Oh, this chapter was long to write....
(Dew): Yeah, well, you could solve that easily...
(Char):...if you stopped writing...
Then you'd be out of a job.
(Dew): I could live with retirement.
(Char): I have an old age pensions plan...
How long have you had that?
(Char): Not that long!
(Dew): ...?
(Char): What?
(Dew): You've had it for awhile, haven't you?
(Char): Of course not! I'm still young and youthful!
How old are you, anyway, Char?
(Char): 37!
(Dew): ...hundred.
(Char): DEW!! *chasing after, glowing brilliantly*
(Dew): Gleep!! *running*
Ooooo... no muses to distract me... it might be cliffhanger time... ^_^
Review Responses:
Jupiter Sprite: Only two mysteries to wonder about? We'll have to see about that...
Akachi: *bruised, sending Agatio back with a case of Vanilla Coke under his arm* Stupid, annoying... *bolting all doors with flame-resistant titanium* This should do...for now...
Mercury Adept: So... I should start writing terrible, long suspense...?
Ivan of Vault: Nope, it's not illegal in the least.
Depressing Angel: Yup, everyone got sucked in.
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Blackness.
That was all that Felix could see. He was used to empty voids of black, sure; he'd spent three years in Prox, which overlooked the end of the world.
But this was a different kind of blackness. Even looking over the edge of Weyard, there was always something. Maybe not much, but out of the corner of your eye, you could see a quick spark of Psynergy, or maybe a crumbling piece of debris that was falling over the edge. But here, there was nothing.
Then, suddenly, with no warning, the blackness began to recede. The surroundings grew brighter and brighter until it was nearly blinding, and then receded to a pale white. Looking around, Felix could see that the rest of his friends, and Shalex, were all standing around.
"Where are we?" Jenna wondered, a strange hint of timidity showing in her voice.
"I wish I knew," Picard replied. "I have yet to ever experience something quite like this."
"We got pulled into a swirling beacon of Psynergetical power and now we wake up in a pure white expanse," Sheba recounted. "Are we de..."
"No," called a feminine voice, "you are quite alive."
The group wheeled on the source of the sound. They turned to see a floating creature, shaped not unlike a phoenix, but more of a white shade, with the occasional tinge of light blue shadowing its plumage. It was a human head shorter than Mia, but looked as though it had a tremendous wingspan.
"Who are you?" Mia asked of her. The bird turned its gentle gaze toward her, but Shalex had already stepped forward to confront her.
"I never thought I'd meet you in person," Shalex said smoothly, "Wise One." The group stared at him in confusion.
"That's not the Wise One," Ivan informed him. "The Wise One's more... boulder shaped."
"And annoying," Jenna grumbled, thinking back to their first encounter on Mars Lighthouse.
"Yes and no," the bird responded. "The boulder you refer to is the Wise One, true. However, it is not the only Wise One."
"What do you mean?" Picard inquired, furrowing his brow.
"On your world, on Weyard, there are many great land masses, correct?" She received a chorus of silent nods from the group. "These land masses have been divided into what you call 'continents'."
"I'm afraid I've yet to understand," Feizhi said delicately.
"Think of your world, Weyard, as a continent unto itself, from which you cannot see the other continents. This is because they do not exist in the same plane as you do," she responded. "Indeed, Weyard itself is only one part of a multiverse of worlds."
"A... multiverse?" Ivan frowned. "Okay, then how did we come into this?"
"It's quite simple, even for yourselves to understand," Shalex commented, ignoring the glare he received from Mia. "When my Pyroclasm and Mia's beautiful Ice Missile..." (he paused to allow her to respond favourably; she frowned even deeper at him) "connected before the beacon, they exploded against each other in a flurry of Mars and Mercury Psynergy. This great power resounded so near to the Mars Beacon, it caused it to temporarily be unable to hold onto its grounding in our world, and as such, it acted temporarily as a portal between worlds in the multiverse."
"So we're stuck in another world, now?" Sheba wondered. "How do we get back?"
"You can't, yet," the phoenix responded. "We used to have a way to send you back via portal, but it's been inactive for so long because our own shrine beacons remain unlit."
"Shrine beacons?" Garet wondered. "There are more beacons?"
"Certainly," she answered graciously. "I believe you may be familiar with a researcher in your own world named Aristotle?"
"Yes," Felix nodded, "I believe so. He was an alchemist who lived in Tolbi many years ago, right?" The bird smiled, an amazing task given it had no mouth and only a beak.
"Correct. Aristotle made a theory of alchemy. It stated that the world is comprised of the four elements of alchemy: Earth, Fire, Wind and Water," she said. Sheba frowned.
"But if we lit those beacons in our world, wouldn't their power carry over here?" she wondered.
"Partially, yes, but these beacons are not of those elements," she replied. "Aristotle's theory was considered complete upon the discovery of Venus Lighthouse. It was assumed in Tolbi that the other three lighthouses must exist somewhere. Indeed, you found them all. But there was another part to his theory that most people ignored in your world. The conditional part."
"Conditional?" Sean wondered. "What do you mean?"
"The elements combine in certain ways to produce different conditions. All conditions on your world and this one are a result of the elements reacting in some way," she answered.
"But what does that mean?" Mia wondered, still confused.
"There are four conditions that rule in the world: hot, cold, wet and dry. They may take different names in different areas, but they all boil down to these," she replied. "Hot is formed, for example, when there is a mix between Wind and Fire. Cold results from Water and Earth." Ivan nodded, catching on.
"That means that Dry forms from Fire and Earth and Wet forms from Air and Water, right?" Ivan theorized. The bird nodded.
"Precisely. If all of those shrine beacons were lit, then I could send you home. Unfortunately, they've all been unlit for too long. If you want to go home, you'd have to travel to each shrine and light the beacon yourselves."
"This routine again, huh?" Garet smiled, cracking his knuckles. "Cool. I'm in," he said, giving a thumbs up.
"I think we all are," Sean commented. "It's our only way home."
"So what's this world like, anyway?" asked Jenna, curious. "What's waiting for us out there? Is everyone like you?"
"No," she smiled. "I am to the residents of this world as the Wise One you are familiar with is to you. On your world, the Earth element reigns supreme. Here, Wind is supreme," she said, a comment which broke out great smiles in four Adepts in particular.
"So that's why Shalex said you were a Wise One..." Mia nodded, fully understanding the new game rules. "Wait, where is he?" she wondered, looking around. The rest of the group looked around, but Shalex was not to be seen.
"You are only bound to this expanse as long as you need to understand things," the Wise One informed them. "Shalex felt that he knew all he needed to, and set out to this world a few minutes ago."
"But... he's going to try and light the beacons, too, isn't he?" Ivan reasoned. "Why not just let him do all the work for us?" Garet nodded.
"Hey, yeah. He wants to get back just like we do. Why do we have to do all the work when it'll just be done for us anyway?" he wondered.
"Shalex is not just going out to light the beacons," she replied. "He's also going to cause havoc and experiment with his recently acquired abilities. You must not only light the beacons, but stop him at the same time."
"Great," Picard mumbled. "All this work and we've still got to take him out."
"How are we going to defeat him anyway?" Sheba posed. "He's amazingly strong. We barely managed to fight to a draw on Mars Lighthouse..."
"We'll beat him somehow," Mia said, determinating flashing across her eyes. Jenna looked on sympathetically, but said nothing.
"Is there anything else we should know before we leave?" Feizhi asked politely. The Wise One nodded.
"I told you before this is a Wind dominated plane, correct?" Everyone nodded in agreement. "This entire world lives above the ground as you know it. The entire world is a series of towers and such that stands or sometimes floats above the ground. The entire world is up in the sky." Felix squirmed a little, but the enthusiasm of the Wind Adepts would not be denied. They chattered on excitedly among themselves, enjoying the prospect of being up in the clouds.
"How do we light the beacons once we find them?" Mia asked.
"It's hard to say," the Wise One replied delicately. "Suffice it to say, a strong enough attack of Psynergy of the particular elements of the shrine itself should suffice to light it."
"Makes sense to me," Jenna nodded. "Let's go, then!"
"One last thing," the Wise One called to them. "The actual landscape beneath the cities in the sky is dangerous. It is adorned by rivers of lava, pools of sulfur, and even bottomless pits that spill into nothingness."
"One wrong step and it's goom-bye, Charlie, huh?" Sean mumbled.
"Goom-bye Charlie?" wondered Felix.
"Don't ask..." Sean laughed.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Jenna asked. "I'm getting impatient..."
"And a bored Mars Adept is a bad sign for any member of a decent society; let's go!" Ivan grinned. The Wise One nodded her feathered head and with a brilliant flash of light, the Adepts felt their bodies swirling around as their vision slowly began to recede. Then, nothing.
********************
"That...hurt," Garet moaned, pulling himself up off of the ground. The group was in a vast plain, which stretched as far as anyone could see. Far off in the distance were hills that rolled forever into the horizon, or so it seemed. The only deviation was a grove of trees behind them. Garet swallowed as he took in their new surroundings and his ears popped. "Hey... we're high up, aren't we?" He asked with a quizzical look at the rest of the Adepts.
"No kidding, Garet," Sheba smiled, bounding around the group with Ivan beside her, as the two took in the newfound feeling of power associated with this Wind-based plane. "She warned us the entire world here is up in the sky. Of course we're high up." She smiled at the rest of the group and joined Ivan in running off to climb a nearby cluster of trees. While Sheba was normally more reserved than Ivan could be, she seemed startlingly enthusiastic as well.
"Are we going to have to deal with them for the whole trip?" Picard grumbled audibly. Felix shifted uncomfortably, silence being his only reply. Picard smiled as he crossed his arms, taking in his former leader's newfound sense of shaking. "Is this plane getting to you that badly, fearless leader?" He joked, eyeing the other Adept slowly. Felix shook his head, then walked in the direction of the trees as well, swallowing hard. "Terrible," Picard muttered.
Felix was naturally a little bit weaker in the Jupiter Lighthouse, and felt often as though the very air itself was trying to strangle him, but here, in a plane of Jupiter... it seemed as though even the earth, once so friendly, was here to devour him whole.
"So what are we to do?" Feizhi asked of the group, looking about their surroundings. "It appears that we have nothing but hills surrounding us no matter which direction we turn." She was right, of course; there was nothing but hills to gaze upon and nothing to see beyond them, save for the section of the plains that were covered by the towering trees.
"I suppose," Mia replied, furrowing her brow and fiddling with the hem of her robes, "we'll have to choose a direction and stick to it until we come upon something helpful. Although I would love to know which direction the first shrine is in. Or Shalex," she added, in a menacing afterthought. A sudden cry stirred her out of her thoughts of retribution.
"Hey!" Ivan cried from atop the tallest tree. "It's something that isn't endless plains!" He sounded positively exuberant, and slid down the tree with ease. "There seems to be a break in this expanse past these trees... I couldn't see what was on the other side, though," he informed them.
"Seems like as good a direction as any, I suppose," Mia nodded. The group set out for parts unknown.
********************
A "break in an expanse" was hardly an apt term to describe what they came across. The Adepts stumbled upon a large cliff. Far below, they could see a mixture of solid ground and what Picard could only assume were poisonous pools of sulfur.
"Goom-bye, Charlie?" Felix raised an eyebrow at Sean. He laughed, and then looked along the edge of the cliff.
"Is that a village?" he asked. The others looked one by one, and far off into the distance, a village could be seen along the edge of the cliff. It didn't look extraordinarily big, perhaps the size of Vault, but it was someplace to start, at least.
"Great," Picard smiled. "Let's try and get there before nightfall," he suggested.
"Or you could try and just make it there, period," Shalex laughed, appearing from absolutely nowhere and narrowly missing a severe beheading of Picard with the Sword of Hilda. The others armed themselves and prepared for battle, but Ivan seemed more interested in a war of words.
"What are you after, Shalex?" he cried out. "I don't understand... we all want to get back to Weyard, but you..."
"Alas, I have much more pressing concerns," he replied, quarter-twisting around a slash from Garet and then grabbing Sheba's staff to keep it from bouncing off his head. "This world would be such a great warm up for destroying things before we get back to Weyard. Besides, a whole new world to destroy... you can't tell me that's not an interesting concept...?"
"You've gone mad..." Ivan whispered, trembling. "You're drunk on power, Shalex! You can't be serious! You don't even care about getting home, but just about destruction for no reason?"
"Oh, there is a reason," he replied. "Because I'm all powerful, people will try to rebel against me. To stop that, I would kill them once they attack me. But why should I kill them after giving them a perfectly good shot at me? I may as well just kill them all now and save us all time."
"You can't do that!" Mia cried as she launched a flurry of attacks with her staff. Surprised, Shalex fell and rolled back out of the way, taken aback by the power of the onslaught.
"My dear Mia," ("Don't call me that," she hissed), "with such power at my command, why would I want to? Besides, there's such fun to be had while we're here. Observe," he said, drawing out a black book. "Did you know the rare Tomegathericon can summon an entirely different set of monsters in this world than in the other? I prefer this one, the most..." He whipped the book open and began to chant, and a great beast began to emerge, sticking the Adepts between it and the cliff.
"I thought we had the Tomegathericon?" Sheba hissed at Jenna. Her eyes went wide.
"We do!" she called back, diving into her bag, as her hand closed on nothing. "It's right... you thief!" She shot at Shalex, who grinned.
"Consider it an extended loan, my dear. After all, where you're going... it's hardly useful to you at all," he smiled cruelly.
The creature was a great behemoth with four tentacles attached to its torso and a surprisingly small head. It looked similar to a cuttle, though it appeared to hover in air, rather than swim. It was easily as big as Picard's Lemurian ship.
"Is that a cuttle?" Sean cried.
"Can't be... it's too big!" Ivan shot back.
"Whatever it is, it's going down... hard!" Garet cried, shooting a Pyroclasm at it and dashing forward to slash with his blade. The beast simply grasped him in one of his long tentacles and threw him over the edge of the cliff.
"Garet!!" Jenna exclaimed, looking as far over the edge as she dared without falling, watching as her love receded into the darkness of the abyss. Shalex laughed and leaped over the edge after him, using his Teleport Psynergy to catch up to him in no time at all. He laughed.
"I can warp myself back to the top, Garet," he laughed. "You, however... you will hit the ground and die." He grabbed Garet around the throat and held him there, helpless, and laughed, as Garet looked into the face of anguish and cringed.
'So', Garet thought solemnly, 'death does have a face.'
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Ah, that felt good. Evil, yes, but good.
*crickets chirping*
What? No muses to hurt me? Well... this is an interesting twist.
*a sudden cry is heard and a blue and red streak storm into the room*
What the...?!
(Char): THAT WAS MEAN!
(Dew): WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!
At this point... running. Bye! ^_^ *flees*
(Char): Get back here!!
(Dew): *chasing*
To all of you sitting there reading, I really want reviews for this chapter, if none else. I haven't seen anyone else use the Aristotle's model of elements in a fic yet (though it seems that's what the designers based the game on) and I want to know what you think! So, please review!
And also, it may shock you and scare you that I've started work on a parody! Beware, it's scary and funny at the same time. It's a video game crossover featuring our beloved GS crew in the world of Chrono Trigger. Go check this out; I can guarantee you'll love it. Or at least... be very scared! Go read (and review!) Golden Trigger. Right now! Run!!