The remaining group all followed HGG and Kit towards a stand of trees. Gabrielle and Amarice now brought up the rear, discussing the events of the past five minutes. As they passed through the trees, they felt a change. Everyone stopped walking, including Kit and HGG, who looked annoyed. The group all looked back, where they could still clearly see the dirt field and the grass. Turning back to face their guides, it was different. The world around them was darker. It had a surreal edge to it. "Where are we?" Ephiny asked. HGG leaned against Kit, who was looking around happily. "Home," he sighed. "It's an amazing place. Griffins, dragons, unicorns, mermaids… they all still exist here, as compared to the world I come from." Everyone looked around, as if suddenly expecting a dragon to appear after what HGG said. She rolled her eyes, then looked at Kit with a psychotic grin.
After everyone had relaxed and started to slowly move forward again, a black dragon arose from behind a nearby mountain, starting towards them at a fast clip. HGG grinned. Kit made a noise that could have been griffin laughter. A moment later, the dragon touched down near them. A darkly dressed being jumped off. "Psycho," she said, addressing HGG, who nodded at her. "Killer." The one identified as Killer turned towards the group. "You guys can call me… PKD. I've got nothing better to do, so Ryu and I will be joining Psycho and Kit." Minya looked at them. "HGG? PKD? What's with the names?" The two stared at her. HGG suddenly burst out with, "Psycho… Killlllllllerz! Killerz!" She instantly became serious once again before turning to Kit. "Shall we?" He nodded and leaned down for HGG to climb up. She did so, then looked to PKD and Ryu. Gabrielle and Amarice exchange worried glances.
"She's insane!" Xena growled as they started moving again.
"I don't think I can handle it! I'm not made for this! I'm a…" the last word came out slurred, but most certainly had a –bian sound to it. HGG, PKD, Kit, and Ryu all turned their steely gazes to her. "YOU'RE WHAT??" Minya stared at them, then opened her mouth to reply. "A th-" HGG cut her off. "Never mind!" They all turned around and once again started moving forward. "Tell us more about this place," Gabrielle requested as she fell into step between Kit and Ryu. Amarice caught up to her, looking nervously at Ryu. "Yeah, what's up with this place?" Cyane called. "Best way to sum it up: this is what happens when worlds collide," HGG said. "Yeah. And it's my favorite place to hang out," PKD added. "What do you mean?" Ephiny questioned, directing it to HGG. "Every religion in history, every civilization in history, all can be found here. Every creature that most people of HGG and PKD's time believe to be fantasy- including griffins like myself and dragons like Ryu- still exists here. Basically, just about anything imaginable, you'll find here." Everyone fell silent, contemplating the words of Kit. "So where exactly are we headed?" Nebula eventually asked. "One of the few places where a Mercedes sighting has been confirmed," Kit replied.
After a few hours of intense, mostly silent travel, the odd group arrived in a small city. "This is it?" Callisto asked, sounding bored. "No one to kill? No buildings to burn? Nothing exciting on the trip?" HGG looked at her in interest. "No. The trip was the boring part. This is where the fun starts." Mavican made an obnoxious noise. "Well, I certainly hope there's SOMETHING interesting here…" At that moment, a door flew open a few feet away, and someone stepped out. At the sudden, aggressive forward movement of HGG, and the quick restraint by PKD, everyone realized it must be Mercedes. "We have to let them do it, remember? So someone will finally win?" PKD reminded HGG, who growled in anger. "Fine! But the Board is not going to get off so easy."
Mercedes had obviously spotted HGG. Looking at Kit, she snobbily turned to someone behind the door and 'whispered', "Damn, he's so ugly!" HGG looked around in confuzzment. "Oh, excuse me, I don't seem to recall anyone asking for your opinion." Mercedes didn't reply. She turned back to whoever she had spoken to and said, "Let's go Lara. We have work to do." With that, they shut the door. A bright yellow flash came from inside, and all was silent. HGG let loose with a string of expletives before hopping off of Kit and running to the house. Using the bat she'd had in her hands since the Battlers first saw her, she pounded in the door. PKD looked at everyone. "Well, let's go see if we can find anything of use in there." They all went in. After a long search, they concluded that there was nothing to be found. HGG looked at PKD. "I need to put someone through a table," she sighed. PKD nodded in understanding. Minya shrieked. "I knew it! They ARE crazy! I cant work under these conditions! Are-" her scream was cut off by HGG tackling her. "Table!" PKD shouted, indicating a small folding table in the corner. "Ladders!" HGG replied, pointing at two large ladders outside. Leaving Minya rolling on the floor, she shoved PKD. "Killer… get the tables!"
While PKD did that, HGG ran outside and set up a ladder, then pulled Minya out. The rest of the group was now back with Kit and Ryu. Not sure what was going on, they all just stood there and watched. The griffin and the dragon seemed to be laughing. Kit then started a chant, saying "TLC! TLC!" over and over. Ryu joined in as they watched PKD set up the second ladder. She set Minya on the table, and they each climbed a ladder. They pointed at each other, something Kit called 'the gunz,' and then balanced precariously on the tops. HGG did a flip off of her ladder- identified as a 'Swanton Bomb' by Kit- and PKD was right behind her with a flip the exact opposite of HGG's Swanton- a 'Moonsault' according to Ryu.
The Battlers all stared at Minya's carcass. "Damn, that felt good," HGG commented as she returned to Kit. PKD only laughed. "Umm… shouldn't we call Ares?" Varia questioned. "Oh yeah, huh?" HGG said thoughtfully. "Hey! Ares!" The now familiar portal appeared a moment later. "What's u-" he spotted the remains of the table, and Minya. "You didn't," he said calmly. "We did," PKD replied, just as calm. "She wanted out anyway," Hope grumbled. Ares looked to HGG for confirmation, and she just nodded. "Ok." He grabbed Minya and tossed her through the portal. "Good luck guys. And, uh, could you maybe not put my warriors through tables? I'd appreciate it." HGG shrugged. "We'll see." Ares rolled his eyes and disappeared back into the portal. "Ok, so now we're off to find the Board. I think we can put some of them through tables…" HGG said to PKD as they started off, with the remaining 12 following. Not noticed by anyone else, Callisto, Mavican, Velasca and Hope seemed to have formed an alliance of their own…
