I'm back!

Liz- let me just say you've got the honor of being the first person I heard that joke from… and now I am hearing it everywhere lol. Nadia is sure gonna need a lot of alcohol after this mess, and I think the rest of the characters will need a few drinks too. Heck, even the kids. I don't think the masters or their parents would blame them for becoming alcoholics before their twenties after all this.

Ray

It was the first emergency alert we had received since the second Invasion.

I didn't even read my alarm as I threw on clothes and ran out of my room, following my dad outside and into the chilly night.

"Tatsurion, the Unchained!"

"Humonculon the Blaster!"

We crossed the veil using Bob and I immediately directed him towards the Null zone.

"What's going on?" Bob glanced back at us, tense and obviously stressed. His muscles felt like steel cables beneath us, tight and ready for a fight.

"The Choten's swarmed the Null zone." Dad explained. "He's looking for the remaining artifacts."

"Which ones are still lost?" Bob looked forwards again, relaxing slightly.

"The Heart of light and Sword of Fiery catalysm are safe, the helm of ultimate technology, shield of unity, and cloak of dark illusion are still lost." I recited.

"Two of three." The dragon hybrid murmured. "We can't let him get to the others, but I won't be of much use to you in the Null."

"That's where the titans come in." Dad stood and shielded his eyes from the rising sun to look further ahead of us. "They can last longer in the null than regular creatures. We've called Mai as well, and if Allie and Gabe received the call we'll have six ring wielders to work with."

"What about Samson and John? They've got titans too." I hesitated for a moment as a thought came to me. "And… Maria. They have three titans between them, and all of them are powerful in their own ways."

"We'll just have to hope six against three are good odds." Bob growled as we approached the Null.

Choosing to save some of Bob's strength for later, we had him land just outside of the border to the Null. Dad's earpiece began working now that we were within range of the others, and he checked in quickly.

"Ray and I are here. What's the plan?"

"Keep quiet, don't be seen." Jaha's voice rang clearly through the device. "The Choten's people are spread thin, but still greatly outnumber us. Samson, John, and Maria are here as well, but have not summoned their titans."

"We'll let them do most of the heavy lifting for us." I heard Gabe's voice and felt a little more at ease. "Gargle's built a device that's let us hack into their coms. We can keep looking around ourselves but the moment one of them finds something, we'll be right there to snatch it up."

"Is that really a good idea, though?" I asked, not liking the idea of letting the Choten's goons get to any of the artifacts first. "Why don't we force them out now?"

"Because patience is what this mission requires." I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of Mai's voice behind us. Dad and I whipped around as she approached. "We may have more titans, but few can challenge the speed of Lightspeed Leviathan or even scratch the Shuck's tough hide. We need to play this smart, and smart isn't trying to wipe out everyone in our path."

I tried to hide my scowl, but it apparently didn't work well considering the look Mai gave me. Still, she didn't continue to harp on me for it.

"Keep a sharp eye out," Mai continued as she left us and headed up a ridge, "The walls have eyes. Just hope those eyes are mostly from the temple, and not from the Choten."

I was a little disappointed to see her go. Despite how long she had been training me, we never went out on missions or anything together. Hell, she still has yet to invite me into the Castle of the Guard. It didn't feel like she was taking my dedicating to becoming a guard seriously, but I couldn't focus on that now. Right now I needed to focus on the other voices coming around the corner.

Dad and I ducked around a wall of stones and listened as two goons passed us by.

"This is stupid. You'd think he could make some kind of sensor for the stupid things!" One guy complained.
"Knock it off!" A female voice shouted. "I'm sick and tired of your complaining! We've got a job to do, if you hate it so much how about you quit!"

"They're being so loud." I whispered.

"They don't even know we're here." Dad confirmed my suspicion. "We'll follow them for a while, see where the lead us."

And so we did. Like creeps, we kept behind anything big enough to hide us. The three weren't really searching very hard for the artifacts, but they did run into another group of goons, fronted by none other than Maria.

"Nothing?" She confronted them. "Are you guys even looking?"

"Yeah, yeah, princess." The guy waved her off, and the woman smacked the back of his head. "We couldn't find anything."

Maria really didn't seem to like that. Grabbing the front of his suit, she almost pulled the guy off of his feet as she got in his face. "Call me princess once more and you'll be needing to sleep on a bed of frozen peas for at least a month!"

It hurt to see her on the other side, but I felt a sort of sick satisfaction that everything wasn't all sunshine and rainbows with her now.

I'm sure the Choten wanted his one and only daughter front and center in his plans when Maria came to him, and she probably ended up stepping on a lot of toes or even stepped over people who had been working with him for years. She was probably having a hell of a time getting people to respect her because of that.

Maria shoved the guy to the ground and turned to his partner. "Keep searching, and the next time I see you two with clean hands and knees, you're asses are grass!"

With a quick 'yes mam', the two scurried off back where they came from. I moved to follow, but dad held me up.

"We'll follow Maria for now. If we're lucky, she'll lead us right to the Choten and we can report back on where he's set up camp." He reasoned as Maria and her small group began to walk the other way.

"Good idea. Should we tell the others?"

Dad hesitated for a moment, and I guessed why. There was lots of emotion running through the temple when Maria left. There was no use starting a mess now by revealing where she was going.

"Never mind. Let's just go."

Allie

Hero was very upset when I told him he had to stay home. He understood when I explained I was going to the Null zone, but he still wasn't happy with that. He was worried the null would affect me. Sure, I've been to the Null zone before, but not like this. Now I felt more creature than human, and I wasn't sure if that would change how I felt within its borders.

Summoning draglide as soon as I crossed over, I had him take me to the borders of the Null and met up with Master Nadia and Jaha. Both were concerned for my safety as well, and wanted to be there if I started to be drained.

Ten minutes into our search, I found it hard to hold my human form, but I couldn't tell if that was from stress or the Null sapping out my mana. To conserve my strength, I let go of my disguise and made full use of my Kitsune abilities to search for the artifacts.

"Keep close," Nadia warned, placing a hand on my arm. In this form, I was at least a foot taller than her. "The moment you begin to feel weak, come to me and I'll take you home."

I nodded to her and headed off on my own. Nadia and Jaha were following Heller and some other goons at the moment, leaving me free reign to use my senses and nose to track down the artifacts. I did have one trick up my sleeve, though.

The Cloak of Dark Illusion knew me, and I knew it. Closing my eyes, I remembered the feeling of its weight on my shoulders. I remembered the powers it granted me, and how corrupting those powers were. For a moment I wondered if I could maybe better control it now that I was more creature than human, but remembering all the harm I caused neatly shoved the thoughts into the far back recesses of my mind.

Instead, I cast out my senses the way Arachnos taught me. She had explained it wasn't so different than what Nadia did to wake up the water elder. Using her mana, she created a field for her consciousness to search through, but instead I created a field that simply extended my senses. Such an ability would be useless to most humans, but because of my newly heightened sense of smell and hearing, I was one step ahead of everyone in a given vicinity.

The search was slow going, especially since I was supposed to keep close to Nadia. Normally, I wasn't against bending the rules a bit, but I wasn't about to strand myself too far away from help if I did deplete all of my mana.

"Nadia, too your left." I warned through the ear piece she had quickly fashioned for me using the condensed mana from her tattoos.

From the ridge I was on, I could hear they were about to be surrounded. They hadn't been found yet, but if they stayed put she and jaha would be in serious trouble. I heard the gentle clicks of her heels as she pulled jaha away from the group and sighed with relief. "They're really clustered over here. I wonder if they know something we don't?"

"That's a possibility." Jaha whispered. "A few groups are carrying some sort of tablet. Can you try and get a better look at one?"

"Gotcha."

Jumping down from the ridge, I easily hunted down a group of two that were carrying one of the tablets. As quietly as I could, I snuck up behind them, ready to sink into the shadows at their feet at a moments notice. Looking over one girl's shoulder, I could see it was a radar.

After watching the screen for a moment, I retreated and hurried to find Jaha and Nadia.

"It's a radar." I explained to them. "Its not well made, but its definitely picking up on our coms. The problem is everyone's so spread out and the signals are so confused that they don't know whose' whose."

"It's unlike the choten to have such a poor quality device." Nadia murmured to herself.

"The thing itself looks nice, but I think something in the void is jamming most of the signals they are receiving. I couldn't even tell if they were trying to use them for the artifacts or not."

"Well, for now lets get out of here." Jaha glanced around the corner of the stone they were hiding behind. "If they can see our coms, we need to warn the others and go radio silent for now. But without your help, Allie, I'm afraid this area is too populated to be searched safely."

Nadia sent out the alert and I easily guided them to another region of the Null. There were less goons around, but I could distantly sense something else.

Something big.

"Do you guys feel that?" I asked dumbly, forgetting for a second that I wasn't like them anymore.

"Feel what?" Nadia asked as I shook my head. "Describe it to us."

Focusing on the feeling, this cold knot seemed to form in my gut. I cast out my senses to try and exactly pinpoint where it was coming from. It didn't feel familiar like the artifacts or even like a person was nearby.

Then, I heard it.

It sounded like a wave being pulled back into the ocean. Deep and hollow, the sound rolled through my entire body as slowly as the sound filled the space around us. In a panic, I looked to Nadia, who just seemed confused. Jaha as well didn't seem to hear it.

The sound finally stopped, and I waited for the crash… but it never came. The hair surrounding my neck, surrounding my tails, and running down my back was completely raised with fright. I had unconsciously cowered down to the ground in my panic and Nadia had placed a reassuring hand on my back.

"What is it? What did you feel?"

"I… I don't know." I still felt the presence, but with the sound gone its existence was more tolerable to me. I took in a deep breath through my nose, and trembled slightly. "It… there's something big around here. Big and dangerous. I… I thought I heard it inhale, but… its gone now."

Jaha and Nadia exchanged worried looks, but they were as clueless as I was. We continued the search once I settled down a little. The presence was still in the back of my mind as we searched, but I found it easier to focus the longer that no other sound followed the first.

We had been out for hours by the time I was beginning to wear out. Nadia tried to convince me to let her take me home, but I wasn't that tired yet. I still could walk, so I still could work.

"Allison, the goal was to use your abilities to help the search, not see how long you could fair in the Null zone before your body gives out." Jaha pleaded with me.

"We have no clue what this could be doing to your body right now." Nadia tried to reason.

"Just a little while longer," I said between breaths. "Promise."

They both seemed reluctant, but the seemed to know they wouldn't be able to make me do anything I didn't want to in this form.

We continued on searching some of the lesser populated areas and approached the waterfall that king Tritonus had used to enter the Null. Pausing for a moment, I focused on the new area and cast out my senses.

And I found something.

Joy lit up my chest as I rushed forwards, too focused on my goal to even think about warning Nadia or Jaha about what I was doing.

I reached the edge of the water and jumped straight in. Using my extra tails as rudders, I easily reached the bottom and began clawing away at the rocks and mud at the bed of the lake. My fingers brushed up against something slick and made of some strange fabric, and a familiar feeling rushed through my veins. I grabbed it and held on tightly, kicking up from the bottom to begin my ascent.

The fabric was caught on something, though. Reaching down with my free hand, I felt something wooden, round, and carved that was bleeding mana. I could barely believe my luck as I dug up the objects and headed for the surface.

"Allie, what were you thinking!" Nadia was already shouting when my head broke the surface of the water.

I was breathing too hard to answer, so I gave her a foxlike grin and revealed the objects in my hands. The shield and the cloak.

I reached the shore and while both Jaha and Nadia praised my find and scrutinized my methods, I felt my chest ache with exhaustion.

"I think I need to go home…" I gasped for air.

"I think so, too." Nadia sighed. She pulled the shield onto her back and pulled the cloak over her left arm and offered me her right. "I'll take the artifacts to the temple as well. Don't wait for me, Jaha, but I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Actually, just stay behind with the artifacts. We're all here. Toji can usually defend the temple well enough on his own, but I don't want it to become a target if the Choten finds out we already have two artifacts."

Nadia nodded in understanding and Jaha opened up a breach for us. Just as we were about to jump through, I cast my senses out one last time, hoping maybe to find the helm or get an idea of where Jaha should look. Instead, I heard it…

The waterfall's roar behind us did nothing to dampen the crashing sound that filled my body. I froze up like before, looking out to the center of the null zone. It rolled through my head and I could almost feel the wind against my fur.

"Allie, what's wrong?" Nadia asked, worry written all over her face as she followed my gaze.

"I heard it…" I stammered. "It exhaled."

Gabe

Wade, Chavez and I watched Heller and his two goons dig up the Helm of Ultimate Technology from the trench, unsure of exactly what to do.

On one hand, we could ambush them here and now. All three of us had flying titans, and if we went in guns blazing we could be in and out in a matter of seconds.

On the other… Heller had certainly called for backup already and this area was probably about to be swarmed with the Choten's minions, and if we didn't want to immediately give ourselves up without our coms we couldn't call for backup either.

"If we just summon Beowolf, we could at least try to be quiet, take them out, then sneak away." Wade murmured to himself. "But if we make a show with Raja or Ahool, we could alert the others that we need help, but that will get the Choten's attention too and Lightspeed Leviathan would be on us in seconds."

Chavez was quiet for a while, then he stood up. "Gabe, Summon Beowolf and try to get the helm in two minutes. I'm going to run as far as I can to the south and summon Raja. If we make a big enough commotion about flying away from you two, the Choten and his men will follow us."

"And how exactly will that work out for you?" Wade asked. "Lightspeed Leviathan is our biggest threat right now. It could be on your head the moment Maria notices Raja."

"Which is why once I am sure you guys are gone with the helm, I'll banish back with Raja to wherever she came from."

It… really was our only option.

As quietly as I could, I summoned Beowolf and we waited as Chavez ran to a larger clearing of stone nearby. Wade readied his Guard weapon and summoned Tigershark, and we waited for the signal.

"Raja, the Skyburner!"

The ring flew up into the sky and grew until the great dragon could fit through its golden loop. Raja roared with all of the fiery passion of a proud dragon and landed in the Clearing where Chavez was supposed to be.

Looking back to Heller and his goons, the three were obviously rattled, and we took our chance.

"Beowolf, now!"

With a low snarl, Beowolf spread his wings and launched himself down at the men.

"Help, we're under attack!" Heller shouted through his own ear piece as he fumbled with his gauntlet.

Just as we thought, I looked back to Raja and saw her locked in combat with Lightspeed Leviathan. For a moment I wondered if Maria was there in the fray, but I couldn't worry about that now. Heller and the goons had summoned three lava leapers.

It wasn't exactly a fair fight to start out with. Tigershark and Beowolf each took on a leaper and Wade took the last one, leaving me to summon Switchscale dragon to face Heller and the others.

Unfortunately, we had underestimated how close Heller's reinforcements were, and within what felt like three minutes we were surrounded by the Choten, Tierra, Maria, and their men.