We need some pokeballs. If we bring back some pokeballs so each toad could catch even one of the pokemon wandering around that would quintuple their effectiveness as guards.
Gentlemanvaultboy Member
- Last Seen: 2 yrs ago
- Joined: 10 yrs ago
- Posts: 2326 (0.67 / day)
- VMs: 5
-
Username history
- Gentlemanvaultboy 10 yrs ago
-
Latest 10 profile visitors:
-
Most recent →
Lugubrious,
Izurich,
Yankee,
rush99999
Status
User has no status, yet
Bio
I guess my comfort zone is "eccentric side character."
Most Recent Posts
Linkle
Level 3 - (26/30) + 1
Location: Peach's Castle, back outside.
Word Count: 448
@Lugubrious@Delta44
"Hey," Linkle started, but the girl had already rushed out the door, apparently looking forward to getting murdered in the scrapyard. That wasn't something Linkle could allow, especially now that she knew murder was on the table.
She spun on Minako and Junpei, an apprehensive frown plastered on her face. "You guys should go find a nice warm place to dry off, especially you." She said, pointing at Junpei and the water still dripping off him onto the princesses floor. She wondered briefly of this was the sort of princess that that threw you in the dungeon for that sort of thing. "Eat, drink, change clothes, I'll probably be back in two shakes of a cucko's tail."
With that she spin around and jogged back out onto the castle lawn.
It was an immediate relief to see the blade girl hadn't actually run out into the scrap yard and was instead instead sitting forlorn on the bank of the most. That was good, at least she hadn't run far. Linkle could barely look the others in the eye right now without being ashamed, if she had to tell Tora that she'd let someone important enough to him to get put directly in his way by the bad guys up and get lost she'd never be able to look at him again.
"Hey." She called out, starting over toward her. She stopped beside the girl, arms folded behind her back, wondering what to say. "I didn't introduce myself earlier." She started, holding out a hand. "I'm Linkle. Your...masterpon?...he's helped me out a lot since we all got dragged here. I think he called your name a while ago, but there was a lot going on at the time so I didn't hear it all that well."
Linkle plopped down on the bank next to her, cross legged, to just watch the fish like she was for a little bit. Really, she was just trying to compose what she should say. "You know, it wasn't just you. We were all like that at first. That cute little pink thing riding on the guy in the dark coat? I'm sure I started the day trying to kill that little guy. We all did. Well, except Minako. And the pig guy, but he's awful for other reasons. Was Ratchet there? No, hold on, I'm getting distracted." She shook her head, trying to get her thoughts more in order. "The point I'm trying to make is, like, if being controlled like that makes you a fake person then I'm an even faker person than you because I didn't even need a floating hand to talk me into doing it."
@Crazy Scion@Hammerman@KillamriX88
No.
No no no no nonononononono!
Bak had barely had time to grapple with the disgust that came with saving Alto when the man screamed his head off with such force that it lifted Bak up off the ground and sent her flying back. She'd landed with a harsh crunch, something she'd noticed had been a reoccurring thing over the past few weeks. David was flung down nearby, and as Bak looked up from the dust she city could feel as much as see the lightning cracking across the mans body as he leaped at the two of them. Bullets wearn't going to atop that. She doupted even miss lines could.
Time seemed to flow in slow motion as she watched, like her brain was trying its best to make the most out of each individual second that was passing. She'd heard Papa describe this once when old friends of his from the revolution had shown up to share drinks and reminisce about their younger days, and from their stories she knew what it was. This is what happened when you were watching death barreling toward you, unavoidable save for the grace of the gods.
Her first thought was the teleporting boy, whether he'd be able to get away from this, because she couldn't see herself getting up in time to cover him. Wasn't he the one that had brought her here anyway? Well, it wasn't like that mattered now.
She thought about Vittorio, and was happy for a moment she'd told Rurik about that ring. She'd hate to think of it abandoned, gathering dust in the dark all alone. A thing as pretty as that deserved someone to came for it, after all. A morbid part of her actually thought that maybe having a new friend to avenge would be the push Vittorio needed to keep on living. So that wouldn't be so bad. In a way she would almost be saving him.
She worried for Clara. She wouldn't be able to find another monster like Bak for a while, that was for sure. Mr. Mephisto was very resourceful, though. They'd find a replacement for her. She couldn't imagine the student body being too broken up over her, but she smiled at the thought that maybe she would live on as boogyman ghost story they told to jeep delinquents in lone. Do your homework and do not loiter in hallway, or you would hear the mechanical footfalls of the monster Tsarevna coming for you.
Oh, she realized. Maybe this was how you became monster? When you disappeared you shed all the fear and sadness that could identify you as a human, leaving behind only the terror you'd wrought in your wake. You get reborn as a story, one that gets told over and over, mutating and becoming more horrible with each retelling as the details were sanded off to make you a more perfect horror. Had that happened already? Were people from the homeland already spreading stories about her? She smiled at the thought. That was fine.
Bak was okay with this.
Then Rurik ruined it.
What? How? Why. Why!?!
HE HAD ONE JOB!!!
That peaceful acceptance that had been covering her like a heated blanket was violently ripped away as Rurik appeared in from of them and all of a sudden time was moving much too fast for her liking. The lightning cracked evil, lighting the whole area in a sick glow. The girl from before jumped after the man, but that lightning seemed to fend her off all on its own. His path was unimpeded. He was coming right at Rurik.
This was not okay.
This was not acceptable!
She was supposed to be the one protecting people, so why was it all her friends instead? Why did Vittorio have to get shot? Why did Yuuto have to get beat up? Why was it Christine had to watch her sister and the man she loved nearly kill one another? It was stupid. It was all so stupid! Her friends were all stupid! And she was stuipidest of all for not being able to stop any of it. She was too stupid to stop them from being stupid.
As she be a treated herself a soft glow began to start creeping its was up the side of her missiles pod. A soft white glow, like light shining off down feathers. She looked at the man coming toward her friend, and decided no. Not one more. She wasn't going to sit by and let one more friend get hurt on her watch. Even if she thought it was useless she had to try.
The glow became a radiant light as she shot her missiles at the man, each once leaving a sparkling trail in their wake in streak of smoke. The went wide. It wasn't surprising. Without her targeting computer she couldn't aim them very well, and the quartet of shining projectiles were on course to sail past the man in midair.
Then, like a snake, a bolt of that lightning lashed out and bit into one of them as they flew past.
The missile didn't explode so much as burst like like an over filled water balloon, and what came out wasn't fire and heat but something hard to describe. A shining light spread out enveloping the man, David, Bak, Rurik, and Nanaca as the mans fist collided with Rurik's shield. All around them small lights danced like feathers in the breeze as the light expanded into a large translucent dome. Inside was...it was kind. Like falling into the softness of your bed after a hard day and bursting yourself in your pillows until the day washed away. Be a ease, it seemed to say. Be at ease. No harm will come to you. As it assured this a force seemed to pull at the cultists punch, lowering it's power greater still.
Bak's missile pod let out a gurgling, mechanical shriek, seemed to vomit some kind of black bile from its tubes, and shut down.
Gilliam
@supertinyking@AtomicNut
Gilliam flopped around on the ground like a fish choking on air as he upchucked the remains of his bone sword. It had shattered in light of the mans transformation, and as he hacked them up to clear his airway the man murdered Luigi.
Damn shame, that. Still, he wondered what a man so steeped in oil would taste like. Of course the man had to ruin it by actually surviving. Manipulating his body he slithered up to Luigi, climbing up his leg and coupling around his shoulders to watch the bird man fly away. He didn't think he would be back to full size for a while after this.
"My apologise, I can't seem to form the legs to walk right now. Can hardly run without legs." He said as he eyed the other cultist hugrily. "I do have to agree about those masks. It seems I'm week to enemies that can self destruct. Though that just means we have to cut off his arms."
He tried to play it off, but he desperately needed some new biomass to replace that which had been blasted off. Not only that, he could feel a sort of itch in his cells that he couldn't identify the cause of. Something that was making replication and regeneration harder than normal. Not just the fire. Something deeper that that. Something was wrong, fundamentally.
He called out to the demon that had appeared to come to their aid. "Madame." He called out. "Might I enquire what that man tasted like?"
In
Kingdom Hearts - The Lights of the Multiverse (KH and Alternate History) [Full]
→
5 yrs ago
Forum: Casual Roleplay
"You th-th-th-think?" Georgia replied through chattering teeth. She had just been looking for whatever fire she'd been warned about when suddenly the fox had showed up to drag her off. She'd started to explain that, no, hold on a minute, there might be another enemy in the castle when she'd been abruptly frozen.
Good news, though. She'd found the fire.
She had to give this situation one positive, that poor kid turning this room into a blast furnace was probably saving her from frostbite. It was a great positive, considering it was the only one she could see. Only the weird shields that Tocsax had thrown up was preventing everyone on the deck from being incinerated. For a second she wondered what exactly Tox planned for her to do about that, but considering how much they already knew about her they'd probably seen that she'd dealt with this before.
This wasn't magic, after all. Even with the slight, basic senses that came from just training your third eye until it opens she could feel that this was psychokinetic energy. It was with a shock she realized that this was the kid that had been broadcasting his emotions during the battle. You occasionally got kids in situations like this back home: hurt, confused, stressed, and letting those emotions lash out in all directions. You couldn't talk to kids when they were like this, at least not with your mouth. To disrupt and diffuse the storm of emotion that caused this outpouring of power you had to go right to the mind.
"Damn it, I'm not an empath. I'm not trained for this!" She said, scowling. She cleared her mind, taking deep breaths to try and breath out all the stress and anger at...just...thus whole situation! She couldn't have that. All she could do was use an emotion as a hammer here, she couldn't have any of that crud clinging to it and distorting the message. Amid the cracking head she slowly sat down, cross legged, on the floor and focused on a single memory.
It was hot. It was always hot under the earth, the entire world trapped in a perpetual muggy summer. She walked sluggishly down the metal walkway, looking up as people much taller than her walked in much the same way. Some injured. Some emaciated. All so, so tired, and mingling with the starving masses that comprised what was left of the human race were other faces. The faces of monsters. Big, round, and grey. Sharp and green. The monsters would grab people, take them away. Georgia thought they were being taken as food, but she honestly didn't care anymore. There was nowhere left to run anyway even if she had the strength too.
A monster stopped in front of her. It looked like a human, but it didn't fool her. She'd seen them before. Seen them enough that she could tell. His lips were too tight, his eyes to wide. He reached down and took her by the shoulder and his hands were cold. This was it, she thought as the lizard in human skin picked her up and whisked her away. It didn't matter. She was ready for it.
Then he pulled a bottle of water from his pack and slowly lifted it to her lips. She drank greedily, as though she had been stumbling through a desert for years, and she heard the lizard say something. She didn't remember exactly what he'd said, because it had probably been comically inappropriate considering who he was, but even then she'd understood the meaning.
You're safe now, little sister.
So, for the first time in what felt like forever, she let herself pass out and sleep soundly in the arms of this monster. A small ship, storm ravaged and weary, finally pulling into port.
Georgia breathed out, sharpening that feeling to a razers edge, and broudcast that sense of Safe as loudly as she could. It wasn't a suggestion, or a compulsion, or even a conversation. She wasn't able to do that. She was just sharing a feeling. A lighthouse offering its beacon, ready to guide a lost ship into port.
@Double
Good news, though. She'd found the fire.
She had to give this situation one positive, that poor kid turning this room into a blast furnace was probably saving her from frostbite. It was a great positive, considering it was the only one she could see. Only the weird shields that Tocsax had thrown up was preventing everyone on the deck from being incinerated. For a second she wondered what exactly Tox planned for her to do about that, but considering how much they already knew about her they'd probably seen that she'd dealt with this before.
This wasn't magic, after all. Even with the slight, basic senses that came from just training your third eye until it opens she could feel that this was psychokinetic energy. It was with a shock she realized that this was the kid that had been broadcasting his emotions during the battle. You occasionally got kids in situations like this back home: hurt, confused, stressed, and letting those emotions lash out in all directions. You couldn't talk to kids when they were like this, at least not with your mouth. To disrupt and diffuse the storm of emotion that caused this outpouring of power you had to go right to the mind.
"Damn it, I'm not an empath. I'm not trained for this!" She said, scowling. She cleared her mind, taking deep breaths to try and breath out all the stress and anger at...just...thus whole situation! She couldn't have that. All she could do was use an emotion as a hammer here, she couldn't have any of that crud clinging to it and distorting the message. Amid the cracking head she slowly sat down, cross legged, on the floor and focused on a single memory.
It was hot. It was always hot under the earth, the entire world trapped in a perpetual muggy summer. She walked sluggishly down the metal walkway, looking up as people much taller than her walked in much the same way. Some injured. Some emaciated. All so, so tired, and mingling with the starving masses that comprised what was left of the human race were other faces. The faces of monsters. Big, round, and grey. Sharp and green. The monsters would grab people, take them away. Georgia thought they were being taken as food, but she honestly didn't care anymore. There was nowhere left to run anyway even if she had the strength too.
A monster stopped in front of her. It looked like a human, but it didn't fool her. She'd seen them before. Seen them enough that she could tell. His lips were too tight, his eyes to wide. He reached down and took her by the shoulder and his hands were cold. This was it, she thought as the lizard in human skin picked her up and whisked her away. It didn't matter. She was ready for it.
Then he pulled a bottle of water from his pack and slowly lifted it to her lips. She drank greedily, as though she had been stumbling through a desert for years, and she heard the lizard say something. She didn't remember exactly what he'd said, because it had probably been comically inappropriate considering who he was, but even then she'd understood the meaning.
You're safe now, little sister.
So, for the first time in what felt like forever, she let herself pass out and sleep soundly in the arms of this monster. A small ship, storm ravaged and weary, finally pulling into port.
Georgia breathed out, sharpening that feeling to a razers edge, and broudcast that sense of Safe as loudly as she could. It wasn't a suggestion, or a compulsion, or even a conversation. She wasn't able to do that. She was just sharing a feeling. A lighthouse offering its beacon, ready to guide a lost ship into port.
@Double
"Tk tk tk tk." Came a sound from the back of the bus. Claude was leaned forward in her seat, a hand extended toward the cat she'd spotted on the seat in front of and across from her. Her fingers wiggled beckoningly, promising scratches, pats, and (if it was lucky) a belly rub. "Puss puss, tktktk. Here kitty."
She'd never had a cat, or any pet. Pets needed stability, which is something they hadn't been able to provide. So if there was an opportunity to make friends with a cat or an old dog along the way you can bet Claude took it. Lucky for her you couldn't keep strays out of anywhere, as was demonstrated by this poor puss that had bummed a ride from them. Cats showed up wherever theatre was food to be had.
Seeing she wasn't getting much of a reaction Claude decided on a new strategy. She reached into her bag, cracked open one of the peanut butter tubs, and lightly dipped two fingers into it. Nodding, she extended her hand again. "Puss puss." She said. This worked with rats, raccoons, and the occasional adventurous possum. It would work for cats, right?
She'd never had a cat, or any pet. Pets needed stability, which is something they hadn't been able to provide. So if there was an opportunity to make friends with a cat or an old dog along the way you can bet Claude took it. Lucky for her you couldn't keep strays out of anywhere, as was demonstrated by this poor puss that had bummed a ride from them. Cats showed up wherever theatre was food to be had.
Seeing she wasn't getting much of a reaction Claude decided on a new strategy. She reached into her bag, cracked open one of the peanut butter tubs, and lightly dipped two fingers into it. Nodding, she extended her hand again. "Puss puss." She said. This worked with rats, raccoons, and the occasional adventurous possum. It would work for cats, right?
Fantasy RP - For those that want to 'Jump - In ' is a pretty good fantasy story. It isn't something I expected to stumble across in free and I really enjoyed reading it.
@Crazy Scion@Hammerman@KillamriX88
Bak hesitated as the big evil manhandled King and Alto. It wasn't just because sticking her limbs in strange holes wasn't something a girl was supposed to do, either. Watching the man raise his fist in the air, preparing yo bring it down on Altos head, she thought about how easy it would be to let this happen. Just sit back for a second more and watch Clara's problem, Vittorio's problem, get obliterated from the face of the earth. She considers that without him around she would logically be next on the chopping block, but that didn't really bother her all that much. Maybe the trade was worthwhile.
Two things made her reconsider. First of all, she could still here Rurik's footsteps which meant that his evacuation was slow going, leaving him vulnerable. This boy in front of her she knew could teleport, so she wasn't as worried about him, but a great evil would get after Rurik and Yuuto once it was done with her.
The other was that she could see the girl plummeting toward his head, which was likely going to let Alto slip away anyway. She may as well pile on the damage if that was going to be the case.
"Rodger." she said, spinning up her chain gun and shoving it into the hole. "Suppressing fire!" She shouted as it began spitting bullets.
Claude sat in a back row seat, feeling the wind whip through her hair and scratching at her ankle with her other foot. Her feet hurt. It probably had something to do with the big, clompy boots Mr. Colles had insisted she out on for the trip. They would be hiking, after all. Roughing it. Couldn't rough it in flip flops, they were antithetical to the whole concept. She couldn't remember the last time she'd worn proper shoes, and had been about to explain that here soles were basically nothing but callous at this point when the sun had caught him just right to highlight those rugged good looks and her argument had dribbled out of her mouth along with the drool.
Oh well, It was the only complaint she had about the situation. She hadn't been out in the woods like this since the big Rumble in the Pines and was fully prepared to make the most of it. Sleeping outside, heating on a roaring fire, be serenaded to sleep at night by crickets, it'd be just like when her and mama were on the road and didn't have the money for a good hotel. She hadn't been allowed to attend this retreat before, same as how she hadn't been allowed to fight, until she was at at least a high school reading level and the contrast between the free, open air and those boring classrooms invigorated here like nothing else. Not to mention...
She glanced down at the special bag she'd set beside her, filled with containers of peanut butter she'd been saving since she hear she was going on this trip. Nestled amount them was a video camera and some plaster of paris she'd pilfered from the art class. There was no better time and no better place to hunt her down some squatch.
Oh well, It was the only complaint she had about the situation. She hadn't been out in the woods like this since the big Rumble in the Pines and was fully prepared to make the most of it. Sleeping outside, heating on a roaring fire, be serenaded to sleep at night by crickets, it'd be just like when her and mama were on the road and didn't have the money for a good hotel. She hadn't been allowed to attend this retreat before, same as how she hadn't been allowed to fight, until she was at at least a high school reading level and the contrast between the free, open air and those boring classrooms invigorated here like nothing else. Not to mention...
She glanced down at the special bag she'd set beside her, filled with containers of peanut butter she'd been saving since she hear she was going on this trip. Nestled amount them was a video camera and some plaster of paris she'd pilfered from the art class. There was no better time and no better place to hunt her down some squatch.
In
Kingdom Hearts - The Lights of the Multiverse (KH and Alternate History) [Full]
→
5 yrs ago
Forum: Casual Roleplay
Georgia didn't even see as the Heartless under her suddenly dematerialized and she was sent plummeting head first to the ground. Luckily for her a sudden windstorm kicked up, flipping her up and letting her land on her feet. She turned back to Asher and nodded thankfully, putting her big keyblade away. "I told you I was bad at names." She said. "One day I'll come up with a winner, like Bigfoot or Moth Man."
She could only take the enemy's sudden disappearance as a full retreat. Indeed, it was quiet outside. That could only be a good sign. She gladly took the ear ring from the mans hand when he offered it, smirking. "May as well. Everybody else has been in my head today." She didn't have pierced ears, so she flipped the club around and rested that in the well of her ear as he walked away. As he did, she heard a voice coming from the courtyard and stepped over to the busted window.
Amuro was already there, wide eyed, and when she got theatre she could see why. That robot head been in was torn to pieces, though who had done that she wasn't sure. Maybe that group of black cloaks. She listened as they went on about how light was tyranny, about how their plans could not be stopped, about how they would crest a more perfect world. Typical esoteric evil organization horseshit, the sort of long winded mumbo jumbo that would be printed in an illuminati pamphlet. No one that claimed they were fighting for a more perfect whatever could be trusted, because it always seemed to involve getting rid of a whole bunch of people that disagreed with you.
Snopes, ever lot ally sticking to the Gundam pilots side, didn't stop growling until the lot of them up and peaced out. She frowned at that. That either meant they were bluffing about being able to kill them at any time, which was dumb, or whatever it was they'd be doing would be playing right into that groups hands. Her eyes slid over to To sax, and the power that Leo was able to exert over him.
She'd figure that out later, the redhead was making an effort to gather everyone up and ferry them toward the hanger to set off. "Snopes." She said, bending down to meet his eyes as her happily turned to face her. She clutches his face in her hands, scratching his neck up and down. "My boy, my good good boy. You remember where we came from?" She nodded at him, and he eagerly nodded back. "Good, good, good! You take him there, all right? There's something mama's got to do."
She stood up and turned to Amuro. Poor boy was still looking at the robot like a kid that had just seen his bike run down by a street sweeper. Or maybe his dog. It was a complicated relationship he had with that machine, she'd gotten that much from their...contact. She put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, then slipped the raptors leash into his hand. The raptor took off back towards the hanger, dragging Amuro behind him.
Satisfied with that she walked back toward the throne room to see if the empress was doing all right. "Hey, could I have those records of the true history brought to the ship? I never got a chance to read them."
"Wait, hold on." She said, cupping one of her hands around her ear as Asher's message came through. "Get her someplace safe, something might still be here." She doubled back, heading in the direction she'd seen Asher head in before. Then she heard the word "fire," and started running.
As she made her way into the courtyard and spun around, looking for something that was burning besides the robot wreckage. She pulled the earring out and rubbed it. "Where are you? What's on fire?"
@ShadowVentus
She could only take the enemy's sudden disappearance as a full retreat. Indeed, it was quiet outside. That could only be a good sign. She gladly took the ear ring from the mans hand when he offered it, smirking. "May as well. Everybody else has been in my head today." She didn't have pierced ears, so she flipped the club around and rested that in the well of her ear as he walked away. As he did, she heard a voice coming from the courtyard and stepped over to the busted window.
Amuro was already there, wide eyed, and when she got theatre she could see why. That robot head been in was torn to pieces, though who had done that she wasn't sure. Maybe that group of black cloaks. She listened as they went on about how light was tyranny, about how their plans could not be stopped, about how they would crest a more perfect world. Typical esoteric evil organization horseshit, the sort of long winded mumbo jumbo that would be printed in an illuminati pamphlet. No one that claimed they were fighting for a more perfect whatever could be trusted, because it always seemed to involve getting rid of a whole bunch of people that disagreed with you.
Snopes, ever lot ally sticking to the Gundam pilots side, didn't stop growling until the lot of them up and peaced out. She frowned at that. That either meant they were bluffing about being able to kill them at any time, which was dumb, or whatever it was they'd be doing would be playing right into that groups hands. Her eyes slid over to To sax, and the power that Leo was able to exert over him.
She'd figure that out later, the redhead was making an effort to gather everyone up and ferry them toward the hanger to set off. "Snopes." She said, bending down to meet his eyes as her happily turned to face her. She clutches his face in her hands, scratching his neck up and down. "My boy, my good good boy. You remember where we came from?" She nodded at him, and he eagerly nodded back. "Good, good, good! You take him there, all right? There's something mama's got to do."
She stood up and turned to Amuro. Poor boy was still looking at the robot like a kid that had just seen his bike run down by a street sweeper. Or maybe his dog. It was a complicated relationship he had with that machine, she'd gotten that much from their...contact. She put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, then slipped the raptors leash into his hand. The raptor took off back towards the hanger, dragging Amuro behind him.
Satisfied with that she walked back toward the throne room to see if the empress was doing all right. "Hey, could I have those records of the true history brought to the ship? I never got a chance to read them."
"Wait, hold on." She said, cupping one of her hands around her ear as Asher's message came through. "Get her someplace safe, something might still be here." She doubled back, heading in the direction she'd seen Asher head in before. Then she heard the word "fire," and started running.
As she made her way into the courtyard and spun around, looking for something that was burning besides the robot wreckage. She pulled the earring out and rubbed it. "Where are you? What's on fire?"
@ShadowVentus
Linkle
Level 3 - (24/30) + 2
Location: Peach's Castle – Out Front, Moatside ---> Peach's Castle,
Word Count: 977
@Lugubrious
Linkle's face fell and she jumped back, raising one leg to prepare for a kick as it came back down. There was no way she was managing to screw this up, she was ready to force that heart down his stupidly dense throat if she had to! Luckily for her him that confrontation never came. The second time the heart bopped him on the head, it took. While it didn't heal the boys slight injuries it did chase the angry crimson from his eyes. "Yes!" she said, leaping the air one fist extended straight up before turning to Minako and opening it for a high five. Only to catch a glimpse of the girls face and slowly lowered it. Minako was transfixed on the newly rescued boy, a mix of emotions Linkle couldn't quite follow playing across her face before she collapsed onto the boy with tear stained eyes. Linkle stepped back, suddenly getting the impression that this was something that should be shared only between them, a just observed the pair for a moment.
Yeah, she thought to herself. That's the way a hero is supposed to make people feel. Even if she questioned how much of this outcome had been down to her involvement she still nodded in satisfaction at the contribution she'd made to it. She started wondering if she should withdraw coolly at this point, and that thought cut through to mood and reminded her that the job was only half over! She spun around, ready to sprint inside the castle to aide her allies in the terrible sounding battle within only to discover that there weren't any more terrible sounds. The only sounds that reached her ears where Minako's shuttering sentence starts. The castle was silent. Then, all of a sudden, a cloud of spreading darkness erupted from the castle and Linkle braced herself as it spread over them. When it past she quickly looked around in a worried panic, but everyone outside seemed fine. She turned her gaze back to the castle. "I think they just won." she said, the thinnest hint of disappointment creeping into her voice.
Linkle would have found the idea that dark magic could be beneficial a hard sell if she hadn't run into a dark, statuesque beauty in her travels that had helped her rescue Princess Zelda by using dark magic to beat monsters with a whole bridge. Even if she had never met her, however, just walking in the front door of the castle made it obvious enough that the cloud of darkness hadn't hurt their cause. As she pushed open the door, crossbows in hand in case of trouble, she only succeeded in scaring some adorable and totally uncharred mushroom men. She apologized profusely as they crossed the atrium and she pushed open the opposite door.
What appeared before her was a sea of faces, old and new. Some really new. Some that weren't even on the bridge, and she almost mistook Ratchet for a newcomer given his increased height. One of them was even a little dragon! She also caught the gunsliger giving them a look and felt herself go red with embarrassment for getting here too late to help with the battle. Still, her mood was pretty up. At least until the Master pointed out who wasn't among the crowd.
Linkle wasn't sure she'd even gotten a good look at the girl The Master mentioned, but Zer0 being gone threw her. No way that was true. She looked again, then again, then a third time, but no matter what she couldn't find the strange faceless swordsman anywhere. Gone. Dead.
Even if she had never really spoken with the man his loss filled her with an almost spiritual unease. She hadn't expected it. She hadn't even considered it since The Master had said he saw them in the future. Zer0 had, in her mind, been a part of some grand design. They all were. Destiny had said they made it through this, and with that in mind she hadn't had to worry. She just had to do her best, like she always did, and everything would be fine. Now, though, nothing was certain. The river of destiny could be carrying any of these people to their ends.
An intrusive thought slithered its way into her mind. If she had been stronger, if she had been able to get Minako and Junpei in here during the battle, would their powers have saved Zer0 and his friend?
Her thoughts were interrupted when Agoston boldly marched to the spirit glittering on the ground and used it up, transforming an already monster of a man into a literal monster. If Bowser were a man instead of a dragon she imagined that's what he'd probably look like, and the man walked off proclaiming proudly that the Princess had commanded a feast. Linkle was about to follow out of sheer curiosity over what this Princess looked like when a man suddenly charged in through the doorway, rudely shoving past her and kicked Bowser in the back. Even more amazingly, the attack had actually managed to knock Bowser over. She pointed her bow at the stranger, but everyone else beat her to the punch. She instead turned her attention back to the open door, the mushroom boys that she figured were supposed to be guarding it, and the area beyond the castle. Looked like anything out there could just walk in.
Her eyes went wide as she suddenly remembered something, but before she could act on it Tora's mechanical friend walked past them and headed towards it. "Hey." Linkle called out to her. "Tora's friend, wait a minute. There's this really spooky robot we saw out there that likes shooting other robots. It was in that place near the castle with all the metal junk. It might still be creeping around."
© 2007-2024