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Joe cringe slightly inside. The Avatar was getting a little too close to the truth. Time to change subjects.
Joe dashed forward while Helmsborough was occupied with Siber, his sword still raised after its kinetic blast. Joe's energy formed itself into a blade of his own, solidifying just as Joe swung it in an arch up at Helmsborough's exposed ribs.
"But I love Twenty Question," Joe said. "How bout for the next question, you tell me your weaknesses, so we can beat you?"

Joe's arm went wide, so he skipped back out of range before his weakness was taken advantage of.
"Hoy water and absolute zero, I can believe. Napalm?" Joe tapped a finger against his chin in mock thought. "I think I've hit you with enough heat and flame to match napalm. Unless there's something in the chemical itself, that one's out. What is it aout silver that demons and stuff don't seem to like?" His lip quirked slightly. "Depleted uranium? That's a little...obscure. I'll keep it in mind."
He fired a quick trio of fireballs at Helmsborough. He launched himself forward, directly behind the obscuring fireballs. His sword was ready again.

"I did make the distinction of napalm on the skin. Keep in mind my entropic field defense," Helmsborough advised as he fired two sweeps of un-light, one at each of his opponents. While they didn't know quite what it would do to them, it seemed like something they wouldn't want to test.

"Also, keep in mind that napalm burns for at least ten minutes at twelve hundred degrees Celsius. You've peaked at fourteen hundred for two or so seconds at the strongest of your enraged blasts; right now you're averaging about five hundred degrees in your fireballs. Not enough to even warrant response."

Siber grinned as the two unblocked spheres of mana blasted into Helmsborough and sent him spinning towards his opponents, though Siber did have to jump to avoid the un-light, so the new placement wasn't all that helpful. He bowed from the air. "Maybe later, Sir Helmsborough. My time is done." To Joe, he said, "Agreed."
Centauri shot fire from his eyes and the lesser panda appeared again and rode along it, bringing Siber with him as the boy let his armor-dæmon fade away with a heart-felt thanks. The flame lasted long enough and quickly enough to bring him to a place he hoped was out of Helmsborough's range, and he sat back on a balcony with the raccoon-looking animal on his shoulders again, waiting for Joe to follow. Once he got there, they could raid the apartment building for a phone book, or a computer, or something.

Joe watched as Siber escaped. He prepared his own magic as well, but Sam/Gurul jumped in at the perfect time. Joe didn't know how to react; he had Sam had been raging enemies an hour ago. So, Joe launched a ball of healing energy right at him. It would heal whatever injuries he had and maintain enough power to cover him for a while.
Joe turned and ran into the city, homing in on Siber's energy. He glanced up and saw him, nodding, then ran into the building Siber was on. He had the same idea.

"Dude, you can't break into my apartment!"
"Well, I just did. What are you gonna do about it?"
"I'll probably act really indignant, ask you your reasoning, and insist you get out unless you give me some really amazing answer!"
"Well then go ahead and ask!"
"I think I will!"
"Do it! I dare you!"
"What the hell are you doing in my apartment?!"
"I need the address and phone number of a guy who's embodying a deity who's bent on killing me and a few other people and then possibly taking down a few cities while he's at it so I can take advantage of the psychological duress the deity's host is enduring due to the murder of his beautiful lover and force the deity to withdraw so that this plane of existence and the one we normally inhabit can disentangle from one another without too many more uproarious shenanigans. Oh, and why are you still in your apartment? I thought everyone was out engaging in mass panic?"
Finally calm, Siber looked around the place he was in. The typical apartment of a city journalist just out of college; three rooms, posters on the wall, paper everywhere, a computer, and random foodstuffs and clothes lying wherever they might want to go. The guy he was talking to was clean-cut and dressed comfortably, so Siber assumed he was taking advantage of the fact that very few businesses in L.A. were open at the moment and taking a break on his job. Even though he should have been getting video footage of the whole thing.
"I thought I'd be lazy today. Some giant thing or another flew in here a few hours ago and knocked itself out on the window, so I was spending that time seeing if I could help it out at all, and then it left." He shrugged. Then, he got a spark in his eye. "If we exchange phone numbers and names, and you promise me an exclusive interview about all this jazz, I'll hunt this guy down for you."
Siber pondered. Would he still be alive? "There's the small problem of whether or not I'll survive. If I do, I'll be glad to, but I don't want to make a bargain if I can't hold up my end."
"Eh, you don't seem like the type just to lay down and die; I trust you."
"Works for me."
His name was Anthony Teller, Siber learned, and it took him all of five minutes to get Helmsborough's address and phone number.
"Dude, you look like you've had it rough," Anthony told him as he was about to go. "Not to sound overly creepy and/or stalker-ish, but do you want a change of clothes? I'm in favor of killing any evil deity, too, so if you need a pocket knife, or anything, I mean, go ahead. If my life hinges on your success, take what you need."
*gasp* a refill? "I... couldn't."
"I saw you grin. Go ahead; my clothes and stuff are over there."
Ten minutes later, Siber was again in his customary jacket, jeans, and shirt, even they weren't actually his customary anything. And they were fully loaded.
He sent out the floating eye dæmon to get Joe, then jumped down from the building with the Rusalka's begrudging aid to meet him.
"I've got the information. Let's go... thataway." He headed off in the direction of Helmsborough's home.

Joe had just entered the building when he felt the final anchor break. He quickly fumbled for a pouch at his belt and withdrew something: a clear glass ball.
Hurrying, Joe forced all of his power to manifest one last time, before Crossover vanished completely. He flared white, then pushed all of his power into his mana cell. It took all of the light from his body, gleaming brightly in his hand.
Joe sighed with relief, putting the mana cell away as Crossover vanished.

Joe nodded tiredly as Siber's demon flapped down. They exchanged words and Joe set off after Siber.
Upon their arrival, Joe learned what Siber had learned and sat down. "Here's how I see it," he said, looking up at Siber. "We can either go for reinforcements, which means that storming the location of Helmsborough's weakness will be that much easier. Oh wait, did I tell you about that? The reason we're searching for Helmsborough's old house is that he told me I'd find the way to free him from his Avatar-ness there. But the point is, if we go for backup, the enemy will have time to find out that Helmsborough did in fact contact me mentally. With help from the others, we might be able to break through, or we could do it ourselves before the enemy has time to prepare."
Joe stood and stretched. "I'll let you think it over. I'm gonna go change; these clothes smell like Crossover."
He emerged a few minutes later wearing a turtleneck and jeans. He wore a tie that hung loosely from his neck and a track jacket that was open. "I always did like the looks that came out of Japan," he said with a grin. "What have you decided? I'll follow whatever you choose."