"Darth, what do think I am?"

Darth fought down his initial reaction. He liked breathing. He liked living. It was something he'd prefer to keep doing. Nevertheless, Darth suffered from a chronic male condition. His brain and mouth didn't interface. Thus, he said that one horrible phrase, interupting her sentence.

"A smoking hot biddy."

He slapped his hands over his mouth. That is when he could feel real terror radiating off of him.

IC now stood thinking, petting a cat that he now held in his arms. "Well arn't you just a pretty whitte kitty. Yes you are. Yes you are." Of course, he had full intentions of using the P9 as a meatshield, but as long as he comforted the cat for now, he shouldn't be any wiser.

"A smoking hot biddy."

"Good, atleast you didn't lie. Now, I am going. Stay or follow, I don't care, but I know I need help. And Pyros, what's with the cat thing? I like dragons, but you don't see me turning into one."

With that, she turned and began her stride towards the end.

And Rhiya rose out of the depths of the lake of blood...

Well... waded, at least. Grumbling a bit at the elbow-high bloody murk, the chaos-diamond dragon sloshed to the banks and shook each individual paw absent-mindedly.

".... what the hell? Where did everybody go?!"

Rhiya looked suprised, then moved forward a bit. She spotted Yuri and some others, and lumbered after them, shedding her large bulky build as she went. Dragon form is nice and all, but not her style. 'Twas more fun in her smaller form.

"Where are we all going?" she asked brightly.

Newb, within his blanket-room, rolled over on one of the beds. Somebody was being noisy as hell outside.

He banged on the ceiling, and when this did not have much effect, the ceiling being a blanket, he shouted "Keep it down out there!" He folded a part of the wall to create a hole to the outside and stuck his head out.

"I'm trying to slee-"

He looked around at the vast bloodshed.

"You guys are having an adventure and I wasn't invited? Well count me in!"

He scrambled out of the blanket and stuffed it into his bag.

OOC: But DB, lake of blood just sounds better.

"Hello Rhiya." Arhra replied, noting the mild irony of Mesden's last comment being followed by Rhiya's appearance. She didn't mak any mention of Rhiya's blood drenched appearance either. Her tone was surprisingly devoid of hostility. Either she didn't remember that Rhiya had killed her, or was saving a much more elaborate revenge for later.

That was one thing about Arhra - when she was being nice to you, she was either planning something terrible for you in the future, or just being nice to you. This was a scientific fact. In the past, it had ruined the sleep of several people who had done something minor that they thought might have offended Arhra.

"We're just splitting into groups. A few of us are headed back to Phoenix's base to make some preparations and all the others are going to go ahead to try and stall Raiden. I'm headed to PhoenixCorp myself, but I've managed to temporarily lend some of my powers to Yuri so she'll be going with the other group."

"I'm a helper!" Yuri added.

"I've set up something of a link with her too so if you do decide to go with that group, I still can look out for you." She gave a broad, friendly smile. The aforementioned peple whose sleep Arhra had ruined would likely have run screaming for the hills at this turn of events.

Seeing Phoenix, Rhiya and the space where DB had turned invisible to escape the notice of Asheth, some murky memory surfaced. Something about two mages, a marilith and a mirror scaled dragon. Arhra shook it off as a passing fancy and asked the group as a whole, "So, let's get going then shall we?"

"Stalling is just a code-word for 'cannon-fodder'." Newb proclaimed.

"Which way do I go if I want to go with the group that's going to bust in with the real power later?"

The Wizard felt the coarse tower wall underneath his hands. The sun beat down on the Wizard. Charon was snoozing in his arms, as he tried to think of why Raiden would be doing these stupid and horrible things. Why he would try to take down the NPF. He decided that he could not find the answer, and instead started to scan his surroundings. The tower was full of emotion, wisps of fear here and there, the heat of hate, the swirls of confusion. Above all else, was a pride so great that the Wizard had to pause for a few seconds. It was different from Mesden’s former disclosure as to her power. It was boastful, powerful, and cocky. It reminded the Wizard of only one thing: Dragon’s Bane’s here.

Dragon’s Bane? Finally, we have been lacking in the magical power department lately. How? We have Garud, Mauve, and I. Are you kidding? Garud, Mauve, and you are all incompetent. Do you have any evidense to back up this baseless slander? You all don’t know the meaning of true power. Quite, as, you know, we aren’t super powerful sorcerers or anything. Not at all. You all fancy yourselves as mages, but you fear the power that you hold. So? We have that power, and that’s what matters. You need to use it, not just have it, like the Dragon’s Bane does.

The Wizard just sighed. He decided that now would be a good time to join up with his allies. He started to run up the wall of the tower when a loud rumbling was heard. The wall started to vibrate and crack. Energy was felt from within the tower, and the Wizard started to lose his balance. He decided that he did not want to be there when the tower exploded. The Wizard back flipped off the wall. The ground rushed to meet him, when he suddenly stopped an inch from the dirt. The tower exploded behind him. The Wizard touched ground, then immediately took off to avoid the explosion. He ran as much as he could, not wanting to be swallowed up by the possibly fatal energy behind him. He eventually left it far behind, and started to wander around for the other NPFs. He saw a bright flash, and a lake of organs, covered in a mist of blood. He took a guess at where the NPFs were, and arrived to see them splitting into teams.

The Wizard walked up to Mesden, and asked, “Would it be alright if I could join the team to kick Raiden’s ass?”

Mesden's eyes glanced over at Twid. The glowing white scan returned and Twiddy could feel his soul being picked apart.

The goddess clenched her hand tightly and it erupted in a weird glowing red light. The aura itself made all who looked at it a bit queasy.

She motioned her hand at Twiddy to come over to her.

"Twiddy, if you are coming, you need to be more useful. Come over hear please."

Her voice had a strong echo to it. The vibrations carrying through everyone around her's body.

"Please Twiddy. We lack time for hesitation."

The Wizard just stared at the Soul God looking down on him. He felt small, miniscule. There was power radiating from her, such that the Wizard stared in awe. His darker side was feeling a different emotion. Make me more useful? That stupid- You know, you should have learned by now that insults only get you hurt. She has damaged my honor and- You have honor? Quiet, you spineless worm. Anyways, I would recommend that you do not approach her. But It’ll get power… We can’t trust her. Of course we can. For what reasons? Do you think she’s going to turn us into a cow or something?

The Wizard closed his eyes for a few seconds. This day had obviously taxed him, what with the fighting his mentor and the destruction of his home. He took a deep breath, and became calm. He walked over to Mesden.