Don't ask me how this happened. I just put the first things that popped into my head into this story with the "What could go wrong?" concept behind it.
The future chapters might give spoilers about what I have planned for my OCs in their original stories from whence they come. I'll try to avoid it, but the careful reader will be able to predict things from what is said here. You have been warned.
An army of tall warriors walked into town. They almost seemed to be made of armor, as each step clanked in a constant rhythm. The army hovered about a foot above the ground, walking slowly. Their faces seemed to be plastered on, like masks, as the eyes appeared to be closed and were calm. They didn't seem to be in a hurry, but that made them all the creepier.
Caius transformed into a Chaos Bahamut and hacked away at a group of Rursus. Class Zero summoned their weapons in a few flashes of light and began separating to strike throughout the masses, the Grim Reapers doing the same. Barthandelus held his staff high before it began glowing with orbs of energy. He swung his staff and the orbs went flying toward the army, exploding on impact and knocking a good deal of them back. Nico was shadow traveling across the battle field, darkening the area as he summoned shadows and slashed with his Stygian blade. Lightning hacked and slashed at high speeds, leaving only a pink glow and a few rose petals in her wake.
Emma dived out of the way of one of the Rursus when it swung its sword. The blade glowed with a larger blade silhouette at least three times the size of the original sword, causing the ground to shake from the impact. The glowing extra part of the blade only lasted for a split second during the swing, and disappeared a moment after it was completed, allowing the Rursus to move with grace and not having to lug around a ten ton weapon.
She held out her hands and blasted the creature with an explosion of light energy, causing the Reaver to flinch before it recovered and slowly walked forward towards her again. Snow drew her bow (ha, rhymes) and shot the Reaver as many times as she could, while Regina was throwing all the spells she could at any Reaver she could see.
As they were told, the Reavers constantly faded to invisibility, most of the time completely vanishing and teleporting somewhere else, only to reappear and get in one of their deadly swings. A couple of times, when they were knocked down, they went through a transformation into an even creepier version, a second large face on their stomachs and a sword four times as big. Not to mention the fact that once it got low on health, it grew glowing wings and zipped around at lightning speed, making it hard to hit and allowing it to do damage to a wide area of people.
It was chaos on the battlefield, hacking and slashing with weapons, blasting and zapping with magic, transformations, and explosions as souls were harvested by Class Zero.
Meanwhile, the group out in the forest hurried forward.
"Look out!"
Everyone took cover behind trees as bullets were fired their way.
The ground sbook from heavy footsteps and the sound of mooing filled the air.
"FROGs and Gekkos!" Alek called.
"Metal Gear Solid?" Veon called.
"Yep! Hard nuts to crack."
"They're still organic!" Sai called. "The Gekkos have legs that can bleed and be affected by tranqs."
He pulled his scroll from his back and shook it, an arsenal of guns and ammo coming out. He grabbed a couple of them and tossed one to Fang, Alek, Charon, Shu, and Veon.
"Have a party!"
Cater moved to fire her Magicite Pistol at the troops of FROGs, her gun clicking before she launched a grenade and rolled back behind cover.
"Let's see how you like this!" Veon called.
A lance formed in his hand and he jumped high into the air, pulsing with energy. "Highwind!" He slammed down into one of the Gekkos, sending a shockwave out to the surrounding enemies. "Boom! Eat that!"
"Goodbye, ladies," Undertaker said before swinging his scythe across a wave of the FROGs. He laughed maniacally as he shot around the battlefield, swinging at any unfortunate that got in his way.
Queen waved her hand and shot blasts of lightning at the Gekko in front of her, before moving in and stabbing its legs with quick and rapid attacks. Rikku turned and fiddled with some things from her bag before turning and chucking a grenade that exploded, killing some FROGs while putting some to sleep, blinding some, dazing some, confusing some, poisoning some, and disabling the weapons of some.
"Boo ya!"
"Look out!"
Auron hurried in front of Rikku in a defensive stance and blocked a Gekko from crushing her, sending it back and slashing its leg clean through.
Charon was swinging his Zanmato blade left and right, instantly taking down Gekko after Gekko, and Shu waved their hands to have the forest around them spring to life, some plants growing out of nowhere while those that had already been there moving on their own and growing vines into the machines. Even the people were getting a nasty taste of plant growth with some fast-growing, human-designed cordyceps, which did not leave a pretty image behind.
"Okay, that's kinda gross," Charon said.
"But effective." Shu jumped with a shriek as one of the FROGs fell in front of them, growing fungus out of her head. "But also gross, yeah."
Alek and Fang weren't exactly top notch fighters, but they could still hold their own, shooting down any enemy that came their way, with Sai opening his scroll to send out a barrage of bullets and knives.
"They're still coming!" Cater shouted. "How many of these guys are there?!"
"There were an infinite wave of FROGs at the end of MGS 4," Veon admitted. "And there were a couple of infinite waves of Gekkos as well."
She rolled out of the way of a Gekko that tried to stomp on her, charging her gun before letting out a large blast of energy that exploded and took the Gekko's leg clean off. "Oh! That's just great!"
"We make a swift retreat," Queen declared. "Fighting this pointless battle is only wasting the time Aloja is buying us and is wasting our resources."
"Let's move!" Auron ordered.
"Go on ahead, lads," Undertaker said. "I'll handle them for as long as you need."
"Alone?" Rikku asked.
He smiled, one of his green Reaper eyes showing from his mess of silver hair. "I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve, little girl. Now run along and do what you have to. They're all mine."
With that, he launched forward, laughing hysterically, as he swung in a wide arc, slicing down a wave of FROGs and knocking the Gekkos back, every enemy going down in one swing.
"Let's take his word for it and move!" Charon said. "We've got to free your friend, right? If he's being used to summon these guys, then every enemy he sends decreases the chances of his rescue."
Alek nodded. "Right."
They ran through the woods, Undertaker hacking and slashing behind them, destroying the enemies with earth-shaking force.
"Which way is it again?" Cater asked.
"This way!" Shu said confidently. "The natural energy in this place doesn't like what's happening. It's screaming at us to help."
"Are you okay?" Charon asked.
"It's like a thousand people are screaming into my ears and mixing my insides like a blender, but I'll manage."
"He's right about the energy thing, though," Veon said.
"I am not a 'he!'" Shu snapped. "I am agender!"
"Okay, okay. But the energy from all living things is being drained, even from the air. Death is already taking over things from the energy being stolen to power this summon, and ever more death is approaching once that thing is active."
"You guys can sense that kind of stuff?" Rikku asked. "Coo-ool!"
"Make haste then," Auron ordered.
They hurried through the forest, and Shu ran forward. "It should be right…here?"
"What is…?" Veon asked before he saw what Shu was looking at and a similar look of surprise and then horror overtook his face. "Oh no."
"What?" Cater asked.
In front of them was a large maze, going as far as the eye could see. The entire thing was alive, moving pathways, machines clanking and whirring, and gasses being shot into the air to obscure certain parts, no doubt being poisonous.
"It's a labyrinth," Sai muttered.
"The Labyrinth," Veon corrected. "The one Daedalus built in Greek mythology. I've been there before, but…I guess I've never see it so active and deadly."
"It must be a beefed up version," Fang said.
"And we're gonna have to get through that thing?!" Rikku asked. "Can't we just…fly over it or something?"
"Flying risks crashing," Alek said. "If it were that easy, this thing wouldn't be known as one of the deadliest traps in existence. Besides, this thing might be specifically designed to counter our abilities and powers. No cheating."
"Is Aloja at the middle of it, some random location, or at the other side?" Sai wondered.
"None seem very appealing," Cater groaned.
"There must be a way," Queen declared, pushing her glasses up in thought.
"Sai, can you summon something to…I don't know, crush the labyrinth or disable it?" Charon asked.
"I don't know if it'll work. That guy may not have a Writer with him, but Illustrator and summoning power together makes for a deadly combination."
"We'll try and make sure whatever happens is effective," Alek said. "Without Aloja I'm a bit weaker, but Rei's back to full Writer strength, and our Oracle bond will prove useful as well."
"Can you two eliminate any issues and traps within the maze?" Queen asked.
"Not easily," Fang said. "It would have to be within a limited range, and if we were to break concentration for even a second, all the dangers of the maze would be released at us all at once, and with a group so big, someone's bound to get hurt."
"It's worth a shot. We press onward through the labyrinth, allowing you to guide the group along the way while we protect you and make sure nothing breaks your focus."
"It's the best option we have," Charon agreed.
They all headed to the entrance to the labyrinth and Alek and Fang created a barrier around the group. "The theory is this should protect against any traps," Fang explained. "We keep our concentration and nothing should break through. We'll make it so that we walk on the straightest path we can to Aloja. Don't break the bubble, and don't do anything to scare us or the bubble pops, our control lags for even a moment, and this labyrinth can take everyone down within seconds."
They walked through the deadly corridor, both Fang and Alek walking with their eyes shut on auto-pilot, stepping in sync. Around them, numerous attacks and traps were striking the barrier. At one point, they nearly walked off a cliff, but the moment the bubble's edge reached the ledge, the gap suddenly began to close where they were walking.
They were safe from the labyrinth's dangers, but they were still moving at a slow pace, and the maze was enormous, the corridors going on endlessly.
"Alek…help me!"
"Lo?"
He looked around to find Aloja down one of the pathways behind them. He was coughing his lungs out from poisonous air, and suddenly his leg fell into a small pit with what looked like a bear trap. It snapped at his ankle, causing him to scream and fall forward, only to have a spike shoot out from the wall, piercing his shoulder clean through and pinning him to the wall.
"Aloja!"
"Alek, wait!" Sai shouted.
Alek surged forward, and Sai reached to grab his arm and stop him, but he ran past the barrier bubble and it popped, releasing poisonous gas into the group, the horrors of the labyrinth swarming in.
Alek ignored the chaos around him, instinctively protecting himself from everything as his Writer powers influenced the world around them. He ran forward to Aloja, while everyone else was forced to scatter, the labyrinth forcing them to split up without them even realizing it.
"Aloja!"
Aloja was bleeding heavily, blood streaming from his wounds as well as his mouth and nose. "Alek, run. Get out of here!"
"What?"
"You're an idiot, Alek. I'm fake, sent here to break your concentration. Now get out of here before you and the others are all doomed!"
The injured boy suddenly froze up, like someone had hit the pause button, and his skin cracked before he shattered to dust and then the ashes left behind evaporated.
Veon suddenly appeared out of Alek's shadow, grabbing him and then jumping into the nearest shadow to nowhere in particular, trying his best to save his life, and hoping the others would be okay.