Everlasting tears
A/N: Hey! It's me (again). Enjoy this update, and R&R!
Disclaimer: In no way do I own Maplestory. Nexon does.
Akiko: Gone
Meanwhile, Annelise still stood awkwardly at where her division leader had been so nice to her just a few seconds ago. Samantha walked up to her and tapped her shoulder gently. "Anything wrong?" she asked in a soft voice. Watching Annelise shake her head, she laughed softly before patting her back and said,"Then why don't you go back to work?"
Annelise perked up and muttered a quick apology and turned towards the translating area before remembering to ask her senior a question. "Miss Amilia, was Miss Minimashi always so..." she trailed off, searching for the right word.
"Cold?" Samantha finished fo her. When Annelise nodded, she sighed. "No, not always. She was always cheerful, way nicer than that little act of kindness just then. Until..." she closed her eyes as the memories came flooding back. Shaking her head slightly, she patted the young cleric-to-be on the head and said,"Not now. You can continue translating the scrolls, I heard from your 'boyfriend' that they're almost finished." she gave a mischevious grin.
"Miss Amilia!" Annelise pouted before laughing. Samantha laughed too, before coming back to her senses.
"Ah," Samantha wiped a tear from the corner of her eye."Shouldn't you be going?"
"Oh, yes!" Annelise panicked before spinning on her heels and walked quickly towards her area. Samantha took out her Elemental wand and stroked it absentmindedly before remembering she had a division to assist.
Akiko scanned the scroll, each word dealing a mental stab to her heart. Tears started rolling down her cheeks as she continued to read the letter. After a small puddle of tears had formed on her desk, she waved her hand over it and caused the warm liquid to freeze. Lifting the disc of ice into the air, Akiko clenched her fist and it broke into at least a million tiny glittering shards. They sparkled before starting to fall gracefully through the air. Placing the scroll down, she glared at it, reading it again.
Dear Akki,
I know I shouldn't be even talking to you, I mean, I know you're still mad, you never seemed to let small things go, so naturally at something as big as that, you would carry the burden to your grave. No offense intended.
First things first: Yes, I am a GM. I was one before I met you, heck, before you were born. And naturally, as a GM, I am immortal. I never intended to do what happened that day, but destiny made it's desicion. I had to do it; it was my duty, my job. I'm sorry, Akiniko.
I truly hope that your guild's plans will not interfere with our duty, though I know that our goals are the same, we just have different approaches. Unfortunately, my thickheaded superiors still do not realize this. Still, not the point. I am warning you; if you happen to cross our, or rather, my superior's path, they will not hesitate to kill you or any of your friends. I hope that Samantha is still doing well.
Yours Truly,
Naths
Dammit! She slammed her fists down onto the desk, causing a pot of ink to topple over, spilling jet black ink all over the table. Muttering something along the lines of 'Freaking hell', Akiko took out a small Metal wand. Waving it around, she silphoned the ink back into its pot before drawing a fresh sheet of paper and taking out one of her favorite quills. Scribbling a hasty note to Michael and making a mental note to whack him too (due to the latest amount of BDC's sent in), she stood up and walked over to the door, not bothering to take her Dragon Staff. Upon opening the door, she came face to uh, top of head with Annelise. "You wanted something?" Akiko found herself whispering.
Annelise looked up. "Oh, s-sorry Miss Minimashi! I just wanted to give something to you t-thats all..." she pushed a small object into Akiko's palm before jumping out of her captain's way, her long, dead straight hair flying everywhere.
"It's alright," she said lightly. "I just need to deliver something, that's all." Seeing Annelise nod some-what guiltily, Akiko patted her back before opening the door leading towards the division junction. She folded the piece of paper in half while she was walking down the hall, and found herself folding a small paper crane. She lifted the wings slightly apart, satisfied with her small creation. Knocking the Bravo Division's main door, Akiko waited a little while until the door opened. A rather tall boy clad in the level fifty armor and wielding a shinkita appeared.
"What do you want?" he asked in a harsh tone, before glancing down and noticing that he was facing a superior. Muttering a quick apology while bowing his head, Akiko noticed someone look over the bandit's shoulder.
"Dammit Rick, I told you to be more nicer!" Michael said alittle crossly, before facing her. "Hey Akiko, what brings you to Bradiots*?" he asked, pretending to give Rick a smack on the back of the head.
"I needed to deliver a message to you," Akiko said, smiling at Michael's slightly mean style of humor. She held out the paper crane. It was cradled against her palm, with intricate patterns resulting from the paper on the tips of the crane's wings.
Both boys widened their eyes at the miniature bird. After what seemed like an eternity, Michael cleared his throat. "That's an awesome paper crane, Akiko, but where's the message?" he asked.
Akiko rolled her eyes before putting the crane into his hand. "Thats it, dummy," she half-said, half-laughed. "Sorry, I got alittle bored walking along the hall, and to prevent myself freezing the whole building I had to occupy myself with something. Oh yeah.." she raised her hand to whack Michael's head. "That's for the amount of BDC's you sent over to the Alpha division, and for your slow thinking."
"Owwwww..." Michael pouted, making himself look ALOT like a twelve year old after being refused access to candy. Akiko laughed softly before glancing down. "Hey," he said, raising her chin in an attempt to make her look at him, but he failed, seeing as she just glanced sideways. "Don't worry, you can have all the revenge you want AFTER this war is done." All Akiko did was nod.
Boom.
"What was that?" she asked, immediately snapping up as yells echoed down the hall. "Grab onto me." she ordered. Seeing the determination in the young teenager's eyes forced Michael to clutch onto her arm, and she snapped her fingers and commanded,"Teleport!" they dissapeared back to the Alpha division area. Screams sent shivers up Akiko's spine, she broke Michael's hold and ran, pushing open the door as she did so. An abrupt shout of 'SHIT!' did not encourage him to just stand there idly, so he ran in after her.
Numerous magicians were running around retardedly, screaming their lungs out, but a few that still had brains decided to stand and fight. They were casting every spell they knew at the gigantic swarm of Crimson Balrogs. Akiko was nearby, clutching her staff and hammering away with sharp shards of ice. "Cold beam!" she commanded, and a nearby Crimson balrog that was aiming to decapitate the archmage got frozen solid. "Thunderbolt!" Akiko sliced her dragon staff through the air, causing a shockwave of yellow electricity to fling into the block of suspended ice with the crimson balrog trapped inside. Upon impact, the ice shattered into at least a billion tiny pieces. Akiko heard another scream and she spun around.
"LET ME GO!" Annelise yelled at the top of her lungs, desparately trying to reach her wizard staff. When she finally got a firm grip on it, she swung it around and called,"Magic Claw!" two streaks of blue energy shot out of her wand and raked themselves across the crimson balrog's body, but it ddn't falter.
"ANNELISE!" Akiko screamed. No... I won't let another person die! "Blizzard!" she yelled, directing her staff to the balrog that had Annelise. It yelled in shock as at least ten spiky shards of freezing ice dug into it's back, and with a yell it dropped the young magician. The other crimson balrogs turned to face Akiko. Shit... She thought as she saw that they had glints in their eyes. She quickly ran through her options. If she ran, she would be abandoning her comrades, and that's pathetic. Fighting alone would probably result in her death, and letting people risk their lives to save her would be stupid and uneccessary. But if she teleported everyone to the other divisions, she and Michael could stand a chance with a bigger ground. She spun around to face Michael. "Michael, do you have any space in your division for about two hundred magicians?" she asked quickly.
Michael shook his head. "No, but I think that the Charlie (Bowman) Division has most of their units out on patrols. You could teleport them there."
Akiko nodded, and then shouted,"Every magician that cannot teleport, partner up with a magician that can. Everyone teleport to the Charlie division." Numerous shouts of disagreement came fromt he magicians. Akiko shook her head."I don't care if you want to stay and fight; this is an ORDER. This is for your own survival!" defeated, most of the magicians teleported with a companion. Everyone except for Samantha left. "You too, Sam."
Samantha shook her head angrily. "It's my job to make sure that you don't get hurt!" she pleaded.
Akiko sighed. "Fine, but take care of yourself first." she said, shifting her arcana crown back into place. "Blizzard!" she called once more, and more shards of ice rained down and dug themselves into the crimson balrogs. Five of them screeched in pain and fell to their death below. Five gone, Five left to go. Holding the staff in front of her, Akiko held out her other hand to cradle the black gem at the tip of the staff.
Michael watched as Akiko went into deep concentration. Loading three Illbi's into his claw, Michael also took out a small stone from his pocket; a summoning stone. He muttered,"Shadow partner!" and felt the familiar rush of his shadow forming behind him. He pointed his claw at a crimson balrog and yelled,"Triple throw!" Three Illbi's and three shadow Illbi's flew through the air in a flash, and dug themselves deeply into the balrog's flesh. Realizing that it's life won't last much longer, it yelled out something in a harsh tongue that no human could possible translate unless if they were half-blarog, and a dark mist enveloped the area. A shriek of pain came from somewhere, Michael identified it as Akiko's, but his vision was obscured by the darkness.
Once the fog cleared, Michael struggled to stand up. Once he managed to balance himself, he looked around to see Samantha on the floor, her blonde hair sprawled everywhere. Michael ran, or at least attempted to run towards Samantha. "Where's Akiko?" he asked the Fire Poison Mage.
"DAMMIT!" Samantha yelled, and dug her face into her knees. "I should have protected her..." she spluttered inbetween choking sobs. Michael found himself kneeling next to her and patting her back, muttering words of comfort. A few moment's later, the door burst open and Celina burst in, her Fairfrozen slung along her back.
"What the hell happened?" she asked, looking down at the captain of Bravo division comforting the vice of Alpha (magician)division.
"Akiko's missing," he told the captain of Delta division. "Alpha division was raided by crimson balrogs." looking at Celina's questioning face, he added,"Akiko sent all the other magicians to Charlie division."
"Oh." Celina muttered. Looking around, she said,"We better repair the damage, and we also have to alert the guildmaster." she turned to the now-sniffling Sam. "Get the other magicians back to Alpha division, and assit them in rebuilding. I'll alert the Charlie division, and you better alert the Bravo division too." she instructed. Sam nodded and flipped open her ADC. Michael also opened his BDC and tapped a few keys before switching on his headset and muttering words into it. He quickly unhooked the headset off his ear as a loud voice rang into the room.
"WHAT?" the guildmaster's voice yelled. "Ugh: Dammit."
"What should we do, Guildmaster?" asked Celina, twirling her fairfrozen absentmindedly.
"I guess we'll have to pin-point the location of Minimashi first." the headset turned off.
Natomi: Exploring
"N-no!" Liam spluttered, turning a bright red. Natomi giggled.
"Hmmm... How old are you?" she asked, tilting her head like the curious 11-year-old she was.
"Fourteen, why?" Liam tilted his head the same way in a mocking gesture.
"Did you start late or something?" she raised her hand to air-smack Liam.
He pretended to rub his head in pain. "Yeah," he answered. Ah, if she was only to see my weapons...
"Then why do you have a Blue Screamer in your pack?" she asked, pointing to the huge blue sword poking out of his pack.
"Um this? I'm carrying it for a friend," he answered nervously.
"Cool." Natomi flexed her bow. "Well, I guess I'll see you later."
"Sure." Liam nodded and walked back towards the bustling city known as Henesys.
Natomi took out her skills book that Athena had given her. It wasn't very thick, it was around the size of one of her thinner novels she used to read back home. Flipping over the yellowing pages, she saw the contents. Arrow Blow was on the contents amongst Amazon's Blessing and Critical hit, but there was one number at the end that didn't have a assigned name. Flipping to the assigned page, she scanned the page quickly. Close your eyes and concentrate.