Disclaimer: None of the authors own any of the referenced properties.
[Persona 4], [Gundam]
Kira Yamato's Design – part 6
Author: Drakohahn
Things quickly went south for the Investigation Team as they were placed entirely on the back foot. Defensive and healing spells abound to try and keep up with his attacks as the few times they could occasionally fight back was dodged despite Rise's Supreme Insight. In fact, due to Variants where some members joined up earlier than normal, it felt like they were facing an enhanced, machine version of Shadow Rise. Unfortunately, that meant they needed something to tip the scales back in their favor to win here.
Izanagi glowed with intense light as Yu called forth his next Persona, shattering a card in his hand once again.
"Izanagi-no-Okami!" The light dispersed to reveal a now white and gold Izanagi with his spear turned into a giant ring with two parallel blades, the belts that had been hanging from the back of his head were now replaced by long blades, the smaller blades on his feet had extended out into longer, golden blades and his helmet had become sharper and less human.
"Thou art I, and I am thou...
From the sea of thy soul, I come...
From the very moment of my emergence, I have been a guiding light shed to illuminate thy path...
I am the original god...
Izanagi-no-Okami."
"A god?" The Shadow Self mocked. "You think you can beat me with a mere god? You can't match me! I AM BEYOND YOU! I AM ULTIMATE!"
Yu and the empowered Izanagi merely faced him silently, the others recovering in case they had to step in to assist. The Shadow Kira's remote pods launched from their docks on the giant ring on his back and zeroed in on Yu and his Persona.
"Die where you stand, Natural!" A few dozen green beams of energy shot towards the pair. Izanagi no Okami floated in front of Yu and spun his blade, the attack splashing harmlessly on the Persona's weapon. "WHAT?!"
The white god Persona rocketed towards the out of control Shadow Self, jabbing with his weapon. The green beam blades in Shadow Kira's hands flashed forward to deflect the oncoming stab while counterattacking with his own thrust. Izanagi turned the deflection into a spin to block the attack. With his free hand, the Persona blasted the Shadow Self with an intense burst of lightning.
Reeling back from the blow, the Shadow Self redirected his pods around the mighty Persona. The white Izanagi spun his weapon once, releasing energy that engulfed the surrounding pods in fire. They couldn't take the damage, exploding and depriving his foe of his all-directional attacks. Losing himself in rage, said Shadow Self snarled as he brought his blades to bear and charged. More blasts of fire were dodged with ease by the oncoming attacker, causing the mighty Persona to meet his foe in melee combat.
Blades clashed as Shadow Kira tried to use his speed to circle around Izanagi, looking for an opening in his opponent's defenses. However, while he was proving faster than the white Persona, his techniques were becoming less skilled and more wild as his rage continued to grow. Finally finding an opening in the Shadow Self's defenses, one deflected blow allowed Izanagi to blast his foe in the face with powerful flames.
"N-NO!" The raging Shadow Self cried as his body stopped following his commands. Izanagi-no-Okami backed away from his foe and held the ring of his weapon with the Shadow Self in the center. He spun the weapon, drawing in powerful energy. Once fully gathered, Izanagi unleashed it upon the downed Shadow Self in three explosive bursts. Shadow Kira was sent reeling from each one until he collapsed onto the ground.
[Nocturne], [Warhammer 40000], [Disney]
Yggdrasil's Undisputed CAH Champion
Author: Gamerex27
"I'm all but certain he's cheating," Magnus growled, pointing to the offending entity.
"I'd know if he were cheating," Tzeentch muttered, sipping whatever brand of intoxicant Slaanesh had cooked up this time from the broadcast on a nearby monitor. "He isn't. Mind you, I'd be winning if I were playing-"
"Oh, come on," Slaanesh pouted. "You're not playing because I'd dominate this game in seconds!"
"More likely that he is scarred by what he has seen of our encounters to come anywhere near the three of us," Kashima speculated. "Hence why he hides behind circuts and plasma rather than play at a game as he is wont to do."
Shivering, Tzeentch proceeded to switch off his video feed and went to audio only. "Not taking any chances! Not ever again!" Several seconds of deep breathing later, the players heard the sounds of the God of Change chugging his drink on the other end of the line.
"But I do have to agree that this is bullshit," Slaanesh growled, leaning across the table and pointing hir finger accusingly at the being across from hir. "You're beating a Primarch of Chaos, both of my fuckbuddies, one of the angriest and most sexually repressed men I've ever met-
"Hey!" Donald Duck objected, smacking Slaanesh over the head with Save the Queen.
"-and me, a deity of fun times," shi continued, showing no response save narrowing hir eyes at the final player of their game. "This is my game, bitch? How are you beating me?!"
Shi's got a valid question, Naoki asked mentally. Dude, how have you won any black cards in this game, much less around two thirds of 'em.
The final player was silent for a moment.
"Gawrsh, Slaanesh," Goofy finally said, tilting his head in confusion. "I dunno? Maybe I've got beginner's luck?"
"This is the third round we've played tonight!" exclaimed Magnus. "Luck only gets you so far!"
"Clearly, there is more to his desires than he shows," Kashima said, smirking and leaning over the table. "Tell me, have you ever experienced that last card firstha-
He's from the Disney Branch, moron! Naoki interrupted. They're as pure and driven as snow! He's probably...I dunno, stumbling through this with luck!
"Ah. So, you are the Fool, walking off the edge of the cliff."
"...Eyup!" Goofy said, shrugging and pulling up the small pile of white cards to judge them.
"You know they just insulted you, right?" Donald grumbled, as Goofy picked his card and slid the black category card over to his friend.
"Hey, bein' a Fool's a good thing where those folks are from!" Goofy said, grinning obliviously.
As Donald facepalmed, Slaanesh proceeded to leer at the knight while the Demi-Fiend and Primarch stared at him in confusion. And the game went on.
[Persona 3]
Ikutsuki vs. the Gaslight
Author: Kalimaru
Sitting in the lobby of the SEES dormitory, Chairman Ikutsuki was enjoying a cup of tea and contemplating the end of humanity. He put his cup down on the table, only to pause when he heard the clink of breaking ceramic. Looking down, Ikutsuki noticed that he'd put his cup on the edge of the table and that it had tipped over the side and shattered upon hitting the carpet. He clicked his tongue in frustration, and after looking to see if anyone else was in the lobby he retrieved a broom to clean up the broken ceramics. He wrote off the accident as a product of his pre-occupied mind.
…
The next day, when all of the SEES members had gone upstairs, Ikutsuki walked behind the welcoming desk and was promptly jammed in the side by one of tables. Placing a hand on his side to slightly relieve the pain, Ikutsuki noticed that the foot of the table was definitely out of place. There was a well worn divot in the carpet where the table had been positioned for a long time. The fact that he could see it told Ikutsuki that someone had moved the table. Perhaps one of the children had done while cleaning and simply forgotten to put the table back?
…
A few weeks later and Ikutsuki was getting fed up. Everyday, he seemed to drop something off of a table or injure himself by walking into something in the SEES dormitory. Even when he went out of his way to avoid some of the furniture, he'd somehow manage to run into the exact chair or table that he'd been trying to walk around. As such, he'd made sure to keep his eyes on whatever piece of furniture he felt might be most likely to attack him next. This only worked half of the time, and made Ikutsuki feel self-conscious whenever he did it around the children. Still, it was better to look foolish and to be in less pain than to leave the matter be and continue to get hurt so excessively.
…
Ikutsuki stepped into the SEES dorm on the last day of summer vacation. He made sure that all of the furniture was where it was supposed to be, and slowly walked towards the stairs. As he made his way up the stairs, he noted just where all of the SEES members were. Most of them were gathered to play a card game on the girl's floor, with the only missing members being Mitsuru and Minato. Since he already knew that Mitsuru was still at school and preparing for tomorrow, Ikutsuki began to idly wonder where the blue haired boy had gone.
He shouldn't have dropped his guard.
Just as he reached the landing before the top floor, Ikutsuki rolled his ankle. His balance was immediately thrown off and Ikutsuki found himself falling backwards down the stairs. Hearing Ikutsuki coming, Akihiko jumped to his feet. This sent the chair that Akihiko had been sitting in, a rolling swivel chair that he'd borrowed from Yukari's room, right to the bottom of the stairs and directly into Ikutsuki's descent path. Ikutski landed on the chair, instantly breaking the base and sending them both careening down the next set of stairs. Both bounced off of the wall of the landing and Ikutsuki landed face first on the floor. Picking himself up, he managed to stand and straighten out his clothes.
Then he stepped on the chair and was sent tumbling down to the ground floor. A sickening crunch could be heard as testament to Ikutsuki's nose breaking when he landed on his face a second time. As a final insult, the broken chair followed Ikutsuki down the stairs and bounced off of his head.
Akihiko was by his side soon after, attempting to left Ikutsuki off of the ground. "Chairman Ikutsuki! Are you alright?"
Ikutsuki's response was unclear, muffled by a broken nose and the increasingly bloody carpet.
"What did you say?"
Ikutsuki grabbed Akihiko's ankle. "Don't you gimme dat bullssssit!" Pulling down on Akihiko, Ikutsuki rose to his feet. "Dat wass on purpossse!" Rearing a fist back, Ikutski bore down on Akihiko.
"Chairman!" Both Akihiko and Ikutsuki turned to the front door just in time to see Mitsuru entering with her father.
…
Upstairs in the command center, Minato clicked his tongue and put a mark on a sheet on paper. "Looks like Yukari was right. All it took was a few accidents to get him fired."
"Bark!"
Minato shook his head. "I know you were hedging for a legality issue, Koromaru, but I am not going to be the guy who laced his villain's cereal with heroin. Where would I even get that stuff?"
"Bark! Bark-bark!"
"...I'm going to ignore that you know about those sorts of places, Koro."
"Bark bark bark!"
[Nocturne], [SMT IV], [Devil Survivor 1], [Predator], [Bar Loop]
(no title)
Author: Gamerex27
Status: NON-CANON? (it is illegal to directly include Archie characters in fanfiction due to company copyright demand, though apparently references to the comic are fine)
"You truly plan to do this?" Kashima asked, as he and the blue-haired boy sat aside from each other.
"Look, maybe the Great Will does need to go once the Loops end," Kazyua replied. " Or at least, the version from the main Branches. But Lucifer needs to get axed, too."
"You can do whatever you please once the Loops end," the Demi-Fiend said, trying to ignore Naoki yelling at them to just settle this damn argument, they'd been at it for hours. "Whether or not you can defeat him-"
"That's now what this is about," the King of Bel retorted, scowling. "We know that you, me, and the rest of the Anchors are gonna head out and wipe out both of those bastards once all this is over.
"But what happens after that?" he asked, leaning in closer. "Are you going to try and conquer the omniverse? Do what Naoya wanted, and try to break everything down?"
"I fail to see how that is a problem," Kashima said, idly toying with his chopsticks. "Once the shackles of eternity are loosed, should we not be free to act as we wish? Why do you bother to uphold order, when we have been locked in the same routine for eons on end?"
"Because there are still so many problems out there. You think the Admins will fix every Loop at once?" The other Looper shook his head. "No. They're going to have to put it together, one piece at a time. The MLEs, Wily, the Flaw?" The blue-haired boy noted how both Naoki and Kashima flinched at the mention of the latter. "Still going to be there. And we need to fix those. Flynn's with me. Saiduq'll probably with me. But you? Langdon? Slaanesh? Aleph? Both of us are building armies, for the end of this all. We need to know for sure we won't end up on opposite sides of this war, once it starts."
"Gentlemen."
The two demons looked up to see an annoyed Isabeau standing at the edge of the table, a tray of food in her hands.
"I thought I would let you know that the line for ramen is now shorter," she announced, as she sat down next to Kazuya. "And we should save this discussion for when more of us are present."
"Bah." Sighing, Kashima decided to relent for now, as Kazuya excused himself and rose to get in line for some noodles. "Fine."
"Honestly," the Samurai sighed, stirring a packet of sugar into her coffee, "shouldn't we save this for when the Loops actually end? We don't need this specter hanging over our heads. We have enough albatrosses as is."
"It never hurts to plan ahea-fine," the Demi-Fiend hissed, as Isabeau narrowed her eyes and reached menacingly towards her phone. "We'l discuss this later. Much la-"
Their conversation was interrupted when the window crashed open, and an armored figure landed right on top of Kazuya.
Beyond the initial shock and panic, people shows surprisingly little reaction to the seven foot-tall armored, masked figure slowly staggered off of the winded King of Bel, and limped over to Kashima and Isabeau's table. Probably due to the convention just a few blocks from the ramen bar.
Or maybe it had more to do with Atsuro deciding to enact his Silent Revolution this Loop, and people being used to seeing demons walking the streets now. Whatever.
Oh, it's Scarface, Naoki noted as the Predator slammed into Kazyua's seat, while its former occupant dusted himself off and glared at him. 'Sup?
"Booze," the extraterrestrial begged. Reaching forwards, he yanked a bottle of wine off of the nearby shelf and uncorked it. Tearing his mask off, he removed the cork with his claw and tried to drink it, snarling when he realized it was just a decoration and therefore empty. "I need booze."
"This is your pupil, Kashima?" she asked, as a concerned waitress tiptoed over to their booth and tried to defuse the manic alien. "He seems a tad...touched."
"He is not normally like this," he agreed, staring as the Predator wrote down a request for potent sake on the back of Isabeau's check. "I haven't seen someone this crazed since...since a long time. Scarface. What happened?"
"Bad Loop," Scarface moaned, taking deep breaths as he nervously glanced around the restaurant. "What the fuck was up with that Loop?!"
"I take it you had your first run-in with Doctor Wily?" Isabeau asked, handing the waitress a yen bill for the alcohol and a tip for her trouble. "Or perhaps Dio? Did you perhaps find your way to a 4Kids Loop?"
"BET-TY" the alien hissed. "FUCKING BET-TY!"
"...The only Betty I know of is Betty Ross," Isabeau mused, subtly moving away her ramen soup from the frenzied Predator. "...No, wait. Wasn't there a Betty in a Western Manga?"
"Archie motherFUCKING Andrews," he clarified, shuddering. "I decided to hunt them, because why not? But she used some spell I didn't know about, and...and..." He shivered. "She turned me into her mate and locked me in the basement and did...it was like Sensei's concubine Slaanesh on crack! I am never looking at a textbook the same way again!"
Oh, shit, Naoki realized, chuckling in the back of their shared mind. That Betty chick was in the list of new Loopers in Amano's newsletter. She went full yandere her first few Loops. You never go full yandere.
"Alright, hold a moment," Isabeau said, nimbly ducking under the table to get past Scarface and into the isle. "I shall find Mari and see if she can provide some medicine. Don't hunt anyone while I am gone."
"BUT-"
"Don't even think about it," Isabeau said in a low, dangerous tone, hand already reaching towards her cell phone.
"Bad Loop?" Kazuya asked as he retrived his utensils from Scarface's side of the table and sat in the remaining fourth seat.
"Bad Loop," Kashima confirmed, already thinking of asking Slaanesh to take Betty's form when shi was around Scarface to force his pupil to overcome who may have become his personal feared nemesis. "...I wonder if this is in the Hub in any capacity? It would explain...much."
[Nocturne], [Strange Journey], [SMT IV], [Mass Effect]
Sovereign's New Groove – part 6
Author: Gamerex27
"The Shepherd, who rebelled against all choices. Your-"
Whatever the White was going to say was interrupted by a gunshot to the face, blowing open its skull.
"We don't have time to listen to your lecture," Shepard announced, keying in the command to his new Demon Summoning Program to release his demons. "Doesn't matter if you're right or wrong. If you want to kill off humanity, or any other race in the galaxy, you'll answer to me. I've stopped the Reapers thousands of times. You? You're nothing."
"You, who embrace oblivion so much," Death said, materializing in a burst of light and Magnetite. "It it time to send you to the void you seek. Die."
The bloodless, gore-less would closed itself in seconds, as the White narrowed its eyes. Waving its hand, the aura around it shimmered, and the swarm of bullets Shepard unleashed from his SMG bounced off of the barrier and rocketed back towards the party. The bullets drained all of Shepard's shields. In lieu of a convenient chest-high wall to take cover behind, Shepard broke into a sprint, recalling the basic tactic of a moving target being hard to hit.
"You, who have battled death time and time again," the mockery of Anderson asked, in a twisted echo of his baritone voice. "For whom do you fight this hopeless battle?"
"For everyone." Charging forwards again, Shepard reappeared behind the White, pointed his gun at the back of its skull, and open fired until the clip ran burning hot. "To save them from you. Which we just did."
Shepard stepped over its corpse, but paused. "Better make sure that-"
"It is not dead!" Death warned, even as the White sprang to its feet, its head reforming again, and blasted Shepard high into the air with a single spell.
Batting Matador and Death aside, it short-circuted Nihlus's weapon with a single blast of electricity, strolling forwards as Shepard painfully landed on the ground. As he pushed himself to his knees, he came face to face with the White's outstretched palm, shining with an ominous light...
…
In another corner of the Monochrome forest, an ear-piercing battle cry sounded repeatedly. While it was mostly gibberish, one word was intelligible, in incredibly loud Japanese and repeated ad naseum,
"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"
"Holy shit," the Hell Biker muttered, as Naoki continued to hammer away at White Yuko with no signs of stopping. "I thought War was brutal. He's hammering her faster than she can grow back."
"Um...should we do anything, Mister Trumpeter?" Alice asked, yawning. "He's doing it all for us! It's booooring!"
"It appears we may yet have a battle to fight," the last Fiend stated, as shambling piles of ooze and ectoplasm materialized all around them with a wave of White Yuko;s hand (even as she was getting the tar beaten out of her). "Alice, dear girl, I believe they wish to be your friends."
'Really?!" Alice's face instantly brightened, and she grinned with far too many teeth for an ordinary girl to have. "Yay! This'll be fun! Hey, Mister...s slimes? Would you pretty please...die for me?"
As the human-looking girl inhumanly tore her way through the guts and fluids of the damned, the other Fiends shrugged to one another.
"I don't know how the hell Belial and Nebrios do it," the Hell Biker mused, as he slammed the pedal to the metal and mowed his way through a hundred slimes in one rotation of his infernal engine.
Whatever Trumpeter had said to reply was drowned out by the Demi-Fiend's howls of fury.
He forgoed magic. He put away the spells, the enchantments, and even the simplest of his myriad of destructive spells.
Naoki instead chose to simply beat Yuko's imitation over and over, with his bare hands. While she was trying to say something, it was rather difficult to lecture your foe when your jaw was being broken every few seconds.
…
"Does it not hurt to know that you can never save them?" the White taking the shape of Gore taunted, wave after wave of attacks fading into nothingness against its tuxedo.
"Now what are you prattling on about?" War snarled, his blade bouncing off of Gore's bald head. Before his horse could leap back to charge again, Gore struck the horse in the leg with a strong kick, sending steed and Rider sprawling to the ground.
"Zelenin. Jiminez. Gore. Arthur. And those dozens of faceless children of Man who die for you."
"Oh, shut up!" Langdon roared, switching to wind rounds on one of his many guns. These, at last, seemed to cause some lasting damage on the White, who stumbled backwards, riddled with holes.
"These are your comerades. Your friends. And yet, nothing you have done across endless cycles of time has saved them. Each and every Loop, you see them die."
"Death is an inevitability all things reach," Famine hissed, ripping the energy from the White's being with a volley of vampiric curses. "Be it through by blade, by disease, by me, by any of my brothers-"
"-It is inevitable that all things fall," Pestilence concluded, enchanting his arrows with lightning as they finally struck true.
"I'm not talking to you!" the White shrieked, its monotone of flanging voices briefly switching to Commander Gore's intimidating tone. Smashing them aside with a burst of almighty energy, the duplicate of Gore shot a bolt of flame into Langdon's gun. The gunpowder in the weapon, ignited by magic, exploded in his hands, and only the DEMONICA stopped the soldier from being vaporized on the spot.
As he slid backwards from the force of the explosion, Langdon got to his feet, and drew the blade at his side.
"Fate itself rebells against you, Son of Man," the White continued. "Regardless of what you do, you can never save them all. Nor will you. So why, then, do you fight for such a long-lost cause?"
Langdon grabbed a rock from his belt, and smashed it to powder against his blade. Shining with more almighty energy, Langdon charged fowards, the newly-enchanted weapon in his hands above his head and ready to swing.
"Why do you endure this torment of forever?"
…
"I've changed my mind!" David moaned as he was smashed over the head with his own violin. "Someone, put this song on mute!"
Touching one of the splinters of wood embedded in David's sun-bleached skull, a grand ash tree grew right into his bones, shattering the Fiend into dry, white powder.
"They have never done this before!" Isabeau remarked, leading backwards as White Issachar tore the tree out from the ground with a flick of its wrist, sending it hurtling over to its foes.
"They're not holding back any longer!" Flynn shouted, three-fingered hands awkwardly wrapping around his usual gun to fire at their enemy.
"Excellent!" cackled the Whore of Babylon. "Now they're making it a party!" Crackling with thunder and raw magic, Mother Harlot struck White Issachar through the very trees he was hurling from the nearby forest, the flying foliage serving to further channel her lightning fury.
"You wish to see stillness so badly? Let us give you that piece in the grave!" With a terrible shriek, Daisoujou sent forth sonic waves that tore through the air, as well as through the White's various enchantments.
"Look upon my form," it said, undaunted. "It is that of your friend, Issachar. The one who you have eternally failed to save."
"Don't you dare do this again, you bastard!" Flynn screamed, a sweep of his blade cutting a flying tree in half, even as he returned fire with his pistol.
"But your eternal failures include more than just him among their ranks. Jonathan. Walter. The entirety of Kiccigiorgi. Those hundreds of souls left behind as Mikado crumbles. The countless who suffer under the rule of Tayama. It matters not what you do: you are powerless in these currents of time. It is all for naught. So, you too, shall return to naught. You must realize, it is the only way to escape the Loops."
"Quiet!" Isabeau retorted, blasting away with a swarm of every elemental spell she knew.
"The Administrators-those who control the Loops-shall never end them," White Issachar taunted. "Your souls and hearts shall be naught but dust by the time they are even close to fixing the universe. So, why then, do you fight the inevitable?"
Grunting, White Issachar hunched over, as every part of his body shined with energy.
"Oh, damnna-"
Before everything went white, and then very, very still.
"Why do you continue to bother, in these wretched fates?"
[Nocturne], [Warhammer 40000]
(no title)
Authors: Gamerex27, Evilhumour
"Naoki," the Chaos God looked at hir personal looping champions with a dried out tone. "I think I can cross out some my usual sex kinks for us to do."
"Oh?" Naoki reared back in surprise, frowning in confusion. "What kinks?"
"S&M, bestiality and necrophilia." Slaanesh said without batting an eye.
"Wait, what?" Naoki was shocked that Slaanesh was putting S&M off the table. "Why?"
"Because I realized I was just beating a dead horse with all my sex kinks." Slaanesh's grin grew as Naoki slowly pieced together the pun and sighed, walking out of the room.
"...Oh come on," shi pouted, following him out of the room. "It wasn't that bad!" shi continued, as she came up behind the Demi-Fiend.
The chained Eldar running on the hamster wheel in hir mind started sprinting, and hir words caught up with hir memories.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
The two were silent for a while, gazing off the balcony of whichever palace Slaanesh had made this time into the edge of the Eye of Terror.
"Since when have you been the one to wallow in self-pity?" she asked, finally breaking the ice. "I mean, fuck! The whole reason you went out of your fucking mind is because you never talked about that big-ass Flaw fucking things up back home in the first place!"
"I'm not-I...I'm pissed, not sad."
You still cannot let go of what happened the Loop where you first met? Kashima asked.
"No, it's what I did. I made a mistake. A huge mistake-that's why I've had, like, hundreds of Loopers out to kill me. Because I lost control and broke that Sanctuary."
I still fail to see how such a world could be considered a Sanctuary. Nearly every living thing on the planet thirsts for your blood, and the country they live in is run by a dictator who controls nearly every aspect of life.
"I don't get it either." He snorted. "I don't regret moving past those pale imitations of my old friends. I don't regret moving on and saving our own hide over trying to save a ship sinking into a black hole. But every time someone mentions horses, I remember my Shadow."
He conjured a card from the energy of the Warp, idly toying with the Tower in his hand. "How I lost control. How I got to that point the White said I'd get to. How I gave in to that weakness I tried so hard to extinguish. It brings me back to a bad time in my life, and I wanna move on from it. I know you didn't-"
He trailed off as he noticed the tentacles currently attempting to remove his pants.
"Oh, grow a pair," the Prince of Excess muttered, as an unamused Naoki swatted hir limbs away. "You said yourself that you need to move on from all that bad shit, right? Everyone else already has. Me, them, and even the Anathema, who hold stupid shit like this forever, forgot about that." Shi wisely decided to omit that shi had to lure Leman away from the Eye again this Loop, threatening to blow him up and end the Loop early. Or, was the threat to just blow? Eh, didn't matter.
"It ain't gonna go away overnight," Naoki said. His frown slowly vanished. "But it's not about them. It's about my little rampage," (he said, ignoring Kashima mockingly singing their Hub song in the back of their mind), "and how I blamed it all on myself. I thought I was responsible for all my own problems. But the Flaw...that's something out of anyone's control." He smiled. I guess there really is no one to blame but that. Something out of my control...but something I can still move on from. I couldn't stop it, but it couldn't break me. And whatever it was, it sure as hell-"
"Glad to hear it!" Slaanesh chirped, smacking Naoki on the ass. "Now, I was just kidding about dropping SNM. I know you hate being the sub, so I figured we could bring in a third party for us to-"
"Dibs on that Frydor asshole!" Naoki interrupted, already rushing off to the Materium with a pilfered Amala Network drum.
"Hey, fuck you!" shi complained. "I wanted to go to town on him!"
[Devil Survivor 2]
(no title)
Author: Alternis_Alcor (ThanosCradik?)
Daichi had made it to the Festival Gate in Osaka, where they usually had to fight the Fiend Bilikin on Thursday. He and Saiduq were the only ones Awake this time around, and he didn't want to have to deal with this.
He saw an Unawake Hibiki at the entrance, along with Joe and Keita. He decided to keep quite about what they were about to fight. "Hey, guys. So what did Yamato want us to handle?"
"Not sure, but I think that it has to do with this smell."
Now that it was mentioned, Daichi could in fact smell something.
"Holy hell, what is that?"
Joe shrugged, "Dunno, but it smells like a port-a-potty left in the summer for too long."
Just then, several demons burst out of the doors of the Festival Gate, fleeing for their lives and covering their noses.
"The hell? I'm pretty sure that there was a Pazuzu in that group."
Before anyone could reply to Keita, the smell became overbearing as one last demon burst out of the door. It was large, a sickly brown color, and shaped like a foot.
"THAT'S what Yamato wants us to fight!?"
"Hey, isn't that-"
The demon took a deep breath before introducing itself. "I AM ENIGMA KANBARI, GOD OF THE PRIVY!"
"Aw HELL no!" Keita ran after the fleeing demons, hoping to put some distance between him and the new demon. Joe quickly followed.
Hibiki and Daichi shared a quick glance before running after them, the GOD OF THE PRIVY giving chase.
"I'LL TEACH YOU LITTLE WHELPS TO SHOW THE PROPER RESPECT FOR THE RESTROOM!"
"CAN THE LOOP PLEASE BE OVER NOW!?"
[Nocturne], [Winx Club]
(no title)
Author: Awesomedude17
Naoki had already long given up on trying to care about the world, mainly because of the inevitable results of it.
But he was not completely heartless. A pair of visiting Loopers had came, a duo from Alfea, whatever that was.
After slaughtering the opposing forces, he finally noticed arguing coming from the closet. Annoyed, Naoki kicked down the door.
"What are you two doing?"
"She wants to try something possible, but dangerous." Techna said.
"It's the only option we got." Flora yelled back.
"You do realize that I already finished up, right?"
"What." The two said as they rushed out and saw piles of bodies.
"Honestly, I'd rather you not bicker, since this is only phase one."
The duo looked crestfallen after that line.
[Devil Survivor 1], [Devil Survivor 2]
That time when a hikikomori spam mails a weird app to everyone (title assigned by compiler) – part 1
Author: Alternis_Alcor
Atsuro glanced at his COMP to check the time, seeing that there was still some time left until the Lockdown. Sometimes he felt like he could time everything that happens down to the second with the way they proceeded. 'Course, everytime he tried to do so happened to be some kind of odd variant.
Like this time. There was an odd application on his COMP that wasn't there not even two hours ago. He had been trying to see if he could crack its code for a while, even trying to hack into its server, but it was like something was actively countering his attempts.
"Hey, Atsuro! How's it going?"
Looking up, Atsuro saw Kazuya walking towards him. He had checked beforehand and found that all three of them were Awake.
"Hey, pretty good! Where's Yoo-hoo?"
His answer came with a slap upside his head. "Will you quit calling me that already?" Her own answer was a chuckle.
With both of his friends and fellow Loopers here now he decided to show them what he had found.
"Hey, take a look at this. Either of you heard of this before?"
He handed his COMP to Kazuya, who checked out the strange application.
"'Nicaea'? Dead face delivery? No, it doesn't ring any bells."
Yuzu took a look, and shook her head. "Maybe it's some sort of variant thing this Loop?"
Atsuro took back his COMP, and opened the application. "Whatever it is, I think it'll reveal what it does soon enough, anyway. That's always a thing that happens in the Loop, isn't it? Hey, have either of you seen Naoya, yet?"
"No, and the date is off by a few years, though my memories are telling me that the Lockdown happened. I think this might be a variant or a fused Loop."
Yuzu looked around. "If that's the case, then what Loop is this?"
"Well, we won't find out sitting around here. Let's take a look around and see if we can find anything out."
As his friends agreed with his idea, Atsuro wondered who they would meet this Loop.
…
(An hour later)
Al Saiduq knew that there wasn't anything he could do, but Booting up too late to stop Polaris's plan always did leave him in a dour mood.
Looking out over the ruined city of Tokyo, he pinged and was able to receive several others in return. A quick report from the Ticos informed him that everyone was Awake, but that meant that there were more Loopers according to those extra pings he had felt. One Tico had confirmed that at least two of them had access to Nicaea's app.
Planning to meet up with these visitors, he was about to leave when he felt the presence of several demons suddenly appear; some who he could recognize, and several others who never appeared during the Loop. They were all weakened, but their similarity worried him, considering that at least one of them had a hate filled presence.
He quickly summoned a new demon, one that rode a large warhorse and was clad in crimson armor.
"Eligor, there is a group of people who I need you to find. Once you do, bring them to the Diet Building where I'll be waiting for you."
"At once, Master."
Having the Ticos guide the demon, Saiduq left to alert the others of the demons who had appeared.
…
"Can we please have a Loop where everything doesn't all go to hell?"
Atsuro could understand why Yuzu said that. Looking at the devastation around them, he wondered what else would happen.
A sudden gasp of pain brought his attention to Kazuya, who was on the ground.
"Hey, what's wrong?!" He dropped his COMP as he and Yuzu rushed over to their downed friend.
"Th-the Bel demons are-!?" He couldn't say any more as several spirits tore their way out of his body, and flew in several directions. Atsuro was instantly checking to see if there was any damage, but it seemed that Kazuya was alright, save for being unconscious.
"What just happened?! Why did the Bel just take off?!"
Turning towards Yuzu, he explained, "I'm not sure, but I think what just happened around here might have something to do with it. There was no way any of this was a natural disaster." He waved at the ruined city around them for emphasis. "We need to find those other Loopers who are here. They might know something."
As he went back to pick up his COMP, he noticed that he had some mail. Opening it, the message revealed a video, courtesy of Nicaea.
[Persona 4], [Digital Devil Saga]
Dojima's Awakening – part 2
Author: LurksHereAndThere
The water crashed against his face. Slowly, deliberately, Ryotaro allowed the droplets to fall for a second before reaching for the towel the Karma Temple Guard offered him.
The meeting had been a disaster. It had begun when he and the other Tribe Leaders all gathered in the Temple's core. There had been the usual exchange of insults and banter as each Leader occupied their rightful place at the audience hall, until only two spaces remained empty: the Investigators' and the Vanguards'. And then the Investigator Leader had sauntered in. Silver hair. Matching eyes. The standard orange mark of his Tribe. Nothing special. Ryotaro had felt nothing, even when the young man's gaze had wandered and eye contact had been briefly made. The demon, however, had been another story entirely, furiously howling in his mind, reminding Ryotaro of the visions they'd seen in dreams, alternatively threatening, begging and demanding a truth the Hunter could not give.
The Vanguards' destruction had been mentioned and discarded in the same breath. Then, as the damnable Dissemination Machine claimed there were no pressing issues, its interfaces convulsed in agony, and Angel had made her appearance. Proudly, she revealed the truth of their Karma and their Atma, of how the demons that they were and always had been had now been unleashed. Of how they were now expected to bleed and die by monsters and as monsters if they ever wanted to open the gates of Nirvana.
Jinana, Manipura's Leader, had exploded in furious threats and demands to stop the Atma, and Namatame, Lord of Anahata, collapsed, almost pounding at the exit while sobbing for his Tribe. The Investigator had started demanding explanations. Alone amongst them, the Hunter leader's attention darted back and forth from his four peers and the Temple's new mistress.
It was then that Ryotaro saw it – the Phantoms' Leader's eye. Even at a distance, Ryotaro could see the grey orb blossom into an impossible rainbow ring as Angel passionately proclaim the new condition any would-be victors would have to fulfil in order to open the gates of Nirvana. Slowly, the expression in the Phantom's eye relaxed, following Angel's voice, losing whatever defiance she possessed. She gently bowed, the Atma mark in her forehead igniting with a dull bronze light.
For some godforsaken (another word whose origins he could not place) reason, the Investigator's prodding questions had prompted a furious response from Angel, violently disconnecting her from the Machine, who'd immediately tried to get back to business by acknowledging everything – Atma, Angel's changes, their new orders – with an astonishing levity. Namatame had run away from Sahasrara like a scared dog. Off to brick himself shut in Ahanata, most likely. The Phantom had wordlessly left. Jinana had briefly tried to engage a group of Temple Guards before being unceremoniously knocked out and packed into a jeep bound for Manipura. Ryotaro wished he'd been there. If nothing else, he'd have joined the lady.
That left him and the Investigator.
"Are you ready to depart, Ryotaro of the Hunters?"
Tossing the wet towel at the irritating white figure, Ryotaro leveled his gaze at the metallic visor. "What the hell is this all about?"
"I do not comprehend."
The Temple Guard barely had responded when Ryotaro's fist smashed the front plate of the ornate helmet. Staggering, the Guard wobbled backwards for several steps before regaining footing, hands pressing at the helmet. Slowly, deliberately, the Hunter approached the white giant, and in a brutal move, grabbed the thickly armored throat, and pressed, bringing his foe to his knees.
"There's a limit to the crap I can stomach, Guard. This isn't-can't possibly be-the Temple's goal! This cannot possibly be the way to Nirvana! Who or what is Angel and what does she want?"
Even as the gorget bent around his foe's fingers, the Guard responded with an open-palm strike at this opponent's midsection, which was not enough to make Ryotaro release him. Gathering green energy in his palm for a second strike, the Guard slammed the tip of his outstretched hand against the Hunter's shoulder. The impact tore the entire shoulder guard to pieces and shattered Ryotaro's clavicle. With a lightning-fast uppercut to the Hunter's jaw, the tables were definitely turned in favor of the white monster. Ryotaro crashed against the wall, hissing as the Guard approached in complete silence. Energy gathered around his mark, the burning sun in his shoulder, as the demon was granted the chance to slip its chains with no resistance. And then casually, dismissively, the Guard released a quick pulse with a wave of his hand, and the demon was dragged back, howling and screaming, into the depths of the Hunter's mind. What on Earth…?
"The Karma Temple has been informed of this assault. You are to be removed from Sahasrara immediately and return to Vishuddha. A demerit has been added to your service records. Failure to comply will result in further demerits and possible demotion. You will now be-"
BZZAZAAP!
It happened so fast Ryotaro didn't even see the lightning until it was already arcing through the Guard's armor. As the brute painfully convulsed, a long, thin mass cleanly punched through his throat. With a flick, the Guard was tossed like a ragdoll, crashing against the nearest wall. Blinking away tears, the Hunter struggled to rise. Painfully panting, he glared at the approaching Investigator and the outstretched hand as he nursed his shoulder.
"You okay?"
Ryotaro scowled at the Investigator as he forced down a Hero Ration bar and swat away the offered hand. Interestingly, the Investigator actually seemed affected by the glare. "I'm fine. What do you want, Narukami of the Investigators?"
The boy paused for a moment, as if to weigh his words. "Back there, in the audience hall, you were pretty quiet."
"Between Jinana and you there was very little left to say."
The kid was nervous. Ryotaro granted him, he was pretty slick, dominated his emotions admirably. But the Hunters prided themselves in good senses. And right now, the Investigator exuded the faint but unmistakable aroma of fear. Time to press him. Every incautious word was gold for both the Hunters and the demon.
"You didn't answer my question. What is it that you want?"
Narukami blinked. "I wanted to know what is it that you think of Angel and the Atma." Then, he had the gall to actually smile, glancing at the dead Temple Guard. "Looks like I didn't even have to ask." The smile faded. "What would you give for the truth, Ryotaro of the Hunters?"
Ohh, the kid was good. The demon perked at that, shaking off the effects of whatever contrivance the Guard had used. "The truth of what?"
The Investigator swept his arm, gesturing at the vastness of the Temple. "Nirvana. The Junkyard. Angel. Atma. Everything, really."
Ryotaro snorted. "A lot. Not everything. What's the asking price?"
"Alliance with the Investigators. We want to storm open the gates of Nirvana, while saving as many as we can. The Temple's orders will only bring death and destruction, and thus we've chosen to defy them."
Silence hung heavily for a moment. Then, the Hunter chuckled. Slowly, it rose in intensity, first to a guttural laugh, then to a full guffaw. Grinning ferociously, Ryotaro felt the sun burn in his shoulder, and started releasing the chains holding back the monster. Not all the way, of course. Just enough for what needed to be done. The flesh and bone of his arm twisted, shifting into cracked obsidian plates holding impossibly solid fire in place. The creeping crystal veins rapidly engulfed his hand, forming a spiky mass topped by sharp, thin claws. "Pretty words. And yet, you have no issues with killing, I see?"
The stench of fear was rising. But the Investigator kept his ground. He walked slowly and deliberately to the fallen Guard, and invoked the strength of his own Atma. Ryotaro's eyes widened when he understood what he was going to do.
With a swift jerk, the kid cracked the remains of the monster's neck and messily tore his head off.
Black blood sputtered in great gushes from the wound. But no, no, it wasn't blood at all…
It was oil.
Narukami, his expression completely neutral, rose to his feet, carrying the head, and showed Ryotaro whatever passed for the neck. There was very little to see and even less the Hunter could understand. Even so, it was difficult to misinterpret the broken servo motors and crackling circuitry. The Investigator dropped the machine's head, the noisy clatter echoing across the hall.
The boy was very, very afraid. And all of a sudden Ryotaro wasn't sure of what.
Hesitatingly, Narukami spoke. "There's a lot you don't know, Hunter. I can tell you everything you want, but you have to trust me."
The Hunter ground his teeth. The demon snarled, hammering at Ryotaro's mental walls. The Investigator was taunting him, and his patience and willingness to talk was slowly but surely eroding. Soon he wouldn't even have the will to keep the monster leashed. Bitterly, the older man chuckled. What the hell. Why wait? The Investigator was distracted, focusing in maintaining eye contact with Ryotaro without really observing his posture. Bad move.
He charged. The great obsidian claw crashed against the boy's granite spear. Taking advantage of the kid's surprise, Ryotaro kicked his shin, breaking his balance. Swatting the grey stone spear away, he slammed the Investigator by the throat against the wall with his normal hand, and roared in his face: "You cannot possibly expect me to place my life and my tribesmen's in your hands without proof, Investigator!"
Barely managing to force air into his lungs, the Investigator whispered: "And I can't give you everything. Not without an understanding." Swallowing with some difficulty, he continued. "But I can give you something to think about. Please... just... just hear me out!"
Ryotaro's voice was steel and ice, a feral smile drawing upon his features. "I'm listening."
Narukami's expression was filled with pain this time. And there was no fear. "Does the word Yasoinaba mean anything to you?"
It didn't. Not to Ryotaro. But to his surprise, the demon's fury vanished. His own wrath faded like smoke in the wind. Gingerly, he removed the pressure on the Investigator's neck and released him, as the stone arm softened into flesh and bone once more. The Hunter had no idea of why he was doing so, but... it seemed correct. Natural. Inwardly, he sighed. More strange things to explain. Fantastic. He'd had about just enough of games for a single day. Turning around, he grabbed the broken machine's head and hefted its body in a fireman's carry. The engineers at Vishuddha would have quite a lot to play with. He himself had acquired a piece of the puzzle, enough to keep the demon at bay, and quite a bit more besides. He could probably force more out of the Investigator, but...
"Get out. The Gua... machines, they're coming, and I don't have the time to kill you properly. Thanks for the tidbit. Whatever it means."
As he left for the nearest exit, Ryotaro remembered something else. Smirking, he finished: "Oh, and please don't act like your shit don't stink, son. It was the Hunters who absorbed the remains of Svadhisthana's forces after the bloodbath there. Kind of mixed signals you're sending, preaching you want to save everyone after that."
Ryotaro was pleased to see Narukami open and close his mouth in outright astonishment. Like a fish out of water. Something to remind him he'd had the last word.
...damn, another one of those turns of phrase.
…
Privately, the Investigator sighed and cursed himself. He'd been so enthusiastic over the idea that his Uncle might be Looping, he'd blundered into the situation like an amateur. And what was worse, he'd left without really working out what was wrong with the man. Dojima hadn't recognized him and he'd seldom seen such wrath coming from him (not withstanding those frankly odious Variants when he was the murderer), but to be perfectly honest, Narukami admitted he'd tried reaching the Hunter as if he were his Uncle, offering him the truth he so wanted in Inaba in exchange for some trust. Stupid, he chided himself. In the Junkyard, trust was a priceless resource almost only found within one's Tribe. What was he thinking, dangling forbidden knowledge before a man that believed him to be a mortal enemy?
Strangest of all, Ryotaro did stop at the mention of Yasoinaba. Rubbing his throat, Narukami decided to talk to Gale and Sera as soon as he made it back to the Investigator base. Gale was the one that knew the person his Uncle had replaced the best. And Sera could fill him in about Svadhisthana, which was supposed to have been taken near-bloodlessly.
Damn. What do I do now?
[Strange Journey], [Halo]
(no title)
Author: Gamerex27
"...What is he doing?" Cortana asked as John gunned down another gaggle of Grunts on the Pillar of Autumn.
"...no idea," the SPARTAN in golden armor said, tossing a perfectly working shotgun to the ground from nowhere.
"No idea," Chief said, tossing a plasma grenade right into the mouth of a charging Elite. Right where Chief knew he would be, after around a thousand times through this corridor.
"Too small," the the other SPARTAN commented as he chucked a missile launcher to the side, the impact on the ground setting it off and launching a missile right into the face of an unfortunate Jackal. "Too big, don't have the room for that," he continued, lowering the tiny (for a SPARTAN) pistol marked SEES and dropping it back into nowhere. "No ammo for this...waiiiit," he he said, lifting what appeared to be a mutilated vacuum cleaner back into the air. "Chief! Toss me a Grunt!"
"Wait, what?" Cortana exclaimed as Chief yanked a half-dead Grunt off of the floor at his feet and tossed it to the other human.
"I want to see where he's going with this," he explained. "Elite, two o'clock!"
"Got it!" his companion exclaimed, somehow managing to stuff the alien's entire lower half into the loading bay. "OORAH!"
Pulling the trigger, the Rock-It Launcher propelled the screaming Grunt through the air at speeds that should have been impossible. Right before he hit a pair of Hunters, the plasma grenade the stranger had covertly attached to it detonated, blowing the last of the Covenant wave sky-high.
"That the last of them?" he asked, picking up his bevy of discarded weapons and stuffing them back into what Chief realized must have been his Pocket.
"Yeah." A memory dimly stuck the Master Chief. The gold armor and red visor was very similar to the description of someone Shepard had mentioned back when she had explained what the hell was going on with time. "Langdon?"
"Nice to meet you too,", the other man replied. "Now that we have a chance to talk after Waking Up...I have to say, I may have been looking forward to this Loop a little. So long as we don't run into any tweens screaming awful slurs through the ship's intercom."
"Warn me if you see them," Chief responded, physically fighting back the urge to roll his eyes. "I'll explain later," he added, shutting down Cortana's pre-emptive question. "You ready to-"
"HERETIC!" a faint voice cried from somewhere farther away, on the Halo itself.
"NO, THOU ART A HERETIC!"
Gunfire and explosions sounded in the distance, as another skirmish started up somewhere closer to the entrance of the wrecked ship.
"Oh, damnit. I can never go anywhere without them showing up, can it?" He picked up a dropped sniper rifle, and peered trough the scope at a convenient breach in the hull looking out onto the world-ring. "Yeah," he sighed, "it's them."
Chief crossed the hallway, and stared out the hole with his fellow Anchor.
For a few seconds, they just stared at the gaggle of winged, white-robed figures fighting and trading religious accuations of heresy at yet another squadron of Covenant.
"Huh," Cortana mused, as she set Chief's armor computer to record, absentmindedly thinking of which humorous song to sync over the angels' fight. "I guess the Halo is God's own anti son of a bitch machine."
[Persona 3], [My Little Pony]
(no title)
Author: Gamerex2
"That can't be the right bill."
"I assure you, it is."
"That's missing...a couple of zeroes, I think?"
"Akihiko-san, bits are worth more than yen. The exchange rate is approximately 1:100."
"Trust me, it's quite alright. Element of Generosity, remember? I wouldn't be a very good one of I didn't give discounts to my friends!"
"Regardless of the price, this is incredible work, Rarity-san," Mitsuru said, stepping back towards the mirror and admiring the dress she'd got from Rarity for the upcoming trial. "C'est magnifique!"
"Oh? Vous pouvez parler français?" Rarity asked, smile widening. "C'est bien?"
"...I beg your pardon?" Mitsuru asked, blinking.
"...Il est utile de savoir parler des langues differentes," Rarity elaborated, "particulièrement aprés le Réviser. Nous allons d'autre Loops souvent, oui?"
Mitsuru did not answer.
"...do you really know French, dear, or do you only know a few words?" Rarity asked, switching back to Equestrian.
"We should go now," Mitsuru said. "The trial will start soon."
"It's nothing to be ashamed about!" Rarity tried to say, as an increasingly red-faced Mitsuru trotted out the boutique's door. "I'd teach you, if the Loop didn't end tomorrow! Maybe next time?"
"...she doesn't actually know French?" Minato asked, glancing back at his companions. "Did you guys know this?"
"I never asked," Akihiko muttered, shrugging.
"Neither did you," Aigis added. "Had you payed attention, it would have been clear that Mitsuru-san only used a set of stock French phrases. I guess no one thought to ask."
They were interrupted by a faint cry of someone complaining about how that can't stretch like that, vaguely in the direction of the castle.
"We should probably get this over with before Ryoji ends up melting her brain."
…
"All rise for the honerable Judge Ivory Scroll."
"'Judge' Ivory Scroll?" Rarity whispered as everypony in the courtroom rose to their hooves.
"She wanted to try something new this Loop," Twilight elaborated.
"You may be seated." Ignoring how Starlight Glimmer's body briefly spasmed over in the accused's seat, the mare in the wig cleared her throat. "Now, let's begin. Mister...Midnight Peaches, correct?"
"That's right," Ryoji said, deciding to answer to the Equestrian name he often used when swapping places with Nyx Sparkle.
"Would you be able to allow the accused control over her mouth for some intervals so she may answer the court's questions?"
"Um..." The Appriser of Nyx shifted his gaze around the room. "She's...kinda distracted. My mind's not the neatest place, and she found some...uh...private stuff that she's still complaining about."
"We're all grown ponies, Mr. Peaches," Ivory Scroll replied. "So long as nothing gets too out of hoof, I will not punish you for something beyond your control.
"Now," she continued, glancing at the list of charges again and cringing. "Starlight Glimmer, you stand accused of mass violation of equine rights, usage of banned mind-altering magic, imprisoning and assaulting a Princess, and real estate fraud. How do you plead?"
"THAT'S CAN'T BEND THAT WAY!"
Everypony in the courtroom stared at Starlight once she'd regained control of her mouth.
"...guilty or not guilty, miss Glimmer?" the judge asked, after a few moments of regaining her composure.
"Not guilty," the deposed tyrant sighed. "Can I at least get a cold shower before we begin this...kangeroo court?"
"We showered just this morning!" Ryoji objected. "I even made sure to keep your-my, whatever-eyes closed!"
"That did NOT help at all, you...you pervert!" the body's true owner hissed. "I did not want to see those hairless minotaurs doing-"
"That's enough, please."
After the lawyers made their statements, Ivory decided to start at a common place during such proceedings: witness testimonies.
"The court calls Great Seal to the stand."
Nodding, Minato cantered over to the witness's podium and looked up at Ivory. "Where should I start?"
"The beginning, please."
"Alright," he said. "So, we all went to her town to see what the magic map said was going on." He paused briefly, still unused to the fact that such a sentence was not only accepted, but uncontested in a court of law. "The town was filled with all of these ponies with the same Cutie Mark. We did some digging, and it turns out that she stole all their original Cutie Marks, an-"
The rest of Minato's sentence was cut off by an uproar from the jury bench. Overdramatic gasps of horror rang out from those drafted to stand judgement over this case, with a few ponies fainting.
"Order! Order in the court!" Ivory yelled, banging her gavel after a few seconds of horror. "Mister Seal, how would that even work? Those who have been drained of all magic-including the kind that ties into Cutie Marks-did not lose them all together."
"I...think it was her talent."
"...her special talent was to take others' talents away?" Ivory asked incredulously.
"...It looked that way."
"...please continue."
"Thanks. So, she brought us into a trap, and sucked away our Cutie Marks. But she ignored what my Mark meant. She took it off, and, well, ended up getting hoist by her own petard."
"Your own Mark." The other Looper frowned. "Please take your clothes off."
"What?!" Minato exclaimed, his mask of calmness briefly shattering into total confusion.
"...the court orders you to get naked?"
"I...um..." Blushing, Minato looked around the courtroom, noticing that several jury members and the bailiff were nude. Slowly, he doffed the suit Rarity had stitched for him, and awkwardly turned his flanks to the judge, silently praying that Aigis wasn't recording all of this.
"A shield and rosary. I see." Ivory Scroll adjusted her glasses. "If I understand it correctly, your Mark signified how you held away Mr. Peaches-that is to say, Death-from the world to protect all of ponykind. And removing that rendered you unable to seal him away?"
"Objection!" yelled the defending lawyer. "This is in no way relevant to the case!"
"Overruled," she replied. "We need to know exactly what happened and how, so we can see if the accusations are valid or not. That will be all for now, Mr. Seal."