The big first double digit chapter! ^_^
(Char): I don't know HOW you made it this far...
*to the tune of the old 'Green Giant' jingle* Me neither.
(Dew): ...no comment on that.
No comment? Happyness!
(Dew): Many beats, though. *casts Freeze Prism*
Cold cold cold cold cold......
(Dew): ^_^
(Char): I still can't believe you brought back Dullahan. DULLAHAN! He's unbeatable!
(Dew): *nodding* To quote: "You know there's no stopping Dullahan! He's the evilest of the evil--the guy created the day some idiot at Camelot finally cracked!" -(if I need to tell you who wrote that and which fic it's from, go get your head examined for NOT reading it yet...)
So speaks Dew.
(Char): Can we get on with this?!
Fine, fine!
Review Responses:
Void: I like to keep surprising people! ^_^
Midnight C: Yes, we're clear. Very clear. Clear as mud.
Crystal (muse): *drops a brown bag with the label 'Pixie Stix* Oops. I accidentally dropped a bag of pixie stix! I sure hope I don't get distracted by something and leave it here by accident! Hey, look! It's a bus! *goes off running after it*
Net Strife: I end it at good parts because those are the evilest places to end a chapter at.
Yagami / 0==|=R=a=g=n=a=r=o=k=: No worries, people, I have already successfully beaten Dullahan. I even saved my game in a separate file so I could rematch him. And yes, I used the 'summon like crazy' strategy.
Akachi: Don't worry...she did...
Great Saiyaman formerly known as critic: At the moment, I have no plans to write a Windshipping fic (I decided to leave the strictly romance fics to Midnight C and Triad Orion so I don't absolutely murder the genre), but if enough people start telling me to write something, I suppose I'll have to concur. After all, I write for people, not just my own enjoyment.
MercuryAdept: Wow. My battle sequences were...good? I always thought they were a little...lacking, but thank you very much!
High King Isaac: Yeah, he's an annoying one. At least you don't have to fight him and the Doom Dragon at once, right? Hmm........
Disclaimer: I own as much of Golden Sun as I do of the Carribean Islands.
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Chapter 10
Multiple Personalities?
"Formina Sage!"
The long beam of plasmetic energy grazed past Garet, leaving a long, faint burn along where it had scratched him. The battle had been raging back and forth for an hour now, and the Adepts were slowly beginning to succumb to the unpleasantness of fatigue.
"How do we beat him again when he's gotten stronger?" Garet called, panting.
"We've gotten stronger, too," Felix answered. Garet nearly fell face first.
"You're comparing us to this guy?" he asked unbelievably.
"Why not?" Isaac asked, dodging a slash of the Bloodlust Katana as he struggled to gain some ground.
"Yeah, we're strong in our own right," Ivan agreed, leaning on his staff as Mia hurried over to him to cast Ply. He had suffered a nasty gash in his leg, and couldn't seem to put any pressure on it.
Deciding the best strategy was to take out the Adepts who caused him the most trouble last time, Dullahan turned his attention primarily to Isaac. It had been this Earth Adept who had slain him before. He managed to sneak off from the battle and gain enough time to summon Charon. The powerful summon had just enough power for Isaac to force Dullahan into the recesses of darkness as he and the others went forward to claim the powerful Iris summon. But this time, the group didn't have as many of their djinn to help them. They couldn't stop him this time! Dullahan swung the Bloodlust Katana again and again, each time only barely missing Isaac, who was dancing in and out, a look of extreme concentration on his face. Isaac didn't even have time to counterattack with this massive assault being focussed entirely on him. A normal Adept would have buckled long since. Mia thanked her lucky stars Isaac was far from normal.
The other Adepts, sensing that Dullahan had lowered his guard to defeat Isaac first, began focussing on their best Psynergy attacks. Finally, after what seemed an eternity to Isaac, they released the most powerful attacks they could muster: Ice Missile, Spark Plasmas, Pyroclasms, and Stone Spire all converged on Dullahan. The attacks exploded on Dullahan's back, with so much force Sheba thought the ceiling would collapse.
But Dullahan did not waver. Even worse, his more powerful regeneration ability healed all of the minor damage these huge attacks inflicted, and he continued his assault.
Meanwhile, Isaac was tiring fast. "Can you guys do anything?" he asked, panting.
"We're trying," Felix called back. "Hold on!"
"Easier said than done," Isaac said, grunting as he got hit by the flat of the Bloodlust Katana's blade. The others gasped as they saw Isaac sink to one knee under the blade's force.
Garet, hoping to distract Dullahan, jumped onto the keeper of light's shoulders and swung at him with his sword.
Mia, hoping to heal Garet, ran over to him after he was flung halfway across the room by Dullahan and collapsed heavily on the floor.
Sheba and Jenna decided to try something, so they each ran to an opposing side of Dullahan. Sheba hit him on one side with Tempest, and Jenna on the other side with Dragon Fume. Dullahan stretched his arms out either way and swatted them away like flies.
With his arms temporarily outstretched and an open shot, Isaac leapt to his feet and stabbed an unusually unprotected Dullahan with the Sol Blade. Dullahan turned to gray ash and dissipated. Isaac sank to his knees and breathed extraordinarily hard. A few moments of silence passed.
"...What?" Felix said softly. "After all of that, do you mean to tell me he falls with one stab?"
"That was not Dullahan," Isaac commented. "He was far too weak."
"I dunno," Garet groaned. "It felt pretty real to me."
"You mean the wall felt real to you," Jenna said, giving him a weak smile.
"Same difference."
"Are you all right, Sheba?" Mia asked, going over to heal her. She had suffered a nasty bump when Dullahan swatted her away, and Ivan was doing the best he could to heal her with herbs and such.
"I'll be okay," she said. The Adepts who were already on their feet were discussing what had happened, and again, the voice of Dodonpa pierced the room.
"Weak guardian," he mused. "You'd think the so-called keeper of light would be stronger."
"Give it up, Dodonpa," Isaac called. "You're not fooling anybody!" ("Uhh...yeah," Garet said.) "We know that wasn't Dullahan. So why conjure a fake one?" Dodonpa did not answer.
"You know what I think," Ivan hypothesized from Sheba's side. "I think he doesn't have the strength to revive Dullahan. I think he just made some half-pint re-creation to scare us."
"You might want to watch who you're calling half-pint, there, Ivan," Garet said under his breath. Ivan scowled at him and shot a Ray at his feet. Garet jumped and laughed.
"Nevertheless," Felix said, "our adversary was kind enough to leave us something here." He gestured toward the spot where Isaac slew Dullahan, and noticed the Bloodlust Katana laying on the floor. Felix took a few steps over to it, but no sooner had he begun to approach it than Dodonpa reappeared before him, and took the sword in his hand.
"Stop running from us, coward," Garet spat, growling.
"Why not?" Dodonpa laughed. "It's ever so much more fun to mock you like this." And Dodonpa disappeared with a puff of smoke. "If you still are interested in finding me, then why don't you come a little deeper into my lair?" he offered. On the far wall, opposite the metal gate that had locked them in the room a short while ago, a door slowly phased into existence, where previously even Ivan and Sheba were sure there was none. Isaac raised an eyebrow at the door, and then looked at his friends.
"Do you want to?" he asked. "No one will care if you back out now," he said to them all. They all looked at him as though he had suddenly taken on the appearance of Kraden. "Oooo-kay. I guess we're all going."
So Isaac lead them through the door. What lay on the other side was very familiar.
"It's the prison system," Ivan whispered. "But it's...empty."
They had entered the halls of cells that once had played host to Master Hammet and Dodonpa himself. The halls and cells were all empty, however. Isaac had supposed that since he had spent so long in a cell, Dodonpa didn't want to have to worry about the prison system any longer. Bad memories, Isaac supposed.
"I guess that he didn't want to worry about maintaining the prison system anymore. Bad memories, I guess," Ivan said.
"Came up with that conclusion all by yourself, did you?" Isaac grimaced at him. Ivan continued walking and began to whistle.
The were almost at the end of a hall of cells when Sheba stopped walking. "What is it, Sheba?" Mia asked.
"I sense something...a pair of minds..." she said softly. Ivan focussed his senses.
"Me, too...in one of these cells, right?" he asked her. She nodded.
"It looks empty, but..." he trailed. Ivan cast Reveal, but found nothing.
"Another team effort, do you think?" he suggested. Again, Sheba nodded, and the two of them cast a simultaneous Reveal.
And mixed emotions came over the group. In the cell were two people they were quite familiar with.
"Picard!" Jenna exclaimed.
"Dodonpa," Felix growled.
"Is it really you?" Picard rose. He looked at them and began smiling broadly. "I never thought I'd see you here! But then, I never thought I'd see anyone other than a guard here..."
"What is it with you and jails, exactly, Picard?" Sheba giggled.
"What did they lock you up for this time?" Jenna asked.
"Well, I thought that if I wanted to find you all, I'd have to come here, because you would all get here eventually," he said. "But...well, let's just say the Lunpean's weren't so thrilled to see me."
"Doesn't matter," Felix said, still grounded. "What matters is, what are you doing with him?" Felix asked, pointing at Dodonpa. Dodonpa looked frightened, and a little thinner and weaker than the version they had just seen.
"I can assure you, it's a long and complicated story," Picard said. Dodonpa nodded.
"The person whom you captured and imprisoned is I," Dodonpa said. "My father, Donpa, locked me up here because I was not suited to lead this town. I concur that I was not.
"However, once my mind was clear and I was able to lead again, my father gave me the benefit of the doubt and decided to release me. Unfortunately, the moment my father went to turn the key to unlock this door, he was murdered from behind. Someone shot a crossbow bolt at him, and it killed him instantly.
"Meanwhile, this man, Picard, was trying to find you, and stumbled across Lunpa. Not one to fight against innocent people, he graciously decided to wait here after the guards arrested him, having the utmost faith in all of you to find him eventually.
"Unfortunately, neither of us saw the man who killed my father. All I know is that I must be free and stop whoever is leading as me!" Dodonpa took a deep breath, hoping that these travellers would believe him. He recognized Isaac and three of these people easily enough, but the others were new to him. He could only hope Isaac was still as gracious as before.
"Ivan," Isaac said, "can you Mind Read him for me?" Ivan accepted, and went to work pouring over the recesses of Dodonpa's mind. Dodonpa cringed a little at this strange boy staring intently at him, but didn't move.
"This is the Dodonpa we know, for sure," Ivan stated. "But it doesn't answer why there are two of them now..." Isaac opened the door with a well placed slash of his Sol Blade. The lock broke and the door swung open. Isaac stared at Dodonpa.
"Dodonpa, do you know of anybody who could change shapes of things?" Isaac asked, trying to refer to the Transmute Psynergy but not wanting to end up explaining about Adepts and Alchemy. There was no point in having a war going on and having people start raising questions at the same time. "Maybe make things stronger in the process. Like a magician who shuffles a deck of cards and ends up with bigger cards." Garet stifled his laughter at his friend's explanation. Isaac reddened a little.
"How would you describe it, Garet?" Jenna whispered in his ear. "Like a river that gets bigger...?"
"You're never going to let that go, are you?" Garet asked.
"Nope. Not anytime soon."
"There was one man who could do something similar to that," Dodonpa began. "He claimed to be born under Mars, or...one with Mars or something like that. He said he was here with people, but I can't remember who he said they were..."
"Do you remember his name?" Felix pressed. He seemed a little paler.
"I believe he said his name was..." A soft twanging sound and a puff of smoke behind them went off behind them, and Dodonpa slumped with a crossbow bolt in his neck, courtesy of the other Dodonpa.
"Mia, can you...?" Isaac began, but she shook her head sadly.
"I don't think so. Something took him down too fast."
"Poison bolts," the living Dodonpa laughed sinisterly.
"What kind of a creep would do that?" Garet fumed.
"Introducing..." Jenna said, pointing at Dodonpa.
"All right, who are you, really?" Isaac asked. "You've played around long enough. We know that wasn't Dullahan that you sent against us, and we know that you aren't Dodonpa. Who are you?"
"Why, Isaac, do you not remember me?" he asked, in a cold grin.
"How can I, when I don't recognize you?"
"And you, Felix," Dodonpa laughed. "You spent so much time with me, how can you not remember me?"
"Wait a minute..." Felix whispered. Ivan and Jenna stumbled a little.
"There's no way!" Ivan exclaimed.
"You're dead!" Jenna cried.
"Yes, well, you thought the same of little Isaac over there, didn't you?" he laughed, voice no longer sounding like Dodonpa, but rather a demon of their past.
"Wait...I know that voice," Mia said quietly.
"Yes, you do," Dodonpa smiled.
"Even after death you can't let a grudge go, can you?" Garet grumbled, now catching on.
"Why let it go when I can still have so much fun with you?" he cackled. "Besides, I have never died."
"We've lit the beacons already," Isaac said. "What's this all about? The war, the death, the danger looming over all of Angara brought about by you! What's it for?!"
"What's it for?" he laughed coldly. "This is for the death you almost handed me on top of Venus Lighthouse!! This is for revenge!!"
"Stay out of this," Isaac said to the others. Garet stepped forward.
"No way. I'm helping you this time," he said, but Isaac placed a hand out to him and halted him. He shook his head, the turned to face the other 'Dodonpa'.
"Bring it on," Isaac said, stepping forward with the Sol Blade, "Saturos."
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(Char): Ack!
Ahh...you just can't beat old characters.
(Dew): What is with you and revitalizing the old bad guys?!
They're fun.
(Dew): Dullahan was fun?! And why didn't he put up more of a fight?! I was expecting, like, at least a five page fight scene!
Who said Dullahan was strong?
(Char): 0.0
Let's just say that was a...preview...yes, that's it. A...preview. BWAHAHAHA...
(Char): Ack. He's learned evil laughter.
^_^
(Dew): He still hasn't learned defense, though! *summoning Mercury*
COLD AND WET!
(Dew): ^_^
O-o-o-okay...t-t-t-to the r-r-rest of y-y-y-yo-you...p-p-p-p-pl-ease rev-iew and I'll up-d-d-date soooooon... *sneezing*