1b.) Into the Melee

~A fair bit of time later~

"So, I've got to ask you. Why do you wear so many different outfits? It's not like you need to do laundry." Erick's tone of curiosity was slightly confounded.

The current outfit looked like a strange mixture between Japanese traditional and the Matrix.

Her hair was styled like a somewhat more extravagant farmer's bun from the Kofun period, two long thin sticks at fifty-degree angles to each other holding it in place.

Thin small silver rimmed dark sunglasses perched a little low on her nose, a sliver of her brown eyes showing above them. Examplar's last facial accessory was a left earring, a small silver crescent moon with the concave side facing forward dangling slightly below her ear.

Her outer garment was a cross between a Matrix style overcoat and a kimono. It was made of a shimmering black fabric that looked fairly sleek.

The design of the top looked fairly much like a kimono, complete with an Obi belt, except that the sleeves were far less extravagant not drooping very much, and the kimono crossed very close to the neck, and there were no layers visible beneath it.

Just under the Obi, the kimono split, much like where the kimono crossed under the neck. The kimono also reached down to the feet, though, by the time it got there the entire front half was open.

Underneath this was a fairly tight umanori, though it would be considered loose compared to normal pants. This was made of a less shimmery and silky fabric, more subdued.

Finally, she wore black leather shoes, any socks obscured by the pants.

Her response, was unhelpful to say the least, she just tilted her head down and to the right slightly, looking at Erick above her sunglasses.

"Ok, I guess I should move onto the next question." Erick shrugged it off. "Shouldn't there be more people here?"

" What a wondrous place! It's beauty rivals my own! " Echo sand a flew in circles around the trees with a big smile on her face.

Alex was ducking low, he could be seen lightly brushin a bush out of the way and looked around. " I just hope there isn't anything here that wants to kill us, which seems to be the case most of the time.... " He spoke in a low whisper, not wanting to jinx them.

Meanwhile, near Echo and Alex...

"Voltage Maxima!"

A purple lightning strike fell down out of the sky in front of Echo and left a scorch mark and a small crater.

"Halt! Who dares trespass in the realm of Voyle, the Prince of Chaos!"

There was the sound of whispering voices, one a most obviously young female and the other a somewhat nervous sounding young male.

The girl sounded impressed. "Wow you're getting good at this intimidation stuff."

The nervous voice was excited. "Did I hit them?"

"No, but I bet ya scared their socks off."

"Just scared..."

"Why do you sound dissapointed?"

"That was supposed to be a deathblow!"

"...I changed my mind. You still suck."

"It's not my fault! I can't see a thing in this helmet!"

"What do you mean you... It's on BACKWARDS you idiot!"

"Oh... that makes sense."

"Ugh. Well stop making them wait, threaten them again."

The nervous voice spoke up. "Um... Place your belongings on the ground and leave before we have to destr... well atta... make you get hurt!"

"Smoooooth... maybe we should go with plan B..."


The nervous voice was irritated. "Shuddup! I'm in charge here! And I say... I say... I say we go with plan C!"

"...Why exactly are we skipping B?"

"Because I said so! All forces execute Triangle of Doom!"


A DaCre jumped out of the bushes to the left of Iko. He was completely wrapped up in white bandages, except for two yellow eyes that glowed out, and was dressed in the uniform of an olden day priest; with a blue sort of vestemant that covered his front and back and and a rather large squarish hat on his head that had a cross on it. The mummy was about to move towards Echo but seemed confused and looked around. It spoke in a deep proper British accent.

"Gyro! What are you waiting for!"

A whiny voice answered. "I'm coming I'm coming!"

A 3 foot tall creature with grey skin and red eyes popped out of the bushes behind the mummy, charging. It had black bat wings coming out of it's back, tall pointy horns on it's head, and it's teeth seemed extra pointy. Most of it's other feature's seemed humanish and it had white hair that was very unkempt. The Imp rushed directly into the mummy and bowled him over, but lost his balance on the mummy's robes and fell down too.

"I got him dudes!"

"No you got ME you moron!"

"Huh? Why are you over here Derk?"

"I'm supposed to attack from the left side , and your supposed to attack from the right side. It's really not that hard!"

"Ohhh. I thought I was supposed to attack from the BRIGHT side. Cuz it's kind of shady over there..."

The mummy named Derk sighed. "Ugh. Nevermind, where's Jack?"


"Ignius Break!" Some of the trees from south other side of the clearing suddenly exploded into flames and a DaCre which looked like a Jack'o lantern appeared. It had a flowing cape of green thorny vines and was dressed in a black tuxedo, though it seemed from the hands and other showing parts that this too was filled with vines.

"Nihahahaha! Now the fun can start!" He looked around and saw Derk and Gyro on the ground, then turned to Echo and Alex. "Gasp! You fiends, attacking those defenseless DaCre out of the blue like that! Thou shall be smited by my eternal fury for such an act!"

When the Jack'o lantern had burned through the trees it had also burnt away the bushes covering the original speakers. The female one was revealed first; she resembled a 2 foot tall fairy and had white skin and white hair flowing down past her feet as she hovered in the air on tiny and delicate looking butterly wings. Her eye's were red like Gyro's and she was wearing a white dress that was sleevless and only went down to around her knees. She had two small black horns sticking out of her head.

The nervous was wearing an orange helmet that was a sold oval except for two rectangular eyeslits. He had large deer antler's coming from the helmet and both his hands and feet appeared to be hooves, though both hands had a hoove-like thumb. He was wearing a purple robe with golden trim that was very extravagant, but also several sizes too large so the sleeves drooped and the robe dragged on the ground. The deer-DaCre was about 4 feet tall.

The deer stomped it's feet. "Jack, your incredibly late; AGAIN! What TAKES you so long." Then the helmeted deer appeared to sniff the air. "Wait... do I smell smoke?"

It looked down and saw it's robe was on fire. The deer jumped and began running around.

"Fire! Fire! Put it out! Put it out!"

The fairy began blasting ice towards the deer, but hit the Jack'o lantern instead and sent it hurtling into a tree. The second shot was more successful, and put out the fire, but the deer was running too quickly to notice and crashed into another tree, falling backwards on the ground.


The fairy looked around at her four downed comrades and then at Echo.

"I don't suppose you want to surrender now?"

" HAHAHA! I suppose these were the minions that twit Salem was talking about. They're even dumber then he is! " As Echo laughed she rose a little higher in the air.

Alex looked at each of the DaCre as if expecting they were about to say he had just been punk'd. He was taller then all of them, and he and Echo could probably defeat the group by simply standing still and watching their antics.

Priscilla looked surprised. "Huh!? Salem... naw can't be. He's still stuck in the other world."

Voyle stumbled about for a moment before standing. "Y-Yeah! I'm in charge now!"

Priscilla rolled her eye's. "Yeah and look where THAT'S gotten us. First we lost the castle, then the fangirls chased out the army, and then the servants chased out the fangirls..."

Voyle crossed his arms and looked pointedly at Priscilla. "MOST of the fangirls."

"Hey I'm not like them! Salem's my little kitty-poo and we're gonna get married and live in the Castle and every night he'll..."

Voyle waved his arms and began yelling "LALALALA, WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"It's not like you haven't heard it before. Besides when he uses that..."

"LALALA..."

"SHUT UP!"

Voyle sighed. "HOW exactly are you not like the other fangirls? not that it matters. YOU chased out all the servants."

"They totally clashed with my outfit! I mean why couldn't they all just paint themselves blue and white like i asked and be done with it?"

"...No comment."

Derkholm cleared his throat. "You do realize the enemy is RIGHT THERE, don't you?"

Voyle looked surprised. "Oh yeah that!" He turned back to Alex and Echo. "We aren't dumb! We just have crappy leadership!"

Derkholm interrupted again. "YOU'RE our leader."

Voyle seemed surprised once again. "Oh yeah... Then..." He pointed acusingly at Echo and Alex. "Then you must have just gotten lucky this time!"

Echo was annoyed now, she made a grimace and she raised an eyebrow. " The only people who are at fault here are you idiots and that twit Salem who hired you. In fact, where is Salem? I didn't think he was chicken to come back to our world through the portal. Anyway, I'm sure he's around here getting torn limb from limb by a baby monkey. "

Alexcould only looked down and cover his face with his hands. This was so stupid it was unreal. There was no way something this awkward was happening right now....

Priscilla now looked angry. "Hired! What do you think we are, some sort of goons! We follow Salem because he's our leader! He's brave and strong and handsome..." Priscilla began looking off into the distance dreamily and sounding very creepy. "And staring into his eye's is like looking into the stars and he has those ears that you just wanna grab onto and my god have you checked out his..."

"LALALALALA!"

"What? I was gonna say his butt."

"WAAAAAGH!"

Derkholm once again cleared his throat. "Perhaps sometime this century we'd like to make a relevant decision?"

Voyle shook his head as if to clear away the earlier thoughts. "Of course! Don't rush me!"

He held out his hand towards Echo and purple lightning crackled in it. "And what do you mean portal? And why are you so obsessed with the word twit! What IS a twit anyway!"

Gyro finally decided to speak. "It's a type of instrument."

Jack shook his pumpkin-head, which was difficult due to the act that he was still upside down against a tree. "No I'm certain it's a type of pastry."

Voyle tilted his head. "I always thought it was more like a rodent..."

Priscilla chimed in. "No; it's a website where you constantly update everyone on earth about your life for no apparent reason!"

Derkholm held up a hand and the bickering stopped. "A twit is a contemptable of foolish person, it is a deragatory comment that originates from "twite" an aphetism of the Middle English atwite."

The group spoke at once. "Oooh."

Voyle looked at Jack. "I still like Jack's idea best." He shook his fist at Echo. "Who are you calling a pastry you... you... you cake-head!"

Derkholm sighed. "How about... superflous delinquet."

Voyle nodded. "Yeah! I'm no pastry, I'm a superflous delinquet!"

Gyro chimed in. "What's a delinquet?"

Derkholm sighed.

Jikon appeared in the forest, one gray hand holding fast to Muteki's. His eyes darted around, and he sighed. "Well, well. What are the odds." he said. "So close to Yitur's domain. What are the odds."

Muteki looked around blankly. The foliage was unfamiliar, but a lifetime of video games had stopped him being impressed at much, and his life ending had stopped what little was left.

"Yitur was the one at fault there, surely enough, but that shark... I was against him being chosen from the start. They wanted him for his strength, his loyalty... bah! Look where that got them!"

The zombie began to lurch through the forest, Muteki in tow.

"I'll have to deal with that shark soon enough. Once I build up a bond with you, John, so I can use all my powers, we'll do that. For now, however, we must observe and gain strength..."

Muteki didn't respond much to this.

"Yes... that fox and wolf definitely need to be observed..."

" Salem has come back to this world. Now get out of my way before I turn you all into data. Well, all of you except that mummy, he seems to be the only smart one, though he may just have low self esteem if he's following a pompous ass like Salem. The nerve of him questioning my singing abilities. "

Echo began to walk the opposite way from the banged up group. Alex following with his head still in his hands. He was praying that he was hallucinating and had been in a coma for the last few months.

Exemplar and Erick were walking through the forest. Exemplar was slightly to the left and a half a step ahead of Erick. They weren't talking, so it was a fairly quiet journey, only their footsteps and the swish of clothes making noise.

Erick reached into his bag and pulled out a zune and some earphones, and soon he was humming on occasion, breaking the near silence.

By the winds of fortune, they were near Muteki and Jikon.

Voyle called after Echo. "Yeah, you better run!" then he turned to the rest of his partners. "Okay, team meeting!"

The group formed a circle, Derkholm sitting calmly and cross-legged, Gyro tapping his foot impatiently and pacing in place, Priscilla having forzen herself a tiny mirror and combing her hair in the reflection, and Jack making a fire floating in front of him grow bigger and smaller. Voyle stood at the head of the circle.

"Okay, so let's look at the facts here. That bat-lady said that Salem was back. But then there was that other DaCre with her..." Voyle's voice was grave. "Yes, the rumor's are now proven true: there's a human-like DaCre that roams these woods, hypnotizing unsuspecting DaCre with it's mind powers, and then feeding off their brains. Obviously the brain-eater made the bat-lady say that Salem was here so we'd be too distracted to notice; but were smarter than that! Since we all know there's no way a real human could make it to this side, it is obvious that this must be that very same DaCre!"

Gyro and Jack nodded, and Priscilla looked away from her Ice mirror.

"So... should we like... help her or something?"

Voyle nodded. "We cannot allow her brains to be feasted upon by such a terrible and frightening creature; our only choice is to defeat him and save the bat-lady." Voyle began pacing, obviously getting in the spirit of the hunt. "It can take on many forms; somtimes it will appear just like a normal human; but when it's out of the shadows and exposed to sunlight it's true form is revealed: the rotting corpse of a human undead..."

Gyro, who was becoming visibly panicked. "How can we destroy such a thing!"

"There's only one way: we must put a steak through it's heart! Only then will it's curse be lifted."

Derkholm was too busy trying to hold back fits of laughter to even try and correct the others. And so the group set out after Echo, to find the mysterious brain-eater and destroy it.

Echo soon to came to the edge of the woods near where Salem was attacking the ghoul. But she didn't see either of that as her ears, after sending echolocation out with her super sonic voice, picked up the idiots coming in behind her and their conversation. " Are they really that stupid? Gosh..... Alex, get behind me."

Alex stood behind Echo and layed down, he was exhausted. he wasn't made for a hike through the woods.

Echo extended her wings and waited for the DaCre to come. ~ I should probably destroy them and take the mummy with me, he seems intelligent and would be helpful in telling me where I am. ~

In her C form, she was an equal match for the 5 D ranks. But the way they fight, she could probably sit still and let them defeat eachother.

As Exemplar and Erick would enter a very small clearing, they would see what would appear to be a lurching corpse pulling an **resisting, rather worn-looking young man behind him. They paid the other pair no heed, and would likely not speak up unless spoken to.

Of course, they were nearing the edge of the clearing, and so would soon be lost from sight...

"Hey, good morning." Erick called out, almost but not quite shouting. His right hand waved. He was feeling a bit surreal right now, so the fact that he was cordially greeting an undead corpse didn't bother him in the least.

Exemplar, on the other hand, turned her head slightly to raise an eyebrow at Erick, specifically the left one.

Voyle led the group after Echo, but he saw movement in the woods and turned. Holding up a finger to silence the group he looked out to see a figure lurching through a small clearing. When Voyle got a better look he gasped.

"It's him! The sunlight revealed his true form, just like I said!"

Derkholm looked greatly surprised. "HUH?" The others looked at him and he looked sheepish."Um, nothing, nevermind." He mumbled to himself. "No way; I still don't buy it."

The group turned back towards the distant Jikon. Gyro chimed in.

"What's that it's dragging?"

Jack was astonished. "How hideous; that must be the tattered remains of his last victim!"

Derkholm looked at the other figure. "Um... It looks like it's still alive."

Voyle was horrified. "It must be infecting new victims as it goes! If we don't stop it soon it might have an entire ARMY under it's control!"

Derkholm tried to interject. "Um... that's not exactly what I mea-"

Voyle held up a figner to his helmet. "SHHH! We can't let it hear us. We have to sneak up on it so it can't use it's mind-rays..."

Derkholm sighed, but the whole thing was too amusing to stop.

The group saw Erick and Exemplar approaching and Volye readied himself.

"We have to stop him before he claims another victim! Prepare to charge on my mark..."

While Alex was laying down, Echo left him where he was to go towards the clearing where Jikon and the brain dead 5, along with Exemplar were. Minutes later, Alex looked to see Echo was gone and began to freak out. Following the trail of foot prints she left. Alex began to run quickly after her. Fearing every movement in the trees.

Jikon paused looking over at Erick. He raised a hand, waving to them. "Good morning," he said.

He waited politely for a few more seconds, on the off chance that they wished to continue the exchange.

Muteki's eyes flickered over to where the group of D-Ranked DaCre were hiding, having heard something, but wasn't interested enough to say or do anything about it.

Alex bumped into the back of Echo running wildy through the bushes, away from his own shadow. They both fumbled out, but to keep from falling, Echo took flight over Alex and he face planted into the grass. Echo then landed and looked a Jikon and Erick.

" Hey Zombie! Tamer! Over here, I think I may have found the rest of the group! I just can't bear to think of their suffering without my singing! "

Alex got up and dusted himself off. " There is saftey in numbers, we can't go around blindly till we find the others and can confront whatever's lying in wait for us. Al- "

Echo interrupted and turned around. " Salem is back this way, I think you may be able to feel his data signature, he's shooting it out like his life depends on it. "

"That's all of them; CHAAAAARGE!"

Voyle, Jack, Priscilla, and Gyro rushed out of the trees and rushed Jikon, Echo, and Erick, with Derkholm following lazily behind and whistling a tune.

"The corpse is their leader! Die foul beast!"

Voyle pulled from his robe a large piece of raw meat and threw it at Jikon's face.

Echo shook her head. Then pushed Alex out of the way. Aiming at the troop before they reached Jikon, she opened her mouth and screamed. The result was her super sonic wave bursting out at the group. The two dead guys, the Zombie and the mummy, were out of range on either side of the scream.

Jikon because Echo was avoidng hitting him. And the Mummy because the majority of the group was ahead of him running. And taking them out was more crucial.

In their D ranks, they would most likely be knocked out.

The scream tore leaves and dirt in the way from the ground and also flung it at the group of 4.

Echo would be rather surprised by Jikon's actions at this point. As she turned away from him, inhaling, and focusing on the enemy and focusing to create her attack, the zombie stepped smartly forward and drove his fist into her gut. Hard.

The bat would have the wind knocked out of her, and would be thrown back about five feet to the ground, the distance reduced by the wind drag of her wings. There were no broken bones, as Jikon had been holding back slightly, but Echo would definitely feel the blow for a while.

"You are quite annoying, you know?" he said, and raised a hand and caught the meat in it. He looked over to the DaCre.

"Oh, do you want to fight?" he said, and smiled, revealing a multitude of yellow, rotting teeth.

"Team?" Exemplar spoke, her sunglasses sliding slightly lower on her nose as she tilted her head slightly forward, allowing Jikon full view of her eyes to tell that she was indeed looking at him as she said this.

While the events and conversations had been happening, she had come somewhat closer, now only about seventeen feet away.

Her hands withdrew into her sleeves slightly. She also lowered her stance slightly as she spoke. She was ready to go, on her own if Jikon did not accept the team up, or with him if he decided to split the experience by teaming up.

Power: 2. She had also built up some power, in preparation for combat.

Voyle made a startled pose. "The steak didn't work! Resort to Plan B!"

Priscilla rolled her eye's. "NOW we use Plan B... typical."

"Quiet you."

Gyro whispered to Jack. "What exactly IS our Plan B?"

Jack whispered back. "I don't know... and I'm also wondering why when we planned these 4 came after C... Is that even legal?"

Voyle stomped his feet. "Of COURSE it is; because I said so! Now just DO it already!"

The group was now far too interested in the Plan's designations by now however.

Priscilla thought aloud. "After that came Q... and then 007... and then that weird thingy that was like a cancel sign."

Derkholm raised his hand. "That would be Theta. Which was followed by Pi, and then he named three different plans Ultimate Plan X before realizing he had and renaming the two as Operation Batman and Flaming Mummsie." Derkholm sighed. "By the way we're never doing that one again... I'm still discovering scorch marks..."

Jack looked sad; or as sad as a Jack'o Lantern could look. "Aww... can't I set you on fire just LITTLE bit?"

"No. Oh and..." Derkholm pointed at Jikon and the group seemed to remember why they were there.

voyle jumped and his helmet went off his head for a moment, revealing a cartoonish and cute deer beneath, before landing back on at a strange angle. "Waaah! Don't sneak up on us like that!" He regained some manner of composure. "I mean... be vanquished foul beast! Voltage Maxima!"

A purple lightning bolt shot out of Voyle's hand at straight towards Jikon. Then straight on into a tree. Then straight backwards towards Gyro. Then...

"Am I hitting him!? Am I hitting him!"

Priscilla flew out of the way as a bolt whizzed by close enough to make a few strans of hair frizz from the heat. "For crying out loud; fix your helmet BEFORE you start firing!"

Echo stood to her full height and faced Jikon. " Oh I see, I offer my help and you attack me eh? Okay then Zombie, now YOU'VE made ME mad. "

Alex simply stared on. He put it all together piece by piece. ~ Idiots think I was, am Jikon and that I am a zombie that controls people. Echo attacked idiots, Jikon suffers from mental illness and attacks Echo, is now turning to idiots. Cute lady offers to help Jikkon, cute lady is probably a DaCre, or has a gun, or bossibly both. ~

The Sword of the Nereid's wavered and then began to dissipate in a violent manner, blwoing a few holes in the ground as it did a mix of evaporating and splashing grounward. Salem staged down from the effort and Lallium caught him as he teetered backwards.

Salem was of the type that was quick to recover however, and after a moment he waved Lallium off in an "I'm fine" motion and walked over to the wolf.

"Okay new minion, I saved you from the big bad rope-face. Now it's time for you to stop napping and lead me to Yitur."

Lallium yawned. "Actually a nap sounds pretty god right about now. All that work really takes it out of you, ya know?"

"But you didn't DO any work!"

"Yeah... but watching it is tiring too."

"..."

"..."

"...zzzz"

"WAKE UP!"

"Huh!? I'm up I'm up!"

Salem sighed and turned back to the wolf. "Okay so before we do anything else, what's your name?"