Overcoming Destiny

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Wireless communications"

Ch 24

"Two weeks." Kirito said sighing.

"What are you going on about?" Asuna asked as she leaned against the tree Kirito was resting against.

"It's been two weeks since we started invading Albion." Kirito answered as he tiredly laid his head against the trunk his eyes closed.

"Get to the point already." Asuna mumbled.

"We've been here for two weeks and all we've been doing is sit here." Kirito answered as Kirche walked up to them.

"What's else i-" Kirche didn't get the chance to finish before the ground opened up under her.

"Oh! Kirche! Nice of you to drop in! So Shane finally remembered you!" Smith smiled as he helped Kirche to her feet.

"Smith? What are you doing?" Kirito asked as he and Asuna looked down into the hole.

"Kirito! Asuna! Hello! The underground invasion of Albion is well underway!" Smith called up before crawling up peeking over the edge of the hole. "Wait, I was headed the wrong way. This isn't London. I knew something was wrong when I hadn't hit the sewers. I need to go that way." Smith said as he pointed toward London.

Kirito blinked as Smith ran off. "What is he part mole?"

"Smith quit running around before I remove a leg!" Logan yelled from down the tunnel.

"Pardon me but who are you?" Kirche asked the bark haired man that came down the tunnel.

"Hey Logan hows it going?" Asuna asked the man that was at the bottom of the 3 meter deep hole.

"It would be better if my son-in-law wasn't part mole." Logan groused.

"I'm not a mole! I'm a leprechaun, get it right! And thank you for giving me permission to marry Sinon, Father-in-Law!" Smith yelled from the distance.

"I swear I don't see how she puts up with him." Logan mumbled as he drug his hand down his face.

"True love?" Kirche asked as she looked at him.

"Turned native?" Logan asked ignoring her comment for his sanity.

"Yeah, course I had no trouble as I'm a natural fire mage of burning passion." Kirche stated as she puffed out her chest in pride.

"Kirito get your trainee out of here before I do something I'll regret." Logan called in consternation.

"Kirche quit messing with Logan. We have things to do." Kirito said sighing as he walked away from the hole.

"Wait, Kirito-in-Law!" Kirche called as she hopped out of the hole following him.

Asuna giggled at this while Kirito gave a tired sigh.

"What? You already have a daughter and a son that's married to my sister in all but blood." Kirche stated as she caught up with the pair. "I only have what you say to go off of and reserve judgment to call bull."

"Fine." Kirito said sighing as he continued on acting like the weight of the world was on his shoulders as he headed toward the command tent.

OOooOO

"So in conclusion income flow is good and those that are old enough either have started their own businesses or are part of a combat unit of some form as per your requirements." Chrysheight stated handing a scroll back to Aki as he got up to leave Louise's office.

"Though there has been some malcontent rising recently." Aki mentioned.

"Everyone that came chose to come." Louise mumbled as she lay her head on her desk.

"Well we say malcontents, but we mean players that are still treating this as a game. That and having a problem with us reprimanding them or outright putting them in jail to cool off." Chrysheight explained. "Mostly it's the people that were strictly PKers that are giving us the most trouble."

"Figures." Louise mumbled as she sat up opening up another scroll. "Tell me again why we decided to use scrolls for correspondence and books for the archives?"

"To maintain the traditional feel of things?" Chrysheight asked not sure.

"No. It's because we have spells to seal scrolls. The only way we can seal a book is if it's a grimoire. And it's a waste of time to make a grimoire for a letter." Aki corrected him as she adjusted her glasses.

"That actually makes more sense than anything else I could think of." Louise stated blinking.

"I try." Aki replied shrugging.

"Have a messenger take this to Sylvain." Louise ordered handing the secretary a freshly sealed scroll. "We need an update on their project. And how much of the spriggan boss has been processed?"

"On it." Aki stated taking the scroll and striding out of the room.

OOooOO

"Are we there yet?" Luctiana asked her brother as they climb one of the mountains scattered across Gallia.

"No, we're only kilometer closer from the last time you asked." Arie said as he sighed heavily.

"But brother I'm so bored." Luctiana whined. "Couldn't we just fly there?"

"Tell me do you know how to fly?" Arie asked exasperated. "Because if you figured out how to at will in the last two days I would love to hear it."

"Well we could always ask that guy." Luctiana said pointing at the sky.

"What guy?" Arie asked looking up.

"That guy."

"Oh." Arie looked at his sister then back up to the flying fairy. "HEY! HELP!" He yelled frantically waving.

'Wonder what that's about?' Echo asked himself coming closer to pair.

"Thank you for stopping. Do you think you could tell us how to Fly?" Arie asked.

"Yeah you take the HM 02 Fly and teach it to a bird pokemon, why?" Echo asked, seeing their confused expressions he sighed. "Y'all are turned natives aren't y'all?"

"Yes and we were banished from our homeland stating we didn't belong there anymore so we're headed to Tristain, because that is where we were told the rest of our kind had settled." Arie stated quickly.

"Guess I could call up a Dragoon." Echo said as he pulled out a radio. "By the way, you wouldn't happened to have seen a pack of orcs run through here? I seem to have lost some." As he finished speaking a boulder larger than the three of them rolled by. "Oh, there they are." He said as he pulled out his khukuri. He looked at the blade, then at the orcs, looking back to the blade he asked. "Why did I choose these khukuri again? Oh right, it was either this or a battle ax, and this is easier to conceal than a monster hunter sized battle ax. Oh well." He shrugged as he leapt toward the horde with a battle cry. "Give me back my sister."

"Orcs those can't be orcs." Luctiana declared looking at the behemoths up the mountain from them. "Orcs are a little over a meter tall and look like humanoid pigs." She said dodging another boulder. "Those things are almost three meters tall and look at those muscles." She said as she started drooling.

"Snap out of it!" Arie yelled frantically as he smacked her face lightly. "We don't need you falling for the local wildlife. Ah!" He screamed as a wyvern landed beside him.

"Are you all right?" The rider asked.

"Oh yeah just peachy." Arie said still holding his sister. A yell coming from the background.

"Looks like he's having fun." The Dragoon said as he looked over to Echo, who was slaughtering the Orcs with zeal.

"Amazing." Luctiana breathed out as she watched Echo cut through the horde like a scythe through wheat.

"So you want a ride back to civilization?" The Dragoon asked looking over to the pair.

"Yeah that would be nice." Luctiana answered in a daze.

"For the record he's married." The Dragoon said.

"EeeH!" Luctiana squeaked. "No he can't be he's purrrrfect.

"Uhuh." The Dragoon said flatly as he watched Echo come over drenched in blood. "You have a little something here." He said gesturing to his cheek.

Echo reached up to wipe it away then looked at his hand. "Yeah, the carotid artery tends to spurt blood. Could I have you take them back, Luckenbach?"

"Yeah, you got it from here?" Luckenbach asked.

"I thought they'd be tougher you know since the transition and all." Echo answered. "I have no clue how they got Argo. Oh right! Argo! Don't worry! Big bro's on his way!" With that he took off into the grove a short distance away.

"What's up with him?" Arie asked as Echo disappeared.

"His sister got abducted by the Orcs so he went after her, I'm the unnecessary backup." Luckenbach answered with a shrug. "So want to come with?"

"Beats wandering around with no idea where we're headed." Arie said.

"So manly." Luctiana said stars in her eyes.

"Why don't I take you to meet his family after this." Luckenbach suggested.

"You don't know us do you think that's wise?" Arie asked cocking his head in confusion.

"You want to challenge the guy that single handedly butchered an orc horde?" Luckenbach asked.

"Just wanting to be sure." Arie answered.

"Argo stay with me!" They heard a yell from Echo.

"I'm fine jackass. What are you doing here anyways?" Argo asked groaning as she sat up where the orcs had thrown her in their cave.

"Rescuing you, Duh." Echo said. "You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

"No." Argo said as she stood and then collapsed hissing in pain. "Broken leg, happy now?"

"Oh no. How could they hurt you like this?" Echo pulled a potion out of his bag. "When I get my hands on them..." Echo stopped as he gave her the potion. "Oh wait I already did that."

Argo gave him an incredulous look as she threw back the potion. "And will you stop calling me your sister."

"You honestly thought you were an only child?" Echo asked looking at her flatly. "And the locked spare bedroom never piqued your curiosity? You have a long way to go before you want to be a rat, imp."

"I broke into that room years ago." Argo snapped with a glare. "I never got any information from anybody about anything though. I thought dad was going to kill me when he caught me in there."

"Yeah well I did piss him off when I ran off to join the military. And mom must have erased all other evidence that I existed seeing as you didn't find anything. Ah well." Echo stood up with a flourish. "It is I, your excommunicated big brother. So let's get you back home. Kyoko's going to be ecstatic. She's never had a younger sister. Furthermore you are the sole reason that I'm here in this world."

Argo blinked owlishly at these revelations. "How much older than me are you?"

"Well if we were in Tokyo, I'm sure they'd think you were my daughter… or arrest me as a pedophile." Echo said before he counted on his fingers. "So about 18 or 19, I forget which, I was going through ranger school at the time I had more important things to think about."

Argo had blank look on her face for a second before her eyes started watering and she asked in a high pitched voice. "Big Brother?"

"Let's get home. This is hardly the place for a family reunion." Echo said wrapping her in a hug as she started crying in earnest. "Alright we can stay here for a few more minutes." He said gently.

OOooOO

"Please don't wander off. I can't save you if I can't see you get eaten by a big scary monster." Xellos said.

"I can't help it this is a city in a tree!" Isabella cried out excitedly as she ran along one of the branches toward one of the buildings on it.

"What? Advanced magic, flying ships, floating islands, and y'all never thought to build a treeopolis?" Xellos asked.

"Well if you haven't noticed there is a decided lack of gigantic trees around here I mean La Rochelle is built into a mountain." Isabella answered.

"And you can't grow some with magic?" Xellos asked deadpan.

"Us nobles have better things to do with our time grow a tree to epic proportions." Isabella stated puffing out her cheeks in annoyance.

"Like starting wars over who's wife looks prettier?" Xellos asked.

"Hey that germanian was down right hideous." Isabella shot back.

"That's still a petty reason to start a fight, though the Germanian was hot." Xellos said before pointing. "Oh look a crepe shop."

"Crepe?" Isabella asked.

"It's a rice pancake wrapped around cream and fruit." Xellos said seeing her flat look he said. "It's a dessert."

"Servant fetch me one." Isabella ordered

"Unfortunately none of of your servants are nearby, but seeing as I am a gentleman, it's my treat." Xellos said.

"Thank you servant." Isabella said haughtily before taking a bite of the crepe. "It tastes like heaven."

"We have many more sweets, but alas," Xellos said dramatically as he shook his head. "I can't guarantee that I'll be able help you find them if you insist on calling me your servant."

Growling as she pouted she said. "Fine you'll be my husband."

"I'm sorry, applications for Xellos' new wife are closed at this time." Xellos said.

"New wife what happened to the old one?" Isabella asked.

"After I grew old and decrepit she decided she wanted a young stallion and robbed me of my house, business, money, island, and dog. Poor Mochi. He didn't deserve such a fate." Xellos said sadly as he shook his head. "I got back by having her declared legally insane and held in an asylum... for her own safety of course. That's what she gets for taking Mochi's Manhood."

"How old are you?" Isabella asked him.

"That's. A. Secret." Xellos said as he held his finger to his lips before extending them in the victory pose. "But I am eternally twenty!"

"Fine so you have experience you aren't getting away from me that easily!" Isabella yelled as she latched onto his arm.

"Yes, of course." Xellos said sighed as he looked off into the distance before looking back. "By the way there's a cake store just a few blocks down. What say you we have second breakfast there?"

"Your poor wife desires cake now so gimme." Isabella ordered.

"Just don't eat too much lest you ruin elevenses." Xellos smiled as he led them down the street.

"Are you saying that you like your women on the chubby side?" Isabella asked annoyed.

"No, but they do need to be more than skin and bones, you know shaped like this." Xellos moved his hand to simulate a curvy body.

"Woah is me for having such a picky husband." Isabella said shaking her head. "I'll have you know I'm fifteen."

"So you're saying there's no hope for you then right?" Xellos asked calmly.

"What do you mean? I still have a few years of growing left." Isabella said indignantly.

"Yes, it is good to have dreams." Xellos said nodding sagely.

"Fine then husband bring me milk." Isabella ordered pointing at Xellos.

"Milk's good for strong bones. There's no evidence linking the drinking of milk with growing taller or larger breasts. So, do you want plain or chocolate. I guess I could introduce you to coffee milk but I recall seeing an article that claimed that if women drank coffee it caused their breasts to sag." Xellos mused.

Deciding enough was enough Isabella pulled a paper fan from somewhere and smacked him upside the head knocking him out.

"Just so you know, I'm not interested in S&M." Xellos said as he came to finding himself tied up.

"But how else am I going to have my way with you dear husband?" Isabella asked with a creepy smile. "My cousin is already married and I will not be outdone."

"I thought they were just engaged." Xellos said cocking his head.

"Then I shall have my first child first and beat her in that. Mwahahahaha." Isabella said laughing manically.

"I'm sorry but you'll have to get your father's permission if you want to consider proposing to a male inhabitant of Alfheim that is eighteen. He then has to get his parent's permission and then you can have your white wedding." Xellos said. "And I won't accept anything less than seeing the man in person, just to make sure you aren't lying about getting permission. Oh and I need a written agreement as well."

"Hmm I'll think of something." Isabella said cupping her chin in thought before leaving.

"...I think you forgot something." Xellos said after she left. "Hello? Don't tell me you forgot me! Help! Somebody!"

OOooOOooOO

Hey Shane.

Yes?

Just where did that come from?

Which part?

All of it.

You know I'm really not sure.

Oh well. Readers thank you for reading this drivel and please review on your way out.