fleets: Hmm, not much to say up here (more to say after the chapter though) so I'll just leave you guys to the story.

Chapter 23: Dark Hero

It was over. It was all over. Thistle had the wishing cap and there wasn't anything Vaati could do about it. Thistle was talking to him but Vaati wasn't really paying close attention. All he could think about was the fact that the Wishing Cap was on the wizzrobe's head.

Thistle snapped his fingers, and on cue all of the electronics and lights that had been dead from the blackout sprung back to life. Vaati's ghost light disappeared as the fluorescent lights engulfed it. "We're such a great team! I mean, look at you, finishing this cap before the two month deadline, before our friend Dugal – "

"Not a friend," Vaati muttered, as he began to aimlessly look around, trying to think of something.

"dropped dead. Although his deadline might be sooner than two months because of the way he's been abusing that hourglass hmm," Thistle mumbled to himself, and then chuckled, waving it away as though it were an inconsequential thought, "but anyway! With a little persuading and mentoring from me, you've created this wonderful hat for me." He peered at his reflection in one of the metallic equipment on the wall.

"Not for you," Vaati replied flatly, but he wasn't completely paying attention to Thistle's ramblings right now.

"I just wish the color was a little different. Maybe a little lighter." Thistle hummed and hawed, and then after a few seconds, the previously dark purple cap became a lighter shade that matched the wizzrobe's hood. "Oh! Would you look at that, it changed color to exactly what I wanted. Kehahaha! How's that for a first wish?" He adjusted the hat on his head so that it fit comfortably, and admired his reflection satisfactorily. "Wow that feels incredible. I feel like I'm on a never ending sugar-high. This is how you feel all the time, Vaati? That's really not fair. Ah, but I guess I'll eventually get used to this and it won't feel that great anymore."

Meanwhile, Vaati appeared to be carefully considering the layout of the room. The wind mage's expression was resolute, as though he had resigned himself to the fact that he'd failed to get the cap first, and was now in the process of judging his next best option. He could feel a faint tingle along the back of his neck: anyone with some kind of magical inclination could sense that Thistle's power had grown exponentially. It was kind of like an increase in air pressure that made it uncomfortable to breathe, a chill static in the air that made it impossible to relax.

Thistle finally seemed to notice the sorcerer who was crouched on the other side of the table where the hat had once been. "Keh, you sense it too, do you? It's not that fun standing on the other side of someone with this much power, is it? That's a little taste of how everyone else, at least those sensitive to magic, have felt around you." His voice was a little resentful towards the sorcerer before it went back to being flippant and careless. "Ah yes, so what did I wish for next, hmm? Well it's simple, really. I just wished to be the Greatest. At everything. Yes, that's it. The Greatest. Your wish was something along the lines of 'Greatest Sorcerer,' wasn't it?" Thistle shook his head disapprovingly. "Your mistake there was that it was too specific. Too many restrictions. Oh, speaking of restrictions, I didn't just wish to be the Greatest at Everything. I'm the Greatest to have ever lived, and to ever will live, and can't be defeated. Did you want to defeat me, Vaati? I see that look on your face. Oooh that's so ferocious. You want to dethrone me, but you can't! I wished that I can't be defeated, so it's impossible for you to take the upper hand. Impossible. I made it a fact of life. Just learn to accept it," the wizzrobe shrugged. Thistle began to pace, slowly, and even though Vaati never thought he'd ever feel remotely threatened by a man wearing a toucan mask, his muscles were tense and ready to snap to action at the smallest sign from the wizzrobe.

"Well, that's that," Thistle shot him brief glances as he continued to walk slowly around the room like a vulture circling above a carcass. Thistle seemed to be debating with himself about what to do with Vaati, but it was all too obvious that his fate had been decided long ago from the way the wizzrobe's voice darkened abruptly. "Hmmm, now what to do with you? I like our team, I really do, but sometimes I feel like it's all one-sided. I don't want to force you to stay, so I'm going to have to let you go. Such a shame." Thistle slowly raised his arms and gave a sinister cackle. He squeezed his right hand into a fist and brought it down forcefully. Dark energy surrounded the metal table in the middle of the room, and it crumpled in on itself like paper with a loud crack. "Let's have some fun before you go then. Let's see whose wish was better! I mean, of course I'm going to win, I mean I made that a reality, but let's pretend we don't know that and have a contest." Thistle shoved his face towards Vaati with a wide-eyed grin.

In a split second, there was a deafening crash as Thistle was run over by a gigantic black claw. It caught him squarely in the chest and smashed him into the wall on the other side. The entire room became dark as shadow matter accumulated where Vaati once stood, and a grotesquely large, single red eye opened slowly. The voice of the demon eye, the voice of Vaati, the Sorcerer of Winds, reverberated across the walls menacingly. "I was thinking the same thing."

XXXXXXXXXX

The lock fell to the floor with a heavy thunk, and the room became completely dark again as Bates' stopped his laser. A faint red ring glowed where he'd bore a hole and the lock had fallen off. With Bates' stone, he could make out a faint red outline around the sentry in the dark, and he could see Bates carefully fly out of the melon-sized hole he'd burned and slowly look around the hall.

"All clear."

Dark carefully pushed against the door, careful not to burn himself with the still-glowing metal of the hole, and quietly stepped outside. He could hear hurried footsteps stumbling around in the blackout, and some voices in the distance. Dark felt his way along the wall of the hallway. It was ridiculously pitch black: being underground without any light anywhere, he felt like he was in one of those touch tunnels in science museums.

"This way."

Bates began to fly away rapidly towards one end of the hallway. Wordlessly, Dark blindly followed the glowing outline of the sentry; without being able to see anything else, following Bates was the only thing he could do. At first he placed his steps slowly and clumsily, as though he were afraid he would trip over something, and then he realized that the hallways in the facility had been fairly empty and that there wasn't anything he could bump into. Overcoming his apprehension, he quickened his pace.

"Briskly, here!"

Without warning, Bates turned 90 degrees to the right. Dark followed, but only after hitting a closed door and muttering curses at the sentry while quickly fumbling for the door knob. He opened the door and crouched down at Bates' urging. Before he could ask what was going on, the sentry shared what he could see and Dark immediately understood why they had to hide. Several feet ahead of where they were, just around the bend, there were three glowing red eyes moving swiftly towards where they had been. Each eye, Dark noticed, was part of some kind of Cyclops dog cyborg thing. Well… 'dog' was the closest thing that came to mind, but it also wasn't the best description. Most of their bodies didn't seem material, and was just some kind of black shadowy cloud in the shape of a terribly emaciated four legged creature. They also had huge claws that shouldn't have belonged on any animal aside from dead dinosaurs, and their head and shoulders were augmented by metal plates and wires.

The bottom line was that they were creepy and Dark wanted nothing to do with them. The three of them stopped at the hallway intersection, and then split off, one going in each direction. One of them briefly stopped in the middle, swung its head side to side as though surveying the area, and then slunk off. Dark saw it literally sink into the floor, melding into the shadows, until it was nothing more than an even darker patch on the tiles that moved swiftly towards its destination.

Dark hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath until Bates let him know that they were safe to leave. Bates had told him that there were things here that weren't 'natural,' and even though he'd been convinced that nothing would really surprise him because he was an 'Avilux veteran,' running into those things in person was an entirely different experience. All of the magic-related creatures and things during the Avilux incident had been surprising and awe-inspiring, but nothing compared to the machine-like precision and cold terror that these creatures, spawned with magic and controlled with technology, could demonstrate. It had been a brief encounter, but Dark already knew that he was extremely uncomfortable about the idea that he was now part of a cat-and-mouse game in near-complete darkness, in an underground labyrinthine facility, against a bunch of creepy robotic shadow dogs, with no way to defend himself.

As though some higher power somewhere had been listening to his thoughts, the lights flashed back on. Dark shielded his face, squinting while his eyes adjusted to the sudden bright lights.

Alright, so his odds were slightly less worse than they were before. Great.

"Expeditiously! You must keep mobile."

Bates mentally slapped him to focus. Dark scowled, and then tentatively pushed the door open slowly. He peeked down the hall, making sure nothing was around the corner.

"Faster, you fool."

"Geez, I'm just being careful," Dark muttered.

"I have your back, imbecile, you must take my word."

With a long frown, Dark gave the sentry the finger, but didn't press the issue. They had agreed that Dark would let Bates guide him through the facility before-hand, and the only way this was going to go smoothly was if they trusted each other. Still, Dark couldn't help but be nervous about the Shadow Hounds, especially since he didn't have a way to defend himself if he were found. "Alright, let's just get to that first detour we planned on going."

Without another word, Dark carefully but quickly followed Bates throughout the building. They had more close encounters, but each time Bates led Dark somewhere safe before anyone realized they were there. Eventually, Bates led him to a locked door and worked quickly to melt it off. Dark pushed through the door as soon as it was loose enough to force open, and eagerly rushed inside. "So there're things here that will help me against those things?"

He looked around, and his small glimmer of excitement slowly began to fade as his eyes landed on the several air-tight glass cases around the room. He'd been expecting some kind of weapons locker, but instead the room that Bates had led him to appeared to be more of a collection room than anything, what with all the display cases. He walked up slowly to the case that Bates was hovering over. He said slowly, "I hope you have a good explanation for this."

Inside each glass case was an antique weapon or tool from the ancient times. The object under the case before him was an old sword, dating back to who knows when. The label on the case called it "Hero's Sword," but it didn't look heroic at all. In fact, it looked like any sort of standard sword with little care put into its design, as though whoever made it only cared that it could be used to stab things. The other display cases had objects that reminded him of the so-called magical artifacts he had seen in the old Avilux facility. There was a short rod of sorts, with a bronze and silver handle and a big red orb set at the tip. Another was some kind of steel-clawed gauntlet, and there was also a battered wooden boomerang. This wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting when Bates had told him they would stop by a room with weapons that would help him.

"Of course," Bates said proudly, ignoring the disappointment looming over Dark. "The wizzrobe has maintained the old hero's vintage armament, perhaps out of nostalgia or curiosity. We can employ these against him."

"These things are old as dinosaur shit, Bates! I was expecting something a little more, I don't know, twenty-first century?" Dark brought his hand down on the glass with a loud slap. "What am I supposed to do if I run into one of those guards and they point a gun at me, huh? I'm pretty sure there's a fantastic reason why guns replaced swords. I wonder what that reason is? I mean, I can't possibly imagine why a small handheld device capable of murdering everything several dozen feet away is better at killing things than a metal slab with a handle."

Bates looked at the disgruntled Dark for a few seconds in what could only be described as smug amusement. If the sentry was a person, he probably would have had his arms crossed over his chest with a condescending little grin. "A metal slab with a handle?" Bates chuckled to himself, "I can't possibly imagine why godlike sorcery capable of blowing the world to the heavens would be bested by a metal slab with a handle."

"What's your point?" Dark snapped, still unhappy that he had pegged his hopes on some useless antiques.

"I'm saying that we have, Lord Vaati and his servants have, made the erroneous judgment of underestimating 'metal slabs with handles.' 'Metal slabs with handles' more often than not have the ability to turn the tide for the heroes who wield them."

"So I'm the big hero now, am I? I'm just going to get shot!" Dark scoffed. Even with all the grumbling, however, Dark popped off the glass case and gruffly picked up the sword. He also walked over to the rod labeled 'Fire Rod' and the claw labeled 'Clawshot' and tucked them under his arm as well. He wasn't really sure how either of those two things worked, but he figured he would be able to figure it out when the time came: right now, he didn't want to waste any more time than he had to. He stuck the Fire Rod through his belt to keep it in place, equipped the Clawshot on his right arm and held the sword in his left arm. "Fine. This hero enough for you?"

"Appropriate," Bates did a circle around Dark before giving his approval. "Although it is contentious whether or not that is an unhazardous location for the Fire Rod." The sentry stared somewhat worriedly at the Fire Rod stuck against Dark's hip.

"Well tell you what," Dark leered at the little sentry in front of him, "I'm going to make your life very unhappy if my ass catches on fire. This was your big idea."

Bates blinked, and then snickered. "Very unhappy? If your posterior region becomes a bonfire I will be incapacitated with mirthful hiccups."

"Bates, your word choices make everything you say sound so lame. So lame. You gotta fix that buddy, because you're letting your evil overlord voice go to waste. Now come on," Dark moved towards the door with his new equipment and shooed the sentry out the door to make sure their way was clear, "let's move out."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The wall had cracked where Vaati's claw had supposedly smashed Thistle. He'd partly hoped that his attack might have done something, but instead of finding the wizzrobe crushed against his claw he realized there was nothing between his claw and the wall.

"Oh good. An enthusiastic opponent is much better than a reluctant one," Thistle's voice came from somewhere around the room. Vaati's demon eye caught a black shadowy cloud that had settled in a different corner, away from his claw. The voice appeared to be coming from there. "I did not expect to see your more powerful form already, Vaati. I guess we're going to have to even the field a little, then. You know, so we can keep this unfairly fair. Or is it fairly unfair? Kehaha!"

A foreboding energy emanated from the shadowy cloud as it gradually transformed into a… creature. Vaati couldn't exactly call it a 'he' anymore, because the last semblance of humanity had left it; it was like how many considered him to have lost his own humanity when he'd sacrificed his more humanoid form for the raw power of the demon eye.

The creature towered at around eight feet tall, and it looked like some kind of a large robed creature with the head of an eyeless bird. Feathers black as the void covered the thing, except for where its scaly arms extended like the talons of a raptor. It was entirely black save for a gold ring around its head and a red gem set in the middle of it. Its high crest of feathers rustled as it turned its birdlike head, and for a moment it appeared as though the thing was eyeless. Suddenly, however, it opened its black beak to let out a cackle, and that was when he saw a single green eye where its tongue should have been. The eye swiveled around to face him, and in that moment a dozen more tendrils shot out of the ground, each with an eye that turned to stare at him.

An equal number of flying sentry eyes was summoned around Vaati as he watched the thing warily. It was a crazy situation, the more he thought about it; there they were, two creatures who were as close to godhood as they could get, and they were going to fight until one of them stopped moving. It wasn't the usual 'monster vs. hero' fight Vaati was used to, but a fight between two monsters who probably didn't deserve a chance at victory in a world with even a hint of justice. Farore was right during the Avilux crisis, wasn't she? There were no heroes here. Only a bunch of selfish bastards.

Thistle's voice reverberated in his head, distorted, much like how his own voice was whenever he transformed. It was deep and menacing, and it was hard to believe that this was the same person who had been speaking cheerfully only moments before. "I am better than you, Vaati. I will not make the same mistake you made. And when I am through with you, I will finish what I started. The Occult Ascendancy will begin once more!"

The creature's eye flashed red from the depths of its maws, and Vaati immediately knew what was coming. It was Vaati's same exact beam attack, his most powerful one, with its only weakness being that it took some time to charge and was easy to dodge. The wind mage knew what this meant. Within the small confines they were in, Vaati's huge demon form wouldn't be able to dodge it. The only way to counter the attack was to fire an attack of his own: this was a test of power from Thistle.

A brilliant beam of raw power shot towards Vaati, crackling through the air and ripping some of the machines along the walls in its wake. At the same time, Vaati answered with a similar attack of his own and the two beams met in the middle. There was a thunderous snap as the two beams collided and began to push against each other like a much more lethal version of an arm wrestling competition.

Without warning, there was an explosion as the energy from the two attacks dissipated in every which direction. The entire room was swept with a shockwave and the walls cracked from the incredible force. When the smoke cleared, the two monsters were still standing, sizing each other up from across the room. Thistle appeared to be at ease and completely relaxed, while Vaati shook ever so slightly from the exertion the attack had placed on his body.

The wind mage's eye narrowed as the other creature looked at him smugly. He'd thrown his best attack at him and the wizzrobe (or whatever he was now) didn't appear fazed in the least while he was already getting tired.

Vaati chuckled bitterly to himself. Only a wish was going to get him out of this mess, but that idea was no longer an option.

Impossible indeed.

fleets: This chapter bothers me. It bothers me because it's a setup chapter for the upcoming ones, and maybe it's just my lack of fondness for battle chapters but I feel like I wrote all that stuff and nothing happened. Maybe it's just me. I hope it's just me...

Thistle made his wish though, but it probably wasn't a huge surprise since it was implied in the last chapter that he was going to make a wish that would let him beat Vaati. Vaati wished to be the Greatest Sorcerer (not sure if that's canon, actually, but in the series I've written I've always gone with this version), so Thistle wished to simply be the Greatest at Everything and impossible to beat. I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to make my favorite OC villain into the most obnoxiously powerful villain. :P

I wish I could post some kind of deviation of Thistle's ultra form along with Vaati's eyeball wrath form, but I'm having complications with my tablet (i.e. don't have it with me) so for now, just look up swain from league of legends in google images or something. Thistle's final form was heavily inspired by Swain's demon raven form, with the main difference being that Thistle has no eyes except for the one in his mouth. I still wanted to stick to the 'all black, mono-eye' theme that was Vaati's final form, but make it more birdy.

And we don't have Link this time, so we had to leave it to Dark to pick up that role this time. And no, that's not the Master Sword since that thing disappeared with the real Link in Avilux. It really is just some plain old sword (like the starter swords you get in most Zelda games).

And lastly, maybe this chapter isn't that exciting for me personally because it's missing the rest of the cast. Like Dugal, Condor, Hawk, Kestrel, Thyme. They'll be in the upcoming chapters though.

Thanks again for reading this. I know it's a long read.

Anonymous: Yep, Thistle is pretty much omnipotent now. Not quite on the same level of Light Force omnipotent, but basically better than the current best at anything (since that is basically what his wish specified). So it really does seem like the story is pretty much game over, but the fact that this story isn't already filed under 'Complete' status suggests that I do have a few exit-plans for our protagonists ;)
Vaati's mistake was that he wished too little. Wishing to be the Greatest Sorcerer doesn't necessarily mean that he will best, for instance, the Greatest Swordsman. Thistle, on the other hand, wished to be the Greatest for everything, so there's really no way to defeat him conventionally at this point. Vaati is still very much capable of being Thistle's equal, but Thistle's wish gives him an edge against our favorite wind mage.
At least Thistle's first wish was the extremely harmless one of changing the hat color (well... before he made the game ender wish).
And awww thank you so much! Well back when I was even more immature as a writer than I am now years ago, I did freak out about people guessing plot progression and whatnot. Then I realized that a good writer should be confident with their abilities to still provide the element of surprise even if people end up guessing what happens next. It's the presentation that matters. Once I realized that, I learned that it was okay to let people guess away and now I actually welcome it ;)

Serpent Tailed Angel: Haha Condor will show up. Soon. He's part of the story after all :P
Wellll Thistle is the main villain this time, whereas in Rend he was more of a supporting villain-turned-protagonist. He'll make a few readers unhappy in OA I'm sure (though I'll still love him ;A;) I hope I didn't have to make you wait too long!

Lord Tuxedo: Lol I actually hadn't thought of that, but that would make a great comedy alternative ending XD

Iris Martinez: And a big thank YOU for sticking around for so long! :D

alice: I'm going to reply here and just hope you caught my reply: Oh, I did have an interest in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun! (there's the Majutsu version as well, but it's more of the same story from a different perspective: I personally prefer the Kagaku version). I didn't learn about the Accelerator until after I'd finished Avilux, but he is SO similar to Gale it's uncanny! I guess pale skinny guys with ultra super powers is a common trope?
Actually the reason why I became interested in the Toaru series is because I'd heard about the technology/magic conflict. It's a theme that also interested me in my NaNo challenge, and also something I've always been interested in which is why I really delved into Avilux/OA :)

Reily96: Then I have succeeded :D