could hand you a weapon any warrior would sell their grandmother into slavery to own. But I can probably help you get whatever it is that you're building working, so I'll go with you guys."

"Grunt work? They're drowning in a soup made of them comrades!"

Darth was still somewhat horrified at the ichor lake that DB had made, but was quickly getting over it.

"So...anyone got a canoe laying around?"

"You don't realize who I am, do you? I could pick up a twig and make my way through a horde of enemies, provided I started with the..."

By this point, POS was already in the ship having a snack.

As kitty Pyros enjoyed a nice petting and doting upon by Inbred, he also had his own plans that involved meat. Every so often, without Inbred's notice, he would lick the Ninja Chocobo's arm.

<MMMmmm....Kentucky Firaga Chocobo....>

Phoenix was busy tending to Phoenixbot's wounds with her technomagic while Pedro and the others argued and insulted each other. She thought of several witty remarks, but decided it was just better to not voice them. Until Newb spoke, however.

"Well Newb, with a bit of work, a little concentration, and some thought, I could probably design a thermally-homing throwing weapon from a twig." Phoenix said, idly waving her left hand at the Forumer, her black metallic hand-device shifting across her wrist and palm as she turned to board the VTOL.

"Right, let's get moving." She says to her assembled team members, closing the ramp of the Shilone with a wave of her left hand.

"You may wish to take a seat. Raven is an efficent pilot, not a comfortable one." Phoenix continued as she buckled herself into the heilo's right window-seat, idly gazing out the window at the ocean of Ichor. "Heh, Dragonsbane, I'd assume. He never ceases to amaze me. Granted, a Nuke would have been equally impressive." With a snap of her fingers, the synthetic pilot at the controls of the machine hit the lift fans full-throttle, and the Shilone wizzed off toward Phoenixcorp, kicking up a massive cloud of dust as it left the remains of the Mashirosen tower.

Phoenixbot strode silently after the first team, analyzing the defenses around Raiden as best she could at such long range.

Newb followed the others into the craft, and when taking a seat was mentioned, he pulled out his blanket. "Knock when we get there." He said, pulling it on top of himself. The blanket fluttered to the ground.

******************************

Newb looked around at the beds, and picked out the least comfortable one. With any luck, this trip would even out the beds and get it up to the same level as the others. As he lay back he reflected that "least comfortable" doesn't always mean "uncomfortable" especially when he had been getting these beds better and better for years. It was far from uncomfortable, and he managed to drop off despite the odd tilting and lurching of the room as the blanket slid about.

A lake of death. It wasn't something Ecurt hadn't seen before, but he had certainly never expected to see one in the Nuklear Powered Forums. It was a little disgusting. Especially the smell.

However, they needed to cross it if they hoped to follow Raiden. Of course, since he was sure nobody would want to swim across, and most of them couldn't easily fly, that meant they would have find a boat. It was a good thing that Ecurt was prepared for such things.

Pulling out a remote control out of Rhiya's Baggy Pants™, he pressed the big red button and took two steps back. Five seconds later, a large golden cruiser yacht fell from the sky and into the lake, splashing those who hadn't backed away. It was clear from the speakers everywhere and the T on the side of the ship that it was the ThumpCruiser.

Jumping onto the deck, Ecurt began to make his way to the control room below.

"So Pedro, Phoenix," Mauve began, settling into the seat as the pilot took off. "What kind of plan did you have in mind for this?"

She leaned forward in her seat, propping an elbow on the armrest and cradling her chin in her palm. Her mind switched from "Kill Stuff and Don't Die" mode to "Make Evil Plots" mode.

So far, things looked promising. Team Kick Ass was buying them time to come up with a Doomsday Plan. Splitting up like this made the NPFers harder to defeat. Plus, they now had a tactical group / backup squad to leap in and take Raiden by suprise. Ahrha was in constant radio contact with Ecurt, which would help them get a better idea about what was going on inside the building. It sounded like Pedro already had an idea for aforementioned Doomsday Plan, and Phoenix had the technology to make it happen. All they had to do now was put it together and make sure it worked.

"So what's this idea of yours, Pedro?" Mauve asked. "So far it sounds like it's hobo-powered, which intrigues me."