Welcome to Gaia! ::

The spirit warrior couldn't help but finally give in to a faint smile of her own as she shook his hand a bit tentatively. It was a strange custom in these lands, but she felt like she finally understood it. Shaking his hand felt almost reassuring and firm, like a promise. It was probably how most handshakes were meant to be. Perhaps this would be something she brought back home.

She knew she wouldn't be too much use with just her bow and arrow, and Maiara didn't give any thought to trying to fight a beast of this magnitude as an arctic fox. She would barely scratch the surface, merely running about like an annoying fly. Her healing abilities would definitely be of use out here for a quick mend here and there, but the only power she would have that could have a possibility of helping greatly would be her spiritual connection. Delving into that separate world, however, was very risky in an environment like this, but if Troa stuck around to protect her body in this world, she might be able to whip something up with the spirits. For now though, she wanted to see what Troa could do, and the other students seemed to be handling the metal monster, so she would act more as support for now. Not to mention she had no idea where redhead and purple fox man went. No matter. "Let see what you do then." Maiara said, almost challenging him in a way to show off his power. Heading off in the direction of the metal monster, she carried her bow in hand out of habit even though she knew it would not pierce the metallic skin of the strange being.

(wait, what...? im confuzzled eek what iron beast...you attacking the tank or my thingies??? 0_0)

ignoring everything around her, Vera found a very hard and very pointy stick next to her. silent despite the limp, she managed to tickle the end of a tail in just such a way as it twitched. standing on it away from the spikes, Vera was launched up and she flipped and spun in midair. blood spattering out from her tired and torn body from how tight she was, she immediately fell back down to slam the stick in the eye of the beast that looked up. bellowing, it threw its head, slamming Vera back towards the tank right after it shot the round. bouncing off of the dying one's armored neck it exploded right into the face of the second unharmed beast and sent shrapnel through it's nose and eyes. both bellowing, they made such an enormous din that pretty much that half of the area shook like an earthquake as their legs spasmed and stomped all over the place.

Vera had slammed right in front of the limited view space and rolled to rest on the forward part of the tank right after she passed the missile. gathering some of the intense heat she felt around her, she was able to push back the darkness that threatened to sink her into black unconsciousness. she didn't know the heat was being given off by the tank or that it would creak from the quick temperature change. rolling over onto her back, she panted as all her wounds made themselves known, the warm metal underneath her comfortable as its heat was passed through her body and into her inner, and currently extremely bare, storage for energy of the magical sort. getting a few good gulps in, she sent some of the energy along to Greator though their link, feeling extremely guilty for having drained him. then she also got hit by some shrapnel, and took heat around from everything, resulting in ice forming around her. the small amount of shrapnel she caught wasn't quite fatal, but nonetheless her body was so stressed she started coughing up blood

feeling slightly better, Greator eeped and gave Aurora a strange look before shaking his wings open. she would be able to see a bunch of the minor cuts close and heal, though the larger ones stayed, some oozing purple-dark-green ichor that was his blood. wincing and hissing as he felt wounds and tears in his wings, Greator chirped something at Ryuu who just gave the impertinant wyvern a "duh, of course" look as the small lizard walked quickly over to Vera. soon he was running with a weird up-down motion of his front and back and a limp, hissing and spewing small flames at the tank in displeasure since he had NO idea what the hell it was either. scrabbling against the metal and showering sparks as he missed the first jump, Greator managed to get up next to Vera and lay against her, panting and drooling all over the tank. small hisses of steam went up as they learned his acidic saliva COULD indeed melt metal...

regardless, the two beasts were still thrashing and twitching, the spines in their tails oozing neurovenom toxin all over the place as well as flinging drool. a big glob of it hit on the tank above Vera, and she painfully moved her head over to stare wide-eyed at it. standing shakily up, Greator hissed at the glob as it trailed down the tank towards the view slot. then he flamed it, and it made a great WHOOSH as it almost practically exploded. surprised, the wyvern rolled backwards into Vera, knocking her over the edge of the tank "F*** IT ALL TO HELL AND SATAN'S NINE TESTICULAR TOES, THAT F****** HURT GREATOR" she exclaimed in a bellow that could almost rival the beasts. Greator eeped and flew upwards, having received enough energy from the fire he just, well, basically ate to heal his wings. zooming around the paralyzed beast, he looked nervous "dammit, it's still alive....s**t. well, at least it won't move..." she muttered, looking at the ruined bodies of the other two who were turning into slag. looking green Vera turned to the tank and scowled "if you're gonna f*****g kill me get the damn s**t over with all ready, i f*****g hurt all over, my broken bones have broken bones you Jerakkneldst....!!" she shouted at the tank with an irritable and pissed-looking scowl "go ahead, i can't F*****G MOVE because of a freaking broken LEG!! that YOU GAVE ME" she finished, spitting at the tank and looking at Greator, her point made

(i tried not to cuss TOO much XD and crimson, what were you fighting?? lol)

((Sorry, I was just kinda goin off of the "metal monster" that Minty said in her post, and this pic that I remembered on page 5. I actually never got around to reading everything, between work and stuff. Sorry sweatdrop uh... I'll let you pick which one, and go from there if that's alright? For the record too, not blaming Minty for my confusion >.< sweatdrop ))

John Running-Bear pulled himself. He had to carry messages to and from the battle and his speed came in handy. “I’m here to report that the students are getting a little tired.” He told the Vice Principal. They couldn’t keep fighting like this. There had to be someone pulling the strings in this game of cat and mouse. Claire Bonaventura was the next teacher to report in. “I can’t find Lillie. She is the only student missing in action. In addition some of the witches are having trouble to the east with a band of five fighters. They look just like the Sunderson family.” The woman commented. At this Len raised his eyebrows. He nearly had to use Crave to stop himself from falling over.
The Vice Principal’s heart beat with a fast paste. This was what he feared. They were after Lillie again. What troubled him most was that five people who had met at one time or another was now in trouble. The man turned to his best friend and brother-in-law. Abby was Crave’s only child. Both men were a lost without their girls. “What else did you see Claire. Let me see what is in your crystal ball.” The Wizard asked. He needed to keep his head cool, but slowly the strings of his emotion were coming apart.
Claire rubbed her hand over the ball and spoke as she looked over. “It seems they were given a potion. The label says ‘alter idem’. It’s Latin to change.” The Banshee informed her boss. She had to use the Latin that came from her family to answer what it meant. Len knew what it could have been. If only he had Lillie to confirm what it was. She would know for sure. “I think that they have been changed into a darker form."
He turned to his wife who stood on the sidelines with him their young son in her hands. “Ren what is the best way to help them when a potion is used to turn them darker?” He asked his wife. “They need to be pulled from the dark with love. It has to be someone who they love dearly. It would be best to have one person for each of them.” The potions teacher answered. Len turned back to Crave. “Manaril and you are lovers so I’m going to give you command of whatever small army we put together.” He told his friend. He gave his friend a smile. “I’m going to need you to tell me about who I could ask to go with you. Tell everything you know.” The man requested.
Crave nodded and thought about what he had heard from Manaril. “Well Abby likes his college freshman. I think his name is Hayaki or something like. She said that he was born in Japan and is a citizen of there.” The teacher answered. Len turned trying to think of the exchanged students they had at the school. “Haikimaru Taninaka.” He answered figuring it out. “Amy had a child with Lloyd maybe both of them can get him out of it.” Len commented remembering that tidbit.
Most of the human teachers stayed back on the side lines. They weren’t fighters and would just get in the way. However they carried on them a heap of guns on them for a little protection. One stepped out. “Hey teach. Ray is getting married to Emma Graham called out the girl’s own." godfather told. “I think her dad and granny are good buds.” The German teacher added putting the missing pieces together. “Would you call them?” Len asked the blond haired blue eyed man. The German nodded and pulled out his phone.
“Claire get Haikimaru and Amy with her daughter.” The Vice principal said getting a plan together, If they could just have those loved ones snap the Sundersons out it would help greatly. He would have figure a way to find where Lillie was. That would be harder. It was easy to tell that they were after Len, but they wanted him dead and dying was something he couldn’t just do. It would leave his family and friends wide open to be attacked later.
Len had sent those he found out into the battle field. As fast as he could, the real goal was for dark Sundersons to be kept at bay long enough. It was lucky he could keep an eye on it from his front door. Haikimaru even had his own cheering squad. His boyfriend and girlfriend came along. Haikmaru had to dodge a couple of times. Preventing him from being it while saying such kind words to Abby. It seemed that even if the young man was not picky in his partners he truly cared for each of them. The college student soon got the girl in a hug as he rubbed her body.
At that point Len once Len saw her returning to normal he had to look away. Emma had a different plan in mind when she had to calm her fiancée down. She wore a short pink mini skirt with a tube top that didn’t cover her belly and had tackled him into submission. It was easy to tell who was the dominate partner in that relationship. She was even yelling and screaming at him that he was an idiot and if he didn’t snap out of it soon she wouldn’t marry him and also poison because he was as good as dead to her. Emma was truly a scary woman.
Amy was different. She more like held her daughter a safe distance from Lloyd while he fought off his dark side. Even adding a few cheers of encouragement to get him going and fighting. Even going so far as saying “Come on Lyndis lets cheer for daddy.” The young mother said as she clapped the infant’s hands together. “Daddy, daddy” proving that each person had a different way of getting their loved one to snap back to normal.
Crave wasn’t much different from Haiki’s. The teacher had grabbed Manaril and held her. It was different because there was no one who was standing a cheering for him. He was more in the corner with his lover and stroking her hair and whispering her over groping like Haiki was doing. Crave must have taking his gentle nature from his older sister. Again Len thought of his wife. If it wasn’t for the man in front of him then they wouldn’t have met.
Nothing was happening with Cici or Manaril. Something was up. Why was nothing coming close to freeing them from the spell. What did the other three have that the Mother and grandmother didn’t? It hit him. Emma was Ray’s fiancée, Lloyd was still partly in love with Amelia, and Abby was in love with Haiki. They were all destined to probably marry each other or stay together. Cici and Manaril had lost their husbands long ago.
There was something Ren notice in her husband as he watched. It was his eyes. The glasses only hid part of his eyes, but when they glow bright orange there had to be something up. They weren’t the chocolate eyes that she had fallen in love with. It was black magic. The man’s eyes glowed as he shot Manaril through the chest and then made a spin to kill Cici. The man had to close off his heart from his mind and let the heart take control.
The woman adjusted her baby boy in her hands. She was going to help her husband control the dark magic. She knew that she could only show her support, but it would help him a little to know that she was there for him. “Look its Lillie.” A student called out. The woman turned her head to see her step daughter.
It was fast to see that right away that something was wrong. She didn’t respond to things like normal. Yuri wasn’t too and now students were dead. It couldn’t have been emotional trauma. Len turned to his daughter once he heard her named called out. His eyes were glowing still. He moved his arms out to give her a hug and make sure she was okay. Ren had a right to worried as her special student plunged a dagger into her father’s chest. Len’s glowing eyes turned back into brown.
“Len.” The woman called out in shock. She was pushed back by John as he got between Lillie and Ren. He had to make sure that there wasn’t going to be another attack. Mizuki was able to grab the dagger away and force Lillie down in several swift moments. “Lillie snap out of it.” The dance teacher called out as Ren finally was allowed access to her husband. “Len, Len, you better pull through again.” The woman told the man as he breathing became shallow. The tears burst from her eyes. She didn’t want to see her husband die so soon after getting married to him.
John went to the other side as he looked at the wound. None of his ancient magic could help put his friend and boss back together. “Mizuki what is going on?” The real Lillie said finally snapping out of the spell. Ren turned her head in time for Lillie to see the bloody dagger. “Who’s blood is that.” She asked. Mizuki got up and pulled the girl up. Lillie’s eyes went to the hole in her father’s chest. “Did I?” The girl asked as she collapsed to her knees. Mizuki was shaking as she covered Lillie’s eyes with her body. The mermaid was shaking badly.
Crave went to his sister to comfort her. Abby too had seen the whole thing and was hugging Haikimaru as she started to cry. Ren in all her wisdom of potions couldn’t do anything and looking at John it was hopeless too.
“By the light of the silver moon may the powers of the great Warlock Reed come into me the headmaster and help this poor soul.” Ginny said as she floated above the man. “Please save him.” She called out to her powers as a golden ball of light shot from her hand into the man’s chest. Once the light was gone the group could see Len’s chest. He wasn’t breathing. Then slowly his chest rose again. The Fairy grabbed on her VP’s hand and teleported. She knew there was no time. Yet in Ren’s heart she kind of thought it was really hopeless and her husband was going to die.
Ren was shocked they were gone. Where did that fairy girl take her husband? John and Claire looked around. “Do you feel that? They’re retreating.” The Banshee commented to the music teacher. “Yes.” Commented John, he felt it as well.

※The Gang Is All Here...

From the forest, Yuri emerged near the school, a slight limp in his step. Several cuts and scrapes ran along his body, but nothing too serious on the outside. The encounter with the giant creature had resulted in him being struck hard by a swinging limb, sending him into a tree and knocking him unconcious, his right arm jarred harshly out of it's socket from the impact. Now that he regained conciousness and was heading back to the school, his arm swung lifelessly yet painfully at his side. He had become completely disoriented, unsure of what exactly happened or even what time had passed, all he could really think about was what was going on with everyone else. When he was close enough, he could see a large group of people gathered in one location. "What's going on?" He thought as he slowly came closer.

Yuri's ears picked up the mumbling easily, he didn't know who this man was, but even with all that had been happening, the comment about Lillie pushed him the wrong way. With his good arm, he unsheated a sword and pointed it at the man. "Lillie is no 'mutt'...and if you even think of hurting her..." He said, his arm shaking very slightly. Even though the cuts were not deep, there had still been a fair amount of blood lost in the attack.