Infinite Justice: Beyond (Marvel,DC,DBZ X/Over, IC, Open)

[Charmera]

A Mind Divided: Part 1
Hannah walked towards the light. It didn't take her long to get to where she needed to go, since space was a vague concept at best here, wherever she was. The Grimm sister still felt the darkness around her, but she no longer feared it\, or if she did, she stubbornly refused to let it show or effect her. She walked through the desert of darkness, until she found the source of the light. It was a small house, a ruined one. One that Hannah was familiar with. She frowned as she looked it over.

"Eh, It will have to do for shelter. Though I'm still not sure where the heck am I." She didn't need to open the door, it was bashed in. She came into a living room, couches overturned and TV smashes. Papers were everywhere, and books too. Old ones. She frowned as she saw blood here and there. She growled slightly. "Blood. I should have smelt that..." She muttered. "Smell, that's one thing this world is lacking. My strongest scent." She sighed. Yawning. Realising she felt tired. She frowned, she had not felt like sleeping a few moments ago, though she supposed whatever it was back in the darkness must have drained her energy. She yawned as she curled up on the couch. "Some shut eye couldn't possibly kill me..."

She slept for some time, her own body heat keeping her warm in this place. She slept for the usual time, peacefully. That was until she heard a noise. Her eyes opened wide as she heard noises from outside. Frowning, she got up and went to the door, only to see an angry mob. A strangely familiar angry mob.

Colorado, Sarah, Sam and me dodged these goons when I was 9 and a half... what are they doing here? She suddenly paused. And why do I remember that...

The question of memory was an interesting one. Hannah could remember some events it seems in perfect details now, but for some reason she couldn't remember much of very recently. The last year or two was a haze for her, a blank.

"Look, I told you morons. My sisters aren't demons. At least I'm fairly sure we're not demons. Now screw off!" She remarked. Then noticed the crowd was giving no sign it was going to retreat. She sighed. "Fine. Want to do this the hard way then?" She concentrated, willing herself to transform. Werebear form. Nothing too deadly, but it would hopefully scare the crap out of them. Though... try as she might, Hannah could not transform.

"Oh... Well that's not good." She remarked, before she was suddenly grabbed by the mob and jostled her, bringing her towards some sort of epicenter.

"Stop! Damn! NO. Dammit!" She shouted, She fought with all her strength, but every time she tried to throw a punch she felt weak. Her fighting spirit was broken or something. She was going to get lynched.

That was, until she heard the call of a wolf. A howl. An alpha's cry. She turned around, seeing from one direction many of the mob were being torn apart. Though instead of blood there was a black ichor as they were being cut down. Soon she could see the culprit,a huge, massive wolf. It tore through the mob without mercy, regret or hesitation, though more important was it's savage power. It was beautiful and terrifying to behold as it tore through everything like paper. Then, it came to her, having killed the entire mob in the time it took one to wipe away a stubborn stain, and seemingly had given it as much reverence as cleaning a stain. It came to her and locked eyes with the Grim sister.

"I am Wolf." Spoke the wolf. "Your first spirit animal."

Hannah paused, seemingly in shock as she took in this giant wolf. And the wolf's look turn to a glare.

"We do not have time for your gaping. Get on my back if you wish to live girl.

There was a pause. But then Hannah scrambled on. And the wolf turned, bounding off into the darkness. Piercing through it it seemed.

"We will need to gather the others. And meet a few new friends too if we are to stand a chance." Spoke Wolf. "A pack is the best way to hunt, and we have dangerous prey to destroy."

"Who are we hunting?"

"Did I ask you to speak? I should tear your throat out for your disrespect."

"Hey! Let me down and I'LL show you disrespect." She growled, trying to assert her position as alpha. "You and me wolfy."

He snarled at her. But kept moving. Hannah sighed, and then simply leaned into his fur.

[Charmera]

-Snip-

Cora
Cora was standing with Katie at their tower when suddenly a group of strange men in colorful costumes came toward the tower out of no where. Cora saw that Katie was frowning when she say them, and knew that this "Brotherhood of Mutants" was clearly not friends of theirs. She heard the large man in the overalls make a derogatory comment about Katie not being a mutant, and Cora clenched her fists in anger and called out,
"Hey!" "Don't talk to Katie like that!" Cora said in a strong defensive tone.

She was then shocked when the man named Magneto said that they had tried to recruit Katie to their group before. Cora would definitely have to ask Katie about that later. Katie had been quite about her past, so Cora didn't really know much about what had happened in Katie's life before they had met. Cora then turned back to Magneto, "What do you want Katie to do anyway? What is this 'Brotherhood' of yours?" Cora asked the man in the metal helmet suspiciously.

“The brotherhood of mutants is a mutant supremacist group.” Katie replied, “They think mutants should rule the world and other humans should be dead or slaves.”

“You may not have joined Charles and his Xmen, but you repeat his lies about us rather well.” Magneto spoke, frowning now. Then he turned to Cora. “I have no interest in you, android, and we will get what we came here for, with or without your teamates help.”

Suddenly Magneto lifted his hand, and Katie frowned, placing herself between Cora and Magneto. “I won’t let you hurt her.” Magneto’s attempt to use his powers on the android seemed to meet resistance.

“You’ve picked up new tricks I see Miss Prince.”

Very new one’s Thought Katie.

“Try to hurt Cora again, and you’ll regret it.” She spoke. She quickly grabbed her JQ communicator and flipped the distress switch.

Katie could sense someone else then, someone else coming towards the tower. The feeling was confirmed when someone smashed through the window.

“So, this is the headquarters of the so called… Justice Queens…” Remarked a voice, bellonging to a very big humanoid. One that rivalled the blob in size. His name was Apocalypse. “You have something I want.” He seems to turn to Cora in particular.

Both of them are here for something it seems… What do we have that they could want?

Nico
Nico was worried when he saw the robber's bullets head toward Cat but then they suddenly bounced off of her as Cat grabbed the enemy and he suddenly collapsed on the ground, while Cat made a comment about how great it felt. Nico was starting to become more clear about Cat's powers. She seemed to be absorbing the energy of the robber as she touched him. That must have been why she did not want him to touch her recently. "Great job Cat, come on lets get the others." He said to her, glad to see she was becoming more comfortable with her powers. They continued to move along and suddenly they were face to face with two gunmen. Nico quickly threw his arm at one of them as it burst into a wall of sand, knocking of the men away, however the other was pointing his gun at nico and was ready to fire at the boy while he was distracted.

That gun was suddenly wrenched from the mans hands and then Cat proceeded to break it, slamming the gun onto her knee as she brought it up, tossing the two haves away as she then grabbed the man and used her power to knock him out. It certainly made things easier, though she had to be careful not to do any permanent damage. The girl then quickly ran to grab another burger, grabbing him by his collar and tossing him outside.

[Charmera]

---

Akihiko nodded idly at the catwoman's remark. "At least it looks like she'll stop bothering me now." He thought to himself as he waited for the female Kitsune's response. However, instead of that, Akari spoke again, and he found himself agreeing with her. It would just cause a lot of trouble if that annoying Taro were to find the kids first and scare them off with his demonic appearance. He was shaken off this train of thought when he noticed Masami begin following a trail with her nose. He observed the direction in which she was going, so that he would not get lost if she moved out of sight, and then, instead of walking behind her, he picked up the black scabbard that Akari had thrown at his forehead and attached it to his belt, a soft click sounding once the artifact was securely in its place. With that done, he took Kusanagi and placed it on the scabbard, the blade sliding down and clicking again once it reached the bottom. It was now impossible to remove from the magnetic scabbard unless one could get past the special mechanism Akihiko had designed so that only he would have the ability to do so.

With that done, the half-Oni trailed after the Yokai sisters, soon seeing the children trapped in the cages, and the dark blade on the ground as well. It sickened him a little, too, much like it did with Masami, and he made sure to stay away from it, as he did not want it to mess with his impure blood and cause it to give away his lineage or something, even if such a thing was not likely to happen just from the proximity to a cursed artifact like that one.

Suddenly both he and Masami felt a hand on their shoulders, though the one clasping his was the one that bore the cursed gauntlet Agony, so it was significantly less comfortable than the gentle squeeze she gave to Masami. Either way Garnet soon walked past them, heading for the cells, ignoring the sword.

"You guys ought to remember that we're a team, you know. What's the big idea, leaving me behind like that?" She remarked as she proceeded to tear off the bars of the children's jail cells with her gauntlet, before smiling at them. "Now run along, little ones. You're free." She said to them.

Akihiko's mouth was slightly agape. He was amazed of how she had approached the blade just like that, and was completely unaffected.

Masami looked at the blade, completely fixed on it's horror. Her heart beating as she felt it radiate anguish and suffering. She looked at the black blade, and couldn't help but feel as if it was looking back at her. She felt her warriors courage drain from her as she looked at it.

The hand of Garnet awoke her from her waking nightmare, and she turned her head to the woman, seeing her completely unefected. She blushed a little in that moment, feeling ashamed she had let fear paralyze her when others were completely fine. Was it because she was weak that it effected her so? She didn't think she was weak before now. She had spent a good deal of her life making sure she wouldn't be. She then steeled herself, watching as Garnet freed the children. She wouldn't let herself be beaten by a sword. She walked towards the blade, and then wrapped a hand around the hilt. Frowning, she looked at it, then found a scabbard and quickly put it into it's sheath. Then she held it, not comfortable enough to wrap it around herself. "We should give this to Azami. This was likely what she was looking for, and honestly I don't want to hold onto it for much longer... although I'm somewhat reluctant to give it to her..."

Akari paused, then noted a portal in the side of the room. "She must know we're done... I never figured out how she managed to know things like that..." She paused. "Well, I guess we better meet her and then get on with the second part of out mission."

MAsami nodded. Then turned to Garnet. "Sorry I dragged you into this whole family politics thing... We'll do something you want to do after we deal with the spirit. I promise."

[Charmera]

---

Manifest whistled in awe. "Quite a story, Valka. You'll have to give me the full version sometime. As for your army- Damn if it isn't impressive as all hell. I'm honoured to be included." After this, he noticed the Olympians were there, and he started glaring at Hermes. "Seriously? That idiot is a God? Damn if that doesn't explain a lot."

Valka laid a hand on his shoulder, to calm him. "Peace, Thor. He has due cause to be angry," and then, she raised her voice so that all could hear her, and began, Valveig smiling to herself, recognizing what would come next. "You all have cause to be angry. I was thy All-Mother, I was thy shepherd, and I left you. And for that, I am sorry. Our realm is naught but ashes now, and we are all that remain. But in truth, we all are Asgard, and so, it lives in us all and in Yggdrasil. But for all the hopeful things I may say, there is one thing Asgard have been taught to fear and obey, save myself, and that is fate. For too long we have been slaves to our fates. In the old myths, most of our deaths are written, fated. How we will die, and what glory we shall achieve. And there is glory in death, my friends, glory in fighting for a righteous cause, glory in defending one's realm and family, glory, in fighting for those who cannot. But there is no glory in fate. Today, I say this to fate: nay. The winds of fate shall toss and turn us no longer! We write our own stories, now, for we are the stories." she said, glancing at the Goddess of Song she suspected her future daughter would become fast friends with.

"This should be a story to remember. Whatever happens. I wouldn't miss this for the world." Remarked the Goddess of song in question, a small smile on her features as she looked to the two of them. She hadn't given up hope on the all mother at all during this whole ordeal. After all she was always on the side of the protagonist, as most story tellers tended to be. After all after knowing thousands upon thousands of stories, she thought she was very good at telling protagonist from antagonist.

She readyed her weapons and prepared for battle.

[Charmera]

The construct flew down to Julie, examining her closely. "What could you provide? I am a God, empowered by a Universal force as I utilize an Omniversal force. What could a simple Lantern bring to the table? No offence meant, of course- The Lanterns have long been a force for peace, if a bit..." It tilted its head slightly, still watching Julie closely. "Ineffective. Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, Sinestro, and Sodam Yat are the few Lanterns I know of that went above and beyond this. Sinestro is now a universal criminal, Gardner and Jordan are dead every other Tuesday and almost dead the rest of the time, Yat, as far as I know, is simply dead. I am sure there have been others, but Destiny has always seemed to lay its hand against the Lanterns." It glanced upwards. "Perhaps I should ask him about that." Suddenly, it collapsed in on itself, liquid steel pooling in mid-air for a brief moment before the construct reformed. It did not address this.

Julie
“Considering you’re about to set up a system which is very similar to that of the Green Lanterns, except without the experience of the guardians, or with any sort of galactic experience which would be key to the sort of judgement calls you’ll need to make, I’d say a ten year and running green lantern would be the bare minimum help you need. Heck I’d be asking for more help if I were in your position...” Replied Julie. She folded her arms, “Secondly, no offence, but you aren’t the most diplomatic person from what I’ve seen, so you really could use a PR person for all this.”

“Lastly, you need someone who isn’t afraid to tell you the truth. And I have a good track record with telling it how it is.” She then paused for a moment. “Also, considering our jobs and the fact that many of our identities are not secret, it’s a wonder that more of us aren't dead.”

Zaki
"Funny. A veteran of the builder war talks of how he's more concerned with the leader of a universe munching force rather than the hordes... Ironic don't you think?" Zaki remarked. Then sighed. "I am not worried without reason. I have seen far too many universes fall before the hordes of my people. I am trying to make a stand here, but if we don't stop them they will be no one left to fight back. And you are a key part of the defence."

[Charmera]

Julie
“Considering you’re about to set up a system which is very similar to that of the Green Lanterns, except without the experience of the guardians, or with any sort of galactic experience which would be key to the sort of judgement calls you’ll need to make, I’d say a ten year and running green lantern would be the bare minimum help you need. Heck I’d be asking for more help if I were in your position...” Replied Julie. She folded her arms, “Secondly, no offence, but you aren’t the most diplomatic person from what I’ve seen, so you really could use a PR person for all this.”

“Lastly, you need someone who isn’t afraid to tell you the truth. And I have a good track record with telling it how it is.” She then paused for a moment. “Also, considering our jobs and the fact that many of our identities are not secret, it’s a wonder that more of us aren't dead.”

Zaki
"Funny. A veteran of the builder war talks of how he's more concerned with the leader of a universe munching force rather than the hordes... Ironic don't you think?" Zaki remarked. Then sighed. "I am not worried without reason. I have seen far too many universes fall before the hordes of my people. I am trying to make a stand here, but if we don't stop them they will be no one left to fight back. And you are a key part of the defence."

The construct nodded slowly at Julie. "You're intelligent and not too prideful. Would you be willing to go through a series of trials to determine if you are truly as skilled as you claim? Should you pass, you will be introduced to the way the Throne works and added to its mechanisms as an authorized user."

---

"I see your point." The construct replied simply. "But the comparison to the War is flawed. Even then, I could destroy approximately three quarters of a standard Builder fleet in half an instant, and I had a fraction of the power I now wield. You are, indeed, not worried without reason- But I assure you, I will stand with the others in the Universe's defence when the time comes, and I will fight with all my might. Should I yet fail, I know of a way for me to increase my power even further- Your former Queen will fall, if not to my strike, then to Valka's, or Otis', or another's."

"Trials? Alright, Though if they involve a written exam, then I'm out of here." She joked, then wondered if he would take her seriously. She wondered if he was always like this or it was just acumulation of power which changed him. Then again, she was talking to a fragment too, so this piece could be missing something "But yeah, I'm up for whatever you have to throw at me."

---

"The situation is still comparable. Except this time there's less bodies, they're just far bigger." Zaki remarked. "Asgard was a teaser of what's to come. A glimpse. The Xyrixma we will fight make the ones we fought look like ants." She remarked. "But... I have faith that this universe can stop them. Which is why I've decided to humour you for the time being, even if I am certain this will end badly. I'm just hoping... Not too badly. And that you might actually surprise me Manifest." She spoke.

"I suppose I should take my leave. Most of the other beings I brought have now left." She remarked. "Anything else before I leave...?"

---

[Charmera]

"Trials? Alright, Though if they involve a written exam, then I'm out of here." She joked, then wondered if he would take her seriously. She wondered if he was always like this or it was just acumulation of power which changed him. Then again, she was talking to a fragment too, so this piece could be missing something "But yeah, I'm up for whatever you have to throw at me."

---

"The situation is still comparable. Except this time there's less bodies, they're just far bigger." Zaki remarked. "Asgard was a teaser of what's to come. A glimpse. The Xyrixma we will fight make the ones we fought look like ants." She remarked. "But... I have faith that this universe can stop them. Which is why I've decided to humour you for the time being, even if I am certain this will end badly. I'm just hoping... Not too badly. And that you might actually surprise me Manifest." She spoke.

"I suppose I should take my leave. Most of the other beings I brought have now left." She remarked. "Anything else before I leave...?"

---

The fragment chuckled, then continued. "Your first trial. Find me." It suddenly vanished, leaving behind a trail of nearly invisible energy. If Julie was creative, she would be able to use her ring to track its path through the Throne. When and if she found it again, it would be in the centre of a room about a quarter into the Throne, after winding through many twists and turns and vast rooms. The room she would find it in would be full of hundreds of amorphic blobs of metal, each about the size of a bus. The plaque for this room read "Training Room 01 - Enemy Replication."

---

"Hmmm." The fragment considered what she said, then shook his head softly. "Nothing else, visitor. If you need me..." It raised its hand and a small device, similar in shape and size to the Orb of Cognition, appeared in front of her. "It has two functions. Touch it- If you want it to compact itself or return to normal size, think that. If you want it to contact me, think that."

Julie followed the trail walking through the winding path, a little annoyed with the sudden twists and turns, and when she came to the room, she saw the plaque. "Enemy replication..." She muttered, then frowned as she walked into the room, awaiting the next challenge.

---

"Rather nifty a device. I tend to rely on magic, but this works too." she remarked, and then smiled. "Well then, I suppose this is goodbye for now." She spoke, and then disapeared.

[Charmera]

---

Garnet shrugged upon hearing the Kitsune's words, flashing a small smile at the other woman. "Don't worry about it, Masami. You've already lent me a hand in the past, it's only fair for me to help you out in return. That's what friends are for, right?" She said as she placed a hand on Masami's shoulder, pausing briefly to marvel at how quickly they had become close friends. Strictly speaking, they had met not too long ago, but already she could feel a strong bond with the Yokai. "Besides, if there's anything I'm any good at, it's this, so I'm not really going to complain... even if it means I have to put up with your aunt for helping you." She said with a bit of a grimace. Azami was not particularly friendly towards her, after all, always acting all high and mighty and showing disdain towards humans when she was a human as well.

"Whatever." Garnet thought idly. "I don't care about what some bitter old lady has to say about me." She told herself, before looking back at Masami. "Say, that thing's really bothering you. I can carry it, if you want." She offered, referring to the black sword Masami was carrying in a scabbard, which seemed to affect the others just with being close to them, though it didn't seem to do anything to her, which was all thanks to the influence from all the cursed amulets that she already bore, though she of course did not know this.

Akihiko, meanwhile, glanced at the portal with a frown on his face, before turning to the group. "I'm afraid I can't go through with you lot. I have to go back home, mo-I mean, my friends are probably wondering where I am and I don't want to scare them any more than necessary." He said, awkwardly attempting to hide his slip-up. He then sighed and began digging through his pockets for something. "That said... I do owe you guys - err, girls - for helping me out. You did free me and practically save my life." He admitted, his voice making it clear that he was not too proud to recognize it but was nonetheless not willing to avoid admitting it. "So... you know, if you're still in Japan and you need some help with... whatever it is you girls do with killing oni and stuff, well, just give me a call with this." He said as he pulled out a small device and placed it on a nearby table. "I don't mind if it happens really soon or whatever. I just really gotta go right now. Thanks again, see you around." H said to those present before running off. His mother was likely worried sick about him and it was probable that he'd get a decent scolding, but that would only become worse if he didn't get home soon.

Garnet glanced at the device on the table. "I'm not carrying that one." She remarked nonchalantly.

"Fair enough, though I do sometimes feel like I'm asking rather a lot of you." Remarked the Yokai, and then when she was asked about the blade, she frowned, and then looked at it. She wanted to keep it. For some reason she wanted to hold onto it. "Doesn't matter too much, I'll be giving it to Azami soon anyway. So no need." She smiled, perhaps a little more toothy a grin then she intended, showing off her sharp canines. She then shook her head swiftly and then walked to the portal.

Akari looked over to Akihiko and frowned, then turned back to Garnet. "Garnet. I'm going to be a little while. I can always teleport to you two anyway, so don't worry... or at least tell Masami not to worry." She spoke. Then smiled. "I'm going to go see if curiosity really does kill cats. Again, so sorry if I end up leaving you in a lurch or something." after she made the cheesy joke, she scarpered off towards The half Oni, trailing him from the darkness. Shadow to shadow.

Masami inhaled and then exhaled as she went up to the portal. "You coming Garnet?" She clutched the blade in the scabbard, tightly.

[Charmera]

Cora
Cora watched as Magneto raised his hand and she got ready for an attack that was clearly coming her way but Katie stepped in front of her and stopped the attack. Cora felt a rush of admiration and love for Katie as she stood up for her and threatened Magneto if he tried anything against the android. It was becoming clear that a fight was unavoidable when suddenly another large mutant came flying into the building and was staring at Cora quite uneasily. Cora had no idea why all these people were suddenly breaking into their tower but it started making her really mad. This was their home and she wouldn't let these strangers hurt their tower anymore than they already had. She turned toward the stranger, her fist clenched, "Who are you? And what do you think you're doing breaking into our home like this? We don't take kindly to intruders, so I suggest you just leave now." Cora said, energy starting to flow around her as a clear indication of her anger.

“I am Apocalypse. I need no further introduction, nor an excuse to take what should be rightfully mine.” Spoke the bulky man. “So you are in possession of the energies Darkseid released upon death. Elevating you… but you don’t even realise it do you? Or how you would use it if you did? A pity. The ignorant do not deserve power. Only those who wish for it.” Apocalypse stepped forward. “A shame too, that we are so similar.” He raised his hand, charging a bolt of energy.

“So you two are the the ones we sensed…” Remarked Magneto. “My request to join has become a command. Regardless of your opinions on the matter, you cannot fall into the hands of someone who could use your powers to wipe us out. I will not allow our enemies to capture you, but I will give you a chance to surrender willingly.”

“Not going to happen Magneto.” She turned to Cora. “You deal with Big and bulky, I’ll deal with Magneto. Sound like a plan sweetie?” She asked mentally. Suddenly she saw a metal chair heading her way. She quickly dodged out of the way. “Oh HELL no. My friends will kill me if this happens. If we’re doing this, we’re doing this outside.”

“As you wish.” Magneto then sent a magnetic field which repelled Katie’s, sending her flying backwards through the hole Apocalypse had created, quickly using her own electric powers to ride down the building safely. She reformed at the bottom and then looked at Eric.

“By the way, the point about your friends may become moot.” He remarked. “I will try not to kill you, as I owe that much to your family. But I may very well have no choice…”

Family…? I’m going to have to talk to mom about that. Katie unleashed a bolt of lighting at Magneto, which he managed to deflect with his magnetic shield. “I’ll try my best not to die then.”

Nico
Nico was sure he was about to get shot when suddenly Cat grabbed the gun away from the criminal and smashed into pieces before knocking the shooter to the ground and grabbing a nearby enemy and throwing them to the ground as well. Nico was truly amazed at his sister's ability. He stared at her almost in awe. "Wow sis that was amazing. You saved my life. I'd be dead without you. Thank you." He said to her sincerely before hearing near by footsteps as it became clear that the police were finally able to breach the bank and were coming in to seize the criminals. Nico turned to Cat. "We should get going sis. We don't want to be on the news or anything." He said to her, quickly heading toward the back entrance of the bank. However on his way out Nico noticed one of the criminal's phone spilling out of his pocket. Nico paused, maybe this could be an opportunity to learn a bit more about who these robbers were. After all, they were all very well and uniformly equipped. This couldn't have been a random robbery. Nico picked up the phone and slipped it into his pocket before he ran out of the back door before the police could arrive inside the bank.

“Hey!, Wait up!” Cat spoke as she followed her brother. She suspected that they would probably be on the news anyway, or they might not. Heroes stopping bank robberies weren’t exactly the most rarest thing nowadays, but she supposed it didn’t really matter too much. Part of her didn’t want the attention, but the other kind of did. “What’s on that phone? Why did you Pocket it?"

[Charmera]

Disney
Roy was in awe when Sarah summoned shadows to essentially swallow up the enemy guards and then relinquish them in their unconscious state. "Wow, can you teach me that?" Roy asked sincerely. He had never met another person who could manipulate shadows before, and so never really had someone to teach him how to control his powers. Sam grinned at her sister's comment. "Never doubted you sis, now come on. I know where the bombs are." She said, leading them inside the large castle as they walked through the staging area of the theme park attraction. They were suddenly met with a large cluster of explosives lined across the wall. "Wow, that's a lot of bombs." Sam said as she placed her hand on one of them as she moved along the stream f wires to find the sight of detonation. Sam soon found it was about to disarm it when suddenly a voice interrupted her.

"Not so fast." Called a young man's voice as the heroes' attention was drawn to a nearby tv screen were thye could see the face of Anarky staring at them. Soon a number of armed thugs came running into the room, pointing their automatic weapons at Sam, Roy and Sarah. "You heroes are so predictable? Can't you realize what we're doing here is necessary? No, you just follow the law like lamb to slaughter. Well if you're not with us, you're against us. And you won't be making it out of here alive."

Just then they heard a bloodcurdling roar. The amount of goons dealing with Sarah and Sam meant there was less left to deal with the frontal assault. And Hannah had ploughed through them. <"We're not heroes buddy. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. For you that is."> Her dragon face contorted in a scowl as she charged through the thugs surrounding her sisters. Ready to sheild them from harm. She formed firebals in her hands and then turned to the goons, unleashing another savage roar, which promised fire and pain to anyone who would touch her sisters. She was a little more phased than before, thinking less clearly and an urge to burn was forming in her mind.

[Charmera]

-Snip-

Mind Divided: Spirit Animals

"So wait, aren't you going to explain any of this?" Katie asked Wolf. The two of them were now high up in some mountains. Mist prevented her from seeing the world around her, but the darkness was starting to fade to a dim light. One which allowed her to see properly her surroundings for once. Hannah had to hold on tight as Wolf jumped from ledge to rock to ledge, scaling the face of the mountains with some skill. He did not hesitate, though was not reckless, merely in tune with his instincts.

"Grrr..." He growled. "Be patient welp! We will be at the top soon, there I will be able to explain much better." Spoke the wolf, which annoyed Hannah, but since she had no way to force the wolf into compliance without dropping from his back, she reasoned waiting until he stopped moving would be best.

"At least tell me your name."

"My name is Wolf. I told you already.

"That's not a name..."

"It's mine, welp."

"Stop calling me that!"

"Stop irritating me and I'll consider it. Right now I'm regretting saving your stupid hide."

Hannah sighed, and then realised they had gotten to the top. She could see the mists were now gone and... she could see everything.

Firstly she could see a massive forest at the base of the mountain, trees of varying sizes and shapes. She could see it expand and cover the land before her like a lush green blanket over the world, embracing it with a similar warmth. She could see a point where the forrest became an equally lush jungle with little rhyme or reason, but it did not distract from it's equal lushness. Then she saw volcanoes poking out of the world like grand flaming giants, no scientific logic or reason to their placement yet again, though she saw what she thought were winged creatures flying above them. Then the occasional large cave, mountain or other rock formation, never far from a stream or river. All the while, this was looking very familiar. All except a darkness surrounding all this natural beauty. All this lushness was surrounded by an aberrant, consuming darkness.

"Impressed?"

"Oh..." Hannah paused, "Yeah... I mean how could you not?"

The Wolf seemed to... smile? Hannah didn't know he could do that. Then he returned to a serious expression. "This used to expand forever. Beyond the darkness and intersect into other worlds... Wonderful places too,.. That was until..." He paused.

Hannah frowned. "Until what?"

"Until the Demons came." Spoke a voice. Hannah turned to see a massive bear, huge, bigger than any bear she had seen. She made elephants look dwarfed, and yet she seemed to exude a calming aura, one of comfort and assurance. She would be there. She would protect. Yet there was a sorrow in her voice.

She sat, causing what Hannah could have sworn must have been a tremor. She seemed to have absurd strength. "The demons came not too long ago. They came and corruptedmany of our kin." She remarked. "There used to be more spirit animals here, but they were taken from us by the demons."

Hannah thought, then paused. She tried to get her brain around this, clutching her head. Where the heck was she?

"Perhaps I can explain more." Spoke the bear. She smiled and put a paw on Hannah's shoulder. She seemed to shrink just small enough to bring her into tender embrace. "This may seem like another world... but..." She searched for the words to explain...

Then Hannah thought. She felt something. A memory?

"Wait... Are we... Are we in my head!?"

The Bear smiled. "Yes! We're within a mindscape that is your mind..." Hannah went blank and the bear laughed easily. "Don't worry. All you need to know is that you are not... you... at least not you."

"You see, your mind was invaded by a force stronger than you could fight at the moment, so you were forced into remission. You... as you were before this happened was destroyed. Shattered and then whatever they couldn't tear apart then placed within a dungeon which you couldn't escape. At least... until now."

"But... if this force is so strong, and destroyed me. How could I have reformed myself."

The bear's smile widened, as if this was the best part. "Because you're stronger than you realize Hannah. They couldn't break you because of that," She paused and her smile weakened slightly. 'Though, honestly I'm not sure what caused your personality to repair itself." She smiled again. "But just because you're back, the world is beginning to heal itself of the demons. You've torn their darkness enough to gain some breathing room."

Hannah nodded. She understood everything the bear said. It made perfect sense. It reminded her of when Sarah explained things back when she was young. Perhaps she took on more from her sister than she realized. She had to thank her or something when she saw her. She had forgotten how nice it was to have someone like her around.

"So... what does that make you guys? If this is my head?"

The bear thought, again trying to explain things. "We're spirit animals, aspects of your being. Parts of yourself represented. Though we're also spirits in our own right." She spoke. Seeing Hannah was getting a little lost. "It's hard to explain, but we're what give you power. There used to be loads of us, but then the darkness attacked. Of course the most powerful were me, Dragon, Wolf and Panther. But since they've been corrupted into... demonic creatures."

Hannah was about to ask another question, but then the Bears features darkened. "Enough questions for now though, we need you to do something for us." She spoke. "You need to reconnect with your four spirit animals. To do so, you need to go through trials which will test exactly what we're supposed to represent." The bear put a hand on her chest. "I am your desire to protect. Your compassion and your love. I am strong, but I can be slow." she spoke. "Wolf is your natural instincts, your tenacity and intuition." She pointed to the jungle with a paw. "Panther is your wits and your smarts. She is your mischief and sense of humor." She pointed at the volcano. "Dragon is your imagination, your hope, your confidence and your sense of fun."

Bear stood and took Hannah by the hand. "Your first trial will be the trial of the bear." She spoke, leading her to a cave. "In order to save yourself, you need to reconnect. Then you will have the strength to find your final and most powerful spirit animal, and then defeat the infestation of your soul." She spoke. She saw Hannah's look of nervousness all of a sudden. She was now entrusted with saving her own soul. Quite a big responsibility.

Then came Bear's widest smile yet. "I know, quite a lot to do. But this honestly needs to be done. No buts or ifs about it. This is the only way." She spoke.

"Right... And if I fail."

The Bear frowned. She shook her head. "Don't as me to answer that." She said simply. "Instead, if you succeed in my memory..." She then smiled scandelously. "Well, lets just say theres some nice memories in store."

Hannah had little time to wonder what that was about before the bear slapped her back gently, launching her into the cave. Then a stone seemed to cover the entrance. "Ow..."

"Could have at least told me what this trial was..." She paused. "And what the heck does she mean by nice memories!"

---

"You don't think she'll make it?"

The wolf grunted. "She's still not the same as when she was defeated. Not as strong. She will loose again." He grumbled. "She failed us once. She's more likely to do it again than not."

Bear kept her smile, then stroked Wolf. "Perhaps." She spoke.

"But besides pure faith, I know that she will not give up, she will bear any burden it takes, she will claw her way to victory if that is what it takes." She spoke. "Hannah is a fighter. And she will need a lot more than a crushed soul to stop fighting."

"Hmmph..." Wolf remarked, then sighed.

"Do you think she'll keep fighting..." The wolf spoke. "If she finds out the truth..,?"

[Charmera]

Disney
The guards suddenly turned around in shock when they heard the loud roar behind them. There was now a huge dragon like creature standing before them, speaking some unknown language and holding up fire balls menacingly. Roy himself was also quite shocked, not by Hannah's form but by how angry and hostile she seemed. He was a bit worried that she'd do something that she would regret. Still she gave them a perfect distraction and he wouldn't waste it. He created two spheres of dark energy around his fists and fired them at two of the guards who were knocked to the ground while the other guards began to respond with gunfire, but the bullets were blocked by a large wall of ice that was summoned by Sam. Then John came running forward behind Hannah and struck a number of the thugs with hard punches, knocking them to the ground. Once the enemies were dealt with Anarky's image reappeared on the televise screen.

"Useless henchmen, well I grow tired of this. Come to the throne room heroes. And that's where we can settle our business, and I can end your meddling in our liberation." He said before the screen went blank once more. Roy went up to Hannah and took her dragonoid hand softly, looking up at her. "Hey, are you okay? I just want to make sure you know everything is alright and we're safe." Roy said softly hoping to calm Hannah down so her beast side didn't take over fully.

<"We're not safe until those bombs are gone and Anarky is gone too!"> Growled Hannah, but then she felt Roy's hand and began to come back to reality. She drew Roy into a hug. She knew he couldn't understand her word, so she didn't speak, but she felt like Roy did understand her on some level. That she had made a connection with him that she had not made with anyone outside of her family. A bond, though not the same as her psychic bond with her sisters, no less powerful.

Cora
Cora nodded to Katie's mental sign and was startled when she was thrown out of the window but was relieved when she heard her voice and knew she was okay. She then turned to Apocalypse and went after him at high speed, tackling outside the already broken window. She threw him toward the ground where he landed with gentle ease. He then raised his hands and sent huge blasts of blue energy Cora's way, which she returned in kind with her own yellow blasts. Cora had clearly become much stronger and was going toe to toe with the Egyptian villain. She wanted to make sure Katie was okay, but she needed to focus on her own fight and couldn't get distracted otherwise she'd put herself in danger.

Katie looked at Eric now, seeing that Cora could handle herself she turned to focus on her fight. She suddenly grabbed the wooden shotgun from her back, aiming it at Eric. She pulled the trigger, squeezing off a buckshot round accelerated by magic and electricity, with considerable force and energy behind it. It was suddenly stopped by the mutant, who simply held out his hand and the bullets froze in mid air as if suspended by wires. Magneto sent them back towards KatIe, but by then she had already disapeared, charging the leader of the brotherhood from the side. She slammed her shotgun into his face, which resisted the force with a magnetic shield. But was then exposed to a massive energy blast from the same shotgun, sending Magneto flying. He recovered in time to see Katie hurtling to him once more, magnetism lifting him up. He quickly bent a street lamp and reformed it into a sheild. it broke against Katies attack, but then he sent the pieces into her face to send her flying now. She quickly regained her footing and saw many more shards of metal coming towards her. She then sent out a burst of electrons, the negative charge leaving his delicate magnetic manipulation foiled. But Katie failed to take into acount the wrecking ball bound for her face. The Mutant grunted as it hit her with full force, her new god physilogy giving her the ability to resist injury, but it still hurt like hell.

Magneto did not let up, but Katie had a plan. She quickly used her electron form to outflank the mutant as he charged her, sifting through his physical form like water around a pole. She then reformed behind him and then aimed her shotgun at his back. Blasting the mutant backwards, magnetic shield and all. He grunted as he was sent flying, before he managed to get his balance and magnetically hover himself back up. Then he unleashed a wave of charged particles and Katie responded with her own, both the same charge, they repelled one another, so the beams would resist one another. Locked in a deadly game of tug and war.

Nico
Once they were far enough away from the bank Nico turned to his younger sister when she asked about the phone. "I haven't looked yet, and as to why I took it... I'm not sure. I just had a feeling is all. He then clicked the home button on the phone and was met with some serious encryption, not just your average four digit lock. "Wow, whatever is in here, that guy did not want people to find it. We have to figure out a way to get into it. Maybe we can figure out who hired them to do the job." Nico didn't say it, but he was hoping he would find a link to his parent's criminal organization, so he could finally prove to Cat that he was telling the truth.

"I don't know... You're the genius. You're the one who has to figure out how to get into the phone." She remarked, sighing. They were almost home, so she walked towards it as she talked. "You were right. There is something odd about this..." She found new memories in her head, ones she didn't recognize. She must have stolen them from the guys. "They don't know who their boss was, but they were paid by someone to bring back the cash and something extra from a lock box. If I'm right, there should be a key taped to the back of that phone." She paused. "I don't know if that helps or not... Maybe we should focus on the encryption. Or we could always split up."

[Charmera]

Vera walked in to the command center carrying a German Shepherd puppy in her arms. "Hey Guys, look-" she says before realizing no one was in the room. Letting off a sigh, she stepped out and headed up to the room outside of her hideaway, as started setting up it's bed and other supplies. It didn't occur to her that she should tell ADAM about the pup she found on patrol, but aside from mission specifics and debriefings she tended to not talk much with the AI.
Vera let it get use to the room while she set up a bet and some bowls for the puppy as well as setting up some chew toys so it doesn't chew on her things. Once finished setting up for her puppy, she decided to do a small write up about it in her journal, she doesn't know why but it felt like she needed to do a write up of the events that occur outside of the YB Tower. She makes note of where she got the pup, what it was doing and how she plans to train it, as well as writing about the set up it has. The only thing has hasn't written in the journal was what she has decided to name the pup, because in all honesty, she doesn't have a name for it yet. Like all of the entries in the journal, This one is very formal, organized and cleanly written.

Vera might then feel a pair of slimey arms wrap around her from above her. Xyri was the master of the surprise hug, and innocent enough to not know that people find such things uncomfortable at times. All she knew was that hugs were good, and that if you surprised someone with a hug, they might feel even better. "Hello!" She spoke. Hugging was her way of saying hello to friends. The group could likely be thankful of the fact it wasnt her hello for strangers. That would be awkward indeed. "What have you got there? A... Dog?" Her ignorance reminded her she needed... what did they call it? A teacher or tutor. Someone to help her learn. Now that Elena was busy, she needed someone else to help with that.

[Charmera]

Disney
Roy was a bit surprised when Hannah pulled him into a hug, however Roy didn't pull away and leaned into her embrace, not speaking either and just standing there silently with the large were-dragon. Sam smiled brightly as she saw the pair, before freezing the igniter to the bombs and disarming the threat. She didn't want to ruin her younger sister's moment. But they had a job to do, and after that she and Roy would have plenty of time to be lovey dovey. "Alright, we should get going now. Anarky is waiting for us." John nodded, "Come on, I know the way. I saw it on the way in." John said leading them down a few hallways until they saw Anarky sitting on thrown, wielding two electric batons as about half a dozen armed guards surrounded him.

"Well, I'm glad you made it heroes. I would have liked for you to join our noble cause. But you've chosen your side and you'll pay the price for it." Her told them, jumping down from his throne and waving the baton's enticingly as the electricity sparkled from them.

Hannah then proceeded to create a fireball in her hands, wanting to get this over with so she could get back to enjoying the now empty park with Roy again. She made the fireball perhaps a little large, and thought it likely wouldn’t kill her target, it could catch fire and seriously injure him. Realizing this, hannah frowned and then dispelled the fireball, instead going for the good old fashioned approach of charging her enemy and then slam a fist right into Anarky’s face.

Nico
Nico frowned a little at his sister's first comment, but was distracted from it when she discussed the robbers memories. Apparently when she absorbed their energy she took their memories too. That was really cool. He pulled the key off the back of the phone and looked at it in awe. "Great catch Cat! As for what we should do. Well, let's see what you think about my idea for the encryption. Have you heard about the Young Bloods Cat? They're this new superhero team made up of kids like us. I thought maybe someone there might have the equipment necessary to decrypt the phone. Maybe then we'll get some answers as to who hired them." Nico said, not sure what Cat would think about his idea. He wasn't sure she'd be very enthusiastic about approaching the Young Bloods with this.

Cat paused. Tempted to say no to her brother. Then she folded her arms. “I don’t know… this is getting crazy. I…” She couldn’t deny what she saw. There were other people behind this, and they needed to be brought to justice before they hurt anyone else. So she sighed. “Fine. We’ll visit them. But I dunno what a bunch of kids like us are going to be able to do…”

[Charmera]

---

Garnet simply shrugged at Masami's comment about asking a lot out of her. She really didn't mind, considering how killing demons and such had practically been her life during... well, the past few days, apparently. It really felt like a lot more time than that had already passed ever since all of this began for her, but she supposed that she was just misjudging the length of her demon hunting career. Time had a knack for working in funny ways, after all. She then nodded at the Kitsune as she stated that she didn't need any help carrying the blade; she had seemed pretty sick before, but was now clutching it tightly as if she didn't want to let go, so the blonde woman figured that it might warrant further observation, especially if she acted like she didn't want to hand the blade over when it was time, but for now she didn't think there was any reason to bother her friend.

Glancing over at Akari as she addressed her, Garnet frowned slightly. Not just because the joke had been terrible, which it had been, but also because she didn't want to be the only one there beside Masami when it was time to look at Azami's ugly face again. Either way, she didn't complain, and simply nodded at the Nekomata before she left, watching her. For someone who didn't seem to get along with him at all, she certainly did seem interested in where the prisoner was going, but she didn't say anything about it, as she figured it was none of her business, though not much of this was, either.

Hearing Masami calling out to her, the blonde woman nodded and then glanced at the device that Akihiko had left on the table for if they wanted to contact him later. She sighed. "Guess I am carrying that one after all." She said, grabbing it and then walking up to Masami. "Let's go."

"About time Masami." Remarked Azami as the two of them walked through. She stat upon a lavish throne, attended to by Yokai servants and wined and dined by Neko, her Nekomata daughters were ever at her side "Despite what could be said about your... "progress" you are quite tardy my Niece."

"We dealt with the Oni."

"I know. Quite nice I have to say. I found the part about the children especially touching. Even if they are humans, you really can't resist having your heart strings plucked by their plight. Poor little things..." She sighed, now relaxing in her seat. She seemed to stop talking to the two of them.

"...That it?" Masami wondered why she was feeling so annoyed. She was normally at least a little resistant to her aunts antics.

"Hmmm?" Replied the regal Nekomata. "Oh. Yes. So sorry, I didn't realise you were still there..." She chuckled. "You tend to loose track of insects."

Masami sighed, and then bowed. She then turned away. But before she could go back through the portal she heard the Nekomata's voice again.

"Aren't you going to mention the sword?"

Masami paused. Then turned to see Azami now sat up slightly, though only slightly. "The sword."

"We found a sword. Can we go now?"

Azami paused, and then burst out laughing. "She's forgetting something isn't she?" She spoke, stifling the laugh into a mere giggle. She turned to Garnet. "I believe she said to you that she would bring the blade to me..."

Masami's hand tightened on the blade even more. She had forgotten, but Azami didn't need to humiliate her in front of Garnet.

---

Akari, truth be told, would not see much of anything for several minutes, as, for the most part, Akihiko seemed to be simply making his way through the streets of Tokyo, heading to someplace downtown. It didn't seem like he was up to anything interesting, even despite his method of moving from one place to the other, as he, too, was using the shadows to move, perfectly aware that a young man with torn and worn clothes and a sword in a magnetic scabbard would raise some suspicions about what he might be up to, to say the least. He was aware of this, and sought to avoid being seen.

After several more minutes of this, it seemed that Akihiko had finally reached his destination, and so, he dropped from a rooftop in a nearby alley and then walked around the corner, before finding himself in front of a nondescript antiques store. Standing in front of it, he took a deep breath and then made his best effort to open the door, go through it and close it as stealthily as possible. Miraclously, he managed to do all of this without ringing the little bell that was attached to the door, quite the feat considering how Akihiko was not the subtlest when it came to... most things, really.

Even so, his effort was for naught.

"Where were you, young man? I've been calling you for hours!" Chided a voice from outside the room. From a nearby door emerged a woman in her early forties who looked like she must have been very beautiful when she was younger, with long blonde hair and eyes just like those of the Half-Oni shielded behind a small pair of glasses. She wore a pristine white coat over a green blouse, and was sitting on a wheelchair.

"Um, hi mom-" Akihiko began, but was cut short rather quickly.

"Answer me." His mother commanded, a slight frown on her face. Akihiko, too, frowned at this.

"Okay, okay. I was saving some scared kids from a bunch of Oni who were probably going to eat them or worse and I ran into a bit of trouble, but I'm alright now, see? Are you happy now?" He asked, perhaps more forcefully than necessary. The woman's expression softened significanty at this point.

"I understand. But I was worried about you, Akihiko. I am your mother, after all." She stated. Akihiko started feeling bad about having nearly shouted at her; it was understandable that she'd be worried, since he had been gone for far longer than usual and had evidently been through a lot of fighting, even if his wounds had already healed. Sighing, Akihiko walked towards his mother and leaned in to hug her.

"Well, think of how those mothers must've felt when their kids returned instead of thinking of how long I was gone." He stated. She smiled.

"Yes, yes, I know. My boy is a hero." She said, ruffling his hair once he pulled away. Had there been anyone else present, Akihiko might've felt embarrassed, but right now, he was simply happy. He could enjoy the moment; after all, there was no one spying on him or anything, right?

Someone definitely favours his mother. Akari thought as she slid down from a tree, internally giggling and wishing she brought a camera. Though part of her felt a slight sorrow. She had never had a loving parent who would be concerned about where she was at all.

She wondered what it would be like... She decided to sate her curiousity a little more and so she walked towards them and she turned herself into a small cat. She meowed as she came close to the two of them, giving them her best and most cutest begging face. She was a master of seeming cute in cat form.

Disney
Anarky quickly jumped out of the way of Hannah's fist quite gracefully as his men began unloading their clips at her. Sam began firing blasts of dark energy at the soldiers while Roy headed after Anarky. He took out his collapsible staff and expanded it, charging at the red hooded criminal as the two engaged in battle. Anarky saw his men being taken out and knew that he wouldn't stand much of a chance with Hannah still being a problem. Therefore he needed to do something drastic to make his escape. He pulled a grenade from his vest and managed to knock Roy's feet out from under him, holding the young man by the neck and holding the grand in his hands with his fingers around the pin. "Alright, I'm leaving now. Anyone tries to stop me, and shadow boy here goes boom with me." Anarky told the others looking straight at them.

Hannah gritted her teeth and growled, a look of rage in her eyes as she looked at Anarky. She didn't move, though she needed to get Roy out of this situation. She didn't know what to do, and so stood there.

Julie followed the trail walking through the winding path, a little annoyed with the sudden twists and turns, and when she came to the room, she saw the plaque. "Enemy replication..." She muttered, then frowned as she walked into the room, awaiting the next challenge.

The fragment suddenly appeared in front of her, nodding. "Good. Faster than I expected. But you must not only be fast." The fragment glowed crimson for a moment before the blobs solidified. Each formed a perfect cube. "One of these is hollow. On top of it is a black marking. Leave it intact, but destroy the others." About half of the metal blobs streamed into the walls, leaving around 200 targets throughout the room, with the marked cube placed randomly throughout it. The cubes themselves were each moderately difficult (for the average GL) to destroy, and, after they were, the metal would stream into the walls.

Julie nodded, and then set about quickly finding the one with the black marking. And then she turned to a nearby box and aimed at it with her ring. She frowned as the ring had trouble blasting the box apart, but managed to do it after some time. She looked at it frowning. One by one... that's going to take too long. And I'm guessing that part of the test is going to be the speed at which I demolish these things. She thought. And then she grabbed the marked box and moved it to the side of the room and protected it with GL shielding. She picked up one of the boxes telekinetically and had an idea. She both used her martian powers and her ring powers in concert, increasing the amount of force she could use dramatically. She aimed her box at a northern cluster of boxes and then sent the missile hurtling towards the group with railgun like force, the explosion obliterated the boxes around the projectile box. She repeated this a few times with those areas not so close to the marked box. And then she used both her martian powers and her Gl powers to tear apart those boxes that were near her box. She had cleared out all the boxes with quite efficient speed.

[Charmera]

Vera might then feel a pair of slimey arms wrap around her from above her. Xyri was the master of the surprise hug, and innocent enough to not know that people find such things uncomfortable at times. All she knew was that hugs were good, and that if you surprised someone with a hug, they might feel even better. "Hello!" She spoke. Hugging was her way of saying hello to friends. The group could likely be thankful of the fact it wasnt her hello for strangers. That would be awkward indeed. "What have you got there? A... Dog?" Her ignorance reminded her she needed... what did they call it? A teacher or tutor. Someone to help her learn. Now that Elena was busy, she needed someone else to help with that.

Rin Tarla

When arriving at Vera with Mars, the puppy was instantly noticeable. But Rin was actually more surprised to see Xyri here. Not because it's weird for her to be hear, but no organs no blood vessels, no sounds you expect from a living organism in general. Xyri is probably one of the few people who could surprise me as my power doesn't register most of what she does, even sound passes through her, to a degree, making her a kind of an amplifier. To soft for anyone without my powers to actually notice, but for me, I hear the sounds that surround her as if they are coming from her making it really hard for me to know where she is unless I focus. And focusing is the last thing I want to do because right now I'm unintentionally spying, if I'd focus, it'd become intentional.

It was fascinating though in a way, to have someone that can surprise you when you usually know everything you will find before even getting close. I usually avoided her a bit, I wasn't sure how to react to her, but I have been trying to mimic social activity so I guess I should actually stop avoiding her. She likes hugs, I should hug her. When I walked up to her, fully planning to hug her, curiosity took over, if I hug her to hard, will my arms go through her? Will I get stuck inside of her?
Before even realizing what I was doing I found myself poking her jelly softly "Erm, sorry, I, erm ..." I was at a loss for words, I shouldn't have done this, I don't know what to do now. Common Rin, think of something, a distraction? "Erm, Rin was curious what would happen if Rin poked you." My face instantly turned red, Why did I start talking like the hulk, I'm smarter than him, I know how to talk in the first person! "I'm being stupid, sorry!" I somehow managed to shout and whimper at the same time, I should've just hugged her, now I'm just digging a hole for myself, a social pit of quicksand made from jelly, ..., quickjelly. That kinda sounds delicious. And now I just transitioned in to thinking how she tastes, even in your own mind you're being awkward Rin.

Xyri suddenly stopped hugging Vera and the turned to see someone poking her, her firm jelly skin resisting the poke. It was Rin, Xyri had not seen a lot of Rin, and knew very little about her. She knew her powers had something to do with sound. She seemed shy, but Xyri thought she was quite nice. Though she wasn’t able to really tell since she seemed to be avoiding the large slime being. She was at first confused as to why she was being poked. It wasn’t enough to hurt her, and she was sure Rin knew that, so she wasn’t sure what intent was being the action.

When Rin explained her actions, Xyri understood. She was a green, strange thing to these people after all. To anyone really, there was no being quite like Xyri it seemed. Though she was confused as to why she seemed to be turning red. “It’s okay… You didn’t hurt me or anything.” She replied, altogether very confused with what was happening. “You’re turning red… Are you ill? Or is that just part of your power?” She asked innocently. “I mean… I don’t know much about humans.”

[Charmera]

---

Still concealed from sight by the shroud of darkness that she wore around her shoulders, which answered to her will and magically hid her from anyone who would look at her, Nelli continued walking through the streets of Jump City. The crowds, thankfully, had died down by now, and though the beasts of shining rock still rode upon the stone paths and plenty of pedestrians still walked through the streets, it was nothing compared to how things had been some time ago, which she was quite thankful for. As she walked, the hot asphalt burned her bare feet, but the Star Demon ignored the pain as though she didn't feel it at all, never once grimacing or anything of the sort. She simply weaved her way through the streams of walking flesh and crossed the rivers of black rock and metal boats, always moving towards the place that the butterfly had told her about before.

Eventually, the dark-skinned girl reached her destination. It was a massive building, larger than any of the ones she had seen earlier, and was in the shape of an unknown symbol. As she approached it though, she noticed that two other people were already there, standing outside as they seemingly waited for something to happen, and, believing that it might not be such a bad idea to try to interact with the humans for once, Nelli addressed them.

<<Hello there.>> She spoke to them, though of course, they wouldn't understand, as she was speaking in an entirely different language, using a dialect that was only used by those who inhabited the Hall of Descent. As she spoke, Nelli had also finally revealed herself: she was certainly prettier than the average human, but she wore only a plain white dress, was barefoot, and seemed to be holding a black knife in her hand, though she showed no intent of using it. Her black-edged, colorful butterfly wings remained concealed by the power of the shroud of darkness for the moment.

---

"I'm sorry...?" Asked Cat, wondering what the heck Nelli was saying, or whom this person was. Or where she came from, the language not meaning anything to her. She paused... she remembered she could look into peoples memories, so maybe if she touched her she could learn her language. She considered it for a moment, she reasoned it might be best not to do that as she might take that as a threat. She then looked to the black knife and wondered if this person was going to hurt her. "You're not going to try and use that...?" She pointed at the knife. "Are you?"

---

Garnet, however, rather than being alert and attentive towards Azami's words, stood next to Masami with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes closed, her face looking as if she was somewhere between meditating and dozing off. Several moments after being addressed by the royal Nekomata, Garnet finally opened her left eye, noticing Azami looking straight towards her. She opened both eyes at that moment and stared back.

"Oh, whoops, sorry. Did you say something important for once? I think I must've missed it." She said with a grin, before turning to Masami, walking up to the Kitsune and putting a hand on her shoulder, looking straight into her eyes.

"Hey, Masami. Hand that sword over to her. You started acting weird ever since you picked up the damn thing and if there's anything I know something about, it's mindfucks and cursed weapons." The blonde woman said, evidently concerned with her friend's well-being, though her voice was stern more than anything. "I need you to trust me on this. Even if you think it's nothing. Just hand the weapon over and it'll all get sorted out." She requested. "Even if you don't trust your annoying aunt over there, surely you can trust me? If you think Azami's up to no good with the sword, then just give it to me, but I need you to let the sword go one way or the other." She said.

---

Masami looked at Garnet, and suddenly a thought, a horrible bestial thought crossed her mind. A violent one, and she actually entertained it for a second. She was tempted to attack Garnet, then use the blade to kill her aunt. Then- No... No no no. That's not me at all. She looked at Garnet's face, her expression turning to one of guilt, where before one might see a beastial rage within. She took a hand and placed it onto Garents arm, removing it.

She pulled out the sword from it's scabbard. The thing screaming at her to cut down her friend and her aunt, but she ignored it as best she could and then tossed the blade to the side. "I'm sorry Garnet..." She spoke, then sighed. Looking at Azami. "I don't care what happens to the sword. But if you want some advice, put it into the darkest and deepest hole you can find."

Azami shrugged. "That was what I was going to do anyway." She saw a surprised look from Masami. "What? You assumed I was going to use it to my own ends? I'm not heartless Masami. No, the sword will be kept safe. As for you two, your next mission lies in a hidden castle in the city of tokyo. Finding it will be part of the mission, seeing as I missplaced the map." A yokai servant passed her a note. "On there is the clue you must use. Find the castle. Then either kill or help the spirit on the grounds."

---

Both Akihiko and his mother were distracted by the sudden appearance of a small cat inside the house. Akihiko seemed more surprised than anything else, but the wheelchair-bound woman had a slight frown on her face as she glanced at the cat and then looked straight towards her son.

"Akihiko, did you leave the door open again? I told you that is dangerous. I'm not always at the counter." She chided him, but he shook his head.

"No, of course I didn't leave it open. Stop thinking I do everything wrong, mom." The young man complained, before kneeling next to the cat, petting it softly. "But mom's right, you know? Where did you come from, little guy?" He asked, though he obviously didn't think the cat could understand him.

"You know that's not what I'm doing." Akihiko's mother responded to him, sighing. She loved her child very much, but she was also convinced he was the reason her hair was paling more and more each day. "I'll go get her some food." She added as she turned the wheelchair around and rolled herself into another room. Akihiko glanced at her with mild confusion for several moments, before turning his attention back to the kitty.

"So, you're a girl huh?" He asked. "Well, it doesn't matter. You're welcome to come here whenever." He said, smiling as he continued petting the cat.

---

The cat turned and looked at him, sitting down. Her eyes were a deep red. "That's very nice of you." Spoke the cat. You could almost swear that the was a smile on the little cat's face, though cat's couldn't smile or talk... right? Well it seemed this one could, as she stretched and yawned. "I never had you pegged for the type who lives with his mom." She spoke. "Don't worry. I won't tease you or anything. I honestly think it's really sweet. I mean I technically live with my mother, but she's not nearly as nice as yours." She spoke. She then winked before Aki's mother came back, meowing a little and turning expectantly to the door when she thought of the prospect of food.

---

Sarah offered a weak smile to Roy and ruffled his hair in response to the gratitude he expressed. "No need to thank me. I'm the big sister, it's my job to keep you safe and well as long as you make my Hanah happy." She stated. Of course, the opposite was also true, and Roy would be really unlucky if he ended up hurting Hanah instead, but for the time being, Sarah said nothing like that, having no reason to suspect that such a thing would happen. Instead, she simply continued smiling at both him and Hanah, relieved that this whole mess that had ruined her family's vacation had not caused any harm to her boyfriend, Hanah's friend or her sisters in the end. However, she did snatch the grenade from Roy's hands, not wanting to take chances.

"I'll be taking this, though." She said, pulling the pin and then dropping it by her feet. Instantly, shadows engulfed the area around the explosive, completely surrounding it, allowing nothing to escape from their curtain. After several moments, she allowed the shadows to fade, and there, on the ground, she could see little more than scorch marks and inert shrapnel. Satisfied with this, she glanced at Roy once again, remembering something the boy had asked her earlier. "I'll teach you what I know if you really want me to, but not today. I'm exhausted." She said.

After she was done speaking to Roy, Sarah looked around and spotted John, walking up to him just as he was finishing talking to the police on the phone. When that was over, she grabbed his arm and pulled it around her shoulders before snuggling into his embrace. "Think you can take us somewhere nice for dinner? I just want to relax. That was enough adventuring for a day." She said with a small sigh, though she smiled at John as she looked up at him.

Hannah groaned as she returned to her normal form, suddenly becoming even more pale than Sarah as she bent over. She gagged, nearly hurling. "Ugh- Gak-" She sputtered, then coughed, getting up slowly and looking like she had spent a week getting sick. "Ugh. I'm okay... why do I even bother coming out of form? It sucks so much. Especially with dragon form..," She muttered. "Can we go somewhere with lots of food? I think that will help me... recover." She turned to Roy specifically. "Think you can come with us or something?"

[Charmera]

---

Julie nodded, and then set about quickly finding the one with the black marking. And then she turned to a nearby box and aimed at it with her ring. She frowned as the ring had trouble blasting the box apart, but managed to do it after some time. She looked at it frowning. One by one... that's going to take too long. And I'm guessing that part of the test is going to be the speed at which I demolish these things. She thought. And then she grabbed the marked box and moved it to the side of the room and protected it with GL shielding. She picked up one of the boxes telekinetically and had an idea. She both used her martian powers and her ring powers in concert, increasing the amount of force she could use dramatically. She aimed her box at a northern cluster of boxes and then sent the missile hurtling towards the group with railgun like force, the explosion obliterated the boxes around the projectile box. She repeated this a few times with those areas not so close to the marked box. And then she used both her martian powers and her Gl powers to tear apart those boxes that were near her box. She had cleared out all the boxes with quite efficient speed.

"Good." The fragment was beside her once more. "That test was not about your strength, for all Green Lanterns are powerful beyond measure, nor was it about your speed, for you have already proven that. That was about your ingenuity. For now, we are done. You have passed my preliminary tests- Nothing further can be done without observation of your actions in the field. As for that, when the need arises-" It suddenly visibly winced, rapidly turning its head.

---

Manifest was meditating in the centre of the Throne when he felt it. His eyes opened wide and flashed crimson. "Shit." He reached out, grasping the Manifest Blade and activated the Orb of Cognition. "Call Valka," he muttered with a scowl. "Tell her that I feel a presence similar to Darkseid's on Apokolips. I don't know how this is possible, but I am going to find out."

---

The fragment continued to stare for a moment. "We may get it sooner than expected."

He watched Yuga Kahn divert the power of the Omega Beams in his fight with Otis. That... That's impossible..! Otis fled, and Manifest quickly followed the rapidly fading path of Otis' energy to Earth, more specifically Praetoria.

"Leave to Earth. The Prime fragment is in Praetoria. Meet with Superman and the League on board their Watchtower, let them know Manifest sent you. Tell them..." The fragment hesitated for a moment as it received information from the main Manifest. "Tell him Yuga Khan, the father of Darkseid and manipulator of the Source, plans on destroying it. There is a warp gate-" It suddenly sped directly in front of her, pressing its finger to her forehead. She received a psychic map of the facility- At least, the path to the warp gate. "There. It leads to the Builders' War Memorial when it is set to Earth. Tell the League to contact Naja- She will be directing the physical defence." It melted, leaving her alone with this sudden revelation.

Julie frowned, sighing. She was surprised by the quickness of the tests. She expected more trials. She briefly wondered why she was joining this whole mad enterprise, but she supposed it made sense. It was why she was a Green Lantern, to end as much suffering as possible and save lives. If Manifest had a chance of doing it, she wasn't going to stand idly by. But it seemed like she wouldn't be taking part in the way she would have thought. Sending a green lantern to give a message was like taking a tank down to get groceries. He could always send one of his fragments or something to that effect. She wondered if this would become a trend. However, now was not the time to complain. She had something to do, and manifest was likely counting on her.

It didn't take her long to get to the league from the warp gate, and convincing them to come was also easy enough. Superman was on board without much reservation, Bat's and Wonder Woman were skeptical at first, Hal and John trusted Ju'lee, and the Flash seemed similarly accepting. She then telepathically contacted Manifest.

"Right, JL should be headed to Naja, and I told them to bring out the big guns." She telepathically spoke. "Anything else you want me to do? I got Tony on speedial, I can also see if Zaki and the other two are available. Shouldn't be too hard to find them, though the android might be tricky."

---

Nelli tilted her head in confusion as she heard the utterances coming from the strange girl's mouth. They, naturally, meant absolutely nothing to her, and it was then that she realized one of the fatal mistakes she had made in coming to visit the mortal world unprepared, second only to not bringing sandals of course: she had neglected to wonder if perhaps the language they used would be any different from the tongue in which she spoke during the time she spent in the Hall of Descent and the immediacies of the Flowered Tree. In all honesty, she should have expected it, she should have planned for it, but in her excitement to flee from the land to which she had been confined during her whole life and explore this other world, she had forgotten about it. Really, it was a miracle that she'd had the foresight and planning to at least steal the shroud of darkness from her mother.

Noticing that the other girl now was looking nervously at her knife and pointing at it, Nelli looked from her black knife, to the girl, and back again. She suspected what was in the girl's mind, though she couldn't say for sure as she couldn't understand her, and she wished she could have assured her that she had no intention of using the weapon to harm them as long as they didn't attempt to harm her first, but unfortunately, she did not know how to say it in a manner that the girl would understand, as they spoke different tongues. Only one solution occured to her when faced with this dilemma.

Taking her knife, she pricked herself in the thumb with its tip, a tiny bit of blood pooling up in the hole. She then walked forward and pressed her thumb against the boy's forehead, assuming that, even though he had said nothing thus far, the two of them spoke the same tongue, as it was only logical that two people who lived in the same area and were apparently traveling together would understand each other. Entirely oblivious to the strange event that was having someone stain one's forehead with blood, Nelli then licked what blood remained off of her thumb, and closed her eyes afterwards, appearing as if she was in deep meditation for several moments. When she opened them again, she nodded to herself.

"My apologies. I did not anticipate that people from this world would speak in a different tongue than the people of mine, a dumb error now that I think about it." She stated in a neutral, quiet, vaguely dull voice. "As for your question, this is my tool, but I will not use it on you unless you give me a reason, if that is what you were concerned about." She continued, now addressing Cat, unaware that her words could be interpreted as a threat of sorts, even though everything she said, she said factually and with no intent other than to inform. "Oh, and I said 'hello' earlier, but evidently we could not understand each other back then, so it would not hurt to reiterate. Hello." She greeted them casually.

---

"Right..." She paused. "Hello to you too." Cat spoke, not sure what to make of the person in front of her. "Any particular reason why you've decided to say hello to us? I'm sorry, but I have no idea what planet you come from, but here when someone comes up to you brandishing a knife, speaking of how she'll use said blade on me if I give her a reason, oh and cutting herself and placing the blood on my brothers forehead before licking it off... Yeah none of that is really what one would consider normal, polite or sane." She remarked. Then tried to get her bearings, experiencing what was likely culture shock.

---

"More stuff to kill? Sounds like another dull errand. I do wonder if this old woman will one day give us something interesting to do." Garnet remarked before looking at Masami and patting her on the back. "Anyway, I'm happy to see that you did the right thing. Things that have a mind of their own sure can be scary, eh?" She flashed the Kitsune a grin, as if trying to make light of the tense situation that she had just gone through, before looking forward and raising the hand that bore the bracelet with the blue and orange gemstone, exerting its power and causing the gemstone to glow. After a moment, a blue portal appeared in front of them, a portal that led back to Tokyo. Garnet gestured towards it.

"So, let's get going. Your sister said she'd catch up with us soon." The blonde woman said before walking through.

---

"KIll? I certainly hope we don't have to kill the spirit." She spoke. "The being may be corrupted, or just angry, or entirely malevolent. Either way this won't be the most simple of tasks. We don't want to jump the gun, lest we offend the spirit..." She then paused. "Thank you... I let myself become clouded from my goal. I allowed the blade to corrupt me and steal my mind. I... was weak." She spoke, sighing. "I am entirely unworthy of a friend as loyal and inteligent and..." She looked at Garnet. She wanted to say something. "Skilled. Skilled as you. My sincere apologies..."

---

Akihiko's smile disappeared instantly when he heard the cat begin talking, taken completely by surprise by this occurence. He, of course, was well aware of the supernatural world, not just because of the encounter with the Kitsunes and the Nekomata earlier, but also because of his very origin, and so, it did not confuse him too much that something such as a talking cat could exist... but what was it doing here? He had been told that they were meant to keep their distance from the human world, from the most part. By far the most unsettling part, though, was that he vaguely recognized the voice with which this cat spoke. Frowning, he continued listening, his eyes growing wider. Now he knew why the voice seemed familiar, and he wasn't happy with the implication at all, though at least she refrained from saying anything about what she had just seen.

The young man remained silent, not knowing what to say or how to retort, but the silence, either way, didn't last long, as soon Akihiko's mother rolled herself back into the room. She was empty-handed, but trailing behind her was a machine that was entirely capable of moving autonomously, with a fully articulate mechanical arm that at the moment seemed to be holding a small bowl of tuna, which it set next to the small cat.

"I hope this will suffice." The blonde woman in the wheelchair said. "Now then, care to tell us who you are?" She asked afterwards. There was now a smile on her face. "I have microphones all around the place, you know? After the last robbery attempt, Aki and I began turning this into what you could call a fortress. My sincere apologies if your intent was not to be discovered, but now I am quite curious." The woman stated calmly.

---

"Of course. First some tuna." She spoke. Akari had a small bite of the tuna and then sat back up. "Mmmmmh. This is good stuff! Not the kind of stuff that comes out of a can... Thank you very much!" She spoke. "Anywho, enough stalling. I am Akari. A Nekomata." Akari replied. "I helped your son in saving those children, though I had a different form then. He seemed a tad grumpy, which got on my nerves. But I feel like I'm growing to like him. Especially if his mother is so nice... he must have inherited some of that niceness." She paused. Looking up at the mother. "As for my intent. I was merely curious as you are. I wondered what convinced Akihiko to stand up for those children, and I wondered what someone like that might be like at home."

She then began eating more tuna.

---

Sarah simply giggled at John's attempt to please her and shook her head. "Oh, dear John, if we truly were to do whatever I wanted, you would be futilely attempting to crawl out of the bedroom before the day was over." She said, flashing her boyfriend a most charming, disarming smile and saying nothing more on the matter, simply allowing him to lead her to his limousine and then going inside with the rest of the group, content to note once more that it had grown with the addition of Hanah's new friend. Once inside the car, she simply snuggled close to John, holding his hand as she slowly drifted off to sleep, content to finally have the opportunity to rest a little after the frantic day that she had just ended with her vicious threat. The last thoughts she had before finally napping to recover some energy were of how nice it was to meet someone who was genuinely interested in her, not merely attracted to her due to how she looked. And she had to admit to herself that she was starting to feel the same way.

When they finally arrived at the steakhouse after a relatively short trip, Sarah woke up quite quickly, requiring minimal nudging maneuvers from John. She left and walked into the restaurant with the others, still holding onto John's arm as they moved towards their table. Sarah smiled when she noticed that there was quite a lot of meat on the menu. "Very thoughtful." She commented and superficially flipped through most of the menu just to make sure that there was nothing on it that she would not like her sisters to ingest, as she had been in charge of making sure that they ate well during most of their life, though it was only until her powers developed further that she actually had the chance to choose food that was nutritious and not whatever junk they could scavenge.

Moving on from those unpleasant thoughts about the past, she skipped straight to the desserts section and began ordering quite a few of them, as usual. With that done, she leaned onto John's shoulder, looking up at him. "Hey, if I fall asleep again, wake me up when they bring my food, alright? Otherwise, Hanah might eat it all." She joked, before closing her eyes. By this point she was not willing to pass up any chance to recover her energy, and restaurants didn't usually serve too quickly, especially when there were a lot of customers present, though she didn't expect them to take too long either. Regardless, though her eyes were closed, she was not quite asleep yet, still listening to what was happening around her.

[/quote]
"Honestly, I could go for a nap myself right now. If I wasn't afraid of missing the food." Spoke Hanah. And she smiled at Roy. "Don't worry. I should be fine. This kind of things is pretty common for me." She spoke. resting her head on the table, still feeling a little under the weather. "Well, at least Disneyland wasn't boring..." She joked.

[Charmera]

Cora
Cora nodded to Katie's mental sign and was startled when she was thrown out of the window but was relieved when she heard her voice and knew she was okay. She then turned to Apocalypse and went after him at high speed, tackling outside the already broken window. She threw him toward the ground where he landed with gentle ease. He then raised his hands and sent huge blasts of blue energy Cora's way, which she returned in kind with her own yellow blasts. Cora had clearly become much stronger and was going toe to toe with the Egyptian villain. She wanted to make sure Katie was okay, but she needed to focus on her own fight and couldn't get distracted otherwise she'd put herself in danger.

Katie looked at Eric now, seeing that Cora could handle herself she turned to focus on her fight. She suddenly grabbed the wooden shotgun from her back, aiming it at Eric. She pulled the trigger, squeezing off a buckshot round accelerated by magic and electricity, with considerable force and energy behind it. It was suddenly stopped by the mutant, who simply held out his hand and the bullets froze in mid air as if suspended by wires. Magneto sent them back towards KatIe, but by then she had already disapeared, charging the leader of the brotherhood from the side. She slammed her shotgun into his face, which resisted the force with a magnetic shield. But was then exposed to a massive energy blast from the same shotgun, sending Magneto flying. He recovered in time to see Katie hurtling to him once more, magnetism lifting him up. He quickly bent a street lamp and reformed it into a sheild. it broke against Katies attack, but then he sent the pieces into her face to send her flying now. She quickly regained her footing and saw many more shards of metal coming towards her. She then sent out a burst of electrons, the negative charge leaving his delicate magnetic manipulation foiled. But Katie failed to take into acount the wrecking ball bound for her face. The Mutant grunted as it hit her with full force, her new god physilogy giving her the ability to resist injury, but it still hurt like hell.

Magneto did not let up, but Katie had a plan. She quickly used her electron form to outflank the mutant as he charged her, sifting through his physical form like water around a pole. She then reformed behind him and then aimed her shotgun at his back. Blasting the mutant backwards, magnetic shield and all. He grunted as he was sent flying, before he managed to get his balance and magnetically hover himself back up. Then he unleashed a wave of charged particles and Katie responded with her own, both the same charge, they repelled one another, so the beams would resist one another. Locked in a deadly game of tug and war.

Magneto and Katie pushed back and forth for a bit, but then Katie released a ball of particles of the reverse charge which pulled the beams towards it. Magneto was about to adjust when suddenly Katie closed the distanced and smacked him over the head with the shotgun, sending him reeling.

The master of magnetism stood, clicking his jaw and rubbing his head. He had underestimated the electric mutant, and it seemed she had potential still untapped. If she did fall into the hands of enemies then that would be problematic indeed. All the more reason to fight.

Magneto sent out a ripple of force which sent Katie flying, and then followed that up by slamming a magnetically charged fist into her abdomen, causing her to keel over. "This is why you need to come with us. You have great power, but it is so raw and unrefined. You seem intent on doing things your own half assed way, and that might have been acceptable before, but you are much more now. Your power could be used to wipe us out if it fell into the wrong hands." He grabbed a metal ball. "So again. Death or submission?"

Suddenly Magneto found himself the target of a facefirst blast of electrons. He groaned as he saw Katie, holding her wooden shotgun. She blasted him again, but this time he managed to dodge out of the way. He looked at her. "I told you. Not going to happen." She spoke. "I don't need anything from you or you group." She spoke. "If I am truly as powerful as you say now, I can't afford to attach myself to an ideology. Least of all one that promotes Genocide!"

Magneto gnashed his teeth and suddenly tightened an electromagnetic metal noose around Katie's neck, causing her to be lifted into the air and cut off her air. He was the visage of rage. "You don't have any idea what that word means! You band it about without any thought of what a genocide looks like. I'll tell you! It's-" He caught himself, then tightened the noose. "Fine. You have chosen annihilation, not I. I have been more than forgiving and patient with you. Now I must prevent you from being used against our race. I am sorry."

Xyri suddenly stopped hugging Vera and the turned to see someone poking her, her firm jelly skin resisting the poke. It was Rin, Xyri had not seen a lot of Rin, and knew very little about her. She knew her powers had something to do with sound. She seemed shy, but Xyri thought she was quite nice. Though she wasn’t able to really tell since she seemed to be avoiding the large slime being. She was at first confused as to why she was being poked. It wasn’t enough to hurt her, and she was sure Rin knew that, so she wasn’t sure what intent was being the action.

When Rin explained her actions, Xyri understood. She was a green, strange thing to these people after all. To anyone really, there was no being quite like Xyri it seemed. Though she was confused as to why she seemed to be turning red. “It’s okay… You didn’t hurt me or anything.” She replied, altogether very confused with what was happening. “You’re turning red… Are you ill? Or is that just part of your power?” She asked innocently. “I mean… I don’t know much about humans.”

Rin Tarla

"Part of my powers? No, no, I am blushing" I giggled a bit uncomfortably and before I knew it I began rambling "Blushing is the reddening of a person's face due to psychological reasons. It is normally involuntary and triggered by emotional stress, such as that associated with embarrassment, anger, or romantic stimulation. Severe blushing is common in people who suffer social anxiety in which the person experiences extreme and persistent anxiety in social and performance situations." I breathed a bit heavily, bordering hyperventilating before I started to calm down again. "Sorry, I'm rambling, rambling stuff like I'm a science book, I'm not even sure how I managed to get so much in detail I'm not an expert on bodily functions."

"Sorry for the poking, you're nothing like anyone or thing I've ever seen or heard. You're a question mark to me and that's intriguing." I smiled awkwardly but some sincerity could be seen in there.

"It's okay... I think I understand. You do it because you're embarrassed. When I'm embarrassed I sometimes shrink." She replied, now smiling a little, and then she was surprised by her next point. Someone was intrigued by her? "Really? Most people are scared of me or freaked out... Not many of them are... well... intrigued or interested. I guess apart from you guys at the young bloods..." She paused. "It can be lonely being different..." She spoke.

"I think you're also... interesting to me." She spoke. "I don't know much about you. But I know you can do things with sound."

[Charmera]

---

Garnet shrugged. "Stop being dumb. Friends aren't things that you deserve to get or lose, like trophies or prizes. Friends are friends. They just happen and suddenly you're stuck with them and you have to make the best out of it because you don't know how long it's gonna last. So for the love of God, stop moping around and let's get moving. The sooner we finish doing errands for your lovely aunt, the better." She said to the Kitsune.

---

"I'm not being dumb." Masami replied. "It's just..." She sighed, shaking her head. "Nevermind." She remarked. And then started sniffing. She grabbed a hoodie from the side of the road and put it on and started walking. "This way. I have both their scents. We'll meet them and then see what this clue is." Spoke the Kitsune as she walked through the crowd, the hoodie covering her ears from view. Her tails were no longer activated. The truth was she was afraid of failing Garnet again, someone she had come to greatly respect and admire throughout their adventures.

---

"Well, I'm very grateful to hear that you have a positive opinion of me. It would have been nice if you had decided that you liked me before you decided to smack me in the head with my own scabbard, but I suppose I'm grateful nonetheless." Akihiko said, still not entirely pleased with how the Nekomata had treated him earlier, though even then his tone was only slightly annoyed, and decidedly less aggressive than it had been before.

"Quiet, Akihiko. You're being rude to our guest." Akihiko's mother admonished him, making him fall silent immediately and then turn away in embarrassment. She then turned back to Akari, her affable smile still on her face. "My son can certainly be grumpy at times, but I assure you he has a good heart. If that is because of my genes or his own convictions, I could not possibly tell." She stated. Akihiko made a grunt as if to object to the first comment, but said nothing. "Regardless, it is nice to meet you, Akari. My name is Alice. Not the name you would have expected from Aki's mother, I suppose?" She chuckled. "I came to Japan as a scientist, but as you can see, I am retired now." She explained.

At that point, Akihiko finally bothered to chime in again, looking around with mild confusion. "Say, did you come here alone? Where are the others?" She asked Akari. Hearing the word 'others', his mother looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and he was quick to clarify. "Oh, there were others besides Akari and me. There was a Kitsune, a blonde woman and some sort of fox-monster." He explained. She seemed thoughtful, but merely nodded and said nothing at all. Akihiko turned back to Akari. "Did they leave you behind, or...?"

[/quote]
"Masami was never as good at stealth as me. I'm not sure about the other two, so I decided to come alone. The others went off to Azami to drop off the sword. Though I am worried about Masami... The sword seemed to have quite the effect on her and you. Although I'm no stranger to dark magic, so I was relatively unaffected." She spoke. "Masami can sniff me out if necessary, so I told them I would go off on my own." She proceeded to finish off the Tuna. "Speaking of the scabbard I hit you with... that sword is very interesting." She remarked. "Could you tell me anything about it?"

Rin Tarla

"Yes, sounds, vibrations, I can do a lot with it. Most of the things I do are automatic though, can't turn it off or on. For example I got a permanent sound barrier around me protecting me. I can't turn that off nor make it stronger. Every bit of sound from an amazing distance reaches me whether I want it to or not. It's kind off a drag, feels like my head is exploding sometimes." I smiled a bit, I was getting relaxed again, which was a good thing because who knew what I would've begun to ramble about if this continued. "You kind off have sound powers to. Not in the way I have but whatever you're made off it absorbs sound and sends it back out amplified. It's on such a low scale that unless you're me, it's inaudible though."

Hmm, maybe whatever she's made off can help me with sound related things. Would it be weird to ask what she's made off so I can try to use that substance for sound experiments? Hug her first before asking? "Erm, not sure if this is appropriate to ask, but what kind of jelly are you? Because I'm really curious at its sound related properties. I hope that didn't sound creepy. Hug?"

Xyri paused. "Well... The scientist said I was made of something called primordial Ooze... Or Primordial Jelly. It's very rare from what I've heard, but I grow bigger by turning other things into more of me." She explained. "I'd rather not get experimented on... though I could always fine a way to absorb something and then regurgitate a bit for you or something." She explained. "As for the hug... Of course!" The nine foot Xyrixma completely encircled Rin in a warm and gentle embrace. Of course the situation was a little pecarious, because now Rin my be able to leave the hug completely dry, but if the warmth went on for too long, the Xyrixma could start to secrete liquidy slime.

Grimms
John couldn't help but smile at Sarah's very forward statement about her plans for tomorrow. "Well, how could I say no to that?" He grinned to her before kissing her on the lips as they walked toward the Limo.

Once they were at the restaurant he grinned as Sarah ordered a bunch of dessert. He ordered a steak and a soup as he wrapped his arm around his sleeping girlfriend. She was tired quite oftem, John wondered if that was a side effect of her powers.

Sam nudged Hannah when the waitress came over to hee. "Come on Hannah, you have to order." The middle sister prodded as she ordered her own salad. Roy ordered a rack of ribs for himself as he looked over at Hannah with a bit of concern, hoping that she was okay and wishing that he could make her feel better.

Hanah got up with almost frightening speed, the prospect of food seeming to have given her an almost unholy burst of energy as she smiled. Then she fired off a bunch of orders. "I would like the steak, the lamb, the pork.... oh and some of your fish items would be nice too. And that will be for starters." She remarked. Then smiled at the rest. "What? Girl's got to eat after turning into a dragon." She smiled to the waiter as she passed her menu.

"You're serious?"

"Quite serious." Spoke the little teenager, nodding. "Especially the dragon part..."

[Charmera]

- Snip -

Demon God Alastir

Alastir stared down at his hands in mild amusement, he could feel the power coursing through his veins, but it wasn't enough, even the sheer power of the Demon Realm and Hell was now the guiding force behind his power, but it was not yet enough, he didn't feel like he was whole, he still needed to gather more power before he could even dream to launch a successful attack on Earth "It isn't enough, I don't have enough abilities to attack, I still need more time before this happens..." Alastir murmured, before he was thrown out of his thoughts, he felt the Saiyan-Kaioshin's Fist impact his face, but the sheer force of the punch was not yet enough to even phase Alastir's newfound power, the thick aura that wrapped around Alastir's body was so great that it could nullify any attack that the halfling could throw at him "Hm?" Alastir stated to seemingly no one, thick tendrils shooting out of his shoulders and upper forearms, constricting and wrapping themselves around Hiroshi's left arm as well as wrapping themselves around the halfling's neck. "I have to thank you, Hiroshi," Alastir smiled, the grip of the black tendrils tightening ever so slightly "Without your help, I would have never been able to become a god once more, but unlike Demigra, I have an actual agenda that must be tended to, and the time limit for this plan is extremely limited, so I present you with two options..."

Alastir brought his hand up, a swirling orb of darkness forming atop it, it's energy matching the sheer number of stars that Alastir absorbed into his body, but it was tainted to such a limit that it now resembled a black hole, with enough energy to cause a star to enter it's supernova stage, and Alastir was now using it to threaten Hiroshi's life, the weakened Halfling was now very much vulnerable to any attack that Alastir could throw at him "You are not my enemy Hiroshi, nor will I allow myself to become involved in any of your conflicts, but keep in mind that Hell as well as the Demon Realm is now under my control, along with every denizin that inhabits the two regions, so I want to give you the chance to flee with your life intact, or you will die here and now, there will be no compromise, no reasoning, the two offers still stand, but I wonder what decision you will make Halfling, will you let yourself live to fight another day, or will you perish here, forever forgotten?" Alastir questioned Hiroshi, no smirk was present on his face, but rather, a stone cold serious expression was on Alastir's face, he was serious about this, and Hiroshi's time was beginning to run out.

"Alastir!" A man shouted, causing Alastir's eyes to slightly widen, there was only one person who could cause him to open his eyes in shock "Let, him, go." Shimura stated with such authority in his aged voice that it was nearly frightening to say the least. It succeeded in stopping Alastir from killing him, but he did not relent in his hold on Hiroshi, Shimura knew this to be true "Alastir, we both know that in your current state, you can gather more power than myself, but that does not mean fighting against myself and a full power Arctico will assure your victory, and judging by the sheer number of villains that are under your control, you will overwhelm us, so why don't we come to a mutual agreement, you allow us to leave and I won't stop you in your efforts." Which was a blatant lie, as Shimura was tasked with taking Alastir down, but he would not permit innocents being killed in the crossfire, and Hiroshi was an innocent life that had to be preserved.

Alastir's eyes did not lose their cold nature whatsoever, even if Shimura was one of his friends, this was the perfect time to show them all that he was not a pushover, he wanted to relay a message to all, but if he did this, then the heroes of Earth would be onto his schemes and he would be stopped dead in his tracks, continuing to stare at Hiroshi, Alastir leaned in closely "Regardless of what that man says, I want to hear your words, will you leave peacefully, or die like a weakened wretch?" Alastir replied, both Mira and Demon King Dabura forming ranks behind Alastir, followed by Frieza, Cell, Garlic Jr, and even Hiroshi's Uncle Oniyo were standing alongside Alastir, their energies tainted by demonic energy, making them essentially extensions of Alastir's will, his heralds of an encroaching darkness, which began to expand rapidly thanks to Alastir's newfound influence.

Glacia had been surprised, and to be honest rather disappointed, with the villains leaving. She hadn't gotten a chance to test her new silver form. Going in between her last form and that was still a little slow, she'd like to be able to smooth that transition in future. Still, she had been able to hide her energy and silently watch the exchanges from the shadows. Detecting her was near impossible via her energy, as she might as well have the same reading as a carboard box. Right now she was waiting for the right time to strike. But she doubted she would be able to take one of them out before her energy ran low and she would have to fight the horde of villains. Plus Hiroshi didn't seem to be doing too well against him, and if it looked bad, she would have to spring him out like she did before.

[Charmera]

Julie frowned, sighing. She was surprised by the quickness of the tests. She expected more trials. She briefly wondered why she was joining this whole mad enterprise, but she supposed it made sense. It was why she was a Green Lantern, to end as much suffering as possible and save lives. If Manifest had a chance of doing it, she wasn't going to stand idly by. But it seemed like she wouldn't be taking part in the way she would have thought. Sending a green lantern to give a message was like taking a tank down to get groceries. He could always send one of his fragments or something to that effect. She wondered if this would become a trend. However, now was not the time to complain. She had something to do, and manifest was likely counting on her.

It didn't take her long to get to the league from the warp gate, and convincing them to come was also easy enough. Superman was on board without much reservation, Bat's and Wonder Woman were skeptical at first, Hal and John trusted Ju'lee, and the Flash seemed similarly accepting. She then telepathically contacted Manifest.

"Right, JL should be headed to Naja, and I told them to bring out the big guns." She telepathically spoke. "Anything else you want me to do? I got Tony on speedial, I can also see if Zaki and the other two are available. Shouldn't be too hard to find them, though the android might be tricky."

"I already have SHIELD contacting the Avengers. Now, what do you think? Lead the charge. Superman and Jordan might be strong, but you know more about the enemy. We're fighting a God. What better way to prove your mettle?" Manifest replied telepathically. "Basically, my final test was how you dealt with an apocalyptic scenario. I figured, we get about one every other Tuesday, you'd be able to prove yourself in no time." He sighed inwardly. "Guess I forgot today was an 'other Tuesday,' eh?"

"Good. I was worried you'd have me running around calling everyone and their mother." She spoke. "Though, I expect I'll be less pleased about that when we actual fight Khan... So I'll see if I can send a message to the magic slime woman, the android and the pop singer who hates you. Oh! Did you know that? Chorus is actually on the charts as we speak." She spoke telepathically. "Anyway, enough rambling. I should be with you shortly."

It didn't take too long for Julie to come down, moving near Manifest. She recognised Xander's mind of course, but she didn't have time to talk to him. "Alright. Got some extra backup. Zaki and Chorus are going to get the android and come here. Hopefully she'll have a spell to help take out gods. "

[Charmera]

Cora
Cora was snapped out of her thoughts when Valancy suddenly saved her. She chided herself mentally for getting distracted and nodded to her teammate in thanks. She then watched as Valancy trapped Apocalypse so that she could hit him. She was charging up an energy an energy blast to shoot at Apocalypse when suddenly she saw Katie out the corner of her eye. She was being strangled to death by Magneto. Cora's mind filled with rage and fury. She would not let him hurt Katie, ever.

"LET! HER! GO!" Cora shouted in absolutely fury. Creating a very concentrated blast of energy that she shot towards magneto that exploded in a huge blast of pure ki.

Magneto was sent flying by the attack, groaning as he spun. He got back up, Katie did too as she detached the meta from her neck. Magneto was now bleeding, from his nose and a few cuts from the blast. Seemed his power was begining to waver.

Eric roared as he went towards Katie, watching as the girl stood calmly in front of him. She then suddenly teleported behind him and sent out a blast with her shotgun, hitting him from behind and sending him back. Magneto groaned as he got up from the crater he was in. Bleeding even more. But he had something up his sleve.

He quickly sent out a wave of magnetic energy, blasting Katie with her own now very magnetised nature. She went flying and groaned as she hit a rock, now bleeding a little like Magneto. She quickly forced herself to recover. And then saw it.

Magneto was tearing several buildings from their foundations at the roots, levitating them. The man planned on crushing her and... Cora.

No. Not Cora. Not Cora. Never Cora.

As he prepared the attack, bunching the buildings by their metal wiring within concrete into one massive ball. The metal encircling the outside like a rwrecking ball, making this meteor quite the force. As he raised it and then tossed it at Cora, he was surprised to find the metal suddenly stopped obeying him. Then his magnetic powers stopped working at all, the forces keeping him up now not working the same. They were being blocked by something. By...

"No..."

Katie was standing over Magneto. She had a frown on her face as she knelt down. "You know how your powers work? How magnetism works?" She spoke. "Magnetism works by electric current through stuff. Metals, the earths core... Anyway, this electric current comes from electrons. Which I control. I superceeded you in the realm of physics. Should have thought of it sooner really..."

"You took away my powers?"

"Unfortunately no. As much as I'd like it fi you could never come back here to hurt my friends again, I can only block them. But that works similarly effective." She frowned deeper. "So don't think for a minute I wont force you to drop your sheilds and then end you if you ever hurt Cora."

Magneto frowned, then got up. "You still have to deal with the Egyptian."

Katie then smiled. "Nah, I'll let Cora and Val deal with him. They seem to be having fun." She spoke. "You on the other hand are going to stay here. Unless you want to get the tazing of a lifetime."

Magneto sighed, sitting down. "Fine. I see you are a lost cause, yet capable of self defence. Either you will succeed with flying colors or collapse under your own arrogance. Either way, I wash my hands of you Katie Prince." He spoke.

[Charmera]

- Snip -

Demon God Alastir

As soon as the spit containing Hiroshi's contents of Saliva, Mucus, and Blood impacted his face, followed by a rock hard hit to the head, Alastir's eyes began dancing with black fire, his anger rising to such a level that most would think he would go off like a bomb, but instead, his hellish display of purple, red, and black aura shot out in all directions, his smile falling to a frown nearly immediately. However, he began to chuckle darkly, his eyes glowing red with lethal intent, a Saiyan worm just spit on him? The Demon God? Now he knew the Saiyan-Kaioshin Hybrid's answer without him even saying anything "Quite an interesting response, Halfling." Alastir's darkened energy signature grew thicker and thicker with each passing second "You know, I tried being merciful to you all, allowing you a chance to live and fight once more, but now?" Alastir put a palm up to the right side of his face, a horrendous smile forming on the Demon God's face "Now you are going to die for certain!"

As soon as Alastir said this, Mira shot forward towards Hiroshi full force, while Demon King Dabura shot forward to take on Glacia, followed by Frieza and Cell, while Alastir? Alastir shot forward towards Shimura, his fist clashing with the elder human's fist, the two struggling to overpower each other "I thought you would be better than this Alastir." Shimura replied gruffly, his emerald jade eyes staring directly into Alastir's voidless eyes "But you leave me no choice my old friend, as the God of Peace, I will destroy you and put an end to your dark deeds right here and right now!" The two seasoned fighters then began moving at speeds that not even Alastir's minions could follow.

As soon as Dabura, Frieza, and Cell charged forward towards Hiroshi as well, all it took was a flash of silver to send Cell and Frieza flying backwards, while Dabura blocked the kick from Arctico, whose energy was surging with each passing second, Arctico was in his Ultimate Evolution state and ready to fight against the overwhelming odds that were Dabura, Cell, and Frieza "We're not done yet..." Arctico replied, his voice downright serious and even had hints of anger within them "I suggest that you go all out from the start, or else you will be having a really bad time here." Arctico replied, his Ice-like energy attempting to wrap around the Demon King, who quickly removed his grip from Arctico and fired a beam of red, hellish energy, Arctico replying in kind with a Frost Blue Energy beam, an Ice Attack that Arctico instinctively unleashed against the Demon King, the two beams struggling to overpower each other.

Suddenly from behind Dabura came a Silver blur as a gravity and Ki enhanced strike to the back was sent to the demons spine with Glacia's hand, which she followed up with a cruel kick and a blast of Ki energy, inhaling as she felt the energy hit her target. She finished the combo by forcing the gravity around the demon to increase to the point where he would be stuck on the ground. "Don't worry Darling, I've got the demon guy," She spoke as she moved to follow her attacks up further.

[Charmera]

---

"You know, I still have this thing, we can just call them over." Garnet remarked, taking the device that Akihiko had given them out of her pocket and then depressing what was literally the only button in the whole damn thing, before a small ringing sound began to come from the device. Garnet sighed. "Please don't tell me this thing is a glorified cellphone, because I'm going to snap it in half." She shook her head, before looking elsewhere in order to try and ignore the device. "By the way, I like that hoodie. Suits you." She commented. "It's not everyday that you find nice clothes on the sidewalk." She chuckled to herself.

---

"It may be nice, but it's beginning to stink... And I'm rather sure there's blood on the inside." She remarked, sighing. "Still, I've had to deal with worse. Much worse." She remarked as she placed hands in the pockets of the hoodie. She felt a hole and some blood. "I think I know why it's on the side of the road... Heh... Couldn't have lived for very long after taking this off..."

---

Akihiko listened to Akari explain to him that Masami and Garnet had headed off to hand the sword to someone called Azami. The Half-Oni had no idea who that was or what relation they had with her, but he simply didn't bother asking and instead nodded. Being near the sword had been quite sickening, and in fact, now that he thought about it with the clarity of hindsight, he realized that it had been causing her corrupted blood to boil, though thankfully nobody seemed to notice, and the annoying male Kitsune hadn't been present to call him out on that another time, fortunately. Of course, he kept all of these thoughts to himself, as he didn't want anyone to find out about his origin and his hybrid nature.

"Kusanagi? It's quite a remarkable sword, yes." Akihiko continued as he reached out and grabbed a misplaced bag of chips, eating one before continuing. "Supposedly it was made to give us normal humans a fighting chance if something like a god tried to kill us all. It's very powerful, but... I can't seem to get it to unlock its power beyond the third stage." He sighed, considering this a personal failure of his. He then glanced at his mother, who didn't seem to mind the information he was giving to Akari. "Mom helped make it, but she doesn't like to talk much about it."

Suddenly, his cellphone rang. Akihiko took it and looked at the caller. Obviously it didn't say "Garnet", but the name identified the caller as someone who had one of his devices, which meant that the caller was Garnet or Masami, since they were the only ones who had one of said devices at the moment. Wondering what they wanted so soon after their last meeting, he took the call. "Yes?" He asked.

"Akari's with you, isn't she?" Garnet's voice asked on the other end of the line.

"Yes, but how did you-" Akihiko began, but was unable to finish the question.

"Female intuition. Can you tell her that we have Azami's next errand?" The blonde woman said.

"Um, Garnet says that they have Azami's next errand. It probably means you should go." The young man stated as he stood up.

"I take it this means you won't need another bowl of tuna, then?" Alice chimed in.

---

"Unless you have something which I can use to hold it in, I'm sorry but we won't be able to." She spoke. "My mother is not quite as charitable as you, so she won't appreciate me goofing off. Neither would Masami and Garnet." She remarked. She looked to Akihiko. "This was nice. I wouldn't mind terribly if we did this again. Though preferably without the stalking." She spoke, before hopping to the window and into a portal. She appeared right behind Garnet.

"What did I miss?"

---

"You stopped a bank robbery? That's great!" Kirisvala congratulated the siblings as she took the cellphone into her hands, naturally handling it with the utmost care, as she didn't want to break it when they had likely gone through a lot of trouble to obtain it. She looked at it for scarcely a second before deciding that she wasn't any good for this task and that it'd be better if he got Mars to look at the problem, because she wasn't even sure what encryption was. Looking at the two siblings, she nodded at them. "I think there's someone who can help you. I'll go get him. In the mean time, you can come in and sit down if you want. I'll try to return as soon as possible." She said. She then looked at Nelli once again, noticing that she seemed to have her stare fixed on her, and shuffled nervously. "Um, you can come in too." She said. Nelli nodded at her.

"Much appreciated." She said politely, walking past her and into what appeared to be a reception room of sorts. She grabbed an apple from a bowl of fruit nearby and then sat down on a sofa, using her black knife to peel the apple with expertise that indicated she was very skilled in using the weapon.

With that done, Kiris headed over to the elevator and went up to the Command Room, stopping briefly to ask ADAM about Mars' whereabouts. Hearing that he was in Vera's room with some others, she headed up to said room and walked in.

"Hey Mars, I need you help and OH MY DRAGON A PUPPY!" She said excitedly, approaching the cute small creature and crouching next to it, though she didn't attempt to pet it, afraid that she would hurt it. "Hello there. I'm Kiris." She said to the puppy with a smile.

"Two aliens in one day..." Cat put her face in her hands. "When did my life get so weird...? I should have never listened to you Nico..." She muttered. She was still getting used to this idea of aliens and powers... she knew they existed, but they were never a part of her life before, just stuff that happened to other people. "If it weren't for you I would be at home, in my room."