Welcome to Gaia! ::

[Nick :: Atlantis :: Outside Throne Room]

Nick grinned at his clone as his gambit succeeded. "I could only wish everyone else was successful as I am, for I am simply the best there is." He muttered to himself before watching his clone take a spear to the chest. The clone fell immediately, uttering a simple "fu-" before vanishing into nothing. The Dark Knight's eyes widened as the earth seemed to shift and small rock pillars sprouted from the ground, slamming Nick and knocking him backwards. He groaned, not so much from the pain, but the sudden surprise of the attack.

Even more reinforcements!? Are you kidding me!? Who do I have to kill to get a freakin' break around here? He mentally screamed, looking up to see a girl in green staring angrily at him. His shock turned to amusement as he made his way back towards his sword as fast as he could.

Well, well, well, what have we here? If it isn't blondie, everyone's favorite girl who I thought broke down in Tortuga! Well, looks like I get to have even more fun~

[Alice :: Atlantis :: Outside the Throne Room]

Joe might have barreled through the dragon, but the giant beast stayed afloat above the battlefield. Slowly, the pieces mended themselves, fixing the gaping hole that Joe had created in its chest. It reared its head and roared soundlessly, as poisonous fumes continued to spew from his mouth. He wheeled around and dived towards the ground; taking no heed at the fast approaching floor. Upon impact, he exploded, debris flying out like bullets but even worse was the miasma that was now working its way on covering the battlefield.

Alice shrouded herself, twisting the space so that she appeared invisible to the naked eye. She teleported behind Matthew, striking the mage with her poisoned nails and wrapping herself in a toxic mist.

She then teleported a short distance away, conjuring up spheres of poison to revolve around her.

"Seems to me like you're lacking a partner~" The poison princess smiled slyly as she hugged her stuffed bunny closer to her chest. "Care to dance with me?"

[ Ajora ; Kida ; King : Atlantis : Throne Room ]

.:Are you quite through wasting time?:.

Oh, shut your mouth, do you realize how difficult it is juggling all these hot irons?

Ajora finally opened his eyes, having been in a state of silent meditation for a few minutes, the Trident's glow slowly fading. He had used it to ensure that things outside went off without a hitch, such as charging his copies with excess magic and keeping the massive spell weave around Kyle from unraveling at any particular point. Now, though, everything was in motion--all that was needed was time for the momentum to build.

Meanwhile--

Without so much as a word, Ajora pointed the Trident at Kida and pulled her clear from the protective barrier--and her father's grasp--and held her afloat in front of him. Reaching into a small, hand-sized Corridor, he pulled out a small, golden circlet: a Slave Crown. Though she grunted in protest against the Trident's magic, it all came to a stop the moment the crown was slipped upon her head.

"Time to take the Heart of Atlantis, then."

---

"Oh? Pardon me, but between Kyla and the others, who was it that threw the first blow, precisely?" Ajora's voice called in return to Louis, his amusement as clear as his "friend's" sarcasm; as if it wasn't clear enough, he laughed. "Not my 'guard dogs', as you call them. And who was foolish enough to let his host even think starting such a constest would end without, how you say, ruin and/or death? Though, perhaps I give you too little credit--your ideal goal is death, anyway, right? So bravo, sir, bravo."

((I'm not dead, I swear!))

{Bobbi .:. Atlantis .:. Outside Throne Room}

Bobbi had shut her eyes as tightly as possible the second Noelle's sled went into motion. It hadn't helped the one time she'd been on a roller coaster, but it was better than seeing the imminent death heading her way at high velocity.

"Hang tight, Bobbi, you won't die I promise," she heard Noelle say over the rush of the wind.

"Good to know," the archer quipped, trying to sound as cheery as if this was nothing more exiting than a Sunday drive. Her voice breaking at the end ruined the illusion, though. And, of course, the little squeak of surprise when she was snatched off the sled by the vines and deposited on the ground. Her knees wouldn't hold, so she crouched, and forced herself to open her eyes. The world spun for a moment, but she took in the scene before her.

~:I think now would be a good time to start shooting, child.:~

Give me a minute, okay?!

It took Bobbi a few seconds to discover her knees weren't going to hold, so she just remained in her crouch as she summoned Taulmaril and set arrow to string. After a moment of concentration, the arrow began to glow with the Hailstorm spell, and she loosed, aiming for the first target she saw, the contortionist-archer attacking Joe. Less than a heartbeat later, a second Hailstorm arrow was in flight, headed for Ajora and Nick.

She spared a moment to watch Noelle's earthen dome sink underground, supposedly with Kyle and Kyla inside. Slight movement in the earth showed the dome heading her way.

And then all hell broke loose.

It almost didn't register, mostly because she'd been paying more attention to the people than the surroundings. But the dark twisters coalesced into one at a point in front of her, followed shortly by darkness and what looked like Kyle in the midst of it. No, two Kyles, but one wearing… oh god dammit, that was Ajora.

Her reflexes were really improving. She was on her feet and had three arrows in the air aimed for that second Ajora before she even realized she was moving. Pity they all missed.

She knew there was nothing she could do. Not from here. She heard Noelle scream to heal Kyla, but the only spell Bobbi had would be useless with wounds that severe. And Kyla, that silly pictomancer, was right freaking there and apparently getting all emotional at the thing encasing Kyle. All Bobbi could do was watch. Wait. And she was not a patient person.

"F*ck it. I'm blowing this place up. Shiva, halp?"

~:You have only to ask.:~

:"Prepare to dodge sh*t as if your life depended on it. I have no idea if friendly fire is on, and I'm blowing sh*t sky high,": the Archer sent over the charms, hoping everyone had communications open enough to hear.

Once again, Bobbi knelt, this time placing her palms flat against the ground. She felt Shiva's magic coursing through her, and unleashed the biggest Ice Barrage she could manage. As the spires of ice erupted all around, she concentrated as hard as she could to direct them. Several erupted under Artemis, Alice, and the Obsidian Lily, while others that slipped outside of her control simply shot up haphazardly. It was all she could do to keep the spikes from impaling her friends, but a few were likely to explode near enough that dodging was necessary. Still, she made sure to force the spires away from Kyla, and instead tried aiming them at the base of the Lily, when they weren't trying to impale the mobile enemies.

"Dammit, Kyle, I swear to God if you don't bust out of that thing in the next five minutes I'm breaking the hell out of it and dragging it home and if I find out you've given in to any of this stupid bullsh*t going on I'm going to give you such a SPANKING."

[[Louis : ??? : Inside a Crystal w/ Ajora#(how many is that now?)]]

"Death is but a means to the goal... a means I don't wish to invoke on my hosts... I cannot keep my hosts complacent for their own good while keeping them from their own desires of violence, even if I tell them otherwise. I realize that taking this mode of action sets us up to undoubtedly clash but it's an action I must take. I've done my best to prevent having to oppose you directly as undoubtedly your plans are another face of the coin on which we both sit... but continue to step in my way and I'll be forced to turn the entirety of my power on you regardless of my better wishes. And don't smirk and take that lightly, the trident won't protect you forever."



[[??? : Atlantis : Inside Bobbi]]

As the girl sat on her hands and knees, surging power into the stone floor causing eruptions of ice across the battlefield, there was a shift. The shadow cast by Bobbi's body before her face became excessively dark. In the back of her mind, a voice echoed, "You're running out of time..."

[[Louis : ??? : Inside a Crystal w/ Ajora#(let's say 2)]]

"Specter, huh... not a bad description, entitled, not so much. I can't let you have ALL the pieces. Wouldn't be much of a chess game if all I had was a king and a few pawns," the presence faded some before returning with a slight laugh, "Not to get too off topic, but I thought I'd say, despite my goals being against it and the fuzziness of my memories in regards to that situation, his pain brings me a certain level of satisfaction. Joe's stubbornness and outright blind prejudice has been a thorn in my side since day one. So, for that, I should probably thank you while I still have the chance. In a few minutes I might be fighting you, but that's just how this game works after all. It's nothing personal."

"Anyway... that said and while I have your attention," Louis sighed, "I'll be blunt, and excuse me for this rant but... I honestly don't understand why you're here in the first place. All this for the Heart of Atlantis? Immortality? Free from growing old? Power to control the guardians of the city? I mean, I can sort of understand why you'd want it... but what good does any of that do for you right at this moment? It won't make you invulnerable... you could still be killed... and as it stands, even if those pathetic idiots could actually pull themselves together to fight you, THAT would be the greatest threat to your life... not aging. And while the rest of your conversation with Kyla was very intriguing, that show there at the end... I know you're one for theatrics... but you never struck me as one for flexing your muscles like that. What's really the point of all this? You can't seriously expect me to believe that your hope is to unite these fools against you and become some unholy messiah to foil the darkness. I'm aware how powerful they... it... is... we've both encountered them and it's pointless to fight it... it's not something you can fight... it simply is. Hell, if I'm correct in my assumptions, they are what both of us draw our power from... well... half of yours. At least if you were going to fight them you aught to have went after something a little more... helpful. At least I tried to do something meaningful for securing positions at the present... of course... those plans were surprisingly ruined despite all my preparation and contingency efforts... and now here I am."

An audible deep breath, though one wasn't actually necessarily, "What I'm trying to say is... I don't see why the Heart of Atlantis is this important. You're drawing too much attention to yourself for something so insignificant."

{Bobbi .:. Atlantis .:. Outside Throne Room (aka "The Fustercluck")}

"You're running out of time..."

Oh god, more voices in my head. Wonderful.

"Ya think?!" Bobbi growled, letting Ice Barrage die off a little so she could focus the spires more accurately. She didn't like that dome the contortionist-archer made, so she focused most of the spires there while still trying to crack the obsidian egg Kyle was in.