Someone to Meet

Shobatsu stared as the red junk data streamed past him, diffusing in the slight breeze running through the area. His aura flickered with his wavering focus on it, and both of the whips he'd spent so much time forming melted away into the base light, shadow, and energy they were composed of.

He took in a deep, controlled breath, and let his hands clench into fists. It was anyone's guess what sort of thoughts were running through his head just then.

Jikon watched as the fox glided smoothly down to the ground to his tamer. He ranked down, and back up to C, constructed a pair of wings from the light, and flew off in the direction of Triumph's fortress.

He reached out, catching a little red fragment of data in his hand. He stared at it for a while, as though considering something erstwhile unconsidered. He closed his hand, which glowed green for a moment, and drew it back into his robe. Then, he returned to ground level, picking up an enthused Muteki.

"Come on," he said. "There's someone we have to go meet."

"Who?" asked Muteki, being picked roughly up by Jikon.

"You'll see," said Jikon, leaping into the rabbit hole.

A few moments later e would appear beside the unconscious form of Arthur, take him under his other arm, and enter the rabbit hole once again.

Iko gritted his teeth, watching Kieth disappear into the wind. Still, there was something that needed to be done, despite this... it was always loss and progress, Iko vaguely thought to himself.

Luke streched his arms. "No good..." Luke mutterred. "Its hard to stay awake after using that much energy..."

"Stay here, then..." Iko requested. "I feel that there will be less of a battle resistance near the spire..."

Nodding, Luke went back to the rabbit hole, as Iko moved quickly, using the darkness of the sand to speed up his stride, much like skating, keeping even pace with Shobatsu.

Luckily Salem and Chuck were not indeed travelling in a straight pattern, and instead orbiting the knight and thrusting at his head. They were easily able to avoid the path by simply moving a bit more quickly along the same route.

*Post-Triumph-Runs-Away*

"Ha! That's right; flee before the Prince of Chaos!" He then noticed Keith's departing data. "Wasn't that the doorman...?"

Lallium nodded solemnly. "Yeah."

"Should we... say a few words?"

Lallium then pointed at Shobatsu's rapidly moving form. "Wait, there going on without us!"

"Huh!? Drat! Ah well, I'm sure the doorman wouldn't have wanted us to lose the girl over him. Onward Bullseye!"

The unicorn sighed. "Again... it's Chuck."

Lallium gave him a curious look. "Funny, you struck me as a Charlie."

Salem and the unicorn spoke at once. ""NO!""

Lallium flinched. "Sorry, sorry!" He sighed. "Well at least we don't have those two really annoying unicorns tagging along... that has to be worth something right?"

""...""

Lallium shrugged. "Okay fine, let's just go. Puppeteer Chaos."

Chuck took off after Shobatsu, and Salem let forth a masssive amount of blades, which all spun behind them and propelled the group forward with incredible speed, and allowing them to get slightly ahead of the kitsune.

The spire would appear as it had before: long, tall, and twisted, with a single entrance. It would seem unwise to enter from a higher angle, unless they wanted to risk collapsing the entire construct.

Inside, surprisingly, it seemed to have an ordinary dungeon aspect. The trio would eventually reach a three-way junction, Carlos's and Lallium's device detecting signals in three directions.

Sighing, Iko offerred directions. "I'll take the right path; Shobatsu, why not try the left... Salem... middle..." he said these rather dryly, also exhausted from using A-rank.

" Want us to go to the roof? " Alex asked, a C rank Echo beside him. " I figure it would be easier if we go from the top and you guys from the bottom and we should meet somewhere near the middle after we claer the castle. "

Echo's ears twitched, listening around the castle for any hints of life with her enhanced hearing. But she picked up nothing, that was either good or bad. Meaning either it meant their was no resistance or they were incredibly hidden for an ambush.

Shobatsu nodded toward Iko, and started down his assigned path. He moved quickly in the gloom, sensing out the hallway in front of him as an alternative to relying on his limited sight.

Carlos glared at Echo. "No, you fool. This tower looks unstable enough without you throwing your weight around up at the top. Why don't you go back and help back at the city? Three DaCre is really more than enough, here."

Not waiting for an answer, Carlos followed Shobatsu into the darkness.

Salem shook his head. "Naw, I'm taking the left path."

Lallium looked puzzled. "That IS the left path."

"Huh?"

"It's the only path that's LEFT after they take the other two."

Salem sighed. "Yeah, but the path that's mentioned first is always the fastest one."

"So you want the RIGHT one?"

"Well I don't want the wrong one... is there a wrong one?"

"No, I mean the right path was mentioned first, not the left."

"Oh."

They stood there for a moment. Chuck finally spoke.

"Or you could be rebellious and take the middle path... then if you got there first it would prove you were actually the fastest in saving her, and didn't just have the shortest path."

Salem laughed evilly. "Mwahahaha! An excellent plan Bullseye!"

Lallium corrected him. "Charlie."

The unicorn yelled. "CHUCK!"

Salem looked around curiously. "I don't see him."

"..."

The group dashed off long the middle path without further comment.

Iko smirked to himself; once far enough down his own path to know that he was out of earshot of the other tamers (also able to sense if anyone followed, due to the fact of simply being a DaCre), he undid the dark contortion around his wrist, revealing Luke's XLR8, which functioned for everything except spiritual connections with a partner DaCre... this, combined with Iko's ability to sense shadows and other DaCre, much more accute with both this device and the sensation of having been in A-rank, made him certain of his path, and who he was approaching.

"Well... it will be better this way..." Iko thought to himself. "This way, Shobatsu will be able to stay rational, while Salem will get the impression that he's making progress..."

-------------------------

The path that Shobatsu and Carlos took turned out to be unguarded and untrapped; it still had a forboding sense, until they reached a solid door, that looked to be immobile from the inside; from the outside, though, the hinges could be destroyed.

-------------------------

Salem and crew would find themselves walking down an underground dungeon pass, water somehow dripping from above... an added feature? Who knew?

At any rate, they would eventually notice, in the far end of this corridor, a beast in chains... the only DaCre down here, looking without hope... Magnus...

Alex interupted Carlos midsentence. " Excuse me, over here man, I was the one that talked. Me and Echo don't exactly sound alike so I don't really see how... " He was distracted by the conversation of Salem and the gang and chuckled a bit.

Staring back at Carlos, he waved him off to continue on his way. Alex and Echo then went through the tunnel with Salem. and in the above post, were included as the crew since no one was specifically mentioned but Salem.

" Who's that? " Alex asked Lallium and Salem, not having seen the imprisoned DaCre before.

Salem pointed to Magnus forehead. "I beleive that is self explanatory."

Upon the forehead rested the Post-it note Salem had stuck there before, which read

"Minion and Property of Salem, the Prince of Chaos. Do Not Disturb"

Salem looked at Lallium. "Why did you read it out loud? What are they blind?"

Lallium pointed at Echo. "Well I didn't know. She might use echolocation or something."

"Echo-what-now?"

"It's like sound waves and stuff."

"Ah... So if I yelled alot in front of her she'd get really confused?"

"That's not exactly how it works..." Lallium shook his head. "Anyway, moing on. This was one of Yitur's minions back at his castle. And now, I guess, he's Salem's."

Salem pondered for a moment. "Yitur... doesn't ring a bell."

"He just blabbed a lot and then we wound up on top of that shack remember?"

"Oh. Wait, how do you know what he did? We never got to see him!"

"The hallway was empty, everyting they said echoed."

Salem made an "aha!" gesture. "So THAT'S how echolocation works!"

"Uh... yeah, pretty much."

Salem struck a dramatic pose. "Now I know! And knowing is half the battle!"

Salem, Lallium, and Chuck yelled together. """G.I. JOE!!!"""


It was likely that the wolf would have attacked or given up on the group as not being a threat by this point... and perhaps that was their intention all along