Traverse Town
Disclaimer: Same as before. The Musketeer Heartless is my invention. It resembles a Soldier Heartless except instead of using its claws it uses a weapon similar to Johann's arquebus.
Poohbear98366 - Yes, the conflict is called the Seventy Years War by historians of the court of Avernus.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Destiny touched down on the landing area of Traverse Town and her crew disembarked from it. Johann, Lilo, Stitch and David were staying behind to watch the ship while Miranda, Bonkers, Halb, Cobra and Nani were heading into the town to pick up supplies.
Cobra went into the Item Shop to check out some supplies for the ship, especially for food because the addition of three new crew members had just about eaten up the supplies. Halb, Nani, Miranda, and Bonkers decided to explore a bit, instead of going inside.
A barrel nearby started to shake and shift when the three walked near it. They could hear muffled noises coming from it. "A Heartless?" Bonkers asked, turning white and producing a huge mallet from his shirt.
Before either Halb or Miranda could stop Bonkers he swung the mallet down and shattered the barrel into a million pieces. A woman sat bound and gagged on the ground. It was Shirley Wright, Miranda's sister.
"Oh my God! Shirley, are you alright?" Miranda said.
"Mmph! Mrrmmph! Mrrmmpph!" Shirley said.
Halb stifled a laugh and said, "I believe conversation would work best if you removed her gag first, that I do."
Miranda gave him a mock glare and Halb raised an eyebrow, confused. In an instant Miranda was on her knees to undo the ropes. She pulled the rag tied around Shirley's mouth and pulled the other rag that was stuffed inside.
"Who did this to you?" Miranda asked.
"Some lady with a huge grudge against you, her name was...." Shirley began.
"Who was it?" Miranda asked.
"Lili? Lilian? Ah, Lilith Duprave." Shirley replied, "She and this huge German guy grabbed me and Timothy and after they tied me up and stuffed me in this barrel they left. Who is that lady?"
"Lilith Duprave. I was a witness against her when she was caught counterfeiting bills." Miranda replied, "She hasn't exactly been too forgiving about me putting her in jail."
"I can imagine. She and three of her henchmen and this roach toon were around too." Shirley replied.
"Al Vermin." Miranda replied, with sinking guilt.
"Look out!" Bonkers shouted and shoved Shirley and Miranda to the ground as a loud bang sounded, the unmistakable sound of a gunshot.
At the sound of this gunfire, Johann came running from the Destiny, parked a few meters away. "I see where the shot came from. Tis one of the Dark Army firing upon thee."
Though his left arm was heavily bandaged, Johann still brandished his twenty pound arquebus. He dropped to one knee and aimed at the roof of the building where the creature, a Musketeer Heartless, was reloading his weapon. He squeezed the trigger and with his deadly aim a ball flew towards the creature, shattering its skull and sending it falling into the Second District.
"That was amazing!" Miranda said, mouth agape. She wondered just how accurate a shot Johann was, when he wasn't injured. She could have sworn she saw that shot go right through the creature's eye.
"Twas good marksmanship, Johann." Halb replied, smiling.
~ ~ ~ ~
Another cannon ball crashed against Vasserbunde's bastion traces, crumbling some of the stone. The batteries defending the Northern Bastion fired volleys of cannon balls back into Heartless ranks, decimating squadrons of Bandits and Soldiers.
A line of Musketeer Heartless lined up and fired their volleys. Several soldiers fell, dead, to the ground. Moritanius the Duke of Vasserbunde, a young man in his early thirties, stood at the parapet, advising his harquebusiers to hold their fire as the Musketeer Heartless advanced shoulder to shoulder with several Soldiers and Shadows behind them.
"Fire!" Moritanius shouted.
Volleys of highly accurate arquebus fire decimated the first rank of Heartless who spilt black blood into Vasserbunde's soil. The first ranks broke into a charge up the bastion walls. The reserve harquebusiers opened up, tearing holes into the ranks of the Heartless before they got anywhere near the fortress walls. Several pikemen on the walls faced the Heartless as they closed in and impaled several of them on the wall of sharpened fourteen foot spears.
The fighting began to become a hand to hand fight as several Large Bodies rushed the holes in the wall of the Northern Bastion. "Hold them!" Moritanius shouted.
At once several pikemen swarmed the hole, stabbing their long spears into it. A Large Body bellowed in pain as four pikes buried themselves in its ample gut. It fell amongst its fellows as more Large Bodies advanced over it. Now several harquebusiers added their fire into the rank, decimating the attackers as they closed in. The Large Bodies, through sheer size and weight, many of them spilling blood from dozens of wounds, threw several of the pikemen and harquebusiers against the walls of their own fortress.
Moritanius had his rapier drawn and was fighting off two Soldier Heartless. He slashed the first across the stomach, spilling its intestines like fat snakes onto the walkway. He stabbed his dagger into the second's throat, sending it choking away.
Now through a hole made in the side of the Bastion several Heartless charged through, despite several of their number being decimated by the overlapping fields of fire that the North Bastion's construction allowed. So far the North Bastion's eight thousand men were holding, killing more Heartless than they lost. But for how long?
The sound for retreat called as the last Heartless attack was broken by the North Bastion's defenses. The fort was one of four that defended the four major roads through the Black Forest into Vasserbunde. Moritanius regarded his soldiers, a mixture of veterans from the Seventy Years War and young men conscripted when the Dark Army first appeared months earlier. They performed admirably.
"What are our losses captain?" Moritanius asked an officer.
"We have lost four and ten milord." The captain replied. He was a gray bearded, no nonsense officer that had served Moritanius for many years.
"And our foes?" Moritanius asked.
"They have lost five thousand charging our defenses, milord."
Time had been bought for Vasserbunde, for this day, but how long would the fort continue to take losses of four hundred men. "Wounded?" Moritanius asked.
"We have two hundred and five wounded, a third seriously, milord. Will the second army form in time?"
"It must form in time, to stop these jackals." Moritanius replied, "We have even sent riders into Parmas, hoping they shall aid us."
~ ~ ~ ~
"So Johann," David asked as he was doing some work on the engines of the Destiny, "What is this war you and Halb talk about all the time?"
"Twas fought for seven decades among the states of Memel." Johann replied, "Whole generations lived and died under bloodshed and tears."
"Seventy YEARS!" David said, "What could possibly be so important that states start killing each other over?"
"Twas when the head of the Council of Princes, Count Ottmar, the Count of Willendorf, was slain in his bed by an unknown assassin during a border dispute between the states of Nachtholm and Stahlberg." Johann replied, "The war slowly spread throughout the land, involving state after state. Coorhagen intervened on the side of Stahlberg when Nachtholm's armies marched brazenly across her borders. When soldiers of Coorhagen mistakenly attacked Avernus, she joined the cause of Nachtholm. One by one the principalities declared war and sided with either Nachtholm or Stahlberg. Countless lives were lost in the fighting."
"Why was the Count of Willendorf so important?" David asked, as he tightened a couple bolts on the starboard engine housing.
"Because the Count of Willendorf is the head of the Council of Princes, should he die or prove incompetent, Memel will once again erupt in violence as the princes struggle for supremacy over each other." Johann replied.
"What about the treaty, this Peace of Willendorf Halb talked about?" David replied, "Surely it must've done something."
"I know little of it, but I know that borders of the states are exactly the same as they were before. Stahlberg and Nachtholm's eastern border is still heavily disputed, but no fighting has broken out." Johann replied.
"But isn't a treaty supposed to resolve these things?" David asked.
"Nay, not always." Johann replied, as he helped David lift a filter from its mount, "The only reason any of the princes of the land were even willing to sit down and sign the Peace of Willendorf was that the fighting had left no corner of the land save for neutral Willendorf untouched."
"Why didn't the Prince of Willendorf use his armies to impose a peace?" David said.
"The Charter of the Council of Princes says something to the effect of Willendorf's armies are to defend her own lands and none other, for she is neutral ground." Johann said, "I can't tell how many people sought refuge in her borders."
~ ~ ~ ~
"We've got to follow that Heartless," Miranda said, gun drawn, "It might lead us to Timothy if we're lucky."
"Wait, Miranda!" Nani shouted, pulling the extendable force prod from her belt, "Wait for us."
"Rash action tis not the way to proceed, milady!" Halb shouted.
Bonkers and Shirley followed close behind as they entered the Second District of Traverse Town. They saw a man running down the street, and all of a sudden he convulsed to the deck. As he did so a strange, glowing orb appeared over his body. A Shadow Heartless absorbed it and the man turned into a Heartless as well.
Halb drew his sword and Bonkers produced a huge wooden mallet. Bonkers attacked the first Heartless, bashing it over the head as Halb leaped forward and swung the blade in an arc that struck the creature in the neck, knocking it to the ground. Because the sword's blade was reversed it did not kill the Heartless, it merely stunned the creature. Halb sheathed his sword and bowed his head. He didn't like to draw that sword, but only when he had to draw it would it come forth.
A group of insect shaped toons stepped out from hiding, "Bravo, you all survived. Bonkers, Miranda, I see you've found yourselves some new friends."
"What be thy intentions, strange one?" Halb replied, calmly.
"Why, thine destruction, strange swordsman." Al Vermin said.
"Thy might be willing to use force, but will thou reconsider thine options?" Halb replied.
"I'd be careful, Al Vermin, if I was you." Miranda said, having seen Halb in action before.
"Not if we, attack him at once!" Al Vermin said, "Attack henchmen!"
About four insect looking henchmen ganged up on Halb while Al Vermin summoned several Heartless to keep Nani, Miranda, Shirley and Bonkers busy.
"Let's see how well you fight human!" one of them mocked at Halb.
"Thou hath but one chance to retreat from this fight." Halb replied.
One henchman, a mosquito looking one, rushed at Halb with a lead pipe. Halb merely drew the reversed blade sword out a few centimeters and bashed him under the chin. He drew his sword fully and struck at each insect in turn, giving him between two and four whacks to knock him unconscious. Halb saw Al Vermin's eyes go wide with terror as he backed away and skittered over the rooftops of Traverse Town.
Miranda had just shot two more Heartless down and was using her stun gun on those that got too close. Suddenly a Soldier jumped on her back and held on tight. Miranda felt her gun fall from her grasp and her taser as well. Nani zapped it with her force prod, sending the Heartless flying backward.
Bonkers bashed a Soldier Heartless with his mallet and shouted "Fall Apart Rabbit!"
Miranda had noted as Bonkers fought the Heartless he shouted the names of his friends with uncharacteristic anger. As the battle ended, Bonkers calmed down and said, "I can't believe I...."
"Aunt Miranda!" came a shout.
"Timothy? TIMOTHY!" Miranda shouted as she ran towards the source of the shout.
"Miranda! Wait! It could be a trap!" Halb said, catching up to her.
"That's far enough, civil servant. Or the boy gets it." Lilith Duprave said. She was standing in a second story window in a shop in the Second District. Blacknbloo held a gun to her nephew's head.
Miranda and Halb stopped moving. Lilith Duprave was too far to shoot with her service revolver. If only Johann had tagged along, he could have bagged Duprave easily with either the arquebus or the jaeger rifle that Dr. Joukiba had built for him. She could only watch, helpless, as Lilith Duprave and her Austrian henchman took her nephew away.
"Aunt Miranda!!! Mmmph!" the boy shouted as Blacknbloo clamped a hand over his mouth.
Suddenly the ground opened up underneath Miranda and Halb. The pair disappeared through a hidden Toon Hole that had been cleverly triggered by a remote controlled device Lilith Duprave had hidden on her person.
"Miranda! Halb!" Nani shouted.
"What's going on?" Shirley shouted, "I get attacked by these strange black creatures! My sister and my nephew go missing! And I'm stuck in this strange town? Will someone give me some information!"
"Bonkers, help me take Shirley to the ship where David can explain all this." Nani said, "I'll go look for Halb. If we lose him, we may never close the Doors of Conflict. He must see Merlin."
"How are you gonna find them?" Shirley asked.
"One of two ways, the detection sensor I planted on each crewman's clothing before they left the Destiny. Or the old fashion way, look." Nani replied, as she pulled a small beeping hand held device from her belt.
~ ~ ~ ~
"This swordsman of Parmas is becoming quite a bother." Al Vermin said. Several of his henchmen were sporting bruises and minor cuts and feeling various injuries about their persons. They were clustered in a dark room somewhere unknown.
"What's the matter, Vermin, could your henchmen not handle one swordsman who's blade isn't even on the right side?" Lilith Duprave mocked.
"Do not underestimate this Halb of Parmas, Duprave." Maleficent said, "Often the smallest thing overlooked can mean demise and destruction."
"If he is truly the one to seal the Five Doors of Conflict, shouldn't we eliminate him?" Blacknbloo said.
"Perhaps we may. But the prophesy says if we can turn him to our cause, Halb of Parmas will be a mighty ally who will swing the doors wide open." Maleficent said, "We only need study his weaknesses."
"What weaknesses?" Bookworm complained, his arms were heavily bandaged from being whacked by Halb's reversed blade sword, "I'd be regrowing new arms if that blade wasn't reversed."
"You can have this swordsman of Parmas, living or dead. I just want to destroy Miranda Wright. I want to kill her sister and nephew first before her eyes before I kill her for ruining my life." Lilith Duprave replied.
"I want to settle a score with Bonkers." Al Vermin replied, "We'll help you defeat Halb of Parmas if you give us our dues."
"In due time we shall discover the weakness of this great swordsman of Parmas." Maleficent said, calmly "In due time. Your rewards due shall be paid in full with interest once we destroy the Destiny and turn Parmas to our cause."
~ ~ ~ ~
TBC (Will Miranda find her nephew? What adventures await our heroes? I've got some ideas but I'm open to suggestions.....just hit that review key and write a bit, OK.)
Disclaimer: Same as before. The Musketeer Heartless is my invention. It resembles a Soldier Heartless except instead of using its claws it uses a weapon similar to Johann's arquebus.
Poohbear98366 - Yes, the conflict is called the Seventy Years War by historians of the court of Avernus.
~ ~ ~ ~
The Destiny touched down on the landing area of Traverse Town and her crew disembarked from it. Johann, Lilo, Stitch and David were staying behind to watch the ship while Miranda, Bonkers, Halb, Cobra and Nani were heading into the town to pick up supplies.
Cobra went into the Item Shop to check out some supplies for the ship, especially for food because the addition of three new crew members had just about eaten up the supplies. Halb, Nani, Miranda, and Bonkers decided to explore a bit, instead of going inside.
A barrel nearby started to shake and shift when the three walked near it. They could hear muffled noises coming from it. "A Heartless?" Bonkers asked, turning white and producing a huge mallet from his shirt.
Before either Halb or Miranda could stop Bonkers he swung the mallet down and shattered the barrel into a million pieces. A woman sat bound and gagged on the ground. It was Shirley Wright, Miranda's sister.
"Oh my God! Shirley, are you alright?" Miranda said.
"Mmph! Mrrmmph! Mrrmmpph!" Shirley said.
Halb stifled a laugh and said, "I believe conversation would work best if you removed her gag first, that I do."
Miranda gave him a mock glare and Halb raised an eyebrow, confused. In an instant Miranda was on her knees to undo the ropes. She pulled the rag tied around Shirley's mouth and pulled the other rag that was stuffed inside.
"Who did this to you?" Miranda asked.
"Some lady with a huge grudge against you, her name was...." Shirley began.
"Who was it?" Miranda asked.
"Lili? Lilian? Ah, Lilith Duprave." Shirley replied, "She and this huge German guy grabbed me and Timothy and after they tied me up and stuffed me in this barrel they left. Who is that lady?"
"Lilith Duprave. I was a witness against her when she was caught counterfeiting bills." Miranda replied, "She hasn't exactly been too forgiving about me putting her in jail."
"I can imagine. She and three of her henchmen and this roach toon were around too." Shirley replied.
"Al Vermin." Miranda replied, with sinking guilt.
"Look out!" Bonkers shouted and shoved Shirley and Miranda to the ground as a loud bang sounded, the unmistakable sound of a gunshot.
At the sound of this gunfire, Johann came running from the Destiny, parked a few meters away. "I see where the shot came from. Tis one of the Dark Army firing upon thee."
Though his left arm was heavily bandaged, Johann still brandished his twenty pound arquebus. He dropped to one knee and aimed at the roof of the building where the creature, a Musketeer Heartless, was reloading his weapon. He squeezed the trigger and with his deadly aim a ball flew towards the creature, shattering its skull and sending it falling into the Second District.
"That was amazing!" Miranda said, mouth agape. She wondered just how accurate a shot Johann was, when he wasn't injured. She could have sworn she saw that shot go right through the creature's eye.
"Twas good marksmanship, Johann." Halb replied, smiling.
~ ~ ~ ~
Another cannon ball crashed against Vasserbunde's bastion traces, crumbling some of the stone. The batteries defending the Northern Bastion fired volleys of cannon balls back into Heartless ranks, decimating squadrons of Bandits and Soldiers.
A line of Musketeer Heartless lined up and fired their volleys. Several soldiers fell, dead, to the ground. Moritanius the Duke of Vasserbunde, a young man in his early thirties, stood at the parapet, advising his harquebusiers to hold their fire as the Musketeer Heartless advanced shoulder to shoulder with several Soldiers and Shadows behind them.
"Fire!" Moritanius shouted.
Volleys of highly accurate arquebus fire decimated the first rank of Heartless who spilt black blood into Vasserbunde's soil. The first ranks broke into a charge up the bastion walls. The reserve harquebusiers opened up, tearing holes into the ranks of the Heartless before they got anywhere near the fortress walls. Several pikemen on the walls faced the Heartless as they closed in and impaled several of them on the wall of sharpened fourteen foot spears.
The fighting began to become a hand to hand fight as several Large Bodies rushed the holes in the wall of the Northern Bastion. "Hold them!" Moritanius shouted.
At once several pikemen swarmed the hole, stabbing their long spears into it. A Large Body bellowed in pain as four pikes buried themselves in its ample gut. It fell amongst its fellows as more Large Bodies advanced over it. Now several harquebusiers added their fire into the rank, decimating the attackers as they closed in. The Large Bodies, through sheer size and weight, many of them spilling blood from dozens of wounds, threw several of the pikemen and harquebusiers against the walls of their own fortress.
Moritanius had his rapier drawn and was fighting off two Soldier Heartless. He slashed the first across the stomach, spilling its intestines like fat snakes onto the walkway. He stabbed his dagger into the second's throat, sending it choking away.
Now through a hole made in the side of the Bastion several Heartless charged through, despite several of their number being decimated by the overlapping fields of fire that the North Bastion's construction allowed. So far the North Bastion's eight thousand men were holding, killing more Heartless than they lost. But for how long?
The sound for retreat called as the last Heartless attack was broken by the North Bastion's defenses. The fort was one of four that defended the four major roads through the Black Forest into Vasserbunde. Moritanius regarded his soldiers, a mixture of veterans from the Seventy Years War and young men conscripted when the Dark Army first appeared months earlier. They performed admirably.
"What are our losses captain?" Moritanius asked an officer.
"We have lost four and ten milord." The captain replied. He was a gray bearded, no nonsense officer that had served Moritanius for many years.
"And our foes?" Moritanius asked.
"They have lost five thousand charging our defenses, milord."
Time had been bought for Vasserbunde, for this day, but how long would the fort continue to take losses of four hundred men. "Wounded?" Moritanius asked.
"We have two hundred and five wounded, a third seriously, milord. Will the second army form in time?"
"It must form in time, to stop these jackals." Moritanius replied, "We have even sent riders into Parmas, hoping they shall aid us."
~ ~ ~ ~
"So Johann," David asked as he was doing some work on the engines of the Destiny, "What is this war you and Halb talk about all the time?"
"Twas fought for seven decades among the states of Memel." Johann replied, "Whole generations lived and died under bloodshed and tears."
"Seventy YEARS!" David said, "What could possibly be so important that states start killing each other over?"
"Twas when the head of the Council of Princes, Count Ottmar, the Count of Willendorf, was slain in his bed by an unknown assassin during a border dispute between the states of Nachtholm and Stahlberg." Johann replied, "The war slowly spread throughout the land, involving state after state. Coorhagen intervened on the side of Stahlberg when Nachtholm's armies marched brazenly across her borders. When soldiers of Coorhagen mistakenly attacked Avernus, she joined the cause of Nachtholm. One by one the principalities declared war and sided with either Nachtholm or Stahlberg. Countless lives were lost in the fighting."
"Why was the Count of Willendorf so important?" David asked, as he tightened a couple bolts on the starboard engine housing.
"Because the Count of Willendorf is the head of the Council of Princes, should he die or prove incompetent, Memel will once again erupt in violence as the princes struggle for supremacy over each other." Johann replied.
"What about the treaty, this Peace of Willendorf Halb talked about?" David replied, "Surely it must've done something."
"I know little of it, but I know that borders of the states are exactly the same as they were before. Stahlberg and Nachtholm's eastern border is still heavily disputed, but no fighting has broken out." Johann replied.
"But isn't a treaty supposed to resolve these things?" David asked.
"Nay, not always." Johann replied, as he helped David lift a filter from its mount, "The only reason any of the princes of the land were even willing to sit down and sign the Peace of Willendorf was that the fighting had left no corner of the land save for neutral Willendorf untouched."
"Why didn't the Prince of Willendorf use his armies to impose a peace?" David said.
"The Charter of the Council of Princes says something to the effect of Willendorf's armies are to defend her own lands and none other, for she is neutral ground." Johann said, "I can't tell how many people sought refuge in her borders."
~ ~ ~ ~
"We've got to follow that Heartless," Miranda said, gun drawn, "It might lead us to Timothy if we're lucky."
"Wait, Miranda!" Nani shouted, pulling the extendable force prod from her belt, "Wait for us."
"Rash action tis not the way to proceed, milady!" Halb shouted.
Bonkers and Shirley followed close behind as they entered the Second District of Traverse Town. They saw a man running down the street, and all of a sudden he convulsed to the deck. As he did so a strange, glowing orb appeared over his body. A Shadow Heartless absorbed it and the man turned into a Heartless as well.
Halb drew his sword and Bonkers produced a huge wooden mallet. Bonkers attacked the first Heartless, bashing it over the head as Halb leaped forward and swung the blade in an arc that struck the creature in the neck, knocking it to the ground. Because the sword's blade was reversed it did not kill the Heartless, it merely stunned the creature. Halb sheathed his sword and bowed his head. He didn't like to draw that sword, but only when he had to draw it would it come forth.
A group of insect shaped toons stepped out from hiding, "Bravo, you all survived. Bonkers, Miranda, I see you've found yourselves some new friends."
"What be thy intentions, strange one?" Halb replied, calmly.
"Why, thine destruction, strange swordsman." Al Vermin said.
"Thy might be willing to use force, but will thou reconsider thine options?" Halb replied.
"I'd be careful, Al Vermin, if I was you." Miranda said, having seen Halb in action before.
"Not if we, attack him at once!" Al Vermin said, "Attack henchmen!"
About four insect looking henchmen ganged up on Halb while Al Vermin summoned several Heartless to keep Nani, Miranda, Shirley and Bonkers busy.
"Let's see how well you fight human!" one of them mocked at Halb.
"Thou hath but one chance to retreat from this fight." Halb replied.
One henchman, a mosquito looking one, rushed at Halb with a lead pipe. Halb merely drew the reversed blade sword out a few centimeters and bashed him under the chin. He drew his sword fully and struck at each insect in turn, giving him between two and four whacks to knock him unconscious. Halb saw Al Vermin's eyes go wide with terror as he backed away and skittered over the rooftops of Traverse Town.
Miranda had just shot two more Heartless down and was using her stun gun on those that got too close. Suddenly a Soldier jumped on her back and held on tight. Miranda felt her gun fall from her grasp and her taser as well. Nani zapped it with her force prod, sending the Heartless flying backward.
Bonkers bashed a Soldier Heartless with his mallet and shouted "Fall Apart Rabbit!"
Miranda had noted as Bonkers fought the Heartless he shouted the names of his friends with uncharacteristic anger. As the battle ended, Bonkers calmed down and said, "I can't believe I...."
"Aunt Miranda!" came a shout.
"Timothy? TIMOTHY!" Miranda shouted as she ran towards the source of the shout.
"Miranda! Wait! It could be a trap!" Halb said, catching up to her.
"That's far enough, civil servant. Or the boy gets it." Lilith Duprave said. She was standing in a second story window in a shop in the Second District. Blacknbloo held a gun to her nephew's head.
Miranda and Halb stopped moving. Lilith Duprave was too far to shoot with her service revolver. If only Johann had tagged along, he could have bagged Duprave easily with either the arquebus or the jaeger rifle that Dr. Joukiba had built for him. She could only watch, helpless, as Lilith Duprave and her Austrian henchman took her nephew away.
"Aunt Miranda!!! Mmmph!" the boy shouted as Blacknbloo clamped a hand over his mouth.
Suddenly the ground opened up underneath Miranda and Halb. The pair disappeared through a hidden Toon Hole that had been cleverly triggered by a remote controlled device Lilith Duprave had hidden on her person.
"Miranda! Halb!" Nani shouted.
"What's going on?" Shirley shouted, "I get attacked by these strange black creatures! My sister and my nephew go missing! And I'm stuck in this strange town? Will someone give me some information!"
"Bonkers, help me take Shirley to the ship where David can explain all this." Nani said, "I'll go look for Halb. If we lose him, we may never close the Doors of Conflict. He must see Merlin."
"How are you gonna find them?" Shirley asked.
"One of two ways, the detection sensor I planted on each crewman's clothing before they left the Destiny. Or the old fashion way, look." Nani replied, as she pulled a small beeping hand held device from her belt.
~ ~ ~ ~
"This swordsman of Parmas is becoming quite a bother." Al Vermin said. Several of his henchmen were sporting bruises and minor cuts and feeling various injuries about their persons. They were clustered in a dark room somewhere unknown.
"What's the matter, Vermin, could your henchmen not handle one swordsman who's blade isn't even on the right side?" Lilith Duprave mocked.
"Do not underestimate this Halb of Parmas, Duprave." Maleficent said, "Often the smallest thing overlooked can mean demise and destruction."
"If he is truly the one to seal the Five Doors of Conflict, shouldn't we eliminate him?" Blacknbloo said.
"Perhaps we may. But the prophesy says if we can turn him to our cause, Halb of Parmas will be a mighty ally who will swing the doors wide open." Maleficent said, "We only need study his weaknesses."
"What weaknesses?" Bookworm complained, his arms were heavily bandaged from being whacked by Halb's reversed blade sword, "I'd be regrowing new arms if that blade wasn't reversed."
"You can have this swordsman of Parmas, living or dead. I just want to destroy Miranda Wright. I want to kill her sister and nephew first before her eyes before I kill her for ruining my life." Lilith Duprave replied.
"I want to settle a score with Bonkers." Al Vermin replied, "We'll help you defeat Halb of Parmas if you give us our dues."
"In due time we shall discover the weakness of this great swordsman of Parmas." Maleficent said, calmly "In due time. Your rewards due shall be paid in full with interest once we destroy the Destiny and turn Parmas to our cause."
~ ~ ~ ~
TBC (Will Miranda find her nephew? What adventures await our heroes? I've got some ideas but I'm open to suggestions.....just hit that review key and write a bit, OK.)