"Well, here we go again" Minato remarked while the others looked about uncomfortably around the empty Port Island station. It was 11:59 PM, and quickly counting down to the accursed Dark Hour "So much nicer when the whole gang's back together isn't it?". Despite the jestful nature of his comment, those gathered didn't seem to find anything funny about all this. "Huh. It's weird to be the non-moody one for a change". "Do you mind telling me why we're not visiting Tartarus, Arisato?" Mitsuru asked, her arms folded "Call it a hunch" Minato replied "Tartarus was Nyx's deal, not Erebus'. I have a feeling we won't find what we're looking for in Tartarus".
The clock struck twelve, all life dissapeared, and the universe was left suspended in time. Everything frozen except those with Persona's...And the Shadows.
"Well, let's get to work" Souji spoke up, adjusting his glasses. He gestured at Rise and Fuuka, and the two nodded in understanding. With a thought, Fuuka summoned Juno and her protective bubble enveloped both her and Rise. Following that Rise summoned the slender figure of her own Persona, Kanzeon. Kanzeon's visor slid over Rise's eyes, and for the first time in ten years she could sense the most minor of things. The two support Persona's being in such close proximity seemed to amplify the both of them, feeding of each others power and improving each other in a bizarre symbiosis.
"This is so cool...Rise Kujikawa has the same role as me!" Fuuka gushed, somewhat forgetting about the task at hand. Rise chuckled lightly and said "I take it you're a fan, Fuuka-san?". "The biggest" Fuuka replied proudly "I sent you all sorts of letters over the years, and you replied to every single one". Rise gasped slightly in surprise "Seriously? That was you? Small world! I'm really glad that I could have helped y-" Rise stopped abruptly, suddenly sensing something in the city. Something...Powerful. "W-wait, we're all here aren't we? Because I can sense other Persona-users in the city". Fuuka gasped sharply, Juno locking onto the same thing that Kanzeon had detected "N-no...I-it can't possibly...". The other jumped to attention, curious and somewhat afraid.
"Guys..." Fuuka began, barely more then whisper "It's them...".
Deep within Port Island, a small ripple formed in space-time. It pulsed violently for a few moments, before finally spewed out Takaya, Jin and Mr. Hism. From where they were standing, a series of apartment buildings surrounded them along with a massive gathering of transmogrified coffins. "Ah yes. A fine place to build an army..." Hism remarked dryly. Takaya and Jin looked around in a confused manner, wondering just what the hell the strange masked man had been smoking. After a few moments looking around fruitlessly, Takaya asked with a weary sigh "And what exactly will this army be made of? Inanimate coffins?".
Hism's masked lips curved into a crooked smile again "Ha...No. Let me ask you Takaya, did you ever know what Apathy Syndrome was?" Takaya crossed his arms over his chest "When a Shadow feeds on the mind of a human". Mr. Hism nodded again "Indeed. However, to be more specific it is when a Shadow feeds on the mind of a human and transfers that energy to Erebus. Here's another intresting tidbit Takaya. All those Apathy Syndrome victims from the past? They all maintained a link to Erebus, and their psyches can bemanipuated and corrupted by his power again. Just...Like...This...". raised his index and middle finger up slowly, suddenly illuminating the area in an ominous red glow.
The strange red flash dissapeared almost as soon as it appeared, however it's effects soon became visible as a large portion of the transmogrified coffins present started to glow a similar shade of red. Then, the black tar of the coffins started to rise off the catatonic humans they contained, morphing into a menagerie of deformed shadow creatures. "This is our army, Sakaki..." Mr. Hism paused for a moment, and glanced around "Ah. It would seem the Messianic duo and their disciples are on their way...Well, I will leave them in your hands Takaya. I have other business to attend to" then, Mr. Hism simply strolled into the shadows and dissapeared without a trace.
The two teams had been on the move ever since Fuuka pointed out the presence of Strega. While this was obviously a big deal for the SEES crew, the Investigation Team were thoroughly confused once more. Mitsuru had indeed mentioned Strega when she first met them, but they were supposed to be dead appearantly. Then again, so was their leader so they'd have to take everything with a pinch of salt.
"You sure it was them Fuuka? They died, we all saw it for real the last time!" Akihiko exclaimed. Mitsuru shook her head "Nobody ever found their bodies, Akihiko. With everything that happened in the final battle and us losing our memories, coupled with records on Takaya and Jin being virtually non-existant, nobody would have looked for them either. I imagine they dissapeared along with Tartarus after the battle with Nyx". Minato nodded "Sound theory. What I'm more concerned about is the appearant rise in power the two have had".
Rise and Fuuka both stopped suddenly, rubbing their temples in agony "Agh! Wh-what is this?" Rise exclaimed, whatever she was sensing it seemed to be ungodly powerful. "I-I don't know...There was one massive beacon of energy...Gone almost as soon as it came...And now I'm sensing a massive gathering of...Shadows?" Fuuka spoke, regaining her composure. Indeed whatever they felt was so strong that even Mitsuru and Teddie, with their weaker sensory powers, were reeling. But, they pressed on and eventually they all arrived at the aprtment blocks, the group skidded collectively to a halt upon seeing Takaya and Jin. They certainly looked different, the effects of Niall Hism's taint visible.
"You..." Takaya hissed, taking his revolver from his holster. On instinct, Naoto did the same. "Nanako, get back..." Souji whispered, and Nanako responded by doing just that. She was a brave kid, but not stupid enough to stare down the barrel of a gun. "Listen punks, I don't know who the hell you are bu-" Kanji's threat was cut short by a massive fireball exploding right infront of him "Shut it!" Jin yelled, the Evoker in his hand still smoking. Just above him his Persona, Moros, dissapeared from sight. Like Jin, his Persona had changed drastically. It looked like a giant robotic spinning top, with a variety of menacing mechanical appendages moving about.
"Uh...I think we might be a little outnumbered here" Junpei remarked, noting the Shadows slowly advancing on them. All different Arcana's, no two looking alike. Minato nodded "Yeah...Souji, how do you wanna' do this?". Souji narrowed his eyes, looking all around "Your team knows how these Strega guys fight, you should be the ones to deal with them. My team'll keep these Shadows off you". Both leaders nodded, splitting their teams off to their own objectives.
Yosuke, Souji and Nanako were staging the assault on the left side. "Go! Susano-O!" Yosuke yelled out, his ultimate Persona emerging from his tarot card. He looked like a slender man in a silver spacesuit with a plume of fire atop his head and a buzzsaw spinning around his waist. Susano-o flipped out of his saw, and kicked it into the crowd of Shadows. The crowd of Shadows scattered to avoid the saw, only a few being too slow to avoidthe strike. Those who scattered however, were easy pickings for Izanagi-No-Okami and Ame-no-Uzume who rained hell on them with Megidolaon and Ziodyne spells.
On the right side it fell to Chie, Teddie and Yukiko to handle offence. Teddie's Persona, Kamui started things off by creating several massive chunks of ice with his Bufudyne spells. Chie followed up by kicking each slab at the Shadows with her unfathomably powerful Galactic Punt attack. While the Shadows were still struggling to get back up from the giant chunks of ice that smashed into them, they caught a faint glimpse of Yukiko's Persona, Amaterasu, zooming over head. They only caught a glimpse because the split second they saw her, they had already been engulfed by a series of massive fireballs.
And then, beating the Shadows away from Rise and Fuuka, was Kanji and Naoto. "Let's kick some ass Rokuten Mao!" Kanji yelled, calling forth his gigantic red mecha Persona. The mechanical figure raised it's flaming blade up, and smashed it into the ground with a mighty shockwave following after. The advancing Shadows were all knocked back into one big heap by the shockwave. The last thing those Shadows saw was the tiny wiged figure of Naoto's Yamato-Takeru whizzing all around them, before they were all sliced to bits by the fairy's Vorpal Blade attack.
There was one thing that all of the Investigation Team noticed, that once the Shadow's were defeated they dissolved into black clouds like normal and those clouds in turn moved back to the humans they came from, reforming back into coffins. Well, that was new.
The SEES team meanwhile, were having a greater degree of difficulty dealing with the reborn Takaya and Jin. The unholy power Mr. Hism had granted them had boosted their physical abilities far beyond their original limitations, so much so that evenAigis was having trouble with them. "Ziodyne" Takaya hissed,with the disfigured form of his Persona, Hypnos, materialising out of thin air and calling down a massive thunderbolt on Junpei. Luckily for Junpei, Akihiko's Persona Caeser intercepting and absorbing the lightning bolt. Hypnos, much like Moros, had undergone noticeable changes. It's skin was black as obsidian, with a series of glowing red scars marking it's flesh and multiple deformed wings suspending it in the air.
Jin, meanwhile, was busy trying to outrun Aigis' machinegun fire, along with Mitsuru's bufudyne spells, and occasionaly lobbed a few grenades at his attackers. Aigis, being such a powerful machine, was able to dodge Jin's projectiles with minimal difficulty while also taking care of any heading Mitsuru's way. Jin was so focused on Aigis however, that he didn't even see Junpei positioning himself up ahead while Akihiko stayed to fend off Takaya. "Heh, batter up Trismegistus- Gigantic Fist!". With the pull of his evoker's trigger, the multi-winged mechanical Trismegistus appeared. Jin saw the incoming attack all too late, as Trismegistus collided with him which created a small explosion of purple energy as the attack connected.
Jin was sent flying back, tumbling a few times due to his momentum. Before he could even stand up again, he heard the clicking of Aigis' guns above him "Don't. Even. Breath".
Takaya was busy fending off attacks from Koromaru, Ken, Minato, Yukari and Akihiko and even then he seemed to be holding his own quite well. He shot Yukari's arrows down mid-flight, avoided Minato's sword strikes, completely bltized Ken when he got too close and was keeping pace with Akihiko. But, Akihiko did manage to get in one lucky punch which not only sent Takaya flying back but also burst Takaya's nose like a tomatoe. Takaya pried himself from the crater his superpowered body had formed, his eyes flashing darkly.
Then, Takaya moved faster then human eyes could percieve, nailing Akihiko in the gut with one superhuman punch. Akihiko gagged violently, the wind knocked out of him by the impact. He was fairly certain something was broken there. Either way, the pain was horrific. Akihiko slumped down, clutching his gut in agony and trying in vain to find his evoker. Above him, he heard the cocking of Takaya's revolver and the shocked gasps of his teammates.
Was this how he was going to die? Being gunned down by this nihlistic monster, just like Shinji was? Then Takaya pulled the trigger, and all Akihiko heard was a sonic boom.
He had no idea how long he had been here, time moved so strangely when you were hopelessly insane. The doctors wouldn't tell him anything, but they didn't seem all that intrested in him. From what he had overheard, he was a lost cause. Just sitting there, borderline comatose. That was fine. He didn't need them, he was a badass celebrity. At least, in his own mind he was.
There was one thing he noticed though, and it was something that had started happening very recently, around midnight the power failed and all became silent. Except this night, when a strange voice started whispering to him.
"Mitsuo Kubo, such a brave strong hero. Confined here by wicked people who were jealous of what you accomplished...But I can offer you freedom. Vengeance. Are you intrested?"
Mitsup blinked his inky black eyes a few times, this strange voice snapping him from his trance. Finally, something that understood what he was capable of. "Yes" Mitsuo spoke, his voice cracking as he hadn't spoke in a long time. "Good" the voice whispered, a dark figure materialising before him. A tall, well-dressed man wearing a golden frowning mask. "I am Mister Niall Hism, and I am the key to your freedom" Hism raised his fingers up crackling with black and red energy and touched Mitsuo's forehead. On contact, Mitsuo's mind reawakened with new grand power.
"Thou art I, and I am thou. I am Nidhoggr, eater of the world tree"
A/N: Whew! Sorry about the wait, but some things came up and I wound up getting distracted. And then TF2 became free to play, so...Uh yeah, enjoy.