Chapter 3: A Story Long Forgotten

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian didn't have time to admire the place when he saw a tall boomerang fire out of the statues heading towards them. Alarmed, he saw Stardust roll out of the way, seeing the way the boomerang swerve to hit all of them like duct pins. Try as he might, the oversized 'shuriken' was moving way too fast for someone to hit its velocity to 0.

"Sh*t!" He ducked just as soon as the boomerang went past him. He followed the
boomerang by his eyes. This only meant one thing. Their party was going to get started soon.

[Bun]

"Shit!" Sho saw Hadrian duck and started when the giant boomerang headed his way. Reflex took over and Sho threw himself backwards into a graceful backflip, the boomerang missing his head by mere centimeters as he flipped back and landed in a crouch. Immediately he turned around, followed the movement of the weapon. Boomerangs always returned to the owner.

Polaris had already dodged the attack by sidestepping the huge flying weapon, and her equally gigantic axe was already out and ready in her bloody hands. She looked like a murderer, her hands dripping with sticky gore, a crimson mark on her face, her eyes cool and level.

Sho decided that she looked like she just tore someone apart...with her bare hands.

Polaris hefted her weapon easily enough with one hand, and she turned to Sho. "What Support Mag do you have?" she demanded.

"Just Triple, but---"

"Cast it on me, now." Her voice left no room for argument, and Sho didn't try.

"Triple!" He fisted his left hand and pushed the wave of magic towards her like a punch. The blue pulse of energy surrounded her, fortified her already considerable magic skills and Polaris was already casting as the magic worked.

"Triple Aura!"

Blaze lit up with a fierce golden glow, as did Stardust, and Sho realized, himself. Polaris cast again, and this time, Jun, Rayden and Hadrian were enhanced.

"Blaze," Polaris called over her shoulder, "it's fun time!" She announced this with the demeanor of someone who was giving out gold stars to an exceptionally good student.

<Damn,> Sho thought. <This girl's fucking crazy.>

[Lil]

Jaime looked on in dismay when Van's powerful boomerang didn't manage to bring down the SeeDs. They all seemed to have lightning reflexes and dodged it, although some evaded the attack better than others. Like that blonde guy just managed to crouch clumsily to his left and avoid injury.

One of the female SeeDs started casting some magic on her teammates, and they glowed from the spell. Whatever it was it couldn't spell good news for the Opps team. Even with her slowness Jaime could deduce that.

Not if I could help it Jaime frowned, narrowing her eyes at the SeeDs. There was too much as stake for them to fail at this time.

"Flare!" Jaime cried, directing the powerful spell at the SeeDs with a tinge of desperation in her voice.

Flames erupted in front of the SeeDs bathing the air in front with a wall of skin-melting heat.

[Diego Stanton]

Deo felt like burying his face in his hands when Van's boomerang missed every seeD. She was always right on target, he was sure she'd take out at least half of them. But these weren't ordinary rent-a-cops, these were seeDs. Elite seeDs.

The gig was up, so Deo thought he might as well show himself after Jamie quickly casted a powerful flare spell. When he emerged from the back of the blue statue he froze when he saw that every single seeD had Aura on them. He knew Triple and Aura well, seeing as they were part of his own stock.

Well Two can play at that game Deo thought with determination. He almost hesitated, for he used Aura only in extremely rare cases. But this time was definently one of those rare cases. He wished he could cast Drake but Drake would only come out if Jamie or Vanesse were near death, and that was the last thing that Deo wanted.

"Triple, Aura!!" Deo shouted. He and the two girls immediately started glowing with a warm, golden light. Deo felt power seeping through him from the spell and he reached into his sack for a stick of dynamite.

"Heart grenade!" he commanded as he reached into his sack, pulled out a samurai sword and threw it into the air.

What the??!.... Deo stood in shock as he watched the sword sail through the air. It clattered onto the granite floor a few feet away.

Before anyone could react Deo dived for the sword and picked it up, brandishing it with a look on his face like he had intentionally thrown it. He madly dug through his sack for some bombs but his hand kept grasping air through a huge hole at the bottom. He looked into his empty sack, then back towards the statues, where he saw a pile of bombs scattered on the floor.

Damn it, Lawric's stupid sword must have fallen in here by accident and cut a hole!

Deo had about as much knowledge with a sword as he did about poetry, which was next to nothing. He must have looked pretty stupid holding the lethal sword like he was holding a butcher knife.

Noticing that the seeDs were staring at him kind of funny he yelled, "Thundaga!!" and three bolts of lighting crashed down from the ceiling. Using that as a distraction he hightailed it back to the statues where his real weapons laid.

[Blaze Sanaku]

Blaze dodged the boomerang along with the rest of the team. It had definently caught her off guard but Blaze thought that a little weapon like that couldn't finish her off. You'd need an atomic bomb to kill Blaze.

She grinned in thanks at Polaris when she felt Aura take its effect into her body and then turned to the enemy with a glint of murder in her eyes. She loved the feeling of Aura and the intense amount of power it gave.

Blaze's eyes began to change into a toxic green as she conjured up her "cries of agony" limit break. From her plams shot an extreme form of the magic, "pain" right towards Jamie.

"Flare!" Jamie cried and Blaze's spell bounced off of her wall of flames and ricocheted into one of the statues' face. Blaze expected the statue's entire head to be blown off but it stood unscathed.

"Heart grenade!!"

Blaze looked over, expecting to see something detonate. Instead, she saw a sword soaring through the air. An extremely.... familar sword. The guy who threw it immediately scooped it back up and pointed it threateningly. It was obvious that he had no clue what he was doing. He looked as shocked as everyone else to see a flying sword.

Blaze was caught off guard once again when Deo called forth Thundaga. She easily dodged the bolts and decided not to mess around anymore. Her claws unsheathed with a 'chink!'

"Who wants to die first?!?" she yelled.

[Polaris Lyn]

"FLARE!/PAIN!"

"HEART GRENADE!!"

KLANG!!!

"WHO WANTS TO DIE FIRST?!?!"

"Aura," Polaris breathed, and the spell engulfed her in a fading yellow light. She felt dizzy, a side-effect from casting too quickly. It was like running too fast for too long; her magic carried through the bloodstream, and the continual casting at an insane speed---something she tended to do at the start of every battle---exerted her heart, leaving her a little bit lightheaded. The dizziness passed quickly enough, but the Flare spell that had been cast had hit her while she was casting, and Polaris took a step back, wincing at the extreme heat. She was Estharian, dammit---heat didn't work with her system!

She hefted her axe with both hands, blinked, and assessed the situation. Their opponents were hiding behind the three statues; that was easy enough. But she had seen Blaze's PAIN magic hit one of the statues squarely...strangely enough, the magic didn't make a dent. Which probably meant that the statues weren't just innocent stone statues, and had high defense. Polaris fumed that she was a Support Mag caster. If she had the Indirect Mag SCAN, she would've easily figured out who and what they were dealing with.

At this point, without knowing more, Polaris resigned herself to the role of main Support Mag caster. She knew that no one else had much in terms of Curative Magic, and she was no melee fighter; just because she had a big honkin' axe and was best friends with Blaze Sanaku, it did not mean that she had Blaze's inhuman strength and zeal for killing. Unless of course, the opponents were DotNA.

Polaris sighed, blowing her curly hair out of her face. "Triple Regen," she whispered, and tangerine-colored energy overtook Blaze, Sho and Stardust, the three SeeDs most likely to rush into battle without a second thought.

<Might as well keep them from getting killed.>

[miyavi]

Blaze was shouting madly, but that was normal enough, Sho realized, as he put his Timber Maniacs copy back in his pocket.

[glow=yellow,2,300]Regen.[/glow]

Sho felt the Support Mag REGEN enhance his body, and turned his head. Polaris, whom he had now fondly christened Curly Fries, was casting continually, but the corners of her lips were turned down, and Sho knew she was straining. Casting too quickly too often sometimes led to intense headaches. Not that he'd experienced it, of course. He was more of a physical fighter than anything.

<I could help.> With that thought, Sho concentrated. He rarely used magic; his magical focus was whack. If he didn't concentrate enough, he was likely to cast helpful Mag to the enemy and painful Mag to his team.

"Triple Haste," he muttered. <Cast on me, on...on Blaze, and...whatshername, Jun!>

A feeling of intense exhiliration revealed that his casting was spot on. Sho glanced down at his hands, glowing bright gold, then dark orange, then gleaming yellow. Aura, Regen and Haste flashed in succession, and Sho grinned.

He felt like a maniacal tiger on speed.

Which, in Sho-speak, meant that he was as ready to kill as Blaze was.

Sho's eyes snapped open, the crazy grin still on his lips. He saw a guy in black hurrying towards the statues, carrying a sword and looking ridiculous. Sho shot forward, a white blur, and then dropped to the ground, his legs colliding with the dark-haired man's. Sho effectively kicked out the man's legs from beneath him.

Without waiting for the man to fall, Sho bounced to his feet and set his stance.

<Come on. Let's go!!>

[vanesse]

She missed! All of them, she missed all of them. That was all Vanesse could think of as she leaped into the air to swiftly catch her boomerang. As she landed on the ground, the sound of spells and voices were already at high. Jaime and Deo had started attacking as well. She felt Aura radiate throughout her body. The spell gave her a boost of confidence. Though they were clearly outnumbered, they were not going to go down that easily.

She ran back towards her own team when she saw one of the SeeDs trip Deo. She recognized this certain SeeD. She never got his name, but he was pretty energetic. Ever since she saw them in the elevator, she already expected that something like this was going to happen. In a heartbeat, she rushed in front of Deo and assumed her fighting stance.

"I got this Deo!" she said, her face growing serious. The sight of the SeeDs behind him dropped her confidence once again. Aura and Regen plus the extra bloodthirsty look in their eyes. Whoever was casting all those support magics to them definitely meant business. In any second, they were going to lunge for the three of them.

Paridge...?

"We can't let you get the gem. Please understand!" Vanesse stated before closing her eyes and summoning her Guardian Force. In approximately two seconds, a strong breeze blew around the Opps and whirled upwards to materialize into a humongous griffin, its golden wings flapping with sheer force. The griffin's sharp claws and lion-like feet smashed on the ground the moment it landed right in front of the Opps, acting as a solid barrier from the SeeDs.

"SQUAAAAAAAAAAWWWK!!" shrieked the griffin, arching its head to the air before bringing its gaze down to the puny SeeDs before it. It was going to attack anytime now.

Vanesse stepped back and moved closer to Deo and Jaime. "We're warning you..." she hollered to the SeeDs. "Turn back now!"

[miyavi]

Sho blinked as a girl stepped between him and his opponent. A girl, small and petite and cute as a button, even though she was grimacing at him. Sho stared at her, rearranging his footwork. She had a lower center of gravity---wide kicks wouldn't work on her as well as low sweeps. He moved forward to attack---

"We can't let you get the gem. Please understand!" The girl shouted, and Sho's vision was suddenly filled by a giant bird monster that screeched like a banshee and looked twice as scary. Sho stepped back.

<Well. That's not something you can punch out of the way,> he thought detachedly.

"We're warning you...turn back now!!" It was the same girl, and Sho frowned. Was she threatening them or pleading with them?

"Just so you can take the pretty little jewel?" Sho shot back in a voice just as loud. "Look, kid, I don't know what you treasure hunters are doing here, but we're on actual business, okay? So just run along and let us do what we've gotta do. We can't exactly let you have the ruby, either!!"

[ani]

LOL!! XD
**************************

"Treasure hunters?" Vanesse exclaimed in disbelief. He really called them that. Her frown deepened. "We're not here on a pleasure cruise either for your information!"

The griffin in front of them shrieked once again as if agreeing to Vanesse's outburst.

Stardust stood there, scanning the oversized bird in front. If this thing wouldn't let them get to those strangers, then she was more than ready to take it on. Thank Hyne for Aura, she might just make things go boom today. But first...she wanted answers.

"I recognize that sword you pulled out just now." She threw a quick glance at Jun. "How did you get hold of that sword? Who are you?!" Stardust demanded and lifted her bow to their direction.

[waterlily43]

Jun just simply froze at her spot despite the Aura and Haste magic encompassing her like a second skin--due to the fact that she'd just seen someone throw her missing and very much missed sword, Tien Nu to the ground like some stinking bomb and then grab it back, acting as if he did it on purpose.

Well if he did then he had to be taught a lesson. Him and his puny little group. She growled mentally at Sapphy, who seemed to agree in silence. The sight of Miyavi tripping up the guy appeased her a little, as did Stardust asking questions on her behalf. Jun knew that she could barely speak coherently without peppering every word with explexetives.

Jun nodded slightly at Stardust, unable to do much more. It was taking most of her effort to restrain the crazed fury clawing at her gut from these people, who not only had the gall to throw her sword, disrupt their mission, but threaten them with this single GF! RIDICULOUS! WHAT THE HELL DID THEY THINK THEY WERE DOING?

It wasn't helping that the Aura was doing nothing to calm her down.

"YOU DO NOT FUCKING THROW SWORDS THAT DON'T BELONG TO YOU!" Jun yelled at the lone guy in the opposing group. If she could stare daggers he would have been afflicted with numerous fatal stab wounds all over his body. "And you had better give us the answers we want or that one GF would not be able to stop us if you keep being the obstacle in our way." She finished, gripping her replacement sword with knuckles whitened from the force she was exerting.

[Polaris Lyn]

"YOU DO NOT FUCKING THROW SWORDS THAT DON'T BELONG TO YOU!" Polaris winced, everyone was yelling now, and that giant bird-beast-weird thing was screeching above all the noise.

"And you had better give us the answers we want or that one GF would not be able to stop us if you keep being the obstacle in our way." Polaris chanced a glance at Jun and saw that she was holding her sword like she wanted to gut their enemies with it while they were still alive. It was plain that the sword thrown out by the bomber---because who else would have a freakin' Limit Break called Heart Grenade, for Hynessakes?!---was Jun's, though how the bomber had it and not Jun was still beyond Polaris's comprehension.

<Okay, whoa! This shit is too confusing, we need to talk about this like decent people...>

The giant GF that was summoned shrieked and cut across Polaris's thoughts, apparently disagreeing. The headache caused by the extreme casting, accompanied with the loud sounds, grated along Polaris's nerves, and she snapped.

<Time to rock this place, Obsidian.>

"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!"

Polaris's scream cut across the arguments, and even managed to the top the high shrieks of the bird-beast Guardian Force.

Polaris stood amidst her team, glowing with infused Support Mag, her axe scraping the marble floor, the hilt red with her brother's blood. Summoned by Polaris in her distress, her Guardian Force Obsidian, a larger-than-life fallen angel with black wings, hovered between dimensions, supporting his mistress with his presence but wavering between his physical and metaphysical forms, looking like a black ghost. With blood all over her, a giant axe, and a freakish demon of a GF with glowing violet eyes hovering above her, Polaris looked like she SERIOUSLY meant business.

"Now, obviously, there are things that must be discussed," Polaris snarled into the silence that followed her outburst. "NOW... we are going to talk about this. And we are going to talk NICELY. Obviously, there are issues that need to be talked out. So everyone please stand down." She turned her attention to her opponents. "We're going to talk about this."

She did not sound like a haughty SeeD, or an aristocrat used to having her orders followed. She looked like she was going to shove her axe in the face of the next person who disagreed.

"Okay, since I hear no objections," she continued in her calm, level voice overloaded with murderous intent, "we will call off all Guardian Forces and put away our weapons. Together, please."

[Diego Stanton]

Deo was still rubbing his head from the fall when one of the seeDs started drilling him with questions. Deo thanked Hyne that Vanesse was so quick to cast Paridge. It had bought them a few more minutes, at least.

"How did you get hold of that sword? Who are you?!" the pinkhead yelled at him a split second before another seeD screamed, "YOU DO NOT FUCKING THROW SWORDS THAT DON'T BELONG TO YOU!"

Deo's brows clashed together in a look of complete confusement. They were yelling at him.. why? Suddenly the realization dawned upon him.

"Wait- wait a second.... is this sword.. YOURS?!?!" he asked the girl who had screamed at him, "How the fuck am I supposed to know that it was YOURS??-You think I meant to throw it? I told Lawric to pawn it!" Deo's voice rose dangerously.

"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!"

Deo gripped the hilt of the sword tightly as he listened to her lecture. He resisted the urge to lash out against her commands- he didn't take orders from people like her. If it were to save their lives though, Deo figured he could deal with it this time.

He glanced over at Vanesse and Jamie, looking at them for guidance on what to do.

[Blaze Sanaku]

Blaze's finger twitched with impatience.

"Are you insane??!?" Blaze screeched at everyone on the seeD team, "JUST KILL THEM!!!!!"

Polaris tried to bring order to the fighting and Deathstrike stirred in Blaze's mind when Obsidian was summoned.

What, Blaze asked her in a completely unenthused tone.

/He's kind of cuute/ Deathstrike giggled.

Blaze snorted. Give me a break! she thought in disgust.

"Just attack their damn GF, look how many people we have, it's like a trillion to three, let's just kill them!" Blaze said in exasperation, much to the dismay of the bomber, who kept shaking his head and mouthing 'noooo' at the seeDs.

[vanesse]

"Paridge...Hang on," Vanesse whispered anxious at the aggressiveness of the SeeDs. She glanced at the back of her griffin. The SeeDs were demanding answers, shouting about Lawric's sword, then shouting again. She wasn't scared--just anxious! All this chaos was too hard to swallow. What if they kill her GF. She knew Paridge was tougher than they think but she just didn't like the idea him getting injured. Afterall, the SeeDs had their own GFs too. Soon, the other party demanded to cast away weapons and talk peacefully.

Vanesse returned Deo's doubtful look. Would they agree? Would these people be trusted? What would they do? Her will to comply quickly vanished when one of the SeeDs demanded that they should kill them already. Vanesse's brows met. Who in their right mind would trust a bunch of people with a lunatic in it?

"You say talk nicely!?" Vanesse hollered to the other group. "But you have a lunatic in your party!" She bluntly pointed at Blaze. "How can we trust that you're not going to attack once all our defenes are down!"