From Ivory to Blue

Chapter 4

"Do you think we're being punished for something?" the Electric Trainer, a wrangler of electricity elemental creatures, offered to the small group of five individuals he was seated with. He adjusted his glasses and took another look around the environment they were in; something akin to ancient, stone ruins in the clearing of a lush, tropical jungle under a sunny but drably colored sky. It was daytime there, but something just seemed missing from the sunlit world, an underlying pulse that would otherwise be abundant in such an environment.

"Doesn't matter. Soon as I can find a way outta here we're takin' it. And if we run into the creep responsible for us being here I'm gonna personally tenderize his face!" growled a girl standing not too far away from the people seated in the grass. She was the leader of an earth elemental creature gym of the same world the Electric Trainer hailed from, and her impatience with the whole affair was blatantly obvious as she watched the ground at her feet, arms crossed tightly in front of her and tapping a foot quietly. "I'm not gonna be anybody's prisoner, I don't care who they are! M'kay, here we go."

The surly Earth Gym Leader knelt as she felt a small tremor at her feet, and she watched the dirt in front of her separate as a short, brown creature with three nubby heads and pink noses cropped up suddenly.

"So, did ya find anything interesting down there? A tunnel or any cave systems leading away from here?" The Earth Leader inquired of her three headed pet, still looking angry but also a touch more hopeful now.

The three headed thing's three expressions all became worrisome as each head shook in unison.

The Earth Girl sighed and chewed her bottom lip, but patted each of the brown things three heads amiably before dropping a red and white ball next to it, "Ya did great anyway. Take a break for now, we'll try again in a little bit." The ball opened at the separation of its red and white hemispheres before beaming the three headed creature into it within an arc of white light and snapping shut.

"Hey, I ain't tryin' to butt into your business or anything, miss, but I don't know if it's such a good idea to go fiddlin' with stuff around here." Said one of the members of the seated group; a short statured man with black hair, wearing a black tank top, green athletic shorts and matching boxing gloves. A big metropolis accent peppered his speech, "We don't know where we might end up, and there are, like, things out there in the woods. I don't know about you, but I'm trained for the ring, not the jungle."

The Earth Leader stood up, folded her arms and whipped around to scowl at the pessimistic Boxing Champ before offering, "Huh! And here I thought you'd be one of the tougher guys among us!" her voice similarly and ironically accented, "Where's your sense of adventure, dude? We can't just sit here on our butts and wait for help to come! I'm gonna get out of this place and back home one way or another, 'cause I've got a tournament to win! You do too, four-eyes!" She whipped an accusatory finger at the bespectacled Electric Trainer seated among the odd congregation.

The Electric Lad just sighed and scratched the back of his neck in response initially. "Good grief. We have much bigger things to worry about right now than some tournament, like how we're going to survive out here." He glanced around at the surrounding, wanly lit foliage before his vision rested on one of the other members seated with the group, "Having any luck with your device so far, ma'am? I have some knowledge of machinery and power outputs, just let me know if I might be of any help with anything."

The person the Electric Trainer had just spoken to, a fairly attractive humanoid alien female with green skin, blond hair and wide, pointed ears, dressed in a sleeveless, professional looking pink and white flight suit, just huffed and shook her head as she tinkered with a plate sized, foreign looking circuit board with strange looking, light emitting tools. "The navigation and stabilization components of my craft are just fried. It's not particularly difficult work, just time consuming, and probably something a little foreign to your knowledge, sir. All the same, thanks for the offer." She propped her head up on her free palm as she sat with folded legs in the grass nearby and fiddled with the complex device in her lap, taking a moment before too long to absently look up at her craft; a several story tall mechanoid the same color as her flight suit, with a lithe, feminine figure and large, white wings lying on its side a good distance away from everyone and smoking from a few areas. "She's got a host of other damaged areas, but if I can get her CPU functional again maybe I can get us all somewhere a little safer, hopefully without running into our captor. Whatever he or she is it's nothing to take lightly, took me down without much of an effort. I've never seen anything like it, nothing like what my race has developed even comes close."

A sudden shout, followed by a violent explosion and a rising ball of fire and smoke tore from somewhere in the jungle just behind the parked, winged mech of the Alien Female Pilot, and most everyone in the group swung their attention towards the disturbance.

"Gagh! What the *croak* was that? Pretty, green lady's robot ship blow up again?" belched another member of the group; a large, plump, humanoid frog with bulbous eyes, wearing a brown cloak, a silver necklace decked with a single large ruby and a miniscule golden crown atop his head.

Upon standing up, the Alien Pilot squinted her eyes as she quickly inspected her craft, then calmed down just a bit after a moment, "No, that's not my tank, but I hope we aren't being attacked again." She said before swiveling her glance at the jungle all around the group, inspiring some of the others to do so as well.

"No, no one is attacking us." Came the exasperated sigh of the only member of the group who hadn't jumped at the sudden explosion; A forest green haired girl wearing a blue, medieval style knight's uniform and brown boots, with a light weight sword carried in a buckler at her side. She folded her arms, lazily rolled her eyes in the direction of the blast and frowned before saying, "You needn't worry unless he decides to bring his fight closer to us. He is a boy from my kingdom, and he is known for being rather impulsive at times. I tried coaxing him out of his ire earlier but he would not have any of it, so all that is left is to wait until he blows off steam." The Female Knight finished, just as another furious shout and low rumble issued from the distant jungle.


A good ways into the jungle from the group seated next to the winged mech, standing in the center of a smoldering crater filled with the disintegrating corpses of several bizarre and very dead creatures, stood a red haired boy decked in blue and gold highlighted medieval armor with a flowing blue and red inseam cape blowing in the wind behind him. The youth whipped his large, gold handled sword around him in a wide arc to blow away some of the remaining smoke before resting it on his armored shoulder and giving a triumphant exhalation.

"Ha! What a joke these creatures are! I'm having far too much fun to stop just now!" the Red Haired Knight exclaimed as he leapt out of his crater with ease, his shining sword trailing a faint tail of magical flame in his wake. After his rugged, blue boots touched the ground, the boy quickly whipped his head from side to side to scan for any other approaching threats, and actually smiled when he heard the sound of thunder crash loudly just on the opposite side of a patch of foliage just yards away.

A strange, black, red eyed humanoid being wearing an odd green suit and cap suddenly rocketed, out of the nearby trees from the direction of the thunder clap, it's coarse emboldened by a thick horizontal line of smoke. It's flight path was cut short abruptly by the enthusiastic twisting slice of the red haired knights sword attack. Both halves of the void creature's carved body flaked away in a black mist before they had a chance to touch the ground.

"Great finish, little friend!" The fiery red haired youth called out to the trees at the same moment a small, yellow furred rodent with a black accentuated tail and pointed ears and red circled cheeks stumbled weakly from them, also smoking and sparking lightly. The scorched mouse plopped down lightly onto its haunch and puffed out a small, exhausted breath before giving the red haired knight a bright, adorable smile and waving to him excitedly.

"We have been victorious thus far, but we are not nearly out of danger yet. Evil permeates this forest, and we must persevere if we are to make it out alive!" The fiery knight growled as he balled a tight fist in front of him.

A strange, alien mewl issued a few yards away from the duo, and in the slowly clearing smoke they beheld an almost festive looking monster made up of a tower of cylindrical, yellow faces and topped off with a colorfully tasseled, metal head with slightly woeful eyes. It crooned almost plaintively as what looked like four small tornadoes whirled out from behind its tall body. The tornadoes spun and stopped in formation alongside the tower beast, and after ceasing their rotations revealed themselves each to be ominous looking humanoid beings with black static bodies, glowing cores, a pair of faceless heads and massive, crescent blades for arms.

"…Now THAT is more like it!" proclaimed the red haired gladiator with a big toothy smile and twin embers in his eyes. He raised his brilliant sword in the air and gave a triumphant pose before addressing the small, yellow rodent at his side, "Truly our greatest challenge yet, little friend! Are you ready to forge onward for the glory of our respective kingdoms, shouting defiantly into the face of certain death and horrifying dismemberment!?"

"P-Pi…" the timid rodent responded, swallowing hard as it's beady brown eyes reflected the shine of the crescent blades the two-headed shadow assassins were carving together hungrily.

The blue armored youth was too hot blooded to adequately interpret his electric mouse companion's small peep as a 'yes' or 'no', and was already adopting an aggressive battle stance before the blade creatures began to advance and the tower creature's head started to bobble. "This tortured land will be free for the innocent to dwell in once again, I swear it! By the fire in my blade, the foul creatures plaguing these hills will know the might of the fury they have beckoned! Through flame and thunder, justice will be served!" the red haired youth cried as he reached sidelong, grasped the unsuspecting yellow rodent's spade-like ears and charged headlong into the fray. "Have at thee! I'll never surrender!!"


"And at this point he'll never give up." The green haired Female Knight said to the other castaways with a shrug as she glanced in the direction of the distant jungle several hours later, when the sounds of explosions began to come fainter and less frequently than they had earlier. "I doubt that the boy is dead by now, but we may as well write him off as a loss. He's far too stubborn to yield to anyone when his passion is high. We may yet see him again but not anytime soon, I'm afraid."

"I can't say I've been holding my breath this whole time," said the Alien Pilot Girl from a short distance away, as she worked within a large, open panel on her giant mech's leg, "Nothing's come up on my console as far as any signal goes. My S.O.S. broadcast has been blaring on every primary and subspace channel all day, and no one out there is biting. It looks like we're a long way off from a rescue."

As the pilot ended her sentence, there was a disturbance from the bushes just off to the side of the grounded mech, and as it wasn't in the direction of the earlier explosions that had become part of the ordinary ambience. The assembled group rose as one in alarm, quickly taking battle stances as they eyed the rustling shrubbery, fists raised, weapons poised and cheeks bloated in anticipation.

"'Ey, you in the bushes," the fat, Frog King croaked loudly through pursed lips, as he strained to keep his stored attack bubbles at bay, "come outta there with yer hands up, nice and slow!"

The greenery shook for a few moments more before it eventually produced a young girl, who stumbled out slightly hands in the air as ordered. She was a little older than teenage, wearing a cream colored t-shirt, a pair of cobalt blue shorts, rugged black sneakers and fingerless black gloves. Her complexion was moderately tanned, and her jet black, waist length hair looked a bit unkempt but still relatively even. From the shape of her attire, it appeared as though she'd done a bit of traveling up to that point.

"Whoa. Um, sorry folks," the Black Haired Girl offered with a polite smile, continuing her brisk walk after freeing her leg from some stubborn vines in a deliberate trajectory away from the group, "Just passing through, don't mind me."

"H-hey, miss! Wait, where are you going?" Called the Electric Creature Trainer, stowing his red and white carrier orbs and lowering his guard steadily along with the rest of the group, "You shouldn't go off alone, it's dangerous out there! Your clothes look familiar, are you another trainer? We should really all stick together, miss! Please wait!"

"Did you bring anyone else with you?" grumbled the bloated Frog King after forcefully swallowing back his heavy bubbles and belching loudly for several seconds, "I'm hungry!"

The Black Haired Girl marched on diligently towards the distant jungle, waving back over her shoulder to the group and patting a strange, bladeless sword hilt tied to her hip as she went, "I'll be alright, thanks. I honestly don't know where I'm going, so I wouldn't bother following. Take care and good luck, guys!" she said before leaping courageously into a thick mass of foliage near the stony ruins and vanishing from sight.

The assembled group gaped and blinked in disbelief for a good while as they watched the random passer-by disappear into the jungle. The silence among them was palpable, with only a gentle breeze attempting to disrupt it.

"Well, so much for that rescue," The Earth Gym Leader eventually barked with a shrug of her solid shoulders, "but the frog dude's got a point, I think it's about time we found some roughage if we're gonna be here for a while!" She stated, visoring a hand over her eyes and searching the horizon swiftly.

"Let's not overexert ourselves in searching for too long," the frog king burbled sinisterly, licking his rubbery lips with a slurp as he eyed the suddenly anxious looking Boxing Champ across from him.


It hadn't taken the Black Haired Girl long enough to figure out the energy saber she now sported on her hip. The blade flared to life after she stumbled upon it and took its handle up in her frustrated grip, and she recognized its purpose immediately. It had been most instrumental in helping her get around the jungles hostile fauna when stealth was not on her side.

The saber was one of many odd weapons she had come across in her travels through the different corrupted realms, and the only time she stopped to rest was when she knew for certain she was in a secluded place where nothing could find her. The smaller monsters, like the colorful little "Q" headed people that attacked in packs, were easy enough to dispatch, while the big ones like the scythe-armed cauldron beast or the pincer tank driving blob were best left alone.

She wasn't exactly a push over in any case. Aside from being just about an intermediate level creature trainer, the Black Haired Girl was also formidably schooled in martial arts and could utilize a portion of her body's inherent energy in battle to a small degree. As it so happened, the dojo she hailed from specialized in the care and training of fighter-type creatures, and her education was doubly important as she traversed the deadly jungle with the scant few members of her menagerie she carried with her for emergencies.

All of the Fighter Trainer's walking finally paid off when she eventually reached a clearing which held a single stone structure about the size of a tool shed. The girl grinned and snapped her fingers victoriously as she ran towards the structure, simultaneously unhooking a red and blue orb from her side and throwing it forward.

When her orb hit the ground it separated at its dual-colored hemisphere on a pivot point, and out of it materialized a tough looking humanoid beast that flaunted four muscular arms.

The black haired trainer thrust a confident index finger at a rounded, black symbol near the far base of the stone construction, "There's the weak point! You know the drill, whack it good, big guy!" she commanded to her fighting creature encouragingly.

With an affirmative exclamation, the four armed brawler reeled back and delivered a formidable reverse punch to the stone structures marked area. When the fighter creature's fist impacted with the wall the construction immediately began to crack and split in all directions from the point of contact.

The fighter trainer quickly dropped into a defensive stance when the stone structure began to fall apart in front of her, reaching to her hip to grasp and will her coveted energy saber to life with a brilliant flash. As rehearsed, her four armed monster jumped back to her side in that instant and similarly readied itself for battle without being commanded to do so. Both combatants were thoroughly aware by now that these sort of situations were never as easy as they appeared in this alien world.

Of all the dangerous fauna she'd mentally documented and categorized to potentially lie in wait for them within the small stone structure, the Black Haired Trainer was mostly glad but still a bit annoyed to discover one of the jungles intermediate level humanoids had taken up temporary residence in the hut that was now merely a pile of rubble. This particular example was a gangly, silver skinned thing with a large, coiled air horn for a head, standing not much taller than she. The trumpet monster seemed mostly oblivious to the fact that the building that served as its small base of operations had just been reduced to powder around it, and was, in fact, dancing and singing a bizarre tune to itself without any care in the world.

The Black Haired Girl wasted no time with this monster, tossing her energy saber powerfully and imbedding its blade of light deep in the wide mouth of the trumpet head as the creature turned in the duo's direction. "GO!" she shouted sidelong to her four armed companion, and the two of them dashed the short distance between them and the trumpet beast as it reeled back on it's heals, gagging and sputtering a completely different musical number to the sky above. And in a display of flawless choreography, the fighter trainer delivered a solid punch to the trumpet thing's gut to further stun it before dropping to the ground and locking its strange feet in a scissor hold with her legs while her four armed brawler took it's head clean off with a rising, wheeling, four armed uppercut.

In the fading, black mist of the trumpet creature's body, the duo high-fived each other and triumphantly punched their fists to the sky, the Black Haired Trainer catching her energy sabers handle as it tumbled down from several stories above with an electric hum. "Onward!" she commanded, pointing the glowing blade to the strangely designed door that appeared on the other side of the fading black cloud. The door itself was aglow with ethereal light, and stood on its own without a jamb or any hinges, divided in its center and seemingly set in invisible space.

The Fighter Trainer dashed forward and kicked the odd door inward, and the duo proceeded courageously into the swirling void of light beyond it. This marked the beginning of yet another harrowing trek through the savage lands of the corrupted realm and a multitude of exotic environments. The black haired girl pushed onward relentlessly with her fighting creature menagerie, battling her way from door to door as he had been doing for months prior to encountering the random group of five individuals at the jungle ruins. Thankfully, surprisingly edible food and secluded hideaways were in abundance, so the journey was not entirely impossible. She was confident that eventually she would find a way home, and stopping now would absolutely mean disaster.

After a few days, however, the Black Haired Trainer had no choice but to stop her hyperdimensional flight, having dashed into a golden door vortex and suddenly finding herself absolutely surrounded by darkness and nothing else. Some of the doors she encountered were two way portals while others were one way only, and this portal was one of the later. It hadn't even taken her to an area she was even remotely familiar with; a small, membranous platform of strange, purple/yellow light no bigger than a sidewalk tile, floating within a void of infinite and ominous darkness. The only light in this area was the occasional pulse from her platform and from the veins of electric light that arced in the expanse of the enveloping black space.

This was certainly different, the Fighter Trainer lamented to herself objectively, and different didn't always mean good. Still, the girl was hopeful, even though the situation seemed fairly dire, and she stood in place patiently with her arms folded as she continued to scan the area.

She waited patiently for nearly an hour on the platform, but absolutely nothing changed about the place she was in. Unfortunately, she possessed no creatures capable of flight within her creature collection, but she would have been reluctant to send any of them into the organic looking darkness in any case. Sometimes in that alien multiverse, the girl had learned, patience was a highly coveted virtue, and though she was beginning to get rather frustrated the girl continued to await a ripple in the quiet darkness.

The Trainer was about to take a seat on her translucent tile when something did finally occur not too far from where she was. From out of nowhere materialized a round portal of shimmering light, which slowly hovered a short distance out and several stories below the girl's platform. The black haired girl clenched her fists tightly as she instantly recognized the light portal as one of the same doorways she was taken through to get to this chaotic realm.

Without a second thought, the Fighter Trainer stepped to the very edge of the platform behind her before planting her feet and performing a dashing leap towards the portal below. It was terrifying, and she knew it may just be a suicidal venture, but anything was preferable to staying in this new prison of nothingness. Her aim was true, though, and she knew without a doubt that she would pass through the shimmering portal, to where she did not know or care.

Just before reaching the surface of the glowing portal, however, the girl's fall slowed to an inevitable halt. She gasped and growled angrily, her voice echoing with a strange delay in the void, as she reached out for the portals bright surface, only managing to make the water-like luminescence ripple and wave slightly. After a moment, the same invisible force holding her in space also pulled her away and set her down on another small light membrane platform that had just appeared, far out of jumping range from the portal. This did not deter the girl in the slightest, and with a defiant huff she set about readying herself for yet another leap at the distant portal.

"Persistent …and stubborn. Normally, that sort of behavior would upset me, but for some reason I cannot fathom it is rather intriguing in this case." a foreboding but strangely serene voice echoed from seemingly everywhere around the girl, ironically devoid of any discernable emotion.

"LET ME OUT, YOU CREEP!!" The Black Haired Girl found herself shouting into the darkness in response to the omnipresent voice. At the time, she wasn't even sure if the voice belonged to her captor, and she hardly cared in at any rate, given her most recent denial of potential freedom and the volatile frustration pressurized behind that. The Fighter Trainer snapped up her energy saber in one hand and a red and white creature orb in the other, baring her teeth angrily at the surrounding space and any potential danger within it. "Either let me out of here or come out of hiding, coward!! My fists have something they'd like to discuss with your face!"

"Oh my, such aggression." The disembodied voice stated, with a patronizing edge even without any inherent emotion behind it. It then tisked loudly as another invisible force then pried not only the energy saber from the girl's grip but also her entire store of creature orbs from her other hand and hip and her makeshift pack of weapons and supplies. "Brandishing weapons and issuing abominable threats. Honestly, that manor of behavior is quite unbecoming of such an adorable young lady. I believe a nap may be severely overdue."

The Black Haired Girl's hands trembled with rage as she seethed over the ease with which her belongings were taken from her and the voices parental scolding, but before she could bark the dirtiest word she could think of at the moment a gigantic face of static filled blue light suddenly appeared before her. She gasped and mustered every ounce of will she had just to keep standing, for the face of light not only obscured the shimmering portal barely visible beyond it but the vast majority of her peripheral vision. It's features were smoothly mannequin, not much of a set of nostrils or a mouth slit and the only indication of eyes the face had was a singular, strange, disk-like object in it's right socket.

"That spitfire attitude seems to have abandoned you, my dear. Has my sudden appearance frightened you? My my, what a precious fawn you are. But I would be telling a lie if I said I had not done this to prove a point, and I assure you that I do not tell lies, little fawn." The entity boomed in its gentle but resounding voice to the Fighter Trainer, who steadily stood her ground. The face eventually began to shrink before her, and a body of similar blue brilliance formed below it, still twice as tall as any person she'd ever met, posed in a fashion that looked like the being was lightly embracing itself. "How is this, little one? Is this form slightly less intimidating? Easier to comprehend? I can assume any form you wish, and I am ever open to new ideas. I would very much like us to be friends."

"Let me out!" The Black Haired Girl said again much quieter, folding her arms tightly and turning her head a bit so that the luminous being could not see the moisture beginning to coat her eyes. Now that she was certain she was dealing with the mastermind behind all of the surrounding madness, she would not dare deliberately give the monster the satisfaction of thinking it had broken her spirit. "Just…let me go. I promise I won't send anyone after you."

The Being of Light produced a sound that vaguely resembled laughter, which caused the platform and the air in the dark void to vibrate momentarily. The pulsing veins of light synchronized in the luminous being, the platform and the surrounding black brightened a few levels just before the laughing sound faded off. "Send anyone after me? Come child, I had thought that you would understand by now, but that is my error. He whom you are speaking to at this moment is no less than a God, little fawn. Sending an army of any caliber, any quantity against me would accomplish no more than blowing dandelion petals into my face. In case your recollection is as disappointing as your cognitive and observational prowess, I should remind you that I do not lie. I have been quite generous in allowing you to roam freely about my little maze, but my benevolence is not inexhaustible, child."

The Fighter Trainer continued to glance into the bleak darkness at the light being's side, not wanting to meet it's eyes directly, or whatever served as its eyes. Her teeth ground almost audibly as she listened to the thing's condescending and simultaneously self venerating banter.

The entity floated to one side of the shimmering portal and gestured to it with a lazy, upturned palm. "And where were you planning to escape to, at any rate? Here?" it said to the girl, pausing to implicate a silent sigh. With a wave of the being's hand, the portal's rippling opacity faded away to reveal the world beyond it.

A strange scene played out beyond the dimensional gateway, as what looked like a man obviously dressed like a chef ran in a bit of a panic across large platforms made of what appeared to be bread, meat patties and other sandwich ingredients while humanoid breakfast food creatures relentlessly chased him down. After taking a wrong turn, the chef encountered a large, fried egg monster which swung its bulbous upper body at his face as he hastily searched his pockets for something, knocking him out cold atop a large bridge of lettuce.

"I do not imagine you would get along very well in such a dreadful place. You may discover some method of quelling your temper, but you would most certainly never find your way out. What a horrible way to live out the rest of your life, little fawn. What a horrible way for anyone to live, at that." The Corrupted God stated stoically as one large, menacing but ornate interpretation of a butterfly wing of rainbow light materialized and unfolded from his left side, covering half of the large portal.

A few drops of dark static dripped from the flat surface of the entity's rainbow wing and into the portal. Once completely inside the strange dimension, the static droplets expanded to become several large black and red avian heads with open beaks. The prone chef sat up just in time to have the light from the large energy orbs gathering in each of the avian's beaks reflect in his spectacles, but did not even think to scream before each of the heads produced bright, searing rays that completely obliterated everything around them. Once the realm in view of the portal was completely incinerated, the avian heads turned their attentions to parts beyond, beginning to charge more energy in their red mouths as they moved off.

The light entity shook its head slowly as it expanded it's wing across the portal and made it shrink and close like an iris. Once the gateway was completely gone, the being folded and dematerialized it's rainbow wing before speaking again. "I had grown bored with that particular item of my collection quite some time ago, and had every intention of disposing of it before I became engaged with other affairs. If you can imagine, being a God does not allow for much leisure time, my schedule is thoroughly booked. So you see it certainly would have done you no avail to enter such a pathetic place. I would have regretted accidentally imparting my will hastily on a vibrant and rare soul such as yours. I quite honestly would have regretted it. Remember, I do not lie."

The Fighter Trainer was absolutely aghast and speechless as she witnessed the careless brutality of the Corruption Entity, though she would not let her terror show on her face. She remained silent, even though every aspect of this event, since stepping through the last door, was ugly and offensive, and inevitable she realized. Her captor was, and always had been, toying with her since the very beginning. She almost dared to wipe her eyes quickly before the platform she was standing on suddenly expanded under her feet, making her jump with a start. Not only did the platform's surface expand greatly but it also became opaque with lush grass and thick vegetation. Eventually the sky around her brightened to a wane pink color around a false, greenish sun, and an entire forest landscape unfolded around the girl.

Still hovering a short distance away, the Light Entity remained, hardly casting a shadow but causing the grass beneath it to bow outwards slightly in a several yard radius. "Do you see this, little fawn? It is for you. I believe it suits you quite nicely, though I doubt I could completely duplicate the beauty of your spirit. While I shall under no circumstances release you from my world, I can at the very least make your stay enjoyable." The Corrupted God stated as it began to float closer to the girl, eventually shrinking itself to about her height as it came to within a few feet of her. "I could read your mind and discover for myself what your true desires are, but that would just be rude. I prefer to be kind and pay you the honor of asking, at least for now. Do not be timid, you may tell me anything, chil--…"

A punch infused with a miniscule but noteworthy amount of the Black Haired Girl's fighter ki slammed into the luminescent being's face at that point, cutting it's words short. It was an instinctive fighter reflex, and the girl quickly took a step back but stood firmly, somewhat surprised by what she'd just done. She figured she was dead already anyway, what was one more act of defiance? "If you aren't going to let me go home, then at least give me back my Blue." She demanded then, impulsively saying the first thing that came to mind. She realized after the fact that it was kind of moot to do so, but it took everything she had to maintain her composure in the face of such despair.

"…'Blue'?" The entity finally asked after a moment of awkward silence. It's face began to form spidery cracks from the subtle indication of a fist dent on its face. "I am aware of the color blue, and of the sky being referred to as such. In this place, both of these things certainly qualify as my possessions, but I do not recall such a thing as it pertains to you. Perhaps if I search my memory, or, more appropriately, yours…" the being said as the punched side of it's face began to crumble away, revealing one red eye.

The Black Haired Girl's hard exterior was threatened immensely as the entity's body crumbled away completely before her to expose it's latest form. Before too long, standing in front of the girl was a small blue and black creature she was very familiar with and missed more than words could convey; her very own little Blue, lost to her since arriving in the corrupted realm. The girl was greatly in danger of breaking down on the spot, if not for the fact that she noted this false Blue's soulless expression, it's criticizing glare and general aura of wrongness.

"Your attack has jolted my memory, little fawn. I do recall seeing a creature such as this with you during your procurement." The false Blue Thing stated with unmoving lips, spreading its little paws wide. "It was making a pathetic attempt to interfere, and becoming quite a nuisance. My servants have no doubt long since made a paltry stain of the meek little larvae. It puzzles me why such a potentially strong individual would endear herself to a weak morsel such as this." The entity said, looking tiredly down at its new body and shaking its head before looking back up at the girl. "It is a trifle for me to assume this guise. I can certainly be all that this 'Blue' of yours is and so much more. We can share your old memories of one another, new experiences, and you can love me as you would your late little friend."

The Black Haired Girl did not look up, but she knew that the scenery was beginning to change again in her peripheral vision to mimic a false representation of the courtyard outside her dojo. She clenched her teeth, balled her fists and fought back a flood of tears with all her strength. She looked at nothing but the ground at her feet.

Folding its small arms, the fake Blue entity was quiet as it regarded the girl, not even bothering to breathe for it did not need to. It began to hover in the air a few feet off the ground, so that it would be eye level with her when it spoke again. "It is such a pity that you have chosen punishment over my immeasurable generosity, my child. But, such is life. Defiance is the root of a vibrant soul such as yours, and it would seem that one is simply inseparable from the other. That being said, I shall leave you in solitude now, with nothing to distract you from your dreadful contemplations of violence, contempt and sorrow over insignificant matters. I have much more important events to oversee, as it stands." The entity kept the form of False Blue as it levitated backwards from the girl, spreading darkness as it went and returning the world around them to the bleak void and the single, tiny platform the girl stood on. It gave a slow, uncharismatic wave as it faded from view, the gentle voice reverberating everywhere even long after it's body had dematerialized. "I bid you farewell, young heart. May your time with naught but your memories serve as a lesson. This is as kind a sentence as I can bestow. Consider yourself fortunate."

The Black Haired Girl wasn't sure if the Corrupted God Entity was completely gone even long after it had stopped talking to her. It didn't matter anyway, she had endured all the psychological abuse she could take and now her journey to freedom, also a lie, was at a definite end. Slowly, she lowered to the surface of the light membrane platform, balled her knees up against her forehead and let the tears come. It was obvious that she was crying, but she would ball up as much as she could to keep anyone or anything from seeing her face while she did so. After losing many a dojo battle, failing several martial arts tournaments and the passing of a beloved grandparent during her brief existence, the Fighter Trainer could not recall ever having wept so much at one time.

"Please, come back to me, Blue."

Chapter 4

Author's Note

This chapter underwent many a revision and critique before I finally decided to bite the bullet and post it. I have done everything I can to give the characters some distinction and not have things be too convoluted in the first half while trying to keep with the 'no names' scheme. It is unorthodox, but I have a habit of doing things the hard way in an effort to be unique. Avid Nintendo fans may not have too much trouble figuring out who makes an appearance here, but in case there is any confusion the cameo cast list includes the following characters: Rola (Metal Combat, Super Scope), Lyn (Fire Emblem, Super Smash Bros. Brawl), Little Mac (Punch Out, SSBB), King Wart (Super Mario 2), Roy (Fire Emblem, Super Smash Bros. Melee), Pichu (Pokemon, SSBM), Tabuu (SSBB). The pokemon trainers (Earth Gym Leader, Electric Trainer, Black Haired Girl) are all my personal creations. Please feel free to email me with any other questions you have about the chapter.