Welcome to Gaia! ::

((I will be posting tomorrow night. I was going to wait for a few more people to post, but seeing as that is not happening I really need to move this forward.))

((A'ight kiddies. Bit overdue here, but I've been reaaally busy with school this week. I have a joint presentation on tuesday. Blech.))

When everything comes crashing down..

As the last specs of Bikou's existence faded out on the wind, and the hilltop once again faded into the still silence that once pervaded everything in sight, a single mournful toll sounded out across the landscape, long and drolling, echoing on the wind like the reverberation of a giant brass bell. For a brief moment, it seemed as if it was over, completely, and fully over. Bikou was gone, and the tall man with him. True, they had both left a large scar on the landscape in the form of a black seal, and yes, they had sealed a shinigami within that scar. But what was one shinigami in the long run? If a war had broken out, more lives than just one would probably have been lost, and having one person lose their powers, perhaps not even permanently, would not be the end of anyone's world.
All such musings were cut short abruptly, as one of the inky masses of shadow began to move. It was a strange movement, not unlike the movement of a serpent or a cloud, which is a rather odd combination. The mass undulated and expanded, merging with the other masses of shadows until the entirety of the inky liquid had formed into a single black sphere that hovered over the center pillar, humming lightly in the moonlight.
Just as quickly as it had formed, the sphere fell, splashing onto the seal with a loud splat, and reshaping itself into a pool of inky blackness, which still swirled and danced about as if it were boiling.
It was then that perhaps the most disturbing thing of all happened. elongated shapes, each about the same size and general mass of a full grown man, or woman, depending on which way you looked at them. Each shape stepped out of the pool, and walked very slowly, faces turned forward, to each of the thirteen outer pillars. Once all thirteen of those shapes had stopped moving, two others stepped out of the blackness, and placed their inky hands on the center pillar. At once, the pool vanished, slipping away into nothingness with a light 'pop', which was followed by a static pulse of sound, which echoed out from each of the thirteen figures, and from the fourteenth, but not the fifteenth.
And now, instead of fourteen shadow figures standing before the gathered crowd, those looking on would be staring into the faces of the thirteen captains of the Gotei. Except these captains were different somehow. Their faces were pale, like hewn marble, and their eyes were black as darkest midnight. No matter the garb of the true captains, each of their counterparts wore black robes, smooth and flowing, with a long haori made entirely of shadows.
Above each of those captains, a disc of black energy formed, which let out a long pealing howl, like the sound of wind moving through a canyon. As the final disc formed, four of the captains sprang to life, turning their jet-black eyes towards Soul Society, and vanishing, along with their discs, in a flash of black light. At least, three of them did.
The shadow versions of Yamoto, Michiko, and Bullene all vanished, with light traces of shadowy reiatsu pinpointing them towards their designated squads. But the shadow version of Fefnir remained, stoic and almost unmoving, with his black eyes piercing the dim light, staring straight into the eyes of his counterpart. Slowly, his right arm raised, pointing a pale finger at the red captain.
"You will die now, red-captain. You and all your friends." With a burst of rolling shadows, the black-tinged Fefnir roared to life, pushing off the ground with his left foot, and launching himself in the air, moving towards Fefnir's location with a look of stoic resolution on his pale face.

...And the shadow's roar to life

Big Brother is watching you.

Ryan wondered how the hell any arrancar ever thought they could get away with, well...anything. At least here. It was as if they thought he was blind and stupid -- the mere presence of such reiatsu had set alarms screaming up and down in the Sandtable, and it didn't take too much effort to look at the screens and see what obviously were meant to be clones of some sort -- black clones, at that.

Then there was the matter of preparation. Spending as much time as he had thinking up defense systems, contingencies, escape plans, attack plans and the like, he had of course accounted for the possibility of some sort of "Dark Ryan" or "Dark Fefnir" or "Dark" version of any other officer. It was thus that on the appearance of "Dark Fefnir", Ryan had picked up his pistol and gone into one of the many closets around the Sandtable to get at one of his contingency plans.

Or, in this case, contingency weapon. It didn't take much to think of something that a clone wouldn't have, especially when he'd started delving into video games as a method of exploring possibilities that he hadn't thought of. In this case, it was a challenge that looked harder than it really was -- an opponent with the same equipment as you only better strength, reaction time, et cetera...really no different from a video game situation where you have to fight an AI-controlled version of yourself with inhuman intellectual and reflexive capability.

Ryan walked slowly, keeping the clone between him and Fefnir. He didn't need his position given away. Not now. Three steps, two...close enough. His sword was away, his pistol was holstered and his rifle was safe in his office. All that was in his hands was a hammer.

A big hammer.

A very big hammer.

No...a megaton hammer.

As Ryan raised it high, a film quote he'd noticed during his long hours of research came to mind, and as he brought the hammer back down he uttered his first words to anyone in what must have been nearly a month:

"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."