Phoenix's Eye: The Guild Next Door

by Fenghuang0296

Magnolia's a big city. Far too big for just one wizarding guild to call it home. At the other end of the city, another guild hall lies, with its own wizards, its own stories, and its own identity. So, how about it? Do you want to join Phoenix's Eye? Part 1 of the Phoenix's Eye Trilogy.

26. The Dark Mage Unchained

Chapter 26: The Dark Mage Unchained

Well, would you look at that? It worked! Hah! Take that, Ankhseram, I am true god of this world!
And because that is the case, I have decided that, in order to celebrate cracking 100,000 words, it would be just fine if I posted two chapters in one week! And that I would be willing to do so again if I reach other important milestones . . . say . . fifty reviews? ;)

A/N

A/N

Tyria's bike skidded to a halt, and she looked around. She and Lucy had stopped on the edge of a cliff, hoping that the high vantage point would give them a good view of the area. "Okay, I'm not seeing anything," Lucy commented.

"Me neither," Tyria shrugged. "Guess we should head down,"

"Not so fast!" Suddenly, several levitating dark wizards shot up from beneath the cliff. "You snatched our MO, so we're gonna smash you!"

"What?" Lucy gasped, and Tyria groaned, recognising them. "Not these guys again,"

"That's right!" their leader shouted, moving forwards. "I, Dennis, Guild Master of Plagued Vulture, will destroy you in retribution for stealing our airship!"

"TechType: Tectonics," the tech wizard shrugged dispassionately, and, with a single hit, punched the man out of mid-air. He fell down the cliff, screaming all the way.

Lucy, seeing how weak their opponents were, grinned. "Open, Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!" Her horse spirit appeared, and, as they set about beating up the flying wizards, Lucy remarked; "Do you think the others are dealing with grunts too?"

~P's E~

"Hey, look! It's that Eregor guy! Hi, Eregor!" Natsu grinned, spotting the Wind dark wizard, backed up by his guildmates, confronting him and his allies.

"Oh no. They vastly outnumber us - we should retreat," Carla gulped, stepping back.

"You kidding? This is gonna be fun," Gray grinned. "Besides, we beat those guys already, they're just asking for Round 2!"

"Friends of yours?" Pierce asked, raising his flute.

"I beat him up a few months back," Natsu shrugged.

"And yet you remember his name, but not mine," the blond wizard irritably commented.

"And I have spent the time since doing nothing but training so that I can defeat you in our rematch!" Eregor shouted. "Charge!"

Natsu huffed. "Well, if that's all you've been doing," With a flaming punch, he sent Eregor flying away. "Then you haven't grown at all!"

Pierce and Carla hung back, and the cat watched in shock. "You've never seen Magnolian wizards in action, have you?" Pierce sympathetically asked, and Carla shook her head, awed.

"You'll get used to it," the Tamer shrugged, before grinning. "And I can't let them have all the fun,"

~P's E~

"You call this an attack?" Jura huffed as he repelled several dark wizards from Naked Mummy encroaching on the campsite.

"Don't feel too miffed. They are grunts," Sarph reminded him after dispatching a couple with his sword.

~P's E~

"That wasn't so hard," Ren shrugged as the blizzard he and Eve had summoned to dispatch their foes from Dark Unicorn dissipated, and Eve nodded. "True . . hey. Where'd Master go?"

~P's E~

"You all should be aware that I am going easy on you," Ichiya declared, balling his fists. "And when I defeat you, I will be merciful and allow you to escape,"

The man was tied by his ankles and wrists to a stick and being carried by dark wizards through the forest. "So I would very much appreciate it if you could show me the same courtesy!"

"Doesn't he ever shut up?" one of his captors remarked, exhausted already.

~P's E~

Racer sped back into the cave, carrying with him a massive wooden box. "I got it," he wheezed, dropping the box against the wall.

"Excellent," Brain smiled, stepping towards the casket and, with a quick spell, breaking it open.

"This is the man I want you to revive," he declared, making sure that the casket was within Wendy's line of view. The Sky Dragon Slayer gasped, for, suspended within the casket, was a lanky, blue-haired young man with a red tattoo under his eye, and several blue marks on his body. "Jellal Fernandes,"

Happy, who had remained silent, gasped. "Not that guy!"

Wendy, though, looked like she'd seen a ghost. "It's him," she whispered, her breath short.

"Well? Are you going to repay Jellal for help he gave you as a child? Or will you let him languish in this half-dead coma?"

There was a sudden noise, and Brain frowned, looking up. "Racer. Go and investigate," he commanded. "I don't want to be disturbed," Racer nodded and sped out of the cave.

~P's E~

"Okay. It smells like they went this way," Natsu commented, leading onwards.

"Who needs Knox when you have this guy, eh?" Pierce commented, before realising that the others didn't know his beasts.

"You're all absolutely insane," Carla shook her head.

The four wizards stopped short, on the edge of a cliff, which overlooked the ancient-looking remnants of a village. "They're here, I'm sure," Natsu declared.

"Any way to prove it?" the cat irritably demanded.

Racer suddenly emerged from the cave, ran straight up the wall, and sped towards them.

"You three go! I'll hold him off!" Gray declared, ice magic building in his palms. Pierce didn't need any more confirmation, and jumped straight off the cliff. Carla snatched up Natsu by the scarf and carried him in pursuit.

Gray, seeing the area was clear, immediately froze the ground around him. Racer, not prepared for this, lost his balance, fell over, and slid past the Ice wizard in a mess.

At the bottom of the cliff, Pierce, who had jumped greater distances from Raya's back on several occasions and was well versed in safe landings, was already running towards the cave - but a sudden flash of light from the entrance warned him that there was something serious going on inside. For a moment, Pierce faltered, but then he remembered Grace and powered on, playing a tune on his flute as he went.

~P's E~

Inside the cave, Jellal slowly came to. His head was foggy . . he didn't remember anything . . . where was he?

"I'm sorry . . . but I had to," Wendy whimpered, and he glanced at her in confusion, before another voice spoke.

"Good morning, Jellal. Enjoy your nap?" Brain smiled coolly.

Before he could respond, two sets of footsteps interrupted him, and Jellal turned to see a blonde boy in a blue shirt and brown trousers wielding a flute, backed up by a mermaid wielding a pair of stone daggers.

Pierce paused, looking at Jellal. "Who're you?" before spotting Wendy, Grace and Happy in their cage.

Brain eyed him and tched. "Legal wizards. Would you like to take care of him, or shall I?"

Jellal finally looked at Brain, and felt a sensation he couldn't quite identify. Either way, he got the feeling that whoever he was, he didn't like this man. And as for the blond boy and the mermaid with him, they were between him and the cave entrance.

In a blur of motion, he delivered a staggering blow to Brain, sending him sprawling backwards, before shoving Pierce and Crystal aside and speeding out towards the light, narrowly avoiding running into Natsu and Carla in the process.

Pierce filed the event away to consider later, rushing over to the cage and breaking it open. Crystal hovered over the downed Brain, holding a dagger to his threat, and the two Dragon Slayers emerged from the cage. Grace hovered close to Pierce, watching Brain as though he were a sleeping bear, and, crouching, Pierce wrapped his arms around her. "It's okay, it's okay," he muttered, putting his beast taming skills to good use to reassure the frightened young dragon.

Natsu entered the cave, and looked around. "Alright! We beat that Brain guy!" he grinned.

"No, he's just stunned, but he'll recover," Pierce shook his head. "We need to get out of here before then,"

"Why? He's vulnerable!" Natsu protested, but Carla shook her head. "No. Getting Wendy back to Erza has to take priority. We can deal with him later," Natsu was about to protest, but Happy grabbed his scarf and lifted him up. "Whatever the lady says," he nodded, and the two Exceeds flew their partners out of the cave. Pierce was about to follow, but he saw that Grace was still looking at Brain. He took her wrist and pulled her away. "Come on, let's go. We'll head back to the campsite, rendezvous with Sarph and Artorias,"

Little did he know that, even while mostly unconscious, Brain's telepathy magic had activated and his voice was ringing at the back of Grace's mind; "I'm not done with you,"

~P's E~

"Am I the only one who feels that we're moving too slowly?" Lyon questioned.

Sherry shrugged. "I dunno. It's kind of nice, just walking through the woods. You know what it's like?" She tilted her head and clasped her hands together. "Love~"

"Right," Boomer nodded, trying to refrain from rolling his eyes. "Still, if it's speed we need, I think I can do something about that,"

"Really? I thought you used Sound Magic? As in, a kind of magic that mostly relies on the user staying still?" Lyon asked, and Boomer chuckled. "Maybe for most people. But I practice a pretty unusual variety," He pulled up his jacket sleeve, revealing a comically oversized wristwatch, and pressed a hidden button on its side. "Now, we wait,"

"For what?" Sherry asked, and Boomer winked in a conspiratorial manner. "You'll see,"

~P's E~

In the hold of the Garuda, the Sonic Boom's lights flared to life. It's warp drive activated, and, with a flash, it vanished, reappearing outside the ship. It's metal wheels span madly, and the autopilot activated, guiding it to its owner.

~P's E~

From the shadows, Canceler watched. He watched the Sonic Boom moving towards its owner, he watched Artorias guarding Erza, he watched the Dragon Slayers and company escaping the hideout (should he do something about that? Hmm, no) he watched Tyria and Lucy as they were about to run into Mylene - oh? This could be interesting. Within a few seconds he had slunk through the shadows to a nearby town, where the local cinema suddenly found itself missing a box of popcorn.

Canceler settled down where he had a good vantage opportunity of the carnage that was about to ensue.

~P's E~

Mylene strolled through the forest, maintaining perfect posture with every step. "Nirvana has to be around here somewhere," she muttered, looking around as though she might discover it peeking out from a bush.

A high-pitched, metallic whine reached her ears, and her frown deepened. "That's not one of the Och," she muttered, before dashing behind a tree and watching as Tyria and Lucy, riding her motorbike, smashed through the trees. They didn't see Mylene, and something rankled with the Vestal about that.

Mylene cast a dirty glare in their direction. "How can they just ignore me like that? I'll show those little brats how we Vexos do it," she huffed, immediately setting off in pursuit.

However, given that she was on foot, running after a motorbike, she didn't get far. And Tyria and Lucy remained oblivious to her presence.

Her frown deepened again, and Mylene pressed a finger to the activation button on her gauntlet. "Gauntlet; Power Strike!" she commanded, and the blue/black device flared to life. Around her, six hovering energy cannons materialised, and Mylene smiled as two of them locked together in front of her to form a makeshift hoverboard at her mental command. She darkly smiled, jumping on board, and, with the other four cannons hovering behind her, took off.

The first Tyria and Lucy knew of their assailant was when a blue laser narrowly missed blowing their heads off. Lucy's eyes went wide. "What was that?!"

"TechType: Helmet!" Tyria commanded, manifesting her faceplate and, in a nanosecond, synced her bike and helmet together, enabling the rear-view mode, which popped up in her vision. She immediately spotted Mylene chasing them, and Lucy, who could simply turn around, gained the same information. "Hey, look, it's the old lady," Tyria commented with a smile beneath her mask.

Mylene blanched. "What did you just call me?"

"You wouldn't happen to have a high-speed spirit who can carry you, would you?" Tyria asked, and Lucy shook her head. "Damnit,"

"Doesn't mean I'm helpless, though," Lucy protested, before another laser shot inches away from her. "But whatever you're planning, do it fast!"

"Tuck and roll," the tech wizard snapped, leaning the motorbike sideways to dodge another blast of energy.

Lucy was about to question the meaning of this, but suddenly, the motorbike vanished. She screamed, instinctively tucking her head and folding her legs in order to shield herself from the impact.

With a whispered command; "TechType: Jetpack," metal struts bearing giant fans erupted from Tyria's back, and she took to the air without losing a drop of momentum. Banking, the Electrian wizard commanded; "TechType: Machine Gun!" and launched a blizzard of metal bullets in Mylene's general direction.

The Vestal's hoverboard swooped upwards to shield her as the third of her psychic cannons slotted in to catch her, and the assembly dropped to the ground, allowing her to land unharmed and still shielded by the two cannons. Tyria continued to fire for a moment, but realised it was useless, and deactivated the weapon.

By now, Lucy had recovered, and produced a golden key from her pouch. It spun in mid-air, before landing in her palm, which she held in mid-air and turned. "Open, Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!" With a doorbell, the bovine Celestial Spirit appeared, brandishing his giant axe menacingly.

The minotaur stared at Mylene in dismayed confusion. "Mooooooooo!" he lamented, eyes brimming with tears as he pointed at Mylene's armoured chest. "Why don't you have any booooooooooobs?!" Taurus demanded.

The Vestal, who had stepped out from behind her shield and was readying an attack, paused and glared at him. "Why would you summon such a vulgar spirit?" she demanded of Lucy. "And if you must know, I do have breasts. They're just covered by my ceremonial dress armour. Fiore might be a cesspit of provocative dresses, but in Vestal, we keep our dignity!" She tched. "It's like dealing with Shadow Prove all over again," Mylene hissed to herself.

Tyria, still hovering above, carefully watched their enemy, awaiting her next move. Deciding that the helmet was a waste of magic, she shut it off, revealing her face again.

"Actually, strike that," Mylene's arrogant smile returned, "it's not like dealing with Shadow Prove, because I have free reign to kill the two of you! And if you want to play with toys, then I suppose I can oblige," she declared, shouting in Lucy's direction, before producing a card from her pocket and dropping it to the ground. "Gate Card, Set!"

A massive shockwave of blue energy emitted along the ground. It didn't affect Tyria, but Lucy and Taurus had to carefully jump to make sure it didn't touch them. However, the wave was so flat that it didn't even touch them.

"That was kind of weak," Lucy observed. "She's planning something, I'm sure," Tyria replied, looking around warily.

Then it hit her, exactly what had happened. "Lucy, look around," the tech wizard commanded in a horrified whisper.

"What is it?" the Celestial wizard asked, scanning the forest. At first, she didn't see anything wrong, but then she noticed what Tyria had. Several metres away, at the edge of the clearing they were fighting in, a bird was flying. Or had been. The poor creature was frozen in mid-air, mid-flight. Leaves falling from the trees had paused in midair, and around them, the noises of the forest had gone dead. Lucy's eyes widened in shock. "Oh . . . oh my gosh, did she just -"

"Indeed. Setting a Gate Card, a creation born of Vestroian magic and Vestal science, has the effect of temporarily stopping time for all but the participants of a battle," Mylene explained. "But that's the least of your worries," she smirked, producing a small sphere from her pocket, which she threw at the ground in front of her. "Rise, Macubass!" The dark wizard commanded, and, from the ball, a massive vortex of blue energy erupted, which cleared after a moment to reveal a glittering, mechanical beast.

Tyria and Lucy gasped.

Macubass was reminiscent of a very squashed knight; a humanoid upper body made of silver metal and black rubber tubing, with blue highlights. Its blue upper body was leant forwards, like a bird, with silver wings extending from its sides, underneath which hung matching arms. Its head was sleek and triangular, with a flat red visor for a face. The mechanical monster mouthlessly roared with a noise like tortured metal.

"W-what the hell is that thing?" Lucy gasped.

"Whatever it is, it's at least partially of Electrian make," Tyria recognised parts of the design - that, and no other nation on Earth Land was capable of such a creation. Vestal technology was impressive, but it didn't hold a candle to the Electrian variety - however, both nations were far ahead of Fiore.

"The pinnacle of Vestal science. An artificially created Mechanical Bakugan," Mylene smirked. Her four cannons swept in and docked on top of Macubass' wigs, charging at attack. "The Gate Card disallows escape; time will only start again once there is a victor. Your lives are forfeit,"

"What's a 'Bakugan' - whoah!" Tyria gasped as a blast of energy narrowly missed her, and she swooped down to where Lucy was. "TechType: Force Field!" she commanded, materialising a blue shield around herself and Lucy.

"I think I read about that once," Lucy nodded. "Oh - right! Bakugan are a race of intelligent, if primitive, beings with powerful magic native to Vestroia, a continent directly south of Vestal," she recalled, before squeaking as a laser passed between Taurus' legs, only to be absorbed by the force field.

"Don't worry, we're safe here for a while," Tyria reassured her. Behind her, Taurus danced around various lasers, trying to find an opening to attack the machine.

"Alright," Lucy nodded. "From what I heard, Vestal tried to conquer Vestroia a few years ago, headed by a group of bad guys called the Vexos, but they were beaten back by the native Bakugan and some human wizards who helped them,"

Tyria considered this and paused. "Uh, didn't Hibiki say that Mylene was a member of the Vexos before they were disbanded?"

"True!" Suddenly, Mylene was just outside the force field, armed with a blue blade of energy protruding from her Gauntlet. She reared back, about to strike, but Tyria frantically deactivated the field and ducked away. The two girls separated, and Lucy produced a small handle. She waved it in mid-air, and a crackling whip of blue energy emerged.

"Good idea. We'll tie her up!" Tyria agreed, commanding, "TechType: Charge Whip!" Her right forearm morphed into a silver weapon, which she raised and fired. A crackling beam of blue energy raced towards Mylene, only to be deflected by the Vexo's blade.

Behind them, Taurus was clearly losing to Macubass, and, with a blast of energy, the machine knocked his axe out of his hand. "Lucy!" Tyria shouted. "You take Macubass, I'll handle Mylene!"

Behind Mylene, Lucy nodded and dashed away, heading for the other fight.

"You think you can defeat me alone?" Mylene tched, raising her sword. "My powers aren't limited to just summoning Bakugan,"

"Oh yeah? TechType: Tectonics!" Tyria declared, negating her Charge Whip and morphing both of her arms into powerful metal clubs.

The Och member slashed at the air with her sword, and a glowing blue wave of energy issued from it. Tyria braced herself, holding her arms up - and was surprised when the attack didn't harm her, but shut her down, forcing her mechanised hands back into flesh and blood. "What?"

"I am a master of Wave magic. My negation abilities are top-notch!" Mylene declared.

"Big deal. TechType: Tectonics!" Tyria declared, but, aside from several blue sparks playing around her hands, nothing happened. "What?"

"My Waves don't just stop your spells, they prevent you from using them," Mylene explained, continuing to advance, and the technology wizard retreated, keeping her distance. "Face it, it's hopeless,"

"TechType: Machine Gun!" Tyria tried, blasting a round of ammunition in Mylene's direction, but the Vestal waved her sword, blocking the bullets, and all shattered into magical dust upon contact with the Wave magic blade.

"TechType: Forcefield!" Her left arm morphed and generated a spherical shield of blue energy around her. Mylene tched and slashed another arc of Wave energy at her, but it fizzled out of existence against the force field. "Sorry, but my Forcefield blocks all projectiles, and it's not a spell. The spell is the generator, which you can't touch because it's behind the Forcefield," Tyria explained.

"You say it blocks projectiles?" In a flash, Mylene rushed forwards, stabbing through the field and forcing her sword into Tyria's transformed left arm. With a flash, the change reverted, and Tyria ducked away, her right arm clutching at the gash in her left.

"Face it, you can't defeat me with your spells," Mylene harrumphed. "Just give up already,"

"Not while I still have an arsenal!" Tyria shrieked. "Gear Change! Mark: Second!" A coroner of power manifested around her body, and her blue hair turned silver, pulling out of its ponytail and into several spikes, as her eyes lit up electric blue. "TechType Mark II: Forty-Eight Peg Gear Blitzkrieg!" The two massive gears of her attack manifested on her forearms, and began to spin wildly. She drove them into the ground, and they sent her shooting forwards, ramming into Mylene with the steel weapons. A mighty kick knocked her into the air, and Tyria drove her arms up, forcing the metal gears to bite into Mylene's coat.

Mylene gasped in surprise at the ferocity of the attack, but, as she was knocked into the air, and her blade flailed, she regained control and slashed wildly at Tyria with her Wave blade. The enchanted weapon cut through her gears like butter, and, with a sharp intake, the attack was cut off, Tyria stumbling back. Mylene landed on one knee, several gashes torn in her armour. "Pathetic," she snorted. "Was that your ultimate attack?"

"Maybe once, but now I'm better," Tyria grinned, in spite of her injuries and the blood still dripping from her left arm. "TechType Mark II: Electrostatic Blade Dance!" Her feet morphed into bladed, silver rollerblades with blue wheels, and her forearms grew silver gauntlets as two razor-sharp spears appeared on each. Immediately, one detached from her left arm and she planted it in the ground, before dashing towards Mylene.

The Vestal readied her sword and prepared to slash - but Tyria ducked and slid past without touching her, planting another spear. As Mylene turned, Tyria continued to skate and stayed in her blind spot, planting the third spear so that it formed a right angle with the other two.

"What are you doing?" Mylene demanded, advancing towards Tyria, only for the wizard to jump straight over her in a stunning feat of agility and, as she landed, plant the last of the spears in position. "Light it up!" she commanded, clenching her fists and pressing her fingers to the button on the gauntlet of her left hand.

The four pillars flared to life, and created a field of electricity with Mylene in the centre. The Vestal screamed, and Tyria smiled a tired smile, watching her enemy sink to her knees.

A blue blade flashed, and one of the pillars collapsed, severed at the shaft. With this opening, Mylene struggled out of the electrical field, and, freed from the pulse, stood up, and glared daggers at Tyria. "Is that it? Because it's not enough!" she declared, brandishing her weapon.

Tyria gritted her teeth. Fine. She'd finished her new spell only that morning, and hadn't even tested it yet . . but if her Mark II spells weren't working, there was nothing else for it.

"Come on. Give up now and I'll make your death fast," Mylene hissed.

In response, the Electrian balled her fists, breathed in deep, and planted her feet in the ground, bracing herself for the strain that the new mode would surely put on her system. "Gear Change!" she declared.

"What, again? How many gears do you have?" Mylene groaned.

"Mark: Third!" Tyria declared, and a circle of white magic power erupted from the ground around her feet, growing teeth and rotating to form the shape of a ticking gear. White energy scorched a black pattern of gear-like tattoos down her arms and legs, as her tracksuit pants split open at the seams, leaving her clad only in her sleeveless blue vest and grey boxer shorts. Her glowing blue irises lit up further, the sclera shining white and glowing like spotlights, as electricity cracked through the silver spikes of her hair as though they were lightning rods.

The discharge of power alerted Lucy's magical senses, as well as temporarily putting Macubass on the fritz. The blonde turned to see Tyria's transformation, and gasped. "Oh wow,"

Mylene snorted. "It doesn't matter how much magic you have, my Wave will shut it down!"

"TechType Mark III!" Tyria shouted as several concentric, interlocking gears manifested on her back, forming appendages in a shape similar to butterfly wings. She levitated, the raw magic power lifting her off the ground, aided by the energy emanating from her transformation. In each of the gears of her wings, blue energy mounted in the centre, each preparing a blast. "Sixty-Four Pulse Kinetic Air Raid!" Every single one of the score of gears of different sizes blasted a concentrated, intense beam of blue energy directly at Mylene, an impenetrable assault that no amount of Wave magic could negate.

The Vestal frantically blocked, her sword slicing through one or two of the beams, but all the rest penetrated. Her armour, already battered and singed, broke under the strain, letting the energy beams scorch her skin. As the lasers grew in intensity with the attack's climax, Mylene let loose one final scream, before crumpling to the ground like a paper bag.

In the seconds before she fell unconscious, Mylene couldn't help but reflect on how ironic it was that she was defeated by a bunch of teenagers - again. 'My prayer, was that people would respect me as they used to,' she quietly thought to herself, reminiscing about the reputation she had once held amongst her people, before sinking into darkness.

On Lucy's side of the clearing, Macubass, who had already been doing pretty badly - arrows had wedged in its laser cannons, courtesy of Sagittarius, Loke's Regulus Impact had caused one of its eyes to shatter inwards, and Virgo had punched several holes in its wings. But now, with its controller gone, Macubass' entire body glowed blue and shrunk, returning back into a ball. Underfoot, the Gate Card shattered, white fragments of energy erupting from the ground before disintegrating, and, as Lucy looked around, time restarted.

In the shadows, Canceler shook his head to himself. If Mylene hadn't stopped time, he would have stepped in to help - but even he was incapable of breaching a Gate Card's time-stop. To his perspective, one second Mylene had been facing down the two girls with the utmost confidence (and raving about someone named Shadow Prove), and the next one of the girls was floating over her unconscious body with wings made of gears, while the other was standing next to a man in a suit with spiky hair and cat ears, and seemed to be celebrating a victory.

He tutted and sunk back into the shadows. Mylene was so arrogant. It was always her weakness. But he would not fall prey to the same trap.

Back on the field, Tyria landed and her transformation shut down, wings dissipating and hair collapsing and returning to being blue as the gear-like tattoos vanished from her body. She collapsed to hands and knees, breathing heavily.

Lucy was there in an instant. "Are you alright?" she immediately asked, and Tyria nodded. "I'm fine," she breathed. "Just tired," She cast a glance towards the remains of her shredded combat trousers, before her gaze turned to her partially exposed boxers. "Damnit. I guess I still need to calibrate that spell a bit more - I can't end up half-naked every time I get into a fight,"

Lucy suddenly went very quiet, and Tyria looked up, brushing her hair out of her eyes as she did. "Uh, is something the matter?"

"No of course you can't end up half-naked during every fight that would be horrible and embarrassing but what would I know after all it's not like that happens to me where would you get an absolutely crazy idea like that?" Lucy babbled.

"Hey, Lucy?" Loke weighed in with a mischievous smile. "Some of the shrapnel from Macubass' eye shredded the back of your dress. It's probably gonna fall off any second now, but don't worry, I already have a pretty good view of what's underneath,"

"What?" the Celestial Wizard demanded, wheeling on her heel and glaring at Loke and his perverted smile. "Go home!" she snapped.

"But I was only joking!" Loke protested, before vanishing in a flash of golden light.

"Alright, tell me how bad it is," Lucy moaned, turning around and presenting her back.

Tyria winced as she stood up, for reasons completely unrelated to her aching skeleton. "Um," With a sudden flash of inspiration, she dashed over to Mylene's prone form and snatched the silken blue cloak with its black ruffles from around her neck. "How about you wear this until we find you a new dress?" she suggested, offering the only slightly torn garment to Lucy, who groaned. "And Natsu wonders why I always need rent money,"

The Phoenix moaned, clutching her chest, and collapsed to one knee.. Lucy whirled and cast her a concerned look. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Tyria nodded through gritted teeth. "That was the first time I've ever gone Mark III. Takes a bit out of me," She let herself fall to the ground. "Go on without me. I'll be fine. Besides, I should guard the prisoner," she chuckled, gesturing to Mylene.

"Okay, if you're sure," Lucy was unconvinced, but nodded and ran off, resolving to get in contact with Hibiki and ask him to tell one of Tyria's guild mates to come and get her.

~P's E~

"Welcome again to DK's Ds!" Kit declared, rapping in his billboard, which shows a world map of Earth Land. Fiore is in the centre, with Vestal as a continent that was barely one-third of the size to the north-west, and a significantly larger landmass of Vestroia directly south of it and extending further west and south until it reached the corner of the map. To the east, there is a large continent that is shaped similarly to Europe and Africa (however, it is lacking Britain) marked 'Alvarez Empire' that takes up the entire right corner of the board, with an island that resembles a squashed version of Greenland marked 'Electria'.

"Today, we've decided to discuss the ways that the canon of Bakugan: New Vestroia, and by extension the series that preceded it, Bakugan: Battle Brawlers, has been used to augment the Phoenix's Eye canon! Because, in case you didn't work it out around Chapter 24, Mylene Farrow is a character borrowed from New Vestroia. And it might seem boring, but I highly recommend that you read through all of it and keep it in mind anyway; the information is going to be a lot more relevant to the Phoenix's Eye story than it might currently seem. Let's just say that the crossover won't end with Mylene," Kit summarised.

"Bakugan: New Vestroia is roughly split into two halves; the first half consists of the Vexos, led by Prince Hydron and including Mylene, attempting to invade the alternate dimension of New Vestroia by using Vestal technology to change the Bakugan, usually giant monsters, into ball form. This was done because planet Vestal was overcrowded and they desperately needed to expand to new areas to contain the surplus population. However, because while all Bakugan are intelligent, only a select few have the ability to communicate with humans (who were quickly silenced), the majority of the Vestal people at first failed to realise that the Bakugan were intelligent creatures; they thought that they were just dumb beasts. Only Prince Hydron and the Vexos, as well as a select group of rebels called the Bakugan Resistance were aware of the truth, and they intentionally propagated a falsehood that was eventually disproven by the Resistance. In Phoenix's Eye canon, things happened much the same way; all you have to do is substitute 'planet' or 'dimension' with 'continent' and it all reads much the same," Kit explained.

"The second half gets a bit more complicated. In the second part of New Vestroia, the Vexos and Prince Hydron, as well as his father, King Zenoheld, have, after a successful revolution, been forced into hiding. Well, 'hiding' is a misnomer; they actually escaped into space on King Zenoheld's personal space station. Because kings get those," Kit paused thoughtfully. "I wonder if the Yokai King has his own space station? If he does, I hope he lets me borrow it," "Anyway. First, for the sake of vengeance, King Zenoheld launches an experimental doomsday weapon at New Vestroia that would have killed all the Bakugan in New Vestroia, if the same Resistance hadn't subsequently, and a little ironically, launched the doomsday weapon back into space so that it would explode in a place where it couldn't hurt anyone. If only they'd had better aim, they could have hit the space station," Kit chuckled. "Then, King Zenoheld and the remaining Vexos, because at this point two of them, Spectra and Gus, had defected to the resistance, decided they couldn't give up without one last whack at world domination. So King Zenoheld had his chief scientist, Professor Clay, who remained loyal to him throughout all this, use alien technology to change his space station into the Alternative Weapons Platform, an orbital superweapon (comparable to the Death Star from Star Wars) with enough firepower to completely obliterate entire worlds. It was at this point that King Zenoheld planned to hold the entire universe to ransom and use the Alternative to destroy any world that refused to accept him as Supreme Overlord. However, two of the four remaining Vexos, Volt and Lync, decided that this was going too far, so they decided to jump ship. Volt tried to escape into exile, however he was hunted down and killed for betraying King Zenoheld, however Lync took it a step further and attempted to defect to the Resistance, just as Spectra and Gus had before him. He was killed too, but not before he managed to give the Resistance the specs to the Alternative. Using the data Lync sacrificed himself for, the Resistance used their Bakugan and Spectra's own personal spaceship (because obviously he gets one too. Lousy lucky Vestals.) launched a space assault on the Alternative so that they could destroy it before it was completely activated. In spite of the Alternative reaching full power mid-battle, it was successfully destroyed, and King Zenoheld, Prince Hydron and Doctor Clay all died when it exploded. And that's New Vestroia in a nutshell,"

"Now, how did all this translate to Phoenix's Eye canon? With a couple of notable differences. The majority of all this still happened in the same way, with a couple of notes; in the original, Mylene and Shadow Prove both committed suicide rather than be captured by the Resistance. In Phoenix's Eye canon, though, their attempt failed and they were successfully incarcerated . . at least until Mylene broke out and escaped to Fiore to hook up with the Oracion Och. And while Volt was still killed at Hydron's hand, Lync also survived, joining the Resistance for a short while before going to live with retired Battle Brawler Alice and her grandfather,"

"So, that's that! See you later, on Doctor Kit's Documentaries!"

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I hope no one skipped all that, even if they have seen New Vestroia. The importance of that exposition may be miniscule now, but it will grow.

And yeah, Tyria gets Mark III already. I have a reason for rolling out the evolutions of her abilities as quickly as I am, I promise. XD

Peace!