destinystrings | Troops Come Marching In

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Troops Come Marching In

It's finally tournament time, which means it's time for the cavalry to move on out. When the rescuers make their way to the abandoned factory that had been named as the entrance by Q, it's rather easy to spot where their destination was. In fact, they were greeted with the appearance of extremely out of place grecian columns and ancient-looking ruins, complete with a large set of stairs leading downward; there might as well be a big neon sign with arrows pointing downward and the caption "HEY EVERYONE!! HERE IT IS!! ENTER THIS DUNGEON!! WIN FABULOUS PRIZES AND LOOT!!!" It's a rather alarming testament to just how powerful rumors are in this town, if the Junes saga wasn't indication enough.

Reiko, a member of the Seven, awaits them at the entrance with her Jack Frost standing at her side, clutching two strange objects in her hands as every assembles.

"I took a look around inside before you got here," she began, a matter of fact tone to her voice, though it was still light despite the gravity of the situation. "It's something else in there! Looks like they've set up some kind of maze inside... You'll have to get through it if you want to find the others deeper inside.

"You'll split up into two groups to get through it; Eikichi, Rock, Kotoha, Ruri and Yosuke on one, and Nano, Shinjiro, Lucas, Lucina and Billy on the other. It'll make it easier for you to get through undetected, but be sure you stay together with your groups, OK?"

She moved forward with the devices in hand, handing one off to Ruri and the other to Nano. "These are courtesy of Q-- they'll teleport you and any others in a short radius back outside here, but they're one time use only. Make sure to only use them once you've found all of the others, OK?"

Once she'd handed them off, she stepped back out of the way of the entrance, her Jack Frost following at her side. "I'll stay out here and watch your back; if you need anything, you can contact me or Q over the CommLink. Good luck! And try not to get anyone killed!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[While we are skipping to the final event on each section, the dungeons will continue to be tagged until they are done. This is just to speed things along a bit.]

As the team continues into the dungeon, they can finally hear the sounds of a giant battle above them, sometimes explosions sound off and make the ground shake, causing dust to fall down.

They are definitely getting close, that much it certain.

Arriving to a large golden mirror, it seems that their teleportation to the battle arena is most certainly assured, but nothing is ever easy. Especially not here.

As they step close, a series of lights go off, and thousands of rose petals and cherry blossoms fill the air, spilling over, on them, sticking on their clothing and making a bridge leading to the front and back of them. Red stagelights open up one by one in the shapes of hearts, the dark corridor suddenly looking more like a love nest than anything else.

"ATTENTION VISITORS!!!!" a voice behind them booms out, as threatening as he can make it be. He looks young and thin, maybe sixteen with teenbopper charm to him, blonde hair, baby blue eyes and dressed in a rather charming suit. A pair of shimmering wings rise behind him, almost twice his size. "We have you surrounded! Can't let you get to ma and pa's anniversary bash, you hear?"

"Yeah that's right!" a voice on the other side of the corridor answers. The other voice belongs to a boy looks exactly like the other, only shifting a pair of blue eyes for green and sporting jet black hair. "We promised 'em we'd take care of you if you tried anything funny!"

"Protecting Love is our duty!"

"Yeah!"

"We're going to fight you!"

"Yeah!"

"And ma and pa can go back to doing it all do--"

"No no no! They don't need to know the details!"

"...yeah good point."

Silence.

"...YEAH, READY YOUR WEAPONS AND PERSONA, AND FACE OFF THE WRAITH OF THE PROTECTORS OF LOVE!!"

"EROS!"

"ANTEROS!"

"You're supposed to finish it..."

"But she's the one who does it usually."

"...."

"You know it sounds better when Harmonia is around to cheer us on..."

"She doesn't like this kind of fighting, you know that!"

"Yeah....sorry. Sure ruined our dramatic intro..."

More silence.

"...C-can we just get to the fighting?"

"Yeah that's what we were told to do and all!"

The winged twins looks up at the Visitors expectantly, waiting for their answer.

> FIGHT

> REFUSE
[Please make your character's decision IC, and add it as your title. We'll total up the votes for what to do and that's the direction this will be going to.]

Edited 2013-08-03 22:45 (UTC)

Kotoha just sort of stares, nonplussed.

"...this is a joke. You're joking, right?"

The two look at each other from the front and back of the group.

"No?"

"We're totally serious!"

To demonstrate their seriousness, they adopted a few Bruce Lee-like moves complete with mouth sound effects.

Ruri just sighs and shakes her head.

"Baka baka... That and you are acting in a way that is contradictory to the definition of love."

... Seriously guys. What even.

"What kind of idiots do you think you are?" Stupid punks - not even punks, really. He's totally willing to pound their faces in.

"Hoooo! While Michel appreciates your snazzy intros, you still have a long way to go! He understands that you gotta fight for love...that's what he did for Miyabi, and if it means punching you two, he'll do it as well! We're here to rescue our friends and that's that!"

Oh great, someone was making this over-dramatic theater even worse. Maybe he just felt like he got upstaged.

"Can't we just talk this out?" Rock steps forward so he can be seen past the other, taller members of the group. The statement is a bit contradictory, given that he's wearing combat armor, but he's pretty sincere. "Mister Michel is right, to a degree - we just want to rescue our friends, with as little trouble as possible."

The twins stared at all five of them, mouths agape like they simply could not understand what was going on.

"Wait you're not..."

"...you don't want to fight us?"

"But humans like fighting right?!"

"Yeah! like that blue haired guy said! FIGHTING FOR LOVE!!!"

"We can't...talk this out! We're supposed to fight but you need to challenge us! That's what we've been told to do!!" The voice was whiny and pretty pathetic sounding. In unison, they did their Bruce Lee Routine again.

> FIGHT?

> REFUSE?

> OFFER SOMETHING ELSE?

Edited 2013-08-03 23:50 (UTC)

Ruri just stares, aiming the FULL FORCE of her deadpan at them

"Perhaps we can negotiate. Fighting can waste a lot of energy and I have been told that its bad luck for a hero of justice to fight if his introduction has been messed up."

Kotoha smiles, holsters her gun, and steps forward.

"Listen, boys, you really want to take this offer, okay? Let me lay it out for you: you're outnumbered, first of all - there's eleven of us and two of you. Tall, Dark, and Brooding over there - " she makes a gesture at Otoha " - is pissed, I think you stole his boyfriend or something, the glam rocker has a ridiculously strong Persona, and I personally have a team of fully combat-trained Pokemon that have defeated actual, literal gods. It's not that we aren't willing to fight, it's just that...well, we'd stomp you like freshly-hatched Lillipups. And I don't know about you, but I'm not really in the habit of kicking puppies. Now, I get that you want to make your parents happy, but you've got to think - do you think they'd be happy if you were hurt? Our first priority is getting our friends back, you see - if we show up and you're injured, your parents will probably try to fight us, right? And then, not only will you have lost, you'll be responsible for your parents getting hurt too, because we will not be stopped. So here's our offer, made in good faith: let us through, and we'll do our very best to just grab our friends and leave. You won't get hurt, your family won't get hurt, and everyone is happy. So what do you two cuties have to say, hm?"

At Ruri's comment Eros seriously thought about it.

"She is right about that...although we're more of heroes of love and not justice, you kno--"

Then he burst out laughing at Kotoha before he could go on. Silly humans, thinking they could be threatening like that.

"Hurt our parents? Honey you can't be serious!"

"Yeah she's got that whole trying to be threatening angle down pretty good."

"Too bad the others are here to listen to this. Shit! They'd be laughing their asses off."

A teleportation spell later, both twins stood in front of them, Eros leaning on the other, his arms crossed. At least they knew how to react in this case, and were milking it for all it was worth.

"Look, you ain't talkin' just to any demons! Why do you think the city got into an agreement with our family? We aren't just the typical Jack Frosts you run into the street. You might have fought actual, literally gods..."

"...but persona or not..."

They stood upright again, and in unison shifted their bow and arrows for golden submachine guns.

"We run this underground!"

Unfortunately it looked like Kotoha's talk had given them an excuse to fight back.

"...but we did ruin our intro."

"...Dammit! Should we see what the others think then?"

"Yeah I guess soo..."

"Man I was so pumped for this...I spent all day polishing my gun--"

"They don't need to know that either!"

Edited 2013-08-04 01:12 (UTC)

"He's not my boyfriend!"

... Ahem. Right. Composure. Otoha just chuckles at the boys, drawing his sword, all easy violence now. He can handle threats. He can also handle people who think they run places but are sorely mistaken.

"Demons, gods, whatever the hell you are - get out of my way. We've got a job to do and we're going to do it. So just start running and I might not use your faces to sharpen my sword on."

Kotoha glances over at Otoha with an apologetic expression.

"Ah, sorry, didn't realize you weren't out."

Looking thoughtful now.

"Really, you shouldn't resort to violence, you know? I mean, look at them - they're obviously just teenybopper idol types that think they're tough. They are making kung-fu noises with their mouths, for Arceus' sake. They're dorks."

With that, she decides to address the twins again.

"Look, I get you think you're tough and all, I really do! But is pride seriously something worth risking your life for?"

"Hey! Can we all just cool it here for a minute? Don't underestimate Shozo and Naoki! And you two! Don't underestimate us either..."

Eikichi was no stranger to those types of threats. He'd been in a school of delinquents after all, and had studied numerous anime and movies about that type of interaction. Clearly he was an expert at this. He also had a feeling the demons had watched their share of movies too, and fighting for love aside, there was something off about them.

"...not to mention you guys forgot to remove your safety locks on your guns."

They were trying way too hard.

"But hey! Warriors of love right? What type of demons would you be, if you deny this man's true heart?"

...sorry dude but he was going to run with it.

"I'm not a human," Rock starts. "I'm a robot - a lab assistant. I don't like fighting, but I'll do it if I have to," he continues, tone growing rather serious. "You call yourselves warriors of love, but from what I've experienced in my time being active, you know nothing of it. Someone who fights for love wouldn't kidnap innocent people! And if you won't stand aside..."

He raises his right arm, buster at the ready and begins to charge it.

"Then I'll fight you. I don't care who you are - you've put our friends and family in danger!"

Ruri just sighs again and looks at them with the same irritated look a playground teacher may look at squabbling 5 year olds and shakes her head.

"Ok, you are gods. Gods are not invincible as for example Zeus was so afraid of being overthrown like his father that he swallowed Metis before she could give birth, or another example being the Norse end of the world situation. There is also the issue of lack of tactical data. Your guns for example. Given that model of side arm and your posturing I would assume that they have ammunition that is capable of injuring not only mere mortals but gods as well, yet in an underground facility like this you may have neglected to note the high chance of ricochet which could lead to friendly fire incidents EVEN if the safety was off."

She walks out a bit, "Then there is the issue of us to consider. You don't know much about us. For all you know I could be the princess of the nation that subjugated the entire country of Greece on my world without loosing a single soldier. This is true."

She pats Michael on the shoulder and shrugs. "Are you certain this man here isn't the most skilled demon negotiator of his world? Are you certain that if this man puts is hind to it he can't amass an army of demons that could flood this place with their own breed of stupid dancing and headache inducing nonsense?"

She moves in front of Rock, "This robot for all you know could have been involved in a plot on his world to develop a doomsday weapon that destroyed all gods and magic to give science the ultimate superiority."

She moves in front of Yosuke, "This man could be the son of the gods of Vengeance and Retribution on his world, who will not ascend to his parents' side until he is responsible for punishing a million guilty souls. That and you took his friend making it personal."

She then walks in front of Kotoha and looks at her. "Perhaps Kotoha here has made pacts with 6 of her world's most ferocious beast gods and at the snap of a finger can release them to feast upon divine essences to grow in power."

She walks back to her position and shrugs. "You are lacking a certain amount of information and yes, we knew that you were powerful. That's exactly why the town chose to negotiate as opposed to send an attack force. Knowing that we know that would you assume we would come down here incapable of defending our own interests?"

It was a very convincing speech, that was for sure. For a few seconds, the twins looked at her, mouths slightly agape, before Eros closed his brother's own and holding a hand for a time out at them, turned toward his brother. Their whispers were anything but quiet, however.

"Did you hear that?"

"I know...feasting upon divine essences to grow in power!"

"And the princess of a Greek Nation!"

"A robot!"

"The son of Vengeance and Retribution!"

"And...that other guy..."

"..."

"..."

With a single nod, the coughed up, and looked at them again, the grin on their faces rather evident.

"We never knew Visitors could be so powerful!"

"It's amazing!"

"As per your...potential credentials, it is our greatest honor to announce that..."

"...there is no way we are not letting you go without you fighting us! We need to see this power for ourselves! Show us how strong your love is for them!" Unfortunately, threatening demons had the tendency to get more excited about battles than changing the situation.

Without another word, the safety locks were turned off, and the guns started to hum. If they had been trying to hard, the minute they began to fight, it was all business. Or they might have just been downplaying themselves, it was hard to figure out. A snap of a finger, and a disco ball descended from the ceiling, and music started to play. The flower petals of all colors, shapes and sizes began to fall again over them from who knew where.

"The brothers and love will test your strength and might!"

"Prove your worth over this challenge! Five against two!"

"I think it's more eleven against two."

"Oh yeah...sounds hardly fair...ELEVEN AGAINST TWO! May love be in your favor! And these conditions!"

"LOVER'S WALL!"

> A heart multicolored wall has been placed between the brothers and the Visitors!

"Break the wall and see if you can get to us! But each round something else will happen, okay?"

> Conditions create a rule for the next round of combat! When replying, add a number between 1-4 along with the attack name in the topic reply. Characters have no choice to obey this rule or they will be knocked down for that round. The most picked out number will become the next condition. Conditions are rerolled for each round, so the effects will change even with the same number!

"Now show us what you're made of, daughters, sons and uh...robot....of mankind!!"
[No set order! Simply reply to this post with your character, title it based on what they are doing, and all the attacks/whatever else they are doing will be tallied at the end when everyone has posted.]

Ruri's speech was a bit odd, and sadly didn't seem to deter the brothers any. Oh well. Rock had made his intentions clear, and they hadn't stood aside. Time to get down to business ~~to defeat the Huns~~.

His charged shot releases in a flash of light and energy toward the wall - he wasn't sure what he could do against magic, but he may as well try.

Ruri sighs again and looks at them, calling up 2 screens as Yurika appears behind her.

"Bakabaka...."

Her floats up to the wall and scans it for weakness.

Demon: Love Wall

Arcana: None

Max HP: ??? Max SP: ???

Fire:	Water:	Wind:	Earth:	Lightn:	Ice:	Light:	Dark:	Phys:	Mind:	Alm:
??	???	???	???	???	???	???	???	???	???	???

--	--
--	--
--	--
--	--

The wall appears to have no weakness...or skills or arcana. Only a single thing can break it, but good luck guessing what it has nothing to do with fighting!

We're sooooooooo smart!!!

Well if that wasn't the most insulting scan ever...

What was that speech? Before Otoha could even do or say anything - especially about the parents thing - the fight started.

Well. Whatever. He'd just beat their asses and then go find Johnny himself.

"Time to die."

Yatagarasu loomed behind him, before rushing forward to try to attack the wall.

Tch. Should have figured that would only get them interested rather then making them step down. Someone is looking particularity pissed at their choice of words too.

"Hey you wanna see what that other guy can do? Let's go, Frost Ace!"

The Jack Frost persona raised it's first into the air, charging into the wall. Down status on the wall...it made sense, right?

Great, just great. Kotoha had figured these two were idiots, but she had had them pegged for prissy idiots, not violent idiots. Well, you live, you learn, you crush all opposition before you. Easy-peasy. Before she unholsters her gun, she'll just reach into her bag, draw out all six pokeballs - three in each hand, held between her fingers - and release her team. The sheer number of pokeballs being used at once prevents her from using the manual release switch, sadly, so she's going to have to call them all out by name using the voice-activation feature.

"Tomoe! Solar Logos! Arthur! Scorpina! Zoroark! Tesla! I choose you!"

As Kotoha draws out her gun, she quickly snaps out a series of orders.

"Night Daze! Fiery Dance! Acrobatics! Thunderbolt! Aqua Jet! Psychic!"

As she reels out the orders, a process so familiar it's automatic, she takes a brief second to summon her Velvet Persona - a pair of old men made out of...felt?

Her team springs into action - Zoroark releasing a shockwave of pure shadow, Arthur's eyes glowing as it lashes out with a wave of invisible force. Tomoe roars, a deep basso sound, as she rockets forward on a column of water, while above the three flying pokemon release their attacks - a massive blast of flame from Solar Logos, an inch-thick bolt of lightning discharged from Tesla's antennae, and Scorpina's massive, six-foot body blurring into near-invisibility as she puts on a sudden burst of speed.

As Kotoha directs her Persona to use Marakunda, the two old men have a brief conversation.

"Twins, huh?"
"Yeah. Twice the trouble, twice the annoyance!"
"Guess that means we need to get outta here twice as fast!"
"Dooohohohoho!"

The attacks are launched towards them but do little effect, as the rainbow hearts continue to stand upright, blocking them from their demonic oppressors. However it was their turn, and they put on a pair of sunglasses just for the majestic glare of everything.

"CONDITION!" Eros raised his hands to the left.

"RANDOMIZATION!" Anteros raised his hands to the right and they formed a fusion which spread white light in the entire tunnel.

The the unseen crowd (?!) of clapping public, a Nekoata appeared holding a small wheel and spun it for them, winking at the visitors, before the condition appeared on a scoreboard behind them.

"END RESULT!"

Everything poofed away and disappeared again, as they removed their glasses and casually placed them in their pockets.

"Oooh this one's gonna be fun!"

"Remember! You try to do something during that round that breaks the rules and you shall be PUNISHED!"

"So now it's our turn!" Eros gave all of them a small wink. "But if we're gonna fight, mom always told us that you need a makeover!"

Suddenly, a spell burst through and everyone found themselves wearing togas with flowers in their hair. Yes, even the robot.

"MUCH BETTER!"

"Oh I could kiss them for that!"

"Now now, remember that we're here to fight."

"But they look so nice."

"No."

"Maaaan..."

[Next round, give me the numbers 1-10 in any order you wish. This shall be used for your random stats, and also keep giving me one number from 1-4.]

Ruri just sighs as Yurika seems confused and pulls up Omoikane, looking for the music feed. Figuring it has to at least run on similar principles to that she's seen on town she reaches out with her nanobots and looks for the mp3 player, or jack or anything.

TEAM 1 - RURI - Final Destination -- The Love Wondertwins Fightoff? The Group Approaches!!!

Refuse

no subject

Refuse

Fight

Fight

Refuse

no subject

NEGOTIATE! - IE Something else

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

BATTLE

UNIQUE SKILL | MEGA BUSTER CHARGE SHOT (LIGHT) | 3

Weakness Scan - The Wall - 3

SCAN RESULT

BLADE OF FURY (PHYS) | 1

PERSONA SKILL | ALL FALL DOWN (MIND)

3 - Attack with Dark/Fire/Wind/Water/Lightning/Mind + Marakunda

INVALID COMMAND (x10) | ALMIGHTY - COSTUME...CHANGE?!

Hack the Music - 7 -2