Avatar RP VIII: Chapter VI: Countdown

[Arhra]

The battlefield

There was fuming and whistling, information and floundering, smoke and kamikaze. And above all else, talking.

The sorceress this was directed at did not seem very impressed.

"I'm Nin and nothing else." the eponymous turtle concluded with a smirk, posed to show off a new unexpectedly pink trench coat

He threw something in the big hole to land near Pyros. "Pyros, or whoever you are, hurry up and take that stuff. I want to finish this quickly because I haven't eaten in forever-" He ran foreward, using Dr Ethington's intern rush as stepping stones to leap how into the air above Arhra II. "-and I. Smell. PIZZAAAAAAAAA!" Nin raised his arms above his head and then swung them down to let loose a ton of weighted chains from his sleeves.

"Hello Nin and nothing else, I shall not enjoy meeting you again." Arhra II said dreamily, an eternity of sorrow in her voice. "Consider that these most angry of pills vastly boost strength and reflexes."

Her uninjured wing lashed out like a hand, snagging the chains and whipping back to keep them taunt. She swivelled on the spot, wing tendrils snaking up the chains like a vine, red and black lightning crackling over them.

She swung him into the cliff below the interns like a wrecking ball, just as the substance of her wings reached the end. Something exploded, undermining the cliff. Dr Ethington's interns tumbling out of the bottom of the billowing smoke into the crater floor.

Reeling in the chains, Arhra raised one hand, arm straight and fingers splayed to point at the hole in the sky that her ball of fury had come through before, slowly healing above the new crater. Crimson leapt out of her palm and disappeared into it like a drop of ink in water.

The red clouded darkness convulsed and then something very much like polluted water poured out of the spasming dimensional orifice in a waterfall.

Cats hated water and interns couldn't swim.

"Don't forget about me!" a returnee to the fray shouted. "With my original BUTTSECKS device and clothes that actually function like clothes and not like torn rags so destroyed that they didn't hide my naughty bits, Armoured Bishoujo is back!"

"You're tempting fate, dear." Arhra II replied mildly, not really paying attention.

"Time to engage the BUTTSECKS!" Armoured yelled nonetheless.

Refreshed by actually having armour now, Mecha Girl Bishoujo shifted her arm into a beam cannon, firing a charged blast at the sorceress. Distracted by the crater happenings, Arhra II was slow to react. Her dark wings swung ponderously about and grazed it, tearing it into a radiant burst of light that caught her body in its embrace.

Magic thrashed like an animal striking out in pain and the light was extinguished. The sorceress gave AB a sidelong glance with one narrowed, burning eye.

"Form restrict bind and dispense punishment." she hissed.

Her captured chains leapt at Mecha Girl Bishoujo to capture her in turn.

* * *

Pizza Shack

Arhra I stood in the middle of a flurry of activity, radiating general benevolence. This was all so exciting.

To her right, a box headed many was drawing flour water into one of his sleeves and producing dough from the other... somehow. As he tossed the dough he repeated the trick with spices, tomato and loose change to produce mysterious sauces. Cheese was grated and various toppings added.

Bard had summoned a ninja chef; Shade was a blur of motion as he cut up various things after tossing them into the air, roundhouse kicked dough and did enigmantic things with the ingredients. It was impressive, but Arhra suspected he was doing even more impressive things when she wasn't watching.

Steel tried out his special beam cannon on the overcooked pizzas arhra had been about to discard, taking them back to an earlier time, when crusts had been brown and moisture present.

Arhra I was making her own subtle contribution, bleeding some of the energy she was constantly generating into the oven to cook the pizzas a little faster and hopefully inspire them to be the best pizzas they could be.

A wall was suddenly replaced by the head and forequarters of a large dragon.

"Pizza here, yes?"

"Oh, hello Miss Shyria. You are very lucky!" Arhra I exclaimed. "Just moments ago we only had things that were once pizza and things that could become pizza."

Overcast and Bard (but really Shade)'s pizzas needed a little more time. This left Steel's re-pizzas.

The healer looked thoughtful. "Just a moment, I might try a slice first. We don't want our only transport getting reverted into a wyrmling."

She daintly extracted a slice from the steaming stack. Manevouring the tip carefully into her mouth, cheese dangling over the edges, she took a bite. Her ruby eyes widened slightly.

"This is very good pizza!" Arhra I declared. "Good job, Steel." The healer noted that she was also the same age. "And they're safe, probably forever." she announced.

* * *

???

Searching for clothes and other miscellanous quest rewards, Nin and Gestalt Arhra had a brief encounter with a blast from the past, defaced a momnument, tumbled through the air and ended up in the frozen battleground that had been the scene of a historical showdown.

"Little North Pole-town. The site of the final battle between the denizens of Nuklear Power City and the legions of the undead plague. Seems nobody ever bothered to clean up the battlefield afterward. Well, then again I suppose nobody really cared, what with Santa gone and all. Come then my dear, the work-shop should be just over that hill!"

Nin ran to a snow covered brick workshop ahead. Gestalt Arhra followed more slowly. Had she not had been wrapped in a school jacket, she could have just glided safely down with her almost useless wings, instead of having to rely on a freezing snowdrift to break her fall.

It was then that Nin found a half ajar secret door. "Well, this is our door." he announced, finding incontrovertible evidence. "No doubt about that. But why is it open?"

Gestalt Arhra was looking at some tire tracks with suspicion. They seemed very heavily laden and very fresh. She marched up to the door and poked her head inside.

"Because someone has cleared the place out." she told the turtle, throwing the door open.

It wasn't quite true. There was a solitary handwritten note left in the middle of the room:

Greetings to Mr. Turtle and Mysteriously Undressed Other Me,

Let me begin by how saying much I cherished our brief time together. I
regret that circumstances have prevented us from spending more time
in each other's company, but I feel we have developed a profound
connection which transcends space and time. I am sure we shall meet
again.

From what little I have gathered of the present situation, it seems
things are looking very bleak. I am afraid I had no choice but to steal
your idea and liberate the valuables stockpiled here for the good of all.
Rest assured that they are, indeed, very valuable and in safe hands.

Love,
Arhra

PS: I took them while you were messing around on POS Tower.

PPS: You can do better, me.

[Teal Mage]

One moment, the ever level headed and enigmatic Dr. Ashley Ethington stood alone, at the edge of a blasted field of battle, facing down the person who might possibly be the NPF's most powerful force of destruction, with only her wits, millions of dollars in stolen research funds and an endless supply of mag-SCIENCE standing between her and certain death.

The next, Nin was there too. Using power that could only come from his ridiculous new trenchcoat, he attacked Arhra II! It was exciting.

"...sfer the funds from the Nuklear Power Science Foundation budget."

Unfortunately, Dr. Ethington had decided to take an important phone call instead of watching.

"Yes, of course I have clearance to do that!" She snapped into the black, green and gold phone she held, "I founded that foundation! Yes, I know Pyros Nine is the official owner - he crossdresses you idiot!" She growled into the phone. This government was run by morons! "Just take the money and fire the-"

Arhra had turned Nin's attack on him - and her interns. Capturing the turtle ninja with his own chains, now enchanted to suit Arhra's own dark sorceress idiom, Two slammed him against Dr. Ethington's math crafted cliff. The power of Pythagoras staggered, collapsing beneath the feet of Dr. Ethington's suicide bombs. Four blasts of fire erupted from the interns, moments after their magical path vanished. They made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their employer! Such was the depth of their devotion! It was inspiring.

And had nothing to do with Dr. Ethington pushing the large red button on her cellphone.

"Just do it." Dr. Ethington stated, voice suddenly dangerously mild. She shut her cellphone with a click, effectively ending the conversation. The scientist turned her eyes to Arhra as the evil Sorceress prepared a spell to finish off Pyros and Nin. Some distance off, Armored Bishoujo approached the scene, impressively covered in her newest set of armor.

Dr. Ethington realized she was being ignored.

"..."

And, she vanished.

* * *

In Space

"...I don't think you should do this." The shorter astronaut said, shooting his partner a worried look.

"Bah! We're just doing our jobs." The tall man replied, unperturbed the questionable legality of Dr. Ethington's large money transfer. "Besides, if we don't do it, the government has to send the money back."

"But, if the money's stolen -"

"Stop worrying!" The other snapped, "No one ever calls us, and she had the proper bank codes and everything!"

"But-"

"I'm pressing the button!" The tall man cut in, pressing the largest red button on the console of blinking lights set before them.

"No wait I-"

Suddenly, the room was bathed in blue light.

"...haven't aimed the Satellite laser yet." The shorter of the two finished, lamely.

"..."

Oops.

* * *

The battle with Arhra II had taken a turn for the surprising. Armored Bishoujo, channelling the power of Samus Aran, attacked Arhra with a large sphere of pulsing destructive energy. Underestimating the threat, II had been slow to react, and the attack slipped through her defenses, wrapping the sorceress in blindingly painful light.

The light faded, revealing a surprisingly alive, and angry, sorceress. "Form restrict bind," Arhra hissed, eyes fixed murderously on Armored Bishoujo, "and," Black and red lightning crackled along Arhra's captured chains, "dispense punishment." She loosened them in Armored Bishoujo's general direction, intent on trapping the bluenette.

Click.

Something cold and circular snapped around the ankle of the distracted sorceress.

Springing fluidly up from his kneeling position behind Arhra, Teal jumped away from the Sorceress. He landed near the roof's edge, boots making a sharp clapping sound. Blond hair blown wildly by the wind, the catboy's hand snapped up, a black, green and gold gun held firmly in his clawed hand.

As it turned out, Teal's teleport worked off Quantum Physics.

"That," he purred, "my dear Two, is an Odine Bangle." The cat boy smiled, teal eyes sparkling murderously, "The finest in anti-sorceress accessories." His smile turned into an unabashed grin, "Which means -"

Some distance away, a blue star of light appeared in the sky. The rushing sound of hundreds of gallons of falling water echoed through the air, as the point of light steadily increased in size and brightness. Suddenly, a column of blue light split the sky several buildings away from the battlezone, striking the ground like a javelin tossed by an angry god.

It hit a pizzeria.

Blue plasma erupted around the building's base, like a giant flower, as a shockwave of displaced air raced outward, shattering windows and flattening grass in all directions.

"-I missed!?" Teal cried, disbelieving. The cat let out a choked gasp, as he swung his head back toward Arhra. He pulled the trigger of his handgun back...

But it was probably too late.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Bard wasn't quite prepared for Shyria to crash into the walls of the Pizzeria. He was thrown off balance a bit, but he was overall OK. He figured Shyria was trustworthy enough, since she didn't crush him the time hw used some of her blood for a summoning.

"We should have plenty of pizza for everyone once the rest is done," Bard proclaimed, "an equal distribution of pizza to all." Everything was going perfectly. Absolutely nothing bad could or would happen.

Then Teal's attack hit the pizzeria.

"What in the name of Yog Shothoth," Bard shouted as the energy erupted around the building. He could hear glass break, but a combination of self-inflicted blood-loss and the explosion left him very disorientate. It like a really bad hangover.

BARD'S PARANOIA HAS INCREASED! HE IS NOW THE ALARMED MARXIST!

Slowly, Bard arose from the ground and to his knees, and found that the floor had been replaced with flattened grass and dirt. Somehow, in his confusion, Bard had been transported outside of the building. Looking up, he saw that Shade had swiftly pulled them both out of the building. The ninja was useful after all! Shade then motioned towards the direction that the energy blast came from. "They get in the way of out pizza," Bard said aloud to the summon. Shade simply nodded. "Then they die!" he shouted. He then shambled his way off towards he direction of the battle between Ahrha II and everyone else. He had diziness, blood-loss, a blood-stained knife, and a ninja who happened to be a decent chef at his disposal. There was no way he could fail.

[Overcast]

Overcast was having a seriously hard time finding one of those large pizza holders. Up to the point that he was standing outside of the pizzaria trying to figure out if maybe they had been blown out, or had some kind of shed with spares. He really didn't have much of a right to ask who steals a pizza holder since that was exactly what he was about to do. Of course he wouldn't even get a chance to as there came this lovely shade of blue out of the sky rushing right for the pizza joint.

Air spat out of the sleeves, rushing to vacate before he was forced to be an inanimate jerk once again. Up into the air he cruised as all goodness and happiness went up in smoke. The black rearranged onto his box into a "!" Around and around he looked for some sort of sign of what had caused this. He had nothing though, nothing but the sky...

So there seemed to be only one place he could go.

He pulled his head off and sucked it into his sleeve before blasting upward toward the edge of the sky. The air pushing out at as much force as he could possibly give it, and just when it seemed it would not be enough then came the boom. Fire rushing past the edges of his gloves as he broke through the gravitation troubles and his head grew back in time to see the incoming satellite.

It was time to get a little payback.

[Astral Harmony]

Armored Bishoujo's jumpboots kicked in and the mecha girl leapt away, relying on internal circuitry to determine how she needed to change her trajectory so that she didn't land anywhere disadvantageous. It took a moment, but she managed to clear the spell.

She aimed the miniature directional antennas in her oversized hi-tech hair accessories to hear what was going on near the sorceress. She heard about an Odine Bangle, then saw the broad, blue ray fall from the blue star.

"When did we start channeling Final Fantasy VIII?" Armored asked herself. "Oh well, I'm surprised there's actually a reference in this whole story that I happen to know."

If an Odine Bangle was placed on the sorceress, then the sorceress was no longer a threat. Armored didn't want to go back and fight, but she felt obligated to defeat the sorceress because that bitch took all the Fury Pills. Armored didn't want one anymore. She had the BUTTSECKS and that saw her through all of her problems so far.

Armored engaged the jumpboots and began her to return to face down Arhra II.

[Intern Nin]

???
Inside the secret room, Gentleman Nin let out a heavy sigh as he finished reading the note the other Arhra had left there. The only thing she had left.

"I had a feeling that I should have taken the freeway. I just always wanted to try that..." Nin let out another sigh and dropped the letter on the floor. He then leaned up against an empty and tipped his hat down to cover his eyes. "I am so sorry, Miss Gestalt. I'm not being helpful in the least, am I? Instead of finding you garments, all I've done is drag you to the coldest part of town to look at an empty room. If I hadn't taken that detour... if I weren't such a dullard..."

The Terrapin Tea-sipper furiously shook his head.

"No, this will not do at all! There is absolutely nothing to be gained from moping and feeling down. I said I would find you clothes, suitable or otherwise, and by George I will find you clothes! The other Arhra could not have possibly made off with everything in this room if she was driving the same small scooter from before. There may be something she over-looked."

Nin straightened up his top hat and set his sights on a trunk to his right, while his hands patted around inside a wardrobe on the other side of the room. It was a strange spectacle to behold, as his body searched one part of the room and his head, thanks his long and stretchy neck, scoured the other side. Maybe even a little bizarre, actually. Suddenly, his head stopped right in front of a bare shelf (that had probably once held a variety of rare and valuable weapons) placed against the wall. For some reason he sniffed it.

"..."

Nin body walked over to where the head was, neck retracting as he went until it was once again at normal humanoid length. He held up his hand in front the shelf. For some reason, the air felt much hotter near it.

"...I see."

Suddenly, Nin lifted up the shelf and threw across the room. Before Arhra had a chance question his actions, the courteous chelonian stuck his left arm through the wall that was behind the shelf. Not like he punched the wall and his fist went through it. His arm just went through it.

"Holographic camouflage. It seems that there are secrets within this secret. Better clothes, perhaps?" He then offered his right hand to Gestalt Arhra. "Shall we see where it leads, Miss Gestalt?"
=============

Battlefield
Meanwhile, the Twin Nin wearing the special alternate costume from the secret room found himself in yet another dire situation.

Hmm, she can integrate objects into her wings. That would've been nice to know about thirty seconds ago.

Arhra II had taken posession of his weighted chains and was in the act swinging Duplicate Detective right into the face of a cliff. He milliseconds to react. Again, this may as well have been an eternity for a ninja.

'Consider that these most angry of pills vastly boost strength and reflexes.' Big whoop, I was faster than any Arhra before and I'm much faster now. Well, at least she was kind enough to paint a big target on where I should strike. First thing's first though, let's make her believe I'm dead.

With lightning speed, Nin pulled a small remote detonator out from his sleeve and withdrew into his shell. He pressed it just before the impact with the cliff, thus setting off one of the many C4s he had planted in the area while Arhra was distracted with the smoke and introductions. This particular charge was right in his path and the explosion from it knocked him out of the sorceress' grasp and high up into the air.

Thanks his nearly industructable turtle shell, Nin emerged mid-air only slightly achey and frazzled. His clothes, torn to rags by the earth shattering ka-boom, began to slowly mend themselves.

How did I ever get along without Kenji Murasame Wear? Now then, on to the main distraction.

After quickly double-jumping into position, the Green Gumshoe dove down at the power-mad Arhra. Thanks to Teal's attempt at sealing her powers, she didn't notice Nin until the moment he collided with her. He grappled her, straddling her mid-section with legs. He looked the embodiment of chaos right in her eyes, his right hand was drawn back with his fingers extended, and he wore the widest shit-eating grin on his face a person with a beak could manage.

"Hiya, Witchy-poo. Miss me?", he breathed just before making a beyond ninja-quick strike at Arhra II eyes with right hand, while his left covertly grabbed the satchel at her side.

[Arhra]

The Battlefield

"That, my dear Two," Teal purred to Arhra II, some distance safely behind her. "is an Odine Bangle. The finest in anti-sorceress accessories." And he'd just clasped it around her ankle. "Which means -"

A blue star light up high overhead, a beam of plasma dropping from the heavens and thickening into a building sized column of ravening destruction.

"..." Arhra II had nothing to say.

It had hit a pizzeria several blocks away, blowing out the windows of the buildings around it from the overpressure. Much nearer there was the tiny sound of a worryingly sharp thing slicing through a bangle.

"-I missed!?" Teal choked in disbelief. He turned back and squeezed the trigger of his pistol but it was too late; an invisible force snagged Teal's wrist. It hauled the catboy upwards.

"That was your finest?" the darkness shrouded sorceress asked, her back still turned. The diminished shockwave tugged weakly at her hair as it passed. Her wings undulated, the bangle dangling off the knife-like wingtip that had pierced through it. Another invisible something smacked into Teal from the side as he hung there, pinata-like. "Isn't that sad?"

A turtly detective decided it was time to ninterfere, leaping in like a turtly ninja on a collison course.

"Hiya, Witchy-poo. Miss me?", he breathed with a jaw cracking grin on his face.

Rather unlike a normal short and pale lady, Arhra II did not budge an inch. In a further display of blatant cheating, the dark haze around her turned out to be a defensive shield.

"Never." she breathed back, and her shield suddenly expanded. The turbulent darkness separated from her and ballooned out like the film of a soap bubble to push Nin.

While he was still plastered against it, she raised a hand burning with white light and fired outwards through her own shield. An unstable eruption of molten light blasted through, smashing it to smithereens.

"Lowlifes." the sorceress began, in a pleasant voice. "Shameless, filthy wrenches." She'd caught speech making from the NPFers. "How you regard my vengeance with such frivolity - have you no shame?

"What happened to the ruinous, quarreling avatars from your history? The army of the apocalyse that slaughtered countless men and destroyed many nations. Where is it now?

She answered for the NPFers. "I stand before your very eyes to wipe it from existence. HAHAHAHAHAHA." Arhra II did not laugh often, this was more than a little disturbing.

"A new era has just begun." she continued. Creepers of light shot out from where she stood, weaving themselves into a boundary around her. Magic curled within, offering veiled glimpes of a dark, ancient, industrial corridor. Transport magic?

"This is reality. No one can help you. Sit back and enjoy the show."

[Overcast]

From the orbit was a satellite. Now fully out of commission. A moment ago it had hit a pizzaria with a beam of plasma. It had taken with it a great deal of food that had been meant to feed a handful of people. One of which was now the lone inhabitant of the satellite. The destruction wrecked about the thing had knocked it off its typical course, and now it was falling. The falling would burn most of it away on the way down, leaving only a slight sort of thing to crater the ground with. And inside it would be the Box. The sentient anchor for the consciousness of Overcast. Inside the thing he was chewing on energy, a shame that really no one would get to see exactly how he did such a thing, but what power sources it had were becoming his.

He was too hungry to wait for proper food any longer so stale battery would have to do the trick.

Box sticking out of the burning mess slightly, still so fully unbreakable by just about anything short of reality ripping power. Which unfortunately had torn him a bit last time, something he was not keen on repeating. He was trying to guide it back down to the glass leftovers of the Pizzaria, so he could return his bearing. But he wasn't much of a pilot, and was instead falling slightly off course toward some sort of glowing thing.

He tried to make this work by adding some weight to his Box, and tossing out coins to even out the front. Perhaps increasing his terminal velocity and making him land away from the glowing item, and while he was increasing his speed, he wasn't changing his trajectory. In fact he was making it that much more difficult to shift it.

It was all an unfortunate sort of failure to him, he really didn't want to hit anyone on his way down, but he was out of ideas of how to stop this. So he just hid inside and held on tight. Sure that the landing was going to be...rough.

[Steel Shadow]

The man in the orange cape paused as he took a bite out of his third pizza slice. His dark eyes narrowed at Arhra I while he chewed and swallowed the delicious bread based foodstuff. "I don't recall saying these were for sharing."

Given how passionate people got about pizza in this town (apparently something that affected everyone, even dragons and box men. Maybe there was something in the water?) this was perhaps a bad thing to say. Some years later, in a time line that branched off from this moment and ran off before anyone could catch it (all that extra temporal energy floating around, the Temp-Police were going to have a right time cleaning up this mess), this statement was known as the start of the great Pizza wars of 2010. Millions died, continents were uprooted, and Pancake day was moved three days forwards every subsequent year for reasons left unexplained. Once the dust had settled the art of pizza making was forever banned, lest such violence ever break out again. In time, such harsh laws led to the forming of the Pizza rebellion, as the under nourished mortals fought against the pizza hoarding Lord of the Pizzas, eventually summoning down the wrath of the great pizza god upon the world.

But that would have been quite silly, so it was fortunate that things were interrupted in our time line before they could really get started. It was just a shame that said interruption took the form of a death satellite launching a rather impressive and flashy attack at the wrong target.

"Did the sky just turn blue?" Steel asked, peering out of a window. "I mean, it's always been blue, but-"

*FSSSSSHOOOOOOMMMM!!!*

10 seconds later Steel let his shield drop and gasped for air. Lack of breathing apparatus really was a flaw in his shield technique. Though, looking around at the destruction, he could defiantly say he preferred having a shield to not having one. The pizzeria was gone. Just... gone.

"Wow. That's..."

And so was his pizza.

"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

Yeah, now he's upset. Well, let's skip over this pathetic whining and get to something interesting.

"Who is responsible for this?!?!" Steel yelled, shaking his fist at the hole in the sky where the clouds had been blown out of the way. It's a little disconcerting to have a perfectly circular gap in the clouds directly above you, actually, but Steel didn't care as he shook his fist some more, dramatically!

Then, slowly as the sky remained unmoved by his passionate enquiries, Steel realised that he was essentially yelling at a death cannon aimed right at him. He stopped rather quickly after that. Which was fortunate, he might have missed the bright flashes of light coming from another nearby battle ground if he hadn't (Steel Shadow was not well known for his awareness, and this is for a reason).

"Huh. What's going on over there?" he muttered as he took to the air to investigate. Now that the pizza had gone and his companions had either survived the blast or not without his help, there really wasn't much reason to stick around.

He regretted this decision once he reached the battle, of course. A healer or a dragon would have come in real handy against the powerhouse that was currently smacking around two forumites without even trying.

"So... Arhra II has turned evil? I suppose I always knew this day was coming. Again. Really was only a matter of time. Though I did kinda thing III or V might beat her too it, y'know? Glad I didn't put money on that bet," the Time Knight rambled. Putting off leaping into a fight seemed like a really good idea right now. And then the most sorcerous of the Arhras began to speak.

Originally Posted by Arhra

"Lowlifes." the sorceress began, in a pleasant voice. "Shameless, filthy wrenches." She'd caught speech making from the NPFers. "How you regard my vengeance with such frivolity - have you no shame?

"What happened to the ruinous, quarreling avatars from your history? The army of the apocalyse that slaughtered countless men and destroyed many nations. Where is it now?

Steel glanced about and pointed quietly at the Dark mass that was currently keeping Pyros occupied. "Well one of them is under there. And I think Mauve is around here somewhere, though she may be doing the sensible thing and ignoring us..." he muttered, not really trying to draw Arhra's attention.

She answered for the NPFers. "I stand before your very eyes to wipe it from existence. HAHAHAHAHAHA." Arhra II did not laugh often, this was more than a little disturbing.

"A new era has just begun." she continued. Creepers of light shot out from where she stood, weaving themselves into a boundary around her. Magic curled within, offering veiled glimpes of a dark, ancient, industrial corridor. Transport magic?

"This is reality. No one can help you. Sit back and enjoy the show."

Sitting back wasn't really Steels thing. Or it was, totally, but not right now. With a sigh, he pulled his sword free. He felt bad about attacking an ally (though it was Arhra, which made things somewhat better), but she had been proclaiming her plans to end the universe for all to hear. Or something anyway. And those sorts of plans were always all sorts of messy. Way more trouble than it was worth to let her continue.

She had been completely trouncing everyone else though, which was troubling. Plus she was clearly hopped up on fury, double troubling. Attacking her directly was very unlikely to succeed. On the other hand, a surprise attack at full power might distract her enough to make her drop the strange Catboy Steel thought he recognised from the very start of this adventure. If he was fighting Evil!Arhra (surely that was redundant?) then he was an ally, and more allies were needed.

Plus it wasn't like he had any other ideas. His only ranged attack was new and untested, unless you counted pizzas. And it needed its name shouting when he used it. How the hell did heroes in anime get away with doing that anyway? Yeah, lets warn our target of exactly what we're about to do! Brilliant idea! Yeah, right now a straight out rush attack was looking to be his best option. Though it didn't seem to be working to well for Nin. Maybe his sword would be able to cut through her defences?

Steel sighed and shook his head. Too much thinking, and it was a time for action. "Ohhh this is such a terrible idea," he muttered as he gathered time around himself and sped up to super human speeds, before charging forwards at II, sword ready.

[mauve]

"What happened to the ruinous, quarreling avatars from your history? The army of the apocalyse that slaughtered countless men and destroyed many nations. Where is it now?"

"Right here." And suddenly, there was Mauve. Purple flames wreathed her hands and arms, winding their way up to her shoulders, giving off neither heat nor sparks nor smoke. Her lip curled slightly into a smirk.

Apparently Steel was wrong about Mauve doing the smart thing and avoiding them all.

"Have we already forgotten what happened the last time someone tried to destroy the world while the NPF was still using it, Arhra?" Mauve's voice echoed in an odd, unnatural way. She clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "What a pity."

Steel shot by, a blur of orange text and sword-wielding fury almost too fast for the human eye to follow. Mauve held out a hand.

"Protect." she commanded, and the time warrior was wreathed in a purplish haze of defensive magic.

"A new era has just begun." declared Arhra, paying the mage no attention. Whiplike strands of light rose around her in a web of magic. Some sort of portal opened behind her, revealing what looked like the Kurosen Tower. Mauve continued to walk towards her.

"This is reality. No one can help you. Sit back and enjoy the show." The industrial corridor materialized more each second. Arhra was going to get away.

"Reality." Mauve spat, "Reality is our plaything!" She broke into a run, curling her hand into a fist and pulling it back. Purple flames trailed behind her like streamers, fading into nothingness before they hit the ground.

"Get ready to attack when the barrier's down!" she yelled to the other NPFers. Mauve was good at being vague.

The purple flames intensified around her fist, and Mauve threw a punch at the glowing magical barrier around Arhra. Sparks flew as the blow connected. The magic around her fist crackled and burned as it worked to counteract the magic in the barrier. Mauve grimaced in pain as her knuckles began to burn from the barrier's power.

"We're still here, Arhra," Mauve hissed through clenched teeth. "We're still the half-insane force of glory and destruction that we've always been. There may be fewer of us than we started with, but we're still more than enough to take on anything in our way."

The grimace curved into a smirk. The magic around her fist crackled and sparked as she worked to pull apart the barrier strand by strand, and Mauve hoped Steel wouldn't slice her to bits with his attack in the meantime.

"You disappoint me," she continued. "After all this time, you've still managed to forget the most important thing about the NPF. That'll be your undoing, you know."