[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/krev7SC.png[/img][/center][center][b]Aubrey Adkins[/b] | [b]Ross Barber (Gajana)[/b] | [b]Odysseus Laërtiades[/b] | [b]Kyra Muller[/b] | [b]Joel Vaughan (Talus)[/b] | [b]Jeffery Zimmerman[/b][/center] “So, did you get all of that?” Will asked me after he had finished giving me a brief overview of the game that Ryoma was from. [color=b22222]“I think so.”[/color] I confirmed. Or at least I understood it as best as I could under the current situation. [color=b22222]“I better jump in now because that Ryoma guy is giving my colleague a run for his money.”[/color] “Just be careful.” Will advised me. [color=b22222]“Don’t worry. I will. Love you.”[/color] I responded back before hanging up and tossing the little device back towards Talus. For the last several minutes, Odysseus and Ryoma had been locked into a stalemate. Their blades were flying about, and with each attack that was made by one of them, the other parried their foe’s movement. If I had not known better, I might have guessed that this entire duel had been choreographed beforehand. However, something suddenly changed the swung the momentum into the samurai’s favor. The red-garbed samurai paused for a moment. After that, some sort of purple light that appeared out of nowhere rushed toward Ryoma’s torso and then it irradiated away from him in a ring shape, like those around Saturn. “May your blood crust my blade!” Ryoma shouted before he launched another attack. However, this time, the samurai slammed his foot into Odysseus’ stomach, which caught the Greek man of guard. Then, Ryoma raised his divine blade above his hand with both hands grasping the hilt and slammed it down upon his foe. Odysseus was quick enough to throw his sword up to protect himself, but it would not enough. Just like the force of a hammer that beat metal on an anvil, Ryoma’s sword crashed into Odysseus’ blade. An explosion of electricity accompanied the blow of the samurai’s sword, and the force of both threw Odysseus to the ground. “You fought well, Nohrian.” Ryoma told Odyssey as he held the tip of his blade up to his foe’s neck. “So, as your reward, I’ll give you a soldier’s death. Quick and painless.” Well, I guess this is when I need to jump in. When Ryoma raised his sword arm up in preparation of one last fell swipe, I rushed forward and grabbed his arm, preventing him from completing his swing. While I did get there in time, the armor I would kind of impeded my agility. It was not that the armor was heavy, since I have superhuman strength. Instead, I was just not used to wearing any sort of armor like it. And the heels. My God, who in their right mind would wear heels for running, let alone going off to war! But that’s enough of a rant about that. “What the?” Ryoma was shocked when he could not break out of my grip. [color=b22222]“Alright, that’s enough of this whole ‘killing’ thing that everyone seems to have now a days.”[/color] When I saw Odysseus scrabble for his sword again, I glared out him. [color=b22222]“That means you, too.”[/color] “A Nohrian lecturing me on violence? Don’t make me laugh.” Ryoma continued to struggle against my hold on his arm. [color=b22222]“Yeah, yeah. Nohrians are pure evil and all Hoshidans have hearts made of gold. But do you really believe that siding against you doesn’t tear your brother’s heart?”[/color] From what Will told me, the protagonist of this game was forced to choose to go with one of their families, either his adopted one or his real family. “Ever since he became the lap dog for that bloodthirsty kind of theirs who he calls father, I doubt that he can even feel any pain.” Ryoma, seeing that he could not move his arm, tried to pivot his wrist so that his sword might by chance nick me. In response to that, I repositioned my hand so that I had a better grip on the sword, too. [color=b22222]“Could he not be trying to at least keep one hand on the steering wheel when he sided with Nohr?”[/color] I think I might have to start using ‘us’ and ‘we’ while referring to Nohr. It probably would be more convincing that way. “A steering wheel?” Ryoma asked. Great. I forgot that these characters are supposed to be from a pre-modern era. So there would obviously not be any cars. [color=b22222]“Um...one hand on the reins? What I mean is that he might trying to restrain Nohr from doing as much damage as it would have if he were not on our side.”[/color] “If he really wanted to save his Nohrian siblings, he should have sided with [b]us[/b] and spared them himself.” Ryoma countered. Well, I guess it’s time to use my last resort, even though the writers of this game made it incredibly contrived. I mean, who would have come up with this? [color=b22222]“Also, apparently King Garon has been transformed into a slime monster and Corrin needs a magical chair in your land to reveal it. And if he were to explain to anyone, he would instantly die.”[/color] Very contrived indeed. And quite convenient (or inconvenient, mattering on your point of view) that the main character cannot divulge some extremely important information. “What?” I was pretty much expecting that type of reaction from the red-clad samurai. That was almost the same reaction that I had when Will explained the plot and lore of the game to me. “What sort of lie is this?” [color=b22222]“Do you really think that someone in the Nohrian royal family would call their father a slime monster?”[/color] “Well, I suppose not.” [color=b22222]“And I know that it sounds crazy, but please trust me that it’s the truth. So, truce?”[/color] “No tricks?” Ryoma asked again. [color=b22222]“None.”[/color] I peered down at Odysseus again, giving him a quick glare to make sure he doesn’t ruin everything I have done. “Fine. Then we have a truce, then.” I released Ryoma’s arm after we came to a compromise. He then took his sword and placed it back into its scabbard. We then heard a giant boom originating from the other fight that was happening, along with a bright flash of light. The giant cyclops that Gajana and the Son of Osiris had been fight, who was the target of that attack, crumbled to the floor, dropping the trident that had been in his hand. “Hey, do you all need help over there?” Gajana called out to us. [color=b22222]“Um..I think we have everything under control.”[/color] “Alright, I’ve finished it.” Talus announced before activating the cube that he had taken from the Game Genie while the mastermind behind the attack on Pacific Point was fleeing the scene. Even before the figure of the character had been completed, it began to dash towards the stairs and ascend up to the top floor where the Game Genie was waiting for the Blue Blur. [color=b22222]“And what is that supposed to do?”[/color] I asked, since Talus had not shed any light into his plan. “Oh, you’ll see in a few seconds. Right about now.” Somehow, Talus timed it perfectly so that that the character that he had summoned dropped the Game Genie, who was now tied up with some ropes, on the floor in front of us and then run out of the doors. He was moving so fast that I could hardly tell what he looked like. Definitely blue, of course. “Blast you, Blue Blur!” The Game Genie cried out in defeat. His black hood had fallen down while being carried down the stairs to the bottom floor, revealing that the villain was just a pale ginger. “I’ll defeat you one of these days!” [color=b22222]“Alright. Time to turn everything back to normal.”[/color] I commanded as I picked the Game Genie off the ground. For a few seconds, he tried to struggle, flailing his feet since I was hold him a foot or two of the ground. But when he saw he was beaten, the Game Genie finally gave up. “Fine! The controls are in my cloak.” The Game Genie told us. Talus then searched the now-powerless villain and found a small tablet that the Game Genie had been using to run his operations. Immediately, Talus plugged himself into the device and began deactivating the video game characters and freeing all the people that the Game Genie had captured. Now that Talus had the controls, I dropped the Game Genie, who landed with a thud. One by one, the video game characters disappeared. Ryoma dissolved into thin air and Selena and Beruka disappeared right after him. Even the character who had captured the Game Genie only had a few moments left to taunt the villain. “You’re too slow!” The blue hedgehog mocked the ginger villain before dashing off again until his physical form was no more. “What!” The Game Genie yelled. “That’s not the Blue Blur! That’s Sonic the Hedgehog! I’ve been bamboozled! This is so not fair!” As the video game characters were erased from existence, something struck me. SInce Kyra and I were freed by Talus using the same method that the Game Genie utilized to summon all the video game characters in the first place, would that mean we would disappear, too? When I looked down at my feet and over at Kyra, we both started to become transparent as we began to fade away. For a moment, I found myself back in the same place where I was trapped when I was captured. The dark abyss that had all the neon green ones’ and zeros’ strolling around in every direction. However, I didn’t have a long wait to return to the real world. I discovered that I was back where Kyra, the Son of Osiris, and I first encountered the cubes that started to capture the citizens of Pacific Point and storing them in digital prisons. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it is good to be back to ‘normal’, if being a drider somehow could be considered normal in the first place. While a skin-tight costume is definitely not the most fashionable outfit to wear, at least it beats that armor that I had been wearing. I mean, my superhero costume covers me from head to toe. Now I know that it could be [b]worse[/b] “Arachne!” I heard my name called out from behind me. When I turned around, I saw that Kyra, now dressed in her Firefox costume, hurrying towards me. Her nine fox tails trailed behind her as she dashed over here. [color=b22222]“Thank God that is over.”[/color] “Well, it wasn’t that bad looking like a video game character. It was kind of like cosplaying, except a little more serious.” [color=b22222]“Says the one who did not look like a cross between a knight and a stripper.”[/color] “Guess I was lucky, then.” Kyra smiled at me. Then, trying to change the subject, she started to speak about a more pertinent matter. “I probably should be heading back to city hall. That Game Genie guy must still be ticked that Talus tricked him.”