The Golden Sun One-Shot Panoply
P/N: Alrighty…here's a chapter from yours truly! Edited as best I can, of course. Some insanity and humor and chaos and insanity and…more insanity…and stuff!
Thanks to Feonyx, Vyctori, Jupiter Sprite, Kadevi, Azusasan, Yuriko the Chaotic Slurpee, V.S.W, Yoshimi Takahashi, Akiko and SSJ-KybokSilverfang for their reviews! That's…let's see…ten…nope, Azu's chapter still has the most reviews. Sorry mid!
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Ivan, Lord of Chaos
By: Vilya
A/N: Ha! I am the author this time! Yay for me! It took a lot of time and thought to orchestrate this, so I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I own the combination of Djinn that will make Ivan a Chaos Lord in this chapter. Obviously, those Djinn don't even actually work in-game…there are just…other factors here. Hehehe.
Could also be called "Why it's Bad When the Adepts Get Bored" but my title is catchier.
Isaac sighed. He had fought evil, multi-headed dragons, saved a town from an evil tree's curse, saved another town from a giant flood, survived the hottest desert on Weyard, climbed four lighthouses, sailed around on the Eastern and Western seas until even he was sick of the sea, dealt with Kraden for the entirety of the post-Jupiter-Lighthouse trip, and spoken to an eyeball-rock who had the nerve to call itself 'wise' and still send himself and his friends off on a quest that was, essentially, questing for the wrong thing. To his knowledge, boredom had never before been an issue.
Isaac was bored.
Granted, he wasn't the only one. Mia was sitting on a rock looking like she was a million miles away, Felix leaned against a tree and just glared (quite by default) at the surrounding area, Jenna dug through her bag without really looking for anything, and everyone else basically wore a bored expression. Except for Garet—he was eating a cookie.
Boredom extended, by way of a complicated chain of reactions, to the seventy-two Djinn currently in residence. The moment Isaac realized this, his set of nine materialized in front of him. Well, eight—Flint had a fetish for perching somewhere in his messy hair. Almost immediately, sixty-three flashes of green, red, purple and blue brought out every last Djinni.
And not a single one of them was, after this, allied with an Adept.
"Just what do you think you're all doing?" Garet demanded. An uncomfortably high number of pairs of eyes settled on him. He did his best to ignore the feeling of being watched on more than a physical level, though he was shaking slightly as he continued. "Get back in here where you belong."
"Dear boy," Bane said in an appropriately venomous voice, "we do not belong anywhere we don't choose to."
"Sit down, Bane," scoffed one of the Mercury Djinn. Said Djinni jumped into Mia's lap and looked across at where Sheba and Jenna were watching. "We have a solution to your boredom, Adepts."
"Oh do you?" Picard asked casually. "I am almost afraid to ask, but what?"
"Well…I'm sure you're all aware that, with your usual strategy of everyone keeping their respective elemental Djinn, you achieve certain Psynergies and certain Psynergies only at your respective classes." By now the Adepts had caught on that it was Dew who was speaking; this was due to the presence of several large words, and what seemed to be a sentence that was entirely too long.
"Perhaps we have," Sheba said hesitantly. "Go on."
"It just so happens," said Gale, looking entirely pleased with herself, "that we elder Djinn know several other combinations that will liven up the day as well as teach you a thing or two about Psynergy."
"This doesn't involve the tomeri…toman…timotsi…tomergandi…" Ivan stumbled over the word.
"Tomegathericon," Garet said automatically. He relished the ability to pronounce that one when Ivan could not.
"Yes, that…does it?"
"Not unless you want it to," offered Torch. Ivan shuddered.
"No. Not again. If I never see those pages again it will be too soon."
"No Mysterious Card, either," Felix commented. "I can't juggle, be it Psynergy or not, and I've no desire to try my luck at playing card games."
"Nothing luck-involving, if you would be so kind," added Jenna. "I've never had much."
"Oh, but you will!" said one of the Jupiter Djinn (really, all together like this, it was hard to tell which was which) excitedly, going on before Ivan had the chance to attempt a joke. "Djinn have effects on your luck too!"
"I have wondered," Sheba reflected dryly, "if there is something you actually do not do."
"The dishes," offered Felix. "The washing. The gardening. The action of fighting in a battle and facing death by stabbing, scorching, drowning, electrocution, or just plain dumb luck. The—" Felix stopped when he realized that every Adept was laughing hysterically, and several of the Djinn were too. He joined them, noting with some pleasure that he had managed an efficient joke.
"Well, do you like the idea or not?" demanded Bane, who had the distinction of always being easy to pick out, even in a crowd of seventeen identical look-alikes. "If not, go on back to your boredom and I'll have a word with Gale about using the term 'elder Djinn' lightly."
"That depends," Isaac said, though he was obviously looking forward to a break in the tedium.
"Upon?" Luff asked frostily.
"How destructive are we about to become?" Isaac shot back, perfectly composed. Several Djinn went through the 'about to speak but suddenly hesitates' routine.
"Very," Felix surmised, standing up fully. "We should probably go somewhere outside of Vale."
"That sounds good," Echo agreed hastily. The Djinn trooped off in what would have been perfect formation if Bane, Luff, Torch and Serac hadn't been arguing over who got to lead. With a collective (and familiar) resigned sigh the eight Adepts followed.
The Djinn led them to a clearing in the forest about half a mile away from Vale. In that clearing were three dozen or so stones about half Mia's height, sticking out of the ground at odd angles. The Adepts each chose a perch as the Djinn conferred in hushed whispers.
"Wonder what they're saying?" Garet asked.
There was a momentary pause.
"Not really," Picard offered.
"Likely debating on which class will be most fun for us first," Sheba put in. The others looked at her. "I'm not a Jupiter Adept for nothing, you know."
"Alright," said Gale (who bore the same distinction in a crowd as Bane, though for different reasons). "Are you humans ready?"
"Did you hear that?" Jenna remarked, and Mia nodded gravely.
"Referring to us as though we were just humans, and not the saviors of Weyard," Mia said in a similar tone.
"You are just humans," said Serac. "Now, if you don't mind…let's begin causing chaos!"
"And if we do mind?" Ivan, still wary about this whole idea, offered meekly, but it was far too late. All Djinn save a full dozen were turning into balls of light and firing themselves into seemingly random Adepts.
Mia was the first to recover, blinking away the bright lights and wondering what in the world she had become. Feeling quite suddenly balanced, she waited for the others to realize that they were still living.
Sheba was the next to come to her senses, and she and Mia looked at one another, then down at the dozen Djinn left Adeptless.
"Somehow I think it works better when you're all with who you belong with," Sheba said. "And the majority of you are Venus Djinn. That might say something."
"It says that we prefer to stay clear of chaos," Bane huffed.
"Useless," muttered Tinder. Sheba and Mia gasped. Tinder wasn't known to engage in the elemental almost-war that was constant between the Djinn.
"Am I, fire breath?" Bane challenged. Tinder sighed.
"It's useless to make up excuses."
"Oh," Bane said in a small voice.
"What am I?" Jenna wondered aloud. A single Mars Djinni appeared on her head.
"Luminier!" It was Cannon. "Really, there isn't nearly enough destruction contained in your Psynergy repertoire in this class, and what you do have is freaky enough, so I figured I'd stick around and provide a destructive force to match your personality!"
"I'll ignore that in favor of you telling me just what Psynergy I can use," Jenna said pleasantly. Cannon froze—when Jenna took that tone, someone was in trouble.
"Give me a moment here…let's see…ah, there it is. Mad, Fiery and just plain Blast, Restore, Protect, and Cure Poison. Oh yeah, and the three stages of Ply, and the three Wish levels as well," Cannon finished quickly.
Sheba tried unsuccessfully to stop herself from laughing. Ply! Wish! The very idea—Jenna, the most destructive (when angry) Mars Adept she knew, with a Mercury Psynergy that did the exact opposite.
"It's too good," Ivan agreed.
"Someone sort us all out on what we are, please," Isaac demanded. Flint popped out of Felix and gave a mock bow—much as he could, anyway.
"Certainly. You, Isaac, are a Samurai. You have all sorts of Venus and Mars things going on. Attacks and barrier-type stuff, mostly."
"A break!" he cried triumphantly. The others all looked at him. "Right. Go on."
"Felix here is a Guardian. Basically, he has the exact opposite Psynergy of Isaac—there's a lot of Mercury involved."
"We share a boat, brother," Jenna said consolingly.
"I don't really mind," Felix said. "I mean…I'm not naturally against all water, so it doesn't bother me. Also…I'm sort of used to it."
"Sheba is a Sage," Flint said without any sort of drama. After a short pause, it was Isaac who burst into laughter. Picard soon followed suit.
"What?" Sheba asked. Picard took a moment to control himself, then spoke.
"Kraden likes to believe he is a sage," he offered in a sort of chant, dissolving into laughter again at the sound of his own voice. Sheba groaned.
"And what is wrong with the Lemurian?" Felix asked. This time it was Sleet, sharing Felix's headspace with Flint, who spoke.
"First off, he has Mars and Jupiter Djinn, so I imagine he's jumpy, being around both the elements with the potential to take him out. Secondly, having this makes him a Bard. Nearly completely attack Psynergy."
"Picard the Bard!" Mia said with a laugh. Picard frowned.
"I never pictured you as the type to make someone feel sad and blue," he said, eyes widening in shock when he realized he had made his sentence rhyme. "This must stop!"
"It gets better," Sleet offered.
"I'm listening," Isaac said, though he was more focused on Garet, who was rushing around the clearing at a speed usually associated with Ivan borrowing power from both Zephyr and Coal.
"Garet's a Master," said Flint, and they watched as Garet headed straight for one of the largest stones in the clearing…and dodged away with about one sixty-fourth of a second (and mere millimeters) to spare.
"Master of what?" Ivan wondered.
"No, not like that," Sheba said. "Master is the highest class in the Ninja set."
"You really are a sage," Jenna said after a short pause. "Still…I can't picture him as a Ninja. It doesn't suit his character. I mean…he's big. I wouldn't see smart, swift, silent and deadly in him. Well…ok, maybe deadly."
"Watch this!" Garet cried, freezing in place and holding out a hand. "Carpet Bomb!" The rock directly in front of him exploded into burning pebbles. "That was fun!"
"Carpet Bomb?" Felix asked incredulously. "What comes next? Tapestry Bomb?"
"Throw Rug Bomb," Mia offered.
"Bathmat Bomb," Picard sang. Jenna glared at him.
"Stop." Picard took a step back. She didn't scare him, but that look in her eyes was enough to make him cautious. Jenna herself was surprised at that—Picard didn't usually act nervous around anything unless it was seriously bad.
"Alright," Isaac said, the class of Samurai giving him even more calmness than he'd had as a Slayer. "Garet's got speed issues, Sheba knows everything, Jenna's suddenly a Mercury Adept, don't glare at me like that Jenna, Picard's singing every chance he gets and some he doesn't, and Felix holds the same occupation as Jenna only he doesn't much mind." Isaac paused, watching amusedly as Ivan counted it off on his fingers. "Oh, yes. And I can do odd things with otherworldly beings."
"As a Samurai?" Mia asked.
"Yeah," Sheba said, though she herself had no idea where the words were coming from. "Things like Demon Spear, Angel Spear, Dragon Cloud and Demon Night."
"Sharp objects," Ivan pointed out.
"What I was getting at," Isaac said, "is what do Ivan and Mia do?"
"Oh, Ivan's a Shaman," said Ground, on Ivan's head in the all-too-common Djinni style. "Four Venus Djinn must really be shaking you up, kid."
"It's not that so much as I can't read minds anymore," Ivan said in a shaky voice. "All my Jupiter powers are just…gone. And in place of them are things like…Growth…and…well, ok, Bolt is Jupiter…and what?! That's not fair!" Ivan's face had gone quite pale. "I was against this whole thing from the beginning—to go and do this to me is just wrong."
"Do what, Ivan?" Mia asked. Ivan shuddered.
"Four Venus Djinn, putting Ivan at Shaman class, gives Ivan the Venus Psynergy chain of Cure, Cure well and Potent cure. Look at it this way, Ivan—your class isn't high enough to have Revive," Sheba offered consolingly. It didn't seem to work—Ivan looked like he might need to be revived himself.
"The extra effects of these classes are annoying," Picard sang. "And I really do mean it. It must be hard for—" Picard stopped as Jenna's hand closed around his mouth.
"Shut. Up." Picard, not daring to risk speaking, nodded. Jenna blinked for a moment, seemed to figure out what she was doing, and stepped away from Picard. "You two," she said, indicating Picard and Mia, "have to deal with this sort of thing every day?"
"What sort of thing?" Mia asked curiously.
"This…ugh…this feeling like if the people around you don't get their act together you will force them to. That you can flip sides as easily as a coin."
"No," Picard said, figuring that with one word it wouldn't sound so much like a song. He was wrong. He was wrong in his answer too—he assumed Jenna meant flipping between terrifying and calm.
"That's just you, I think, Jenna," Felix said. Jenna scowled. "Whoa. That's not you. That's Mia!" The others laughed, Felix grinned, and Jenna sighed.
"Speaking of Mia," said Ivan, "we don't know what she does yet."
"Mia is a Medium," said Sheba, stopping abruptly and frowning. "Maybe I can search my mind for the solution to end all this sudden knowledge. It's disconcerting."
"Dis-what?" asked Garet.
"Disconcerting. Uncomfortable. Disturbing. Makes me want to strangle Djinn," Sheba added, almost as an afterthought. "And Ivan's right—I might know a lot, but that in no way beats knowing what the rest of you are thinking. With the exception of Garet."
"Why not me?"
"I'd be afraid of what I'd see in there if I read your thoughts."
"Worthless endeavor," Ivan put in. "I've been there."
"And what does a Medium do?" Mia asked exasperatedly. Breath, possibly the most distinctive Jupiter Djinni of them all, appeared on Mia's head.
"Many things. Froth's your only Mercury Psynergy, I'm afraid, but you do get things like Bolt, Haunt and Cure. And what do you know? You do have Revive."
"I sense a pattern, somehow," Garet mumbled. "Don't know what the pattern is, even, but I think there is one."
"Well, other choices for Medium were Ivan, Sheba or Picard," Breath reflected.
"Nah," said Isaac. "Ivan and Sheba are clearly smalls."
"And Picard is most definitely a large," added Felix.
"Picard wouldn't have minded one bit if he had to be a Medium for a little while," sang the Adept in question.
"So? What's the point of all this?" Felix asked. "Just to be shown that there are alternatives to things like Odyssey, Diamond Berg and Searing Beam?"
"Well, we were hoping that it might be fun for you," Granite said meekly. "To try out the Psynergy I mean. That's what the rocks were for."
"Oh. Point. Let's try it then? Something interesting…" Felix closed his eyes for a moment. "Really, having few attacks doesn't give me much to…oh, here. This might be interesting. Ivan…move." The Jupiter Adept readily did so, and Felix glared at the big rock directly in front of him.
The Adepts watched. And waited. And did some more of both.
"Felix? Get on with it," Ivan stated, and Felix closed his eyes.
"Plume Edge!" Felix grinned as a large geyser erupted under the stone and catapulted it into the sky. It came down several feet from its starting point and shattered as though made of glass.
"Ouch," Isaac offered. "I do not know if that beats Carpet Bomb, though. Not many jokes one can make with 'Plume Edge'."
"Let's see you show us something, then, mister Samurai," Jenna said, sounding offended. Isaac smiled.
"Certainly. My only problem will be in choosing which Psynergy to demonstrate."
"When did he start talking like that?" Mia asked. Ivan shrugged.
"Probably some side-effect of being a Samurai," he observed. "Those people in Xian talked funny too. All spaced out and such."
"Helm Splitter!" Isaac drew his sword in a very samurai-like fashion, leaping high into the air and bringing the red-glowing blade down in a vicious swipe, slicing one of the stones cleanly in half. The weapon was in its sheath faster than many sets of eyes could follow.
"He's dangerous that way," Felix remarked. "Our Djinn must go so far beyond insanity that they're coming from the other direction as perfectly sane beings."
"Evidently, Samurai class gives Isaac some…rather unique attributes," Sheba observed. Everyone looked her way. "I'm not going to use any Psynergy, if you don't mind," she said. "Really, it's nothing you haven't seen before."
"Alright then, my turn!" sang out Picard, right on cue. "Sonic Slash!" For a moment or two, it didn't seem as though anything had happened, except a slight increase in the speed of the wind. When one of the rocks burst apart, literally disintegrated, they realized that Sonic Slash was a wind-based attack, and so virtually invisible.
There was a sudden bright, multicolored flash, and seventy-two Djinn were again clustered on the ground around the Adepts. Jenna breathed a sigh of relief, as did Picard and Sheba.
"Never again," Ivan said vehemently. "Not ever. Absolutely not."
"Venus Psynergy cannot possibly be that bad, Ivan," Mia said.
"You're one to talk. You're in love with a Venus Adept."
"That was a completely unbiased statement."
"Right. It wasn't the Venus anyway. It was—" Ivan stopped as the Djinn sprang into action again, to all appearances returning to the Adepts with whom they belonged. Except for the thirty-six Djinn still on the ground, that is.
"What are you doing, Flint?" Isaac asked.
"Cannon, same question," Jenna said in threatening tones. "Better make it a good answer."
"So nice to have you back to your old self, Jenna," Cannon said in an excited voice. "We are putting the master plan into motion!"
"Master plan?" queried Sheba.
"Oh yes," said Eddy. Picard suppressed a groan. That Djinni was crazy, and he knew it. Eddy was under the impression that he could talk to fish.
With as much evilness as their faces allowed, the Djinn—nine of every kind—turned to face Ivan.
"Weren't you wondering why your Djinn didn't re-ally with you?" Sleet questioned innocently. Ivan paled.
"Uh…well…there was that…" he stammered. Gulping, he took a step back. "What are you going to do to me?"
"Accusation before action," Meld said scornfully. "Not a good idea."
"Innocent until proven guilty, wasn't it?" asked Granite. Ivan gulped.
"Let's prove it, then," said Shine menacingly, and at once thirty-six Djinn became little balls of light and rushed at Ivan, who was knocked over by the ensuing joining of minds.
"Have any of us ever been joined to thirty-six Djinn before?" Picard asked. Every Adept but Ivan looked at all the other ones curiously, and there were seven heads simultaneously shaking 'no'. "Do you think it could be dangerous for Ivan then?"
"I never thought of that," Garet admitted. "Still, Ivan's smart. He can handle anything."
Ivan, had he been able to hear Garet at the time, would have argued quite well against the claim that he could handle anything. For example, ever since opening the Tomegathericon he couldn't handle coming within five feet of Felix's pack. Ever since falling from that bridge near Kalay as a child he couldn't handle rushing water far below a narrow crossing. Ever since Dullahan he couldn't handle hearing that name or the mention of Anemos Sanctum.
And currently, he couldn't handle the clamor of thirty-six minds all joined to his, all speaking at once and all proposing ideas of utter chaos. He couldn't even pick out one Djinni voice from the next, let alone what element they were, who they were, and if any of them were even his.
Slowly, the mayhem in his head subsided, leaving his ears ringing and the world spinning. He sat up and blinked, waited for the other fourteen Adepts to become just seven again, then ventured a few words, but they came out as nothing but slurred gibberish. It was like he didn't even…
Like he didn't have control of himself anymore.
Isaac and the others gasped as Ivan stood, his eyes no longer their usual purple but instead a sort of gently glowing red that suggested running away as fast as possible and doing so until either the runner collapsed or fell over the edge of Gaia Falls. Or perhaps both.
"Um…Ivan? You alright?" Garet ventured. It was thus that the Jupiter Adept's wrath faced him first.
"Thishrenilleffunn!" Ivan said with victorious conviction. He then frowned. "Thiserlleffinun! Thesderful!" A war seemed to be going on in Ivan's mind. After a few more tries, Sheba recognized the voice tone of Zephyr, speaking through Ivan. "Thisistherealfun!"
"Control," said the approximate voice of Breeze, who had the habit of speaking in single-word sentences.
"What you are about to see is the reason we are outside of Vale," said Luff's voice. Ivan's eyes, even glowing red as they were, looked frightened, as did every other aspect of his face, aside from his mouth.
"Ivan has ascended to the class of Chaos Lord," said Dew's voice, and indeed she seemed to have orchestrated this whole thing from the start. "This class is available also to the resident Venus and Mars Adepts, albeit in less…catastrophic proportions."
"Catastrophic?" Felix asked warily. Ivan's mental voice had said much the same, but the Djinn were in complete control.
"For each of you it might only take nine Djinn," said Fever's voice evilly. "For dear Ivan here, it takes nine of each and a bit of teamwork to boot!"
"And a mutual love of chaos," said Bane's commanding tone.
"Bane?!" Isaac and Garet asked together.
"Yes, it's me. I enjoy a little fun now and then too, you know. Besides, these…children need some sort of guidance if you don't want them destroying Weyard."
"Avast, me hearties! Now's not the time fer arguin'! It's fer the spreadin' of all Hail!" Hail cried triumphantly in her usual piratical way of speaking.
"I should have never told her that joke about her name," reflected Picard, frowning.
"Let's speed it up!" said Gust's voice warningly. "We've already been at this two minutes and we've only got eight more!"
Eight minutes? Ivan asked weakly. Until what?
Well, technically we've got three minutes until you start to get lightheaded, six until you fall unconscious from elemental overload, and eight until you start to reach critical levels, offered Coal generously.
Critical levels of what? Ivan questioned, more nervous by the second.
Elemental imbalance. Too much of that for too long…well, it's slightly more than just a hair away from fatal. Ground thought this was very effective…or at least until Ivan caught on.
You could kill me! Ivan accused.
That's about the bare bones of it, yeah, admitted Smog sheepishly.
"Now, down to business!" said a voice none of them recognized at the moment, and Ivan's face took on a triumphant look as he raised one hand. Whatever words were spoken next were lost amid a noise that rivaled that of the explosion Garet and Ivan had once caused by firing Spark Plasma and Pyroclasm so that they'd impact one another right in front of their current enemy.
"Shade!" Picard called, apparently just in time, because bright lights that spanned the color spectrum began raining down. Trees fell, boulders shattered into pebbles the size of sand, winds three times as fast as anything ever experienced tore the ground to bits, the rivers rose and flooded everything for half a mile, and things that shouldn't have been able to burn were instantly set aflame. The sky grew dark with clouds, so dark that the only visible things were the flames and Ivan, surrounded by an inverted glow that seemed to come from darkness itself.
Isaac had been considering that the Djinn had become evil, trying something like this. But then he realized how much fun they must be having, finally given an outlet for their endless energy, regardless of whether having that outlet meant using Ivan. Certainly, Isaac and all the others would yell at their Djinn for trying such a stunt…but if he were a Djinni, it would have been exhilarating.
This went on for a good five minutes, and quite suddenly stopped, just as Shade could no longer hold up a barrier around the other Adepts. Then the chaos began anew, only this time Ivan was on his knees from sheer exhaustion, and what was happening was chaos like no one ever thought of it. Everything was coming back together, going back to the way it was.
"So maybe they're not so evil," offered Sheba quietly. "They put everything back, after all."
"It's like…like…" Mia frowned, fumbling for the words to describe the quiet mayhem they were watching, so different from the utter havoc from moments before.
Picard's eyes lit up suddenly, and he began to laugh crazily, and there seemed to be no end in sight after a moment or two. The others looked at him and shrugged, figuring they'd either eventually hear the joke or he'd just finally lost it from spending so much time with the rest of them.
The laughter stopped, however, when Ivan collapsed and the Djinn all returned to their respective owners, except for Ivan's usual nine, who simply unallied themselves and stood on the ground, looking around at their handiwork and congratulating each other.
"You tore it apart just to put it back together again?" questioned Mia, raising an eyebrow skeptically. Picard seemed to find that so funny that it merited falling to his knees in laughter. Mia shot him a frosty glare, but Sheba and Isaac were chuckling right along with him. "I just don't see it," she said finally, exasperatedly.
Ivan groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of his head slowly. Warily, the other Adepts stepped closer, and Sheba held out a hand. Ivan took it and pulled himself to his feet, staring at a couple of them when they didn't try to stop him, and finally locked a steely glare on his Djinn.
"You must understand," said Squall suddenly, stepping forward. "It wasn't meant to make any of you angry or get you hurt. It was meant to be a bit of fun and to let some of the Mercury and Venus Djinn blow stuff up and some of the Mars and Jupiter Djinn unblow it. None of it was ever planned to cause…permanent harm."
"Squall made a speech," Smog said, rather taken aback. Squall, when she did speak, often talked of lightning or wind or how best to use those things in a fight.
"So don't get angry. It's an outlet for energy, you know. Because we've been stuck in Vale a lot recently and there isn't anything to fight there except when Garet and Ivan have their screaming contests or Jenna finally blows her top at Kraden…and such," Squall finished, looking rather embarrassed.
There was a long pause. All the Adepts looked at one another and finally gave one unified shrug. "Lunch?" offered Isaac finally, and the others agreed, the Jupiter Djinn re-allied with Ivan and they headed back into the town of Vale.
"So Picard," said Mia as they walked. "What was so funny?" This promptly set the Lemurian to laughing again. Isaac looked at them all and joined in the laughter with a shake of his head.
Isaac had fought a headless suit of armor until he thought the figure would haunt his nightmares for several thousand years. He'd matched powers with a wizard who could command physical representations of all four elements with a wave of his hand. He'd seen a giant armor-covered statue fall to the Djinn when Psynergy just wasn't doing it. As far as he knew, boredom had never before been an issue.
And it would never be again, if he had any say.
*****
THE END! YAHOO!!
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