Chapter 2: Welcome to Team Mär

The next morning team Mär got up and packed their things and started off. It was around that time when Alviss and Belle arrived. He didn't sleep the previous night so he was exhausted and he felt like he was about to fall over.

"Hey Alviss, what's up?" Ginta asked.

"You mind if I join you?" Alviss asked back sounding airy.

"What? Aren't you with-" Ginta began.

"I know." Alviss interrupted, "I just want to join so I can keep an eye on you."

"I don't think you need to worry about that, as long as Dorothy and I are here." Said Nanashi.

"Augh … Shut up." Dorothy growled.

"It's a mission." Stated Belle, Alviss looked over to her and she responded with a wink. "We were ordered by the cross guard to keep an eye on Ginta to make sure he doesn't turn traitor or something."

"And why would I do that?"

"You have Phantom's original ärm." She pointed out, then glared at Babbo. "We just want to make sure that Babbo doesn't tempt him or something."

"A gentleman like me? Why I'd never!" Babbo shouted. "If anything he'll tempt me into doing something stupid!"

"Hey!" Ginta shouted.

"Deny it all you want but in your heart you know it's true!" The ärm shouted back.

"I don't think this is helping Belle." Alviss muttered to his fairy companion.

"Relax I got this." She whispered back. She then turned to the rest of Team Mär. "Don't blame us for the Cross Guard's paranoia, we're just doing our job."

"Hey Ed. We might end up getting the seven 'dwarves' if Alviss joins." Snow whispered to Ed.

"You're right Princess." Agreed Ed.

"Well for whatever reason we could use the extra help." Snow stepped in, "We'd be glad to have you with us Alviss."

"Thank you." Said Alviss, the then shot a glare at Belle who shot back the same glare.

"Yeah that's great and all but should we get going?" Jack asked pointing to the road behind him.

"He's right." Said Nanashi taking out the map. "Let's get going, follow me." The group started walking, around that time the moon started showing images of teams fighting the Chess not too far away.

"Hey! Look up there!" Said Belle. They looked up and saw the fights, the non-cross guard parties seemed to be holding their own, even though they were just pawns. A person whose face couldn't be seen and wearing all black pinched a specific area on the neck causing the pawn to become limp. While the referee in the background called it then ran off. Then the moon switched to the image of a boy with tied back black hair some of it flipped over one eye wearing a grey jacket and black pants chocking a pawn to death with his scarf. Alviss noticed the scarf and squinted.

'Could it be?' He thought.

"Hm. Looks like the other parties are holding their own." Said Dorothy, "Let's get going." Suddenly they were jumped by seven pawns.

"Hmph, just pawns?" Sighed Alviss summoning a bo staff, "Pathetic."

"Hold on!" They head someone shout. A purple skin goblin like man walked up to them. "My name is Pozun, and I'll be the referee for your battle."

"Why do we need a ref?" Ginta questioned.

"To make sure that the rules are being followed." Pozun explained. "Now, everyone, get your weapons ready and … begin!" Everyone else summoned their weapons and quickly defeated the pawns.

"Team …" Pozun began.

"Mär." Ginta reminded.

"Thank you. Team Mär wins!" He announced.

"Well, that was too easy." Said Jack. The moon showed that other independent parties mowed down the pawns, most of the time without ärms.

"I know, we barely broke a sweat." Babbo gloated.

"You mean I barely broke a sweat you just served as my glove." Ginta muttered.

"What did you say?" The ball snapped.

"Nothing …"

"It's practically insulting." Muttered Alviss, looking up 'I mean I'm going off of virtually no sleep!' They continued to the next town around that time the moon switched to an image of the cross guard, pawns killing more than fifty percent of the members. While the ones that were still alive were mowing down pawns left and right, namely Gaira, Elizabeth, and Robert. Alviss groaned and shook his head, his former team being slaughtered by the Chess, Pawns, they're not even a threat in team Mär's eyes.

"Wow. This is just sad." Dorothy commented. "I thought most of the Cross Guard could at least put up a fight. This is just a massacre."

"I think most of them were recently recruited so I don't think they've had much training." Said Snow.

"That explains a lot." Nanashi muttered. "However the ones that aren't getting killed are doing very well."

"That's because they're veterans so of course they'll have the experience. Though, besides Gaira I'm not sure if they've maintained their skill." Said Alviss. Elizabeth hacked away at pawns left and right with her sword in some cases slicing them in half at the waist. Her face had a smirk across it as she slugged a pawn then stabbed it. Robert on the other hand was trying not to get hit and would often ask Elizabeth to keep the enemy away. She'd gladly oblige and used a wind nature ärm to blow them away, while Robert would focus his magical energy. When he'd manage to focus enough he'd take out an ärm and stab it into the ground then flames started rising from under the pawns burning them alive. Snow cringed while watching it. Alviss's eyes widened when he saw the ärm. There was another man who had a flail with him and would kill off pawns with one swing to the head. There were also men and women that were shooting pawns with arrows. Several other soldiers killed off pawns with either a sword, axe, or a nature ärm that strengthens their body. The surviving Cross Guard hacked away at the pawns until all of them were dead. They stood among the pawn graveyard with their bloodied weapons and uniforms. By then it was sun down and team Mär was setting up camp. When night came, Jack gave everyone some vegetables that he grew the previous night.

"You know I've been wondering, who's the leader for Team Mär?" Belle asked.

"It's Ginta." Said Alviss.

"How di-" Jack began.

"Through eliminating the possibilities." Alviss interrupted. "Alan is stuck in a dog making him unable to lead, no one here would let you lead."

"Hey!" Jack shouted.

"It's true." Nanashi muttered with a snicker under his breath.

"Plus I don't think Nanashi, Dorothy, and Snow would want to lead for whatever reason and I wasn't even here." Alviss continued.

"Ha ha nailed it." Snow laughed. "Though those aren't the only reasons."

"She's right." Said Ed. "We also chose Ginta for the fact that he came from another world just like Dana. We all know how powerful Dana became within the course of a few months, we're hoping that Ginta will become powerful enough to defeat Phantom this time."

"That's a bit much don't you think?" Babbo asked.

"I agree, these are high expectations for a child." Alviss responded. "It's a very risky gamble."

"Not any more risky than the gamble you took bringing Ginta here." Said Jack. Alviss growled a little.

"You have to admit, it's true." Belle muttered. "In any case I'm going to look around and get some herbs."

"Be careful and don't go too far." Alviss warned.

"Don't worry." She said flying off.

"By the way what do you think about all of this Ginta?" Jack questioned, he didn't get a response. "Ginta?" There was still no response he was curled up staring at the fire. "Is something wrong? You've been unusually quiet tonight."

"Uh … I have?" Said Ginta coming out of the daze.

"Yes, and you're being rude to Jack here, he asked you a question and you ignored him."

"I di- I mean I wasn't ignoring him I'm perfectly fine about all this. It's not like I'm bothered by the brutal killings on both sides." Ginta said quickly.

'Liar.' Dorothy and Snow thought.

"If you say so pal." Shrugged Jack, "You sure you're all right."

"I'm fine, there's no need to worry about me." Ginta replied.

Meanwhile in Lestava Castle the Chess Pieces, primarily the knights, were having a council over the day's battles.

"That's a pathetic display of our pawns!" One of the robbed knights complained. "We should just come in and kill them already!"

"Oh come now." Said a man in robes wearing a skull mask and a hood. "We have to give some of these children participating a fighting chance."

"You're too soft." Said Halloween, the man tied to a crucifix wearing a tomato looking mask. "We can't keep sending in pawns like this or it'll get boring."

"Why not send in rooks instead?" The skull mask man asked.

"To hell with it! I really want to fight those bastards!" Shouted the robbed knight with a pointy top.

"Patience is a virtue." Said the man who gave the announcement a few days ago, Peta. He then turned to their silver haired leader. "What do you think about this Phantom?"

"We'll send in the rooks and a few bishops and let's not come in until they've reached the second check point." Phantom ordered. "Does anyone have any complaints?" There was silence. "Good, starting tomorrow our enemies will be fighting the rooks.

Sorry this took a while, I had some university stuff to take care of. Hope you enjoyed it. And thanks for the current reviews. I've been trying to expand on Belle's role since there are a lot of people who complain about her.