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

[Charmera]

Cora
Cora smiled at how happy Katie seemed about the idea of fusing. She knew that Katie always enjoyed it, and Cora did too honestly. It gave her incredible powers, but beyond that it was nice to feel connected to someone so closely. It also meant a lot to Cora that Katie trusted her enough to basically put her life in Cora's hands. No one had trusted Cora with anything before that.

Once Katie fused with Cora, the android felt a familiar rush of energy and could feel her increased power and speed. Cora turned to Valancy, "I'll contact you on our comm device when it's clear for you to join us." Cora said to her. It was her and Katie's job to take out the turrets and the guards, and to find Roy. Cora smiled at Katie's words inside her mind, "Well, let's getting going then. From your report we have a lot of asses to kick." She replied out loud.

Cora then flew off at high speeds as Katie directed her toward the abandoned building complex. She was there in a matter of seconds and surveyed it with her own eyes for a moment. She decided to go floor by floor started at the bottom. She flew down at super high speeds, and smashed the turrets with her fists, pieces of metal flying everywhere. The guards came running over and Cora hopped through the window and knocked each of them out before they had a chance to react. Once she was done she looked around the large room and frowned, "This place is wired to blow. Kylie's going to have her work cut out for her." She said to Katie. She then decided to crash the floor of the next level instead of using the doors. It made a lot of noise, but she was guessing this Floyd guy already knew they were here and wouldn't blow them up until he fought Valancy since that's what this seemed to be about. She repeated the process on each floor until the guards were all taken out, she moved more stealthy onto the floor where Roy was, as she didn't want to risk him getting hurt. That floor was the most heavily protected, so Cora such through a window and was quietly sitting on a beam high above Roy and the soldiers. "Katie? Can you diffuse the bomb on Roy's chest? I don't want to move him until we know that thing isn't armed." She said to the girl she was fused with. Roy was currently unconcious, but Cora could sense his vitals and knew he was alive. She then pressed her communicator to speak to Valancy, "Valancy, you're clear to approach, only the top floor remains guarded and we're working on freeing Roy now. There's not sign on that Floyd guy though. I don't know where he is." Cora told Valancy quietly over their communicator.

"Sure! Eric taught me how to do that with my powers!" She didn't even think about Eric's death before she said that, but it suddenly hit her. She internally frowned. Never again she thought. And then she went within the bomb, suddenly overloading the right circuits and frying the systems of the detornator itself. She then hopped out of the bomb and used a plasma knife to cut it off Roy before tossing it out the window. She then fused back with Cora. "Should be safe to move him now. I'd suggest grabbing him and making a run for the exit before Floyd or whatever realizes what we've done."

[Charmera]

---

---

Gilbert looked at the violent display with rapt attention and wide eyes, slowly bringing up his hand and using it to let out a slow whistle.

"Damn, girl, that's what I call a flashy finale." The young man stated after seeing the drones and the Rantu herself annihilate the fearsome Time Demon, sending him off to the afterworld or wherever it was that Time Demons went, once and for all. He then watched one of the huge dragons shrink down to human size and bow before him and Aru, giving them his thanks for helping with the Time Demon. At this, Gilbert merely shook his head.

"No need to thank me. That asshole made me do something terrible, and then took my body. It was only natural that I'd want to give him a taste of his own medicine. That I happened to save the universe while at it is mostly just a convenient extra." The demon slayer said with a slight grin on his face. However, immediately afterwards, he felt silent, the smile fading as he heard something coming from where Ku had stood moments earlier.

"Demon Slayer, this hubris of yours will become your downfall." Came the voice of the Time Demon. However, paradoxically as it may have seemed, after being nearly completely destroyed, Ku's voice became more... real. "I am not the only one, and I will not be the last. I was but a commander in life, Demon Slayer, one of many, of the many armies of the Nilkin. They will not see themselves starve to death, Demon Slayer; they will sooner storm this world than yield before the prospect of a peaceful destruction. And it is not only time that they will pervert, human: nothing in this world of yours is safe from their touch. They will corrupt and steal everything you know in order to destroy you." The Time Demon spoke, his voice growing wearier.

"Then let them come, demon. I was born to deal with your kind and I won't let a single one of you touch this world. Let them come." Gilbert spoke solemnly. But what the dying Time Demon said afterwards left him pale.

"Time is not a constraint for Nilkin, human." Ku's voice stated with its last dying wisps of breath. "They're already here."

There was silence afterwards, Gilbert left speechless by the demon's parting words. But then a voice behind comforted him.

"Pay no mind to the beast, Gilbert. The universe is safe for now. Your duty is fulfilled." Spoke Hadrimmelis, her voice completely human for now, no trace present of the booming, otherworldly voice that World-Dragons were known to possess while in their dragon forms. Gilbert turned towards her, frowning slightly. He had heard everything that the scarlet lady had told Aru'va back on Earth, and so, he knew everything. This was the woman who had put him in this mess, this was the woman who had given him false memories, and a name that did not exist. He knew that she did it with the safety of the universe in mind, but oh, he was going to give her a good piece of his mind anyway.

But... he couldn't. He had every intention to tell her exactly what he thought of experimenting with children and taking people's eyes, among other things, but he simply lost all of that impulse when he felt himself drawn into her embrace, the blonde woman's arms surrounding him and pulling him towards her. And then, Gilbert could do nothing but return the hug when he heard the words that the woman said to him.

"I knew I had chosen your name well." She said softly with pride, her voice full of emotion. "My trusted oath."

For the first time, Gilbert knew what it was to be in a mother's embrace.

Aru watched as Gilbert hugged his, for lack of a better word, "mother". She frowned, slightly miffed as she was reminded of her own relationship with her mother. The person she called Mistress... which was always somewhat awkward. She had a love hate relationship with her, oftentimes she wasn't sure why Mother kept her on... either she loved her more than Aru realised or Aru was just that damn good. Aru, of course, decided to believe the latter. After all she was pretty awesome if she did say so herself. She then paused, coming out of her thoughts.

"...So.... What now?"

---

---

Sarah looked at Samantha use the machine and then put on the bracelet produced by it, only to look at the Devil's Den and appear to be amazed by whatever it was that she saw. Needless to say, the eldest Grimm was quite intrigued by this, and so, she looked around for something to use to produce a bracelet for herself. She didn't have any metal or precious stones on her, after all, and while she could feasibly have used one of the gold bars Hanah and Sam had taken from the First Bank of Starling the previous day, they had decided to leave those behind; a wise decision, all things considered, but one that didn't quite benefit her at the present moment.

Finally, the pale woman decided to cheat. Noticing that her jacket's zipper was made of metal, she cast a shadow over it and then manipulated it, causing the shadow to become tridimensional and increasing its volume several times afterwards in order to create an object made of shadows that was large enough to be accepted by the machine. Shadows could copy the properties of the material they were cast on (the 'origin material'), so, once she had the object, she placed it on the matter converter, and got her bracelet shortly afterwards. Putting it on, she looked at the Den.

"Woah." She said as the Den came fully into view, a large complex bustling with activity where previously there was only some sort of mirage.

Quickly repeating the previous process, the eldest Grimm produced a bracelet for Hanah and handed it to her before speaking. "Well, girls, what are we waiting for? Maybe they'll have something for breakfast inside." She stated, before heading into the Devil's Den.

---

"Whoa." Spoke Hannah, clearly very impressed with that she was seeing. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers as she observed the building come out of nowhere. She smiled. "Oh. That is pretty cool!" She said. She smiled. "Yeah! What are we waiting for? I mean this place looks pretty cool! It's hidden by magic! We can find, like, someone really good at magic who can train us in using our magic better and stuff. Maybe we'll meet Doctor Strange in there or something!" Hannah ranted, then stopped. Chuckled and blushed. "I mean... Let's go in?" She spoke, then moved towards the door.

[Charmera]

Cora frowned herself at Katie's mention of Eric, but didn't say anything. The memories were still very painful and she decided it was best not to say anything about it right now. She nodded though at Katie's words and gave her a smile. "Great job Katie, that was awesome." She said to her as Valancy busted in and took out the thugs on the top floor.

"Sure Katie, I'll go get Roy." The android said, dropping down from the beams above. She started to head toward Roy's chair to grab him when suddenly something fell from the ceiling and smashed into the floor. "Well, I see you brought friends." Floyd's voice came from inside the large mecha suit. "As you can see, I brought some back up of my own." He said to Valancy as he smashed his gist toward Cora so fast that she was barely able block it at time, and he was quite strong. "Katie, get Roy out of here!" Cora shouted as she held back Floyd's mechanical arm. She needed hold this guy off, and she wanted Katie as far away from this guy as possible.

While Cora was distracted Floyd smashed his fist into Cora's chest, sending her into the wall. He then turned his attention to Valancy. "You won't beat me this time!" He shouted at her as his fists began to glow with energy and two huge kenietic blasts, larger than the ones from before were fired at Valancy. Floyd's new suit allowed him concentrate his power making his blasts much more dangerous.

Katie gritted her teeth in anger as she saw Cora get hit. But she know she had to get Roy out. She grabbed the boy and transformed into electron form. Then quickly sped towards the outside of the building and reformed, plopping Roy safely on the roof of another building. She then sped back to the abandoned building, electrons reforming right behind floyd as she smiled. "Hey there. Remember me? I'm the electric girl." She suddenly sent a massive amount of volts through his suit, attempting to overload his suit. "I know, shocking right?" She quipped.

-----

Taro
Taro frowned slightly as Azami spoke. What she said made him wonder exactly how far Yokai and humans had drifted over the millennium.
"They are not the only ones who make a mess."
He muttered and stepped towards the portal after Garnet, eager to get started with the mission as well. He was unaware of what these yokai laws might have been, in the days he had lived, humans had freely acknowledged his existence. It seemed such a thing was a problem now.
Is this related to the other Kitsune's more human appearance? Maybe . . . Spirit imbalances I guess.
He thought and paused, shifting to his fox form before jumping through the portal.
"No sense attracting unwanted attention."
He murmured aloud.

"Yeah. That would be bad." The Kitsune spoke, smiling a she saw tokyo in all it's glory from atop an old building. She actually quite liked this city, despite the fact that most Kitsune weren't fond of cities, being the nature lovers they were. She sighed. "Akari, did Auntie Azami say anything about where we could find them?"

Akari got up, sighing as she dusted herself off. "Ugh. All this dust is clinging to my suit! And I just had this one dry cleaned!" She whined. Then paused. "Well, she did say you could sniff them out. Do you smell anything?"

Masami sighed. Sniffing the air briefly. She sniffed, and then stopped. Then made a face. "Stupid Oni. They stink like crazy..." She complained. "I smell..." She sniffed, gagging again. "Six nearby. One seems to be away from the others. Though I remember Azami said there were only supposed to be five..." She muttered. "And one of them smells slightly less bad than the others."

"Can we go to the less foul smelling one please? If that's okay with all of you?"

[Charmera]

-LIsa x Paras

Madworld

Paras rolled his head lazily to the side, fighting against the pain receptors throughout his body as he struggled to turn them off mentally, but finding himself unable to do so. Though, the view wasn't so bad - his yellow eyes rested upon the vixen that saved him from the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but the entire experience was still all so foreign to him. Paras didn't know what he was anymore, and as he looked at his broken body, he didn't see the flesh, blood, and bones of a Saiyan, but the wires and metal of a machine. He recognized the parts as highly advanced Planetary Trade Organization cybernetics and robotics, but he wasn't a brainy smart, he was a warrior built and bred for combat. "Lisa..." He said smoothly, repeating the angel's name, grabbing at her attention.

"So this...this is Madworld?" He asked, rolling his head away from the android and looking out the window to a view of a city - it looked rather high tech yet humble at the same time. Lisa had previously implied that she had no clue what this place was - but that she felt the energy of someone she knew could help Paras and fix his body. The man Lisa called the Mad King. "Max..." Paras said, "Is Max going to fix me?" A look of concern grew on his face, wondering where this instinctive fear was coming from. Perhaps this hard, metal body was turning him soft. "Fix...whatever I've become?"

He rolled his head back over to Lisa, his damaged body crackling as wires touched together accidently, causing Paras to tighten up from the immense amount of pain that surged through him. He breathed heavily and roughly - his artificial lungs nearly collapsed from the fight and the speeds in which he was operating at. The room they were both cooped up in was located in Max's palace, but the Mad King himself was absent, the two would have to accept aid from Morningstar's servants and automatons instead. "Lisa...When they fix me," He asked, eyes scared and alone, "Can you stay with me for just a little bit longer?" Paras pleaded, closing his eyes and resting for a moment, waiting for the android to respond.

Lisa frowned slightly. "I have a mission. I told you. I need to find..." She paused, sighed. She really had no idea where Regent was, and if she didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be. People with powers like Lisa were absurdly hard to pin down. Tracking them was a task which bordered on the impossible, and then there was getting them to stick around once you did so. Lisa wondered if she would ever find the Regent again. Their last fight the Regent had technically won, but thankfully Lisa was able to force her out of her home dimension permanently. The only problem was she could be anywhere now.

Lisa also saw something in Paras. Someone else like herself, but different. He was organic, but machine too. It was facinating. And then there was the look in his eyes. The one Lisa knew too well. Fear and loneliness. The latter she had more experience with. Lisa looked down, and then knelt next to the android on the table. She reasoned it would be best to hold his hand, her android hands wrapping around his. Absence of human warmth yet not absent of compassion: that could be seen in her eyes. Her eyes which fell upon Paras' face. "Alright." She said. "I'll stay."

[Charmera]

Jump City Zoo
Xyri stood out in the zoo, though she wasn't behind a cage, she was being eyeballed as much as the other animals. She would have made the observation that she was as much an attraction as the animals, were she yet capable of understanding the concept of an attraction. The nine foot tall green humanoid wasn't even sure what this place was. But there were lots and lots of life signs here. She could tell. She wouldn't be absorbing them though. That would be bad. Last time she absorbed a human things did no go so well, and she had to absorb a whole bunch more, until she was much larger than the boxes the humans lived in. She liked being large. It was fun.

But now she was here. Partially because she was bored. She was familiar with that concept at least. She knew of fun, and of boredom. And of curiousity. After all she only knew what was in the confines of her home laboratory up until very recently. Now she was experiencing all sorts of things.

She noticed a closed off space with lots of little metal bars held together, a cage if she wasn't wrong, where a lot of four legged creatures with yellow fur were. She cocked her head in curiosity. Then walked through into the cage, not caring about the crowd behind her. Nor the human who was in the cage, who suddenly backed off slightly. She remembered cages. They were what the scientists tried to hold her in. It didn't really work. Her slime simply oozed through the holes. She could always make her way out of the humans boxes. They always had places to squeeze out of.

Xyri then noticed the yellow beast in front of her. Bearing it's teeth at her. She smiled, not seeing the threat, and simply patted it on the head. The creature then jumped towards her, burying it's head in her chest since it couldn't quite hurt her. She was vaguely aware it was trying to do so, so she frowned. As a purely instintive response, she put a hand on it's head. The beast then suddenly found itself enveloped in goo. It could only think for a moment more, before it became a part of Xyri. The lion simply lost every bit of physicality and became more green goo. More Xyri. Xyri happily took the lion into herself, not having any concept of the idea it might not like that. But then again, it was a part of her now. Xyri was now at least 15 feet tall, her head nearly touching the top of the cage.

She smiled. The sensation the lion had given her was different. Different from the humans she had absorbed, and that forrest. She licked her oozy lips, though there was no saliva. She looked over to the other lions, and hunger was in her eyes. She wanted more. And despite the humans which were not cowering in fear of her. She just wanted more of these things. They tasted... good.

The other three lions backed off slightly, and Xyri walked towards one of them. A single touch and he was now hers. The other two followed soon after, boosting her mass to about 33 feet. She was now pressed for space in the cage. She groaned, and simply tore it apart, absorbing the two human trainers in the process, giving her another 12 feet in size. Boosting it to 55 feet.

Xyri frowned. There had been so few of them. It was disappointing to have a meal so tasty yet so short. She sighed. But then a lightbulb apeared above her head as she saw the other animal enclosements from her new towering height. She smiled widely. It was like a buffet of treats. If they tasted anything like the lions had... She was definitely excited to experience it.

She took a step, the human bellow her foot, (other of his kind long gone now, some having called the police) didn't have to worry about being crushed. He was simply assimilated, boosting Xyri further. She took another step. She looked around at the animals in the distance.

"So many choices..." She spoke to herself for the first time since arriving at the zoo. "I wonder what those big grey things taste like..."

[Charmera]

Cora
Floyd smashed away Valancy's distractions with ease, "you're tricks won't work this time!" He shouted at her as he closed in on her. Suddenly however a giant tree had risen from the ground, and it's vines began to attack him. He scowled, "When I kill you, I'll burn every tree alive. Just like this one!" He said to Valancy before two guns on the sides of his arms activated and began to fire napalm onto the tree's vines, which quickly spread toward the tree itself.

Floyd gave a smug smile as he prepared to attack Valancy again when suddenly electric charges began to surge through his suit. "Get off!" He shouted at Katie, flailing wildly, and firing pulses of energy at random, most of which hit the ceiling to further destabilize the building. Cora had gotten up from being hit and saw what Katie did and saw the opening. She charged Floyd and smashed her fists down against his helmet, causing him to stumble further. "Come on Valancy, this is our chance!" Cora shouted to her teammate.

Katie smiled as the electricity had done it's job. Though she was less pleased soon after. She was thrown off like a horse, her body hitting the wall as she grunted. She fell into a sitting position, her back leaned against the wall as the building crumbled around her. She was not unconscious, but she was dazed by the hit. She was hurt too, in pain as one of her ribs felt broken. Also, to make matters worse, the crumbling blocks of building were beginning to fall closer and closer to her...

[Charmera]

Mars and Rocket
Marvin "Mars" Asarin was currently working on upgrades for Rocket in his labratory which also happened to be the basement of an abandoned parking garage. With a little work though, and the help of psychically controlled robots, Mars cleaned the place up and turned it into a state of the art laboratory. His grandparents thought he was at school, but that was just a lie that he told them so that they didn't know about his hero work. He forged report cards, and made up stories to tell them, it wasn't very hard.

As Mars was listening to the police scanner, he heard something that he thought had to be a joke. A giant blob like creature was terrorizing the local zoo. Mars shook his head, "Things just keep getting stranger and stranger." He mumbled to himself before activating Rocket and putting on his protective armor and rocket shoes. Mars and Rocket then flew out from the tunnel that Mars had built for easy flying access. It took them through the roof and they were soon off toward the Jump City Zoo where Mars did in fact see a giant blob like creature moving through the zoo. "Rocket analyze" Mars commanded his robot companion.

Rocket eyes lit up for a moment, and then he spoke in a robotic voice, "Species unknown, the creature is made of a large amount of gelatin like bio mass." Mars nodded at the analyses. "Well, let's go stop this thing." He said before pressing a button on his controller and opening Rocket's command pod and entering it. Now Mars was in direct control of the robot. Mars flew over the large creature in Rocket's body and called out to it, Mars' voice being the one that is heard. "Hey Flubber! What do you think you're doing exactly?" He called out to it, activating Rocket's sword and shield as he was expecting a fight. This things was huge though, at least thirty feet. Mars wondered what the hell this thing was and where it came from.

Xyri turned her head towards the tiny voice, squeeking out something. She frowned. But then shrugged and turned back. She after all was not called flubber, so he must have been talking to someone else. What is a flubber anyway? She wasn't too sure what it was, but she was too hungry to hang around and talk. She wanted to try big grey four legged thing and see how that tasted. She was at least five times the size of them now, and so she simply knelt down and smiled at them.

She watched them for a moment. They looked so cute from Xyri's height. She reached out to touch one, and it went green and bloby like her before being absorbed into her. Next she absorbed another, and now she was tall enough to pick them up with one hand, though she could do that before it was now very easy. She picked them up and put them inside her, allowing her body to transform them into more of her. Then she rose to her full height, about 100 feet tall. most humans were about 5% of her size. She frowned again. These meals were all too small. She needed something bigger. Something...

Her eyes moved over to the Aquarium potion of the zoo. Her eyes lit up as she saw two massive beings, almost as tall as she in the water. They looked like fish, but they were different. Water which she could absorb too. She set off in that direction, absorbing tress, grass and humans who happened to be in her path. Part of her brain throught back to the little guy in armour. He had some sort of sharp thing in his hands...

[Charmera]

Cora had been striking Floyd when she saw Katie be tossed from his back and slam into a wall hard. Cora immediately flew away from Floyd, hoping that Valancy could deal with him. She was so worried about Katie though as large support beams and walls began to fall all around, that she really couldn't think about anything else. "Katie!" She shouted out as she smashed a large piece of wall out of her way.

Cora got closer to Katie suddenly a huge support beam came loose from above and began to fall right on top of Katie. "No!" Cora shouted out in fear. She couldn't lose Katie, she just couldn't. In that moment Cora realized how much her best friend meant to her. Cora couldn't let anything happen to her. She fly towards the beam at top speed, and grabbed it just before it could reach Katie. Cora then lifted the beam with considerable effort, and tossed it on the ground where it couldn't hurt anyone. The effort threw Cora back though and she stumbled to the ground. She tried to regain her balance, but she fell to her knees, right in front of Katie so that their faces were inches from each other. Cora blushed, but didn't move away. "Are you okay?" She asked Katie softly.

Katie looked into Cora's eyes, both of them very close together at this moment and both their eyes locked together. Katie could have moved, but she didn't. She was just entranced by Cora's face and eyes, noticing for the first time how pretty she was. It made her blush slightly as she realised they were in contract with one another. "...Yeah..." She spoke. She moved her face up, getting closer to Cora than she ever imagined she would, looking into her eyes. Eyes which she knew were more full of emotion than anyone could understand, including Cora herself.

"Are... you alright?" She asked.

[Charmera]

"It was one of the first one of our kind recieved from our visions, though there has been much debate about whether or not his madness clouded his judgement. He had lost much during the civil war, and we feared that might have clouded his judgement. Especially considering some of his actions." Remarked Aeshanadra. She suddenly tigthened up. "I would give anything for this to be real. For us to have a chance at getting our bodies back. But..."

"The prophecy speaks of three beings. One who might have the spirit of Vokor within. One whom will shepard our race to him and one who... may destroy us all." She spoke. "Someone known as... the snake..."

"Tell me... have you heard of the Old ones?"

She stopped for a moment, her eyes looking in the distance as she pondered the different parts of the prophecy. Blinking, she opened her mouth and spoke. "Snakes never bode well. And as for the Old Ones, unless you mean the Elder Gods, nay, I have not heard of them," Valka continuing to walk.

"They were once... gods for us. A Pantheon. As strange as it might sound for a race such as us to worship. But considering what they offered it made sense." Spoke Aeshandra. "I can't help but feel they are somehow... connected. I'm not sure how. But... They feel like they are."

"Everything is connected dear Aeshan. It is merely a matter of finding out how." Spoke a voice. Aeshandra mentally frowned as a figure stepped out of the darkness. An armoured figure, but his armour was different from Aehandra's. It was black as midnight and just as frightening. The figure turned to Valka. "So sorry to intrude, but it was a necessary intrusion none the less." The figure bowed. "I am Meloku. Duke of Ben-Shennath and one of the Kabal. And before you ask I got here because dear Shan Shan is here. We are all connected after all."

"Do not call me that Meloku. You have lost the right."

Meloku laughed. "It amuses me when you get annoyed..." He remarked. "Nevertheless, I feel that it is not fair that our Asgardian friends become acquainted with only one of our factions. Don't you think Shan Shan. Your collective shouldn't be the only ones who have allies."

Aeshandra said nothing, and so Meloku waited for Valka's response. And one could imagine a smile on his non existent face.

[Charmera]

Mars looked on with alarm as the giant creature turned away from him and headed toward the elephants. It started to absorb them and then great to over a hundred feet tall. "What the hell is this thing?" He said to Rocket as he saw it looking over toward the blue whales. The last thing he wanted was for this thing to get any bigger. He flew over towards it at high speeds, and slashed at its head with his sword, slicing at it with multiple successive strikes. The cuts didn't seem to do anything however, as the particles just began to reform. "Damn it, how do I stop this thing?" Mars said out loud before flying over to stand in front of the blue whales, he had to try to stop this thing from absorbing it. "Hey, these aren't for you blob. You've had enough already." He said to the massive for of gelatin in front of him. Mars figured he could at least try to stop her from coming into contact with the whales, which seemed to be it's way of absorbtion.

Xyri suddenly looked down to face the little man. A frown was on her face. He had tried to hurt her, which was not something she was particularly pleased with. Of course she bore no ill will towards the little metal man. But she wanted him to stop trying to hurt her or get in the way of her meal. She lightly kicked at the little man, intending to merely send him flying so she wouldn;t have to deal with him.

Talak, since his father left this realm, decided to take up the mantle of Speed Demon. He was from a primitive world so many of the modern things were still shocking and interesting to him. The concept of a "Superhero" was something that he was still grasping. His dad often told the stories of all the villains he fought and defeated. Yet he hadn't seen a single villain any worse than Batroc the Leaper. Whom he almost let get away simply because he couldn't stop laughing at him. If that was what passed for a super villain nowadays, it was going to get old and boring very fast. He was about to just give up and go home when he saw what looked to be a blob attacking a zoo.

He blinked a few times to make sure it was real. It looked like it was, but there were plenty of Earth customs that he didn't fully understand. Like cos-play. He almost hurt someone who he thought was a super villain, but really was just a man in costume. It did don on him that something was up when he saw a bunch of people wearing a similar outfit to his father, but didn't actually have any powers, that maybe it was some sort of tradition to celebrate heroes. Then why the villains too? It didn't make sense to him. When he finally snapped out of his train of thought. He decided to see what the blob was doing. He zipped into the zoo to see that most of the animals were gone. It was eating.

It was clearly a bad guy. Or so he hoped. People were yelling and running away, so he had every right to think it was. "Hey! Um..." He started but really didn't know what to say. So he did what came natural: He tried punching the goo at hundreds of times per second.

She then found herself punched many times per second. That actually hurt Xyri slightly. She frowned deeper. She allowed some of her leg he was punching to attempt to grab the little thing attacking her and restrain him as he punched, so when his hand hit her again he would find himself suck. She didn't want to absorb him yet, she was curious and wanted to get a better look at him. Whether or not she actually grabbed him she decided to keep moving towards the giant fishies. One thundering step after another she moved closer to it.

[Charmera]

Van Zant

"You're scum." The woman spat with venom, absolute hatred and sheer displeasure at ever having known the man that sat lazily next to her on the bench in her words and tone. "You're nothing and you never will be anything, Van. You just...you just need to grow the fuck up." The girl continued, laying it on heavy, the muscled man smiling awkwardly and turning his head side to side, almost in disbelief. "Oh what?! You upset that I'm making a scene?!" The girl further demanded, "You brought me all the way out here to tell me to hit the bricks. I thought we had something, Van. A connection!" She said, angry tears falling from her eyes, but she gathered her things together, slamming them in her purse and abruptly standing up from the zoo's bench. "I hope I never see you again." She sobbed, beginning her walk away from the park bench.

Van replied quickly, though, "Nice to know you, Mandy."

"Burn in hell, scumbag." The girl - Mandy - said furiously, turning back to give Van Zant an outstretched middle finger. The young man exhaled deeply, lowering his head back and letting his face soak up the sun's rays as he thought about all he did today. He and Mandy just weren't working out, and he ended it before it got either of them in too deep or hurt anymore than what it should have. Though, Van was partly amused at her choice of words, but partly upset as well. He dwelt on the things she said, wondering just how much was true. A small voice in the back of his mind called out for him to chase Mandy down, and tell her he made a mistake. Van ignored it altogether as he narrowed his eyebrows, his eyes themselves closed as his face was bombarded by the sun's warmth.

"Grahh..." He said to himself, "Just...gotta have a look around, I don't know." Van continued with his personal dialogue, raising himself from his bench and stretching out his lean, muscular body. It suddenly occurred to him that virtually no one was at the Jump City Zoo anymore - maybe scared off by his break up? Regardless, Van stuck his hands to his sides and began to walk toward the reptile exhibit. Van Zant was a simple man, and the perfect way to keep his interest was to sleep for fourteen hours a day have an impressive set a scales - because the young hero managed to stay in the reptile exhibit for nearly an hour. He watched a Burmese Python sleep on between the branches of a tree longingly, wondering if he should go sleep sometime. "My day off and I decide to go to the Zoo." He noted sourly. But he began to perk up, looking around cautiously, noticing that he was truly alone with the reptiles. Not even a handler or staff member in sight - something was wrong.

Van used his powers in the most subtle and at times ingenious of ways - since his tactile telekinetic manipulation shield extended to anything he was in contact with it, the floor can serve as a locator for others in contact with the ground. Not only that, but even the slightest vibrations in the air that was unknown to any human at such distances could be heard as the air vibrated on his personal force field, giving the illusion of super hearing. Despite that, all he heard was gurgling and squishy sounds, like someone was mixing a giant bowl of jell-o in the zoo, and few if any people at all left in the area, those that were happened to be near the jell-o sounding source. Van needed to investigate, and flung the doors of the reptile exhibit open and flooded the exit with glorious sunlight.

"Well...that explains the sounds." Van noted, confronted with a giant slime monster several feet tall and on the other side of the zoo. Slowly, he could make out other people talking near the monster, but he didn't focus in on the chatter just yet - he lifted himself off of the ground and fly at a moderate pace to where the slime beast was, getting a good view of her path of destruction and absorption from that height. "Even the elephants?! You monster..." Van said harshly, narrowing his eyes and setting his face on serious mode. He appeared in front of the slime girl as she hovered precariously close to the blue whale enclosure.

Rather than attack or belittle the poor thing, Van noticed that the beast wasn't too much of an amorphous blob at all, but more feminine in appearance and shape. Huh. He re-thought his plan, instead of going in and punching all wild, he needed to take a page from the Hero Handbook and try to most underutilized step in it: Ask Questions. So, he cleared his throat and spoke up, "Excuse me," Van yelled softly, "Hey, excuse me!" He repeated, "What're you doing?" He finally asked, holding his hands up to appear less threatening, actually wanting to talk to the girl before rocking her world as Paragon, Hero Extraordinaire.

Xyri continued forwards, though she suddenly paused when she was confronted with a floating figure. The giant blob girl squinted at the figure. She stopped then... and surprisingly decided to answer the question. After all she saw no reason not to. She looked around and then spoke, her voice magnified by size. She briefly looked to the side of him at the Whales. "I'm hungry." She explained, then paused. "I'm not eating any humans. At least I think I haven't." She explained. Then she frowned. "Your in my way. I want to go to the big blue fishy things." She lazily swatted at Van, though with more force than she intended, in order to get him out of the way.

[Charmera]

Jump City
Jenny had made a run from Cyberlantern's task force once they tracked her to Metropolis. She had made it all the way to Jump City. The Riddler had found a good hiding place to resume-whatever it is he does. Now her quest was to find Superman, Deathstroke, and Loki. However, something was attacking the city. A big green monster was rampaging the city. She felt it her duty to help, something that didn't feel natural to her. She ran to where the monster was, then fired her heat vision at it.
Metropolis
"The girl is clever," Darren said, shaking his head, "I've chased her here, and now she's vanished again."

"Actually, no," his assistant replied.

"What do you mean?"

"One of our Jump City informants saw her not long ago."

"Looks like the operation is headed to Metropolis," Darren said, smiling.

Talak

"What is this? Lemme go!" He shouted and shook his arm at several hundred miles per hour attempting to get it free of the green goo. When he tried to use his other hand to free the trapped hand, it got stuck as well. He wasn't nearly as good at phasing through through matter like his father was, when he tried it, he kept blowing things up. He once did it in water and it boiled. He hoped that whatever was gripping would release him. So he vibrated both his arms as fast as he could in order to get them free of the goo.

Jenny succceeded in pissing the giant thing off. While it had been mostly calm when she was attacked earlier, these little things were actually starting to hurt her. Xyri groaned in pain, some of her shredded biomass from the assault of laser reformed back into two lions, who scampered off in fear. She lots about 10 feet of hight. She grunted in frustration. All she wanted to do was eat. She then felt the speedsters struggles, though was strong enough to resist them at this point. They irritated her though, as everyone began attacking her. She grunted in frustration. "Leave me alone!" She shouted, then looked around. Survival was her first priority. "Need to get bigger..." She muttered, though some of them would be able to hear that. She had fear in her eyes, and seemed just about ready to panic.

She forced the speedster up her leg and to her hands. "Fine! You want to get out! Here!" She tossed him away, slime coating him as he flew away, likely sticking him to whatever place he ended up.

-Snip-

Then the roar came and Xyri found herself stunned. She turned around, spears cutting her. She made her own primal cry of anger. "Need to get BIGGER!" She said once more, looking around for her assailant, she had little time before she was suddenly attacked once more.

As she watched Kiris, Rikki leaned into Mars's ear and shouted above the noise. "I think Rocket is right! We can help! I can try to stop the big green lady right now!" Rikki floated up over Kiris, her hair beginning to change hue as patches of sky blue and rosy pink flowed through her white locks. From her hair, what looked to be colored wind flowed around Xyrixia, eventually coalescing into a translucent barrier of auroras. It wouldn't hold Xyrixia for very long, but at least it would slow her down.

Xyri saw this translucent barrier. She was begining to be scared. She couldn't slip out. Fear strengthened her as she slammed on the cage with considerable force, cracking it open as she hopped out of the cage again. When he landed she was closer to the whales and the ground shook as she landed. Then she began running, bounding towards the aquarium with more speed... Getting closer to the big whales...

[Charmera]

Cora
Floyd struggled against the vines as they restrained him and tied him to the pole, but the strength the mechanism suit gave him was gone, and he was no match for them. "I'll kill you a..." He started to threaten before he was knocked out by Valancy. "Finally he stopped talking." Cora said absently, when suddenly Kylie arrived, bag guys and explosives in tow. "Good job Kylie," Cora smiled, and couldn't help but chuckle at Kylie's attitude about the guns. Cora very much enjoyed talking to Kylie, she had such a fresh and excited attitude about her. "One of you should get Roy, I think Katie took him to one of the rooftops. He'll need some medical attention for sure." She then walked over to Katie, blushing a little and avert her eyes as she did. All she could think about was how pretty Katie was, and her thoughts seemed so loud that she was afraid the others could hear them. She leaned down, and forced herself to look into Katie's eyes. They were about eye level and close to each other, but not as close as before. "I'm glad you're okay Katie, I was really worried something might happen to you. I don't know what I'd do..." Cora'a voice broke off a bit, and was full of emotion. Her true feelings for Katie were rushing to the surface and Cora knew she couldn't deny them anymore.

Katie couldn't help it. When her face was close to Katies, all the electrokenetic wanted to do was what she did then. She quickly dove in, kissing her on the lips for a brief second, before pulling away. "Sorry! I,.. I just wanted... Felt..." She awkwardly mumbled. It was so soon after Eric's death, but... it just felt right, even though it could be a little wrong. She reasoned that Eric might be mad, though then again, he wasn't the sort to be possessive in death. He wanted Katie's happiness as much as Katie wanted his, but still she could help but feel a little dirty for doing that, but... she had been so lonely since the passing of Eric. She needed someone, especially someone she liked as much as Cora, to fill the void.

[Charmera]

---

Garnet simply shook her head in disbelief as she listened to the fox creature talking, amused at how he spoke about his time and his experience with other monster hunter. He seemed to have completely misinterpreted the intention she'd had when she said she was a monster huntress. She had been more or less sarcastic, but she supposed it hadn't been a lie either. She had become a formidable destroyer of supernatural threats, even if it was entirely on accident. She just wanted to complete her mission and then live the rest of her life without the looming threat of those demons that haunted her, but in the process, she had made several friends. She had lost some, but for now, she was content. In any case, it wasn't worth it to try to deny that she was a monster slayer now.

"How did I end up hunting monsters, you ask?" Garnet said as she walked over to the edge of the rooftop and sat down next to the tiny fox. "Well, let's put it simply, shall we? I stumbled into a supernatural weapon one day while trying to run from some creep, and I've been stuck in this business ever since. I'm trying to end it, and I think I'm close, but I haven't been able to shake off the demons on my trail." She explained, setting aside her weapons and looking over the landscape. "I'm not from a clan or anything like that. My family wasn't remarkable, really. It was just because I found this cursed gun that I'm here now. So I guess it's a bit of a mixed blessing." She said.

Masami smiled lightly as she watched the two converce, and Akari had pouted characteristically at Garnet's response. The cat looked forward at Masami, and the fox shrugged. "We have to kill five Oni." She pointed in the distance. "There are five Oni."

Akari sighed and then shrugged. Her two pistols manifesting in her hands. She walked to the edge of the building. "Fine. Let's just get this over with." She muttered. "Oni are such brutes after all..." She remarked, before hopping the distance between the current building and the next.

Masami looked to the others. "We can meet you there if you want, though it might be best if we went in force." She explained, and then followed her sister.

[Charmera]

-Xyr

"I...you, what?" Van said, confused at the response he got, but figured it was the most normal thing for a giant slime monster at least. Before he could figure out that much, though, he was slapped by one her slimy appendages and flung a block or so from the Zoo, slamming into the side of a building and leaving a sizable chunk of concrete missing from where he impacted - shattering every plane of glass on that side as well. Van Zant peeled away from the building and smacked headfirst into the concrete sidewalk below, gently moving his arms up in a push-up like position, picking his head up and looking forward. "I guess she packs a punch...More than I expected, really." He said to himself, jumping to his feet and looking around as a crowd developed around him. "And I'm talking to myself in front of strangers...Great." Van further commented, but began to think internally.

"Slime Girl said she was hungry...and smacked me away as she was trying to eat a fuckin' whale. Not good, not good at all. Maybe those other heroes can hold her at bay, but what's so special about whales? She seems to have eaten every other animal in the zoo, but stays away from humans." Van Zant thought to himself, floating from his small impact crater on the sidewalk and into the sky, above the building he had slammed into previously, looking at the giant slime creature from a sizable distance away. The fact that the city hadn't evacuated this area shocked and bothered Zant, but he had other things to think about. "It's hungry, and it eats organic stuff..." He thought, "But blue whales are the biggest damn things in...the...world..." He thought, trailing off as his eyes moved past the Zoo and down some ways into the Jump City Arboreal Reserve a few blocks from the Zoo and just outside of city limits.

"Except for Redwoods and Sequoias, apparently." Zant noted, blasted away from his spot and back in the middle of the action at the Zoo. He came back just in time to see a small kid thrown from the slime girl's body, some dragon-hybrid looking thing roaring with incredible proficiency, and another girl with blue skin erecting a barrier up around the monster. Van stopped himself, taking in the situation and looking at the creature's panic - quickly realizing and remembering that it spoke to him, and it sounded very much like a girl as well. "Hey!" He yelled, trying to get the attention of some of the people and maybe the Slime Girl as well, but yelling even louder.

"HEY!" He called out, "Stop trying to upset her - she's just hungry, dammit." Van Zant called out, "Slime Girl! Why eat those whales...when you can have an entire forest for yourself?" Van further said, pointing towards the treeline in the distance for a forestry reserve outside of Jump City city limits, a small ways away from the Zoo. "I can take you there, but only if you put back all the other little critters where they're supposed to go."

When he spoke, Xyri suddenly stopped. She looked around, finding Van quite quickly with her eyes. She frowned at first, wondering if this was some sort of trick. But then she walked towards the human. Then she looked to the side. "You promise you won't hurt me anymore?" She asked Van. She supposed that it made sense. She wanted the meal but she didn't want to upset humans. She actually cared about their feelings to an extent. She looked around. "Fine." She muttered. She knelt down, her face towards the ground as she inhaled and focused on letting go.

Out came the mass, tumbling from her maw as she regurgitated slime that used to be animals. Elephants, lions and several humans tumbled from her mouth. She gagged slightly, now merely nine feet tall she collapsed onto her face after regurgitating so much mass, like she had too much tequila and vodka and now she was emptying the content of her nonexistant stomach. She then let out a monstrous burb.

"Ugh... I hate it when I have to do that."

[Charmera]

When he spoke, Xyri suddenly stopped. She looked around, finding Van quite quickly with her eyes. She frowned at first, wondering if this was some sort of trick. But then she walked towards the human. Then she looked to the side. "You promise you won't hurt me anymore?" She asked Van. She supposed that it made sense. She wanted the meal but she didn't want to upset humans. She actually cared about their feelings to an extent. She looked around. "Fine." She muttered. She knelt down, her face towards the ground as she inhaled and focused on letting go.

Out came the mass, tumbling from her maw as she regurgitated slime that used to be animals. Elephants, lions and several humans tumbled from her mouth. She gagged slightly, now merely nine feet tall she collapsed onto her face after regurgitating so much mass, like she had too much tequila and vodka and now she was emptying the content of her nonexistant stomach. She then let out a monstrous burb.

"Ugh... I hate it when I have to do that."

Van breathed a tentative sigh of relief, watching Xyri gag and throw up the biomass she had consumed in the form of animals, and sadly, some people as well. Probably ones she accidently stepped on in her quest to find tasty snacks - Zant didn't care right now as he was more hyped about beating a gigantic slime monster with his words instead of his fists. That's how he usually won his fights, and gloated afterwards, but this time, he felt the need to show Xyri some support and set himself down beside her gelatinous body, kneeling over her as he lightly patted her upper back.

He moved his hand away and shook it off, trying to dry his hand of the residue. "That didn't look too fun..." He said in a kind voice, "But! There's a lot more things to eat in this city. I can take you over to those woods and let you eat some trees and squirrels...Or maybe I can take you down to St. Johns for a double meat cheeseburger?" Van said with a smile, taking a quick glance at her humanoid form and confirming that she indeed looked feminine. "What about the rest of you?" He said to the other gathered heroes, "Maybe we can all go and get something to eat together."

"Or are we all 'rogues who work alone'?" He added, a slight chuckle in his voice. "Regardless, let's get some introductions out of the way before something else happens. First thing's first, I'm Paragon." He said, giving them his heroic name rather than his real name right off the bat - he had learned a thing or two about keeping his name off the radar. "I hit hard and I hit fast, I can take a punch and give it right back. Pleasure to meet you. All of you." He said warmly, motioning to the gathered people, all who had showed up to fight the vicious slime monster.

Xyri wiped slightly different slime from her lips. Likely fluid of some kind that came with the biomass. Or previously already digested biomass. She got up slightly, now kneeling so she was about eye level with most everyone else. "No. Not fun at all." She spoke. "It's hard when I have too much biomass and I need to dump it all at once." She remarked. Then getting back up to her full height.

"If you don't mind I'm going to wait a bit before I go with you to that." She replied. "I still need to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth." She then paused. "Oh. Human food. Thats always good. And I don't have to vomit it back up afterwards." She remarked with a smile.

She looked to the others. "I'm Xyrixia and I grow bigger when I eat stuff." She spoke. Then paused. "Wait. Is it normal to tell people of your abilities when you first meet them?"

[Charmera]

---

---

Garnet shook her head at the small fox creature as she watched it prepare to jump towards the other rooftop.

"I don't exactly have any money to pay you with for your services, but if you would assist me anyway, then any help is welcome." She stated, simply continuing to watch him afterwards, seeing him jump off of the rooftop and transform in mid-air.

When he landed in the other rooftop, she was already there. One of her bracelets, the one with the blue and orange gemstone, still had a faint glow that faded quickly.

"What took you guys so long?" She teased them, idly placing her mask on her face, in order to allow her to keep up with the others more easily.

---

---

Sarah continued to look over the menu even as her younger sister said that she'd get the waffles. Such a conservative (not to say boring, though she'd never say such a thing to her sister's face to begin with) choice was so like her, the pale woman thought, but she refrained from commenting on it, simply giving the younger girl a nod.

"I think I'll order some pancakes, a slice of cake, some ceral..." She began speaking, clearly not minding how unhealthy it seemed to be at all. Her body seemed to take care of itself quite nicely after all, so she had little to worry about.

Looking around, she tried to find a waiter to grab the attention of. Though she didn't particularly have to make an effort to grab someone's attention usually, in this case it was more of an issue of not being able to see one nearby, though she supposed one would show up in time. So to kill some time while that happened, she looked around, noticing a man in awfully formal wear, with blond hair. Though he wasn't remarkable otherwise, she had a strange feeling about him.

It was just now that Hanah was able to tear her wide eyes away from the two individuals arguing who happened to look like two of the most famous superheroes ever. It was only with the promise of food was she distracted, and so Hannah took a quick look at the menu. "Um. Do you mind getting me... the bacon and sausage with eggs?" She asked, smiling widely. She then looked over at the two cosplayers again and whispered to Sarah. "Are those two really who I think they are?" She asked. There was a smile on her face as her voice was high pitched with excitement.

[Charmera]

Roy's eyes opened slowly as he began to regain consciousness. His head hurt like he'd been hit with a bag of bricks, but he saw a girl standing above him and heard her speak to him. She looked around Katie and Cora's age, and she was quite attractive as well. He had no idea who she was but his memory started to come back to him when she mentioned Katie. "Valancy, Katie, Cora, are they alright? The last thing I remember was Floyd using me like a punching bag." He said to the girl who apparently knew the Justice Queens. He tried to sit up, but his battered and bruised body refused as he winced in pain. They rescued me? What about Floyd? He didn't hurt them did he?" He asked with concern, so many questions were running through his mind. He would be torn with guilt if anything had happened to them because of him.

"They're fine. Katie brought you up here onto the roof, and they kicked your dad's butt. Er, stepdad? Former stepdad? Whatever you want to call him, he's down there with them, waiting for the police.

"Oh yeah, you don't know me yet." Kylie smiled and removed her green facemask. "My name's Kylie, and I'm one of the Justice Queens. If you really think they're wimpy enough to get hurt when we're all together, then you barely know us. Just wait till you meet Naja. Damn she can break things. Anyway, I'm here to pick you up, and bring you back. So... come on then." Kylie encased Roy in green light, bringing him with her back down to Katie, Cora, and Val...

Cora's eyes widened in shock when Katie kissed her, but she wasn't mad or upset at all. Quite the contrary, Cora's lips felt like they were on fire and her heart was racing. She knew Katie had just lost Eric, and didn't want to disrespect his memory, but Cora also wanted to make Katie happy. Her resistance broke when Katie kissed her and Cora couldn't hold back anymore. She didn't say anything, fearing that words would ruin the moment. She closed her eyes, and leaned in again, kissing Katie softly of the lips, and bringing her hands to the sides of Katie's face and resting them there gently.

Only to see Katie and Cora kissing. Like, hardcore-style. Kylie just floated outside for a second, dropping Roy on the floor next to Valancy. Her jaw had dropped. "Did I... miss something? Because... I don't know how much Eric is into 3-ways. I think most guys are... but you never know..." Kylie's face soon turned into one of those surprised smiles, like when your friends throw you a surprise party, and you can't suppress the smile through the shock.

Katie broke away from the kiss as soon as Kylie saw her, her eyes widenening briefly as if she did something wrong, and then her face fell almost instantly. She had to bite her lip to avoid crying again. "Kylie." She spoke. All the pain welled up to the surface again and she had forgotten about all her resolve and her will to return to normal for a moment as she sighed. "Kylie... Eric is..." She paused. She couldn't quite form the words correctly. "He's Dead..."

[Charmera]

Jump City
Jenny breathed a sigh of relief as the slime monster let go of all the animals. She turned to see the person who had stopped this. "It looks like a misunderstanding," thought Jenny, "so letting her live is alright for now." Then she spoke up, "I'm Jenny. I can play mind tricks, use heat vision, ice breath, and breathe underwater. It's complicated, but I'm the product when you combine the DNA of Loki, the Riddler, Deathstroke, Superman, and Aquaman."

Darren was in no mood for any more issues. His search for Jenny had been put off due to a slime creature attacking the Jump City zoo. He flew there to see the slime creature . . . and Jenny. "Finally!" he thought, "I can get her now." He flew down and fired his repulsor at the slime thing, then created a green cage around Jenny. "Darren Wilde of Shield," he announced, "and this girl is too dangerous to be anywhere near here." Jenny glared at him, then fired her heat vision at his head. Darren dodged the blast, then created a blindfold around Jenny. "Thank you for your cooperation," Darren said.

The slime thing was not amused that it was being attacked again, It was in a pretty shitty mood after vomiting, so it was in a much worse one now. She dug her feet into the ground and absorbed nutrients, grass and worms, digging deep as she drank everything in like liquid through a straw. She quickly grew quite large once she stopped absorbing, reaching about 30 feet tall. It was then that the giant of a goo lady simply tore the cage apart, and then turned to Darren. She narrowed her eyes and sent out a stretchy and slimy hand to wrap around him.

Meanwhile. Someone might notice. (if they look up) that the sky was now full of orange objects, some small and dislike and others which looked like spaceshipes. It was as if they had come out of nowhere, and were suddenly hovering menacingly over the city. The discs began to descend slightly, a good swarm of them coming down to the zoo.

[Charmera]

---

"Now? Now you're free to do as you wish, Aru'va Kell of the Rantu." Hadrimmelis said while still holding Gilbert in her embrace, though the next moment she finally pulled away, content with having finally met and spent some time with... her son? Was Gilbert her son? She supposed he was, though it was strange to think of a specific creature as having been descended from her. Technically, the entirety of the Hadrian race, not to mention countless other lifeforms and even entire species, were descended from her, as she had been the one to create them, but Gilbert... the World-Dragon reasoned that she thought of him in a particular way because the process through which he had been created her had been more intimate and had gotten her more involved than the creation of any other lifeform, and found the explanation satisfactory for the time being.

"Well, actually, I lie. You're not free, not just yet. There's one more thing to be done first." The scarlet lady spoke, before looking back towards Gilbert.

Catching the red-eyed woman's stare, Gilbert nodded at her, and absorbed the rest of the Time Demon's lingering temporal mist into himself. He knew exactly what his... mother... had meant, and so, he focused, transporting everyone back in their respective timelines, achieving an effect akin to simple teleportation. Suddenly, everyone stood in the dead Earth once again, and there, the Demon Slayer focused once again. Spending all of the stored up time inside himself, he began turning back everything. Slowly, but surely, the world around them twisted and shifted, everything falling back into place until, finally, Earth was alive once more. Yet again he and his alien acquaintances stood in the soil of Gotham, now untouched by Asra's flames and unmarred by the Time Demon's all-consuming rampage. The world was whole once more.

Gilbert then fell to one knee, and Hadrimmelis automatically took a step towards him. Was this what 'motherly instincts' were like?

"I'm fine, m-... dragon. I'm fine." Gilbert said, weakly smiling up at the blonde woman, though he avoided calling her 'mother'. It just felt awkward, even if it was, somehow, true. They'd probably have to sit down and talk that through sometime, but not now, he hoped.

Hadrimmelis let out a sigh and nodded. "Very well." She stated, and then turned towards Aru. "Now then, allow me to backtrack slightly." She said, coughing a bit as though she were clearing her throat, even though that was not necessary at all, before continuing. "Aru'va Kell of the Rantu, you have done a great service to the universe and to us, the World-Dragons, by assisting in our battle against the Time Demon, Ku. As such, I see it fit to give you a reward in return." She said. With a wave of her hand, she called forth the shattered black scale shards that had fallen from her during the battle, and with a simple movement of the wrist, she fashioned them into armor pieces in front of her, before flicking her wrist forward and sending them towards Aru.

"These will guard you. They have a fragment of my power within them, and as long as you wear at least one of them, then light will never bring you harm." She explained, and then patiently waited for Aru to take them.

"Now, I have much to inform, so I will be taking my leave. But I would like to thank you all once again for your assistance." She said, not just to Aru and Gilbert now, but also to Yamirakkelis, Tarasekannú and Ashyandra. "I will be going, so if any of you wishes to follow, feel free to do so. Otherwise, this will be a momentary farewell." She stated, before creating a Serpent Hole and walking into it, though she left it open for several moments after she had walked through, in case Ashy, Yami or Taras wanted to tag along. She wasn't planning on anything in particular, after all, as a separate avatar had already been dispatched to inform Kazayannú of the recent developments.

Still on Earth, Gilbert turned to Aru. "If you'll excuse me, I have to check something real quick." He stated, before pulling away the neck of his shirt to look inside. Much to his wonder, the symbol on his chest was gone. Ku had left his life for good now, and he was incredibly glad about it.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he looked back up. "Alright, so..." He paused, wondering what to say. "...I like your hair." He mentally facepalmed.

Ashy nodded to Hardi. "I... might have need of your aid in the future. At some point. I just... feel it. Until then just consider this a favour I suppose." She telepathically told her, before vanishing. "I wish I could say more, but it's just a feeling. And I've learned to trust those." She was of course refering to her precognition. And she had a somewhat dreaful feeling.

Aru nodded, accepting her gift. She placed it on the back of her hand, like a mini bucklet. She briefly wondered if she could potentially use this more to her advantage. Perhaps create hardlight constructs somehow? She wasn't sure. Though when Gilbert began to speak to her, she smile slightly. "Thank you. It is not often people compliment my... hair." She brushed it with her hand. She then paused. "You were checking to see if the tattoo on your chest was still there correct?

Yami meanwhile, walked towards the hole her sister had left, having questions for her. She always had questions after all.

---

Etla, too, was eating donuts along with Craig and Ihra. Well, 'eating' was a bit of an understatement, all things considered, since she was in fact devouring them, one after the other, her hunger for donuts bordering on ravenous even though the Rainborn couldn't truly feel "hunger" as such, since they had no necessity for worldly sustenance and thus never truly had to eat. Even then, the blonde girl had been in love with them ever since she had tasted the first one, all that time ago, somewhere in Craig's laboratories. Chocolate, she believed the flavor was called, and it was her favorite by far, so it was no wonder she ate so many of those donuts, her Core burning away the matter ingested almost as soon as it entered her body, the donuts disappearing after going down her throat. Since Rainborn had an infinite energy supply, any strange matter was obsolete, so it was simply destroyed.

After devouring a dozen or so, she leaned back on her chair, letting out a satisfied sigh before turning to Ihra. "They're pretty wonderful aren't they?" She asked.[/quote]
"They are!" Spoke Ihra. Though unlike her sister she paced herself, savouring this next donut and eating it slowly. She even sucked the sugar off of her fingertips. It was just so good. She smiled.

"Alright. You win. This place isn't that bad. Not at all." She spoke. Being slightly optimistic.

[Charmera]

-snip-

"And what did these gods offer?" she asked, a bit surprised that the Vokoronians, at their levels of power, had worshiped other beings. She turned, looking upon the Duke, eyebrow raised. "Welcome to Asgard, Duke Meloku," she said. "How long have the Vokoronians been split into separate collectives, and what is the difference between them?" she questioned both of them.

"The difference? Well my queen of Asgard, I have been sent here to explain the distinction between us and the fools in the collective." He spoke, to which Aeshandra rolled her eyes.

"The Kabal is a group of hedonists Valka. Selfish ones too. I would not heed the honeyed words of someone like Meloku."

"Hedonists?" Meloku chuckled. "You say that like it's a bad thing. It has gotten us further than you. Our research and testing into magic, pain and pleasure has dug up more results than your collective ever has."

"Yes, but at what cost! Your souls wear the blood you have shed like a badge of honour. Blood of other beings. Merely to suit your own selfish ends."

"You call us selfish? You work to the same goal we do, yet you do not have the will to do what is necessary to secure our races future. You're just like us, merely a ineffective, inefficient and altogether boring copy."

The tension was palpable as the two aliens locked eyes. Magic energies building around and within as they did so.

[Charmera]

Katie broke away from the kiss as soon as Kylie saw her, her eyes widening briefly as if she did something wrong, and then her face fell almost instantly. She had to bite her lip to avoid crying again. "Kylie." She spoke. All the pain welled up to the surface again and she had forgotten about all her resolve and her will to return to normal for a moment as she sighed. "Kylie... Eric is..." She paused. She couldn't quite form the words correctly. "He's Dead..."

Cora felt Katie break their kiss and saw the devastated look on Katie's face and frowned herself. She took Katie's hand softly, trying to comfort her, but Cora was quite upset herself. She was feeling the same kind of betrayal and guilt that Katie was. She looked over at Kylie and wondered how she would react.

"Wait, what?" Kylie's surprised smile lingered too long. This... wasn't a smiling situation. "Eric's... what? He's... dead?" Kylie just stood there silently. Actually stood, letting her feet touch the ground because how could she keep floating at this time?"

Tears began to well up in her eyes. "You... what your saying is..." Kylie thought for half a second that Katie might have been joking. A cruel joke, one that Kylie herself might have played, once upon a time. But Cora's expression said it more. An android, Cora wasn't great at keeping secrets like that or participating in jokes. This was real.

"Eric... died? Did it happen after I left? Wh—wh—when were you going to tell me?" The tears started to fall. Eric... dead... Kylie couldn't even comprehend at this moment, she couldn't remember any of the fun times her, Katie, Eric, and even Leon shared. Right now, she was at a loss. Which was even more astonishing than her feet touching the ground. Kylie isn't at a loss for words. That's just something about her that just... doesn't happen. But then again, never before had she lost someone this close to her. Distant relatives as a kid, sure, but kids don't comprehend death like adults do. This was real, it actually happened.

And now, Kylie could do nothing but cry.

Katie looked down, stiffling her own tears. She felt that now was not the time for her tears. She had time to mourn before, but now was time time to help Kylie. Katie walked slowly towards Kylie, not too fast, and did not yet make physical contact. "I'm sorry... before I... I really couldn't. It was hard to say. But... then you..." She gritted her teeth, this was difficult. Trying to help her... now she knew what it was like for the others. She paused again, giving her more time. "Jasmine went crazy. Came into his room. I was there but..." A tear rolled down her cheek. "I couldn't stop her Kylie... I couldn't..." She spoke.

She then paused again. "Eric... left something for you.... for all of us actually." She spoke. "It helped when... when I saw it."

[Charmera]

---

Even though her attacks didn't seem to do much of anything other than cause the giant green thing some pain and discomfort, Kirisvala sustained her monstruous roar for as long as she could, her powerful pair of lungs allowing her to hold it for far, far longer than any normal human could shout before going aphonnic. All throughout this, more and more magic beams emerged from the air around her, pelting Xyrixia. But eventually, even though it was due to something completely unrelated to her efforts, the young Hadrian saw the giant green girl regurgitate a lot of living creatures that hadn't seemed to be inside her earlier, and shrink to a tiny fraction of her previous height as a result. It was clear that she hadn't had anything to do with it, but, needless to say, the bubbly Hadrian wasn't the sharpest knife in the cookie jar, and so, after seeing the green girl shrink, she allowed herself to stop, every magic beam still in the air dissipating instantly, no more coming forth anymore. The air around her continued reverberating for several moments, but the building stopped shaking and the loud roar coming from her was no longer a thing. Instead, she fell to her knees, gasping for breath, all out of air due to the sustained roar and a little bit tired from all the magical energy she'd just spent.

But even then, there was a smile on her face, and when she recovered at last, the pinkish red-haired girl stood up and looked towards Rikki and Mars, doing an excited little fistpump with both of her hands, the cuteness of which was likely hampered a bit by the fact that said hands were in fact massive claws. "We did it!" She shouted at the two of them, her tail beginning to draw circles in the air once again, spinning very rapidly and periodically smashing into the ground, though it did not seem to carry enough force to do more than scratch the rooftop of the building she was on, and it certainly didn't seem to hurt her. "I knew we could do it! I knew we could stop the green woman! We make a great team!" She continued, flashing a happy grin full of sharp and pointy teeth, completely oblivious to the fact that they weren't really the ones who managed to get her to stop.

Then, however, she realized that the others were no longer there. Instead, they were below, interacting with the green slime girl and another human person. Jumping down, she dropped from the several story building, landing in a hand-stand, her massive claws absorbing most of the impact, leaving her unharmed from the fall.

"Hello! I'm Kiris, nice to meet you all!" She said to them cheerfully, before turning towards Xyri. "Sorry for shouting at you, but the flying boy told me you were causing trouble and I wanted to help."

Xyri nodded, shrugging her giant shoulders. "Fair enough. I'm not one hundred percent sure what's going on either." She spoke, then looked upwards. She frowned, and then looked to the others. "Are... orange discs descending from the sky a normal thing in this city?" She asked. She had no reason to believe that this wasn't normal, she really wasn't sure about anything on this earth. She frowned deeped at the discs began to suround them, slowly poking out guns from their tops and bottoms. Blue glowing weapons which hummed with energy. "What are they-?" She asked,

"Surrender or face annihalation." Spoke the disks in unison.

[Charmera]

August Carter-13 Yrs-Gotham City

This woman....I could not believe her. I mean, who would want to fight Chorus? Well, to be fair, it seems as if Chorus wants to return the favor. I cannot blame her though, I mean...this lady in the hoodie is acting like such a....that 'B' word I am not allowed to say. Although Sabrina says it pretty often, just not within earshot of our parents. Following Chorus' lead, I was led out of the club along with the others and we exited some type of Portal and ended up in Gotham.

They mentioned we could not fight inside of Devil's Den, and so when we left, that strange hoodie girl led us all to a series of alley ways and eventually inside a large and empty storage building. She then turned to both me and Chorus.

"We can settle the score here if you like. No holds barred, just what any girl could want. So, what will it be? Will I be crushing your wind pipes or stepping on a little boys dreams first?" My face began to turn santa claus red with anger. I responded by turning to Chorus.

"I am your body guard, but...." I tried to explain the situation to her. "Mommy and daddy say I cannot hit a girl though." I for a instant, sounded disappointed, before I thrust a finger into her direction in a threatening manner as I yelled.

"But SHE does not count!" I growled as my eyes squinted off in her direction waiting for the fight or battle or whatever we call it to begin.

The Red haired girl smiled, slowly she slipped her hoodie back over her head and headphones over her ears under the cloth. She put up her hands in a boxers fighting stance. "That's right kid." She spoke. From her sleeves descended two drumsticks, seemingly ordinary and wooden. "Cause I'm not a "girl" like little miss MTV over there." She spoke. A smile on her face as she launched towards Chorus, who quickly brought up Verse to parry, only to find herself hurled back by some force. "I'm a one hundred and ten per cent..." She spoke, continuing her attack, almost skating on the ground as she unleashed forceful attacks which Chorus was finding a hard time resisting. "...genuine...." She spoke, unleashing a kick which caught Chorus off guard. Then lunged forward with a strike with her drumstick to Chorus' chest, which sent her flying back. "...pure, unadulterated badass." She sighed. Rolling her shoulders.

She looked over to the kid. "Now would be a good time to call for daddy. Or maybe mommy. Someone who might actually be a challenge." She spoke. Then looked over to Chorus. "Cause so far this pop sell out is pretty darn bor-"

Suddenly Chorus sprung forwards, burst forward by anger, and brought her blade down on Janice. She didn't even flinch.

The blade didn't and couldn't reach her, instead it simply stopped moving, as if it couldn't move any further. Janice smiled. "I thought as much." She spoke. "You ever heard of destructive wave interference? It's where two waves, when met together, nuetralize each other. My inner voices wavelengths completely matched those of your blade, rendering your blade useless. So you see, you can't even hu-"

Suddenly Chorus sent a punch to Janice's face. She grunted, then recovered. She stopped for a moment. 'Huh... Pop girl can punch..."

[Charmera]

---

---

Garnet shook her head at the small fox creature as she watched it prepare to jump towards the other rooftop.

"I don't exactly have any money to pay you with for your services, but if you would assist me anyway, then any help is welcome." She stated, simply continuing to watch him afterwards, seeing him jump off of the rooftop and transform in mid-air.

When he landed in the other rooftop, she was already there. One of her bracelets, the one with the blue and orange gemstone, still had a faint glow that faded quickly.

"What took you guys so long?" She teased them, idly placing her mask on her face, in order to allow her to keep up with the others more easily.

Masami chuckled as she ran, they were a pretty cool looking team, all jumping rooftops and running together. It was quite exhilarating, and Masami wondered why she didn't do it during her time here before. She continued to follow her nose, leading them around. Of course she was going off smell, so it wasn't one hundred per cent perfect, but she was still leading them in the right direction. Akari had stuck close to her adopted sister. Masami stopped before they got to the place where the smell was strongest (A large multi floor skyscraper).

"<So... Are we going to explain...?>" Asked Akari

"<Explain what?>" Masami replied, her tails swishing excitedly, at the acticipation of the hunt.

"<Explain why a Kitsune calls a cat person kin to these two? You know? Our "Situation"?>"

"<Why? Does it really bear explanation?>"

Akari shrugged. "<They may be curious.>" She looked at the building. "That is quite the tower... I hope I don't wear these shoes out walking all those steps."

Masami rolled her eyes. "We'll take the elevator..."