Heya! I've finally returned with a new chapter of Persona! I went on a mild hiatus because I ended up hitting writer's block for 2 weeks, and plus some personal issues came about. But alas, I'm stop this rant and give you a new chapter!
It had been roughly a week since the last Dark World (AN: Current name, but is still up in the air) exploration, and the group had partaking in careful exploration of it. The group was still reletively new to the concept of Persona, and the summoning process itself. But the world had been quite peaceful, until something was disturbing Logan. "Huh.." He thought, and gave a shout to Hannah. "Heyo, might wanna give the Dark World a check, something seems up." The message had stated. Hannah was just freshly awake when she had recieved it. "Alright, should we gather the group after school?" She replied back. "No better time.. stupid school. I'll do some recon when I get in." Logan had sent back. "Ok, cool, see ya then." They both let themselves get ready. Altough Logan had decided to walk to school instead and swung by the clearing, with nothing of importance except the Velvet Room. "So what the hells up then..?" He pondered to himself. He couldn't see what was bothering him so much. But he had to figure out afterwards. When he got to school, he took a little swing downstairs for a minute, to notice that two of his friends, Amy and Claire, were MIA, which was rather unnormal. "But wait, I thought time didn't pass while we were in there." He muttered to himself. "What's wrong with you?" He heard, and ignored, a voice from afar, and scuttled back upstairs to homeroom. "Anything?" He heard his friend's calming voice upon entering. "Not much, but Amy and Claire are absent." He said. "...Strange, it's rare for them not to show." Matt entered the conversation. "That's what I'm worried about.." Logan looked backwards, with a slight depressed look on his face. "Are we checking after school?" Matt asked rather vaguely to everyone around them. "Indeed we are." Hannah said, and the group nodded and they started up classes.
"..Ugghh." Logan groaned after school, being worn down by the constant workload. "Hey, at least it's still early, so it aint too bad yet." Mac, who joined up with them on the way, stated. "She has a point." Matt stated with agreement. "So what's happening today anyway?" Mac asked. "I noticed, altough it may be minor, an abscence of Amy and Claire today." Logan reexplained for Mac, who had missed the conversation earlier. "So we going in?" Matt asked. "I'm not complete curiosity, but if they are, supposedly only Persona users can enter in, and time just stopped, so what could have happened?" Logan asked the group. "Well.." Hannah began. "If I may butt in, wind kind of forced us in last time out, right?" Mac asked, to agreement of the others. "There must be some kind of external source elsewhere that brought them in, but the question is, what could it have been?" Hannah said. The group pondered as they found the clearing. "But if they are in there, they aren't protected in any way, so we gotta get in and quickly." Logan said to the group, and immediately the group jumped into the portal.
The team of 4 entered the Dark World, meeting Teddie, and some resistance in the meantime. "Ugh, guys, I hope you know your in a beary bad situation right now." Teddie said. "No time for puns, Ted." Logan said, and quickly formed an x over his head. "Wait, catch!" Hannah yelled and threw him, what seemed to be a card, and he caught it and sliced through, giving him not Izanagi, but instead Lilim. (AN: I had this thought about subfusion, where if you were to have a card of a Persona that can fuse with your current Persona (for the story, Cu Sith + Izanagi = Lilim), you can use that Persona on the fly. Course, this only works with the Wild Cards, so don't expect Matt to be able to fuse Nemisis with anyone, these are also taken straight from the games.) "Interesting, alright, I can work with this. Zio!" He commanded, taking out the enemies with little difficulty. "Good job." Teddie complimented. "As for why we happen to be here." Logan began. "Noticed anything, even slightly different from before?" Mac asked the bear. "Hmmm, not overally. But I noticed some rather giddy shadows of late. Maybe someone's here." Teddie remarked. "That answers nothing.." Matt replied. "Hey, it doesn't mean we aren't gonna go look." Hannah replied. "True.. I guess." Matt replied.
The group scowered the world for a while, until they finally found something. They heard female voices in the background. "Stay calm, I don't know where we are, but someone else has to know about this place." Logan smiled in pain as he recognized the voice, it was Claire's, who was presumably talking to Amy. The group ran up to the girls, running right by the sleeping shadow guard. "I know you are all for celebrations, but keep it quiet." Claire said in an almost whisper. "I notice the... thing? had a key, but he hid it away from us sadly." Amy stated in a soft tone. "Well, that bites." just after saying that, Logan heard a ring, and glimpsed a key on the shadow's hand, hooked like a ring. "Well, doesn't that just annoy you to no end?" Hannah stated, to approval of everyone. The ringing had stopped, with a quiet chatter along the ground. Logan, stealthily slid over to pick up the keyed, flinged it over to Hannah, catching it with minimal problems, and unlocked the key, letting the girls out. "Nice!" Logan said. Altough what wasn't nice is that the shadow had awoke, and was enraged. "Son of a..." Logan didn't finish that sentance. The shadow quickly jumped on the girl, with Claire reacting almost immediately, sliding her and Amy out of the way. "Thanks for the rescue." Amy says to Logan, Hannah, and Claire. "Yeah, but now we have a new beast to deal with." Mac said. "Sad this thing doesn't have friends like we do." Claire complimented the group, herself included. The girls then felt a glimmer, which Logan smiled. "I knew you two were Persona users." Logan smiles, as he and Hannah readies up, the x resting over his head. "PERSONA!" Hannah, Amy, Claire, and Logan say in complete unison. Logan noted that the girls had gained Valkyrie for Amy, and Phoenix for Claire. Hannah also had a new Persona, utilizing Jack Frost, while Logan busted out a new Persona of his own: Principality.
"Wow, this is pretty cool, it's like giving an importance, except it's alot more fun." Claire remarked, as she bashed into the shadow with Garula. "Why do you have an upgraded spell and we don't?" Mac complained. "Tis common around the level 20-ish mark for Personas to garner upgraded ability's, such as Garula, Phoenix (AN: Or Feng Huang, because somebody at Atlus forgot how to translate.) gets it from the get-go, as will other Personas later down the road." Logan lectured her, while launching a Twin Shot. The shadow retaliated with a decently strong attack, knocking back Logan. "That isn't gonna sit well with me." Hannah embraced, and fired a strong Bufu attack in retaliation, scoring a critical hit in the process. "You alright?" Claire called over to Logan. "Never better, but you know what is better?" Logan asked her. "We power through this shadow?" Amy responded. "Yes indeedy!" Hannah yelled in excitement. Her excitement was cut short however, as it just barely survived, and attempted to return the favor with a strong attack. "Not on my watch!" Logan shouted, coming to Hannah's aid by eating up the attack, protecting Hannah, and knocking back the shadow. "Mind if I end this?" Claire asked, to a nod from the others. Claire beaned the shadow with a Garula attack, thereby finishing it off. "That's why friendship makes a team!" Logan said the group. The group were about to start back, when more shadows were on there way. "Uh, guys, it isn't over yet." Teddie forewarned, but Matt, Amy, Mac, and Claire were immediately silenced by a new foe, or foes...
dun dun dun. You have hereby been cliffhung, so your just gonna have to wait until chapter 4 releases to find out what's about to happen! On a serious note, I hoped you like the chapter, and I hope to see you guys later!