The three cloaked beings known as the Swordsworn strode down a dirt path, searching for the group that sought the Sword of Chaos simply known as Team B. They stood tall, their stance stiff and their strides wide, the weapons in their hand glinting in the sunlight.
"Hey, guys! Wait up!" came a voice far behind them.
All three Swordsworn froze, in a comically-annoyed way, then turned to meet their fourth, most recent, member.
Dimentio staggered around, now wearing a similar cloak and cowl. Judging from the way he stumbled around, he had his cowl on backwards and thus couldn't see a thing.
The axe-wielding Swordsworn turned to the leader and said, "Dude, this guy is RUINING our image."
"Ya THINK?" the leader said, then tried defending his action.
The Swordsworn with the halberd also leaned in and suggested, "Let's ditch this dodo."
"But anyone we bring to our side could be a valuable asset to us." The lead said, trying to find some reason to keep this new member
There came a "thud" and Dimentio cried out in pain. "OW! I think I twisted my ankle. Can you guys carry me?"
(A few moments later…)
If one could see under the heavily-shaded cowl of the halberd-using Swordsworn, one would probably find an expression of mixed emotions. Such emotions would include rage, irritation, exasperation, and cursing of his own stupidity.
Oh, and I almost forgot total embarrassment because of what he was doing. That thing was carrying Dimentio, bridal-style, because he claimed a twisted ankle.
Dimentio took a deep breath through his nose and out his mouth, obviously relaxed. "What a great day." He said, probably to himself and probably trying to start conversation with his new companions, "Have you ever experienced a day as fine as this one, Halberd?"
"OKAY!" Halberd said, just dropping Dimentio, hard on the ground, "I demand a group meeting!"
As the three Swordsworn gathered (in a huddle of all things), Dimentio got up, revealing that his twisted ankle either got better really fast or never existed.
"Hey, guys, what about me?" Dimentio asked, wanting to be part in this.
The lead separated himself from the huddle, pointed somewhere behind Dimentio with a finger, and said, "Look, a kitty cat."
"Where?" Dimentio said, eyes sparkling (though you couldn't see it under his cowl), and went off to try and find it, all the while using a traditional "here, kitty-kitty" call.
After a fit of quick and sharp whispering from the Swordsworn huddle, Halberd made a proposal, "Alright, first we get new cloaks and sharpening equipment. Part of my halberd's looking a bit blunt."
"Oh, fine…" the lead Swordsworn agreed with a slight sigh.
Dimentio continued looking around for this kitty cat that the other Swordsworn claimed to have spotted. This time, he was making fake claims of things cat like from string to a mouse and even catnip.
After reaching a form of agreement, the huddle dispersed and the lead Swordsworn called, "Hey! Dimentio! Come here."
Dimentio turned away from his cat-quest to face them, curiosity on his face. I will not put parentheses that tell you that you can't see it because it's pretty obvious from this point.
"We want to know what your favorite type of tree is." The leader called.
"That's a good question." Dimentio said, then thought it over and looked at someplace off-path, "Hmm…these trees are all good and green, but if I really had to choose, I'd say pine because they're green all year round."
As Dimentio went on about pine trees, all the while trying to find one somewhere, the rest of the Swordsworn slowly inched away. That inching went from walking, then the walking went to a full-out sprint.
"And I doubt I have to bring up Christmas trees." Dimentio said, turning to check on their opinion. To his shock, he saw that they were running as fast as their legs could carry them. Not wanting to be left alone again, he chased after them.
When he finally caught up, he found to his horror that the Swordsworn owned motorcycles and were currently revving them up. He made a spectacular leap, reaching out to grab one of them with an outstretched arm…
He fell flat on his face halfway through, earning a prolonged stare from the cloaked figures before they took off, motorcycle engines roaring.
"WE HAD BIKES?" Dimentio shrieked, looking up from his position, "Then why the heck were we walking THE WHOLE FREAKIN' TIME?"
Dimentio had just gotten back on his feet when there came a roar. Dimentio turned around and a blue-and-black-garbed figure leapt from nowhere and kicked him full in the chest, sending him backing into a tree.
It was Saire, who followed up by rushing Dimentio and pinning him against the tree with her forearm.
"Time to choose sides: friend or foe?" she said, her mask changing her voice to the traditional Sub-Zero voice.
The only result THIS achieved was senseless babble that one could only make out "don't kill me" or "leave me alone".
"Dimentio, it's okay." Abe said, coming up to him, "We're going to find a way to get you back to your normal self."
This only seemed to accomplish nothing. It may have even caused his spastic babbling to increase slightly.
"It's no good, Abe." Ray said, shaking his head, "Someone's tampered with his mind."
"It's like he's been hypnotized." Cartoonatic observed, then asked, "Is there any way we can reverse it?"
"Water on his head?" E350 suggested, "That's waken Lunatic up a few times."
"Doubtful." Xem said, shaking his head.
"I've got this." NobodieZ said, stepping forth.
"Don't tell me you'll try to turn into some hypnosis-based alien." Abe said, exasperatedly.
NobodieZ walked up to the delirious Dimentio, then raised his watch and started to move it back and forth.
"You are a Planet Insania member." He said, hypnotically, catching Dimentio's eye and falling silent, "You are a Planet Insania member…"
"I'm an important Insania member…" Dimentio said, hypnotized for real this time.
Everyone stared at him with deadpan expressions for a brief moment before NobodieZ continued.
"You're a Planet Insania member." He repeated for the third time.
After remaining silent for a few seconds, Dimentio shook his hooded head and tilted his head slightly. "Mad Abe? NobodieZ?" he asked.
"AWRIGHT!" Strait said with joy, "We got our soldier back!"
With that Dimentio took to the process of tearing the robe from his body and taking off his hood, blinking repeatedly. "What happened to me? And how'd I get here?"
"You were hypnotized." DJ explained, "Seems those Swordsworn guys have power over those without strong wills.
"And, Abe, you tried to help me?" Dimentio said, his Prosecutor Godot getup now fully in sight.
"Hey, we're Insania members." Abe said, clapping a hand on his shoulder, "You would've done the same for me, right?"
Dimentio's eyes darted back and forth behind his vizor before he answered, "Well, knowing that you would do that for me, yes."
"Well, what're we loafing around here for?" E350 asked, "We have an epic quest to return to!"
And with that, the newly-reunited Team B returned to its task: find the Sword of Chaos. But one question did come to Dimentio's mind…
"Hey, how close are we to finding the sword?" the Filipino asked.
"Almost done. There's only one spot left to go." Strait answered, earning a grin from Dimentio.
Finally, the quest they had embarked on was close to yielding a reward. And all members of Team B hoped it would be worth it in the end.
SWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSW
Remember that lazy homeowner that Team A encountered last chapter? Well, he was still doing what he did best: laze around and watch TV all day. His focus never left the screen, even when he heard the door of his house getting kicked open.
The man in the red coat stepped into the room, the room's temperature seeming to fall dramatically as his eyes fell on the homeowner.
Mentioned homeowner looked up, not at all perplexed at the sight before him, and said, "If you're here for the quest, it's back there." He pointed to the room down the hall.
The man in the red coat didn't seem interested in the quest that had been taken up by other visitors, for he asked in a quiet and sharp voice, "Where is Albertson?"
"Dunno. I think someone let him out of the book." The owner said, casually.
Concern and anger seemed to spread through the red-coated man's mind, for he turned away and said, with venom in his voice, "So, he's loose…"
"Yeah, whatever. I'm going to go get some pork rinds for Futurama." The owner said, finally getting up off his couch, "Want some?"
The homeowner tried to go to his kitchen, which happened to be somewhere past the man in the red coat. Mentioned man suddenly seized the owner by the arm and turned to face him.
"Look at yourself: wasted away to practically nothing." The red-coated man hissed, "You sit here at home all day watching other people, some even nonexistent, accomplish greater things than you ever could or make even bigger fools of themselves than you could, if that's possible. You are what I despise most: a human being."
"Dude, I just asked if you wanted pork rinds." The owner said, unfazed by what the man had just said.
"Which do you prefer?" the red-coated man asked, "Chaos or order?"
The owner remained quiet for a moment, then shrugged, "Order, really."
The owner suddenly froze and looked down. The red-coated man had unsheathed the katana on his belt and run him through with it. Already, blood had dyed its steel length crimson and was beginning to seep out onto the carpet.
"Dude…that was my liver." The owner said, casual as usual.
The red-coated man pulled his sword out in a swift manner and had sheathed it when the homeowner slumped to the ground, dead as a doornail.
The red-coated man suddenly convulsed and clutched at his heart, teeth clenched in agony. Something had come over him and was filling his body to the point of overflowing with unimaginable pain. He stumbled into a bathroom and leaned on the sink until his condition stabilized.
He glanced up at the mirror and noticed that the white of his hair was suddenly becoming more prominent and threatening to replace what black remained. Curiosity overcoming him, he removed his sunglasses to check his eyes.
His eyes were colored like fire: a mixture of red, orange, and yellow that ended with his pupil. It ultimately looked like a black hole in the middle of a supernova. However, the fiery color was slowly fading away and flickering to a pale green. In the past, it was not a big problem, but now, it was becoming more and more noticeable.
"Right." The man said, slipping his sunglasses back on, "I guess I'll have to conserve my power until I really need it." He made for the door, stepping on the homeowner's corpse and said, almost as though he hadn't stabbed him in the gut, "Don't bother getting up."
SWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSW
Team A continued down a path, though whether it would lead to the Sword of Chaos, nobody really knew. Lunatic led the way, looking absolutely dismal because of his recent losing of the map.
"NOW what do we do?" Systema asked, crossly.
"I dunno." Lunatic answered, holding up a cell phone, "I tried calling for help, but for some reason it doesn't work."
"Maybe someone bugged your phone somewhere down the road?" Bindi suggested.
"Bindi, we're not in a comic book." Lunatic pointed out, "As much as I would like to believe that, I find it just hard to."
"Perhaps there was some sort of magic involved to try and interfere with you." Doopliss said in, maybe, a too evil voice.
"That was even more ridiculous, Doop." Lunatic grumbled, "And quit your plan to steal the sword. It's already old and we all know about it."
"D'OH!"
"You know, Loon, if there's no one else to call, you can try counting on us." Tohokari-Steel said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Okay! ENOUGH ALREADY!" Lunatic said, jerking free of Steel's touch and turning to face the team, "This whole cosplay adventure was a complete waste of time! I don't even want to find the freakin' sword anymore! It wasn't worth this whole thing!"
"But what if the guy in the coat finds it?" Cooly asked.
"Yeah, from what we've been told, everyone's a goner if he gets it." Dez agreed.
"Whatever! How do we even know that Comic Book Guy wasn't jerking our chains?" Lunatic asked, "How do we know that he didn't get some guy to dress like that? Lord knows how he could do what he did!"
"MAGIC!" everyone stated.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm starting to believe now. I don't even know WHAT I was thinking back when this whole thing started! It's a fanfic for crying out loud!" Lunatic said, frustration rising by the second, "In fact, now that I'm getting into character, I'm starting to grow sick of fanfiction! I mean, WHY do people rate Sora below me! I mean, SORA'S the main character, isn't he? I WOULDN'T EXIST WITHOUT HIM! It's JESSE MCCARTNEY, ISN'T IT?"
Sensing a rant, every member of Team A sighed and got comfortable. THIS would take a while…
"As a matter of fact, WHY do people put me in the most ridiculous pairings in the entire KH franchise! I only talked with Kairi ONCE! And why can't those fangirls ever think of me and Axel as close friends! Friendship doesn't always mean yaoi pairings, dangit! It means FREAKIN' FRIENDSHIP!
"HOLY CRUD! I need to take my rage out on something! If I ever find that guy who sent the chain letter, I will tear off his…" Lunatic froze in place as a thought suddenly occurred to him. Slowly, he took the photograph out of his coat pocket and as his eyes fell on the photo's subject, he came to a shocking realization, "It was him."
THIS earned a few interested looks from Team A, all members interested in what Lunatic had concluded.
"The man in the red coat sent that chain letter." Lunatic said, "He didn't want to do this whole quest, so he sent the chain letter to someone so they could go after it. Someone who was adventurous…"
"And greedy." Kitten added.
"Someone who was ingenious…"
"And greedy." Steel egged.
"And someone clever enough to solve it all."
"Y'know, you really ARE kinda greedy." Cooly pointed out.
"Well, if it's all true, why would he follow us?" Kitten asked.
"What about the spellbook?" Systema suggested, then put a hand to his chin in thought, "If there are offensive spells, maybe there are those dedicated to tracking something, like the map."
"But we don't have the map anymore." Lunatic said, scratching the back of his head, then froze as realization hit him, "Team B does…he's using THAT to help track down the sword!"
"Then we have to get there before they do!" Doopliss said, just as worried as Lunatic was at the moment.
"Exactly! Rook, say something to inspire us!" Lunatic ordered.
"I STILL NEED A HORSE!"
"Perfect." Lunatic said, ignoring the comment, "C'mon, everyone, there's a sword to find! This isn't a game anymore, I can tell you that much!"
Lunatic turned to lead the way when he backed away as he spotted something ahead.
There was a figure ahead, wearing a brown cloak and hood that concealed his face.
"None shall pass." The figure said in a hoarse, rattling voice.
"Oh, get out of the way, pal. We don't have time for you." Lunatic ordered, impatiently.
"You seek something: a weapon of incredible power." The figure stated.
"We'd get it a lot FASTER if you weren't in our way!" Doopliss pointed out.
"But a great evil also hunts what you hunt." The figure added.
"Yeah, that's kinda why we need to get going." Angelic Soldier said, hoping to get somewhere.
"This evil will not halt for anything. Sleep, sustenance, obstacles, none of them will stop him because he seeks the blade." The figure said, ominously.
"I'll handle this, Loon." Steel said, unsheathing his reverse blade, "I haven't seen any action all day!"
"Your destiny awaits you." The figure said, fingering a katana on his belt.
Steel's teeth were gritted as he approached the hooded figure. He readied his reverse blade and said, "Eat Japanese steel, you audacious speed-bump!"
Steel was about to swing his sword in a vertical chop when the figure held up a hand and caught Steel by the forearm in mid-swing. The figure tilted its head in curiosity, then lowered its hood to reveal a young Asian man with spiked, black hair.
"Steel?" he asked, then looked at Lunatic, "Insane Critic?"
Lunatic and Steel stared in awe as they asked, "Sovereign64?"
Smiles spread across both faces as the two swordsmen recognized each other. "HEY!" Steel said, shaking Sovereign64's hand, "How ya doin', buddy? Where ya been this whole time?"
"Oh, y'know. Around town and whatnot." Sovereign64 answered, "Unfortunately, I'm an obstacle in your path."
"Who's that?" Bindi asked.
"Oh, it's a guy who also does reviews who Steel did work with." Kitten answered, "He's been away for a while."
"How do you do that with your voice?" Steel asked, still smiling in disbelief.
"Just something I learned while I was away." Sovereign64 answered, using the tone he used earlier.
"By the by, we're on this epic quest while searching for the Sword of Chaos. Do you know where to find it?" Lunatic asked, stepping forward.
"Of COURSE I do. I'm an obstacle in order to reach it." Sovereign64 answered, "Unfortunately, if you want to reach it, you must defeat me in mortal combat."
"What?" Steel asked as Sovereign held up his katana.
"Just tap my sword." Sovereign ordered, holding it in a horizontal defend.
Steel raised his reverse blade and lightly tapped it. It probably was about as damaging as a butterfly landing on it.
"Okay. You beat me, let's get going." Sovereign said, walking off with both Lunatic and Steel.
With shrugs and grins at this sudden convenience, Team A walked off.
"By the by, who is this guy in the red coat?" Lunatic asked.
"I believe that's Cooly." Sovereign said, gesturing behind him with his thumb.
"No, he means the dude who's trying to obtain its awesome power and, like, take over the world." Cooly corrected.
"Oh, him? Well, let me tell you." Sovereign64 said, and due to recent budget-cuts (and an insane amount of laziness), I have to end the chapter right here. Hope you enjoyed.