Final Fantasy [Begins]

[Weasel Overlord]

Bellaevis
:: the bear and the maiden fair* ::

Oh great, a Behemoth. Bellaevis wasn't amazingly certain of her ability to take down something so large, considering her general lack of warrior... ness... but it sure wasn't going to stop her trying! And anyway, she fancied looking quite hard in front of that big sexy lump of a man Cid, so that could always go in her favour.

Not that she needed to look hard to get someone into the sack, but that hefty dose of adrenaline always made everything sharper and a hell of a lot more awesome, which was quite a feat in most situations.

But, for now, there was a giant lump of Behemoth monster to beat down. She grinned in Eden's direction as Markus held up the creature's attack.

“Two pints says I manage the finishing blow!”

And she dashed in, vaguely aware of a shout from Eden, but to hell with that and definitely to hell with safety. She was planning on taking this sucker out then riding the high all night if she had to get injured to manage it!

Holding out her erhu bow as she ran, Bellaevis zipped in between the Behemoth's legs and swung upwards, hard. Hard enough to make the beast roar in anguish and shout something in his guttural language that she could have sworn were actual swear words. Brilliant.

She nipped out from under him again, winking exaggeratedly at Markus, who had managed to get himself out of the way in the brief respite.

“Come on, guys!” she yelled, boosting her voice above the carnage to be sure that everyone on her side heard. “Make me wanna write a filthy song about how awesome this battle is, yeah?”

She launched into a tune, bellowing it out with all the bar-singing ability of her trained lungs. A few monsters were nothing compared to singing over a rowdy bar fight after midnight. Spinning herself around between lines, she expertly took out one of the little guys with a hefty smack beneath the chin, and it rolled away with a pained yelp, eyes rolling back into its skull.

♪ A bear there was, a bear, A BEAR ♪ she sang, although it was more booming than actual singing. ♪ All black and brown and covered with HAIR! ♪

Her tactic seemed to be working, or at the very least, it was making the group grin a little bit instead of grimacing, which was all for the better.

She inhaled a deep breath; ♪ Oh come, they said! Oh come to the fair! ♪ ducking next to Eden, Bellaevis elbowed her in the ribs. She received a glare for her trouble as Eden danced out of the way of a blow from the Behemoth.

“Are you going to fight, or are you just going to wander around singing?” Eden snapped, but there wasn't too much bite behind it, and even if there had have been, Bellaevis would have ignored it anyway.

“You guys love my singing!” Bellaevis pouted, breaking off from her ballad for a second. “I've lost count of how many times you've asked me for The Bear and the Maiden Fair, anyway.”

Eden levelled a Look at her. “After how many drinks?

“Not the point,” Bellaevis called out as she legged it away from the Behemoth's next swing. She ducked underneath again, this time going in with a stabbing motion right in the unmentionables.

♪ The fair, said he! ♪ she punctuated each break with another stab, ♪ But I'm a BEAR! ♪

*for any interested parties, the song The Bear and the Maiden Fair is stolen straight out of George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. See here for lyrics.

[ChobiChibi]

Nova Myst

Kite was hesitant, and Nova had no patients for that today. His chest seemed to ache more since Eden had pushed him and he was getting tired. Had he really lost all his stamina since he stopped training? No, because he was fine when he took on the Behemoth.

Bloody Behemoths.

Nova dragged Kite along behind him; if Alex said help this woman, then help her he would. Alex was ahead of them, running past the other woman and following a man she was apparently associated with. Problem was, she also picked up a gorgon tailing her...

“Bloody fiends!” Nova grumbled, letting go of Kite and sprinting off after the monster. With one swift motion, he pulled his blade from its sheath, locked it into position and leapt forward, stabbing the gorgon right between its shoulder blades and bringing it to the ground.

Eden would be proud if she saw that. He mused, standing up and heading back towards the others.

“When did you get that sword?” Kite narrowed his eyes as he fended off a goblin; if it was possible to behead them he probably would’ve with that swing.

“I’ve always had it.” Nova replied simply, helping the woman with some pesky goblins. “I’m Nova.”

“Odile.” She thwacked a gorgon that Nova hadn’t spotted.

“Where did you get it from?” Kite asked, ignoring their new companion.

He sighed. It was always best to be as honest as possible with Kite when he was like this. “It was a graduation gift when I finished my training at the Alexandrian Command.”

“The military?!” Nova flinched, both at his surprise and the fact that Kite’s sledgehammer came a little too close for comfort. “But you hate the military!”

“Hence why I quit.”

“Are you two done with your little lovers tiff?” Odile gave them both a knowing look. It confused Nova, but seemed to make Kite all flustered.

“W-we’re not l-lovers!”

Nova sighed, fighting off another couple of gorgons before speaking again. “Are these fiends ever gonna stop coming?”

The Behemoth roared, instantly getting Nova’s attention. Whatever they were doing to it, it seemed unhappy. Bellaevis, however, seemed thrilled, singing at the top of her lungs a song that he vaguely remembered, whilst taunting and teasing the beast.

Nova gripped his sword tighter. The fiends’ numbers were dwindling; some were just plain ignoring them and heading into the city. There wasn’t much more for them to do, other than head to the city and hope for the best...

Or help take down the Behemoth.

A pair of goblins went flying past his line of vision before Kite scalded him. “I know that look. Don’t even think about it.”

“But-”

“Need I remind you that you’ve met a Behemoth before? What happened last time, Nova?”

“You’ve fought a Behemoth before?” For a brief moment, Odile looked vaguely impressed. That was until she spotted the sheepish grin that plastered itself on Nova.

“It was little, but vicious. I ran away before it could kill me.”

“Kill you, Nova. Kill. You could die if you go over there.” Kite emphasised his friend’s potential death by taking swings at passing fiends.

It’s like everyone in my life are angels on my shoulder, he glanced from Kite to Eden, then to Bellaevis, maybe not Bellaevis... He even glanced at Markus, his former trainer, before focusing on the gorgon that had decided Nova was his dinner. But my heart is the devil, forcing my brain into only listening to it.

There was one thing that even his devilish heart was telling his brain: he was tired. Then don’t attack, his heart told his brain, just stall it. Slow it down. Surely they can’t fault you for trying to help?

“Sorry, Kite, I can’t stand here and watch from the sidelines.” He shrugged.

“It’s suicide!”

Nova rolled his eyes. “You coming, Odile?”

“I don’t seem have much choice...” She smirked, out of sight of Kite, her expression going deadpan as she walked past the man.

The two of them jogged back towards the shoreline, where the Behemoth loomed over his friends.

“Wait!” Kite called. Nova chuckled.

“You’re manipulative.” Odile commented.

“You’re observant.”

“You’d better have a plan, Nova!” Kite jogged alongside him, sledgehammer over his shoulder. “Or this ain’t gonna be pretty.”

“We take out the tail.” He began to pick up the pace. “Cut it off, break its bones, pin it to the ground, I don’t care. Other than the giant sword and the teeth, the tail is gonna cause us most harm. The more it flails, the more likely it will hit us.”

----

Om nom nom, Behemoth snacks~

[Crystal Tears]

~ 4 ~

For so many fighting a single opponent – the behemoth was a nightmare. It was enraged, swinging and nearly cutting most of the party in two with its oversized cleaver. The other portion of warriors were nearly taken out by its tail. Eden had noticed that her brother, his ditch-crawling friend and a stranger had joined them.

Eden didn’t have time in this situation to scold her brother – as much as she wanted to. Instead she had to make due and work with him, something that she had never excelled at doing. While Nova could no doubt get tasks done – he rushed them, paid little attention to the finer details and for the most part his attempts were… sloppy. Good enough to pass, but sloppy.

In a battle for your life, that’s not an ideal trait.

The creature they were fighting seemed to notice that it was quickly becoming the only fiend left on the beach. It roared, turning ‘round to try and clobber whoever happened to be standing there. It’s furious gaze focused on Nova’s friend, who seemed to stare wide-eyed at the creature as it snarled and brought it’s foot up to step on the kid.

“Kite!” Nova cried, and hearing her brother call out in such a frantic fashion made Eden look over.

Nova ever the hero, blindly charged to his friend’s assistance and with seconds to spare from becoming a bloody mess on the beach tackled his friend away. They both crashed down into the sand, sputtering curses.

“Markus help them!” Eden ordered, watching as the man nodded and hurried over to their side. He dropped to one knee and slid into position, again catching the massive blade on his armored limb. Sand flew up from the blow that formed another ditch in the beach, and he coughed.

Nova and Kite’s eyes opened wide, seeing the gleaming edge of the cleaver hanging over them.

Markus eyed the two he was protecting. “Get up… I can’t hold this bastard forever.”

“Bellaevis,” Eden nodded to her friend. “Let’s go.”

“Aye aye, let’s show this bugger who he’s messin’ with!” Bellaevis charged ahead, bounding up onto the cleaver – she held her balance perfectly, not wobbling in the slightest as the behemoth glared at her and snorted. “I have another medley, wanna hear it?”

“Ayoh murkurk um sylbehepci dy e nyhmi'm emm!” It growled, opening its jaws wide to snap at the perfectly perched woman.

Instead the behemoth received Eden’s sword to its cheek, the blade sliding through easily. It yowled, staggering backwards and lifting it’s cleaver up off of Markus’s arm. Bellaevis nimbly jumped from the top of the monster’s weapon to its shoulder, she smacked the bow into the creature’s neck as hard as she could. It turned its head to the right, snapping at her and almost managing a hit.

Eden grunted, and swung her body up; she pushed off against the creature’s bottom jaw and tore her blade from its face, creating a rather gruesome looking cut. The huntress landed back down onto the sand before bounding up again, she snatched a banner and swung up back onto the creature’s back.

The two women eyed each other, as the Behemoth shook and made Bellaevis lose her balance. Eden snatched her arm, pulling her back up.

“I think you’ve made him angry.” Eden smirked, watching as the bard snatched the other banner.

“Bah, I think he’s jealous of my singing.” She grinned.


“Odile!” Alex cried, rejoining the group. She gawked at the scrapes and bruises they had all received. “Um… Adair is having some sort of trouble with the engine! Something about…” She paused, flustered. “I honestly have no idea! But he needs your help!”

“Alright Sprite, don’t get yourself all twisted about it.” Odile smiled and tossed the girl a small metal baton. “Help them out then, alright?”

Alex held the weapon awkwardly; staring at it like it was from another world. She pivoted in the sand, calling out to Odile who had made quite the gap between the battle and herself.

“What is this thing!?”

“Hey!” A strange boy with a massive hammer waved to her. “Come on! Aren’t you gonna help!?”

Alex looked down at the strange baton and gulped. She looked back at the stranger, her face turning red. “I have no idea how to fight!”

Not that it mattered – milliseconds after those words had escaped Alex’s mouth there was a flash of white light. It expanded from the epicenter of the battle – consuming the flailing behemoth, Eden, and Bellaevis first. From there it covered Markus, Nova, Kite and finally reached Alex. She yelped, covering her eyes, as the light gobbled her up next.

It was gone after a second, replaced by a fierce wind that was spiralling into a tornado of sand, debris and wisps of magic. The Behemoth had managed to knock the two women off of it, and was laughing.

“What the hell is this?” Nova called over the howling wind, stumbling.

Eden was panicking. She was up on her feet and had sheathed her weapons as quickly as she could.

“Get out of here!” She waved to the others. “It’s a teleport!” She snatched Bellaevis’s hand and pulled her to her feet, ignoring the bitter sting of sand in her eyes.

“Eden!” Markus called out to her, issuing her to come. “Bellaevis! Come on!”
“Run!” Kite cried, hurrying for the edge of the twister.

Nova stumbled, collapsing as debris smacked into him.

“Nova!” Alex hurried for him, somehow managing to dodge the rubble zooming around her - she snatched his arm and started to haul him to his feet.

All of them were at varying stages of panic when gravity suddenly decided to shift. The monster’s devilish chuckling faintly dimmed and disappeared and all of them saw why – the teleport had activated. A portal lined with blue energy had just consumed the behemoth and it was making light bend in ways it shouldn’t.

“Run!” Eden shouted, throwing her companion ahead of her. “Get the hell away from it!”

Bellaevis reached back for her. “Not without my drinkin’ buddy! Move your ass Eden!”

She wanted to run, but Eden was distinctly aware that suddenly it was incredibly hard to take a step at all – let alone run. She grimaced, glancing back, she could see the teleport had expanded, and now she was being sucked in. She was being strung out, like some sort of bad special effects.

She was the first, but not the last to get absorbed – not that she realized it. Darkness greeted her inside the portal – an eerie, resounding silence that would only echo her own heartbeat back to her. It had consumed them all; everyone in that fight had been trapped by the spell.


A few seconds later the void gave away to some place – Eden wasn’t sure where this was though. Not that she really had time to think about it, the portal through her out so violently that all she saw before she smacked face first into the wall was that this place was dark and badly lit.

Then she promptly fell unconscious.


“Eden?”

That voice belonged to someone who caused her irritation on a regular basis.

“Eden, come on… wake up…”

Her eyes opened, and she found that her brother Nova was leaning over her – worry all over his face. She blinked and scowled, pushing him away from her as she sat up – groaning. He grunted, falling as she shook her head, rubbing the side of her face slowly.

“What happened?”

“I uhh,” Nova shifted and sat more comfortable. “I have no idea; I came flying out of that portal I think a second after you.” He gave her a concerned look. “You were unconscious when I came here, you uhh, hit the wall pretty hard.” He glanced around, looking a little worried. “I can’t find the others, I didn’t want to leave you here to go look for them either. Can you walk?”

Eden, unable to admit how much her head was actually reeling from the blow, simply stood up. She stumbled, staggered and suddenly found herself leaning up against the wall of the long hallway. She shut her eyes tight, touching her forehead as the migraine throbbed.

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know.” Nova answered, hurrying to her. “Some creepy temple by the looks, I mean, it has statues of ceith.”

Eden opened her eyes, confused. “What?”

He pointed, and she looked.

There they were - two very menacing statues of ceith. They were bulky and awkward looking, with pained human faces in their chests while the rest of their bodies looked twisted and wretched.

“That’s…” Eden blinked. “No temple back home would have ceith in them.”

“I know…” Nova’s excitement grew. “That means were outside the barrier!”

The huntress glared at him, forced herself off the wall and began to walk away. She wavered again, finding herself leaning on her brother for support when he appeared beside her.

“Where are we going?”

“To find out where the hell we are.”

“And find the others.” He added on, offering her a smile. Eden didn’t offer any back, just looked away. “They’ve gotta be around somewhere.”

~ + ~

Rio/River is out of the RPG for now. She’ll be back with us later.

Partners for teleportation:
Eden and Nova
Markus and Kite
Alex and Bellaevis

The temple is dark creepy and we’re all split into pairs. There’s your inspiration. Good luck!

[Shadow Wolf]

Jin

It was a job well done!

Jin had a smile in his face as he saw the fireworks illuminate the city. He didn’t care about how much rush he had to go through hours earlier as the crew finished the last details of the festival. He didn’t care either about the pressure felt while having everything related to the festival built with “perfection”. He was just here with nothing in his mind, except the words he heard from his trainer: “Enjoy what you do Jin.”There was a lot of activity around him due to the festival, but he was adapted to be “invisible”, so he just stood there, watching everything around him move while he remained “still”. He was adapted to this ever since he began living alone, and from what it seemed, he could enjoy the festival like this.

…But life had other plans for Jin. If not, then the chaos that would engulf the festival would definitely work on this. His inner thoughts of peace were broken along with the stage now in ruins due to the evil creature now creating havoc in the city. And with a roar louder than thunder, it’s no surprise that even Jin’s poker face would transform into a serious and fearful look.

The city was in chaos and now almost everyone was running for their lives. He would notice a few brave souls fighting the creatures but he was hesitant to join them, so he preferred to help the people get away. At least, his small amount of training with the Defence Core would help him achieve that. Looking out for the Goblins, he helped a few citizens move outside of danger. But things weren’t going to be a piece of cake for anyone. And just as he was helping a few kids reach safety, he felt as a sudden weight made him fall face first into the ground.

Moving out the body out of the way so he wound be able to stand up again, he noticed that a fellow DC officer lied dead in the ground. He was shocked! After all, he had one of the new prototype weapons being tested in among the Core’s elite guards. Not even he was unable to withstand the wrath of the Goblins and of the Gorgonopsids. But what made him lose his mind was to notice that the kids he was trying to help were also lying on the floor… motionless.

His mind went on a complete blank, except for one word: Rage.

Picking up his fallen teammate’s weapons –A pair of mechanized tonfas–, he rushed towards the monsters. He gripped the weapons tighter, thus pressing the button to make them spin automatically, excellent to shield him from the attacks and to take down many of them at the same time. One… two… three… he was taking down each goblin as he endured the hits from their heavy hands. He took out a lot of these and even a Gorgonopsid along the way. But eventually, the hits would take a toll on him; and just as he was staring at the demonic Behemoth and getting ready to rush towards where it was, he was taken down when a Gorgonopsid landed on top of him.

______


Jin woke up feeling ache all over his body. Using a nearby wall as support, he managed to get up. Leaning against the very wall, he explored the surroundings with his eyes. Everything was unfamiliar to him.

That means I’m officially lost

He just let his body slide into the floor, though he regretted that as soon as he did it. His back had been cut by the claws of the Gorgonopsid who knocked it out of the battle.

Ah, right!

He scouted the area with his eves again, but there were no signs of the monster. Releasing a light sound of relief, he decided to remain there, resting a bit.

How reckless of me…

His thoughts were focused on the past battle. And in the train of logic, he looked at his side, noticing that he had the tonfas close to him. It took him a few minutes, but he got the hang of them soon. Rotation and Extension… Defense and Offense. That’s all he needed to know.

Suddenly, a sound made his head turn in the direction of a nearby corridor.

Footsteps… he readied his newly acquired weapons to whatever was coming.
Hiding himself behind a nearby wall and holding one of the weapons close, he quietly awaited whatever was coming. He wasn’t ready to be stabbed from behind again… but he stopped hearing the footsteps. Something wasn’t right…

And out of the blue, a bright sword crossed paths with his stick.

“Who are you?” The woman was standing there with her blade pushing the tonfa closer to Jin. Jin did not answer and used his second tonfa to try and catch her off guard. He missed, though.

She’s good… really good

“Don’t make this hard on yourself” She replied as she landed a second blow in Jin. And just as he was about to move out of her way, a third blow from an unknown source caught him off guard, making him fall in his bottom. “Now answer… who are you?” The woman changed her blade into a rifle and the laser was now pointed at Jin’s forehead.

Jin finally noticed that the third blow came from a young man a bit taller than him. He could’ve sworn he’d seen him before, but that wasn’t important right now.

“Jin” He had no choice but to reply to the woman pointing the gun at him.

“Wait...” The teenager had the same look as Jin now. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”

“You know him Nova?” The woman asked the young boy.

“Not really... however, I've seen him somewhere.” The boy replied as he tried to recall a fading memory.

Nova… Eden… both names sound so familiar… that’s when Jin remembered something…

“Nova… weren’t you in the Defence Core?” Jin replied as a vague memory of the young man slipped through his mind.

_________

Well, I think it was about time I could finally come up with something. I missed a lot so I hope I can make it up for it soon. Tag Eden (Crystal Tears) and Nova (Chobichibi)

[Crystal Tears]

~5~

Alex was slow to stand. Everything around her was dark, a pure jet-black that it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She gulped, turning around slowly – listening to the damp footsteps of her shoes on the floor. The room slowly lit up, blue light turning to a soft white, allowing her to see around her.

Despite her vision returning, she completely tripped over a woman lying on the floor – unconscious.

Alex landed on her butt, wincing and giving a grunt as she sat back up. This woman had been one of the real fighters – thick into the combat.

Wasn’t her name Bella? Or something close to that? Alex frowned for a second, before crawling towards the woman on her hands and knees. She paused and looked down when her hand fell on something. The songstress tilted her head, blinking at the device.

The baton that Odile had given her…

I hope she’s alright… Alex turned her attention back to the woman.
“Um… hello?”

No reply.

There was a rumble, drawing the girl’s attention up.

There was a… thing… a humanoid thing about three times the size of Alex, lumbering towards them. That rumble had been a moan, something it emitted again from seemingly nowhere. It didn’t have a mouth; instead it had grotesquely huge arms and a pale, screaming face in its chest. Lines on its body glowed red when it made another call.

Alex’s eyes shot down to the woman – she didn’t look like she was going to wake up soon. Her gaze fell back to the baton.

This was about to suck.

Snatching the baton, Alex examined it and found a small button on the side, making the baton extended to about five feet. She gulped, changing her grip so she had a firm hold on it in the center.

“Ultima please,” Alex carefully stepped over the woman, her heart pounding. “Don’t let me die horribly.”

Bella groaned.

“And don’t let that thing step on her either…”

The creature trudged forward, lifting a giant arm and swung.

It was in that split moment, Alex remembered she had no idea how to fight. There wasn’t a bad bone in her body – she only had good bones one would say. Good bones that definitely did not want to be pulverized.

She yelped and ducked, falling to the floor much like a typical girl would. She looked up, mouth ajar as that massive arm was being thrust down to kill her. The songstress rolled, popping out behind the creature.

Which, didn’t even turn to look at her, it was marching for her friend.

“Oh! No! No, no no no!” She ran back to it, futilely smacking the thing in the back. “No! You don’t want to kill her! You want to kill me!” She kept hitting it – harder and harder but it just kept moving. It was looming over the woman now, forcing Alex to instead, grasp the pole like a bat and swing as hard as she could at crystal protrusion on the monster’s shoulder.

There was a crack, and the crystal formation when flying off into the wall, shattering. The creature howled, its once dull rumble echoing through the halls. It slowly turned; almost looking like it was going to fall over, before it was facing her.

Alex stepped back, accidently shrinking the baton back to normal size. “oh… well…” Its shadow was cast over her. “I suppose, I would be angry if someone lobbed my.. shoulder… guard off too..”

The lines glowed red again, and it raised its arm.

And then she was on the floor.

And gun shots were going off.

And as she opened her eyes, she was staring at a very familiar face. He was smiling down at her, like there was nothing wrong with their current evil-fiend-of-doom predicament.

“Nova?” She questioned, and his smile turned cheeky.

“I’m making a habit of saving you.”

Alex’s eyes flicked to an incoming arm. She wasn’t very strong, but she used all of her strength to roll them out of the way, resulting in her sitting awkwardly on top of him.

He blinked a tiny amount of blush appearing on his face, while Alex’s flooded red.

“Nova,” Eden snapped, trying to get him to focus. “Ignore the cute girl for a second and help Jin.”

“Eden!”

On the opposing side of the cieth, was Markus and Nova’s hammer-wielding fiend. The huntress was slightly supporting herself on the wall a little ways back, trying to clear her head.

“Grab Bellaevis!”

“Go help them,” Markus ordered Kite, as the duo split up. He hurried to the now slowly gaining consciousness Bellaevis, who simply seemed confused. For such a large man, he nimbly made it to the other side, hurrying to the huntress’s side. “There’s more, more then we can fight. They saw me and Kite.”

Eden looked at the team.

“Let’s go!” She ordered them all back. “We have to run – there’s more!”

The group began falling back, putting as much distance between them and the monsters as they could. Admittedly, Eden had no idea where she was going, but every direction she picked seemed to be void of whatever the hell was chasing them. When they came to an old, grummy looking elevator, the group paused.

“Well…” Nova crossed his arms. “That looks promising.”

Eden frowned, staring at the contraption. It was big enough to carry them all, just… would it?

“What were those things?” Markus questioned, still carrying the out-of-it Bellaevis.

“Fiends.” Jin noted.

“No,” Eden opened the elevator doors, checking the interior. “They’re ceith.”

Alex gasped, the rest were silent.

“But no one has been out here for ages…” the songstress quietly noted. “How long have they been wandering around this temple?”

“I don’t think the fal’Cie gave the curse an end.” Markus looked at her, frowning. He looked back at Eden. “You don’t know where that goes.”

“We’re dead if we go back.” The huntress didn’t hesitate as she stepped inside and turned to face them.

“We might die down there.” Kite frowned, his voice showing a hint of displeasure.

Alex joined Eden, Jin was next, followed by Markus – leaving only Nova and Kite.

“I can guarantee you, if you stay up here, you will die when those cieth find you.” Eden crossed her eyes, looking at them both with an icy stare. “Riding the elevator to its destination gives us slightly better odds.”

Nova stepped in next, and issued for Kite to join them.

Kite didn’t say anything as he entered. Eden reached and pressed the panel, activating the lift.

It began its decent, casting them all in pure darkness.

Nova chuckled. “May the odds ever be in our favour.”

“Shut it Nova.” Eden grumbled.

He chuckled. “Yes ma’am…”

~ + Tag EVERYBODY + ~

If you do not respond to this post I will assume you do not wish to continue this RPG anymore. If that’s the case I will work you out of the story (in a violent fashion, given where we are). We’re in an elevator going deeper – one of you guys can move us along.

[Shadow Wolf]

Jin

“I think you should save the ‘catching up’ for later”

Eden’s words made Jin snap back from his mind into the situation at hand. He still didn’t know where he was, so that should be his priority. “So what do we do?”

“Find out where we are?” Eden said as she returned her weapon.

“There are others so we should also look for them.” Nova mentioned this as he offered a hand to help Jin stand up.

“Thanks” He had a bit of pain, but he could still move.

“Let’s go!” Eden was already walking slowly ahead of them. For some reason, Nova gave a quick sprint towards the woman… as if he expected something… And that’s when Jin noticed… the woman lost her balance and Nova was already ready to have her lean on his shoulder. She forced her hand Jin thought as he gave some quick steps to walk close to them. With Nova carrying Eden, the least he could do was to be on guard. With this, they proceeded forward as a lit chamber awaited them at the end of the next hall.

_______

As the trio proceeded forward into the chamber, there silent environment was interrupted with a sound of something crashing against a wall and shattering, followed shortly by an eerie howl. Quickly following the origin of the noise, their eyes widened a bit as they witnessed a massively tall creature turning around slowly to a girl holding a large baton in her hands. Eden was about to say something when she was quickly interrupted by Nova.

“Bell-”…. “Alex!” He didn’t hesitate to let go of Eden to rush to the girl’s aid.

With no choice but to follow the “hero’s” lead, she pulled her sword from her case to make it transform into a rifle. With a slow breath, her eyes were focused on the laser, which was now pointed at the humanoid monster. “Go!” Eden ordered Jin to assist the hero as her finger clicked on the trigger, making the shots hit some of the monster’s weak spots and making it stagger. The monster howled again and in its rage, managed to raise its arm again to strike. Nova had his guard down and Jin knew that he would not arrive on time to block the fiend’s strike. The monster made its swing…

Fortunately, the very girl that he intended to save ended up saving him instead. She managed to roll both of them to the side with enough strength to help both of them evade the huge arm coming at them from above.

Now’s my chance… Holding both weapons by the main shaft, Jin made a dual swing at the monster’s leg. With its arm already on the floor and the leg of the same side taking a blunt hit from Jin’s Tonfas. It wasn’t enough to take it down but at least it was enough to make the monster focus on Jin. Stepping back as the monster proceeded towards him and barely evading a swing from one of its massive arms, he was able to ensure the safety of the three on the floor. During the events, new people joined the team, but also many more enemies… many more than the whole team could handle.

“Let’s go!” Eden’s words echoed through everyone’s ears, including Jin’s. “We have to run – there’s more!”

Eden led the group as they tried to keep as much distance as possible from the giants. The group eventually stumbled upon some kind of ancient elevator. Eden was lost in thoughts for a moment, but she quickly reacted and activated the mechanism.

“What were those things?” Markus questioned.

“Fiends” Jin noted.

“No” Eden opened the elevator doors, checking the interior. “They’re ceith.”

Alex gasped, the rest were silent. There was a short conversation between the rest of the group, but it was quickly interrupted as Eden gave the order to get on the elevator. Eventually, everyone was on and, with the elevator going down, the group was thrown into an environment filled with silence, mystery and darkness.

___________

After a brief period of time, the elevator stopped. Everything was completely dark, but everyone’s eyes were focused at where the door is supposed to be. “Stay alert everyone!” Markus voice reminded everyone of the horde of ceith they left behind, thus they needed to be ready.

With a loud but quick pitch produced by the mechanisms of the elevator, the doors of the lift proceeded to open. The loud sound echoed through the place and with it, the lights of the room began turning on, as if the room was ready to receive the crew; and with the lights on, everyone could see each other again. Eden, Jin and Markus had their grip on their respective weapons, while the woman with her ears covered in earrings seemed to have recovered and was currently analyzing the current situation. Jin recalled the name Bellaevis while he was dealing with the cieth, or whatever the monster was called.

Nova was probably the one facing an unusual situation. On his left side, the girl who apparently was named Alex was attached to his left arm, probably due to a spontaneous reaction. And on his right side, the guy with the hammer was gripping his right shoulder, as if he wanted to make sure that he was still close to him. Both of them released Nova so quickly and nervously that it pretty much made everyone notice how nervous they were as each one tried so hard to hide their faces.

Ignoring the scene, Nova stepped out of the lift and into the room. The steps echoed through the room and with no other sound except that of his teammates, it seemed like there was no enemy near them. He looked around a bit; just to make sure that no threats were close.

“It seems we’re safe for now.” He was now facing the group as he lowered his weapon.

“Ah, I’m glad” Alex was breathing a sigh of relief as everyone proceeded to get out of the lift.

Once again, the sounds of everyone’s footsteps were the only noise in the chamber.

Apparently, they had gone down quite some floors, since they couldn’t even hear the echo of the cieth waiting for them in the floor above them.

“We’re are we?” The woman whose name was Bellaevis asked as her gaze was fixed at the weird statues surrounding the room.

“That’s what we have to find out.” Eden replied as she apparently showed signs of recovery.

“Hehehe, this promises to be interesting.” Nova aired as he showed signs of excitement. Eden seemed like she disapproved his statement, but remained silent to the young one’s response.

“In any case, the only way to go is forward.” Markus conveyed his words as he pointed a path which seemed to have a long stair to an even lower level of this place.

“But there are two paths.” The guy with the hammer exclaimed as he pointed a small hallway east of the path Markus was pointing.

“Yeah, but I don’t think splitting up is a good idea, considering that we have cieth on the hunt for our necks.” Markus mentioned while looking at Eden, as if he was waiting to see if she agreed.

“We should check both paths and return. After that, we can choose the best route to proceed. You two, check the stair path and you two, check the other path.” Eden ordered as she sent Markus with Nova to check one route and Jin with the young one with hazel eyes.

“Alright, time to explore.” Nova exclaimed as he readied his sword.

“And Markus” He turned around to see Eden with a fixed glare at Nova “Don’t let him out of your sight.”

________________

After a few minutes, both parties returned to Eden. From what each group reported, it was confirmed that the route they should take was the one with the stairway.

“Alright, let’s go then.” The group was now moving forward as each one proceeded to take the steps of the dampened stair with caution. As both Markus and Nova stated, what awaited them at the end was an even bigger room with what it seemed to be some kind of chamber filled with ancient technology. Thin pillars with some kind of orange light, projected by small artifacts in some of the handles could be found in the air around the room, making the room even brighter, along with the white lights surrounding it. A few sets of small stairs were placed in each side, leading to a higher platform in the northern part of the room.

And in the end of the big platform, some kind of door which seemd to be powered by the artifacts in the room awaited our group

"Well, we know where to go." Nova replied as he walked in front of the group. However, his confidence was cut short when the room began to shake, as if some kind of earthquake had befallen the place. The floor beneath them was shaken uncontrollably, and almost everyone was paralyzed due to the sudden earthquake.

"MOVE!!!!"
Eden had to shout the order to make everyone react and move into a safe place. However, the young guy with a hammer as a weapon seemed to have ignored Eden's order, as he still remained in shock.

He finally reacted when he felt someone pushing him to the side. Jin managed to push the young one just before part of the floor began to collapse. And as the young one turned to see who the one who saved him was, Jin noticed how the floor beneath him ceased to exist.

He was falling...

______

OK, I think I tagged everyone here. I hope I managed to create both tension and action with this post. I apologize for the grammar errors and if there's anything I need to fix, let me know.

[Samchu]

Markus
~~~~~



“Urgh…what in the name of Shiva happened…?” Markus groaned as he lifted himself to his feet. He had the distinct groggy feeling that he had been unconscious but he had no way of telling how long for. “Eden?” He took a step forward but his legs wobbled, still unfamiliar with the concept of walking, and he fell sideways into the wall. Cursing, he slid to his rear. Awareness seeped slowly into him, bringing with it a throbbing pain in his right leg. He cursed again. “Feels like I got run over by a damn chocobo.” He looked across the floor and discovered the source of his pain. “Or I landed on a sledgehammer. Of all the places to fall into I gotta land on a freaking sledgehammer. Odin damn it!”

There was a moan to the left. Looking across Markus saw another male, about his age. After a few moments he realised it was the guy he’d seen with Nova during the attack. Returning to his feet – with more care this time – Markus wandered over and nudged the man’s shoulder. “Hey, you okay there?”

The man’s head rolled to the side. “What happened?”

“No idea.” He looked around. “Can’t even say where we are. Definitely ain’t the beach.”

There was a moment of silence before the man shouted, “Nova!” and jumped to his feet. A little too quickly it turned out as he stumbled and Markus had to offer a hand of support. “Thanks…”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find Nova. And the others. They all got sucked in. They all gotta be around here somewhere.” He took his hand off of the man’s shoulder and picked a direction, keeping his steps slow. Despite his anxiousness to find Eden he knew nothing about the place in which they found themselves, what dangers might lurk in the shadows. He needed to be prepared for anything and that meant doing his best to keep his mind off of her.

“So you’re in the Defence Core?”

It sounded more like a statement than a question but Markus chose to take it as the latter. “That’s right.” He looked back at his travelling companion and noticed the accursed sledgehammer had come along too. “You’re Nova’s friend, right?”

“Kite. You know Nova?”

“Know him? I trained him – for a while anyway.”

“Was he always so-”

“Reckless?”

Kite nodded.

“Yeah. Not his fault though, one of them genetic things. His sister’s the same.” He slowed his pace enough to let Kite walk beside him. “He’ll give you the run around.”

“Yeah…” Kite looked distant for a moment, then his eyes caught Markus’ gaze and the bigger man thought he saw him blush. “Not that I run around after him or anything. I just – I get what you mean, about Nova.”

Markus chuckled. “If you say so.” He paused to rub the back of his still aching leg. “It’s worth it though. All that running around feels exhausting and you have to fight so hard for so little but it really is worth it.” He started walking again. “Come on, the others have to be around here somewhere.”

*

Somehow they all made it into the immediate safety of the elevator. The doors closed and the army of fiends – make that ceith – disappeared. Markus let out a breath of relief but he knew they weren’t safe. As the elevator descended, a tense silence gripped the group. After seeing those cieth, what horrors could be waiting for them below.

The girl draped over his shoulder stirred and her hands brushed his rear.

“Hey are you-”

“I once knew a man – such a tease
“Who charmed off a girl’s panties with ease
“I walked up to that man
“And readied my hand
“And gave his large cock a good squeeze.”

Fortunately for Markus, the woman wasn’t in any position to grab his manhood but that didn’t stop her from taking advantage of the situation and grabbing a handful of his rear. The soldier yelped and momentarily lost his footing, almost dropping the woman in the process. Somehow he managed to recover and slid the woman to her feet before passing her over to Eden.

“You take care of her.” He slipped into a corner of the elevator to nurse his pride and his backside in peace.

*

There are some things in life that no amount of training could ever prepare you for, things that are so sudden and unexpected that the only thing you can do is hope that your instincts are sharp enough to save you. When the floor started to shake, Markus had immediately braced himself, drawing his body into a crouch and shifting his weight against the movements as best he could. He felt the inevitable collapse of a section of the floor moments before the cracks began to show but it was Eden who ordered them to move. She had always had a way of reading a situation better than he ever could. He wasn’t sure whether he admired or envied for the skill.

Everyone moved away from the dangerous section of the floor, all save for Kite. Jin rushed to the boy’s rescue only for the added weight of a second body to force open the already fragile cracks. As Kite stumbled towards the main body of the group, the ground beneath Jin’s feet vanished. Without pause for thought, Markus made his move. He gained as much momentum as he dared and dropped, scraping across the rough surface. The uniform did little to protect him from the coarse ground and he winced as pointed debris scratched at his skin. He reached the edge of the floor and, ignoring every fibre of his being, let himself fall over the edge. Opening his arms as he rolled over, he managed to grab hold of Jin’s wrist and succeeded in a tentative grip on the crumbling edge of the floor. His chest roared in agony at the sudden stop and he almost lost his grip on both Jin and the floor above.

“You okay, Jin?” He managed to ask through gritted teeth.

“Y-yeah. Thanks.”

“Thank me when we’re on stable ground.” He tried to pull Jin up but the strain was too much. Must’ve landed here harder than I thought. Better see a healer if we ever make it out of here. He felt hands on his wrist and looked up. Eden’s face peered at him from over the ledge.

“Having trouble?”

“Just admiring the lovely scenery. Any chance of a pull up?”

“The floor’s too unstable for more than one person right now. I can probably keep you from dropping but that’s it.”

Markus sighed and tried to ignore the ever-growing strain in his muscles. “Jin, I need you to climb up me.” He waited for some kind of acknowledgement but received none. “Jin?”

“There’s something there.”

Markus froze as he pictured a horde of cieth lumbering beneath them. Or worse… “What is it?”

“I can’t tell. Can you swing me over a bit?”

“Are you crazy?”

“I can almost reach it. I just need you to swing me a little closer.”

“We don’t even know what it is.”

“It might help us.”

“Odin help you if you piss something off.” Gritting his teeth against the pain, Markus began to swing Jin. His muscles were burning but despite the pain and the frustration of the situation he refused to let Jin go. A few moments later, his ached eased a little and he looked down to find Jin had managed to get himself some footing on a protruding piece of flooring. Markus couldn’t tell whether it was another floor or the remnants of a single room but something inside had clearly taken Jin’s interest.

Several silent moments passed and Jin shouted up that he was ready to ascend. Markus braced himself, warning his body of the impending strain, and told his friend to climb. The trip was slow and painful. More than once the soldier thought his arm would come free of his shoulder and drop them both into oblivion but somehow the joint held and as Jin disappeared over the top, he felt relief rush through him. Markus threw up his dangling arm and pulled himself back into the room. Once he was clear of the potentially fatal ground, he took a deep breath and turned to Jin. “So what did you find?”

The younger man rooted out a small object and held it out to the ground. Everyone gathered a little closer to inspect the object nestled in his palms. It was a crystal, barely the length of Markus’ hand. It was blue, with five perfectly cut edges, a pointed top and a rounded bottom. On the surface there was nothing unusual about it and Markus almost felt the urge to punch Jin for risking both their lives for something that didn’t appear to pose any help to them at all. But then he looked closer and he saw what it was that had made Alex’s eyes go wide. In the heart of the crystal, something was stirring. It had no real form or shape; at first he had thought it was smoke or some kind of vapour but there was something unnatural about its movement that made him question that decision.

“It’s beautiful,” the young songstress whispered.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” added Kite.

“We should-” Eden began to speak but her words were cut off by the ear-splitting sound of something heavy grinding across the floor. The group looked over and saw the door on the other side of the room had opened.

From a piece of stone that appeared to resemble a desk came Nova’s voice. “I didn’t do it, I swear!” The machines on the “desk” were turning, humming lightly as they moved. Nova’s head appeared above the contraption. He looked at the group and then over at the door, his face lightening to a smirk as he realised that his curiosity appeared to have actually helped them for once. “Oh hey, I did it.”

Eden sighed. “Let’s get going before something else decides to surprise us.” She took Markus’ assaulter by the arm and started leading her towards the door.

“What do I do with this?” Jin asked, nodding towards the crystal.

“Keep it if you want,” Eden replied, refusing to look back at them. “But so help me, if anything bad comes of that crystal I will personally feed you to Humbaba.”




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tag everyone! Wheeeee~

[Shadow Wolf]

Jin

Jin was staring at Kite with a confused look. He didn’t know if to be surprised, amused, or simply serious about what was going on. Sure, he was the one who noticed the weird stone and made Markus go through a struggle just to pick it up, but he didn’t know that this would already create him so much trouble. Not only does he has a death warrant from Eden in case this item proves to be harmful, but now he also has a guy blurting at him for the very item. Still, what confused him the most was that, although there was a more pressing issue at hand (finding a way out), the guy who didn’t said a word during the previous scouting session is the very guy who is currently arguing with him over such a mild issue.

He was already regretting picking up the crystal…

But as he was lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t notice as the guy tried to take the crystal away from him, tumbling in the process and making both of them fall into the floor. The crystal fell out of Jin’s hand and rolled a bit before touching Alex’s sneaker. She picked it up as the gleam in her eyes began to shine once again.

She was about to ask Jin if she could keep it, but as her eyes shifted from the crystal to Jin’s whereabouts, her gleam transformed into a surprised look as she noticed the consequences of the previous struggle. Not just her, Markus, Nova, and Bellaevis were also surprised at what just happened.

Jin smashed his head quite hard as he fell into the floor; and his mind was thrown into a state of confusion for a few seconds.

What happened? Oh yeah… Kite tried to take the crystal… so troublesome… my head…

It wasn’t until his train of thoughts had finally stopped that he finally noticed the unpleasant aura around him. He could not move his mouth as there was something else blocking his lips from moving. When he found out what was it, his mind was thrown into a state of shock as his body struggled a bit to push Kite out of the way. After both men fell down into the floor, Jin had the misfortune of having Kite’s lips fall right into his own lips. And after finally pushing Kite out of the way and rise as he ignored his headache to clean his mouth, he noticed as pretty much everyone else shared the same shocked look that he had in his face.

As he rose to his feet while holding his head with his right hand, he gave Kite an angry stare before turning around to look for the crystal. Alex felt a bit intimidated as she saw Jin with such a scary look. She was about to say sorry and give him the crystal, but before she could say anything, Jin opened his mouth.

“You can keep it for now. I noticed your eyes shining as you looked at it.” His angry look was already gone. “Plus this has caused me enough trouble for a lifetime.”

“OK” A smile appeared in her face.

"Let's move". Eden did not want to waste anymore time.

"Yeah" Jin began to walk as his mind wanted to forget what just happened, though he knew that this was going to be carved in everyone’s head for a while.

___________

This is not a good day.

Jin managed to rise to his feet after the weird vision that went through his mind. His right arm was now in pain as he felt something burn in it. His main concern, however, was not his own pain, but how everyone else was doing.

Everyone seemed to be pulling themselves together after the fal’Cie made its move. With everything OK, his attention turned into the only thing that was not OK…

“It’s moving!”

And in less than a minute, the fal'Cie was inside everyone's head not once, but twice.

The shock was to be expected. Everyone witnessed as their former teammate was now a terrifying monster and now they had no choice but to defeat it.

Eden charged towards the creature as she readied her blade to deliver the first blow. The monster did not hesitate to launch the first strike towards her. Eden’s experience and prowess as a soldier were easily noticed as she managed to evade the monster’s claw with relative ease. She was about ready to strike the creature... yet the Cie’th somehow managed to evade Eden’s strike. Taking advantage of this, the monster took the chance to swing its other claw towards Eden.

The creature missed its target once again.

The claws of the creature found themselves unable to pass through something. Not only were they blocked, but were also mildly bent and pushed aside. The creature noticed the object used to block its strike: a spinning blunt object at the hands of Jin.

“You’re on my way” Eden gave Jin a look of disapproval.

“You’re not alone” Jin ignored her stare as he stopped the tonfa from spinning.

“He’s right.” Markus was also standing in front of Eden, ready to block the monster’s strikes.

“Look out” Alex voice managed to reach the team on the frontline with enough time for them to make a move. Eden and Markus rolled away from the attack. Jin however, had to suffer the consequences of his inexperience with Cie’th. He managed to use both arms to protect himself, but the force of the monster’s arm was enough to send him flying to the wall. He released a cry of pain as his body crashed against the wall, falling into the ground shortly after.

“Jin!” Nova shouted as he went to his aid.

“Ugh” Jin managed to pull himself together even though he was in pain.

“How are you still alive?” Nova was surprised to see Jin surviving a blow at point-blank range. He had clearly taken a strong blow from the monster and was nicely stopped by a solid wall, yet he managed to rise to his feet.

“I thought this would hurt more.” His eyes were hinting confusion and surprise even though his back reminded him that the wounds of the previous battle were still there.

“Jin!” This time, it was the voice of Markus reaching his ears… “Nova!” followed almost instantly by Alex’s and Kite’s voices respectively.

It took them a bit too long to realize that the Cie’th was not planning to sit idly while they wondered how Jin is still on his feet. As the red eye -now glowing- was focused on Jin’s figure, a shape began to take form just above the creature’s skull. What seemed to be a short blue beam at first was now a spear like object made of ice flying towards them.

Not wanting to make the same mistake again, this time, his body moved on its own to push both him and Nova aside. The Ice projectile, barely scraping Jin’s jacket, continued its way to the wall, creating a crack in it just before crumbling into pieces. As he picked himself up yet again, he realized that he had somehow provoked the monster to attack him. How did he know? That red eye was still focused on him.

“That was close.” Nova saw once again the crack in the wall as he rose to his feet. “Watch out Jin, he may also want to k-“Jin’s eyes stared at Nova with discomfort at what he was about to say.

“You two, focus!” It was clear that Markus was at one time, boss of these two young men, for both of them did not hesitate to concentrate on the more important task.

And as their eyes shifted back to the battle at hand, they both could not help but be impressed at what happened next.

Taking advantage of the distraction of the Cie’th, both Markus and Eden swept in. Knowing that the monster would instantly protect its eye, Eden, with a boost from Markus, jumped towards the creature while her blade collided with the next possible weak spot: its skull.

It was a good choice.

The Cie’th released a cry as Eden’s blade collided through creature’s skull, leaving a visible crack in it and shattering some of the crystals protuberating from the skull in the process.

“Hehehe, it looks like we have a chance.” Nova readied his sword as he propped Jin to help both Eden and Markus.

“Yeah… Let’s go” Jin said as he felt his body ready to withstand another hit.

______


Why do I feel like I suck at writing battle scenes.... tag everyone.