The World Asunder

[Neosquid]

Pumice rolled around in some leaves and took a gulp of soda while laying upside down. He glanced at the computer screen, and proceeded to spit out a little soda by accident. The Grey Reapers had arrived. Well, two of them, at least. Pumice immediately got up and packed up all his gear. He hovered low to the ground and made a bit more distance between himself and the Police Grounds, and then proceeded to take off.

It didn't take him long to arrive at the Violet Hand Inn. He landed in an nearby alley, and after checking that the coast was clear, darted into the Inn. He saw Vanquo and Swolinn there. There was some bartender too, he had an eyepatch on.

"'bout time you guys sh--Ah, hello again, Vanquo! And you too, Swolinn." said Pumice, with a fake grin on his face. He didn't like socializing with people in person. He flew over to one of the tables and sat down on it. "Now, guys, isn't there a...third one? Do you think they'll show up soon or can we just start?"

 

[Pichu2k7]

The airship landed at the airport without any issues, Karigen had snooped around enough to know where all the good hiding spots were in case something went downhill or if he just didn't want to be talked to by the rough members on board. He was resting under one of the stairwells by the crew quarters on deck when it landed at the Avalon. The crew all left without an issue and the pilot went to refuel. Karigen had a small conversation with the pilot, the pilot telling Karigen the ins and outs of flying an airship and how it was the main joy in his life. After awhile they said their farewells and Karigen left the pilot to his duties. He had kept him away from them for long enough.

As Karigen was leaving however he seen a tall and slim person deliver an electrically charged punch to the pilot, killing him. His heart stopped and he froze in place. The man never noticed him as he entered the ship. He entered a full sprint out of the airport, scared to death of what would happen to him if he was caught. He ran as fast as he could, he didn't know where he was running too but he didn't care, away from that...thing...he wasn't a person.

After Karigen had run out of energy and thought he was far enough from the mysterious man with the electrical powers, he leaned his back against a wall, he had no idea where the hell he was. He slid down the wall and was eventually curled up into a small ball. His feet close to his body, knees up, hands on knees and head down. He let out a small sob.

Nothing goes my way, ever. Why am I such a coward? I-I bet I could've taken him! What am I thinking? Electricity? I'd get fried like the pilot...damn it!

He punched the floor, still curled up like a ball. "****!" He yelled as he retracted his hand, punching concrete bricks probably wasn't the best idea but he needed to let out steam. He let out a groan as he dragged himself back up. There has to be something he can do. He looked around and seen a heavily guarded park entrance.

"Must be where the resistance is..." He muttered to himself, he walked up the metal fencing and looked around. Not a lot of guards. He fumbled himself over the fence as if he was climbing, the rattling caused a nearby guard to notice.

"You there! Stop! This is a restricted area!" He yelled at the Kapshen. Unfortunately for him Karigen was already over the fence and stuck up the middle finger to the guard before running off into the crowds to try and make himself scarce. He kept his eye back on the guard that has spotted him and had probably reported his presence in the park. Since he wasn't a rebel he'd be apprehended if he was found.

A sudden force knocked Karigen off his feet and onto his back, he hadn't been watching where he was going. He looked up to see a black haired girl roughly the same size as him in an orange coat that was unzipped that ended in black bands with a white and black stripped shirt underneath and an orange knee length skirt with black flower designs on it. He rubbed the back of his head nervously as if he had caused a scene and what's worse was that he was a Kapshen and he was the one who had fallen over.

"Sorry..." He quietly let out as he looked down at the concrete tiling before feeling a sharp pain in his leg came back.

No! Not now! The guards!

 

[Lennox]

"Hey, tell it to fuсking Rakni the Bear King here, not me," said Kai "I'm just trying to -- no? Sorry, politics joke -- I'm just trying to say that yeah this is a problem; it ain't a problem enough that I'm'a suddenly march over there and turn me and mine over to the Kingdom Guard."

 

[Neosquid]

Citri wasn't sure who had ran into her. She looked around for a moment, shrugged, and almost walked off before an unknown voice muttered "sorry". She looked down to see a small male Kapshen laying in front of her.

"Oh, sir, I'm so sorry! Can I give you a hand?" said Citri, reaching down in an effort to help him up. It was then that the realization sunk in. "....huh? A....KAPSHEN? KILL IT, KILL IT, KILL IT, KILL IT!" she screamed, attracting the attention of people nearby her. She slapped him across the face with the hand she originally intended to help him up with, sending the poor Kapshen flying about 10 feet backwards.

She walked over to him and picked him up by the neck. "Got anything to say for yourself before I send you off to lizard hell, Mr. Kapshen?" she asked. "We get like really mad when your kind comes here."

 

[Pichu2k7]

Karigen was hurting all over, he wasn't sure what had just happened but all he knew was that face hurt like hell and he wasn't going anywhere fast with his leg that bad. Next thing he knew he was dangling in the air with the girl he just bumped into looking relatively angry.

"Uhh..." He simply let out. Now wasn't the time to get into a brawl, he had guards on him and now everyone knew where he was.

"Listen! I'm sorry I bumped into you okay?! As for what I am, I can't control that so can you put me down so we can talk things through? I'm in enough crap as it is!" He yelled back slightly frustratedly, not only had her screaming drawn in everyone's attention but there was a small ring around them and not any of them looked happy at all that a Kapshen had snuck into the park. He was an outsider here but what else could he do? His pilot was dead, the airship hijacked by some crazy man with electrical powers and now this. He didn't know what was worse, the fact he was in trouble or the fact he was looking at being homeless after this mess was sorted out. If he could sort it out.

 

[Neosquid]

Citri hissed in the Kapshen's face, and threw him to the ground. "You LIAR. I know a Kapshen when I see one. They're all scaley, and icky, and...and bleh! Kapshen are bad. All of them." said Citri. All her previous Kapshen encounters were with ruthless brutes, aka most of the race. "Let's just get this over with please....I'm all stressed out because of this job I have to pull off, okay? So, just let me exterminate you quickly." Citri pulled a steel rod out of a jacket pocket. Holding it horizontally with her right hand, a giant red axe made entirely of seithr energy materialized on the end of it.

 

[Pichu2k7]

"Woah woah woah!" Karigen yelped, he was startled by the sudden outburst of violence, ending his life? What? He became extremely nervous over one action, he was a complete wimp and there was no way he was escaping this one.

"T-This job of yours. I could help you with it!" He quickly spluttered out.

"There isn't much hope for me as it is, just give me a chance! I've had a lot of trouble but I don't want to die! Please!" He said, he was practically scared to death after the sight of that axe, he was slightly panicking and he breathing so fast he was at risk of hyperventilating.

Calm down man, just calm down. It'll all be okay, you can't have bad streaks like this all the time can you? He took some deep breaths to calm himself down, didn't help with his fear but his breathing returned to normal and he was still shaking.

"Okay, okay. Let me repeat myself, I'm scared as **** alright? I don't want to die and I'm in a complete mess as it is. How about if I help you, you can help me a bit? It's nothing vile or anything." He began to say, he looked pathetic and probably sounded pathetic too.

"I just wanna go home..." He quietly muttered to himself making it inaudible to everyone except himself. He already missed that two room apartment in Lokasen, at least people knew him there and he wouldn't be threatened for being a Kapshen even if the guards gave him a hard time. It was still better then this.

 

[Neosquid]

Citri's face went from angry to confused in a second. Did this Kapshen really mean to help her? She found the concept unusual, but...

Citri vaporized the axe. "Alright." she said. She smiled a bit, but she was still rather concerned. "I'll believe you for now. But know that I'll have my fist through your skull if you act out of line." She gave the Kapshen a rather awkwardly timed enthusiastic-girl-face.

While helping the Kapshen to his feet, she looked around. She had attracted a lot of attention.

"Um...hey, everyone! Just a big misunderstanding, is all...you...you see...." Citri thought for a moment. "My friend here, uh, Kevin, is just in a cute little cosplay here. He's not actually a dragon. I mean Kapshen. I mean, come on, what kind of Kapshen is this puny?" She held up the Kapshen boy by the wrist for the crowd to see.

Most of the people watching turned around and walked away, some because they believed that the boy was actually in cosplay, and some because they didn't want to pick a fight with the horrifying axe girl. There were some that lingered, but not too many.

"Alright, Kevin. Now how about I explain to you my job now, k?" she smiled and patted the Kapshen on the back, apparently forgetting that "Kevin" was a name she had merely made up for the lizard boy.

 

[Pichu2k7]

After being let down, Karigen let out a sigh of relief. He felt incredibly lucky he lived through that.

Maybe I should become a writer and write stories about how lame my life is...What the hell am I thinking? Pull yourself together man! He thought himself as the girl talked the crowd away from him.

"Alright, Kevin. Now how about I explain to you my job now, k?" She said with a smile as she patted him on the back.

"Yeah...sure..." He said glumly as he was still a little under pressure. Secretly enjoying the new found and rather friendly appearance of his past soon to be executioner. He quickly pulled up his trouser leg to check his sore leg which was bothering him after his fall. It was now bleeding, it must've been bashed and grazed against the concrete when he fell.

"Ugh..." He let out as he dropped it back down hoping nobody noticed it. "Thanks for getting rid of the crowd and not brutally killing me by the way. Also, my name isn't Kevin although you're slightly close. I'm Karigen." He said, before trying to let out a smile which failed, he just had so much on his mind. The giant splinter, leaving home, working for a man that probably doesn't care about his life, the death of the airship pilot for the trading ship and now this near death encounter. He didn't want to apologize again, it just wasn't in his nature but he didn't want her to feel sorry for him. He was just frightened as he seemed to go from one awful predicament to the next.

Well he was now stuck with this weird hyper active girl that could kill him without any real effort if he made a mistake or acted aggressive in any way. Might as well just get used to it.

"Anyway, yeah. What's this job you're doing?" He asked, hoping to get the troubles off his mind that he had continuously failed to do despite all of his past attempts. It was time to focus on the present and put that mess behind him. This was Avalon, he could start fresh here, nobody knew him or anything so it was the perfect opportunity.

 

[Neosquid]

Citri smiled again. "Nice to meet you, Kevin! I'm Citri." she said. Her smile faded when she remembered the boy's race. She couldn't trust him, but still, he did seem different. "Here's the scoop. I work for the Kingdom Guard, and I need to steal a mask from a dude named Kai Fishtank. I have zero clue who he is, and I ain't any idea where he is, either. Quite an issue, huh, Kevin?" She put on an exaggerated frown.

"How do you think you can help me? I need the mask within the next...uh..." she started mumbling. "Twenty...no, thirty...or is it maybe forty? Bah. Soon."

 

[Pichu2k7]

Karigen began to think and ignored the fact she called him Kevin again.

"Stealing something from Kai Fishwash eh? He doesn't seem too bright, I could probably snag it from him without being noticed but neither of us know where he is, although I know what he looks like since he was that dude on the TV a little bit back before I left Lokasen." He said, confident in his abilities as a small time thief. Kai wouldn't see it coming or leaving for that matter.

"Well anyway we should probably start looking for him." Karigen said as he limped off in a random direction before limping back again with an embarrassed look on his face.

"I...don't know where I'm going so I'm just gonna shadow you for awhile if that's okay?" He said scratching the back of his head looking down at the floor. "I'll describe him as we're going just in case you don't know what he looks like or anything." He said before waiting to see what Citri would do next, she was an...interesting person if not a rather scary one.

 

[Lennox]

"Hey Harkaras, did that guy just climb over the wall then get beat up by that random other girl?"

"Looks that way."

"Huh. Mind throwing them both out?"

"My pleasure."

"Wait a minute, didn't Reia say she fortified the walls with energy shields and electrification fields?"

"Yes she did."

"Reia! Reia?" Kai glanced frantically around the park, but Reia Lars was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh," said Kai. "Shιt."

Suddenly what seemed like hundreds of Kingdom Guard troops in riot armor vaulted over the walls of Haven Park from every direction, all armed with assault rifles. There was at least one every few yards around the perimeter of the park.

"Freeze!" yelled one of the Guardsmen through a megaphone "By authority of his majesty the king everyone present here is duly under arrest! Everybody on the ground! Anybody moves and we will open fire!"

 

[Hoboturtle]

He sadly didn't get to enjoy a molekabob as the spirits in their own words said “wait, are you planning on eating a guy? No just no.” He didn't quite know what that meant, but they were infinitely wiser than he. Well, maybe not infinitely wiser, he was pretty smart. A smart cookie. A smart fortune cookie. He couldn't eat the guy and he couldn't leave that guy here so it was for that reason that he decided to carry him along.

“Oops” Ulrich said as Tal head smashed against another rock.

Drag, he decided to drag him along.

He breathed in and out, wheezing as he let go of Tal's leg. Was he out of here yet, he felt like his lungs were dying. He must've been carrying this guy for like a mile.

It was like ten feet away.

There had to be an easier way in doing this. Well, hadn't made a thing in about 5 hours. Time to give it ago. Metal claws shot out of his backpack, shooting out hot seithr. He picked up some stone and pushed it it in melting and shaping it.Sparks through in a couple of directions and a light shot through the cave. What came as a result of all this was two stone bangles.

“Power Bangles, I'm about to have the strength of two La Marchs.”

He slid them on and rubbed his hand together, shaking out the soreness they felt before. He bent down and lifted for a bout a second, “Okay, okay, this is still really heavy.”

Double the strength of a really weak person and you will still have a weak person.

 

[Hoboturtle]

The cloud were pierced as a large mass sailed through them. This aircraft, painted in royal purple and crimson, had a body that looked like it was welded between two zeppelins. With black glass windows that separated the two floors worth of inside passengers from the harsh winds outside. There were Gatling guns that darted left and right like a watchdog as the vehicle soared through the sky. On top was a strange platform,similar to one which would hold a dinner event, a foolish notion for the dangerous atmosphere. Someone must of not have realize this as a hatch opened up in the middle and a tall woman walked up from a set of stairs, before muttering “Set it.”

The platform glowed a light yellow color and instead of being pushed from the wind, the woman stepped as she would normally. This aircraft, the California, named after one of the 49 known dragons. was commissioned originally as a cruise ship for the powerful. The small seithr engine built internally powered a gravity field, allowing guest to enjoy the air without worrying about safety. This was the reason that she had bought it for this occasion.Not the party, but for the gravity field. She wanted this fight to be on equal ground. There was no fun in just shredding the thing with guns.

“The thing, in this case being what was rumored to be a dragon. Another reason to get this ship, the name was fitting for it's purpose of hunting the beast. She could lick her lips in anticipation, it's blood will be spilled.

Down in the captain's booth, one soldier turned to another before muttering “You think this is for real? A dragon?”

A other shrugged, “Wouldn't stop this woman. Damn, I hate Hilda duty. Pretty sure it's just one step up from a babysitting mission.”

“Babysitting doesn't end with your charge running head first into danger”

“Don't know, I met some really suicidal five year olds when I was a kid”

“Hey, whats that?” A third solider hailed the other two towards the screens.

The first soldier looked down and muttered, “Dunno, but I think this might be what we're were looking for”

The clouds were pierced. This time by a large black winged body. Which spun around the California, before slamming on top of it. It's front claws on the platform, it''s hind legs dangling from the front of the ship.

Hilda smile faded as she looked at the monster.

On the tip of it's neck was a large eyeball and nothing else. It looked at Hilda, twisting it's neck around, looking at her form each angle, before leaping back and spreading it's wings, revealing it's stomach which held a demonic face which looked melted into the torso and breathed out black smoke.

“Not a dragon” the duchess stated bitterly.

True the shape was close to what a dragon was said to look like, but it wasn't a dragon and she wouldn't be able to convince herself otherwise. How disappointing.

Well, it was a pretty big splinter, she guessed. She might as well kill the thing.

Y'know, since she was there.

The black beast opened it's mouth revealing a strangle blue tongue that shot out on the platform,causing Hilda to cart wheel to the left.

The tongue crystallized and broke off on impact. The crystal cracked and exploded and by that time the monster opened it mouth again and had already grew a new one. The monster drove downwards out of sight before shooting back up on the opposite side of the ship, slamming down onto where Hilda just was moments before.

Her woman dashed before, bringing up her blade, a rapier just as the faux dragon clawed at her. Sparks flew as the bone meant metal. She batted away the other claw of the monster and soon a back and forth began. The fight between woman and monster seemed like a short fencing match.

Gritting her teeth she flipped back,“better then I have you credit, but,” she faded her speech before shouting, “Moutu.” The blade of the rapier shot forward piercing the 'neck' of the creature. “Cassiopeia.” Her ring glowed and a great white ball of light appeared between her and the monster.

Grinning, she commended the sword back, hoping to drag the eyeball to it's destruction.

The splinter, stood up once again revealing the face of a demon which shot it's tongue forward at the energy ball. The two energies collided and exploded. Creating a shockwave that knocked Hilda back, freeing the monster which took to the air once more. Metz rolled back before picking herself up and she scanned around her with her eyes.

From behind the clouds shot another crystallized tongue which exploded against the helm of the ship.

The soldiers below panicked.

One from before shouting through the speakers of the ship, “We have contact, shoot that thing down, it's hitting us hard”. Footsteps could be heard all throughout the ship as they scattered to the Gatling and cannons.

“Damn it” she roared, they were going to ruin her fun.

And as it seemed, the gun fire distracted the monster which flung it self off in order to dodge the metal that beat against its body.

It circled around the ship before moving in front one of the guns which it clawed at, tearing it and the wall it was attached to clear off, sending metal flying down,pass the clouds to the earth below. The women that was behind the gun screamed as the monster lifted it's torso meeting it's face to the woman's before opening it's mouth revealing that same blue tongue with a strange blue liquid that splattered out.

“I'm not done with you quite yet”,at least that is what Hilda wanted to say, it came out more like a scream when she came off the platform and jumped down onto the dragon, stabbing her weapon into it to guide her to it. She grabbed on and brought her knuckle to it's back, meeting the fresh of the monster to her black familiar which shot out a ball which burned its skin.

The solider on board moved back clawing around her for anything. Anything that could help. She picked up a shotgun and aimed it at the monster's general direction and it was only luck that cause her to shoot one of it's eyes on it's torso,causing it to let go.

Hilda made another ball and a few more,constantly burning into it's flesh as it ascended into the sky above the ship, turning and twisting, trying to get her off. She flipped in the air of her own strength and changed the sword into a board sword which in one slash, cleaved a wing of the monster, which tried to stay in the air before falling down until it was out of view.

The duchess change her sword back to its rapier form and stuck to the side of the ship, breathing heavily before crashing down onto the platform. She laughed. It was the best.This feeling was the best. She needed to do this again, really really soon. Too bad that rumors about dragons haunting the sky was an almost nonexistent occurrence.

There were other rumors however, other news she could look at. Which one should she look at next. Maybe the news in Avalon. A rebellion. Pitiful, complaining about a small splinter infestation, however there was a rumor that sparked off of that. Of the rebel leader, Mr Fishwash. Apparently he was a relative to a miss Samna Fishwash in Miriel, a member of it's council.

She didn't understand why Miriel could be meddling in Avalon's affairs, for any reason that wasn't malicious. Hilda Metz giggled, her next adventure already in mind.

If Miriel was planning a war, for example with Avalon. She had to have the first slice of that conflict. It would delicious.

 

[Lennox]

Everybody within Kai's line of sight dropped to the ground, many shouting in panic. A few stragglers stayed standing but were shouted down by the encroaching Guardsmen. Kai put his hands on his head and squatted.