YamiPhoenixfire: HAHAHHAHHAHHAHHAH!
Rana: Aieee! (Flees crazed woman with the anti-good wards)
YamiPhoenixfire: I hereby dedicate this chapter to Seducer of Darkness, for your lovely gift! (Sticks wards on Phoenixfire's bed) You're the best! Now, if only I could find my stupid good half…
Huh? Oh, right. Disclaimer. Don't own Mountain Dew, Baten Kaitos, or Cabbage Patch Kid dolls. Why Cabbage Patch Kid dolls? You'll see...
Before we start the chapter… YamiPhoenixfire's guide to Magnus Battles for this fic. And yes, I am well aware of the fact that this differs from the battle system that they use in the game… I am merely trying to make things more realistic. I would apologize for the liberties I am taking… but that's Phoenixfire's job, and she mysteriously vanished when I got my new toys. (Brandishes anti-good wards and cackles evilly) So I won't.
Gun-type weapons: (Lyude, Ayme) The magnus that power the guns are loaded into a slot in the handle, like bullets. Once they have all been used once, they are ejected, and the gun requires thirty to sixty seconds to cool before reloading. (ie, shuffling the deck) The storage area for the magnus can be expanded to hold more cards with certain magnus (the class-up items)
Magic-users: (Xelha, Mizuti, and the Children of the Earth and the Witches from Wazn if I choose to include them) Spell magnus are drawn from a deck (usually secured in some sort of holder on the forearm, waist, or legs for quick and easy access), and thrown at the enemy, expelling their energies on impact. Once a magic user has used up all their cards, he or she can summon the cards back and replenish their power with their own magical energies (ie, shuffling the deck). A magic-user can use certain magnus to help increase their mental energies, and hence the amount of cards they can support in a deck (class up cards).
Melee fighters: (Kalas, Gibari, Savyna, Folon, practically every enemy you encounter in the game, etc.) Weapons are summoned from magnus, and generally THE SAME WEAPON IS USED THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE BATTLE. Honestly, does it really make sense to have the ability to summon a sword, and then have it disappear THREE SECONDS LATER?
Sorry, pet peeve of mine. Anyway… Weapons are sometimes alternated (like if you started out using a dark elemental sword and then you discover "Hey, I'm doing absolutely no damage!" you switch to a light elemental weapon instead) Melee fighters also keep a deck close to hand… because they rack up the most damage, and need to have their healing and defending magnus close to hand (Or your energy injections, if your name is Folon). Also, they keep their special technique magnus (finishers) in their decks. Increase the number of cards able to be kept in your deck with the class up magnus, blah, blah, blah… I hate explaining things, can you tell? Anyway, let's just get on with the story!
Chapter Ten: A Crimson Phoenix
"Hello, I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Rob Dixion."
"Why do you think I care? Go back to your own table."
"Wait! I need to talk to you!"
"…about what?"
"You're Astarael's younger sister, right?"
"Yes. Why are you asking?".
"I need your help. I really… I just want to be able to talk to her again without her biting my head off." "…and you want me to put in a good word?" He fell for it!
"Could you?"
"I could do something even better, but it all depends on one thing…" Hook…
"I'll do anything!" Line…
"Do you believe in magic?" And sinker…
Astarael had been right. Her day was an absolute nightmare.
First of all, she had only been able to finish her English vocabulary homework. This left her with missing Biology, Math, Latin, and History homework. She had really needed to do her homework last night.
She had even been deprived her right to work on her Latin homework during lunch: Rob had cut his German IV class to come and apologize, which meant that she had to cut lunch to avoid him, otherwise she probably would have killed him.
So, by the time she got to Latin, all she really wanted to do was strangle someone. Preferably Rob.
Why do I care about some battle that happened over a thousand years ago? Astarael wondered as she ploughed through the translations of the book written by Julius Caesar that she had neglected to do for homework. It book was about Caesar's campaign in Gaul, and it was the most boring thing she had ever read in any language. Honestly, a famous person writes a book, and then everyone has to read it. Caesar. Bill Clinton. Charles Dickens. If I wrote something, I bet that nobody would read it…
She was spared by the bell ringing, but her teacher, Mrs. Leigh, motioned for her to stay and talk.
"Listen, Astra," the woman said. "Your grades have fallen drastically compared to your grades in the last course. What changed over the summer? Or, more accurately, what changed six months ago, when your grades started to drop to begin with?"
"I… I don't know. I'm sorry I didn't have the homework last night; I had a… personal emergency. I'll have it done tomorrow…" Shit. I should have listened to Selih, and kept my grades up. God… is there a God in this world…? …please don't let her put the pieces together…
Mrs. Leigh looked at the girl, who had once been so determined when catching up on the two years of schooling that she had lost, who now seemed not to care. But if she truly cared for nothing, why did she always look ready to collapse, as if she had been driving herself to the point of exhaustion day after day? Why were those odd golden eyes always scanning the windows, as if looking for some unseen threat?
"Astarael Sanders, you always say that when I confront you. Do you have some sort of extracurricular activity that's distracting you from your schoolwork?"
"No," Astarael lied smoothly. "Look, nice though it is to talk to you, I'm going to miss the bus…"
"No you're not."
"Wha…"
"You're not going to miss the bus because you now have a detention with me." And I will not let you leave until I get some answers… "So you can sit at that desk and give me a convincing reason as to why you aren't getting your homework done."
Just my horrific luck to get one of the few teachers in this whole damn school that actually cares about her students, Astarael thought to herself as she glared murder at the clock. She'd been in here for ten whole minutes, and the excuses that ran through her head were becoming more and more ludicrous. Maybe I should just tell her I'm doing drugs or I'm pregnant or something…
A small clicking sound came from the hallway, one that she certainly would have missed if she hadn't been bored out of her skull and desperately searching for a distraction. She had heard that sound countless times as a spirit, and had never expected to hear it in her own world.
It was the sound of a Magnus deck being loaded into a gun-like weapon.
Ayme!
"Get down!" she yelped, lunging at her teacher. They both went crashing to the ground, just as the bullets tore through the air where the woman's chest had been mere moments before.
"Aww! How cute! The likkle Guardian always jumps to protect anyone, despite her personal feelings for them. Your hated sister, this disgusting woman who denies you what little freedom you do possess… You're a fool, Guardian. I can't believe that you are the one who was responsible for Giacomo's death."
"Did you come across the dimensions just to taunt me, Ayme?" Astarael asked as she got up and drew her weapon from her purse, ignoring her teacher's strangled gasps. "Because if you did come just to talk about the good old days, I think there's a better place to have this discussion. The roof."
Ayme smiled a wicked smile. "Trying to protect people again, Guardian? How very sweet and naïve of you. You see, I think that we have associated enough for you to know that I enjoy causing as much pain as is humanly possible. Why would I pass up on such an excellent opportunity to cause suffering?" Ayme aimed her gun at the helpless teacher, but Astarael dove forward, tackling her, causing the shots to go wide. The blackboard, her poor abused backpack, and several desks were ruined by Ayme's failed attack.
"When I said that we were going to take this outside, I meant it, Ayme," Astarael snarled, dragging a kicking and screaming Ayme out the window with her.
Mrs. Leigh gasped in horror, thinking that her student had just committed a suicidal act to save her. However, just as she was beginning to wonder why she hadn't heard the two women impacting with the parking lot yet, her eyes were greeted by a sight that she would never forget.
The horrible woman dressed in black with the fuchsia hair rose up, propelled by what appeared to be rocket-propelled boots. Following her, screaming in fury, was Astarael. Astarael, who now resembled a fallen angel more than anything else with her multicolor wings and her contorted expression of rage.
If they're going to fight on the roof… they might destroy the school and everyone in it, the woman realized. So she did what any responsible adult would do in her situation.
She staggered into the hall (she was still winded and weak from when Astarael had thrown herself at her to save her from the bullets) and pulled the fire alarm.
"Chaotic Flames!" Folon shouted, hurling a ball of fire at Astarael as soon as she had cleared the rooftop. She dropped down a bit to avoid the flames. She then had to make a tight turn to avoid a hail of bullets from below, courtesy of Ayme. Even though she avoided most of the damage, a stray bullet still managed to clip her side, creating a bloody gash
"You were planning to fight me here all along, weren't you?" she hissed, quickly touching down and drawing in her wings. (Really, she had never liked her wings. Whenever she ended up in a battle where she needed to fly, they were too long to really be able to maneuver easily.) If Ayme stays up there, instead of coming down to fight here, I'm going to be in a world of hurt…
"Are you awake, Guardian?" Folon taunted, aiming a right hook at her face, which she barely ducked in time. She then twisted out of the way of a hail of bullets from Ayme, who was still airborne. Okay, hell, aerial battle it is. Aerial battle had a major advantage for her: Folon couldn't fly. Flying would place her out of the way of his devastating physical attacks, and would also take her out of range of his Worg Laser finisher, leaving him only able to try and hit her with his Chaotic Flames attack, which she found to be rather slow and obvious. With a battle cry, she flexed her wings and took to the air once again…
Of course, Ayme wasn't about to allow her into the sky so easily. She had to fight for altitude, both because of her unwieldy wings and Ayme's constant annoying barrages. Folon wasn't one to stand idle either. He continued to assault her with punches and kicks before she reached a decent height, and after that still threw fireballs at her.
"I am Time, dispeller of Wind! Guardian Spell…" Oh, and there was the fire alarm. Stupid idiots who pull the alarm after school to get out of detention…
"Crazy Rabbit!"
"Lingering Time!" Luckily for Astarael, the spell froze the bullets and disintegrated them, and dealt a massive amount of damage to Ayme, knocking the pink-haired gunner out of the sky. She hurled through the air at an angle, and ended up landing on top of an air conditioning vent with a sickening thudding sound. Unfortunately, she'd stayed in one place for too long. One of Folon's fireballs hit her black wing.
It was the most painful thing she had ever experienced, including her own death, which had been painful enough. It almost felt like the core of her being was on fire. She reacted instinctively by drawing her wings back in, although even then it still hurt, and she couldn't help but scream.
There was a problem with that, however. Namely, the fact that she was no longer over the roof, and was hanging about fifty feet in the air with no means to stop herself from falling.
Hell, it might as well be three hundred feet above the roof. I don't think I can draw out my wings yet in this condition. Which means no flying and no spells. Goodbye again, cruel world, my life was far too short…
But then she noticed her salvation: A rusted metal pole that was stickingout from a pile of rubble, and jutting out over the edge of the roof. Desperately she snapped her whip around it…
She stopped falling with a jolt, her feet still dangling well above the ground. She painfully pulled herself back onto the roof where she collapsed, panting, and ignoring the bits of construction material left over from the roof repairs that were jabbing her back.
"Come out, come out little Guardian…" Folon cooed in his rather annoying manner. Shit, he's coming this way. She rolled into a crouch and slowly regained her feet. She was still smarting, and her wounded sidewas still bleeding, but she was otherwise feeling better. She then stepped out from behind the pile of junk…
And found herself almost face to face with Folon. Before Folon could rush her, she lashed out haphazardly with her whip. He ducked, so instead of wrapping itself around his neck, it merely grazed his skull. He wiped an arm across his forehead to get rid of all the blood.
"You're going to have to do better than that!" Folon sneered.
"I don't have to do any better than this to defeat you," Astarael retorted. She lashed out with her whip again, and this time managed to wrap it around his waist. But she wasn't aiming for physical damage this time, oh no. He was going to pay for hitting her wing.
"I am the Fire, hear my voice!" she shouted as her wings erupted from her back. Folon lunged at her to try and interrupt the incantation, but she merely flew over his head. Now Folon was the one standing with his back to the edge of the roof. When she hit him, the force of the spell would send him flying into empty space. "Guardian Spell: Hellfi-"
"CRAZY RABBIT!" Bullets ripped through her back. She could feel them piercing her organs, ripping through her lungs… How the heck did Ayme survive that fall? She wondered as she hit the concrete…
"Oh dear," Deborah Sanders sighed. She had been dusting the old pictures on the mantle of the fireplace, when she had picked up an older picture of Astarael and had discovered the glass covering the picture to be cracked for apparently no reason. Her grandmother had always said such a thing was an omen of death, but… "I don't believe in those silly superstitions."
She couldn't help looking over at the digital clock on the VCR, though, just to check the time. 3:59.
Strange… she should have been home nearly an hour ago… oh, who am I kidding? She probably just has a detention, that delinquent.
Yes, detention. Astarael was probably fine.
After all, it was school. What was the worst thing that could happen to her?
Ring… Ring… Ring…
"Probably telemarketers… Hello? Yes, this is Deborah Sanders. What? Grandmother? You're still… No, I'm not unhappy that you're still alive, just surprised. How did you get this number… I see. Mother gave it to you… WHAT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT YOU'RE COMING OVER TOMORROW? No, I forbid it! I won't have you filling the children's heads with those silly stories about magic! I… why, exactly, should I be asking my children about magic, Grandmother? …Oh, no, not this nonsense again… wait! Don't you hang up on me! I'm not a child anymore! Grandmo-"
Beep, Beep, Beep…
She slammed the phone down and proceeded to use several words that she would not have permitted any of her children to use. That miserable old bat, why did she decide that it was so urgent to see the children NOW? Well, I'll be damned if I make it easy for her!
"Excellent," Folon sneered, spitting at Astarael's body. She was still breathing… barely. She wouldn't last long with three quarters of her blood gone and a hole in her left lung. "Nice shooting, Ayme."
"Thanks," the woman gasped.
"Wanna go torture the kids?" Folon asked, jerking a thumb at the children who had been herded outside.
"I… think I broke some ribs when I fell. I'll just stay here."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Folon asked, dropping the whip that he'd disentangled from his waist in a growing pool of its owner's blood and walking to Ayme's side. "I'm sure the master would be happy to patch you-"
"And where do you think you're going?" someone hissed. Ayme and Folon screamed as they were suddenly enveloped in a vortex of turquoise wind magic and effectively immobilized. Folon managed to crane his neck enough to see who their attacker was…
Astarael had forced herself to her knees. Her clothing was so drenched in blood that it was impossible to tell what colors the garments had originally been. Her right hand was clutching the handle of the whip tightly, while her left arm hung nervelessly at her side.
"You! You're supposed to be dead! There is no way a human could have survived that!" Folon screamed, even as the wind vortex tried to crush his lungs.
Astarael let loose a hacking cough, blood rushing out of her mouth, before she answered. "Did you… honestly expect… that I would let you get away… with attacking my friend… Folon?" she coughed again, and then held up her right arm. To Ayme and Folon's horror, the whip caught on fire.
"I am… Vengeance… hear… my voice…" The fire at the tip of the whip enlarged to form a bird made entirely of flame. Astarael then started to swing her whip in a figure eight formation. Every time she drew the whip across her body, the firebird passed through Ayme and Folon. She did this twelve times before speaking again.
"Guardian spell…" She twirled the handle of the whip gracefully before bringing it up over her head…
"Fallen Phoenix!" And bringing it straight down, which caused the bird to slam into the tornado at maximum speed, creating a gigantic explosion.
When the dust cleared, Ayme and Folon were still standing, but charred almost beyond recognition.
"Wonderful job, Guardian," Folon gasped as he started to disintegrate. "Too bad that this was only a test."
Before Astarael could say anything, Ayme and Folon crumbled into dust, leaving behind….
Two blackened Magnus.
Two empty cans of Mountain Dew.
And two Cabbage Patch Kid dolls.
Oh, don't tell me that… Astarael crawled over to the dolls. Aside from both being burnt, one had gotten torn around the middle and had its head cut open. The other had tears and punctures on its back, and two toy guns taped to both its hands.
Hey, mom, sorry I'm such a mess… I just got attacked by the killer Cabbage Patch Kid Dolls… no big deal…
The boy stopped his camera as the blue-haired girl hit theroof for the second time. "No one in the Video Club is going to believe this," he muttered to the girl sitting next to him as he scurried back to his backpack to find his cell phone and call an ambulance.
Phoenixfire: (looks at screen) CABBAGE PATCH KID DOLLS?
YamiPhoenixfire: I know. Amusing, isn't it? Now do the reviewer responses.
Phoenixfire: (grumbling) She started off as a figment of my imagination, and now she bosses me around like my mother…
YamiPhoenixfire: (holds up anti-good wards) Do you know what these are?
Phoenixfire: EEEP! I'll be good!
Seducer of Darkness: Oh, I'm sorry that the site killed your review. I'm also sorry that you gave my evil version the means to destroy me. (YamiPhoenixfire: Well I'm not! Great job! By the way, are you a girl or a guy? Because you're getting an appearance in the next chapter!) Oh, and don't worry about Rob getting off. I'll give you a hint… he's eventually going to get beaten up by Girl Scouts. (YamiPhoenixfire: HEY! No spoiling my evil plans!)(Phoenixfire: AAAAAAAAH! The Anti-good wards! The paaaaaaaain!)
Didactylos: (Grins) Thanks for the compliment.
Vanya the Elven Maiden of the Valar: (blushes) Thanks, I'm glad you liked your character. And yes, Azil is one of the evil people… whether she is the only one remains to be seen.
Karina Gomez: Um… thanks, just keep the demon dogs away from me…
LighteningRae: Yeah, last chapter was basically 'Astarael go BOOM!'
Luna-Starr: If you look closely in this chapter, the mysterious old lady's identity is revealed. Here's your update, I'm glad you like my fic so much.
Iname as One: And yet another person from my real life discovers my FanFiction account. (huge smile) Frankly, I was afraid you'd find my story stupid and make fun of me. I'm glad you actually like it. Hurry up and post your fic so I can read it! (YamiPhoenixfire: Nevermind that, I just want that Escape Magnus! Although it's not all that bad in the closet. I use Phoenixfire's old Playmobile castle stuff to enact large scale battles when I get too bored. However, the evil army always seems to win for some reason…)
Phoenixfire: (yawns) I think I'll take a nap before dinner…
YamiPhoenixfire: Um… you might not want to do…
Phoenixfire: AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! THE PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!
YamiPhoenixfire: …that… yeah, I think I'm going to leave before she recovers… (finds the door to be locked from the outside. On the door is a sign that reads 'Got you back! Love, Rana'.) Or I can spend my time in the closet figuring out ways to kill that brat and make it look like an accident. Yeah…