Plot Thread 2.2: Footfalls Revisted (THE TRUTH)

[Andy Jammer]

Behind the large door was a long bridge in a room with a very large hole, in the middle was a single stand and a golden orb on it.

"That's it?" Andy asked, not in disappointment but in curiosity. "That's what Duo wants...?"

Suddenly he heard moving footsteps and when he moved behind him he gasped, the person from the wedding, the one with bandages on their face, stuck Andy on the chest with his palm and sent him flying into the room.

"AHHHH!" Andy yelled as he flew backwards and smacked into the stand, he groaned and tried to stand up...when he felt a blade slide into his stomach.

"Guh..." Andy gasped and saw the large blade protruding from his stomach, the bandaged attacker holding the handle of the blade, his other hand grabbing for the orb. Andy shot his hand out and his hand grabbed the orb just as it was about to touch the bandaged person's fingers....and a bright light shot from the chamber...

...the bandaged figure was blasted back and out of the room, skidding back the light faded and Andy was lying against the stand, sword protruding from his stomach, orb in his hand.

[glitters]

"Andy?! Andy!!"

Jasmine wasn't even sure how she was supposed to do this. She rested a hand on Andy's body trying to stabilize him with healing spells while she worked on pulling the blade out of him.

"One of you get in here!" she shouted at the others, quite demanding for someone who was normally so patient, "watch this orb thing in case they come back--s-someone go see if you can stop them!"

Her hands shook as she tended to Andy, it wasn't an easy fix. She worked on trying to patch the wounds as quickly as possible, though he'd be losing a lot of blood. She dug through her bag and worked on throwing ointments on him and pouring potions down his throat.

"Andy...Andy, please say something..."

[Dios Sarvo]

Don't worry, I'll take good care of this little number," Dios remarked as he shifted out of the shadows nearby Jasmine, grasping his fingers around the luminescent orb that sat in Andy's hand. Clasping the lustrous sphere in his hand, he examined it before giving it almost a careless toss into his shadow below, giving a sluggish wave of his hand as if to say "goodbye" as it sunk into the rippling blackness and out of sight.

"Don't worry, I'll play nice and give it back when it's due," Dios quipped with a snide smirk. It had all worked out rather well, honestly. Dios still didn't trust Andy all the way; too many coincidences for his liking, and having this little number in his possession would provide a nice bit of leverage for when the next Q and A session begun. Besides, where could such a thing be safer? Unless this Duo character could breach planes, then there was really no safer place. It was alleviating in a sense, and with yet another possible problem out of the way, Dios was all do ready to divert his attention to other areas, namely, their new aggressor.

Dios flicked his daggers out of his pockets with a smooth flourish, stepping in front of Jasmine, turning back to comment quickly with a tone equal parts cocksure arrogance and blatant sarcasm.

"Just sit back and worry about our "virtuous leader". I'm sure we can handle this one."

Still in contact with his early summon, Ouroboros, Dios pointed a finger at the bandaged figure, calling forth several metallic chain-like serpents, each of the beasts heads darting to the bandaged assailer with their jowls wide and teeth bared.

"I'll play support, just don't get in my line of vision," Dios called with a dead-seroius tone, hoping his "teammates" would heed his advice, lest they wished to feel the sting of his summons by mistake.

[glitters]

It took everything Jasmine had in her to keep her lip shut hearing Dios's attitude towards Andy. She told the boys to help, not demean Andy while he was down and out.

So help them, if Andy died on her right now...who was she kidding? If Andy died here, she'd need Dios and The Other.
Wait, no she didn't. She didn't need any of them!

Her heart pounded loudly in her ears and she realized her panicking was getting worse every second as she let her thoughts get carried away.

'Andy! Andy's your first priority. Worry about him, everything else comes next...'

[Andy Jammer]

Dios may have taken the the orb...but it already did his effect. A gold like energy had marked itself on Andy and the boy felt himself dragged...in his mind...he was standing among floating debris...he knew naught where he was...but where he should be.

"You...you carry Kain's spirit..."

Andy's eyes widened and he looked around, trying to figure out what exactly had happened. Nothing yielded him any answers...no shapes...just a voice.

"But you also carry Duo's spirit...similar waves of justice and great power...you interest me."

Andy found himself face to face with someone in a cloak.

"Let me award you. I look forward to see how you use it."

Andy felt power spike inside his body and that power wave surged through him and connected to Jasmine's healing ability, enhancing it and allowing the wound to be fixed quicker...on that same moment a mark where Andy's hand opened - not burned into the skin, but had a faint gold outline.

"Holy shi-" Andy gasped as he awoke, looking around, "what is...?"


The bandaged person, the Siren, stared at his new opponents. After a quick glance at Dios and those monsters he ran a finger up his arm and a sheen of light appeared, what effect this had was yet to be seen, instead the Siren swung his sword and three fast moving crescent waves arced out to them.

[The Other]

"Really? A ball and a single mortal? This is beyond disappointing. I suppose we at least we got a light show out of it." The Other turned his eyes towards the bandaged figure, strolling towards the stranger with a saunter. "Do please try not to die too quickly, little ugly mortal. I'd like at least one interesting thing to happen before I leave this place."

Reaching the doorway that The Siren had been flung out of The Other cocked back his fist and punched through a chuck of the threshold, breaking it off the wall and sending a giant hunk of ice and stone as large as he was hurtling towards his target.

[glitters]

"Don't move so fast!" Jasmine spoke sharply to Andy, grabbing his shoulders and trying (hilariously) to push him back to rest, "give it a moment to..."

She looked over his wounds then and her jaw dropped. Her potions and spells were quick, but they weren't this quick. For a moment she actually thought she might lose Andy.

"...how...do you feel? Just be careful, I don't want you getting dizzy on me," she asked cautiously, noting his wounds already had fully patched up.

[Monthu]

Monthu was positioned in front of Jasmine and Andy, his bow nocked, drawn and tracking targets. Whatever was happening to Andy, Monthu really didn't want to know... It was clearly some kind of magical mumbo-jumbo stuff that he wouldn't understand. What he did understand was that Jasmine was trying to heal him, or rather, get him to sit still, and that whilst that was happening, there was always the possibility that someone else or something else could jump them.

So he did what he did best. He stayed in his current position and provided an overwatch, keeping an eye on their surroundings and preparing to but a very sharp arrow into anything he didn't like the look of.

[The Siren]

The Siren pulled a large sword from its sheath in swung down, the blade cut through the ice and debris like butter - slicing it down the middle and it split apart. The light from the Siren's arm expanded around its body, it didn't look like a barrier against physical attacks, but it was for something.

He stabbed the sword into the ground and three prisms of white light surrounded the Other, but did nothing yet, it was waiting for something. Instead it ran for Monthu, Jasmine, and Andy, large sword dragging on the ground.

"Jasmine!" He yelled, catching attention to the Siren heading to them. Grabbing his sword and trying to force himself to stand up. "Move!"

[glitters]

"Yeep!" Jasmine yelped as she shot her hands out in front of her automatically, a magical barrier forming itself between the Siren and their group. She wasn't sure if it was even going to work or not but it had become a habit of hers, and she leaped to her feet anyway.

[Andy Jammer]

Andy was barely able to push himself to his feet, moving past Jasmine's barrier and swinging his sword he blocked the Siren's sword strike and held blades against him for a moment. He pushed the Siren back for a moment, the two of them swinging their massive swords at each other - clanging and sending sparks in the air.

"Hadoken!" he yelled, channeling the energy through his sword and using a blue fireball to blast the Siren back. The light on its arm then flashed blue, and as he was skidding back he slammed his fist on the ground and a sea of blue fire spread out - creating a river of high energy potent flames (hot enough to damage Other if he tried to run through it), there were some spots where the party could jump over the flames and use the safe spots to get across.

When the Siren made its little trap it began firing small energy balls from its strangely glowing hand at the party.

[The Other]

"Hoho! The mortal has moxie!" The Other announced with a hint of jubilation. With the prisms of energy appearing he gave pause, shifting his head back and forth with a hint of hesitation before giving a little "hurumph" and throwing his hands up in the air as three monstrous one-eyed heads burst from his torso. Orcish in appearance their jowls slavered and hung low as they bit down on the prismatic energy, swallowing it whole before erupting in a fatal scream as each head burst apart.

"Oh my, looks like they didn't like your cooking boy." The Other knelt down and thrust his hands into the ground below as the wall of fire roared fiercely in front of him. "Maybe the heat you use is too high, see for yourself!" Beneath the rock solid floor his hands melted into an ooze of flesh that burrowed beyond himself till it reached right under the wall of flame. Grunting for a moment his arms wrenched the hunk of earth up and forward, hurtling the massive segment at Andy and the Siren.

Soaking up the Siren's projectiles the flaming segment of floor broke into smaller fragments that haphazardly flew at both parties, and from behind The Other grinned at his cleverness before thrusting his arms forward, now a pair of spindly limbs capped with needle sharp claws that lunge through his attack and out at the Siren's torso.

[Andy Jammer]

The Siren and Andy continued their fight, pausing in the middle to cut up Other's throwing projectile, leaping on the pieces as they moved. Their blades clashed and colided, some of the fragments from the Other's attack caused the Siren go off balance long enough for Andy to land a blow. The tentacles though, well, thats when the strange light sheen on the Siren's arm showed itself: it flashed once and the shadowy tentacles redirected away from him.

The light sheen seemed to prevent any, and only, shadow based attacks from hitting him. Andy met the Siren blow to blow before , but not got in an edge. Until mid-combo Andy decided to try something...risky, he concentrated his mind to it and the scythe he obtained earlier formed and caught the Siren off guard: allowing Andy to get the edge over him.

For a moment anyway, Andy's scythe expertise was nil, so the Siren quickly was able to turn the tide and get into a blade lock with him. As Andy pushed against him for a moment he could see between the slits in the bandage his opponents eyes widen a bit.

"...Andy?"

Andy blinked, hesitation took him and the Siren too, for a moment they stood there quiet until the Siren pushed him back and made his way out of the temple.

"He's getting away!"

[Kato Shin]

"Hey, lady," I said from where I'd been guarding the doorway, "might be time for us to step in, huh?"

I could feel it welling up, burning inside me. My heart seized a moment, but I couldn't let it stop me. Memories of my dad's words, harsh and hateful, and the hot, searing pain in my left eye rose in the back of my mind, but my dad wasn't here, I was my own person. I was still afraid. But I couldn't let that stop us from stopping Duo - and that meant doing what I had to.

Fire wreathed my hand, a sick feeling knotting in the pit of my stomach as I released control, propelling it away from me in a large gout of flame towards the bandaged figure as I saw footprints in the dust and snow run around to cut it off from the other side, a dagger slicing out towards it as Bast made her move.

[Zhen Anguo]

"CHYAAAAA! WE'RE UP!"

'Guo side-stepped into the door way, clutching his huge halberd, blocking the way with it before sending a slash forwards, releasing a pure arc of snowy white energy towards their opponent. 'Guo stood there triumphantly as he felt Kerrian responding positively to his use of energy. He wasn't as strong as usual, thanks to being away from Vuoto, but thanks to his ability to absorb excess mana, and the fact that he was in such a magically saturated place, he seemed to be doing fine.

"You wanna' face me?! Bring it on! Chya! Chya! Chya!"