In Hueco Mundo, a Garganta appeared, the thin reiatsu iris bending slightly at first, then shattering into pieces with several loud crashes as Ichigo, Layne, Ishida and Chad burst through it
The four of them landed on the ground with an audible step, as a final punctuation to them literally crashing through the wall, a movement somewhat new to three of them, but sadly familiar to Layne.
"Huh?" Ichigo said quizzically, looking around as his eyes adjusted.
While still dark, the room they were in was still brighter than the path of the Garganta they had previously been on.
"This is a pretty stable room" He followed up with "I was expecting something completely different"
Layne nodded in agreement but stayed silent, scanning the surroundings with Chad while Ishida muttered
"Lower your voice Kurosaki, they probably have a good idea where we are because of the noise of our entrance"
Ichigo seemed to ignore him completely
"Is this even Hueco Mundo? Did Urahara-san mess up completely?"
"Are you even listening Kurosaki? We should hide ourselves immed-"
A loud sound interrupted him and the four of them whirled around to witness a large arm coming around a now discernible corner, and an immense shadowy figure attached to it menacingly speaking
"Who the hell… are you guys?"
The four of them exchanged glances and started running away, except for Ichigo, who started running towards the figure, before Layne grabbed his collar and started dragging.
Ichigo's protests were expected and immediate
"Why are we running?" he burst out, straining his neck in a futile attempt to turn and look at Layne, Chad and Ishida
"We can't fight here" Layne replied simply "If you or I let loose and the building collapses what then?"
"Maybe it won't, there's no signs that it would"
"You really are an idiot aren't you, observe the surroundings, There is not a single window at all on this long corridor" Ishida interjected angrily
"And?"
"It means we're underground… we need to not be underground" Layne said, the unusual hint of urgency in his tone going unnoticed due to the pursuit.
"Layne's right, we need to find a wider place if we're going to fight"
As if on cue, the hallway seemed to end, a room radiating light up ahead
"We're coming out, Ishida" Chad warned
They ran out into the room, expecting a larger area, but what they saw was surprising
"What a huge room…" Chad remarked, as the four of them stopped, temporarily forgetting about the large figure hot on their heels
The room was massive in scope, similar to a canyon in Urahara's large underground area, but circular, probably a perfect cylinder, Layne estimated.
"No problems here, right Layne, Ishida?" Ichigo asked, withdrawing Zangetsu and readying it in a fluid motion "There should be plenty of space for action"
Layne shook his head and kept running across the room, spying a flight of stairs leading up into another dark hallway
Ishida had seen it also
"Stairs, they might connect to outside, I'll go check!"
As Ishida and Layne approached the exit stairs, a figure leaped down in front of them, blocking the path, causing Ishida to stop and mentally curse
Of course…there's no way there could be only one enemy in a room as big as this…
The figure was tall, much taller than even Chad, and obviously an Arrancar with a hollow mask in the shape of a large beak, with only the upper quarter of his face visible, revealing a single narrow eye, and a shock of grey hair
"Where are you going?" The Arrancar asked with a slight sneer in his voice as he observed Ishida "Intruder…"
"Out of my way" Layne bellowed, having been far enough behind Ishida that he didn't stop and managed to keep his momentum, ceasing to hide his reiatsu and letting its full fury loose in one direction
The Arrancar in the way looked at Layne and dodged to the side, allowing Layne to run up the stairs
"I'll wait for you guys outside!" Layne shouted behind him, as he sprinted up
The Arrancar recovered in time to block Ishida from following, and decided against pursuit while there were three still trapped in the room with him.
Behind Chad and Ichigo, the other Arrancar came up behind them, an absolute giant, seeming like he could touch the roof of the already large room they stood in, with dark skin and a hollow mask that covered the top half of his face.
"It seems…that we're surrounded" Ishida remarked, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose
"Don't say it idiot" Ichigo growled
Outside, Layne collapsed in the sand, breathing heavily and savoring the open air as best he was able
What was that back there…? I've never been claustrophobic in my life before…
The two parties, Human and Arrancar faced off, neither party moving a muscle
"Are these guys Arrancar too?" Ichigo asked "They seem an awful lot more like hollows when you compare them to the ones that came to our world"
Ichigo shifted his stance, not even waiting for an answer
"Well, whatever, Chad, Ishida… for now you guys hang ba-"
Chad elbowed him before he could finish his sentence, sending him flying into the wall
"What are you doing Chad?"
"You hang back" Chad replied simply
"We'll take care of this" Ishida finished
"What are you saying?" Ichigo asked again, scrambling to his feet
"We talked to Urahara-san before you left, and acquire some intelligence, the group that Grimmjow brought with him was a split of Gillian and Adjuchas class… a Menos usually takes a humanoid shape when it becomes an Arrancar… but the only ones that are 100% to achieve that are the Vastolorde… for everything else, there are many that miss… therefore, the more it looks like a Hollow… the lower its power of reasoning"
As Ishida finished talking he leapt backwards, correctly anticipating a punch from the larger Arrancar, but when Chad went to assist him, he was stopped by several shots, apparently coming from the smaller Arrancar
The smaller Arrancar began speaking, which was unnerving because he had no discernible mouth,
"I take exception to these comments… not just Demora… but you're saying that even I, Iceringer have a 'lower power of reasoning?' I could never over look such a comment"
"Ice you bastard" The one called Demora shouted "Dun talk like imma only dummy"
Out of the dust caused by Demora's earlier punch shattering the ground around its impact point Ishida appeared, leaping sideways and attempting to reach for something that looked like it was up his sleeve, but Demora was too fast for him
"Dun run away" The gargantuan Arrancar shouted, slapping the ground near Ishida again, forcing him to leap backwards yet again, as debris flew through the air towards him
Chad charged a blast and yet again attempted to come to Ishida's aid, but Iceringer appeared behind him, not using Flash steps, but something else
Chad realized and turned just in time to take several bullets on his right arm, which blocked them completely
"We don't get a human form you say? We threw away our human forms in order to obtain enormous power… do not underestimate us, humans" Iceringer said, condescendingly, as he fired more bullets at Chad
"Chad! Ishida!" Ichigo shouted, starting to run towards them
"Just shut up and watch Kurosaki!" Ishida shouted back at him, rolling sideways and narrowly avoiding another of Demora's punches
This guy… I thought his hands were normal, but they gather up the surrounding reishi and fire them back out, it's an attack that's far more dangerous than it looks… with the reishi in constantly in flux around me I can't construct any of my weapons
Chad wasn't faring much better, it was all he could do to just block the shots from Iceringer's fingertips
If I could just put a little more distance between us…
Ishida's eyes lit up as he realized the problem
"Sado-kun" Ishida shouted, waiting until he caught Chad's eye before making a twisting gesture with his hand
Chad gave a slight nod of acknowledgement and resumed blocking Iceringer's bullets
"Such slow attacks" Iceringer muttered to himself as he zoomed around the room, wantonly firing shots off "Can they keep up with the speed of Sonido?"
Suddenly, Iceringer noticed that Ishida had stopped dodging, and was just standing in the center of the room
"What is that bastard doing, standing still?"
Demora shouted with victory, thinking his target had tired himself out and charged in with one fist raised above his head
"Wait, Demora!" Iceringer shouted to no avail, as Chad leapt him and landed a punch on Demora's face, shattering half of his mask and sending him flying backwards
"I can't believe I forgot such an elementary concept" Ishida said as Demora landed with a deafening crash
"Recently I've only been fighting against very similar opponents, but it's still embarrassing that I might forget something as basic as compatibility"
Ishida reached up to his sleeve and began unbuttoning it as he kept up his monologue
"We're going to the trouble of fighting two on two, so if it's hard to fight… you should change opponents so that it's not"
Ishida finished unbuttoning his sleeve and a Quincy cross fell out, and the reiatsu around his arm shifted and expanding, coalescing into a translucent icy blue cross
"Now then… shall we counter attack?"
Ichigo was dumbfounded, the last time he'd seen Ishida's powers in action, and they hadn't been nearly as impressive
"What the hell is that Ishida? A bow?"
"Of course it is, do you think I would use anything else?"
Ishida lifted the bow up as it pulsed with energy, a shot seemingly become ready to fire
"This is my new Spirit Bow, Ginrei Kojaku"
Wordlessly Ishida fired the shot, shocking Iceringer with its speed and power.
Meanwhile, Demora was attempting to recover from the force of Chad's punch, sitting up and screaming, then leaning back and smashing his head into the wall behind him, panting with his exertions
Chad strode over to him
"I shouldn't have broken your mask, you looked a lot better with it on" he remarked idly
At the sound of his voice, Demora's fury overtook him, and he whipped around, looking as if he'd crush Chad with a powerful punch
Chad caught the punch with no discernible impact, and Demora grunted with his exertions and attempted to push Chad into the ground
"What's the matter tough guy?" Chad asked "Is that all you got?"
Chad lifted Demora up by the fist and threw him, propelling him into the wall at the other end of the room, where he landed with a loud crash, and began walking over
Iceringer had been clipped by Ishida's initial shot, and he propelled out of there, using Sonido and attempting to put some distance between himself and Ishida so he could resume firing
"This lowly human, dammit" he growled, scanning for Ishida as he moved
"This is what you call Sonido?" Ishida asked, catching up to him with no effort at all "It's pretty quick, like I expected
Iceringer's tone betrayed his shock
"Ridiculous, a human could never match the speed of Sonido!" He shouted, looking back at Ishida
Ishida smirked as he replied
"Sorry, unfortunately for you I'm not a normal human, I'm a Quincy, and this is the Quincy's high-speed movement technique, Hirenkyaku… personally I think it's faster than the Flash Steps of the Shinigami, but there are a few Shinigami faster than I am"
"A Quincy!" Iceringer replied derisively "A higher class type of human, I've never heard of anything like that!"
"You haven't" Ishida replied, with feigned disappointment "You should be ashamed of your ignorance"
"Silence!" Iceringer shouted furiously extending his four arms "You being able to keep up with Sonido doesn't change a thing, as long as you can't defend against my Una Tirotear with that bow of yours!"
Iceringer began furiously firing, a cloud of bullets aimed at eviscerating Ishida, but Ishida responded in kind, beginning to shoot down every single one of Iceringer's shots, amusing the Arrancar
"Oh, you're going to shoot down all of my Tirotear, such a straight forward response… you're like a child, Quincy, I'm sure that you can try your best but I'll let you know, my Una Tirotear can fire a hundred and eight shots at once, let's see how long you last"
Ishida smirked
"In that case, I'll let you know, my Ginrei Kojaku can fire twelve hundred shots at once"
Ishida upped the firing rate from matching Iceringer, to savagely and utterly crushing it, and Iceringer blinked as the arrows surrounded him.
Demora panted heavily with exertion and anger as he picked himself up, while Chad came closer and closer
"Shit, shit der's no way, dat I could get beat by a pipsqueak like youse!"
He knelt down on all fours and unhinged his jaw, his humongous gray tongue extending at Chad with shockingly rapid speed
Chad merely outstretched his right arm and stopped it, the tongue bunching up like several kinks in a crappy hose, before collapsing on the ground
"Tha, thas nap pahsibuh" Demora said weakly, unable to enunciate clearly with his tongue bundled up so far away"
"Done?" Chad asked, resuming his steady stride towards Demora "The fact that you'd even say something like that right now seems to mean that was your last resort, so I guess it's my turn"
Chad reached a point he seemed satisfied with and stopped, readying his arm
"The truth is, I don't like dealing the final blow to opponents who don't want to fight anymore, but we can't afford to be so naïve here"
"El Directo"
Iceringer feebly raised a finger in an attempt to fire another shot, only for Ishida to shoot it off
"You filthy human" he growled, giving up in disgrace
"I told you, I'm a Quincy, Arrancar, and I have left you alive so you can relay a message to Aizen, tell him the Quincy are here, and it's us he should fear"
Iceringer may have replied but suddenly the ground shook and a corner of the roof began falling in
"It looks like it's going to collapse" Chad observed
"Probably because you guys went crazy!" Ichigo shouted, annoyed at their nonchalance "Weren't you saying all that crap about not fighting while underground"
"You're wrong" Iceringer interrupted "The room was designed like this, we are the guardians of this place, we expel those who would intrude into Las Noches, and if we should fall… so shall this room, These are the kinds of opponents you are foolishly going up against humans, there is no end to this fight, and there is no victory ahead of you"
"Quick, the stairs!" Ishida shouted as they ran for it
At the top of the staircase, Layne heard a rumbling, so he stood up in the sand and looked down
With a mighty crash the room below collapsed, creating a crater the size of a large field, and blasting sand up the staircase, causing Layne to fall backwards on his ass
Layne sat still for three seconds before leaping forwards and digging with his hands, shouting
"Ishida! Chad! Ichigo!"
About ten paces to Layne left, they emerged shouting, coughing, hacking and spitting up sand, and Layne rushed over to them
"You idiots, you collapsed the room on yourselves"
They ignored him and recovered slowly, still spitting out sand and dusting themselves off
"We got out, somehow" Ichigo began, after explaining what had happened to Layne "This is their base, so there should be a way out"
Suddenly Ichigo noticed the moon, and the landscape
"This is Hueco Mundo" Layne said, having had plenty of time to observe the surroundings, a static night sky with a crescent moon, a seemingly endless white desert with the only objects within sight being boulders, dunes and dead trees "Nice place isn't it?"
"How do I put this?" Ichigo asked, looking around "It's very lonely here, and it's completely white"
Chad and Ishida walked up to the nearest tree and began inspecting it
"There are plants… but they're withered" Chad observed
Ishida broke a piece off "No, they're made of a quartz-like substance
"That's cool, but this is more important" Layne said, pointing behind them "Look over there"
They whipped around to look in the direction Layne was pointing
A massive white fortress, one main building with a domed center surrounded by several large cylindrical towers and a multitude of small buildings
"A castle or a palace… is this Las Noches that those guys talked about?"
"It's a goddamn monstrosity" Layne commented "Look at the size of it"
Chad pointed to some of the trees dotted near the walls of the immense structure
"Look, those quartz trees are like needs, the sense of distance seems weird, the real thing is probably even bigger"
"I'm glad we're seeing it from a distance that captures the whole thing" Ishida remarked
"Does seeing it change anything?" Ichigo asked
"It makes me feel better, than not being able to see it" Chad replied, with Layne nodding in agreement
"It's a pretty visible target"
"Anyway" Ichigo continued "It's a pretty good chance that Inoue is somewhere inside there"
"Probably" Ishida agreed "There doesn't seem to be anywhere else they could hide her"
"Let's run" Ichigo suggested "Because if we take it slow, we might get into another fight"
"Suits me" Layne acquiesced "As long as we don't have to go underground again"
The four of them set off at a dash, sprinting towards the forbidding alabaster spires of Las Noches