*Gasp* I have returned to this story?! Inconceivable!
Well, sort of conceivable, I guess.
Sorry for being away so long, but blame it on my muse running off into the distance while leaving its minions school, work, lack of sleep, and etc. behind to delay me.
Then it started throwing ideas for other stories at me, and so this story kinda got left in the dust. But, one guest reviewed with a nice comment saying that I'm probably never coming back to this story, and if they're reading I have come to say I have returned! (To this story. I've been on other ones more recently)
Reviews help chapters come faster. I never thought it possible, but I have been proven wrong.
BTW, I own none of the characters from other stories that make an appearance here, and this is not meant to be a crossover - since honestly, there are too many franchises to crossover here. If you don't recognize some of the people, then honestly, I feel sorry for you, for one, but leave a review or PM me and I can tell you where they're from. I also have a couple of my OCs from my other stories in here too, which I do own, I suppose.
Yeah, this chapter is literally just me going all FanFic nerd on this and putting a bunch of characters I like into the story. Feel free to gloss over this and move onto the next chapter if you don't care.
"The enemy we are facing is one of the most deadly in existence," Fang announced. "They have only one purpose for their existence: the end of the world. They are called the Rursan Reavers, or Rursus for short. They are going to stall the town indefinitely, as they multiply without end when summoned. Aloja is working to buy us as much time as he can, but the Rursus will prove to be able to hold us back for far longer. They are an enemy that Storybrooke cannot defeat. The best course of action for all of you is to scatter and take refuge."
"You expect us to just sit back and hide while our town is under siege?!" A man with a pickaxe called.
"You cannot defeat the Rursus. Even one of those things will be tougher than any monster and enemy you've ever faced in the past. They are ruthless, they don't waste time, and they will not stop until every one of you is dead and bleeding out on the streets of your hometown."
"We still can't just stand here and do nothing," Regina agreed. "There must be something we can do."
"The Rursus have the ability to teleport around the battlefield, make themselves temporarily immune to all attacks, turn themselves invisible, inflict massive wounds with a single strike of the blade and make you vulnerable to even the smallest injury. Even if you're able to knock one out, you can't kill it. It will regenerate its strength gradually and be up and about within minutes of its defeat. There is nothing human within them, nothing that can care about anything. They will walk to their deaths willingly, even if you're able to slaughter millions of their kind, and they will only get stronger with each one that you are able to defeat. Not to mention that with each attack, they inflict damage to your soul itself, and if you take too many hits, it will be impossible to heal yourself no matter how many healing spells you put into it. To fight such a force is a suicide mission, no matter how powerful you are."
"Can we find a way to stop their regeneration?" Emma asked. "There has to be a way to kill them, at least stall them and protect the citizens for as long as you need to rescue your friend."
"The only way to put them out of commission and prevent regeneration is to harvest their souls, a talent which none of you possess, and one that can't simply be learned with the snap of a finger, not even were I to try and give you the ability. There is too much that goes into being able to harvest their souls for good."
"Then how do you expect us to protect ourselves?" David - or Prince Charming, as the books call him - asked. "Even if we hide, if those things are as bad as you're claiming, we won't be able to stay hidden for long."
"I'm going to give you an army of people that will be able to hold them off," Sai said. "Believe it or not, there are some people that have managed to master the art of harvesting souls, and they do so on a regular basis. There are also people that have powers over souls themselves, people trained to handle those that can revive themselves. They'll defend the townspeople."
"Can't we at least help?" Mary - or Snow White - asked. "It's hard to sit back and let others protect you, and we want to be of use in protecting our town. We've not fought and made it this far to just sit back and do nothing."
Fang sighed and looked to Sai and Alek. "We'll be breaking more rules."
Sai shrugged. "We've broken enough already. A few more won't hurt. And the board will probably fix it up later. Might as well enjoy freedom while it lasts."
"Besides, crossovers are fun," Alek said.
"Might as well then," Fang conceded. "Sai, get the summons here."
"I thought you weren't a summoner," Henry said.
"I'm not, but we Illustrators can draw other people's creations and bring them to life, which is basically summoning. Now, who do we want?"
He pulled the large scroll off his back and a paintbrush.
Fang hummed in thought, before snapping her fingers. "Let's get out the class, first."
He nodded and flung his scroll out, holding onto one end. The thing had to have been heavy, but he threw it with ease and it soared through the air like magic. When the scroll landed, it had unraveled about twenty meters.
Sai then zipped across the canvas, his paintbrush working at the speed of an Illustrator, and his creations began to glow moments after he'd drawn them. People began climbing off the page one by one, each of them in academic school uniforms as well as some variation of a red cape (except one who had just a handkerchief sticking out of her jacket).
"This is Class Zero," Fang introduced. She pointed from left to right down the line. "Ace, Deuce, Trey, Cater, Cinque, Sice, Seven, Eight, Nine, Jack, Queen, King. Got it? Got it? Good. We've got some Rursus to fight, guys."
"Sounds like a party," Sice said.
"Let's go beat 'em into the ground, yo!" Nine shouted.
"Would you take this seriously?" Queen reprimanded, pushing up her glasses. "The Rursus are not to be taken lightly."
"We beat 'em once, we can beat 'em again," Ace said. "Besides, we're only trying to hold them off for a few minutes. We did that like ten times back in Pandaemonium."
"Great!" Fang said, clapping her hands together. "Now, should we bring in Machina and Rem?"
Sai shrugged. "It's up to you. They never faced the Rursus before, though."
"I think this class will be enough. Now to others I had planned."
Sai nodded and began his drawing once more. This time, a boy no older than Henry stepped off the canvas, looking like a normal emo teenage minus the dark sword hanging at his hip.
"Yes?" He asked.
"We need your Stygian sword and underworld-y powers, Nico," Alek said.
"Oh! Let's not forget his brother!"
Sai began to draw another person, and this time another boy came out, dressed in dark colors with a sword as well, but he had to be around 18 years old, a few years older than Nico.
"I present to you, Nico di Angelo and Zytaveon Kanazoi!" Fang introduced.
"Yo, what's up? I'm Veon."
"Nico."
"Boys, we've got some guys who need soul collecting to be defeated."
Nico sighed. "Sounds like a normal day."
"Sounds like a party," Veon corrected.
"That's what I said," Sice agreed.
"Hey, Sice."
"Yo."
"Your idea of a party must be much different than mine," Nico said. "And I was just going to meet Will…"
"And you say you don't like him…" Veon muttered.
"What?!"
"What?"
"Hm, who else?" Fang muttered. "Sai?"
He began drawing, and this time, a man in dark armor appeared, dark blue/purple hair, and a large sword with an eye on it on his back.
"This is Caius Ballad."
"What have you brought me here for?" He asked.
"Big baddies, soul control needed."
"Understood. Collateral allowances?"
"Keep the people alive, but we can fix buildings later. Now, who else?"
"Reapers?" Alek suggested.
"Oh, yeah!"
Sai smiled and got to work on a whole new set of people, all except two dressed in identical suits with varying types of glasses, and all holding gardening tools of some kind. The exceptions to the matching outfits were a man with a red jacket that didn't seem to fit him, only hanging on at his arms, and another with grey and black robes.
"Shinigami!" Sai presented.
"We've got some soul problems, boys," Fang announced. "Grell, you are allowed to go crazy on the enemies with your Death Scythe."
The man in red smiled to reveal rows of sharp teeth. "Music to me ears, darling."
"Let's get some pure man-power out here as well," Alek recommended. "Still with soul control-"
"We are so trademarking that," Fang declared.
"-but with more attacking power so that we can take them down and allow the others to do the harvesting."
Sai got to work, and another three people stepped out. There was an older man in white robes and a crown-like hat that looked to be of royalty, holding a staff, a younger man dressed in black with multiple daggers at his belt and a purple, red, and orange phoenix-style sword at his hip that seriously contrasted the rest of his outfit, and an agender person with dirty-blond curls going down to their hips and a large buster-sword type blade at their back.
"The fal'Cie Barthandelus, Mataecharonsan, and Asushunamir!" Fang introduced.
"Why is the sky red?" Shu asked.
"Because its full of evil," Charon responded.
"A summon of immense powers, I'd wager," Barthandelus said. "Dare I say worthy of Ragnarok."
"Enough with the doom and gloom, Bart," Shu complained.
"We're having you fight an army, not the summon," Alek explained.
"Ooo, armies."
"Army of bad guys, Namir," Charon reminded them.
"More people to beat up," They concluded.
"Rikku!" Alek requested. "With two k's," He clarified.
Sai nodded and a teenage girl came from his scroll of paper this time.
"Ha, ha! Let's do this thing!" She shouted, pumping a fist.
They summoned a pink-haired woman named Lightning, all decked out in her Savior outfit, as well as a man in red carrying a large sword, Auron.
"Is that it?" Sai asked.
"It should be enough," Fang admitted. "But honestly, the list would not end, were it up to me. I have some seriously OP creations that might come in handy, but they're higher ranking summons, meaning they'll sap more of your strength than necessary, and we've still got a challenge ahead of us with freeing Aloja."
"You could always borrow a couple of us to help," Veon suggested.
"No point in going in without a little more assistance," Trey agreed.
"Taking out the source of the army should be taken just as serious as the army itself," Caius agreed. "You should take your smaller team seriously, else the rest of us fighting will be obsolete."
"We're gonna need people that are fast and can attack quickly. We're also going to need people that have big energy reserves to transfer over to a friend of ours. And some people who are quick at summoning. A couple tanks might be useful as well."
"Cater is the fastest shooter we have," Seven said.
"I might be of some assistance," The Reaper in black, only known as Undertaker, offered.
"Shu and I have vast reserves of energy, as well as powerful fighting skills," Charon added.
"I specialize in alchemy and magicks," Queen declared.
"Hey, so do I!" Rikku voulenteered. "And Auron's a good tank!"
"I'm pretty useful in stealth with my shadow traveling," Veon finished.
"Right," Alek said. "Me, Fang, Sai, Cater, uh…that guy with the scythe, Charon, Shu, Rikku, Auron, Queen and Veon. That should be a diverse and big enough crew to handle the wizard dude causing the summoning, and the rest of you will have to hold the Rursus off. I have no doubt there's going to be a lot of them, and with the rate you guys are going to be killing them, you're all gonna have to keep track of what Rursus need their souls collected and which ones are already being killed properly."
"We've wasted enough time," Fang said. "Let's get moving. We can only buy so much time with Writer powers and Aloja's resistance. Oh, right. Storybrooke residents? Uh…you guys can help out if you want too."
With that, she ran off towards the forest, the designated group members following her, as the fight for Storybrooke and existence itself began.