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[Joe: Atlantis: Outside Throne Room]

He had nailed her on his second pass, spinning out of his vortex dash with a spin kick upward, knocking the archer up in the air. His message from Kyla got through, and Joe immediately drove his hand into his pocket and pulled out the paper, activating the magic.

Crystal-like wings sprouted from his back, and Joe, still in the cover of the ink, asked Bobbi one simple question.

Do you believe in fairies?

And the male took off, upward into the air with his wings giving him the gift of flight. He caught Artemis and drove her upward with him, breaking through the ink dome and higher and higher and-who the hell was going on here and why was going on what?

He took a moment before throwing Artemis down towards the ground with all his strength, but then he hovered here, watching...the battlefield was covered in earth and ice and fire and wind...and that poisonous looking fog that his wind barrier was pretty much keeping away from him. And that wave of...coldness. Was it Kyle? Was he the cause of that dread? Was it...something felt off to him. Was it...

No...Ultima....

What had happened in that cocoon? And how badly was he going to have to tear through these f*ckers?

"KYLE!" Joe couldn't help it, he yelled out the name from the sky, watching the opening cocoon. Waiting for some...some kind of recognition.

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

Do you believe in fairies?

:Last I checked, why?:

Out of the corner of her eye, Bobbi saw something shoot out of the dome of inky darkness in the middle of the field where the eruption of uber-darkness had come from. That something then proceeded to slam another something as hard as it could into the ground. She was pretty sure the flying something was Joe, considering his question and the glowing faerie wings she could see.

And then something else swept the field, sending a hand of ice trailing down Bobbi's back as her gaze rooted to the Obsidian Lily. Somehow she just couldn't tear her eyes away.

"Oh please god no," Bobbi whispered as her shoulders sagged and her knees threatened to buckle again.

[Nick :: Atlantis :: Outside Throne Room]

Once again, Nick found himself to be the butt monkey of this altercation. She had enraged him, made him lose focus, coffee table flipped him, and now, brought him down with a brutal leg lock around his neck. He let out a small gasp in shock, and could only feel his face flushing crimson with an odd combination of embarrassment and rage. He was tired of being the fool, the loser, the useless buffoon who was more of a joke than a monster. He would show them, oh yes. He would begin to royally screw with ALL OF THEM.

The girl interrupted his crazy train of thought by trying to bring her leg down onto him with a brutal ax kick. He made his move, tightly gripping her leg with both hands. This would be the first victim on his path of destruction, the Avatar of Chaos mused, as he began to crush her lower calf between his hands. Noelle let out a grunt of pain, her other leg going lax for just a moment. Nick sprung into action, sliding out from the leg lock and climbing to his feet while keeping his grip tight on her leg. With a loud growl, he hoisted her up and flipped her right side up before placing his right hand over her heart and his left near her neck. Wind magic flared from his hand, the aeromancer making sure that the girl could feel the magic approaching her throat. He arched his head and gave the archer a glance.

"Make a move, I dare you~"

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

Bobbi's head whipped around to stare at Nick when she heard his voice. The scene didn't even register before she was reacting. She had an arrow drawn and ready before it sank in that he was using Noelle as a meat shield. Stalemate.

Dammit.

She'd seen this in way too many movies. Bad guy has the friend/partner/significant other/etc in his grip as a meat shield, just like Nick has Noelle, and the hero doesn't shoot because he or she doesn't want to hurt the hostage. Bobbi had always thought the hero was an idiot for hesitating; supposedly said hero is the best shot in the world, just aim for the f*cker's head already. Now she was in that position, and suddenly she understood.

I'm not fast enough to shoot him, and he's a wind user, my arrows won't make any difference. I could hit him with a spire, but I'd probably wind up hitting Noelle. If I could get something behind him to stab him in the back, that'd be perfect, but I don't have any spells I can do that with, and if I use a projectile his wind will still protect him. Dammit dammit dammit!

She was biting her lip so hard it was bleeding, her eyes flicking back and forth as she tried to think what she could do.

:Any chance of you breaking out of that hold he's got on you?: she asked Noelle over the charms. If they could coordinate, maybe Noelle could get out and Bobbi would get to shoot the b*****d in the face. Or ram a spire up his a**, she wasn't sure which she wanted to do more. :I can't do anything to hit him while he has you like that. Not and risk hitting you at the same time.:

[Nick :: Atlantis :: Outside Throne Room]

"Tsk, tsk, my dear~ Razor sharp winds can be very dangerous, you know! Just ask Jeffery!" Nick whispered softly, pointing to the head he had been holding earlier. "Although I don't know if his name is actually Jeffery or not. I've been calling him that for a while and he didn't say anything, so I assumed that I got his name right. He actually might have said something, but he had his mouth full of blood at the time, and I was raised that you don't talk with your mouth full. But, I digress."

Within Nick's heart, Chaos made a quiet coughing sound to get his host's attention. Mortal, I believe you are in the perfect position to place my seal upon this girl. She will become your puppet and your will shall be her command.

...Interesting proposal. Help me place the seal on on her, however, leave it inactive for now. And be subtle about it. I am bored and want to play a new game. She shall be the unfortunate test subject for my fun~

Nick pushed his palm down tighter onto his human shield's chest, feeling the dark energy carefully and quickly flow from his fingertips and forming Chaos' seal upon Noelle. No one would be able to see the seal upon its completion, and no one would be able to tell Nick had really done anything other than pull his shield closer to avoid being shot.

[Alice :: Atlantis :: Outside Throne Room]

Alice watched in mild amusement as Matthew made a start for her, intending to close the distance as water spewed forth from his mouth. Did he just expect her to stand there and take the hit? So she gave a slight smile before vanishing from Matthew's vision altogether.

"Boo~" whispered Alice as she reappeared beside the blue mage. The Venomancer then leaned in (taking the small stings of damage that his barrier inflicted); so that her mouth was only inches away from his neck. Then with a sly look in her eyes, she planted a soft kiss on his skin, leaving a vibrant green mark upon his skin. Alice smiled before finally releasing a wave of energy, intended to send Mathy flying away from her.

The mark would've burned upon contact, but the pain wasn't what Alice was aiming for. Should the poison from her kiss take effect, it would slowly drain the blue mage's physical strength.

[Joe: Atlantis: Outside Throne Room]

Well...no response, which didn't entirely surprise Joe. Sure as hell made him worry, though. Still, he had other things to worry about.

Everyone seemed to be engaged, though, except Artemis, but he wasn't planning on diving back into that darkness dome. So that just left him with a 'what to do' feeling. Cause going after anyone could mean he was going to strike an ally. But...there was that miasma....

Joe, hovering, started waving his hands around, making winds to push and pull the miasma. It wasn't quite that fast of a job, but it was getting rid of it, regardless. And the sooner he cleared the field, the sooner they wouldn't have to worry about it.