Dragon's Lair

Ninjutsu

2007-09-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

“Yay! Ninjas!” Bookworm cheered. “Hey Indigo, you used to be a ninja, right? …Indigo?”
She looked around, but her dragon was nowhere in sight. Bookworm completely forgot her earlier anger at Indigo. Feeling worried, she decided to send a mental message. Indigo! Where the heck are you?!
There aren’t any dragons in this world, so I returned to the sphere. But I can still communicate with you telepathically and lend you my strength. With your kunai-throwing skills, you’re going to need it… Bookworm ignored this comment. She was not very happy with this turns of events. It was very useful to have a dragon helping her fight. She reached into her bag and found that the glowing purple sphere had reappeared.
“Maybe you could try summoning her with ninjutsu?” Fates suggested. She explained how to use the summoning jutsu, which she knew from watching lots of Naruto episodes.
“Okay, I guess I can try… Kyuichose No Jutsu!” Bookworm yelled, making the hand gesture Fates had showed her. There was a puff of smoke and then Indigo appeared. “Yay! I can do ninjutsu! I rule!”
Is that the only reason you summoned me? Indigo asked, sounding slightly annoyed.
Umm… yeah… Bookworm answered. I wanted to test my ninja skills!
Indigo rolled her eyes, but she was smiling anyway. Why am I not surprised? Well, you seem to be doing very well with your ninjutsu. If you need my help with anything important, you can summon me.
Okay! Bookworm agreed as Indigo vanished again.
“I wanna try ninjutsu!” Keyblade said enthusiastically.
“Okay, but first shouldn’t we try to find Mithos?” Shade suggested.
“Hey! I have an idea!” Fates said excitedly. “We should try looking for him in Konoha!”
“Konoha?” Rainheart asked. He had not had the benefit of watching numerous Naruto episodes before world-hopping, so he had no knowledge of the world he was now in. Sheena, Jade, and Orion were also curious.
“It’s a village with lots of powerful ninja!” Fates explained. “It would make sense for Mithos to go there.”
“But he’s evil! Wouldn’t he want to go to Sound instead?” Keyblade pointed out.
“I bet Fates just wants to go to Konoha so she can meet Neji!” Bookworm grinned.
“No I don’t!” Fates protested.
“Who’s Neji?” Jade asked.
“He’s a ninja,” Bookworm explained. “And Fatey’s a Neji fangirl!” She poked Fates. It was fun tormenting her.
“I’m not a fangirl!” Fates yelled, although her reddening face suggested otherwise. She poked Bookworm back. Once again, a poking fight broke out between them.
Rainheart sighed. He had a feeling he’d end up being the babysitter again. Fortunately for him, his creator interrupted the fight first.
“Do you want me to turn you into goo?!” Shade yelled at them.
“No…” Fates muttered. Bookworm didn’t comment because she was too busy being mentally scolded by Indigo. From the look on her face, they guessed she was not enjoying it.
“So are we going to Konoha?” Keyblade asked impatiently.
“Yes, I think so,” Shade nodded. “It will probably be easier to get information about Mithos from the Konoha ninjas than the Sound ones.”
“Yay! Let’s go!” Fates cheered.
“Can we practice ninjutsu on the way?” Keyblade asked.
“Sure, and I can help you if you want,” Sheena suggested. The Mizuho ninjutsu was very different from the kind in the Naruto world, but she still had plenty of useful experience as a ninja.
Hey Indigo! Wanna practice flying? Bookworm asked.
No, I can’t carry everyone… And I think you just don’t want to walk all the way to Konoha. Bookworm immediately started denying this, but didn’t sound very convincing.
I thought so. You should stop being so lazy. Exercise is good for you. Indigo laughed at the feelings of strong disgust and disagreement she could sense from Bookworm. How about this instead? I’ll teach you some of my village’s special ninjutsu. You’ll be the first human ever to learn these secrets.
Okay! Bookworm instantly forgot her laziness. Thanks Indigo!
With Sheena’s help and Fates’s Naruto knowledge, Shade, Keyblade, and the drakes were able to learn some ninjutsu. They spent the trip practicing using ninjutsu to help them alchemify keyblades, make goo fireballs, and do some of their other unique skills. Time passed quickly and they could soon see the gates of Konoha in the distance.

Ninja Skills (Mithos)

2007-06-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

Sasuke didn’t get back to Konoha. Instead, they found themselves at an island village.
“I recognize this place! We’re in Kyoshi in the Avatar World!” Shade said.
“Hey Sasuke, try again,” said Naruto.
“I can’t. That exhausted my chakra. I need a few days to rest.”
“Hey! I have an idea! Naruto, come with me for a sec,” said Mithos.
“Um ok, Mithos, if you say so. Hey Sakura! Watch over Sasuke. I’ll be right back.”
“Um ok,” Sakura said.
So Mithos and Naruto went for a walk. Mithos asked Naruto if he’d teach him how to be a ninja. Naruto was surprised and overjoyed at the same time.
“Well, I don’t know…”
“Ok… Hey Sasuke!”
“Ok,ok, I’ll teach you!”
Meanwhile, Sakura, Shade, Bookworm, and Keyblade were talking about what happened when a group of women with painted faces came and asked, “Who are you and where did you come from?”
“Um, we’re not from around here. We’re from the mainland. Our ship wrecked and we need a place to stay,” said Sakura.
“Sure, and while you’re here, would you like to train with us?”
“Sure,” said Sakura, Shade, and Bookworm. Keyblade didn’t want to and went searching for Mithos and Naruto. She noticed them training together.
“No, no, put your fingers like this and release your chakra!” yelled Naruto. Keyblade couldn’t stop laughing.
“Ok, ok, like this?” asked Mithos. POOF!
“Yes, like that! Now you know my special technique! Hehehe!”
Keyblade fainted from what she saw. Mithos knew how to do the sexy jutsu!

Exploring the Arcade (Mithos)

2007-06-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

A few seconds later, Shade and Bookworm were laughing at how beat up poor Mithos was, when they noticed three fictional anime characters. They were both shocked and awed! Mithos was still a little out of it and Keyblade, Shade, and Bookworm were laughing so hard they were crying.
Sasuke asked, “Naruto, Sakura, do you guys want to go back now?”
“Huh? Not just yet. I wanna check this place out,” said Naruto. Mithos (finally back to normal) told Naruto he’d show them around their world. Keyblade, Shade, and Bookworm nodded, happy to help.
First, they went to the arcade, where they would try DDR for the first time. Naruto tripped and fell over, knocking over Bookworm in the process. Sasuke used the Sharingan on Keyblade and instantly became a master. Sakura and Mithos’s scores weren’t as high. Shade did the best. Keyblade was angry beyond belief that Shade got a better score than her. Sasuke kept bragging to Naruto and Sakura about how well he did. Naruto made the hand sign for the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Mithos yelled, “No jutsus in the arcade!”
“Wait… How did you know about jutsus?” asked Sakura.
“Um, well…”
Keyblade closed his mouth and said, “We have them in our world, but Mithos isn’t any good so he makes it look bad.”
“Hey! I am not bad!”
Sasuke said, “Hey, let’s see if we can go back to our world.” They went out into the parking lot and he used his Sharingan Copy Eye to mimic the cloud ninja’s jutsu. He launched the jutsu… and accidentally took Mithos, Keyblade, Bookworm, and Shade with them!

Bob? (Mithos's Fanfic Begins!)

2007-06-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

“Naruto! Hurry up or we’ll leave you behind!” yelled Sakura.
“Yeah, Naruto, hurry up! We’re almost back at Konoha and I really want to go to the bookstore to see when they’re getting their new shipment of books,” said Kakashi.
“Mph,” moaned Sasuke.
Suddenly, the group saw a huge explosion at their village! And Tsunade-sensei was being attacked! Naruto rushed over to help her. It was some ninja from the Cloud Village!
“Hey! Stop touching Granny, you could scum! Shadow Clone Jutsu!”
As Naruto was using his jutsu, the cloud ninja used his. “Area Transfer Jutsu!”
All of a sudden, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were blinded by a flash of light…

“Haha! You lost again to my superior gaming skills!” said Keyblade Alchemist.
“Hey! I don’t have this game at home so I can’t practice 24/7 like you!” said Mithos.
Mithos and Keyblade were at the mall, playing some DDR and waiting for Shade and Bookworm to show up, when all of a sudden, three people fell from the roof and landed right on Mithos. Keyblade rushed over to help the wounded, but mostly embarrassed, Mithos.
When Sakura said, “Where are we? What’s up with all the machines?”, Mithos slowly stood up and looked Naruto right in his face.
“Do I know you from somewhere?”
Keyblade immediately fell over. “Mithos you idiot! It’s… It’s…”
“I know! You’re Bob from my third period science class!”
“Wow,” said Keyblade, “are you really that dumb?”
“No, I just think that I should’ve known who they are and WHY THEY CRUSHED ME!”
“I’m Naruto Uzumaki.”
“I’m Sakura Haruno.”
“I’m Sasuke Uchiha.”
“Oh yeah, now I remember!” said Mithos happily.
WHACK! “Ow…” said Mithos. Keyblade whacked him on the head.
“Hey Sakura, that girl’s kind of like you…” POW! “Ow!” said Naruto. Sakura had punched poor Naruto in the head.
“I know how you feel, Naruto. I’m Mithos. Nice to meet you!” They shook hands.

Return to the Drake World

2007-05-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

“So where is he now?” Keyblade asked.
“He used one of the function-changing devices…” Lloyd said hesitantly.
“Which one?” Bookworm asked, although she was pretty sure she knew the answer.
“Umm… I forget…” Lloyd’s face reddened as he admitted this.
“Great! Any idea what we should do now?” Shade asked, very frustrated.
“Yes! We should label all the devices! Then we won’t get them mixed up all the time!” Colette suggested happily.
“That’s a great idea!” Lloyd agreed enthusiastically. “Let’s go ask the Professor for writing supplies!” They both ran away, eager to begin this project.
Bookworm sighed. “So now what do we do?”
“We can’t just wait around for Lloyd to remember. How about we try a random guess?” Keyblade suggested.
Shade sighed. She didn’t like this plan, but there didn’t seem to be any other choice. “Fine, that’s what we usually end up doing anyway.”
“Let’s try that one!” Fates pointed to one.
Keyblade activated the Sorcerer’s Ring. A moment later, they were standing in a world that looked strangely familiar.
“Cat!” Tyrsis appeared out of nowhere and glomped Keyblade.
“Oh my God! We’re in the drake world!” Fates cheered. Unlike her friends, she had never been to the drake world and did not realize how unlikely it was that Mithos would come there.
“Tyrsis! Stop strangling Keyblade for a second!” Shade said sharply. Tyrsis let go of Keyblade, who was indeed having difficulty breathing. “Have you seen Mithos here anytime lately?”
“You mean the assassin with the height issue? I haven’t seen him since the party.” This reminded Tyrsis of something. Grinning, he turned to Bookworm. “Why did you just vanish like that? You knew you were gonna lose that DDR round, didn’t you?”
“No! I was winning! And I can beat you anytime!” Bookworm yelled, being overly competitive as usual.
“Sure you can,” Tyrsis laughed sarcastically.
“Can we meet Rainheart now?” Fates asked randomly.
“Yeah, let’s go to the palace! Rainheart will be really glad to see you!” Tyrsis grinned at Keyblade. She was looked like she was about to protest, so he added, “He was really sad when you vanished without even saying good-bye.”
“It can’t hurt to just say hi, right?” Bookworm said sympathetically.
“Alright,” Keyblade reluctantly agreed.
Everyone shifted into drake form, except Fates. Tyrsis shifted into full-drake form to carry her. Everyone noticed the effects Borakk’s sphere had on him. His size had increased and his scales now had a metallic sheen. His shiny scales glinted in the sunlight as he flew towards the palace.
“It looks like Tyrsis is coming back,” Jade observed. He was a green drake skilled in ninja arts and a friend of Rainheart. He munched on an apple as he watched Tyrsis approach.
“He shouldn’t shift into full-drake form to travel such a short distance. It uses up too much energy,” Orion said. He was a pitch black drake. Like Jade, he was a ninja. In fact, they had even studied with the same teacher, a purple drake named Violet.
“Yeah, wasn’t he just at Violet’s village?” Jade asked.
“Yes, I sent him to supervise its reconstruction. The village is recovering from Borakk’s attack much faster than we expected,” Rainheart said, glancing up at his brother. “I’ll have to talk to him later about going full drake so often.”
“He’s probably just doing it to show off. He is the only drake here with a metallic sheen, after all. And he’s a lot bigger too,” Jade pointed out, grinning. Orion just nodded. He didn’t talk much.
“Rainheart!” Tyrsis landed, dropped Fates, and shifted back into human form. Keyblade, Shade, and Bookworm landed soon after.
At the sight of Keyblade, Rainheart completely forgot all about scolding Tyrsis. “Cat!”
“I’m not Cat,” Keyblade said, already tired of telling him this.
Fates had been too busy poking Bookworm for no reason whatsoever to pay attention to what Keyblade had just said. She now stopped annoying Bookworm and decided to share her opinion. “Oh my God! Cat and Rainheart are meant to be together!”
Rainheart took this as affirmation that Keyblade was indeed Cat. He hugged her tightly. (Fortunately for Keyblade, Rainheart’s hug was not as tight as Tyrsis’s strangling glomp.)
Keyblade gave Fates a death glare. Could she have been any less helpful?
She was about to move away from Rainheart’s embrace and inform him once again that she was not Cat, but then she decided against it. He clearly wouldn’t believe her. And now that Mithos was not around to start a fight, she couldn’t see any harm in getting hugged by Rainheart. She smiled and hugged him back.
“Aaaw! They’re so cute together!” Fates said. Bookworm decided that it would be a good idea to distract her before she said anything else that would bother Keyblade. And so, Bookworm decided that it was absolutely necessary to start another poking fight.
“AAAAAHH! Her evil pokes made me bleed!” Bookworm wailed. One of Fates's pokes had accidentally given her a tiny cut on her hand.
“Can you two behave at least a little maturely?” Shade asked, very irritated.
“She started it!” Bookworm announced, as if this made everything Fates’s fault.
“No I didn’t! You poked me first!” Fates protested. Bookworm decided that she needed to respond to this by poking Fates again. Within seconds, they had resumed their poking fight.
“That’s it! If you two can’t behave, we’re leaving!” Shade yelled at them. “We should probably go find Mithos now anyway,” she added. Indigo nodded in agreement.
“Wait! I want to go with you, Cat,” Rainheart said.
Shade nodded. “It should be okay for you to come to at least one world with us, as long as Keyblade doesn’t mind.”
Keyblade thought for a second. Maybe Rainheart would be able to help them defeat Mithos without killing him. It couldn’t hurt to bring him along. “Yeah, he can come.”
“Can we come too?” Jade asked eagerly.
After making sure Keyblade had no objections, Rainheart allowed Jade and Orion to join them on their journey.
“What about me?” Tyrsis asked eagerly.
“No,” Shade answered before Rainheart or Keyblade could say anything. “At least one member of the royal family should stay here.”
“She’s right. You need to make sure there’s no trouble in my absence,” Rainheart told his brother. Tyrsis was disappointed, but didn’t disagree.
“So can we get going now?” Keyblade asked impatiently. She activated the Sorcerer’s Ring.
As soon as they arrived in Derris-Kharlan, they were greeted enthusiastically by Lloyd and Colette. “Look at the labels we made!”
Everyone looked at the function-changing devices. The one that led to the mall had labels saying “Fascinating Magitechnology” and “Exploding DDR Machine”. The Hogwarts one said “Fluffy’s Home”, “Quidditch World”, and “Magic School”. Feudal Japan had the labels “Cute Rin” and “Sesshomaru’s World”. Monty Python World was “Silly Place”, “Slightly Dangerous Rabbit”, “Stupid Witch-Burners”, and “I Saved My Hunny Here”. Krynn was labeled “Dragon World”, “Tas’s World”, and “Where Shade Turned Evil”.
“I’m really sorry about that label, Shade!” Colette apologized. “I told Lloyd that you’re not really evil and you’re actually very nice, but he insisted you had turned evil there! I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt your feelings!”
Bookworm and Keyblade had a hard time not laughing. They knew Shade had been evil long before she went to Krynn.
“And guess what! Genis remembered where Mithos went! I forgot he was with us when Mithos came here,” Lloyd said.
“Do you ever pay attention?” Genis shook his head at Lloyd’s short attention span.
“Shut up Genis!” Lloyd snapped.
Genis rolled his eyes and pointed to an unlabeled device. “He used that one.”
“Thanks!” Keyblade started to walk toward the device.
“Wait! I’m coming too!” Sheena said. “We need to know what to label this world, so I volunteered to go with you.”
Keyblade nodded and activated the device. A moment later, they appeared in another world. Keyblade felt a weight on her head. Looking around, she discovered that everyone now had metal headbands with a picture of a sphere on them. She recognized that kind of headband. “YES! We’re in the Naruto world! We’re gonna be ninjas!” she cheered.

Killer Bus!?!

2007-05-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

“I think… we might’ve… outrun her… now…” Oregulus gasped for breath.
“Do you think she’ll think to look for us in the parking lot?” Lord of Demonic Blood looked around worriedly.
The mall door opened. Maelthra poked her head out and glanced around. Oregulus and Lord of Demonic Blood ran to hide. Their sudden movement caused her to look in their direction.
“I’m gonna get you for what you said about Mithos!” she yelled and charged after them. Mithos and ST218 followed, curious about what she would do to Oregulus and Lord of Demonic Blood.
Suddenly, Mithos stopped. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in horror. He was staring at a bus parked nearby.
“It’s gonna eat us! Everyone run away! I’ll kill it with my shiny sword!” Mithos unsheathed his sword and ran toward the terrifying bus. As he ran, he screamed the war cry he had learned from Shade. “For the ketchup!”
Maelthra, Oregulus, Lord of Demonic Blood, and ST218 just stared at him. He had just screamed a really random war cry and was now attacking a bus. This behavior was so weird it made Maelthra forget to injure her friends.
“Umm… Mithos? Why are you attacking the bus?” Maelthra asked, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer.
“It wants to kill us all! I bet it even has nasty big pointy teeth!” Mithos whacked the bus again.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing!?!” The bus driver had just exited the mall. “Get away from my bus, you crazy kid!” He ran over and started hitting Mithos with a broom to chase him away.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!” Mithos screamed. “It’s the monster from the arcade! He’s gonna eat me!”
Mithos was too terrified to attack the “monster” with his sword. He just wanted to get as far away from the scary person as possible. Fortunately, he knew exactly how to accomplish this. He activated the Mage’s Ring.
Meanwhile, Keyblade, Bookworm, Shade, and Fates met at FYE. While waiting for Maelthra to bring Mithos, they discussed how they had spent the day.
“I can’t wait to go to the anime worlds! Do you think I’ll get to be a ninja? I’ve been watching episodes of Naruto all day just in case!” Fates was so excited she decided to poke Bookworm for no reason.
Bookworm poked her back many times. “I took Indigo to the library. She ate Thorax’s hand cause he was being annoying again. Then we went home and I played on my computer.”
I had lots of delicious snacks. And I got to watch Bookworm try to smuggle a microphone. Indigo projected her thoughts so that everyone, including Shade, was able to hear.
“Traitor! Why’d you have to tell her that?!” Bookworm glared at her dragon, angry about her betrayal.
It’s for your own good. Blackmailing Shade is dangerous. Indigo explained. She had taken it upon herself to make sure that Bookworm did not get herself killed due to her pathetic lack of self-preservation.
“Give me the microphone,” Shade held out her hand for the recording equipment. Bookworm reluctantly removed the microphone from her bag and handed it to Shade.
Keyblade decided it was time to change the subject. “I transmuted a DDR machine at my house! And remember those girls from my bus? I shifted into drake form and attacked them with a keyblade! What did you do today, Shade?”
“I took over Russia and Australia,” Shade said calmly, as if this were not unusual at all. “I’m leaving them in my dad’s care while I’m world-hopping.” Everyone stared at her. They were now very worried about Russia and Australia. Shade thought for a minute. “And then I came back here and stole Silence’s Wii.”
Bookworm rolled her eyes. “Was that really necessary?”
“No… But it was fun!” Shade grinned evilly.
Before Bookworm could respond, Maelthra ran up to them, followed by Oregulus, Lord of Demonic Blood, and ST218.
“Mithos just attacked a bus and vanished! What’s going on? Where is he? And why is he acting so weird?” Maelthra demanded.
“Well, I’m not surprised about the bus part, but you said he vanished? Did he run away or just disappear?” Keyblade asked.
“He disappeared! One second, he was standing there screaming while the bus driver hit him with a broom. And the next second, he was gone,” Maelthra explained, still very confused.
“It sounds like he got scared and used the Mage’s Ring. We should go to Derris-Kharlan. The Symphonians might know where he went,” Shade suggested.
“I hope they haven’t killed him yet,” Keyblade said worriedly as she activated the Sorcerer’s Ring.

Angel!?! (Cat)

2007-05-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

"Hey you guys!" Cat was calling out to the group (who had made camp) waving something that was in her hand.
"Hey Cat. What is that?" Sora asked, noticing something glint from Cat's hand.
"It's a marble I fouuund!" Cat sing-songed.
Kratos immediately swiped the marble from Cat's hand to examine it. "Hmm....so it's this one. I must've missed it."
"What's Kratos-san talking about?" Netto asked Lloyd.
"Well, Dad was going to get rid of all of Cruxis's exspheres and throw them into space-"
"GIMME BACK MY MARBLE!!!" Lloyd was cut off by Cat yelling (and attempting to tackle) at Kratos to give back "her marble" (he was holding it above her reach) and jumping for it (Goldd had decided to conveniently forget to tell Cat she could fly). Cat got tired of this, so she shifted just enough to get her tail from behind his leg and trip him. This actually worked, as Kratos seemed too intent to keep the marble from her.
Kratos did his oh-so-famous "....".
Cat caught the marble, saying triumphantly, "Ha! I told you I had mad ninja skills!! Now it-" Cat had stopped midway in her sentence, as she noticed that the marble she had caught seemed to be floating, similar to how Netto's did before he transformed. "Wh-"
A bright flash of light temporarily blinded everyone, causing them to avert their eyes. When the light cleared, Cat's clothes had been altered. Cat seemed to be wearing a mostly white outfit with outlines of purple, and many belts around her waist. Along with a skirt (not short but not long) and arm sleeves, also with a purple outline. As Cat was observing this strange new transformation, she felt a sharp pain in her back, like something was trying to rip itself from her back. Cat grimaced, the pain intensifying, causing her to bend over.
"Cat! What's-"
There was another bright flash of light, a scream, and a ripping noise. When it cleared again, Cat was standing... with purple angel wings!
"What IS this? It feels..."
"Umm....Mr. Kratos, why did Cat transform like that?"
Lloyd was also curious. "Yeah Dad, why'd Cat turn into an angel?"
"I'M DEAD?!! HOLY CRAP!!"
Kratos slapped his face. This was exactly what he was trying to avoid.
Sora poked Cat's cheek. "You can't be dead 'cause you're solid."
"Yeah, and don't real angels have halos?"
"Brother, that's just stories, isn't it?"
"You guys, that's not it... When I transformed, it was kinda like..." Cat's eyes looked like they were misted over, like when she was think about something. (Cat thinks?)
"Like what?"
"Like when I transform with Goldd."
"I suppose I'll have to explain, won't I?" Kratos sighed. Out of all the exspheres that he had to throw into space, that one had been a priority. Out of all the other exspheres (besides Lloyd's and Colette's Cruxis Crystal), this one was one of the most powerful.
"You recall that the four Seraphim of Cruxis was made up of four people, correct?"
"Yeah. Wasn't it you, Yuan, Yggdrasil, and... Who was the last one?"
"Martel, Lloyd. Yggdrasil would eventually need someone to replace that position, so he had me create that sphere."
Cat, meanwhile, was only half listening, still staring at her new transformation.
'Cat? Do you hear me?'
'Goldd?'
'Cat... I believe when you transformed, some of the excess energy that I lost... It's nothing...'
"Wait." Cat had risen from her crouching position. After wiping non-existent dust off her shoulder, she asked, "I thought the drakes where the only ones that could make spheres. Why was it that you could?"
'Cat, I never said that there weren't any spheres that don't exist beyond the drakes realm.'
'Meaning?'
Goldd mentally sighed. Sometimes, Cat's ability to be a complete and total scatterbrain at almost any given time could be very irritating. Meaning she had to be very patient with the human girl she shared a mind with (Goldd had gotten a habit of playing cards by herself while Cat didn't need her assistance, but this was lonely, as Goldd had no one else to play her favorite card game with). 'What I MEAN, Cat, is that some of the spheres were not necessarily made by drakes alone, they where crafted by humans of different worlds, but for some reason, the essence was never able to react to a human before you.'
'So what makes me so special?'
'I suppose... it was your personality that attracted me. But other spheres may be attracted by other things.'
'Like...'
"Cat, if I may interrupt your mental conversation."
Cat seemed to snap back to attention. She realized that it was annoying for her friends when she had mental conversations with Goldd.

Mithos Goes Home

2007-04-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

Mithos flew around the mall for a while, completely oblivious to the fact that his shiny sword and silvery wings were terrifying many shoppers. Eventually, he landed, deciding that if he didn’t eat some pocky immediately, there was no way he could save the unconscious guy from the midget and the scary monster.
His snack was interrupted by a loud shout. “Hey! It’s Mithos! Hi Mithos!” Four teenagers ran over to him.
“Mithos!!!” A short girl was the first to reach him. She immediately glomped him. For a moment, he was very confused by this random hug. Then he remembered seeing her in Other Mithos’s memories. She was Maelthra-chath, Other Mithos’s dragon-obsessed girlfriend. He recognized the other friends as Oregulus, Lord of Demonic Blood, and ST218.
“Hi everyone!” he said cheerfully. “Have any of you seen any angels trying to destroy the world?”
“Umm… No… Don’t think so…” His friends were now very confused.
“Oh okay… But have you seen an unconscious guy being kidnapped by a midget or a scary monster?” Mithos persisted.
“Hey! That reminds me! Where have you been? The news said you got kidnapped!” Maelthra released him from her hug to ask this.
“Yeah, and it said you got knocked unconscious too,” Lord of Demonic Blood added. Oregulus laughed.
“I didn’t get kidnapped or knocked unconscious!” Mithos said indignantly. “But there have been a lot of meanies bothering me. Kratos and Lloyd killed my sister. And then Keyblade and Bookworm wouldn’t let me have the yummy water. And Mr. Cactus poked me when all I did was give him a friendly hug!” As he relived these horrible memories, his eyes filled with tears, which he quickly wiped away.
“Umm… Your sister’s fine, Mithos,” Lord of Demonic Blood assured him.
“Did you really hug a cactus?!” Oregulus asked in disbelief.
“Has anyone else noticed that Mithos is acting a little stranger than usual?” ST218 asked. All his friends nodded. Mithos nodded too because it looked more fun than keeping his head still. Everyone stared at him.
“Maybe the kidnappers brainwashed him or something,” Lord of Demonic Blood suggested.
“He mentioned Keyblade. I’m going to call her and see if she knows what’s wrong with him,” Maelthra decided. She grabbed her cell phone and called Keyblade’s home phone number.
Keyblade was just about to leave for the mall when the phone rang. “Hello?”
“Hi Keyblade!”
“Oh hi Maelthra! What’s up?”
“Mithos is acting a little weirder than usual. Do you know what happened while he was kidnapped?”
Keyblade’s eyes widened. “Is he with you now?”
“Yeah, we ran into him at the mall.”
“Can you and Mithos meet me in front of FYE in a half-hour?” Keyblade asked.
“Yeah, sure. See you then!”
“See you!” Keyblade hung up the phone. She smiled, forgetting her depression about the Kingdom Hearts 3 game. This was a perfect opportunity to defeat Mithos. He was apparently still drunk on cactus juice. That meant he wouldn’t be able to fight as well. Kratos and the Symphonians were trapped in their own world, so they wouldn’t be able to interfere by trying to kill Mithos.
If we can just find some way to get him unpossessed without killing him… Keyblade thought.
Let’s discuss it on the way to the mall. Goldd’s voice echoed in Keyblade’s mind. Her drake wings and tail appeared in a golden haze. She flapped her wings back and forth, heading towards the mall.
Meanwhile, Maelthra came up with an idea for what to do on while waiting for Keyblade.
“Let’s play DDR!” She grabbed Mithos’s hand and pulled him toward the arcade.
Mithos’s eyes widened in horror. He let out a high-pitched scream. “But that’s where the monster ate the unconscious guy!”
His friends stared at him.
“Can we fight the angels now?” he asked, not even noticing the weird looks they were giving him.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, Mithos, but you are definitely the weirdest person I know,” Oregulus said.
“Weirder than me?” ST218 asked in disbelief. “But I though everyone agreed I’m the geekiest person at our school!”
“Look at my sword! It’s shiny! Shiny!” Mithos cheered.
“Yeah, he’s weirder,” Oregulus and Lord of Demonic Blood said in unison. A moment later, they were running away from Maelthra, who didn’t like them insulting her boyfriend without permission. Mithos followed them all, still looking for an angel to kill with his shiny sword.

OOOps....Orange? Silence's Past

2007-04-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

Night masked the shadowy form's presence from site as it crept just outside the edges of the woods. An newly renovated house stood just beyond a small patch of tar, and beyond that, the secret to all of Silences power. The Koarion Beacon. For those reader who have no clue what Koarion is, its race of biogenetically engineered frogs designed to decimate whatever target is designated by the K Beacon. One awoken from there dormant state, the Koarion would multiply, divide into several subspecies each with a very specific task, and destroy the opposition. The beacon lay just beyond these walls, hidden in the large crevice in the corner of Silences room. He hadn't bothered to bring the beacon, in hope that he would never again have to use its destructive power. He had had the good sense to never completely shut down the mental link he shared with his amphibian allies. This link enables him to activate only a few of the Koarion's protective magics. Meaning pretty much that he could become a shadow on will.
Unfortunately, Silence was extremely out of practice. Even after 3 hours of straining tin the bushes, he had only managed to turn his entire body an odd shade of blue black that he couldn't quite get rid of. Great disguise in the middle of the night, hard to explain to your parents.
He finally reached his destination, the front porch stairs. Long ago Silence had realized the potential of the hole dug by at skunk under his porch steps. It gave him a hidden entrance to his underground lab, and from there his room. He crouched down and realized with a sudden panic that the hole was nowhere to be found. Of course. The house was all fixed up now, why would they leave a hole under the steps. â€œidiotâ€(don't know what this was supposed to be) he said to himself. He would have to get in another way.
He looked about him, searching for anyway into the house without drawing attention to himself. He concentrated again on focusing his link to the Koarion if he could get it right, he could use the Koarion sticky palms to climb the wall. HAHA!!! The old feeling of microscopic suction cups returned to his hands. But of course, moving his attention away from his color had turned him a bright shade of orange. Grand.
He started his assent, careful to watch his back for random passerbys on the street below.
He reached a slightly ajar window, and without a sound, opened it up just enough to squeeze himself into the dark room. He recognized the room immediately. It was his sister, Damii's old room. The crypt they had called it when they lived there, and rightfully so. It was pitch black save for the pale glow of Silence's orange person. A noise from behind the door made him start, and his heart started racing. It was the worst conceivable sound. A sound so very dangerous, it compromised life itself. A toilet flushing from down the hall. Apparently the new owner had risen for a small bathroom break, and was returning from is venture. Caught in his present state, (meaning orange and in another man's bedroom) he would surely be sent to prison, or worse, a lab much like his own. Having lived in this house throughout most of his life, Silence pretty muh knew where everything was, even though it was too dark to see. He rushed silently as he could to the door on the right side of the room, the closet. Just as he shut the door behind himself the bedroom door swung inward allowing the entry of a very groggy figure.
They could her his heart racing, his pulse pounding, the very sound your eyes mke as they dart about in fear. He was caught. He would be spending the next twenty years in prison for B and E, then the rest of his life in a lab for being orange.
No. He was Silence. He was the one who commissioned the destruction of an entire alien race that threatened him. All of them, women, children, innocents, all of them. This is why the Koarion had lain dormant for so long. He could not bring himself to bring such horrors to life again. Even now he had no intention of awakening the beasts. Only activating the beacon to strengthen the link and restore him to his former powerful self. He would have his revenge.
He heard the snoring now emanating from the room beyond get louder and new his foe had gone to sleep, Lifting the door so as to keep it from squeaking, he slowly opened it inch by inch until there was just enough room for him to slip through. He looked about, remember times he had had in the small room, it was familiar, but at the same time, distinctly foreign. Such is the way of returning home.
He walked thought through the open door into the hallway connecting the three bedrooms and the bathroom. His room, apparently had been turned into a study. Grand.
Just beyond the door there was a small door leading into an access to the pipes beneath the bathroom. At least that was the designers intention. Silence had other plans.
After the asteroid had hit, he kept it in this room hiding it from view as her performed his experiments. He opened the hatch making a louder clunk than he had hoped. The snoring stopped. He did not have time to stop, he quickly jumped into the portal, not even bothering to shut it. The moment he touched the stone he could slip into the night, a living shadow. He hit the ground rolling and jumped up, his hand already reaching for the pedestal the Koarion Beacon had sat on for all this time. Only one problem.
It wasn't there.

Prologue to Frogs

2007-03-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

Silence stood in horror as the horrid reptilian beast flew off into the scarlet horizon. He couldn't believe the audacity of Shade, coming into HIS house, kicking HIS shin, and worst of all, stealing lil owie (the Wii) from right beneath his nose. If he had not been so shocked at the sudden appearance of his old time friend, she never would have gotten her scaly claws on it. This could not go unpunished. Shade had to pay. Silence was returning to his hometown.

Shade Goes Home

2007-03-28T17:30:00.001-07:00

Shade walked away from her house. She had greeted her parents and explained why she had been missing for the past three days. No one doubted her honesty, especially since she had turned a nearby squirrel into a pile of goo. She was wondering what to do with the rest of her day, when she felt someone poke her.
“Bother!” her friend Fates yelled. “Where have you been, Shade? I thought you got kidnapped by Russian spies again!” When Shade had missed a Chess Club meeting once, Keyblade told the teacher that she had gone to Russia to stop a war. After many retellings, this story involved Shade being kidnapped by Russian spies.
“No, not today,” Shade grinned. “I’ve just been traveling to anime and fantasy book worlds to learn magic and turn annoyances into goo.”
“Oh my god! Have you met Neji?” Fates gasped. She was a Neji fangirl.
“No, no we haven’t been to Naruto world yet,” Shade said. “Maybe we’ll go there sometime. If you meet us at the mall later, we’ll take you with us.”
“Okay! I can’t believe I’m gonna actually meet my Neji!” Fates jumped up and down like a spastic fangirl, which she was.
Shade grinned at her friend’s excitement. Then she shifted into full-drake form. Her conversation with Fates had given her an idea for what to do today… After a few hours and many fireball spells, Shade had conquered Russia. There wouldn’t be any more spies coming after her. And since she had some spare time, she took over Australia too. Then she decided to return home. World domination could wait until the next time she came home.
When she arrived back in the U.S., Shade came up with a brilliant evil idea. She went to her friend Silence’s house. He was on his computer, IMing Bookworm, when she arrived.
“Shade! What the heck are you doing here?” he screamed. He had thought he had escaped from his slightly crazy friends when he moved to another town and didn’t tell them his address. He had underestimated Shade.
“Greetings Silence,” Shade grinned evilly. She walked up to him, kicked him in the shin, and stole his Wii. After stopping home again to drop off her new video game system, Shade decided to head back to the mall.

Bookworm Goes Home

2007-03-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

Bookworm had not thought things through very well. It is really not a good idea to bring a dragon to a gathering of teenagers at a public library without giving any warning whatsoever. However, Bookworm was too excited about going to the TAG meeting for this to occur to her.
“Hi everyone! Sorry I’m late!” she said as she entered the meeting room, followed by Indigo. The result was complete chaos. Everyone started talking at once.
“Haha! Bookworm’s got a dragon! Why am I not surprised? Cool dragon!” Auzzy gave her a high five.
“Umm… nice dragon…” Pumpkin Queen smiled uncertainly at Bookworm.
“Is that a real dragon?” Shadowhunter asked, his eyes widening.
Aztek just stared in amazement. A lot of other people talked too, but most of their conversations had nothing to do with dragons. They were just looking for an excuse to chat.
Shadowhunter’s younger brother, Thorax, yelled, “Can I touch it? And we’re still gonna beat you at book trivia!” Without waiting for Bookworm’s answer, he poked Indigo.
Indigo did not like it when a small person poked her. She also sensed Bookworm’s irritation at his comment about the trivia. This added to her own annoyance. She reacted instinctively and bit Thorax’s hand. Aztek finally stopped staring and ran away screaming.
“Did you have to feed him to your dragon?” Shadowhunter asked.
“Indigo, let go of him,” Bookworm said sternly, but Indigo could tell she was not really angry at all.
“This meeting is over,” the librarian said wearily. Previously, no one had thought it possible for a TAG meeting to be more chaotic than usual. This assumption had just been proven wrong.
As they left the library, Indigo asked, “So are we going after Mithos now?”
“No way! I’ve been away from my computer for three whole days! I’m gonna start suffering withdrawal symptoms soon!” Bookworm shifted into drake form and flew towards her house. Indigo sighed and followed her. Soon they reached Bookworm’s house. They entered through the front door, hurried up the stairs, and shut themselves in Bookworm’s room.
As Bookworm sat on her bed and set up her laptop, they heard a loud barking noise downstairs. “Indigo, can you take care of that? Please? And take care of any other annoying creatures you encounter too.” The mental link alerted Indigo to the fact that her Rider’s family had been bothering her a lot before she went world-hopping. And that barking thing sounded delicious…
While Indigo was away, Bookworm checked My Own Café (best website ever) and sent an instant message to her cousin, hpfan. The conversation went something like this:
Bookworm: hpfan! I met harry potter and u didn’t! lol
Hpfan: wtf?
Bookworm: i beat shade at quidditch
Hpfan: u r insane
hpfan has signed off
Bored, Bookworm observed that another friend was online. So she IMed Silence. The conversation went something like this:
Bookworm: hi silence
Silence: hey wazzup
Bookworm: i got a dragon
Silence: …
Bookworm: beware of shade
Bookworm: she can turn u into goo
Bookworm: it’s not fun
Silence: ok…
Bookworm: and I made her turn into a squirrel
Silence: how u do that?
Bookworm: she was drunk
Silence: lol
Bookworm: g2g bye
Silence: peace
Bookworm has signed off
The reason that Bookworm had to leave instant messenger so urgently was she suddenly had a brilliant idea. If she could find her microphone, she could record it if/when Shade turned into a squirrel again! It was the best blackmail opportunity ever!
Indigo returned a short time later. The other inhabitants of the house were quiet now. “Ready to go yet?”
“Yeah, yeah, I just finished,” Bookworm stuffed the microphone in the pouch with her kunai.
“What is that?” Indigo asked suspiciously. “And why do I have a feeling Shade wouldn’t want you to bring it?”
“She doesn’t have to find out,” Bookworm grinned. “Come on! Let’s go look for everyone back at the mall!”

Keyblade Goes Home

2007-03-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

Keyblade walked down her street, wondering how she was going to explain her disappearance to her parents. Would they really believe that she had accidentally activated a magic ring and traveled to different worlds? As she was pondering this, she noticed some people walking from the opposite direction. As they approached, she recognized them. They were the girls on her bus who had been giving her a hard time recently. One of them had even followed her all the way to her house, yelling at her to talk to them. A huge grin spread across Keyblade’s face. This was the perfect opportunity to get revenge!
When the girls got close enough to recognize Keyblade, they starting yelling at her again. Ignoring their rude words, she clapped her hands and alchemified a keyblade. They stared at her in surprise and confusion. She shifted into drake form. As the gold wings and tail appeared, their expressions changed from confusion to fear.
A little while later, Keyblade stood on top of a pile of badly beaten girls. Occasionally, a faint groan would come from the pile, showing that they were still conscious and in great pain.
“Yes! I rule!” Keyblade did a victory dance on their heads. Then she hopped off the pile and continued to walk to her house.
As soon as they were capable of standing, the girls tried to run home. This did not work very well and they ended up tripping several times, falling flat on their faces, and looking very silly. When the girls finally reached their houses, they screamed something along the lines of “Keyblade turned into a dragon thing and almost beat us to death with a giant key!” The average adult is unlikely to believe that someone who recently vanished will suddenly appear, turn into a dragon, and attack their daughter with a giant key. As a result, all the girls ended up in an insane asylum, where they spent the rest of their lives.
“Hi everyone! I’m home!” Keyblade walked in her house. Her younger brother screamed when he saw her. At first she thought he was just being weird, but when her parents had similar reactions, she realized she had forgotten to shift back into human form. She quickly did so and proceeded to explain what had happened in the last few days. The fact that their daughter had just turned into a drake made her parents a lot more willing to believe her story.
When she finally finished, her brother asked, “Can I use your video games while you’re going to other worlds?”
This gave Keyblade another brilliant idea. She ran downstairs to her video game area. She clapped her hands and alchemified another DDR machine. This kept her entertained for hours, but eventually she got so tired she couldn’t even move her legs. She looked for another video game to play. This is when she had yet another great idea. She clapped her hands again and alchemified a video game. But it wasn’t just any video game. It was Kingdom Hearts 3! After doing another victory dance, she tried playing it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work because the game had not yet been created. This made her feel very depressed. She sighed and decided she should probably go find Mithos now.

Back Home

2007-03-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

“Waaah! It’s broken!” Mithos wailed as he stared at the remains of the DDR machine.
Keyblade was just as upset about the DDR machine’s fate as he was, although she didn’t wail about it. Instead, she clapped her hands and transmuted the demolished DDR machine, returning it to its original form.
“Ooooh! Shiny!” Mithos hugged the DDR machine. “Wanna play? I saw how Other Mithos plays this and it looks like fun!”
“You saw his memories?” Shade asked curiously, wondering if this included the memory of her turning him into banana-scented goo.
“Uh-huh. You and Keyblade are good at DDR. But you suck, Bookworm!” Mithos grinned.
“You are dead!” Bookworm screamed at him, grabbing her kunai.
“No! Don’t kill him!” Keyblade tried to stop Bookworm.
“At least wait until we leave the mall!” Shade said as she tried to take the kunai away from Bookworm.
“Meep!” Mithos ran away from where they were attempting to restrain Bookworm. He remembered something else from the other Mithos’s memories. “I’m gonna go get some pocky!” He ran away to a nearby FYE store.
After much fighting and threatening, Bookworm promised not to kill Mithos, at least, not yet. They followed Mithos into FYE, where he was eating pocky and drinking from his water bottle. Unknown to them, his water bottle was still full of cactus juice. By drinking from it, he was prolonging his drunkenness.
He looked up as they approached. “Hi everyone! How are you?” Before anyone could answer, he started jumping up and down and pointing at something behind them. “Look! Look! The loud box thingy is talking about me!” They turned around and discovered that the “loud box thingy” was a TV. The news was on and it was indeed talking about Mithos. In fact, pictures of all four of them appeared on the TV screen as the reporter talked.
“They have been missing for three days now. Bookworm, Keyblade, and Shade met at the mall in the morning. Witnesses saw them spending a lot of time in the arcade. Three hours after their arrival, a disturbance occurred in the arcade. It is estimated that Mithos arrived at approximately this time. Police suspect that all four left the mall shortly after. None of them have been seen since. Various people were shown these pictures and asked about their experiences at the mall on the day of the disappearances. Their answers were… interesting.”
A scared-looking woman appeared on the screen. “I was going to pick my kids up from the arcade. When I entered, I heard a loud noise, like an explosion. Angels were attacking one of the games. I didn’t see any of the girls, but I think I remember that boy talking to the angels. The angels are kidnapping people and destroying our machines! They’re trying to destroy the world! We’re all doomed!” By now, she was panicking and screaming.
The next witness appeared. He was a little boy who looked about elementary school-aged. “I was gonna play in the arcade, but there was a really creepy guy there. He looked at me scary and I ran away. I think he was a monster or something. My big brother says monsters eat people. Do you think that guy ate the missing people?”
The final witness was a security guard. “I remember yelling at those girls for sitting on the railing. Later, I heard a loud noise coming from the arcade. I went to investigate and discovered that the Dance Dance Revolution machine had been destroyed. Many people were rioting. A silver-haired boy was telling my colleagues that his friends had accidentally broken the machine because they were from very far away and were unfamiliar with that technology. He heard his friends outside, so he went away to find them. After the riot calmed down, things were mostly peaceful for a few hours. Then I received reports of thefts all over the mall. We managed to apprehend the thief, a very short person carrying several pouches filled with stolen items. We were then interrupted by a large group of people, including the silver-haired kid. I think the three missing girls might have been in the group too, but they were wearing very outlandish clothing so it’s hard to tell. One of my colleagues recognized two of their companions as the people responsible for the disturbance in the arcade earlier. Before we could arrest them, a girl resembling Keyblade took a ring from the pile of stolen goods. We are not sure exactly what happened, but they somehow managed to escape. Not long after, a man was said to be frightening children near the arcade. When we went to find out more, we saw a group of people explode the DDR machine again. They vanished shortly after, carrying an unconscious boy who may have been Mithos.”
The reporter appeared back on screen. “If anyone has more information on the disappearances of Keyblade, Shade, Bookworm, and Mithos, we urge you to please contact the police. And in other news…”
Everyone stared at the TV. They were completely stunned. Eventually, Mithos broke the silence by saying, “Do you think the unconscious guy got kidnapped by the midget? Or did he get eaten by the monster?” He paused and thought for a second. “I’m gonna go fight the angels before they destroy the world. And I’ll use my shiny sword! Shiny!” Silver angel wings appeared on his back and he flew out of the mall, waving his sword excitedly.
Bookworm, Shade, and Keyblade stared at where he had been. “I guess we should go after him before he does any damage,” Keyblade said.
“Yeah,” Bookworm said. “We need to find him really fast. And we should just focus on that and wait until later to do DDR and stuff like that.”
“Wow… I can’t believe it’s been only three days. We were in the other worlds for months,” Shade said.
“Wait a minute… Three days… That means today’s Wednesday! There’s a Teen Advisory Group meeting at the library today!” Bookworm gasped. All thoughts of focusing on finding Mithos fast left her mind as she ran to the mall exit.
Shade shook her head at Bookworm’s behavior. “I’m going to visit my parents before we go after Mithos. If we’ve been away for three days, they must be worried.”
“Yeah, I guess I’ll go home for a while too,” Keyblade shrugged. She hoped Mithos wouldn’t cause too much chaos in the meantime.

Same Hair? (Cat)

2007-03-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

Ed, Al, and Netto (still crossfused) looked at this reunion (which would had been touching if not for the fact that the guy that Lloyd called "Dad" had just tried to kill Cat) with absolute shock. Their shock increased even more when the man returned Lloyd's embrace saying, "I missed you as well...my son." Cat, who had been healed by Sora at this time, was also silenced by shock. She attempted to get up, but found it was futile, as she knelt and was hunched over in pain. Sora put a hand on her shoulder, " I wasn't able to heal your wounds-just your exhaustion. Sorry." Cat would have grunted in frustration, but was overcome with fear as she saw the man who had attacked her now standing directly over her. Cat squinted, bracing for some sort of impact of some kind. When nothing happened she opened her eyes. She noticed he seemed to concentrate for a second, the shouted, "First Aid!" Cat saw a green light surround her body, and felt the pain leave her body. Standing up cautiously (and taking a few steps back for good measure). Posing in many different karate-like positions she threatened, moving away as she did so, "l-listen you....you...elf..man..person...thing! I'm a certified ninja, so you watch it. Or I'll...umm...throw kunai at you. So, yeah...you..watch it..yeah..." Lloyd's father seemed to look at her again with pity (and confusion), also thinking of how weird she acted. Sighing, he apologized, "Excuse me, um..."

"Cat."

"Yes, I sincerely apologize for attacking you. I though you might have been a remininemt of one of the desians experiments." Cat cocked her head to the side in a somewhat annoyed manner. "And you're name?"

"I am Kratos."

"And me?" Netto asked irritably. Kratos seemed to stare blankly at the irritated Netto, "And you...?" Netto snorted. "Baka! Why'd you attack me when I was trying to protect Cat-chan?" Kratos blinked, the answered "You were in the way. And what does this word, 'baka' mean?" Netto (uncrossfused) had now realized that it probably wasn't a good idea to tell the guy who had almost killed him (and Cat) that he was an idiot. "....so you're Lloyd's dad, huh?"

"Yes. I am indeed Lloyd's blood-father." Cat took a look at Kratos, the at Lloyd, then back again. "Oh! You both have the same eyes!" Lloyd grinned. "That's not all that's similar. Watch this!" he then proceeded to style his hair until it was styled exactly how Kratos' hair was. Cat gaped. They looked almost the same. Then, curious, she asked, "Does it work the other way around?" Kratos considered this, then attempted to style his hair the same way Lloyd's was. It also looked similar. "That's so neat! Oh! I'll try it now!" unfortunately for Cat, her hair was much too strait and long, and after five failed attempts, she sighed and gave up.

Meanies

2007-03-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

Mithos looked around in confusion. This place seemed very familiar… But more importantly, it was shiny! Mithos’s eyes widened as he saw all the amazing shiny things that filled the room. He ran up to one and poked it with his shiny ring. There was a flash of bright light and it was even shinier than before!
“Yippee! It’s shiny!” Mithos cheered. He finally turned away from the shiny devices and noticed the other people in the room. They were all staring at him. He stared back for a moment. Then a huge grin spread across his face. “Marty! I missed you so much!” He had somehow mistaken Colette for Martel. Poor confused Colette soon found herself being hugged by her enemy.
“Get away from her!” Lloyd yelled and whacked Mithos with one of his swords.
“Waaah! That hurt! You’re meanies! Just like Mr. Cactus!” he wailed as tears flowed from his eyes.
“Mr. …Cactus?” Lloyd repeated in disbelief. Noishe whined. (Kratos was the only one who understood that this meant something like “What the heck is wrong with him?”)
“Yeah! Mr. Cactus hurt me when I gave him a hug too! You’re all meanies! And I’ll never share my shiny ring with you!” He held up the ring, accidentally activating it and traveling to an unknown world.
As soon as he vanished, Keyblade, Bookworm, Indigo, and Shade appeared. (Shade’s minions decided to stay behind.) Of course, Shade was still drunk. She looked around the room. Her eyes widened. “Shiny!”
“Why is everyone so acting weird today?” Lloyd asked.
“Explain. Now.” Kratos pointed his sword at Keyblade and Bookworm.
Keyblade ignored him. “Where’s Mithos?”
“He went to another world. And you are not going anywhere until you explain,” Kratos said threateningly.
“Umm… well… It’s kind of a long story…” Bookworm began. Noticing Kratos’s death glare, she decided to make the story short. “I accidentally erased Shade’s memory. And she and Mithos drank some cactus juice that made them act a little weirder than usual.” She glanced at Shade, who was now trying to pat Noishe, the “cute puppy dog”.
“Is this cactus juice a kind of poison?” Raine asked.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” Keyblade said, hoping she would not be required to give the curious professor a detailed description of the properties of cactus juice.
“Then do you think this could help?” Raine held out a Panacea Bottle.
“That’s a good idea. Let’s try it!” Keyblade took the Panacea Bottle from Raine.
“Noooo! Shade will kill me when she’s back to normal! If you give her that, you’ll be shortening my life!” Bookworm protested.
“Just give her the Panacea Bottle! She’s scaring Noishe!” Lloyd said irritably. Shade was now trying to find out if the “cute puppy dog” liked being hit with a fireball. Noishe was cowering behind Kratos.
“Here you go, Shade!” Keyblade gave her the Panacea Bottle, despite Bookworm’s desperate pleas.
For a moment, Shade just stared blankly at everyone. She didn’t look so drunk anymore, but she didn’t look particularly sober either. Bookworm started to wonder if the Panacea Bottle did not affect cactus juice. Or maybe the Memory Charm was still in effect. She sighed in relief. Unfortunately, Bookworm’s theories were incorrect. The Panacea Bottle just took a little while to take effect. And the Memory Charm had worn off by now. Shade remembered everything that had happened recently. And she remembered who she wanted revenge against.
“Meep!” Bookworm ducked behind Keyblade. “Stay still! You’re my human shield!”
“You. Are. GOO!” Shade screamed at Bookworm.
Keyblade did not like being a human shield. She quickly moved out of the way, leaving Bookworm unprotected. Keyblade, Indigo, and the Symphonians watched Shade get her revenge against Bookworm. (Indigo really should have been helping Bookworm, but unlike her Rider, she actually did have some sense of self-preservation.) There were a lot of magical explosions, making it difficult to see exactly what was going on. Bookworm kept screaming in pain. Shade appeared to be pummeling her. Eventually, Shade yelled “FIREBALL!” The magical fireball hit Bookworm in the face, reducing her to a pile of potato-scented goo. (Bookworm absolutely detests potatoes.)
“Shade! That wasn’t nice!” Colette had apparently recovered enough from the shock of Mithos’s hug to scold Shade.
“She erased my memory after I saved her life. Then she let me get drunk on cactus juice, tried to blackmail me, almost let me hug a cactus, and then let me drink more cactus juice. She even made me turn into a fuzzy rodent! She’s lucky to even be alive!” Shade poked the Bookworm-goo.
“You were a fuzzy rodent?!” Lloyd laughed.
“So where did Mithos go?” Keyblade decided to change the subject quickly before Lloyd could anger Shade.
“He used that function-changing device,” Sheena pointed to the “shiny” device.
As Keyblade changed the Sorcerer’s Ring’s function, Lloyd said, “Umm… You might want to change Bookworm back now… Noishe likes potatoes…” The large green-and-white dog was sniffing curiously at Bookworm-goo.
When Shade continued to show no signs of turning Bookworm back into non-goo, Raine held up her staff. A magic circle appeared beneath her as she said, “Bring this soul back from purgatory! RESURRECTION!” A bright, multicolored light surrounded Bookworm-goo. When the light faded, she had returned to her human form. She no longer smelled like potatoes, but she was still badly bruised from being pummeled by Shade. Bookworm glared at Shade. She was definitely not going to let her get away with this, but she decided now was not the time for revenge.
“Everybody ready?” Keyblade asked. Bookworm, Shade, and Indigo nodded. Keyblade activated the Sorcerer’s Ring…
A moment later, they stood in the middle of a mall. Mithos was staring at the exploded remains of a DDR machine. Still possessed and drunk, he had accidentally gone home.

Self-preservation or Fun?

2007-03-05T19:33:00.000-08:00

“Look Bookworm! It’s shiny!” Mithos showed her the silver sphere on his sword. This was approximately the hundredth time he’d pointed out its shininess.
No, Bookworm. Don’t kill him. Indigo told her irritated Rider. This was approximately the thousandth time Bookworm had gotten annoyed enough to try to strangle Mithos. (At least, it felt like a thousand times.)
“Mine’s shinier!” Shade yelled, holding up her multi-colored sphere. “Bow before the awesome shininess, mortal fools!” When no one bowed, she glared at them and muttered something that sounded threatening.
“No! Mine’s shinier! Are you gonna bow for mine?” Mithos whined. When everyone ignored him, he wailed, “I hate you humans! You’re all meanies!”
“Who said we’re humans?” Keyblade grinned and shifted into drake form.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! The lizard thingy ate Keyblade!” Mithos screamed. Keyblade rolled her eyes and shifted back into human form.
“How did you do that?” Ty Lee asked curiously.
“I have the essence of a drake in my sphere, so I can turn into a drake whenever I want,” Keyblade explained.
Somehow, Shade managed to understand this explanation. “Can I turn into a shiny flying lizard?”
“Umm… yeah, I guess so…” Bookworm said, hoping Shade did not decide to try it. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Shade did.
“Hey! I look like Keyblade! …Now I’m purple! …And blue! …And green! …Now I’m like Mithos’s not-shiny marble!” Shade seemed to be enjoying herself as she shifted into various drake forms.
Bookworm had a sudden idea. “Hey Shade! Do you think you can shift into something else? Is there another essence in your sphere?”
Keyblade guessed what Bookworm was thinking. “If this is about the squirrel again…”
“What squirrel?” Bookworm tried to look innocent, but as usual, she failed miserably.
“Wow… You must really want Shade to kill you later,” Keyblade shook her head in amazement at Bookworm’s complete lack of self-preservation.
“Well, I figure she’s probably going to kill me anyway, so I might as well have some fun first,” Bookworm grinned. Keyblade did not think this was a good way of thinking, but was interrupted before she could say so.
“Ooooh! There is another essence in here! You were right Bookworm! You’re smart!” Shade said happily.
“She is definitely drunk,” Keyblade said in amazement. Shade calling Bookworm smart was almost as weird as Mithos calling Keyblade tall.
“YES!!!” Bookworm cheered as Shade finally shapeshifted into a squirrel. Unfortunately, her excitement was short-lived. She stared in horror at the giant squirrel that now towered over her. She really should not have been so surprised. Why would evil Shade have settled for a small, harmless squirrel when she could be a giant one, big enough to squash a certain very annoying friend?
Shade’s transformation distracted Bookworm and Keyblade. They did not notice Mithos playing with the Mage’s Ring. “Shiny! Oooh! What does this do?” He accidentally activated the ring and vanished to Derris-Kharlan.
Shade returned to human form, looked around in confusion for a moment, and decided to try setting a cactus on fire. She missed, of course, and hit Bookworm instead. Poor Bookworm had just been crushed by a giant squirrel and then hit with a fireball. So now she just lay on the ground in extreme pain, listening to Indigo mentally lecture her about why self-preservation is important.
Keyblade glanced uncertainly at her companions. They would probably face a battle with Kratos and the Symphonians when they returned to Derris-Kharlan. And they were definitely not ready for a battle. But Kratos would try to kill Mithos as soon as he appeared. There was no way he would wait to discover that Mithos was drunk and (relatively) harmless. Keyblade decided she couldn’t just abandon him. She activated the Sorcerer’s Ring.

Derris Kharlan! (Cat)

2007-03-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

Cat woke up with a mild headache after the gummy ship had been crashed by none other than Sora. She woke up, finding herself being watched over by Netto, Ed, and Al.
"Jeez...did we crash..?"
"No Cat, we just so happened to fall asleep while driving, OF COURSE WE CRASHED!!" was Ed's abrupt and waking response. After Cat removed her hands from her ears to shield herself from Ed's rant, she now just noticed their surroundings. They seemed to be standing on a platform....except it seemed to be suspended in the atmosphere, which was basically a swirling purplish-black mass.
"Whoa...where ARE we?" Cat asked now wanting to know just what this place was. It looked like some other dimension she had seen in sci-fi movies. Netto, deciding he'd rather find a way out "Rockman, can you maybe find out just what this place is? Or if we can find a way to get out of here?"
"Give me a minute to analyze the area..." While Rockman was looking for a way out, Ed was observing this very strange, very new world that was much different from his own, taking occasional notes in his "Traveler's log". I wonder why he takes so many notes.... Netto's thoughts were interrupted by a beeping from his PET.
"Rockman?"
"Netto-kun, it seems that there's a path that will take us to a portal that will take us out of this part of the world, but the only problem is that I'm not entirely sure where it will lead."
"Well, it's better then just staying here, right?"
"You're right, Al. Rockman, take us to where that portal is."
"Right." Following Rockman's directions, the group arrived at the portal Rockman had described.
"A-are you sure we have to go through this one, Rockman?" Netto asked unsteadily.
"Don't worry, Netto-kun, there's no ghosts or anything, I checked."
"Rockman, I wasn't talking about ghosts. I'm just...a little uneasy about going in, that's all." "Well, forget about it. It's probably nothing." Ed was too curious to be cautious, which dismayed Al because this always got him and Ed (and anyone who was unlucky enough to be with them at the time) into trouble. But Cat seemed to be the most uneasy of them all. Her drake senses were telling her that there was something in there.....she wasn't sure what it was, or who it was, but there was definitely something powerful. We'd best be on our guard came Goldd's voice, echoing inside Cat's head. Cat decided to repeat this warning to her friends. "You guys, Goldd sa-" She then realized that Ed and Netto had already gone through the portal, not even paying attention. Al was the only one who was still there with Cat, and gave her a "I couldn't stop them, I'm sorry" look. Cat sighed. "I guess we should just go in after them so they don't get killed." "Yeah. Why does this always have to happen to me." Al wondered as he and Cat went through the portal with the exasperated Al.
To Cat's surprise (and to Al's) the portal seemed to lead into some kind of forest. "Just what IS this place?" Cat asked aloud. "First we're on some random platform, now we're in a forest??" "Yeah, it's pretty weird...we'd better find Netto and brother before they get attacked by heartless or something." Al responded. Cat decided, as they were walking to find the troublesome two, to see if Goldd knew about this place. So...where are we exactly?
I believe this place may be a reminet of an evlen colony. came Goldd's response and if I remember correctly, they don't take kindly to humans walking around on their sacred ground. Well, what about drakes? Was Cat's response They take even less kindly to drakes because they believe we are not human at all, merely dragons in human skin. "Cat?" Al's voice had interrupted Cat and Goldd's mental conversation. "They're over there, in that clearing." Cat noticed Netto and Ed sitting on a fairly large rock. Be wary, little one. That presence I was talking about? It's very close by. So be aware.
You know Goldd, if this were Ed you were talking too, he'd be punching your sphere.
CAT!
Sorry, I'll be aware... Cat went to sit on the rock with her companions, when there was a rustle in the bushes. This immediately made Cat jump to her senses, only to find that it was....a squirrel. Oh yes Goldd, this SQUIRREL is defiantly going to kill us.
Not the squirrel, little one, the man standing BEHIND the squirrel. Cat now noticed the man who was standing in the clearing, who seemed to be eying these intruders with a stare that seemed to be piercing into their very souls. He was in a purple mercenary outfit, with a sword hanging by his side, and a shield on his lower arm. But at the same time, he seemed...somewhat familiar in a way, however which way Cat was not able to clearly grasp at this time.

He doesn't seem dangerous. He's just observing us. And he looks human to me. Cat, wanting to make a good impression, strode over and said, "Hi there! We kinda got lost so if you could-" Cat was now looking at the tip of the swordsman's blade. "Eep!" It seems that we will have to fight...there is no way I can manage a full shift, and I'm not certain if the half shift will be sufficient.
Well, it'll have to do! was Cat's answering thought. Gold light surrounded her body, and when it cleared she charged at this new enemy. In response, the man held up his shield, which Cat collided into face-first. The man seemed to watch her with pity as her face oh-so-slowly peeled itself off from the shield. Cat heard Ed matter something like, "We're doomed." but did not let this stop her from taking this chance to swipe her tail from behind his feet in a attempt to trip him and gain the advantage. He seemed to anticipated this, and attempted to jump out of the way, but Cat managed to wrap the end of her tail around his ankle. Smirking, she started to fly very high into the air, planning to drop him if he did not agree to leave her and her friends alone. This plan never went into effect, however, when she dropped him, he seemed to.....float. Cat spun around, and noticed that he seemed to have wings. Wings that looked very similar, to, say, a certain brown-haired swordsman Cat knew. ....He can fly..?
Apparently so. This will make our fight much harder.
Whatever. let's just kick his butt.
Must you put it into such barbarous terms, Cat? Cat decided to try to stab him using her tail, thrusting it forward so fast it could barely be seen. Cat's enemy seemed to effortlessly dodge her stabs with an even faster speed. He eventually got tired of dodging and grabbed Cat's tail. Cat yelped as he swung her and threw her toward the ground. She was barely able to stop herself from making a collision with the ground, which would have been very nasty (and a pain to clean up). Shoot, it's like this guy predicts every move we make! How do we counter that? We may need to use the Drake Cry, but...
Am I gonna pass out for another month or not? Cat mentally asked in a mix of annoyance and rudeness. Well, no...maybe we- Cat had had enough of waiting. A sound wave seemed to bubble up from her throat, and the cry was unleashed on Cat's unsuspecting foe. When Cat had completed her attack, a straight line seemed to be made in the forest. Many of the trees had been snapped in half, and where now leaning on (what was left) of their sides. Cat closed her mouth, which was now quite sore. She fell to one knee, and started to feel her vision slip from fuzzy to black. "I...is...he..gone?" Cat managed to gasp out with what little remaining strength she had. Ed, Al, and Netto looked at the area (because Cat was incapable of doing so). A couple of yards or so away from the source of the attack, Netto found a purple boot sticking out of the debris. Out of his, "curiosity", he grabbed a fallen tree branch and started to poke the boot. Rockman hated it when Netto got curious. "Netto-kun stop it! You'll wake him up!" Rockman's whisper hissed. Netto cast an almost bored glance at Rockman, "What're you freaking out about Rockman? Cat's last attacks probably knocked him out for a week-" his sentence was interrupted when the auburn-haired swordsman burst from his spot, and with almost lightning speed, raced to where Cat had collapsed. "CAT-CHAN!!" Netto seemed to pull off crossfusion within seconds, also racing to get to Cat before her attacker did. Netto managed to position himself between Cat and the attacker, but came to a horrible realization: he wouldn't be able to block the attack without taking damage."Get out..of the way..id..iot..."
"No way! you can't even stand! Let alone defend yourself!" Netto braced for impact when a desperate cry stopped the attack. "STOP!" Cat was awakened momentarily to see that this cry came from Lloyd. The others (takes too long to type their names) were also behind him. "Cat!" Sora immediately ran over to his half conscious friend. The man who had attacked them in the first place seemed to have frozen, staring directly at Lloyd. "...Dad..?" Lloyd's question seemed to hang in the air for a minute. Eyes full of unshed tears, Lloyd rushed to the man and hugged him tightly. "I missed you...Dad."

The New Adventure Begins... (Cat)

2007-03-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

"Woah..."
This was the reaction when everyone had entered the gummi ship. Sure, it hadn't looked like much on the outside, but on the inside... It was HUGE! (it had to be as there's what? eight people??)
"H-how is this even possible?" Ed asked, his once genius brain being fried by all this alien technology.
Netto, noticing this, muttered, "Ne, don't make your brain explode from thinking, Ed-kun, like I do."
"Oh, is that why you don't think, Netto-kun?"
Netto took out his PET, now glaring at the small figure inside it and retorted, "No, I was speaking in Ed-kun's case. Sometimes I wonder why Papa didn't install you with and obedience program in you. It's not like I can."
Rockman chuckled, "Well... We both know that after Papa found out that you reprogrammed me, he put encryption codes that only he could crack." The only thing Netto could do was stick out his tongue, which he did.
Cat thought this would be as good a time as any to find out where her room was. She wanted to ask now, as she didn't want to bunk with one of the guys, so she asked, "Hey Riku, what about rooms? I'm not gonna have to sleep in the same room as one of the guys?"
Sora, who was somewhat offended, inquired "...Hey, what's wrong with guys? Do we smell? It's definitely the smell. I smell like a nobody. What do you all smell like?"
Although they seemed somewhat offended, the other guys smelled themselves and answered, (in the order of Riku, Ed, Lloyd, and Netto)
"Darkness."
"Auto-mail."
"Dwarf."
"Umm... Dimensional Area?"
Colette decided to see what she smelled like, and pronounced loudly "Oh! I smell like flowers! And bunnies!"
Cat sweatdropped. This wasn't exactly what she meant. She knew in her gut that this would be a verrry long journey. A verrry long journey in which she would learn fascinating things that would boggle her mind... and other things that were not even useful and she would probably be better off not knowing.
Sora, deciding it was time to go, announced, "Okay everyone! Take a seat in the cockpit, and we'll be off! And of course, yours truly will pilot!"
Just after he said that, a coyote howled, (with an ominous silence) Riku bluntly stated, "No."
"But why not??"
"Because you always crash, and I'd like to at least arrive at the world fully intact!"
"...Still wanna drive..." Sora pouted, as everyone took their seats.
Riku started the liftoff countdown, "Liftoff in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one-"
"Riku-kun!"
Riku nearly fell out of his chair. "What?!" he asked irritably.
"Can I say it? Please?"
Riku smacked his forehead with his hand. "Fine...."
"KICK IT BROTHER!"
"Say it right!!!"
"Blast off." Inside the PET Rockman sighed, also sharing in Cat's discontent that this would be a long journey.
Everyone wondered why the ship wasn't going straight, and why there was a big arrow pointing toward the ground. This didn't last long, as the floor seemed to open up under them, and the gummi ship seemed to fall into a hole into the ground! Everyone except for Riku and Sora screamed as they fell through the hole and out into the vastness of space. The gummi ship soon disappeared into a speck of light, and the new adventure of Cat and her friends began.

Mac and Cheese?

2007-02-28T15:38:00.000-08:00

Bookworm and Keyblade stared at Shade in horror. Apparently, Bookworm’s memory charm had made Shade forget about the cactus juice episode of Avatar.
“Do you want some, minions?” Shade asked, grinning eerily. “It’s really, really quenchy!”
“Umm… No thanks. And we’re your friends, not your minions,” Keyblade reminded her. She turned to Bookworm. “What do you think we should do?”
Bookworm thought about this for a while. “Do you have any recording equipment? This could be a great opportunity to get blackmail against Shade.”
Keyblade shook her head. “I can’t find my cell phone and you left your computer at home, remember? And this world doesn’t have any of that kind of technology.”
“Oh… Do you think we could go home really quick and get my microphone?” Bookworm asked hopefully.
“No, Mithos will get killed if he goes to Derris-Kharlan. And I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave him here alone,” Keyblade said, glancing at Mithos.
“But Shade! That cactus is a meanie!” Mithos said to Shade.
“It’s my new minion! I will use evil cactuses to take over the world! MUAHAHAHA!” Shade shouted, completely ignoring Mithos. She tried to give her new minion a hug, but Keyblade stopped her.
“No, Shade, don’t hug the cactus,” Keyblade grabbed Shade’s arms to prevent her from embracing the prickly plant. “Ty Lee and Mai are your minions. Why don’t you go say hi to them instead?” When Shade skipped away to greet her minions, Keyblade and Bookworm returned to the discussion of what to do.
“So we don’t get to blackmail Shade yet,” Bookworm said sulkily. “I guess we’ll just have to stay here for a while.”
“Wow! Look! When I poke the meanie cactus with my shiny sword, more yummy juice comes out!” Mithos announced excitedly. He and Shade eagerly ran to drink the cactus juice. While Bookworm and Keyblade did their best to prevent their friends from getting even more drunk, Ty Lee and Mai talked about the sudden change in their evil boss.
“Did Shade really just try to hug me?” Mai asked in disbelief.
“I think she’s a lot more fun now!” Ty Lee said cheerfully. “Maybe if you drank some of that, you’d be fun to! Oh! Do you think we could get Azula to drink some?”
“No,” Mai replied simply.
“But I’m thirsty!” Shade’s screaming interrupted them.
“And I’m hungry!” Mithos shared his complaint too.
“Then you can drink some water! Water! Not cactus juice!” Bookworm yelled at them.
“But we’re in a desert! There’s no water!” Mithos whined.
Bookworm glared at him. He was really getting annoying. “Keyblade, Indigo, help me with this.” Indigo gladly used their mental link to lend Bookworm her power. “Reisa du adurna!” As Bookworm said the words of the spell, underground water rose to the surface. Keyblade immediately used her water bending skills to hold the water up long enough for everyone to drink some and fill their water bottles. When they had finally finished, Bookworm, Keyblade, and Indigo collapsed from exhaustion.
But Mithos was still not satisfied. “I’m hungry!”
Bookworm resisted the urge to send a rock flying toward him. Instead, she just asked, “What do you want to eat?”
Shade answered her question by chanting, “Mac and cheese! Mac and cheese! Mac and cheese!” Mithos liked this chant and eagerly joined in.
Bookworm and Keyblade listened for a moment. They glanced at each other, then shrugged and began chanting along with Shade and Mithos. “Mac and cheese! Mac and cheese! Mac and cheese!”
“For the ketchup!” Shade screamed as loud as she could. Everyone stared at her.
Finally, Bookworm broke the silence. “See? I told you we should have gotten some recording equipment! That would have been perfect for blackmail!”
“Yeah, I’m sure Shade will be really happy to hear that. Even without blackmail, she’ll probably turn us into goo for letting her get drunk like this. Do you really want to make her angrier?” Keyblade asked.
Bookworm shook her head. She had almost forgotten that in a few days, Shade would no longer be drunk on cactus juice. And Keyblade was right. Shade would not be happy with the person who had made her forget the dangers of cactus juice. Bookworm was now very worried about Shade’s return to soberness.

Rainypoo? (Cat)

2007-02-23T17:42:00.000-08:00

Everyone woke up the next morning fully refreshed (the beds were very comfortable). Everyone met in the dining room (after finding Cat, who got lost, and ended up causing a ruckus because she flew around in her drake form, causing many of the servants to panic. One of the maids even went so far as to hit Cat in the face with a broom, calling her "a giant gold bat").
Hearing that Cat had been in her drake form, Sora asked, "Cat, didn't you say that you left Goldd's marble with Rainheart?"
Cat looked somewhat surprised at this question, then took out a marble from her pocket, explaining, "Arian gave me this. It's directly linked to Goldd's sphere, so I can go drake whenever I want."
Sora was now giving her a weird look. "So....speaking of Rainheart...did he really...um....kiss...you..?"
Cat lit up, remembering how incredible that kiss was. "Oh yeah! That was so wonderful! Rainypoo's the best!"
Lloyd, who overheard this conversation, decided suggest a different nickname, "Um, Cat? You might want to get a different nickname for Rainheart. Maybe...Rain-hunny? That's what my friend called all the girls....and me. No idea why he always did that."
Cat seemed to think about this new nickname that would be less demeaning for Rainheart, and decided that this would be a better nickname to give him than her first one. "Oh, that's a good one! I'll have to remember that! Thanks Lloyd!"
"Hey, if you guys are done, we'll be heading to the gummi ship now." With that, they left for the gummi hanger.
"Hey Riku, how'd you afford this?" Sora questioned, as gummi ships were very hard to so much as build, let alone have a hanger.
"Well, you'd be surprised what money can buy." Sora gaped, then asked, giving Riku a questioning look in the process, "Wait a minute. Did you really buy this?"
"Sora, I was joking. The King gave me this in case we ever had to go to the worlds again. I didn't really buy it. I was joking."
Lloyd gave him an annoyed look, saying, "You remind me of a friend of mine who had a really weird sense of humor."
"Oh? what'd he say?"
"He said he cooked with his feet."
"...Did you believe him?"
"He sounded pretty convincing."
"I'm sure he didn't really cook with his feet. Anyways, let's be off. We've go alot of work to do." And with that, they were off, unaware that the enemy that they would face would be someone already defeated before.

Riku's House (Cat)

2007-02-21T19:02:00.000-08:00

Everyone (except Riku) seemed to gape at the realization that Riku was obviously from a higher upbringing (drool was now coming from Lloyd's mouth, and a fly flew into Ed's unsuspecting mouth, causing him to gag, which ended the silence). Cat and Netto had to suppress their laughter, Lloyd was still drooling, Al was doing the Heimlich maneuver in order to rid Ed of the life threatening fly (Al was also going to remember this as blackmail for Ed when he was angry), Colette was frantic about Ed's health, and Sora just looked with a bemused expression on his face, thinking, Oh boy, Riku's gonna yell soon. Kairi mimicked his expression, and Riku ended all this chaos by yelling, "BE QUIET!!" At this yell, the fly was gone, Cat and Netto were still trying (and failing miserably) to suppress their laughter, and Ed was limply hanging from Al's arms, relieved of the treacherous bug that had invaded his esophagus.
Riku cleared his throat, and explained, "Long story short, my parents are rich and we own this incredibly huge mansion. Along with-" Riku gestured to the servants, all bowing in turn "these servants."
"Wait, you don't really OWN them, do you?" Colette asked, now worried about the welfare of the various maids and butlers that lined the room.
Riku snickered, then answered, "No, no. They all work here and get a fair pay. Anyways, Alfred here will show us to our rooms." Riku pointed to a butler who had been standing there, waiting. He then led the group to each of their rooms.
Cat had gotten a private room, and was now lying on the bed, with many questions swirling in her mind. What was in store? Would she see Rainheart again? Who was she going to meet? Why did she ask herself so many annoying questions that she knew she couldn't answer? Coming to no satisfying answer, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Ed and Al were sharing a room, and as they always seemed to do, so they chatted. "Hey Al, how do we always get involved with this stuff?"
Al had been staring out the window, not really paying attention, so he asked, "What do you mean, brother?"
"I mean that we always, always seem to get people involved into our business, or we always get involved with theirs!" Ed, who had been standing, groaned and flopped onto the bed he would sleep in. His faced soon turned to one of frustration, "Al...I don't...I don't want anyone else who gets involved with us to get hurt. You know...like Nina...."
Although it seemed to some people that Ed was "a rude little (Ed usually didn't hear the rest of this as he would try to kill the person) brat" Ed was really the kind of person who tried not to have people hurt, or even involved in his affairs. So, to put in layman's terms, Ed was really the kind of person who cared about people, and hated it when they where hurt. Al, sensing this, and putting a reassuring hand on Ed's shoulder, said, "Ed, what happened to Nina...it wasn't your fault. It's like the colonel said, you can't save everyone, even if you want too. I mean, even if we tried to help Nina, she would have probably been even worse off. And we don't exactly have the most normal of friends. They can defend themselves, if need be. So get some sleep, brother, and don't worry about it."
Ed found it amazing. His little brother had been pressured by him into human transmutation, a practice absolutely forbidden to be done, and when done , had a horrible cost that only brought back...some thing. Some thing that didn't even resemble something even close to a human, lost his human body, and had been given a body that couldn't eat, sleep, or even cry, and yet, his brother still loved him. Still cared about him, and even told Ed that he'd get his body back first (Ed had lost two limbs in this accident, his left leg for the transmutation and right arm to transmute Al's soul to the armor; Ed had gotten metal prosthetics called "Auto-mail" to replace the limbs). Ed decided to shake off his depression and sleep.
Lloyd, on the other hand was excited. Going to other worlds sounded like fun, and even better yet, he might be able to see his birth father, who under circumstances, had to leave Lloyd's home on a giant rock, as Lloyd respectfully called it. Colette shared his excitement, as she also was happy to see her friends again. Thinking of happy times yet to come, they went to sleep.
Netto, meanwhile, seemed to be worried. Rockman noticed this and asked, "Netto-kun, what's wrong?"
"...Will they find out?"
Rockman knew what this question was about. No one else knew this, but Rockman was actually... This was a story left for another time. "I don't think so, Netto-kun, but-"
Netto still looked for a satifying asnwer from his navi "If they do find out, we'll have to tell them. Okay?"
"...Okay," came the reluctant response.
Netto brushed off this fear and went to sleep, asking himself what will they think of us if they do find out?
Sora, Riku, and Kairi were gazing out at the stars on Riku's balconey, pondering of what was to come. It was reluctantly agreed that Kairi would stay, as she had the power to defend the islands if need be. A strong gust of wind blew through the air. "So, it's begun again, huh, Riku?"
Riku looked at the starlit sky, thinking of everything that was yet to come. "Yeah."

Washtubs!?! (Cat)

2007-02-17T08:14:00.000-08:00

"Sooo... where are we gonna sleep? We can't just sleep here on the beach." Cat had gotten over her bad mood, which was good for everyone else, as they did not wish to be trounced by Cat.
Sora, who had recovered from Cat's "disciplinary action", replied, "Well, we're gonna go to the mainland and stay at Riku's house on account of the fact that his house is the biggest. Follow me."
After walking a short distance, they reached a dock that held two fairly large boats (think lifeboats). "Eh? We're riding in these?" Netto asked as if he was going on some sort of cheap ride (living in a world where you take all this amazing technology where the Internet connects everything for granted tends to rub off).
"Netto-kun, don't be rude. I know this is... um..."
"A wooden piece of crap?"
"No! And you'll apologize for that remark, Netto-kun!"
"Why? I said it in Japanese, so it's not like they even know what I said."
"You still shouldn't say things like that, Netto-kun, no matter what language you speak it in! So go and apologize!"
After mumbling he was sorry to Sora (Sora just looked confused) he, Cat, Kairi, Lloyd, Collete,and Ed entered the lifeboat. Colette, getting excited as they rowed across the water, said, "Oh wow, they're so much bigger that the boats we used back when we were going to the water seal, right Lloyd?"
Lloyd smiled, remembering his adventure back in his own world. Although he had faced intense hardships in this adventure, he had still been able to have fun, at times. "Yeah, I remember that we rode to the other side in washtubs."
"WASHTUBS!?" Cat, Netto, and Ed shouted in unison, like as if Colette and Lloyd had been cheated by some horrible, unkind person.
Lloyd and Colette seemed to answer with the same blank expression on both their faces. Lloyd's face, now one of confusion, answered, "Yeeeaaah. Why?"
Kairi was also confused, and added, "I don't see what the big deal is. I mean, they were probably like these too."
"But-they-were-WASHTUBS!" Ed tried to protest, trying to make them see that going across the sea in a washtub was not only dangerous, it was also very cramped and uncomfortable.
Hmmm....I wonder if Lloyd-kun and Colette-chan don't like technology or something. Netto thought, knowing there were indeed some people who did not like technology in the world ...er, "worlds".
Before they could argue anymore about washtubs, they had arrived at the mainland, which was much bigger than the previous island, and also had many more houses. As Cat got off the boat, she noticed a huge mansion at the peak of the island. Sora said that we were gonna stay at Riku's house 'cause it was big....but there's no way it could be that big...huh...
"Hey Cat!" Ed's voice seemed to knock Cat out of her daze. "We're leaving, so hurry up."
Cat had been so busy daydreaming that everyone was almost out of sight. "Eh...coming!" Cat raced after her now leaving friends, who headed toward the big house she saw. She noticed Riku leading everyone, and, with an almost bored expression on his face, opened the doors. Cat was temporarily blinded by the light coming from the entrance, but was then surprised when the light cleared and she saw an exquisitely decorated room, and a winding staircase to match it. Everyone else (except for Kairi and Sora) were amazed when they saw at least twenty people, mainly maids and butlers, standing around the room, and, saying in unison, "Welcome."

QUENCHY!!!

2007-02-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

“Meep!” Bookworm dodged out of the way of Wan Shi Tong’s large pointy beak. “Hey Shade! I think he’s still mad at humans!”
“Then I’ll make him forget about that,” Shade said calmly. She began to recite the memory-erasing spell that she had used on Snape.
“Let me do it!” Bookworm yelled excitedly. “Obliviate!” Both mages cast their spells at the same time. Shade’s hit Wan Shi Tong perfectly. Bookworm’s did not. Her spell missed the knowledge spirit completely and hit Shade instead. Bookworm just stared at her in horrified shock.
“Who are you?” Shade looked at Bookworm in confusion.
By now, Keyblade, Indigo, Ty Lee, and Mai had entered the library. “What’s going on?” Keyblade asked.
“Help! I kinda accidentally erased Shade’s memory!” Bookworm was really freaked out. “Eventually she’s gonna remember and then she’ll turn me into goo and kill me!”
“Person! Tell me who you are! NOW!” Shade ordered.
“I’m Keyblade. This is Bookworm and Indigo, her dragon. We’re your friends. And these are Ty Lee and Mai. They’re your minions,” Keyblade explained.
“MUAHAHAHA! I have minions!” Shade yelled.
While Shade was busy laughing evilly, Keyblade decided to try to calm Bookworm down. She soon found that this was unnecessary. With the distraction of a giant library, Bookworm had not stayed in her panicky mood long. She was now busy reading a large book. This did not really surprise anyone, except Shade, who had forgotten that Bookworm loves to read. After a few hours, Indigo somehow managed to convince Bookworm that it was time to leave the library.
“We should keep an eye on Shade,” Keyblade commented as they left. “She probably doesn’t remember about Mithos, so she could get in a lot of trouble.” Bookworm nodded. They were both enjoying their new role as babysitters.
When they got back out in the desert, they saw possibly the most unexpected sight they had yet encountered in all their adventures. Mithos was running toward them, waving and yelling “Hi everybody!” He had a huge grin on his face and showed no signs of attacking.
“Who are you?” Shade asked when he finally reached them.
“Call me Ygggy!” he said happily.
“Ygggy?” Bookworm repeated uncertainly. This behavior did not seem right for Mithos Yggdrasill.
Mithos held up his sword. “Look! It’s SHINY!!!” He waved his sword for them to see. Then he tripped and fell flat on his face.
“Mithos! You’re back to normal! How did you get unpossessed?” Keyblade asked excitedly.
Mithos didn’t answer. He just stared up at Keyblade for a while. Eventually, he said, “You’re really tall!”
Keyblade sighed in disappointment. “He’s still possessed. The normal Mithos would never call me tall.”
Bookworm suddenly had an idea that could explain Mithos’s strange behavior. “Umm… Ygggy, have you had any cactus juice lately?” she asked.
“Yup! It was yummy! But that cactus is a meanie! I thought it was friendly, but when I gave it a hug, it poked me!” Mithos whined.
“Okay… Now what should we do?” Bookworm asked. She was starting to change her mind about liking the job of babysitter.
“I don’t know… Maybe we should take him to Derris-Kharlan?” Keyblade suggested.
“Kratos and Yuan would probably kill him,” Bookworm said. “In fact, I’m really surprised Shade hasn’t tried to kill him yet.”
“She probably forgot,” Keyblade pointed out.
“I know Shade!” Mithos announced proudly. “She says ‘MUAHAHAHAHA!’”
Keyblade nodded. “Yes, that’s definitely Shade… Where is she anyway?” Their plan to keep an eye on Shade had been forgotten as soon as they encountered the drunken Mithos.
At this point, Bookworm and Keyblade heard a sound that filled them with dread. It was possibly the most horrifying sound they would ever hear in their lives. Shade was screaming.
“QUENCHY!!!”

Thirsty

2007-02-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

While Bookworm was staring stupidly at a giant owl spirit about to bite her head off, Mithos was wandering through the desert. He was very bored. He had mastered the skills of air bending and had been looking forward to using them to attack those humans. Unfortunately, after just one attack, they all disappeared. He was sure they would return soon, but he was still bored while waiting.
To entertain himself, he decided to watch some of the other Mithos’s memories. It was interesting to see what all his enemies were doing lately. It was also pretty entertaining to watch the other Mithos get knocked unconscious or be turned to goo or fall flat on his face. At first Mithos considered getting revenge on everyone who had knocked him unconscious, but he soon realized that this was impossible because so many people had done this. He eventually decided to just get revenge on the other Mithos’s friends and the traitors who had killed Martel.
Maybe one of those girls could be used as a vessel for Martel… he wondered absentmindedly. He felt a sharp pain in his heart as he remembered that his sister was dead. He had been denying her death for thousands of years, so now he was having a hard time accepting the fact that she really was gone.
Mithos glared at the sand in the direction that Bookworm and friends had disappeared. Why were they taking so long? Glancing around, he spotted a cactus. It wasn’t doing anything wrong, just innocently living in the desert. Mithos decided to take his frustration out on this cactus. He ran over to it and slashed it several times with his sword. After completing this pointless activity, he noticed that the cactus had water inside it.
“Great!” He filled his water bottle with the liquid from the cactus. He had been running out of water, but now he had enough to last several days. When his water bottle was full, he drank a few sips of the juice. He was pleased to discover that it was both delicious and thirst-quenching. The pupils of his eyes grew large. A dopey grin spread across his face. Mithos was now drunk on cactus juice.

Let's Go To The Library!

2007-02-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

It had been two weeks since Bookworm and Keyblade discovered their bending talents. They had learned a lot since then. (Bookworm actually paid attention to Toph’s lessons because Indigo could tell when she was daydreaming and always made sure to mentally scold her.) Both were very talented at bending. They were now traveling toward the desert, where someone matching Mithos’s description had been seen recently. As they neared the desert, they ran into another group that was going there for the same reason.
“It’s the avatar!” Zuko yelled, fire bending at Aang. Katara, Toph, and Aang bended back at him. Sokka ran around, randomly waving his sword.
“Hi Shade!” Keyblade waved at her friend.
“Shade! Guess what? I can earth bend! I rule!” Bookworm said happily.
“And I can water bend!” Keyblade added.
“Good for you! I can fire bend now!” Shade said. She pointed excitedly at Mai and Ty Lee. “And now I have minions! Minions! MUAHAHAHAHA!”
“Umm… Shade, did you notice that our friends are killing your minions?” Bookworm pointed out.
“Hmm… That’s not good,” Shade glared at the fighting people. A moment later, they were all goo. “I will return them to their non-goo forms shortly. Then everyone except Keyblade, Bookworm, Indigo, and my minions will leave. We will go into the desert and defeat Mithos. Is this plan okay with everyone?” Since goo can’t talk, Bookworm and Keyblade were the only ones able to voice their objections. (Indigo just roared angrily and let Bookworm voice her objections.)
“Me and Bookworm aren’t your minions! Why should we do what you say?” Keyblade said defiantly.
“Yeah! There’s no way I’ll ever let you boss me around!” Bookworm said, once again proving that there was something wrong with her sense of self-preservation.
Shade rolled her eyes. What was wrong with these miscreants? She considered turning them into goo, but she already had enough people to turn into non-goo. And Bookworm would probably just use her Shield Charm to block the spell anyway. Instead, Shade just said, “We’ll go to the library.”
Bookworm instantly changed her mind about Shade’s plan. “Library? Okay! Let’s go! Come on, Keyblade! We’re going to the library! Yay!” She was now jumping up and down in excitement.
Shade returned everyone else to non-goo. Bookworm, Keyblade, Indigo, Mai, and Ty Lee followed her into the desert, leaving the rest of them to continue the fight.
After a while, Keyblade pointed ahead. “Look!”
“What? Is it the library? Where is it? Where?” Bookworm was still a bit hyper.
“No, it’s not the library. The library is buried under the sand, remember?” Shade said. Bookworm looked very disappointed.
“I think that’s Mithos up ahead!” Keyblade gasped. Suddenly, a strong wind hit them all very hard. The force of this wave of air knocked them all down.
Ty Lee was the first to recover. “Wow! Your friend is an airbender! Mai, wasn’t Aang supposed to be the last airbender?”
“Whatever,” Mai said.
“Mithos can air bend!?!” Shade was furious. Even with her new fire bending powers, he was still more powerful than her!
To no one’s surprise, Bookworm’s only reaction was, “Can we go to the library now?”
A while later, they arrived at a pile of sand that Bookworm decided must be the library.
“How do you plan to get it back up?” Shade asked.
“Just watch!” Bookworm grinned. “Rïsa! Wingardium Leviosa!” She yelled a word in the Ancient Language and a Hogwarts spell. Indigo lent her power to Bookworm’s spells too. Combining these different types of magic with her earth bending powers had a surprisingly powerful effect. Slowly, an enormous building rose above the sand. Bookworm smiled proudly. “Come on! Let’s go!” She ran into the library… and crashed right into Wan Shi Tang, the angry knowledge spirit. She suddenly realized that her brilliant plan did not include how to get out of the library alive.

Bending!

2007-02-11T14:22:00.000-08:00

“Who are you anyway?” Sokka asked, looking confused.
“I’m Keyblade,” said Keyblade. “The dragon is Indigo. The one who just got hit with the water is Bookworm. And this is Shade…” She looked around. Shade had vanished. “Why does she always wander away?”
“Because she’s evil,” Bookworm answered Keyblade’s rhetorical question.
“So what are you doing?” Aang asked, curious about these strange people.
“We’re looking for our friend Mithos. He’s a tall guy with a shiny sword. Have you seen him?” Bookworm asked.
“No, but you can travel with us while you’re looking for him, if you want,” Aang said.
“Really? Cool!” Keyblade said excitedly.
“Can we hurry up? If we want to get to the Fire Nation in time for the Eclipse, we need to start moving,” Toph said impatiently. So, they all left the city and rode Appa, the flying bison, toward the Fire Nation.
Meanwhile, Shade had gone to Ba Sing Se. She went to the Earth Nation Palace. There were many guards, all determined to prevent Shade entering. It did not take long to get rid of all of them. Shade was disappointed that they had not provided more of a challenge. She proceeded into the throne room.
Princess Azula was discussing her plan for conquering the Water Nation with her brother, Prince Zuko, and her friends, Ty Lee and Mai. Noticing an intruder, Azula sent a bolt of lightning at Shade.
Shade’s magical defenses deflected this attack. She grinned. “Fireball!” A fireball hit Azula, turning her into a pile of scorched goo. Everyone stared in silence at the Azula-goo. Shade turned to Zuko. “If you don’t want to end up like her, teach me fire-bending now!”
Zuko did not like being threatened. But Azula had been his best chance of restoring his honor. Without her, he’d have to try to capture the avatar again. He had tried this many times, but had yet to succeed. This person had to be very powerful to defeat Azula. With her help, maybe he could finally capture Aang. Besides, the idea of being a pile of goo wasn’t very appealing. “Fine, I will teach you fire-bending. But you’ll have to learn while traveling. I need to capture the avatar.” Shade nodded in agreement. While searching for Aang, she could also look for Mithos. She wanted to cause him as much pain as possible for daring to be more powerful and more evil than her.
Azula’s friends had been silent so far, but now Ty Lee finally spoke. “Wow! Azula’s so gooey!” She poked the pile of goo. “Hey! I’ve got an idea! Since Azula’s goo now, can we go with you?”
“Yeah, that would be better than just doing nothing. I’m so bored here,” Mai complained.
“Okay, you can come,” Shade said. “I have minions now! MUAHAHAHAHA!”
Meanwhile, Aang and friends had stopped for lunch. Bookworm and Keyblade were helping Katara make soup.
“Can you hurry up? I’m starving!” Sokka wailed dramatically.
“Shut up, Sokka,” Keyblade said, motioning for him to be quiet. As she moved her hand, some of the soup moved too. It flew into the air and hit Sokka in the face.
“AAAAAAAAHHH! It’s hot! Get it off! Get it off!” Sokka screamed. Katara hit him with some water. This cooled him off, but left him dripping wet and in a very bad mood.
“Why didn’t you tell us you can water bend?” Katara asked.
“I can water bend!?!” Keyblade asked in amazement.
“I wanna try water-bending too!” Bookworm said excitedly. Indigo ran for cover. Keyblade moved away from Bookworm. The others didn’t know Bookworm as well, so they did not realize that it was a good idea to seek shelter now. Bookworm waved her hand over the soup. Nothing happened. She waved it again. Still, nothing happened. Bookworm waved her hand faster and more irritably. Her hand accidentally hit the soup, knocking some in her face. Getting hit in the face with hot soup is a very painful experience. Unable to see because of the soup in her eyes, Bookworm ran around randomly, screaming in a loud high-pitched voice and waving her arms. As she waved her arms, some nearby rocks flew up in the air and pelted Sokka, Katara, Aang, and Toph. As the shower of rocks fell down on them, they all started running around screaming too.
Keyblade finally came out of hiding to bend some water at Bookworm. It hit her in the face, washing the soup out of her eyes and cooling her off. Bookworm finally stood still. This caused the rocks to finally return to the ground. Bookworm looked around in confusion. “Why were the rocks flying?”
Katara stared at Keyblade and Bookworm in amazement. “You two definitely need to learn to control your bending powers.”
“Bending powers?” Bookworm remembered the flying rocks. “Are you saying I can earth bend?
“I guess we’ll have to teach them,” Toph said. Katara nodded.
“We’re gonna learn bending!!!” Keyblade and Bookworm cheered.

Tussle on the Beach (Cat)

2007-02-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

"Owww.." moaned the now crushed Cat.
"Cat-chan, diajobudeska?"
"What?"
"Are you okay?"
"No."
"Okay." Cat then was helped up from her heap by Kairi and Colette. "Cat, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-"
"It's fine Colette, you don't have to apologize." Cat took this time to explain her bad mood, stating "I'm sorry I'm in such a bad mood, but you gotta understand, I just got home. And I happen to have friends and family there too, no offense to you guys, I mean nothing like I don't care. But really, I'm gonna give Sora a pie-"
"....Cat...?" Before Cat could actually respond, Sora had tackled her into a hug. Cat was now on the ground, dizzy symbols in her eyes, and everyone else was staring with sweadrops. After Sora helped her up, he asked, "Cat, why are you so annoyed today? Usually, you're happy and full of energy." Cat stared at him for a minute, then answered " Well, I have exams, my parents won't let me out of my house, those stupid girls at the bus stop keep harassing me for no reason, and I can't beat Twilight Princess because I can't catch a stupid fish. Happy now?" There was silence. then Ed piped up "You know Cat, if those girls called you...sh....sh..."
"Short?"
"Yeah, that, I could beat them up for you." Ed made a tough looking pose by flexing him auto-mail arm. Al made a face (well, as much facial expression as a suit of armor can make) and said, "Ed, you can't beat up girls."
"And whys that? Unlike most guys, I'm not sexist." Ed retorted back with a sense of pride.
"But Ed, it's really mean to hit girls."
"You shouldn't talk, Sora, 'cause weren't you the one who beat up Maleficent and Ursula a year ago?"
"Riku, they were mean! And when I battled maleficent she was a big, mean dragon."
"They were still girls."
"That's it!" Cat sighed as Riku, Ed, and Sora were now going at each others throats. Al and Rockman did the same. Colette watched the fight with anxiety, hoping the two boys wouldn't not hurt themselves too badly. Kairi just looked casually, as this happened nearly every day (you tend to get used to it after spending X amount of years watching your best friends fight each other for attention. You tend to get very used to it, if not bored.). Lloyd and Netto seemed to watch with a heightening intrest.
"Yatta! This is great. It's just like a netbattle with humans!"
"Netto-kun, we really shouldn't be encouraging this!"
"Bu-" Netto was interrupted by a bright gold flash, which made him avert his eyes. when he opened them, he saw cat sitting on top of the three boys with a triumphant look on her face. "What?" Cat asked, feeling she should ask in case she had done something wrong. Everyone sweat dropped, and also promised themselves that they would do their best not to catch Cat when she was off again....ever.

Not My Fault!

2007-01-31T15:45:00.000-08:00

Mithos looked around. “Where’s Martel? What happened to my sister?” He finally noticed Bookworm and Shade. “Who are you?” he demanded, raising his sword threateningly.
“Umm… I’m Bookworm. That’s Shade,” Bookworm said awkwardly.
“Where’s Martel? And what about Kratos and Yuan?” Apparently, Mithos did not remember any of the events that had recently led to his downfall. He glanced at his sword as he raised it threateningly again and noticed Sylvrr’s sphere. “What’s this?” Without waiting for an answer, he said, “It’s my Cruxis Crystal… but different… It’s more powerful… much more powerful…”
He touched the shiny silver sphere. As soon as he touched it, he saw strange memories that were not his own. Some belonged to Sylvrr, a creature with silver wings and a dragon-like tail. Others were from a tall boy, also called Mithos, who wielded his sword. Mithos ignored the drake’s memories and concentrated on the ones from the other Mithos. He was amazed by how often he was knocked unconscious. But what got his attention even more were the people the other Mithos knew: Kratos, Yuan, and Lloyd. The memories of these people reminded Mithos of all their recent betrayals.
“They killed Martel! Lloyd and those traitors killed her! And they killed me too!” Mithos screamed.
“Actually, that’s not exactly what happened…” Bookworm started to say, but Mithos clearly wasn’t listening. He had now noticed the Mage’s Ring.
“Perfect! I can travel to the worlds and gain more power before I get my revenge on them,” Mithos grinned.
Shade had had enough. If Mithos wanted to run into the middle of their fight and get possessed, that was okay. But now he was stealing her job as main villain. There was no way she would let him get away with that! She recited her favorite spell, sending a large fireball to turn him into pineapple-scented goo.
“Guardian!” Mithos yelled. A force field surrounded him and deflected Shade’s attack. “Judgment!” Bright light fell from the sky. Even with Bookworm’s Shield Charm and Shade’s magical defenses, this attack still did some damage. And more importantly, it distracted them long enough for Mithos to activate the Mage’s Ring and escape to Derris-Kharlan.
For a moment, they just stared at where he had been standing. “Umm… Now what do we do?” Bookworm asked. Before Shade could answer, they heard a low groan from behind them. They turned around and saw Keyblade, who had just regained consciousness.
“Oww…” Her head hurt from the explosion. “Mithos, are you okay? Mithos?” She looked around in confusion and noticed Bookworm and Shade. “Hey! The fight’s over! Have you seen Mithos?”
“Uhh… Yeah, actually you just missed him,” Bookworm said. She did not really want to be the one to explain.
“Where’d he go?” Keyblade was very confused.
Shade took over the explanation. “Mithos ran in the middle of our fight. He got hit with a powerful explosion that really should have killed him. But don’t worry! He didn’t actually die. He just got possessed by Mithos Yggdrasill. He wants revenge on Kratos and Lloyd, so he left to get more powers from other worlds.”
“WHAT!?!” Keyblade screamed.
“So what should we do?” Bookworm asked. She spoke calmly, but quickly moved out of Keyblade’s attack range.
“I’m going to kill him! I can’t believe he got more powerful than me! And I’m the evil one! Not Mithos! He will pay for this!” Shade said furiously.
“Let me get this straight. You accidentally hit Mithos with your spells, but didn’t kill him. He is now more powerful than us because he got possessed by Yggdrasill, right?” Keyblade asked.
“Yeah, exactly!” Bookworm said, relieved that Keyblade didn’t seem too angry. Her relief was short-lived. Keyblade clapped her hands and alchemified a keyblade. “Meep!” Keyblade chased Bookworm, trying to attack her with the keyblade. (Shade just watched them while plotting revenge against Mithos.) This continued for a long time before someone finally stopped them.
Keyblade, don’t you think we should do something about Mithos now? And I’d rather you not kill Bookworm just yet. Indigo said.
Keyblade thought about this for a second and activated the Sorcerer’s Ring. They all appeared back in Derris-Kharlan, where Kratos was looking even angrier than before. (This was previously thought to be impossible.)
“WHAT HAPPENED!?!” he yelled at them. “Why did Mithos just come here and say ‘I’ll kill you all for what you did to my sister’?!”
“He got possessed by Yggdrasill,” Keyblade got right to the point.
“That’s impossible! Yggdrasill is dead! I broke his Cruxis Crystal!” Lloyd protested.
“He said Sylvrr’s sphere was a Cruxis Crystal…” Bookworm said uncertainly.
“Maybe it has something to do with the sword. I attached the sphere to the sword, remember?” Keyblade said. (She had calmed down a lot after trying to kill Bookworm.)
“Oh yeah… Where did he get that sword anyway? I don’t think he ever told us,” Bookworm said.
“Mr. Kratos gave it to him!” Colette explained. “Mithos kept complaining about not having a weapon, so Kratos let him borrow Yggdrasill’s sword!”
“Of course!” Shade understood what had happened. “Some of Yggdrasill’s essence was still on the sword. It entered Sylvrr’s sphere through the crack. When Mithos’s life was in serious danger, it formed a powerful Cruxis Crystal. Mithos is still alive, but he’s controlled by Yggdrasill.”
Bookworm thought about this for a second. “So it wasn’t my fault! Keyblade attached the sphere to the sword! She tried to kill me with that keyblade and it wasn’t even my fault!”
“But it was your idea to attach it!” Keyblade protested.
“It was Shade’s fault! She broke the sphere in the first place when she turned him into goo!” Bookworm pointed accusingly at Shade.
Kratos gave him the sword. Indigo pointed out.
“You stole the Sorcerer’s Ring!” Lloyd brought up the old argument.
“Can we argue about this later? I want to defeat Mithos!” Shade yelled. Of course, by this time, Lloyd and Keyblade were whacking each other with their weapons while Bookworm threw kunai at both of them. Shade rolled her eyes and threw a fireball at them. It was a non-goo fireball, but she still made it tomato-scented. This left all three of them scorched and smelling of tomatoes. This really horrified Kratos, who decided to hide behind Noishe.
“Umm… Miss Shade, I think Mithos used that function-changing device,” Colette said, hoping to restore peace.
“Bookworm, Keyblade, if you think you can come without killing each other, we’re going now,” Shade glared at them. Her friends reluctantly nodded and put away their weapons.
A few seconds later, they had left Derris-Kharlan. They appeared in a strange city. A bat-like lemur flew right into Bookworm. It held onto her head as she ran around screaming, “AAAAHH! What’s on my head? Does it have an Acorn of Doom?!”
A boy with an arrow on his head ran up to them. “Stop running! You’re going to hurt Momo!” Bookworm did not listen. The boy’s companion, a girl in blue clothes, made some water fly through the air and hit Bookworm very hard.
Bookworm finally stopped running and screaming. Momo flew off her head, looking very dizzy. Bookworm blinked to get the water out of her eyes. Then she stared at the people who had just attacked her. She turned to Keyblade and Shade and stated the obvious. “I think we’re in Avatar World.”

Bookworm vs. Shade

2007-01-27T20:44:00.000-08:00

“I’m a Dragon Rider?” A huge grin spread across Bookworm’s face. “Yes! Yes! YES!!!” She had completely forgotten the horrible pain from her gedwey ignasia. Now, she was jumping up and down, cheering wildly.
The dragon looked at her in confusion. Are you okay?
“What? I thought dragons weren’t supposed to talk for a while,” Bookworm stopped jumping and cheering. “What’s your name anyway?”
I am Indigo. The hatchling said.
“That’s the name of the drake whose essence was in the sphere you absorbed! Do you have any weird memories of an assassin’s village?”
Shade stared at bookworm impatiently. Bookworm then realized she’d spoke aloud.
“My dragon spoke to me! She says her name is Indigo.”
Shade’s eyes narrowed as Keyblade spoke out. “Isn’t that the name of that assassin drake?”
“Yeah, I think Indigo absorbed my drake sphere when she hatched,” Bookworm explained. “Maybe that’s why she can already talk.”
“Can you still shift into drake form without your sphere?” Keyblade asked.
“Oh no! I didn’t think of that!” Bookworm concentrated really hard and tried to shift into drake form, but it wasn’t working. She was still human. Then she felt Indigo’s consciousness touching hers. At this, Bookworm’s drake wings and tail appeared in a purple haze. “Yay! I’m in drake form! Yippee! Thanks Indigo!”
I think you can only shift when we use our bond as dragon and Rider. Indigo said.
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Bookworm nodded. “Can I shift into full-drake form?”
“Unlikely!” Shade grinned evilly. “And that means I’m the only one who can shift into full-drake form! Cat lost too much of Goldd’s essence during the battle with Flare. And some of Sylvrr’s essence leaked out when Mithos got hit with a fireball.”
Bookworm groaned. “Why do you always end up being more powerful then us?”
Before Shade could answer, someone screamed, “They’re attacking!” Within moments, everyone was ready and waiting for the battle.
“Bookworm, are you and Indigo going to fight?” Eragon asked from his seat on Saphira.
“Yeah, I’m fighting. Indigo will fight with me, but she’s not big enough to ride yet. She’ll probably just use her teeth and claws to rid enemies to shreds. So stay out of her way. I’d really hate it if you accidentally got ripped to shreds,” Bookworm said, grinning.
Eragon missed her threat because he suddenly saw something that completely distracted him. He jumped off Saphira’s back and pointed excitedly at the ground. “Look, Saphira! I found an ant!”
Eragon, we are about to begin a battle that will decide the fate of Alagaesia. Can you please wait until after the battle to play with the ants? Saphira said irritably. Eragon had a strange obsession with ants. Sometimes, he would spend the whole day just staring at them. It got kind of annoying after a while.
Eragon reluctantly turned away from the ant. Before he could get back on Saphira, he saw the only thing that he obsessed over more than ants. Arya was coming.
She stopped when she saw him. He was staring at her, his mouth hanging open. He was even drooling a little. “Eragon, I want to talk to you about what happened at the party. It really bothers me when you flirt with me like that. You’re too young for me and I’d rather just be friends. So please stop flirting with me.”
“Okay, whatever you say, Arya,” Eragon said, wiping the drool off his face. “And by the way, you look absolutely gorgeous today. Are you doing anything after the battle? Hey! Why are you looking at me like that? No! Don’t go away!” He watched in dismay as Arya walked away angrily.
Come on, Eragon. It’s time for the battle. Don’t you want to fight Galbatorix’s forces? Saphira asked.
Eragon climbed back onto Saphira’s back, looking very depressed. “Okay, I think a battle’s just what I need right now. Lots of enemies to take out my frustration on!” Saphira flew into the air.
“Cool! Let’s fight!” Keyblade’s gold wings and tail appeared. She clapped her hands and alchemified a keyblade.
“Yay! Battle time!” Bookworm mentally contacted Indigo and shifted into drake form. She soon discovered that her perfect aim was now gone. But it was still better than usual. The kunai mostly hit their targets.
“Don’t turn me into goo this time! I wanna fight!” Mithos said excitedly. He shifted into drake form and unsheathed his sword.
“Then don’t give me a reason to turn you into goo,” Shade retorted. She shifted into Goldd’s normal drake form. (She had used up too much energy traveling from Ellesmera to Uru’baen and from Uru’baen to Surda. It would be a while before she could shift into full-drake form again.)
They fought well for a long time. Keyblade killed many foes with her alchemified keyblade. Bookworm’s kunai (mostly) found their targets. Indigo’s claws were red with the blood of Galbatorix’s men. Mithos discovered that many enemies were taller than him and was happy to stab them without being tackled by security drakes. Many of Galbatorix’s minions were turned into goo and/or killed by Shade. Then their luck worsened. Another Dragon Rider appeared, riding a red dragon. Eragon and Saphira flew to attack the other Rider.
Bookworm stared at Eragon. She knew what was going to happen. This was her least favorite part of the book. Eragon had already annoyed her by constantly flirting with Arya and obsessing over ants. Now his former best friend was going to fight him and spare his life. As soon as he got of earshot, Eragon was going to swear to kill him. This had really pissed her off when she first read about it. (She had even wanted to throw the book, but couldn’t because it was a library book.) Now she picked up an especially shiny kunai dagger and headed in the direction of the fighting Riders.
“Bookworm! Where are you going?” Shade asked suspiciously.
Bookworm didn’t even turn around. She just called back. “I’m gonna kill Eragon!”
Shade quickly finished off the enemy she was fighting. “No you’re not! I told you you can’t kill him until after I finish reading Empire!” She ran after Bookworm. Keyblade and Mithos followed. (Bookworm would probably either kill Eragon or get turned into goo. Either way, they didn’t want to miss it.)
“I don’t care,” Bookworm said, now turning and glaring at Shade. “Eragon’s really bugging me and I wanna kill him!”
“You’ll have to get through me first,” Shade said threateningly.
“Okay!” Bookworm grinned. She was getting tired of Shade always threatening everyone and turning them into goo. Fighting her seemed like the best way to prove that Shade was not the only powerful mage.
“What?” Shade was shocked. She had thought even Bookworm had enough sense of self-preservation to know not to directly challenge Shade.
“If I have to fight you to kill Eragon, I will,” Bookworm said. “I practiced my magic a little more since the last time we fought, so I’m more powerful now. Look! I even figured out how to store magic power in my gem kunai!” Bookworm held up her kunai proudly.
Shade sighed. Bookworm was getting very annoying. She would probably be better off spending the rest of the battle as goo. Shade recited her fireball spell.
“Protego!” Bookworm said the Shield Charm. The fireball bounced off her magical barrier and hit some dwarves who happened to be fighting nearby. They were turned into goo.
Bookworm, I think they were on our side. You’re not supposed to kill our allies. That includes Shade. Indigo said.
Don’t worry! I’m not going to kill her, just wound her badly. Then I’m going to kill Eragon! Bookworm replied. Out loud, all she said was “Brisingr!” An explosion of fire surrounded Shade. Shade’s own magic protected her from the spell, but many of the surrounding troops, both Empire and Varden, were badly injured.
Indigo decided to stay out of this fight. She joined Keyblade and Mithos, who were still just watching the fight. Do you think Bookworm will be okay? She asked them worriedly.
“Yeah, she’ll probably just get turned into goo,” Keyblade said calmly. Indigo did not think being goo was okay, but she realized being goo was better than being dead. However, as the fight continued and the magical explosions got more powerful, she started to wonder if Bookworm might end up dead after all.
Keyblade and Mithos were getting worried too. Both Bookworm and Shade were really powerful. It was very likely that they would accidentally kill a lot of people, possibly even each other.
“Do you think we should do something?” Keyblade asked worriedly. At that exact moment, one of the magical explosions went very close to them. All three jumped out of the way.
When Mithos was out of immediate danger, he looked around to see if his friends were okay. Indigo was standing a short distance away. From the look on her face, he guessed she was mentally screaming at Bookworm. But he couldn’t find Keyblade… Then he saw her lying on the ground near where they had been standing. The magical blast had hit her and knocked her unconscious. Other than being unconscious, she seemed okay. But Mithos was still really angry. This fight was getting way out of control. Any one of them could have been killed by that explosion. Eventually, Bookworm, Shade, or both of them were going to get killed. Killing or saving Eragon was not worth that. It was time for this fight to end.
Mithos unsheathed his sword and ran between Bookworm and Shade to stop their fight. Unfortunately, they both cast powerful spells at the same time. The spells collided, creating an explosion ten times more powerful than the one that had hit Keyblade. And Mithos was right in the middle of it. The bright light of the explosion prevented anyone from seeing what happened next. When the light faded, Mithos was lying on the ground. He was not breathing.
Bookworm and Shade ran over to him. To their surprise, Mithos stood up. “What happened?” he asked, looking around in confusion. His voice sounded different. It didn’t sound like Mithos, but it was still familiar… Suddenly Shade and Bookworm realized where they had heard that voice before. It was Mithos Yggdrasill.

Dragons!!!

2007-01-25T16:54:00.000-08:00

“Do you think we’ve passed this tree before?” Keyblade asked.
“I think we did. I remember this weird leaf,” Mithos said.
“But there’s another tree right over there with the same leaves. And another. And another…” Bookworm pointed to various trees. Then she added, “I think we’re lost.” This had been obvious for a long time now, but no one really wanted to admit it. It felt like they had been wandering through the woods for days, which was probably true. All the trees looked the same and there was no way to know if they were going in the right direction or not.
Suddenly, Keyblade thought of a brilliant idea. “We should try flying over the forest! Then we’ll be able to see the city from above!” She shifted into drake form again.
“Great idea!” Mithos and Bookworm shifted too. They all flew over the forest, looking for a large city beneath them. To their frustration, they could not see it anywhere. They circled over the forest for what felt like hours, but saw no signs of a city ever existing. Mithos’s flight skills improved with all this practice, but other than that, their long flight accomplished nothing.
“I’m bored,” Bookworm complained. “Let’s try flying south.”
“We could if we knew what direction south is,” Mithos said grumpily.
“Oh, that’s easy!” Bookworm took out her wand and held it flat on the palm of her hand. “Point me!” The wand spun around and then came to a stop. “It points north,” she explained.
“Bookworm! Could you have done that spell all along?” Keyblade demanded.
This thought had not occurred to Bookworm. “Oh yeah… I guess so… Oops…” Before her friends could yell at her, they were interrupted. In fact, they were almost knocked out of the sky. A large blue dragon flew out of the trees and nearly crashed into them. Everyone screamed, but no one plummeted down to the ground.
“Hi everyone!” an elf-like boy waved at them with a red sword.
“Eragon? What happened to you?” Keyblade stared at him. He didn’t look like a human anymore. His ears were even pointy.
“There was a big party with lots of magic. And a dragon touched me and chose me as the Dragon Rider to save the world. I got pointy ears and more powers. And best of all, my wounds healed! Even my back! Hey, look Mithos! My hand’s better!” He held up his fully-healed hand.
“Great! …What was wrong with your back?” Mithos asked.
“It got badly injured when I killed Durza the shade. I probably would have died if Angela hadn’t helped me. And even with her help, I was partly crippled these past few months,” Eragon explained.
“Oh… So you weren’t at your full strength when I fought you?” Mithos asked, terribly disappointed.
“No,” Eragon shook his head.
Are you going to introduce me to your half-dragon friends or not? Saphira asked him irritably. She had given him plenty of time to chat, but interrupted when he had clearly forgotten her.
“Oh yeah… This is Mithos. He beat me when we sparred. And that’s Keyblade. She turned into a half-dragon and scared all the elves. And that’s Bookworm… I don’t think she likes me very much…” Eragon said uncertainly. Saphira looked curiously at Bookworm.
“Skulblaka, eka celöbra ono un malabra né haina. Atra nosu waíse fricai,” Bookworm said, smiling at Saphira.
“What?” Keyblade and Mithos said in unison.
“I said ‘Dragon, I honor you and mean you no harm. Let us be friends.’ in the Ancient Language,” Bookworm explained proudly.
“When did you learn the Ancient Language?” Keyblade asked.
“I found a dictionary in Oromis’s house, so I read it while he was talking about something that sounded boring. I learned some of the Ancient Language, so I might be able to use magic sometime,” Bookworm explained.
“That reminds me… Where were you all? I haven’t seen you in days!” Eragon said.
“We went in the woods to escape from the mob and we kinda got lost,” Keyblade explained. “Where are you going?”
“We’re going to a battle in Surda,” Eragon said. “Lady Nasuada needs our help. Arya already left, so we’re going to meet her there. And we’re bringing Orik, too. He’s just taking a rest down there.” He pointed to the trees below.
“Can we come too?” Mithos asked, eager to go to a battle. He wanted to prove that he could fight without being turned into a short pile of goo.
“Umm… You can’t fly all the way to Surda with small wings like those. Saphira, how many passengers can you carry?” Eragon asked his dragon.
I can carry three. Any more will slow me down too much. Saphira replied.
“I’ve got an idea,” Bookworm said. “Eragon and Orik ride on Saphira. Keyblade and Mithos take turns riding on her. Whoever’s not riding shifts into drake form and flies. I think I can fly the whole time.”
Really? How will you do that? Saphira asked.
Bookworm grinned and shifted into full-drake form. She now appeared as a giant purple dragon. Eragon almost fell off Saphira in his surprise. (Bookworm was sorry he didn’t. The fall would have seriously injured him.)
Very well, your plan should work. But we should not delay any longer. Let’s get Orik and go. Saphira said.
“Yeah! We need to go find Arya! ...I mean, we need to go save the Varden!” Eragon said, his face getting red again.
Bookworm rolled her eyes. How did an idiot like that get to be a Dragon Rider with fate of the world in his hands? Bookworm felt very sorry for all this world’s inhabitants.
They picked up Orik and explained that some part-dragon people would be joining them. He did not trust the drakes, but he didn’t complain. A few days later, they arrived in Surda. Their arrival caused a lot of commotion in the Varden camp. Everyone saw Bookworm and thought another one of the dragon eggs had hatched. They were very disappointed when the big purple dragon turned into a normal(ish) human.
“Can you turn back into a big dragon during the battle?” someone asked hopefully.
“No, that took way too much energy. It will be a while before I can shift into full-drake form again,” Bookworm explained tiredly. The people were very disappointed.
“Do not get disheartened!” Nasuada said as she came to greet her guests. “We have Eragon Shadeslayer and Saphira Brightscales here to help in the upcoming battle. And their friends can surely help too, in some way.”
“I’m not Eragon’s friend,” Bookworm said immediately.
“You can rest now, if you want,” Nasuada said politely.
“Okay, I’m tired,” Bookworm said. She was about to rest for a while when she noticed someone approaching the camp. “Shade!” she said, without thinking. Instantly, the Varden soldiers grabbed their weapons. Many people looked expectantly at Eragon, since he was the Shadeslayer.
“Umm… I think we’d better go see her first. It wouldn’t be good if she turned all the soldiers into goo,” Keyblade said, running toward Shade.
Bookworm started to follow her, then hesitated. “Do you think she’d turn Eragon into goo?”
“No, probably not,” Keyblade said.
Disappointed, Bookworm ran after her. “Hi Shade! Watch out for all the Varden people trying to kill you! If possible, could you not turn them into goo? Maybe turn Eragon into goo instead?”
“It’s a shade! Kill it!” the soldiers screamed.
“Oooh! Let me kill it! I’m the Shadeslayer! Hey Arya! Are you watching! I’m gonna kill a shade!” Eragon yelled.
Shade glared at him. “Do I look like a shade to you?”
Eragon stopped trying to get Arya’s attention. He stared at Shade. “Hmm… No maroon eyes… No blood red hair… I guess you’re not a shade… Does this mean I don’t get to kill you?”
“Not unless you want to be turned into goo,” Shade grinned evilly.
“Try to kill her! Try to kill her!” Bookworm yelled.
“You be quiet. Stop encouraging him,” Shade said.
“Shade, where were you?” Keyblade asked.
“Uru’baen. I decided to visit Galbatorix and learn some evil magic,” Shade said.
“So you are a shade!” Eragon shouted triumphantly.
“No, I’m not. Shades are possessed by evil spirits. Now please be quiet and let me finish,” Shade said, glaring at him again. “Anyway, I was stayed in Uru’baen for a while, but then Galbatorix started treating me like his minion. The fool thought he could get away with it! I stole his last dragon egg, poked Shruikan, and brought the egg to his enemies, the Varden.” Shade held up a shiny purple dragon egg.
“Oooh! Lemme see!” Bookworm snatched the dragon egg from Shade. “Hey! What’s going on?” The egg started to glow. So did her drake sphere. There was a bright flash of light and both were gone. The egg had hatched! A purple dragon hatchling sat among the broken shell pieces. Bookworm reached out to touch it and felt a terrible pain on the palm of her hand. A silvery mark appeared where she had touched the dragon.
“That’s the gedwey ignasia,” Shade said. “Bookworm, you’re a Dragon Rider!”

Swordfights!

2007-01-25T12:51:00.000-08:00

“Fine!” Eragon said sulkily. He absolutely hated sword training with Vanir, who disliked him very much and usually beat him up. He was starting to regret not paying attention to Oromis’s lesson.
On the other hand, Mithos, Keyblade, and Bookworm were looking forward to the sword practice. Mithos thought Eragon would be a good opponent. Keyblade wanted to fight some of the elves with her keyblade. And of course, Bookworm was eager to see Vanir beat the crap out of Eragon.
“Come on! Let’s go!” Bookworm ran out of Oromis’s house.
“Why is she so happy? I thought she was a witch, not a swordswoman,” Eragon said in confusion. He had not yet caught on to the fact that Bookworm wished him as much pain as possible. When they reached the area reserved for battle practice, Bookworm was jumping up and down in excitement.
“Eragon! Who are those humans?” a young elf yelled, running toward Eragon.
“These are my friends. Oromis said they could come,” Eragon explained.
“I’m not your friend!” Bookworm yelled at him.
“Good for you,” Vanir said. He disliked Eragon too, though not nearly as much as Bookworm. “Are you ready to spar, Eragon?”
“Can I fight Eragon first? Please?” Mithos asked.
“Yeah! I should practice fighting humans too,” Eragon said eagerly.
Vanir was about to yell at him, when he was interrupted by Keyblade. “While Mithos and Eragon are fighting, do you want to spar with me?” She clapped her hands and alchemified a keyblade. Vanir had never seen anything like that. He nodded to Keyblade and unsheathed his sword.
Mithos raised his shiny sword threateningly. Eragon unsheathed Zar’roc too.
“Go Mithos! Kill him! Kill him!” Bookworm cheered.
“I don’t think she likes me…” Eragon observed.
“Yeah, no kidding,” Mithos said, amazed that it had taken Eragon so long to realize this. He decided to stop talking then and start fighting. He aimed a blow at Eragon’s head, but Eragon parried and waved the sword skillfully through the air. Mithos dodged Eragon’s blow and swung his sword back at him. Bookworm loudly cheered for Mithos, until she realized that she was just distracting him and increasing Eragon’s chances of winning. Then she shut up and just gave Eragon a death glare instead. Eventually, Mithos swung his sword around and hit Eragon’s hand. Zar’roc went flying and landed near Bookworm. Blood poured out of the wound on Eragon’s hand.
“Yay! Can I kill him now? Please?” Bookworm picked up Zar’roc.
Mithos was not listening to her. “I beat him! Yay! I’m awesome!” he yelled, jumping up and down and cheering for himself.
While Mithos celebrated and Bookworm wondered how angry Shade would be if she accidentally stabbed Eragon, Keyblade was fighting Vanir. He was stronger than she expected. Because he was an elf, he was naturally stronger than a human… But was he stronger than a drake? Keyblade decided to find out. She shifted into drake form. Her wings and tail appeared in a gold haze. Elves are not used to humans randomly turning into half-dragon creatures. Many started to panic.
At the same time, Mithos yelled very loudly, “No! Bookworm! Shade will kill you!” He was trying to tug Zar’roc away from Bookworm, who was once again trying to attack Eragon. Unfortunately, none of the elves bothered to find out what Mithos was talking about. They heard the word “shade” and saw a drake. They completely panicked and mass hysteria set in once again. Mithos grabbed Zar’roc from Bookworm and dropped it by Eragon. “Come on! Let’s get out of here!” he yelled. Bookworm and Keyblade reluctantly followed him out of Ellesmera. They decided to wait in Du Weldenvarden for a while, until the rioting elves calmed down a little.
“Why did you have to shift into drake form, Keyblade? And Mithos, didn’t you know it’s bad to yell ‘shade’ in front of a bunch of elves?” Bookworm scolded them.
“Oh yeah, and you didn’t do anything wrong, Bookworm,” Mithos said sarcastically.
“I thought you wanted to torment Eragon, not kill him. Why the change of plans?” Keyblade asked.
“I wasn’t gonna kill him,” Bookworm said, trying to look innocent, but failing miserably. “I was just gonna stab him. Some healer would have saved him before he actually died. Can we go back now? I wanna see the dragons!”
“I guess so… Which way’s Ellesmera?” Mithos asked, looking around in confusion.
“I don’t know… Bookworm, did you memorize the map of this forest when you read Eragon?” Keyblade asked hopefully.
“Umm… I think it’s that way,” Bookworm pointed in a random direction. Everyone groaned. As she had proven in the drake world, Bookworm had a poor sense of direction. They were all lost.

Bookworm's Revenge on Eragon Begins...

2007-01-24T14:54:00.000-08:00

“No! Stop! Bookworm, don’t kill him!” Shade yelled. But of course, Bookworm was not listening. She was determined to kill Eragon, one of her least favorite book characters. Before the fight with Borakk, Shade would not have worried when Bookworm tried to throw a kunai at someone, but now Bookworm had already proven that she was capable of hitting her target with Indigo’s help. “Bookworm! Don’t make me turn you into goo!” Shade yelled again. When Bookworm continued to ignore her and run toward Eragon, she had no choice but to cast the goo-spell. (She even included the fireball this time. Bookworm was really annoying her.)
“Protego!” Bookworm shouted the Shield Charm. The fireball bounced off Bookworm’s magical barrier and hit some nearby trees, turning one into goo and lighting the rest on fire.
Shade cursed. Why did Bookworm wait until now to use the Shield Charm? There had been so many other times when that could have been useful. With the magical barrier, none of Shade’s spells would work. So she did the only thing she could to stop Bookworm. She tackled her and tried to strangle her again.
“Ow! Stop it! Get off me, Shade!” Bookworm screamed.
It was at this time that they discovered where they were in Alagaesia: Ellesmera, the elven capital in the forest of Du Weldenvarden. The elves did not like shades at all. Shades were really powerful magic-users possessed by evil spirits. The last shade, Durza, had only recently been killed by Eragon, but not before murdering many humans, elves, and dwarves. Ellesmera was probably the least shade-friendly place in the whole world. When Bookworm screamed Shade’s name, several elves ran out of their tree-like houses, thinking they were under attack. Eragon raised his sword and looked for the evil shade that had dared to invade Ellesmera.
Shade swore and let go of Bookworm, who was now too busy trying to breathe again to assassinate Eragon. “I’m getting out of here! Keyblade, make sure she doesn’t kill Eragon!”
“Huh? What?” Keyblade was confused. Shade had now vanished, leaving the city in chaos as all the elves searched for the missing shade.
“Who are you?” Eragon asked, finally noticing Keyblade, Mithos, and Bookworm.
“I’m Keyblade. This is Mithos and Bookworm,” Keyblade introduced them.
“Cool sword!” Mithos said admiringly.
“Yes, it’s called ‘Zar’roc’,” Eragon said. “What do you call your sword?”
“Umm… Yggdrasill,” Mithos answered. He had never actually named the sword, but he knew it had formerly belonged to Mithos Yggdrasill.
“Do you wield swords too?” Eragon asked, turning to Keyblade and Bookworm.
“No, I’m an alchemist. Watch this!” Keyblade alchemified her keyblade.
“Cool! Can you teach me to do that?” Eragon asked in amazement.
“No, you lack the necessary intelligence,” Bookworm said, with a nasty grin. After Shade’s attack, she decided she would wait to kill Eragon. In the meantime, she would just insult him at every possible opportunity.
“Are you an alchemist?” Eragon asked, pretending he didn’t hear Bookworm’s comment.
“No, I’m a witch from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I’m also an assassin drake,” Bookworm grinned even more at the look of complete confusion on Eragon’s face.
“Eragon! What are you doing?” an elf ran up to Eragon. “You’re supposed to be training with Vanir!”
“But Vanir’s busy looking for a shade! And I found some humans!” Eragon pointed at them. “Keyblade’s an alchemist. She makes a key-shaped sword appear out of the ground by clapping her hands! And Mithos has a shiny sword! And Bookworm… I think she said she’s a witch…”
“Hmm… a seithr…” the elf looked at Bookworm with interest. “I am Oromis, Dragon Rider and mentor to Eragon.” He looked around at the mob of panicking elves, then turned to Eragon. “I don’t think Vanir will be ready any time soon. Let’s start today’s lesson early. If your friends would like to join us, they are welcome to.” He found it very odd that three strange humans suddenly appeared in the hidden city at the exact time that the shade hysteria broke out. He decided he would have to keep an eye on them until Queen Islanzadi and Princess Arya had time to see them.
“I’m not his friend!” Bookworm protested, but she came anyway.
When they arrived at Oromis’s house, Keyblade alchemified some extra desks and they all sat down for a long lesson on Alagaesia history…
“So with the help of Morzan, Galbatorix was able to… Are you listening to me?” Oromis said sharply. He glared at his inattentive audience. “Keyblade, you’ve clearly been daydreaming for the past hour. Bookworm, stop trying to hide that book you’ve been reading under the desk. And Mithos, are you even awake?"
“Huh? What’s going on?” Mithos asked, waking up suddenly.
“This is pathetic! How do you expect to learn anything? Eragon’s the only one who’s been paying attention. He even took notes!” Oromis scolded them.
Annoyed at this praise of Eragon, Bookworm snatched his note paper and examined it. “These aren’t notes! These are doodles of stick figures kissing! It even says ‘Eragon + Arya’ in a heart at the top!” Bookworm held up Eragon’s “notes”. Eragon's face reddened.
Oromis stared at his students in dismay. “How do you expect to learn anything?” he repeated.
“Can you teach us magic now? I promise I’ll pay more attention!” Bookworm asked.
“No, I think you’ve had enough class for now. We’ll study magic tomorrow. For now, Eragon is late for his sword training,” Oromis said. Mithos was now fully awake. He was looking forward to the sword training. He was even hoping to challenge Eragon to a swordfight…

World hopping (Cat)

2007-01-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

After escaping from her choir class, Cat dashed outside. Her initial reaction was to yell, but she decided to run out so that she could stop Lloyd. “Man, did she hear me…? Or what? Great now she le-” before Lloyd could finish, he was pulled down by a very annoyed brunette.
“What-are-you-THINKING?” Cat demanded, punctuating each word with a poke at Lloyd’s chest (she couldn’t reach his forehead, like Ed, she was also somewhat vertically challenged). "Well…I wanted to see you, but these guys in grey that had security on their shirts wouldn’t let me in, I tried to explain that I was your friend and…” Lloyd stopped short when Cat’s glare didn’t cease. She sighed, “Lloyd….look, first off, if people see you flying here, they’ll haul you off to some lab in area 51 or something.”
“Area 51? Where’s that”
“I dunno.”
“Then how do you know about, Cat? Oh! Do YOU do experiments there?!”
“No! Listen, I’ll meet you on top of the roof after school ends.”
“….When’s that?”
"When the bell rings! Look, I gotta get back to class, so just stay on the roof until I get there, and remain as inconspicuous as possible, okay?”
“….What does, inconspicuous means?” At this point gravity seemed to get to Cat, at she fell down anime style to the ground. She had forgotten that Lloyd’s IQ was around a 16 or so.
“It means without being noticed. Now, I’ll see you AFTER school, on top of the roof, got it?” Lloyd gave Cat a reassuring grin, “Sure!” he said and left for the roof as Cat headed back to class.
***
It was now some 10 minutes or so after the bell had rung. Cat had waited this long because she knew that no one was really around after school, buses and all that (she had called her parents and told them she was staying for extra help after school). Cat, using Goldd's power as a drake to fly, flew to the top of the school building. When she arrived she found Lloyd and another unexpected face, Riku.
"What are you doing here?" Cat asked, more-so curious than angry.
"Well, we came to get you."
"Why?"
"Because Sora needs your help."
"Why can't you help him? I have a life besides being a dragon."
"Well, it concerns the well-fare of the worlds." Lloyd, at this point, decided to intervine, "Cat, I know that you may have problems of your own, and how leaving here will cause problems, but maybe we can find a way to exlpain this to the people here."
Yeah, and then everyone here will want to grow drake wings and fly like it's some kind of new fad. Cat tried imagining one of her classmates whom she really didn't like with drake wings and a tail, trying to fly. This seemed terribly funny to Cat, and she couldn't stop herself from giggling. Riku and Lloyd just stared, not knowing why she was overcome with such a giggling fit.
Cat finally stopped, and said, "Look, I kinda just got home, and it would be really kind of a pain if I had to leave again." Riku sighed. He knew that it was nessesary to bring Cat with him. So, Riku decided to use force, "Lloyd, grab her arm. I'll grab the other one."
"What!!? No!" Cat made for a mad dash for the edge of the building, "YOU WON'T TAKE ME ALIVE!!!" Cat yelled, waving a fist in the air. Why does she have to be so dramatic..? Riku wondered to himself. Cat was almost to the edge of the building when Lloyd caught her. She stuggled to get free while Riku opened a portal, leading to none other than Destiny Islands. Lloyd came over to Riku. Cat still struggling (and atempting to bite through Lloyd's arm in vain)listened in growing horror as Llyod said, "Well, we better get going."
"Yeah." Riku answered as he grabbed Cat's other arm (cat was still trying to bite through Lloyd's arm). They walked into the portal and as soon as they did, it dissapeared without a trace. Walking from the portal Riku had opened, they arrived on Destiny Islands' white sandy beach. Cat was released, and fell falt on her face.
"So, you're still a spaz, eh Cat?" A familar cocky voice said. Cat lifted her head up and saw none other than Ed, the Fullmetal (cat prefered miget) Alchmist. He held out his hand, as a sign he was only joking (mostly). Cat brushed it away lethargicly and mumbled something like "I can get up myself."
"Cat-chan!" Cat spun around to see a boy in his early teens running over to her. When he did, he gave her a big hug. "Cat-chan, it's so good to see you again." Cat saw this as somewhat akward, but then returned the hug and said "It's good to see you too Netto." Cat looked over and saw two other girls, one with red hair and another with blonde hair. The red haired girl reached her first, "Cat!" She cried as she gave her a bone-crushing hug. Cat said something like meep when this happened. "Hi there Cat! It's so good to see you-" Collete never got a chance to finish this sentence, because she tripped (on what looked like nothing) and fell on top of the other two girls, causing them to end up in a great heap on the ground.

Derris-Kharlan Again

2007-01-23T19:20:00.000-08:00

“Where were you?” Kratos demanded. His calm voice could not conceal his anger.
“I can’t believe you just left us like that! That really pisses me off! We were fighting to save your lives!” Lloyd shouted, his short temper getting the better of him.
“Your cowardice disgusts me,” Kratos said, still giving Mithos a death glare.
“And you stole my hunnies!” Zelos yelled. Everyone stared at him. Then the long silence was broken when Shade recited some words of magic. Zelos instantly turned into a pile of broccoli-scented goo.
“He deserved it,” Shade said simply.
Sheena nodded and looked at the Zelos-goo. “I think it’s an improvement.”
“Are you going to explain what you were doing while we fought the Renegades?” Kratos asked.
“We went to the drake world! And look what I can do!” Bookworm’s purple wings and tail appeared.
“Wow! Those are nice wings, Bookworm!” Colette complimented her.
Colette’s cheerful attitude and his own curiosity calmed Lloyd down a bit. “How did you get those wings?” Bookworm proceeded to explain how Borakk had destroyed the drake village and Indigo had given her the sphere. “What happened to Borakk?”
“We fought and Keyblade defeated him. Then Shade sealed him in his sphere,” Bookworm said.
“And what was Mithos doing this whole time?” Kratos asked. (He disliked Bookworm, Shade, and Keyblade because they “stole” the Sorcerer’s Ring and “kidnapped” Lloyd, Colette, and Genis. But he did consider Mithos his ally, which is why he was angrier at Mithos than the others.)
“He almost assassinated a king,” Keyblade said. She decided it would not be a good idea to mention that Mithos had been goo during the fight with Borakk.
“He did?” Sheena, a former assassin, was clearly impressed.
“Yeah, I was about to stab him, but a bunch of drakes tackled me,” Mithos said, not wanting to admit that his assassination attempt failed because he tripped and fell flat on his face. Kratos still did not appear satisfied, so he added, “I think there were at least ten of them, all shifted into full-drake form.” Shade, Keyblade, and Bookworm had a hard time not laughing at this.
To change the subject, Bookworm asked, “So how did you battle go?”
“We just barely defeated the Renegades,” Lloyd said. “I think they left to get reinforcements. We were doing really well, but then Yuan saladmited Kratos and—”
“That’s enough, Lloyd!” Kratos said sharply, looking very embarrassed. “Mithos, you and your friends have caused a lot of trouble. You are all going home now.”
“I don’t wanna go home yet!” Bookworm whined.
“Yeah, can’t we go to one more world? Please?” Keyblade asked.
“I think so,” Shade grinned evilly.
“You are going home now. Or I will be forced to consider you my enemies,” Kratos said, giving them a death glare again. This left no doubt what their fate would be if they were his enemies.
“Really? If you were my enemy, I would turn you into goo,” Shade said, still grinning evilly. “Tomato-scented goo!”
Kratos’s death glare vanished. A look of horror appeared on his face.
“Keyblade, let’s use that function-changing device,” Shade selected one randomly. She waved at the Symphonians. “We’ll be back later!” Then Keyblade activated the Sorcerer’s Ring and they vanished.
When they appeared in the next world, Shade noticed that the surroundings seemed very familiar. Then she noticed a boy with a red sword, standing next to a blue dragon. They were in Alagaesia.
A moment later, Bookworm noticed the boy too. She grabbed one of her kunai and screamed, “Die, Eragon!”

Keyblade's Fanfic- The beginning!

2007-01-23T16:04:00.000-08:00

here it is, keyblade's second multi-crossover fic. To those oblivious or confused, it is placed after the drake fic (Keyblade is also known as Cat in this fic). To anyone who doesn't know what a drake is, look on http://www.myowncafe.org/ on the cafe message board. The 'here we go it's me and shade's fanfic!' is the right post to read. anyways- presenting journey 2.0 of Cat's adventures!

It had been a month or so after Cat's adventures in the drake world. By some miraculous stoke of luck, she had been returned at the exact moment she had disappeared, meaning she did not have to explain just how she was able to morph into a drake, or the fact that she had been kissed by a guy-err drake (this wouldn't have gone over well with her dad). As of now, she was in her choir class, and had been given a break by her choir teacher. She was sitting by herself, thinking about her last adventure, thinking about the people she met and the friends she had been reunited with. First-off, there was Sora, someone she met on her very first adventure (N: the verry first and has not yet been documented-Shade). A naturally friendly and easy to get along with kid, Cat somehow felt that he could easily become the most popular teen in school with his attitude. Then there were Sora's childhood friends, Riku and Kairi. Kairi was the same age as Sora, and also the person who Sora happened to like. Cat honestly though Kairi was a perfect match for Sora, as she was incredibly kind and caring. Riku, Sora's other childhood friend was the quiet but strong type who also cared for his friends. Cat remembered Sora telling her he went so far as he nearly lost his whole state of being to find his fiends. Then there where some of the other people she had met. She met Edward Elric the "Fullmetal Alchemist" (although "Midget Alchemist" was a better title, as Ed was....well, in polite terms, "vertically challenged", and telling him of his short stature always seemed to spark some kind of very dangerous fuse that Cat would rather not have to experience again...) and his younger brother, Alphonse, who was a boy whose soul was sealed inside a suit of armor. Cat still wasn't sure how this happened, but thought it had something to do with Ed's right arm and left leg being artificial. She had also met the demon Sesshomaru, a quiet yet deadly demon who could kill someone faster than it would take them to notice. Sesshomaru had come with his lackey Jaken, who, unlike his master, was the least intimidating demon Cat had ever met. There was also Rin, the young girl who Sesshomaru allowed to travel with him. She was a kind and very warm hearted little girl who even cared for the friends of Sesshomaru's brother, whom Cat learned was a half-demon named Inuyasha. Then there was Lloyd and Colette. Colette was a former chosen of her world (Cat wasn't sure what this meant, but by how Colette talked about it, it sounded like something she wouldn't wish on anyone). There was also Colette's childhood friend, Lloyd (although it was obvious to Cat that they both felt that they liked each other a little more than just friends). Lloyd had told Cat that he had been raised by a dwarf (on account of the fact that his real father had not known he was still alive) and had a "dog" named Noishe. What made Lloyd and Colette different was that they were stronger than normal humans, and that they both had angel like wings. Another friend Netto, and his cybernetic companion, Rockman had joined Cat in her adventures. Cat though that Rockman looked alot like Netto, almost like his twin. Rockman always tried to act as respectably and responsible, while Netto...was the exact opposite. It wasn't that he wasn't respectable, it was more that he was somewhat immature. cat remembered how Rockman complained that he always had to wake up Netto in the morning, how he never did his homework, and how he had no sense of civil duty. But it seemed as though the two complained constantly, they seemed to enjoy each others company. Finally, there were the residents of the drake world cat had met, Tyrsis, the prankster, Arian, the majiker (who Cat was glad to have on her good side) and finally....Rainheart. Rainheart was...well, to put it simply, the person Cat had truly cared for. Cat sighed sadly, remembering their departing kiss (it was more so he had kissed her, however). Cat recollection was interrupted by a tapping at the window. Cat decided to disregard it as a bird, but when the tapping consisted, she decided to check it out. Cat nearly cried out when she found out it was Lloyd, floating and tapping at the window, obviously to get Cat's attention. She asked her teacher if she could go to the bathroom, and headed outside.

Cat?

2007-01-23T15:05:00.000-08:00

When they returned to the palace, they were greeted by Prince Tyrsis, Rainheart’s younger brother.
“Cat!” he yelled, hugging Keyblade so tightly she couldn’t breathe. Mithos glared at him, but could not stab him. The guards had confiscated his sword as soon as they entered the capital. He asked his friends to help get it back. Shade and Bookworm threatened the guards a lot, but this didn’t do any good because Bookworm’s threats were really pathetic. Eventually, Keyblade asked Rainheart to get the sword back. He agreed as long as she promised not to let Mithos use it in the capital. So now Shade had Mithos’s sword and refused to let him stab any of her characters.
“I’m… not… Cat…” Keyblade managed to say. “Could… you… please… stop… strangling… me?”
Tyrsis let go of her. “What do you mean? Of course you’re Cat! You look just like her and you’ve got Goldd’s marble!”
“I think she has amnesia,” Rainheart explained. “And this is for you.” He handed Tyrsis Borakk’s sphere.
“Oooooooh! Shiny!” Tyrsis looked admiringly at the sphere.
Once Keyblade was able to breathe again, she said, “Umm… That marble has part of Goldd’s essence too. That will give Tyrsis a metallic sheen and make him the most powerful drake, other than me and Mithos. Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Yes, it’s definitely a good idea,” Rainheart said, grinning. There were a lot of things Tyrsis could do with his new powers. Rainheart did not plan on giving him enough spare time to cause trouble.
“Rainheart, you should probably have a doctor look at that wound soon,” Bookworm suggested. Rainheart’s wound wasn’t as deep as it had first appeared, but it still needed some medical attention. Rainheart nodded and left.
“So now what? Can I have my sword back?” Mithos asked.
“No, you can’t have your sword until we’re out of the capital,” Shade said.
“I know what we should do! We should have a party to celebrate the defeat of Borakk! We’ll surprise Rainheart!” Tyrsis suggested enthusiastically.
“Yeah! And we should play DDR at the party!” Keyblade agreed.
Tyrsis smiled. “Great! Cat agrees, so that’s settled. I’ll go make arrangements to get a new DDR machine. No idea how it happened, but the last one got turned into goo…”
The next day, everyone went back to the village with the DDR machine. Rainheart’s shoulder was heavily bandaged, but other than that, he was fine. He even played DDR with Keyblade (and lost, of course). To everyone’s surprise, Arian also showed up. She and Shade had a long discussion about various kinds of magic.
Mithos had planned to avoid the DDR machine, but then Bookworm said, “You just know I’ll beat you! Maybe I’ll challenge Rainheart or Tyrsis instead. They’re taller than you.” Height has nothing to do with DDR, but this taunt was all it took to get Mithos to accept Bookworm’s challenge. The end score was Underling for Bookworm and Lackey for Mithos. Not wanting to listen to Bookworm’s endless bragging, Mithos wandered away. He searched for something interesting to do and happened to notice that Rainheart was with Keyblade again.
“Thank you for defeating Borakk,” Rainheart said.
“You’re welcome. Thanks for saving me,” Keyblade said politely.
“Listen, Cat…” Rainheart started to say.
“I’m not Cat!” Keyblade interrupted, all politeness gone.
Rainheart sighed. “After everything that’s happened, I can’t believe that. I know you are Cat. And I love you.” Keyblade’s face turned bright red. Rainheart moved closer.
At this point, Mithos decided that Rainheart was too close to her. He wanted to stab him with his sword, which Shade had returned when they left the capital, but there were too many security drakes lurking nearby. And for some reason, they were all giving him death glares… Suddenly, Mithos had a brilliant idea! He activated the Mage’s Ring, sending him and his friends to Derris-Kharlan, away from the tall drakes.
Keyblade was very relieved to be away. Shade was angry because she had been in the middle of an important conversation. Bookworm was absolutely furious.
“I was about to beat Tyrsis at DDR!” she whined. Tyrsis had actually been doing much better than her, but she conveniently forgot about this.
Mithos ignored the complaints and grinned triumphantly. Then he stopped grinning. Kratos was glaring at him the same way Borakk had before trying to kill him. Mithos’s reaction was the same: “Meep!”

Battle!!!

2007-01-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

The battle was not going well. Mithos kept “accidentally” mistaking Rainheart for Borakk and trying to kill them both. He claimed this was an easy mistake to make because “they’re both too tall”, but no one believed him. While Mithos was busy trying to stab Rainheart, Borakk lunged for him. Mithos happened to move at the last second to get closer to Rainheart. If Borakk had been just inches closer, he would have killed Mithos. Shade decided it was time to stop Mithos. She recited the goo spell (no fireball this time, just goo) and turned Mithos into a pile of cherry-scented goo.
“Shade! Don’t turn your ally into goo!” Bookworm yelled at her.
“He’s safer this way. He’s below Borakk’s eye level. And I’ll turn him back to non-goo after the battle,” Shade said. Bookworm couldn’t argue with this (at least, not while fighting a big drake), so she reluctantly agreed and continued fighting Borakk.
Borakk was really strong, so even without Mithos distracting them, it still would not be easy to defeat him. However, the odds were in their favor since they outnumbered him. But that changed when he shifted to full-drake form. If Mithos had not been goo at that moment, he would have been horrified by how tall Borakk was.
“This is for Queen Flare! Die, Cat!” Borakk yelled. He lunged for Keyblade, but Rainheart got in the way. Borakk’s sword collided with his shoulder. Rainheart cried out in pain as blood gushed out of the wound.
“Rainheart!” Keyblade screamed.
“I’m… fine…” Rainheart said, pressing his hand to his shoulder in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Keyblade turned away from him and faced Borakk. He was now preoccupied with Shade’s magic attacks and Bookworm’s kunai. (With Indigo’s help, she could actually throw them straight!) Keyblade tightened her grip on her alchemified keyblade, ran forward, and stabbed Borakk as hard as she could! He fell forward, groaning in pain.
Shade took this opportunity to cast a very powerful spell. A glow of green light surrounded Borakk, then faded away until all that remained was a shiny green marble. Noticing Bookworm’s confused expression, Shade explained, “I sealed Borakk inside his sphere. And I took some of his essence for my own sphere, of course.”
Rainheart stood up shakily. “Cat… thank you…”
“Are you okay? You’re my friend, so I don’t want you to die,” Keyblade said, putting a slight emphasis on the word “friend”. She paused, then added, “And I’m not Cat.”
“We should head back to the palace. Rainheart’s wound needs medical attention,” Bookworm said.
“Wait a minute. I said I’d revive Mithos after the battle,” Shade said. She recited the life spell and used life energy from her friends to turn Mithos back into non-goo. (Some of Rainheart’s essence went into her sphere.)
He stood up, looking around in confusion. “What happened?...” He remembered what had been happening. “Oh no! Where’s that tall drake?!” He unsheathed his sword and waved it threateningly.
“Keyblade already defeated him. And I sealed him in a shiny sphere. You missed the end of the battle because you were goo… short goo,” Shade said with an evil grin.
Mithos was about to answer this when he was interrupted. The Squirrel King wanted to make one final effort to get revenge on the loud human creature with the shiny acorn. To get a better shot at Keyblade, he hopped onto Mithos’s head. But before he threw his acorn of doom at her, the Chipmunk King jumped out of a nearby tree and tackled him. They both wanted to be the one to destroy the loud human creature, so they started to fight over the acorn of doom, while still on top of Mithos’s head.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! Killer rodents! They’re attacking me! Go away! Get off! You can’t kill me! I’m taller than you!” Mithos screamed, running in circles. This caused both the Squirrel King and the Chipmunk King to lose their grip on the acorn of doom. It went flying through the air and hit Shade on the head. A moment later, Mithos was free from the killer rodents. Two piles of banana-scented goo lay on the ground.

Borakk the Tall Drake

2007-01-20T18:37:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly, Mithos did not panic or try to stab the big green drake with his sword. He remembered something Shade had said about spheres allowing people to communicate mentally. He decided to use this to call for help.
Meanwhile, Shade had given up on hitting Bookworm with fireballs. Instead, she decided to just strangle her. Keyblade and Rainheart were trying to make Shade stop. Bookworm was slowly dying of strangulation, but at least she had shut up about squirrels. Suddenly, Bookworm, Keyblade, and Shade heard Mithos’s voice echoing in their heads.
HELP! Mithos screamed.
Mithos, what’s going on? Keyblade asked.
There’s a shiny green drake! I think he wants to kill me! And worse, he’s taller than me! Mithos was starting to panic now.
It must be Borakk! Shade said, finally letting go of Bookworm’s throat.
Who? Mithos asked, completely confused.
The drake we’ve been searching for! The one who destroyed Indigo’s village! Have you been paying attention to anything?! Shade yelled at him.
You didn’t tell me he’s taller than me! Mithos yelled back at her.
Why does that even matter?! Keyblade yelled at him.
Bookworm had been quiet so far because she was too busy trying to breathe to worry about Mithos and Borakk, but now she spoke. Mithos, if you tell us where you are, we can come help you.
I’m directly beneath where I was flying. Oh no! I forgot! What happened to the second Keyblade? Mithos was panicking again.
There aren’t two Keyblades! That was me! And if you call me Keyblade again, I will turn you into goo. Shade threatened him.
Or she’ll strangle you. And trust me, that hurts. Bookworm said knowledgably.
“What’s going on?” Rainheart asked. He was excluded from this mental conversation because Mithos didn’t like him.
“Mithos found Borakk. We should help him before he gets killed,” Bookworm said.
“Yes, we’re his friends, so we’re the only ones who get to kill him,” Shade added.
They flew to approximately the same place where Mithos had been when he fell. Then they flew down to the ground. After that, it was easy to find Mithos and Borakk. They just followed the screaming.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! Why do you want to kill me? What did I ever do to you?” Mithos screamed.
Borakk laughed. “You have Sylvrr’s sphere. The village of purple drakes set up a shrine to protect that. You are a friend of that village, so you must die!”
“Why does he hate that village so much?” Bookworm asked.
He was the only green drake born in that village, so he was not as talented a ninja or assassin as the rest of the drakes. Because of this, he was rejected from the village. He joined the army of Queen Flare and finally felt accepted. But then, Cat defeated Flare and Borakk was alone again. Indigo explained. He won’t be happy when he sees that Cat has returned.
Sure enough, as soon as Keyblade, Rainheart, Bookworm, and Shade reached the place where Mithos was running in circles and screaming, Borakk looked even angrier than before. “You! Cat! And Prince Rainheart! You’re the ones responsible for Queen Flare’s death. I will enjoy killing you!”
“She’s not Cat,” Bookworm pointed out.
Borakk turned to her and noticed the purple sphere. “Ha! Is that you again, Indigo? Great! All my enemies are coming for me to kill!”
“This should be fun,” Shade grinned and shifted into Goldd’s form again.

"Meep!"

2007-01-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

“Yay! We’re gonna fly again!” Bookworm cheered happily.
“Yeah! And I’m gonna fly better than the rest of you! Because I’m the tallest!” Mithos said proudly.
“Actually, Rainheart’s the tallest,” Keyblade grinned evilly at Mithos. Mithos glared at Rainheart and reached for his sword.
“Mithos, if you try to kill him one more time…” Shade said threateningly. Mithos stopped reaching for his sword, but continued to give Rainheart a death glare. Rainheart sighed tiredly. He could see this journey would be requiring his babysitting skills even more than the last.
“Where are we going, anyway?” Bookworm asked.
“We’re going to fly over the mountains. The destroyed village was near there, so it makes sense that Borakk would seek shelter somewhere near the mountains,” Shade explained.
“Shade, how are you going to get over the mountains? You can’t fly,” Keyblade said curiously.
“Don’t worry. You’ll see when we get there,” Shade said with an evil grin. Bookworm was still confused about Shade’s plans, but decided it was better not to ask.
They reached the mountains sooner than they expected. “Hey! It took forever to walk from the village to the palace! How did we get here so fast?” Bookworm demanded.
“Did you get lost at all, last time?” Rainheart asked.
“No! …maybe… I’m not sure…” Bookworm said uncertainly. She did not have a very good sense of direction, so they probably had been lost.
“Do we get to fly now?” Mithos asked excitedly. His wings and tail appeared in a silver haze. Without waiting for an answer, he jumped into the air and moved his wings rapidly up and down. He fell flat on his face again.
“Mithos! How many times do I have to tell you? Back and forth! You move your wings back and forth! Not up and down!” Shade yelled at him.
She’s right. Could you try moving them back and forth? I’m getting tired of falling. Sylvrr told Mithos.
By now, Bookworm, Keyblade, and Rainheart were all successfully flying. Mithos glared at Rainheart as if everything was his fault. Then he tried flying again, this time following Sylvrr and Shade’s directions.
“Yes! I’m flying!” Mithos yelled as he flew up to his friends.
“Good job!” Keyblade congratulated him.
They had started to fly over the mountains when they were suddenly joined by another drake. It had gold wings just like Keyblade!
“Noooooo! There are two Keyblades!” Mithos screamed in horror.
Mithos! Don’t panic! Keep moving your wings! Sylvrr warned him. But he was too late. In his shock, Mithos had forgotten to move his wings back and forth. He was now plummeting down to the ground.
The gold drake watched him fall. “If he crashes one more time, I’m turning him into goo!”
“SHADE!?!” Bookworm and Keyblade gasped, staring at Shade in amazement. Shade grinned evilly.
Rainheart was the first to recover from his shock. “We should go find Mithos,” he said, looking uneasily in the direction Mithos had fallen.
“No, don’t bother. He’s probably just unconscious again. We can find him later,” Shade said.
“Umm… Shade? Why are you a gold drake? I thought I was the only gold drake,” Keyblade said, still very confused.
“I put some of Goldd’s essence in my empty sphere. It also has some of Sylvrr and Indigo’s essences. I can shapeshift into any of those three,” Shade explained.
“How did you get Indigo’s essence?” Bookworm demanded.
“I took some of it when I used your life essence to revive Mithos,” Shade said.
“Oh…” Bookworm suddenly had a great idea. “Hey Shade! Didn’t you use a squirrel’s life essence too? Can you turn into a squirrel? Please?”
“No! Why would I want to turn into squirrel?” Shade asked.
“I dunno… But please turn into one! Please!” Bookworm persisted.
“Bookworm, you’re being annoying again. I already told you that if you annoy me, you will be goo. Don’t you have any sense of self-preservation?” Shade asked, getting really irritated.
“Umm… I’m not sure… But are you going to turn into a squirrel?” Bookworm asked.
Keyblade and Rainheart watched as Bookworm dodged the fireballs Shade was aiming at her. (Apparently, she did have some sense of self-preservation.) Everyone had forgotten about Mithos.
Meanwhile, Mithos was on the ground, doing a victory dance. “I’m not unconscious! I fell really far and landed flat on my face, but I’m still not unconscious! Yay!” Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the glint of shiny, metallic scales. “Keyblade! I’m not unconscious! And I’m still taller than you!” A growl of rage made him stop his victory dance and turn around. Keyblade was not behind him. Behind him was a gigantic dark green drake with metallic scales. He did not look friendly. In fact, he was looking at Mithos like he wanted to tear him into little pieces. Mithos stared at the big, angry drake and said “Meep!”

Rainheart's Decision

2007-01-14T15:09:00.000-08:00

“Hey! Rainheart!” Bookworm ran into the drake palace.
“I thought I told you to go away for a while,” Shade said. “If you keep interrupting, I’ll turn you into goo.”
Bookworm ignored this threat. “Rainheart! Do you know someone named Borakk?”
This got Rainheart’s attention. “Yes, he was a green drake in my mother’s army. I remember he was a lot larger than most greens and very strong too. He was a great soldier, but was known for being much crueler than most of his companions. He disappeared in the last battle.”
“He recently attacked a village of purple drakes! And now he’s got a metallic sheen!” Bookworm said.
“How do you know this?” Rainheart asked suspiciously. Bookworm held up her purple sphere as explanation. Rainheart understood. “But how could he have gained metallic sheen? Only Goldd and Sylvrr have ever achieved that!”
“I think I know,” Shade said. She had clearly decided not to turn Bookworm into goo yet. “A lot of Goldd’s essence escaped the sphere when Cat fought Flare. If Borakk gained some of that essence, he could have gotten a metallic sheen and much more powers.”
“What’s going on? Who got more powers?” Keyblade walked into the room, followed by Mithos. The two drake guards each held one of his arms to prevent anymore assassinations attempts. Apparently, Keyblade had been unable to convince them that it was a misunderstanding.
Bookworm tried to explain. “I saw something from Indigo’s past. (She’s the purple drake.) A big metallic green drake named Borakk was destroying the village and killing its inhabitants. And Rainheart says Borakk used to be one of Flare’s soldiers. Shade thinks he got some of Goldd’s essence during Cat and Flare’s fight, which is how he got the metallic sheen.”
Mithos still looked completely confused, but Keyblade understood. “We should go after Borakk!” she suggested, eager for adventure.
“Cat, are you sure you’re well enough to do something that dangerous?” Rainheart asked worriedly. His conversation with Shade had failed to convince him that Keyblade was not his beloved Cat with a bad case of amnesia.
“Of course!” Keyblade said. “And I’m not Cat!”
“Don’t worry, Rainheart! Keyblade won’t get in a lot of trouble. And if she does, we’ll be with her to help,” Bookworm said, gesturing to herself, Shade, and Mithos. This attempt to reassure Rainheart failed miserably. He did not want to leave Cat in the protection of two strange magic-users and a suspected assassin. However, he knew there was no way he could stop her if she really wanted to go with her friends to hunt Borakk. There was only one thing he could do.
“Fine, but I’m coming with you,” he announced.
“All right,” Shade agreed. She would enjoy traveling with her character.
“No! Why are you letting him come?!” Mithos demanded.
“He will be a useful ally,” Shade explained.
“But I don’t want him to come!” Mithos whined.
“What’s the matter, Mithos? Why do you hate Rainheart so much?” Keyblade asked, confused.
“HE’S TALLER THAN ME!” Mithos yelled. Complete silence followed his words.
Finally Keyblade said, “You really have a height problem, don’t you?”
“He’s almost as bad as Ed,” Bookworm added. Mithos did not answer.
The green drake decided this would be a good time to intervene. “Your Majesty, are you sure it’s a good idea to travel with this human? He already tried to kill you.”
“I have to protect Cat from him. She needs me,” Rainheart said, reaching for Keyblade’s hand. She moved away from him.
“I’m not Cat! And I can protect myself!” Keyblade yelled. Rainheart stared at her.
“Keyblade, if you don’t want to be a pile of goo, stop hurting Rainheart’s feelings. And Mithos, you stop trying to kill him. I’m the only one who gets to kill my characters,” Shade said angrily. The two guards interpreted this as a threat to murder their king. They waited for Rainheart to tell them to arrest Shade, but he hadn’t even been listening. What Keyblade said had hurt him very much. He was now more determined than ever to help her regain her memories. And the upcoming journey seemed the perfect time to do so.

Assassination Attempt?

2007-01-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

“Cool! It’s the drake palace!” Bookworm ran through the capital city, towards the palace.
Mithos stared at it in confusion. “It looks like a big tent to me…”
“Yes, it’s a giant tent with many separate rooms,” Shade explained. Mithos still looked confused, but decided not to ask anymore.
“Bookworm! Wait for me!” Keyblade ran to catch up to Bookworm. Soon they were both racing to the palace. Shade and Mithos walked after them. When they caught up at the palace entrance, Bookworm and Keyblade were arguing about who won the race. A nearby drake was glaring at them as though waiting for an excuse to send them away.
“We are here to see King Rainheart,” Shade said to the drake guard.
He nodded. “I will tell him you are here.” He walked into the giant tent. After threatening Bookworm and Keyblade to make them stop arguing, Shade followed him. They entered a room with a long carpet leading to a throne on a raised dais. Since he was not expecting visitors, Rainheart was elsewhere. The drake guard told them to wait there, then went to find Rainheart. Everyone stood there boredly for a while, then…
“Cat!” a warm voice yelled in excitement. Rainheart ran to Keyblade and hugged her.
Mithos stared in horror at him hugging Keyblade. Without thinking, he grabbed his sword and ran to attack Rainheart. Two drake guards who had come with Rainheart as protection rushed to stop him. Just as he was about to stab Rainheart, Mithos tripped and fell flat on his face. The unexpected movement of their target caused the two drakes to fall on top of Mithos, forming a large pile behind Rainheart and Keyblade. Sobbing with frustration, Mithos was forced to settle for giving Rainheart a very nasty death glare. (He learned it from Sesshomaru.) Since Rainheart wasn’t even looking at Mithos, this did not have any effect, but it was the best he could do.
“Cat! I’m so glad you’re back!” Rainheart said, still hugging Keyblade.
“Umm… I’m not Cat. My name’s Keyblade,” Keyblade said.
Rainheart let go of her, very embarrassed. He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. “Yes, you are Cat. I’d know you anywhere…” Suddenly he looked very concerned. “What happened, Cat? Did you get amnesia?”
Keyblade did not know what to say. She looked to her friends for help. Shade was just watching with an amused expression on her face. Bookworm was not even paying attention. She was staring off into space, probably wondering if there was a library in the palace. Finally, she noticed Mithos, squashed under the drake guards. Following her gaze, Rainheart finally noticed him. He ordered the guards to get up. Mithos remained lying on the ground, just like he had after the DDR incident.
“Mithos, are you okay?” Keyblade asked worriedly.
“Why did you tackle Cat’s friend?” Rainheart demanded angrily.
“He was attempting to assassinate you, King Rainheart!” the orange drake said.
“He lunged toward you with his sword unsheathed, but we stopped him!” the green drake explained proudly. He conveniently forgot to mention that Mithos had only failed to stab Rainheart because he had tripped and fallen flat on his face.
Rainheart was shocked. Why would Cat’s friend be trying to kill him? Were her other friends dangerous too? He glanced at them. One had lots of dangerous kunai knives and the other one… She looked really evil. He decided to keep an eye on them. Turning back to the guards, he motioned for them to take the assassin away. There would be time to interrogate him later. Right now, Rainheart was more concerned with Cat’s strange memory loss.
“Mithos!” Keyblade started to follow the drake guards as they dragged Mithos out of the room. Rainheart's voice stopped her.
“Cat…”
“I’m not Cat!” Keyblade shouted, very irritated now. Unfortunately, Goldd’s sphere reacted to her strong emotions. Her gold wings and tail appeared, convincing Rainheart that she was definitely Cat.
Shade decided this would be a good time to intervene. “Keyblade, please stop hurting my character’s feelings.”
“But—”
“I will explain everything to him. King Rainheart, could I please talk to you in private for a little while?” Shade asked. Rainheart glanced uncertainly at Keyblade, then nodded to Shade.
“I’m going to go make sure Mithos is okay,” Keyblade said. She ran off in the direction the drake guards had taken Mithos, wondering just how she could explain that Mithos was not an assassin and his attempt to stab Rainheart was just a misunderstanding.
“I’ll go… somewhere,” Bookworm said, suddenly realizing she had no idea where she wanted to go. “Are there any libraries near here?”
“No, can’t you just wander around the city for a while?” Shade asked.
“I guess so…” Bookworm shrugged and exited the palace tent. She looked around the city and started walking. To make things a little more interesting, she made her purple wings and tail appear. It was fun to just walk around in drake form. She considered practicing her kunai throwing, which definitely needed work, but decided a crowded city was not a good place to throw knives. As she walked by a group of purple drakes, she overheard part of their conversation.
“It’s completely destroyed? Are you sure?”
“Yes, all that’s left is a pile of ashes. It’s definitely Borakk’s work.”
As soon as she heard the name Borakk, Bookworm began to experience a strange feeling. One moment, she was looking at some purple drakes in a crowded city. The next, she was looking at a giant drake fully transformed in a burning village. His he was dark green, almost black, and his scales had a metallic sheen. His massive jaws lifted in a grin as he watched the fire destroy the village. A young drake ran out of one of the houses. He killed it and a laugh rumbled in his throat. His eyes shone with triumphant expression. Bookworm felt absolutely angry, sad, and terrified all at once.
“Indigo!” She heard someone yelling and her strange vision ended. She was back in the city and one of the purple drakes was screaming at her. “Where did you get Indigo’s sphere, human?”
“Huh? What?” Bookworm stared at the drake in confusion.
“What happened to Indigo?” he asked more slowly.
“Indigo?” Bookworm was too confused by her strange vision to understand. The drake shouted something else, but she wasn’t paying attention. She remembered Shade saying something about viewing a drake’s past because of a sphere… She suddenly realized who Indigo was. “Indigo died. A shiny green drake attacked her village and badly wounded her. She gave me the sphere before she died.”
“Borakk! I knew it!” The drake said to his companions. “Did Indigo say anything before she died?” he asked Bookworm.
“Yeah, she said to tell Rainheart… oh shoot!” Bookworm realized she had completely forgotten her original objective in meeting Rainheart. She immediately ran back to the palace, leaving the purple drakes staring after her in confusion. Even if Shade hadn’t finished explaining the Cat/Keyblade situation yet, this was more important. She had to warn Rainheart about Borakk, the first drake to get a metallic sheen since Goldd and Sylvrr.

Goo!!!

2007-01-04T19:28:00.000-08:00

“Are we almost there?” Bookworm whined. She had stopped showing off her kunai after many threats from Shade. Without that to entertain her, Bookworm was incredibly bored. So she entertained herself as best she could by complaining constantly.
Mithos was not much better. He wanted to practice flying instead of walking to the drake capital. “Why do we have to meet this Rainheart guy now anyway? Can’t we meet him after I learn to fly?”
“Rainheart is one of the main characters in me and Keyblade’s fanfic. We wrote a lot about him, so now we want to meet him in real life. Arian and the drake at that village told us to find him too,” Shade explained, trying very hard to restrain the impulse to strangle her complaining friends.
“And if we waited for you to learn to fly, Mithos, we’d probably never go to the palace!” Keyblade laughed.
Mithos opened his mouth to say something (probably another remark about Keyblade’s height). Shade interrupted him. “If you say one more annoying thing, I will turn you into banana-scented goo. That goes for you too, Bookworm. I mean it!”
“Why banana-scented?” Keyblade asked.
“Banana-scented attracts mosquitoes,” Shade said with an evil grin.
Mithos decided to stop annoying Shade. It did not take long to find another way to entertain himself. “Hey Bookworm! Can I borrow one of your kunai? Please?” Bookworm silently handed him one. (She had decided it was safer to remain silent non-goo.) Mithos happily took the kunai and threw it many times. Unlike Bookworm, he had enough sense to only brag when he hit his target. This kept him entertained, but did not annoy any of his friends, with the exception of Bookworm, who could not understand why no one got angry at Mithos for playing with the kunai. Unfortunately, this peace did not last long. As they neared the capital, Mithos tried to throw the kunai at a tree again. He tripped in mid-throw and fell flat on his face. The kunai flew out of his hand and passed dangerously close to Shade before hitting a ground a few feet away. Furious that Mithos had nearly killed her, Shade recited one of her favorite spells. A giant fireball hit Mithos, reducing him to a scorched pile of goo, which smelled faintly like bananas.
“Umm… Shade, I think you might have overreacted a little…” Keyblade said.
Bookworm picked up her kunai. “Shade, do you have a non-goo spell or something? We probably shouldn’t just abandon him like that, even though he is annoying.”
“I could do a life spell like the one Raistlin used to save Tas when he got poisoned, but I think Mithos is better like this,” Shade grinned. “And why can’t we leave him here?”
“I wanted to beat him at DDR again,” Bookworm said grumpily.
Keyblade had a brilliant idea. “You can turn him into goo again later. You have so much fun turning people into goo and Mithos is good at giving you excuses.”
“Yeah, I don’t know anyone more likely to annoy you and get turned into goo,” Bookworm said, forgetting to include herself.
Shade considered it for a moment. They did have a good point. It was very amusing to turn annoying people into goo. So for the first time ever, Shade used the life spell. Instead of using her own life energy to revive Mithos, she used energy from the surrounding life forms. A squirrel fell from a tree, his energy drained. He screeched “Chitter chir chir!” and scampered away. Roughly translated, this means “I will get the shiny acorn from you, annoying human creature, no matter what!” But seeing that no one spoke squirrel, they were just really confused.
“Umm… what happened?” Mithos had returned to non-goo.
“You got hit with a fireball and turned into a pile of banana-scented goo,” Keyblade explained cheerfully.
“Oh… Was I a tall pile of goo?” Mithos asked hopefully.
“No, you were very short!” Keyblade said even more happily.
“NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Mithos screamed. Fortunately for him, he got distracted and shut up just before Shade got annoyed enough to turn him into goo again. “Hey! What’s that shiny silver stuff around my sphere?”
“It looks like the fireball broke your sphere. That’s Sylvrr’s essence leaking out,” Shade explained.
“What!?! No way! I need that to fly better than Keyblade and Bookworm!” Mithos wailed in dismay.
“You could try covering up the hole to keep the drake essence in,” Shade suggested.
“How am I supposed to do that?” Mithos asked.
“Oh! I’ve got an idea!” Bookworm grabbed Mithos’s sphere and sword. “Find some way to stick it on the sword. That would look really cool.” She looked at the sword and sphere in confusion, unsure how to attach them.
“Let me see those,” Keyblade took them from Bookworm. She clapped her hands and alchemified the sword so that the sphere was attached to it. The hole was now completely covered with no essence leaking out.
“Thanks!” Mithos grabbed his sword.
“Can we get going now? I don’t want to have to turn anyone into goo again,” Shade said with a grin that suggested she would absolutely love to turn them all into goo as soon as she had a good excuse.
“Yeah, sure,” Bookworm said. Then she noticed something strange. “Hey Shade, when did your sphere get so colorful? I thought it was empty.” Shade just grinned evilly, confusing Bookworm even more.

Flying

2006-12-31T19:18:00.000-08:00

“Hey! Look at that!” Bookworm yelled.
“What now?” Shade asked. “If you’re showing off those kunai again…” Bookworm had been repeatedly throwing her kunai daggers and demanding that everyone stop to look at how well she had thrown them. This was getting very annoying. As she proved during the Quidditch game, Bookworm has terrible aim. Despite her bragging, it was obvious that none of the kunai had gone in the correct place, which made everything even more annoying. The good thing was that the random kunai attacks had forced all the forest creatures to seek shelter. The Squirrel King had been planning to lead his army to take the shiny marble from the annoying human creature, but his plans were now ruined. Unfortunately, Bookworm’s friends did not know this and were just annoyed at her.
“No! I think… Yeah! That’s smoke over there!” Bookworm pointed at a small plume of smoke just visible over the trees.
“You’re right… Keyblade, you’re going to have to wait a little longer for the flying practice. I want to see what’s going on over there,” Shade said. Keyblade nodded in agreement. She was curious too. They all hurried to the edge of the forest, where a terrible sight met their eyes. It had clearly been a small village sometime recently, but had been reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble.
“H-help…” a weak voice called. Bookworm dropped her kunai knives in surprise. She ran in the direction of the voice and found the only surviving villager. A purple drake was lying against a piece of burnt wood from one of the houses. Her clothes were stained with blood.
“What happened?” Bookworm asked, kneeling beside the drake to see if she could help.
“Attacked… green drake… revenge…” the purple drake gasped. Her wounds made it very difficult to breathe, but she knew she had to speak quickly. She did not have much time. “Please… human… tell King Rainheart…” With the last of her strength, the drake handed Bookworm a sphere. A moment later, the drake was dead. Her sphere turned purple.
“Come on, Bookworm,” Keyblade said. “We should find Rainheart. It’s what she wanted. Her essence is in the sphere now, like how Goldd’s essence is in mine.”
“Yeah… okay,” Bookworm said, still in shock. She stood up and started to walk away, then turned back. She couldn’t bury the drake’s body, but she didn’t want to just leave it. “Incendio!” As soon as Bookworm said the incantation, flames engulfed the corpse. She then picked up her kunai and followed Keyblade, Shade, and Mithos out of the destroyed village. As they approached the gorge, they had to stop again.
“Hey! What’s that?” Mithos pointed up ahead.
“It looks like some kind of shrine,” Shade said.
“Cool!” Mithos ran to investigate it. In the shrine, he found a silver marble. “Ooooh! Shiny!” He grabbed the marble.
“Mithos, what are you doing?” Keyblade asked.
“I found a shiny marble!” Mithos shouted, sounding remarkably like the Squirrel King.
“Let me see,” Shade said, snatching the sphere before Mithos could protest. “It’s silver. That means it contains the essence of Sylvrr, Goldd’s mate. Its power is second only to Goldd’s marble.”
“Cool!” Mithos grabbed Sylvrr’s sphere again. “I’m more powerful than Bookworm! And I’m taller than Keyblade!”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Keyblade asked in annoyance.
Mithos shrugged. “Does this mean I can fly too?”
“We’ll see when we get to the gorge,” Shade said. “We’re almost there now.”
A short time later, they reached the gorge.
“Yay! We get to fly!” Bookworm cheered.
“Me first! Yippee!” Keyblade’s wings and tail appeared in a golden haze. She ran to the edge of the gorge and jumped off! Immediately, Goldd began to give her instructions and advice. (An essence-containing marble gives the wielder the ability to communicate with the drake through a mental link.) With Goldd’s help, Keyblade quickly mastered flight. She whooped with glee as she soared above her friends.
“You are just like Cat when she learned to fly,” Goldd told her. Keyblade smiled proudly.
“My turn!” For the first time, Bookworm’s wings and tail appeared. They were a dark bluish-purple, like the drake who had given her the sphere. “Yay!” She excitedly jumped off the cliff, but instead of flying like Keyblade, Bookworm immediately started falling.
“Move your wings! Bookworm! You have to move your wings to fly!” Keyblade shouted as she flew by.
“She’s right! If you don’t move your wings, you’ll just fall! Move them back and forth!” At the drake’s words, Bookworm finally stopped screaming and tried moving her wings back and forth. It worked! She flew past Keyblade, cheering happily.
“Your turn now!” Shade said, pushing Mithos off the cliff. He screamed and fell, moving his wings up and down. “No! Move them back and forth, not up and down! Back and forth!”
“BACK AND FORTH!” When Sylvrr’s screaming voice joined Shade’s, Mithos finally flew correctly. He immediately crashed into the gorge wall.
“Ouch…” He was barely conscious but was still trying to fly. Unfortunately, his collision had caused him to forget that he was supposed to move his wings back and forth, not up and down. Flying incorrectly, he began to fall again. Before he hit the bottom of the gorge, Keyblade and Bookworm caught him by the arms and together managed to drag him along as they flew to the top of the cliff.
“Is he unconscious again?” Shade asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” Keyblade nodded.
“No… I’m not unconscious… yet…” Mithos said weakly. “I’m gonna try flying again… I have to do better than Keyblade… I’m taller than her…”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Keyblade demanded. “And why do you always bring that up?” Mithos didn’t answer.
Shade rolled her eyes. “Mithos, are you capable of walking? If so, we should head to the capital to meet Rainheart.”
“Can’t we fly there?” Bookworm asked eagerly.
“And crash into a tree like Keyblade did? No way!” Shade shook her head.
“Yeah, I think I can walk. And I can fly too!” Mithos shouted.
“Hey Shade! Don’t you want to fly too? Couldn’t you put a drake essence in that empty sphere or something?” Bookworm asked randomly.
“Don’t worry! I’ll fly soon! But now we need to find Rainheart,” Shade said. She grinned evilly and went back into the forest, leaving Bookworm very confused.

Arian's Gifts

2006-12-30T19:39:00.000-08:00

“Are we there yet?” Bookworm whined. “I’m tired of walking.”
“If you keep complaining…” Shade began threateningly.
“I know. You’ll turn me into a pile of goo,” Bookworm glared at Shade. “You created the drake world. Why did you have to make the forest so big?”
“If it was smaller, how would Cat have remained hidden from Queen Flare’s soldiers?” Shade asked.
“I don’t know…” Bookworm thought about this for a moment. “Hey Cat! Could you have hidden from the drake soldiers in a smaller forest?”
“Please stop calling me that. Cat is a fanfic character based on me, but I’m not Cat,” Keyblade said. “And you should probably stop criticizing Shade’s creation. She looks like she’s about to do the goo spell.” Bookworm glanced uneasily at Shade and decided to shut up finally.
“Why are we going to meet what’s-her-name anyway?” Mithos asked.
“Arian! I want to know what’s going on in the drake world. Arian is a powerful majyker and Cat’s friend. We could visit her friend Rainheart, but the drake palace is far from here and I doubt anyone wants to walk that far,” Shade explained.
“I could fly there!” Keyblade suggested. She was dying to try out her wings.
“Yes, but since the rest of us can’t fly, we’re visiting Arian first. Maybe then you can try flying,” Shade said. Keyblade smiled happily.
“Hey! Look at that cool tree-house!” Mithos pointed to a tree up ahead. As he said, there was a large tree-house in it.
“It’s Arian’s house!” Keyblade said excitedly. Her wings and tail appeared again. This gave her a great idea. Why not fly up to the tree-house? Before anyone could stop her, Keyblade had taken flight. She had never actually flown with wings before. A forest filled with trees is not a good place for a first flight. Keyblade crashed into a tree almost immediately. There was a loud and painful-sounding crash. Keyblade lay on the ground, moaning in pain.
Hearing the noise, Arian left her tree-house. “Who dares disturb me?” she demanded, looking around.
“Hi!” Bookworm waved at her. “Can we come in your tree-house? I’m tired of walking and Shade wants to talk to you.” Arian stared in disbelief at this foolish human.
Recovering from her disastrous flight, Keyblade also gave a weak wave. “Hi Arian!”
Arian turned her attention to the person lying at the base of her tree. Her eyes widened as she saw the golden wings and tail. “Yes, you may come in.” Bookworm hurried in and collapsed in a chair. Shade followed, making a mental note to explain to Bookworm why caution was necessary when dealing with powerful magic-users. Maybe turning her into goo would get the point across. Shade grinned evilly at this thought.
“Come on Keyblade! Or are you too short to make it to the tree-house?” Mithos laughed and ran out of Keyblade’s attack range.
“Shut up Mithos!” Keyblade got up and ran after him, her wings and tail vanishing.
Once they had all made it to the tree-house, Arian said, “You are not Cat, but you have Goldd’s sphere. What explanation for this can you offer?”
“Umm…” Keyblade tried to think of how she could explain that Cat was a character based on her. Mithos interrupted her.
“Who’s Cat again?” he asked, forgetting the long explanation Keyblade and Shade had already given on this topic.
“Cat is a human who used Goldd’s sphere to shift into a drake and defeat Flare, the evil drake queen,” Shade explained. “Keyblade found Goldd’s sphere. She and Cat have a lot in common, so Goldd accepted her too.”
Arian’s gaze fell on Shade. “You are a magic-user,” she said. Shade nodded. “Then take this. I think you may have use for it.” She handed Shade an empty sphere. Then she turned to Bookworm, who was still sitting in the chair, glaring at everyone as though daring them to try making her walk again. “And I believe you will soon need these.” She picked up some gems that had been skillfully shaped into kunai daggers and handed them to Bookworm.
“Cool!” Bookworm grabbed the kunai excitedly.
“Hey! What do I get?” Mithos asked.
“You get a warning. Be careful. Do not do foolish things that will put you in unnecessary danger,” Arian said. Mithos stared at her. How could she possibly think a warning was as good as shiny kunai knives? Even Shade’s empty sphere was better than a dumb warning. He was about to say something, but Shade glared at him to make him shut up.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” she said to Arian. “I think we will leave now. Keyblade needs more practice flying.”
Arian nodded. “After you practice flying, you may want to travel to the capital. King Rainheart and Prince Tyrsis will want to meet you.”

Shiny Marble!!!

2006-12-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

“Wait for me!” Shade yelled as she ran after Keyblade.
“It’s DDR! There’s DDR in this world!” Keyblade shouted, pointing excitedly at the DDR machine. (Months spent at Hogwarts without DDR had made her go slightly crazy.)
“Yes, Keyblade, I know there’s DDR. Do you want to do a round against me?” Shade asked.
“YES!!” Keyblade selected a song and waited to begin. This DDR machine did not have the normal songs, but they were still good. When the round was over, both Keyblade and Shade had earned the rating “Goddess”, which is equivalent to AA on a normal DDR machine.
“My turn! My turn! I wanna do DDR too!” Bookworm yelled excitedly. (She had not gone crazy from lack of DDR. She had been crazy long before the trip to Hogwarts.) “Mithos! Get over here! I’m gonna beat you at DDR!”
“This should be fun to watch,” Shade said as she got off the DDR machine. Keyblade reluctantly followed her.
“Hey! What’s wrong with this thing? It doesn’t have ‘Nori Nori Nori’!” Bookworm complained.
“Try this one,” Keyblade selected a song for Bookworm and Mithos. When they completed the round, Bookworm had the rating “Underling” (C) and Mithos had “Lackey” (D).
“YES! I beat you! I’m an underling!” Bookworm cheered and jumped up and down in excitement.
“So? You’ve just had more practice than me,” Mithos said.
“You could have had more practice if you had been on time for DDR, instead of being three hours late,” Bookworm pointed out.
Mithos glared at her. “I told you just because I was late didn’t mean you had to go exploring anime worlds without me!”
“Shut up, both of you! If you keep fighting, I’ll turn you both into goo!” Shade snapped. Bookworm and Mithos were getting really annoying.
“I still beat you…” Bookworm muttered.
“That’s it!” Shade recited a spell to turn Bookworm into goo. Bookworm dodged the spell and hid behind the DDR machine. When it missed her, the spell hit the innocent DDR machine, reducing it to a pile of cherry-scented goo. Keyblade stared at it in horror for a moment. When she recovered from her shock, she clapped her hands and alchemified a keyblade to avenge the DDR machine. By this time, Bookworm had managed to run into the nearby forest, still hoping to escape Shade’s anger. Shade chased after her while dodging Keyblade’s keyblade. Mithos followed them. He didn’t want to miss the upcoming fight.
The King of Squirrels sat in a tree, admiring a strange acorn he had found. It was round, gold, and looked very unique. And best of all, it was really shiny! The Squirrel King enjoyed showing it off to the Chipmunk King, who had lost their recent war and was very jealous of this acorn. Suddenly, the Squirrel King noticed a group of strange creatures (were they humans?) running through his forest and making a lot of noise. One particularly annoying creature kept yelling something about “DDR” and “goo” and “die Shade”. To get her to shut up, he did something that made perfect sense at the time, but was later decided to be a very bad decision. He threw the great, shiny acorn at the annoying human creature.
Keyblade had been about to hit Shade with her keyblade, thus avenging the DDR machine, when a strange object randomly hit her in the head. “Ouch! What was that?” She looked around to find what had hit her. Lying innocently on the ground was a shiny gold sphere. Curious, she picked it up. “Hey! This looks just like…” She suddenly realized where they were. “SHADE! Stop trying to kill Bookworm and look what I found!”
Hearing her urgent tone of voice, Shade paused. “I’m not trying to kill her! I just want to turn her into a pile of goo! And what did you find that’s so important?”
“It’s Goldd’s marble! Just like Cat had in our fanfic! We’re in the drake world!” Keyblade held up the sphere for everyone to see. In her excitement, she had forgotten about the fate of the DDR machine and her plan for revenge. As she held the sphere, she looked like she had wings and a tail…
“What’s going on?” Mithos asked, completely confused. He was sure he must be imagining the wings and tail, but why was Keyblade so excited about finding a marble?
“Come on!” Shade commanded, continuing into the forest. “I’ll explain on the way. We’re in the drake world, so we should meet Arian." Shade's expression changed for a moment, and Bookworm shivered when she saw the gleam of interest in Shade's eye. This did not bode well.

Bye!

2006-12-18T19:35:00.000-08:00

“Wow! Keyblade’s even shorter than usual!” Mithos laughed as the Quidditch players landed their brooms. “I told you, Presea. They’re all smaller…” Before he could continue to laugh at the height difference, he was punched by an auto-mail arm and knocked unconscious.
“I am not small! And I’m not a pipsqueak! And I’m not a runty little dwarf!” Ed yelled, even though Mithos hadn’t said all those things. He turned to Bookworm, who had just landed. “Give me the Aging Potion! NOW!”
“Okay, okay!” Bookworm raised her wand and yelled, “Accio Potion!” A cauldron flew towards her from the direction of the castle. Bookworm would have liked to brag about this spell for a while, but Ed looked so impatient that she didn’t dare. Everyone who had been affected by Shade’s spell drank some of the Aging Potion and immediately returned to their normal age.
“I’m taller now, right, Al? Right?” Ed asked.
“Umm… yeah… I think you’ve gotten a lot taller, Big Brother,” Al lied. He did not sound very convincing, but Ed was too happy to care.
“What is going on?” Kratos asked, confused.
“Shade cast a spell that made us all eleven years old…” Lloyd started to explain.
“She was trying to curse an adorable doggy we found! He was so cute! I named him Fluffy!” Colette interrupted.
“Yeah, and then Ed got really mad because he wants to be tall and he attacked Shade with a spear, but he didn’t get to kill her. And then we all enrolled at Hogwarts (that’s the school’s name) and tried to learn magic, but I fell asleep in class, so I don’t remember any spells,” Lloyd continued.
Kratos looked very confused, but before he could ask what Lloyd was talking about, Raine interrupted. “Oh no! Not again! RESURRECTION!” She raised her staff and colorful light surrounded the unconscious Mithos. He stood up, fully healed.
“What do you mean ‘not again’?” Keyblade asked, confused.
“She means this is the second time Mithos was knocked unconscious. The last time was when the DDR machine exploded. Mithos was too busy crying to get out of the way,” Presea explained.
“Why was he crying?” Bookworm said. She was trying not to laugh at the look on Mithos’s face, but she wasn’t doing a very good job.
“He lost a DDR game to Sesshomaru,” Presea explained.
“Why did you have to tell them that?” Mithos asked irritably.
Presea looked at him in surprise. “I was answering their questions. Was that bad?”
“Yes! You could’ve just ignored them!” Mithos said.
“Wait a minute… Did you just say Mithos played DDR with Sesshomaru?” Shade asked, glaring at Mithos.
Presea glanced at Mithos uncertainly. “Yes…”
“You met Sesshomaru without me!” Shade screamed at Mithos. (Sesshomaru is Shade’s favorite anime character.)
“Yeah, but you went to a bunch of anime worlds without me!” Mithos retorted.
“If you hadn’t been three hours late for DDR at the mall, you could have come too!” Shade yelled.
“Hang on… Did you say the DDR machine exploded?” Keyblade asked in horror. She had apparently been ignoring Shade and Mithos’s argument.
“Yes, Raine tried to examine the DDR machine and it exploded before I even finished,” Kratos said, glaring at Raine.
“Then stop fighting everyone! We need to go fix the DDR machine NOW!” Keyblade did not even wait for a reply before activating the Sorcerer’s Ring, which she had somehow kept safe from Tas the whole time they were at Hogwarts. Instantly, they left the Quidditch pitch and arrived in Derris-Kharlan.
“Now where are we going?” Lloyd asked excitedly. Because of his short attention span, he was not aware of the DDR machine crisis.
“You’re going back to Iselia,” Kratos said sternly. “And everyone else is going home too.”
“Send Tas home first! Otherwise, he’ll probably steal everything in Derris-Kharlan,” Shade said. She was getting very annoyed at the kender and was still mad about his part in her recent Quidditch loss.
“Mithos, take us to Tas’s world,” Kratos ordered, giving Tas a death glare.
“Wow! That was a really scary look! For a second, you looked even scarier than Raistlin! Can you teach me how to glare at people like that?” Tas asked, making ridiculous faces that looked nothing like Kratos’s death glare. Before Kratos could respond, Shade pointed out the correct device and Mithos sent them all to Krynn.
“Wow! We’re in Palanthas again! And there’s Caramon!” Tas waved enthusiastically at a big warrior. “Hi Caramon! Did you miss me?”
“Miss you?” Caramon looked very confused. “But I just saw you yesterday… Don’t tell me you were in jail again?”
“No! I was somewhere even better!” Tas started to explain, but Caramon interrupted.
“This sounds like a long story. Why don’t you tell me on the way back to Solace?” he suggested.
“Okay! And when we get there I’ll tell Tika and Tanis and Laurana and…” Tas continued to list everyone he knew. Mithos activated the Mage’s Ring and returned to Derris-Kharlan.
“Can we go home now?” Ed asked. He was looking forward to doing some transmutations with his new Philosopher’s Stone.
“Sure,” Mithos said, changing the ring’s function again. They arrived in Central HQ. Luckily, a few days had gone by since the last time they were here and the homunculi were gone. Unfortunately for Ed and Al, Lust and Gluttony had been replaced by two other people.
“Edward Elric! Where have you been? We’ve all been so worried!” Major Armstrong said. He gave Ed a hug that crushed most of his bones.
“Al! Have you seen these pictures of Elicia? Isn’t she the cutest, most adorable angel you’ve ever seen?” Lieutenant-colonel Hughes showed Al a pile of pictures of his daughter.
Everyone else decided to leave fast before Armstrong and Hughes could notice them. When they arrived in Derris-Kharlan, they were greeted by Noishe. He was whining and growling urgently.
“WHAT!?! That’s impossible! Yuan couldn’t have broken through Cruxis’s defenses so quickly!” Kratos protested. His denials were quickly proven wrong when one of Yuan’s Renegade soldiers poked his head though the door.
“Lord Yuan! They’re in here!” the Renegade yelled. Kratos stabbed him, but was too late. Yuan and many other Renegades rushed into the hallway outside the small room.
“We just want Mithos. Don’t be unreasonable, Kratos…” Yuan said, but was interrupted when Kratos waved his sword at him.
“No! I told you this is not Mithos Yggdrasill! And if you don’t get out of Derris-Kharlan now, you will die!” Kratos yelled furiously. Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Raine, Presea, Regal, Sheena, and Zelos immediately joined him in the fight against the Renegades. Bookworm, Keyblade, Mithos, and Shade watched.
“Do you think we should help?” Bookworm asked eventually.
“No! We should go home and save the DDR machine! I need to play DDR now!” Keyblade said, trying to remember which device would lead them home. Meanwhile, the Renegades had managed to get some archers out of Kratos’s sword range. Many arrows suddenly flew towards Mithos, narrowly missing him.
“We have to get out of here!” Mithos shouted, running towards one of the devices.
“Mithos, I don’t think that one leads to the DDR machine…” Keyblade said.
“Who cares where it leads?! They’re trying to kill me!” he screamed. Another arrow hit the wall an inch away from his head. Using the randomly selected device, he changed the Mage’s Ring’s function and activated it.
A moment later, Mithos, Keyblade, Shade, and Bookworm were standing in a strange world.
“Where are we?” Bookworm looked around. Nothing looked particularly familiar. They were near some kind of village… There was definitely something familiar in that village.
“I don’t care where we are!” Keyblade screamed in excitement and ran towards a machine in the village. “This world has DDR!”

Game Over

2006-12-12T21:46:00.000-08:00

“STOP!” Colette’s voice echoed all over the stadium when she yelled into the megaphone. “Mr. Kratos! Please don’t kill anyone! At least wait until the end of the match!”
“Yeah, dad! You can sit in the stands and watch me win!” Lloyd shouted as he flew by. He was trying to hit Shade with a bludger, but missed because he was distracted by Kratos’s sudden appearance. Instead, the bludger headed straight for Mithos, who surprisingly managed to dodge it. Maybe all his recent near-death experiences had made him a little better at surviving.
“Come on! Let’s go watch!” Sheena said eagerly. Zelos, Presea, and Regal all nodded in agreement. Raine was already running towards the stands. She absolutely had to examine Colette’s megaphone.
“Fine,” Kratos reluctantly agreed. He returned his sword to its sheath and put away his angel wings, then followed Raine. He kept his hand on his sword hilt, as though he couldn’t wait to challenge his enemies and retrieve the Sorcerer’s Ring.
After dodging the bludger, Mithos just stared at his friends flying above him. “Do they look smaller to you?” he asked Presea.
“Yes, their size has decreased significantly,” she agreed. “After this game, we must ask them what happened.”
Mithos nodded and hurried after Kratos. They all sat in the stands with Colette to watch the rest of the chaotic game. After about fifteen minutes, there were many more goals. Keyblade and Angelina had each scored a goal. Ed had scored two. The Hufflepuff and Slytherin chasers had also earned many points for their teams. The score was now:
Gryffindor - 40
Ravenclaw - 20
Hufflepuff - 20
Slytherin - 50
Slytherin was ahead because almost no one had gotten past their keeper. So far, the only one was Bookworm. She had flown past Shade, but was so surprised by this unexpected success that she dropped the Quaffle. She didn’t manage to get a goal, but at least she wasn’t turned into goo.
“How much longer is this going to take?” Kratos asked grumpily. He was getting very impatient. He didn’t usually wait for his enemies to play sports before attacking.
“Umm… I think it ends when someone catches the snitch. That’s a little golden ball. It’s so pretty!” Colette explained.
“Someone had better catch it soon…” Kratos said threateningly.
Hearing this, Bookworm suddenly realized that there had been no sign of the snitch in the entire game. The crowd cheered as Keyblade scored another goal and then screamed as one of the Hufflepuff chasers suddenly turned into a pile of goo when he got too close to the Slytherin goals. Bookworm ignored this as she wondered why the snitch had not yet appeared. The weather was perfect and all the seekers were very talented… Suddenly she realized where the snitch was.
“HARRY!” she called as she flew toward her teammate. She accidentally crashed her broom into him, causing them both to nearly fall. Once they regained their balance, Harry asked, “What’s the matter now, Bookworm?” He had been trying to avoid her during Quidditch games, after she had accidentally knocked him off his broom during one practice. (He had spent a whole day in the hospital wing and later found out that she had just wanted to ask if she could borrow his copy of Quidditch Through the Ages.)
“I think I know where the snitch is!” she excitedly told him her idea. He immediately flew to the stands. As Bookworm suspected, the snitch had been in Tas’s pouch for most of the game.
“GRYFFINDOR WINS!!!” Lee screamed into the megaphone. All the Hogwarts students swarmed onto the field to congratulate their teams.
“Come on! Let’s say hi to Lloyd!” Colette said as she flew to the field. Kratos, Mithos, and the other Symphonians hurried after her.

Chaotic Quidditch

2006-12-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

“Okay men! And women! This is it. The big one,” Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor captain, encouraged his team. Harry and Angelina, a chaser, nodded in agreement.
Fred and George had memorized Wood’s pep talk last year, so they recited the rest, “The one we’ve all been waiting for. We’re going to win. I know it. Or else.” Except for the added “or else”, their recitation was perfect.
The other two Gryffindor players hadn’t even been paying attention. Shockingly enough, Bookworm was reading. She was reading Quidditch Through The Ages, to review the history and rules of the game. “Hmm… There are 700 kinds of Quidditch foul, but it won’t list them all because it doesn’t want to give us ideas… It says you can’t attack an opponent with an axe. Do you think that means keyblades too?” Bookworm asked.
“But it doesn’t specifically say anything against keyblades?” Keyblade asked hopefully.
“No… It also doesn’t specifically say anything against four-way Quidditch games, so I think it should be okay to use your keyblade… Let me just finish reading to make sure,” Bookworm said, turning back to her book.
Wood took a deep breath and tried to control his frustration. “The match is about to start! This is no time for reading!”
“But I’m at a good part!” Bookworm whined.
“Don’t you want to beat Shade and Ed at Quidditch? Come on!” Keyblade said. Bookworm, being an overly competitive person, immediately put down the book and grabbed her broom. They all walked out onto the field.
“And now it’s the Gryffindor team! Wood! Potter! Weasley! Weasley! Johnson! Keyblade! Bookworm!” Lee Jordan yelled into his magical megaphone.
“Hi Keyblade! Hi Bookworm!” Colette took the megaphone, waving to her friends.
“Can I play too? Please? It looks like a lot of fun and I’ve never ridden a flying broomstick before, although I did ride some flying horses before…” Tas informed Hagrid.
“Oh no ye don’t!” Hagrid held tightly to Tas’s leash. (After the incident with the dungbombs at the tryouts, Tas was not allowed anywhere near the Quidditch pitch, unless he was with Hagrid and had a leash.)
“Having fun, Potter?” Draco’s sneering voice carried across the Quidditch pitch. “You and your Mudblood friends don’t stand a chance!”
“Draco…” Shade said threateningly.
“I mean you and your Gryffindor friends don’t stand a chance!” Draco corrected. He was having a hard time getting used to being polite to Muggle-borns, but he was now friends with Shade. Many of his enemies were now piles of goo in the hospital wing. He decided this was worth a little politeness… Besides, even he didn’t really want to anger Shade.
The team captains shook hands and the game began. It was complete chaos. Whoever decided they should have a four-way game regretted it very much. Within the first minute, Keyblade had fallen off her broom. Lloyd immediately opened his angel wings (which worked much better than brooms for him) and saved her, accidentally hitting her with his Beater’s bat in the process. While Keyblade was given a potion to revive her, Bookworm scored a goal! Unfortunately, she scored in her own goal. Lee swore into the megaphone.
“He doesn’t really mean that! That was a really good try, Bookworm! I’m sure you’ll get it in the right goal soon!” Colette said optimistically.
A few exciting minutes later, the game had to be paused while the referee tried to decide if turning an opponent into a pile of goo was a foul. It was not in the list of 700 fouls, so Shade was not punished. This made Lee swear again.
“Lee! That was a mean thing to say! Shade’s not that bad. She’s actually really nice once you get to know her,” Colette scolded Lee. McGonagall smiled. She had picked the perfect co-commentator.
Shade considered turning Lee into goo, but decided to wait until after the match. She had to concentrate on defending the goals right now. Once Keyblade had managed to stay on her broom, she played very well. After scoring in Ravenclaw’s goal, she got into a fight over the Quaffle with Ed. As their squabble began to turn into a full-scale alchemy duel, Genis cast his Wind Blade spell at them. This painful experience successfully reminded them to stop fighting, but also caused the game to be paused again. The rulebook only said players were not allowed to use wands, so the referee decided Genis’s spell did not count as a foul.
“No way! You’re not letting that little kid get away with that!” Lee and the Gryffindors groaned.
“I AM NOT LITTLE! AND I’M NOT SHORT! AND I’M NOT A RUNT EITHER!” Ed screamed, flying his broom right into the stands in an attempt to run over Lee.
Fortunately, Al was in the stands, watching the game. “Big brother! Stop! He was talking about Genis, not you! And he didn’t say all those things anyway!” Ed’s uncontrollable anger at being called “little” caused him to lose control of the broom. He crashed into Al, knocking his head off. A cat poked its head out of Al’s armor and scratched Ed across his face.
The referee decided that crashing into innocent bystanders did count as a foul, so Gryffindor was awarded a penalty shot. To everyone’s dismay, Bookworm took the penalty.
“Aim for the Gryffindor goal!” Keyblade suggested. Bookworm decided to take her advice and carefully aimed for the Gryffindor goal. She threw the Quaffle. It went through the Ravenclaw goal perfectly. The Gryffindor stands erupted into cheers. As Bookworm was doing a victory lap around the pitch, things suddenly got even more chaotic. A strange group of people appeared in the middle of the pitch.
“There they are! They’re the ones who stole the Sorcerer’s Ring!” Kratos pointed at Bookworm, Keyblade, and Shade. He opened his angel wings and unsheathed his sword.

A Short Fight

2006-11-29T19:38:00.000-08:00

“Yay! Quidditch finals tomorrow! I’m so excited!” Bookworm said happily.
“Yes, Bookworm, I know the Quidditch finals are tomorrow. I’m on a team too, remember?” Ed said, trying to be patient. “Have you finished the Aging Potion?”
“Of course! We can use it later… After I beat you at Quidditch!” Bookworm grinned.
“I don’t think that’s likely to happen. Have you learned to throw the Quaffle correctly yet?” Ed asked, glaring at her.
“Shut up! I beat you last time we played!” Bookworm yelled at him.
“Yeah, but that was just because Harry caught the snitch. You threw the Quaffle in your own goal!” Ed retorted.
“No I didn’t! You must not have seen correctly because you’re so short!” Bookworm yelled back at him.
Keyblade, Al, Genis, Colette, and Lloyd arrived in the library a few minutes later. By this time, Ed had alchemified a large spear and was attempting to stab Bookworm. She was trying to strangle him, despite this obvious danger.
“Bookworm! Ed! Stop fighting! If you talk to each other peacefully, maybe you can be friends again!” Colette suggested.
“No!… She’s evil! She… called me… SHORT!” Ed managed to say while struggling to breathe.
“He said I’m a bad Quidditch player!… Ouch!” Bookworm shouted when she was poked with the spear.
“Lloyd! They’re going to kill each other! We have to stop them!” Colette wailed.
“Umm…” Lloyd tried to think of something to do.
“Lloyd, if Bookworm dies, she can’t give us the Aging Potion. We’ll have to stay longer and write that essay,” Genis said.
“What!?! Nooo!” Lloyd unsheathed his twin swords and hit Bookworm and Ed with them.
“What’s going on?” Shade asked as she entered the library.
“Bookworm and Ed had a fight, but now they’re friends again,” Colette said cheerfully. This was not completely true. They were just too tired and injured to be enemies.
“Okay… Have we started to plan what to do after the Quidditch game?” Shade asked.
“Umm… No, not really. We’re going to take the potion after the game and go to a different world. Where should we go?” Keyblade asked, hoping their next destination had more anime.
“We should go to the Alagaesia next!” Shade suggested. “If we don’t, I’ll kill you all!”
“Death threats aren’t really necessary,” Bookworm said, recovering from her fight. “We don’t even know if the Sorcerer’s Ring can take us to Alagaesia.”
“Can we play DDR before exploring more worlds? I haven’t played DDR in weeks!” Keyblade complained.
“Yes!... I’ll beat Bookworm at DDR… after I beat her at Quidditch!… And I’ll beat you too, Shade!” Ed said, starting to breathe better now.
“What did I do?” Shade asked innocently.
“You made me short!” Ed yelled, his anger helping his speech.
“No I didn’t! You were already short!” Shade protested.
“Okay… Let’s continue this discussion after the Quidditch game,” Al suggested before Ed could react violently to Shade’s comment about his height.
“Did you know this is the first time there’s ever been a four-way Quidditch game at Hogwarts?” Bookworm said. “They’re only doing it now because all the teams are tied and there’s no time for a bunch of tiebreaker games.”
“Yes, Bookworm, we all know that. We’re on the teams too, remember?” Keyblade said. “See you all tomorrow!”
They all said good-bye and returned to their common rooms, excited about the upcoming game.

Transfiguration and Tryouts

2006-11-27T19:46:00.000-08:00

The next few days were fairly uneventful. Dumbledore agreed to let Hagrid take care of Tas. Pansy was stuck in the hospital wing for an undetermined amount of time. Most of the Slytherins were now afraid of Shade, although they would never admit it. Ed discovered that the Hogwarts library contained many books about alchemy, so he and Al spent a lot of time there, studying to prepare themselves for the Philosopher’s Stone transmutation. Colette often visited Hagrid to play with Fluffy and Fang. Bookworm and Hermione hardly left the library. No one was quite sure if they were actually working on the Aging Potion or just reading. Keyblade spent most of her free time either practicing alchemy with Ed and Al or sparring with Lloyd. There hadn’t been much difficult schoolwork or homework that week, but everyone was still relieved when it was finally Friday. Even better, Friday evening was when the Quidditch tryouts would take place.
During breakfast, Keyblade noticed Bookworm kept scribbling on a piece of parchment. “Is that for the Aging Potion?” she asked curiously.
“No, it’s even better!” Bookworm put down her quill pen and showed Keyblade the paper. “Since Shade got to beat up Pansy, I made a list of everyone I want to beat up before we leave here!”
Keyblade read the long list. “Bookworm, how do you plan to beat all these people up? And how will you even find them? Voldemort’s hiding far away, Bellatrix Lestrange is in Azkaban, and Umbridge and Fudge are probably at the Ministry of Magic in London. Are you going to beat up Snape in the middle of Potions Class or something? And don’t forget, if you try to beat up Draco Malfoy, Shade will probably murder you. And Ed told me Cho Chang’s in the hospital wing because of the explosion.”
“Okay, that makes one less person to attack… Hmm… Do you have any ideas for how to get the rest of them?” Bookworm asked.
“No!” Keyblade said in exasperation. “Bookworm, shouldn’t you be working on the Aging Potion instead of plotting revenge?”
Bookworm considered this. “Can’t I at least beat up Umbridge? We could borrow some thestrals and fly to London…”
Before Keyblade could reply, breakfast ended. Their first class was Transfiguration with the Slytherins. This was Hermione’s favorite subject, so she made them hurry to class. Professor McGonagall instructed them to practice turning squirrels into goblets.
“I’ll hit the squirrels with a fireball, then you alchemify the goblets, okay? If we wave our wands and say the correct incantation, McGonagall might not notice,” Shade whispered to Keyblade.
“Yay! I did it!” Bookworm excitedly waved a goblet around.
“How did you do that?” Shade asked, shocked that Bookworm had mastered magic so quickly.
“I memorized a bunch of spells last time I read the Harry Potter books! And Hermione taught me some more!” Bookworm excitedly explained. At the end of the class, she and Hermione were the only ones to perform the spell correctly. Shade and Keyblade’s plan was successful. Some of their classmates might have noticed the tiny explosion and the squirrel-like piles of goo, but no one told McGonagall because they preferred to remain non-goo. McGonagall awarded Hermione, Bookworm, Keyblade, and Shade perfect grades for the class.
Later, everyone gathered on the Quidditch pitch for tryouts. Tas even got Hagrid’s permission to watch. Al volunteered to keep an eye on him because his armor was too heavy to fly on a broom anyway.
Draco slipped his team’s captain a few galleons, earning himself a position as seeker. None of the Slytherins wanted a Muggle-born on their team, but Shade did very well as keeper. Normally, they wouldn’t have let her on the team no matter how well she did, but they had heard some rumors involving explosions and goo… Shade was welcomed as the new Slytherin keeper.
The Ravenclaw team quickly realized that small and speedy Genis would be a good seeker. After checking the rulebook to make sure there was nothing against alchemy or auto-mail, they selected Ed as their new chaser.
Lloyd had some trouble flying. He was more familiar with rheiards and wings than broomsticks. However, his luck changed at the end of his tryout. Both bludgers flew toward him at once! Lloyd grabbed a beater’s bat and, holding it like one of his twin swords, whacked both bludgers. The Hufflepuffs thought this was incredible and selected him for their new beater. Unfortunately, Colette was too klutzy to make the team. She said she didn’t want to be a burden, but seemed really disappointed anyway. McGonagall had a brilliant idea to cheer her up. Lee Jordan, the commentator, had a bad habit of swearing and yelling at the Slytherins during Quidditch matches. McGonagall had been trying to do something about this, but had been unsuccessful so far.
“Miss Brunel! Would you like to help Lee Jordan commentate at the next Quidditch match?” she asked.
“Really?” Colette’s face lit up. “I’d love to! Oh! I have to tell Lloyd!” As she ran off to find Lloyd, she tripped and knocked Al over. Tas took this opportunity to set off a dungbomb he had “borrowed” from the Weasley twins. The terrible stench knocked all the potential Gryffindor players unconscious.
“Look! We’re late! I told you we should have left the library earlier!” Keyblade said as she and Bookworm walked to the Quidditch pitch.
“But I was reading!” Bookworm protested. This was not a very good excuse because she was still reading while she walked.
“Hey! What happened to everyone?” Keyblade asked when she noticed all the unconscious Gryffindors.
Bookworm and Keyblade were the only Gryffindors to tryout, so they automatically became the new chasers, even though Keyblade fell off her broom and Bookworm accidentally hit Harry with the Quaffle. (She was aiming for Keyblade, who was in the opposite direction.)
After the tryouts, Ed asked Bookworm when the Aging Potion would be ready. “Umm… maybe a few more weeks…” Bookworm said uncertainly. “I think I should have it ready by the final Quidditch match.”
“Maybe after the final match, we should take the Aging Potion and leave,” Keyblade suggested. (A few weeks seemed like a really long time to go without any DDR or anime.)
“What? No way! I still have so much magic to learn! And I haven’t even attacked Umbridge yet!” Bookworm complained.
“Bookworm, did you know McGonagall’s going to assign a long essay that will be due the day after the final Quidditch match?” Shade asked, grinning evilly.
“Essay?!” An expression of complete horror appeared on Bookworm’s face. “Okay, we can leave right after the match, even if I haven’t beaten up Umbridge.”
“Wow, she’s just like Lloyd,” Genis shook his head in amazement.
“Thanks!” Lloyd said, thinking this was meant as a compliment.
“And please make sure the Aging Potion is ready by then! I need to get taller!” Ed said. He had apparently forgotten that he hadn’t grown in the past four years, therefore the potion would have no effect on his height. No one bothered to point this out. He would find out soon enough anyway.

Zelos vs. King Arthur

2006-11-25T16:55:00.000-08:00

“Stop trying to cut off my arm!” Zelos yelled as he dodged King Arthur’s sword blows. He was not doing very well. Arthur was quite good at cutting off his opponent’s limbs. Zelos was getting tired and wasn’t dodging as well as he had earlier. Despite this, he still continued to fight. “Don’t worry, hunny! I’ll save you, even if I do lose my arm!” He thought about that for a moment. “Hey Raine! If I lose my arm, can you still heal it?”
“No, if it’s completely cut off, I can’t do anything about it,” Raine informed him.
“WHAT!?! I could really lose my arm here?!” Zelos wailed.
“Stop talking! Concentrate on the fight!” Kratos shouted.
“But if I lose my arm, I won’t be so sexy!” Zelos said, horrified at the idea. He decided he needed a better fighting strategy. “Hey Mithos! Do you have another one of those exploding things you used on the bunny?”
“No…” Mithos tried to think of a way to defeat Arthur and save Sheena. Suddenly, he had a great idea! “Zelos! I know how to defeat him! We have to say ‘ni’!”
“Ni?” Zelos said uncertainly.
“No! Anything but that!” Arthur moaned.
“Ni! Ni! Ni!” Zelos and Mithos yelled. Arthur fell over, moaning in pain.
“Hey! The witch’s cursing the king!” said a peasant who had returned with plenty of wood.
“What king? I didn’t vote for a king!” said another peasant who had returned with some torches.
The first peasant ignored the second peasant. “She’s cursing the king! Burn her! Burn her!”
“Zelos! Hurry! Activate the Mage’s Ring!” Sheena yelled as more peasants arrived with wood and torches.
“But I just saved your life! Would it hurt you to give me a kiss or two before yelling at me?” Zelos asked hopefully. When he noticed Sheena’s death glare, he shut up and activated the ring. Soon, they arrived back in Derris-Kharlan.
“You idiot! They were going to kill me, but you still wanted to wait for a kiss before leaving! What is wrong with you?” Sheena screamed at Zelos.
“Sheena is right. If you cannot behave more responsibly, you should not have the Mage’s Ring,” Kratos said.
“I’ll take it!” Mithos volunteered.
“Are you sure you are responsible enough?” Kratos asked, remembering the incident at the DDR machine.
“Sheena, Kratos, I think you both should be a little nicer. Zelos saved Sheena from King Arthur and Mithos saved us all from the killer rabbit,” Rin said.
“Very well, he can take the Mage’s Ring. But if he ever behaves like that again…” Kratos gave Mithos a threatening glare. Mithos took the Mage’s Ring from Zelos and made a mental note never to cry like a little baby in front of Kratos again.
“Yeah, sorry Zelos. I guess I was being a little harsh… Thanks for saving me,” Sheena said awkwardly.
“No problem, hunny! But are you sure you don’t want to kiss again?” Zelos asked.
Sheena was about to attack Zelos again, but was still too tired from last time. She just shook her head instead. Zelos, who had completely forgotten how much power she had used up in her last attack, decided she must be starting to like him a little more. Maybe next time I save her, she’ll date me! he thought happily. Surprisingly, he had enough sense not to say this aloud.
“So now where do we go?” Mithos asked.
“Now we go home!” Sesshomaru said angrily. His death glare made everyone, even Kratos, agree to return them home before continuing their quest. Mithos changed the ring’s function and sent everyone to feudal Japan.
“Look, Lord Sesshomaru! There’s Inuyasha!” Jaken pointed to a nearby half-demon who was leading a group of humans and demons.
“Come! We must get the Tetsaiga from my brother,” Sesshomaru said as he and Jaken hurried after the strange group.
“Bye everyone!” Rin waved at Mithos and the Symphonians before following Sesshomaru and Jaken.
“Bye Rin!” Mithos said as he activated the Mage’s Ring and returned to Derris-Kharlan. He looked at all the function-changing devices. “Now where do we go?”
“Let’s just pick one randomly,” Raine suggested.
“Okay,” Mithos selected one and changed the ring’s function. He activated it and sent them all to another world…

Classmates

2006-11-18T15:19:00.000-08:00

“What’s our first class?” Bookworm asked Keyblade during breakfast.
Keyblade looked at the schedule for Gryffindor first-years. “We’ve got Herbology with the Slytherins.”
“WHAT!?! But Harry’s supposed to have Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, not the Slytherins!” Bookworm protested.
“But we all just got added to the classes. They probably had to change a lot,” Keyblade said.
“Keyblade! Bookworm! What does ‘Quidditch’ mean?” Lloyd came to the Gryffindor table to ask.
“Quidditch is a sport played on flying broomsticks,” Bookworm explained.
“Oh… Someone was just yelling at me and Colette for injuring some people from the Quidditch team. I think it might have had something to do with the explosion last night… And then I saw a sign saying people got injured in the other explosions too, so there’s going to be Quidditch tryouts for all four houses this weekend,” Lloyd said.
“Really? We should all try out! That would be so awesome!” Bookworm said excitedly.
“One more question. Where’s Potions class? Colette and I have that first, but we can’t figure out where to go,” Lloyd said.
“It’s in the dungeons. Good luck!” Keyblade said, remembering how unpleasant Professor Snape was to all his non-Slytherin students. Lloyd and Colette headed for the dungeons. Bookworm, Keyblade, and Tas walked to the Herbology greenhouses. Overall, this class went well. The Gryffindors and Slytherins were avoiding each other mostly. The only one who had a really bad time was Professor Sprout, who spent most of the class trying to keep Tas away from all the dangerous plants. When Herbology ended, everyone walked across the Hogwarts grounds to return to the castle for their next classes.
“Did you hear? Three mudbloods just got sent to Gryffindor! That house gets more pathetic everyday!” a sneering Slytherin boy told his cronies in a loud voice.
“Shut up, Malfoy!” someone said angrily.
Hearing this voice, Bookworm abruptly stopped walking and turned around. The three Gryffindors behind her did not stop in time. They crashed into her, causing all of them to fall down.
“Wow! I didn’t realize the mudbloods were that stupid!” said Pansy Parkinson, one of the Slytherins with Draco.
“I told you already: stop insulting muggle-borns like that,” Shade said as she approached.
“Why should I?” Pansy sneered. She had either forgotten the previous night’s explosion or she was just trying to look cool. Shade recited a powerful spell that left Pansy resembling a large pile of scorched goo.
Draco stared at her. Normally, he would never hang out with a muggle-born, but Shade was clearly more powerful than any of the other first-years. Powerful friends were always useful…
“Wha’s goin’ on?” Hagrid had heard the noise and hurried from his hut to investigate.
“Hi Hagrid!” said one of the people Bookworm had knocked over. He and his friends stood up. Bookworm quickly followed, still staring at them.
“Hullo Harry! Wanna tell me what happened ’ere?” Hagrid said.
“Malfoy was being a jerk to some muggle-borns, so I told him to shut up. Parkinson said muggle-borns are stupid. And then that girl cursed her.” Harry said, pointing at Shade.
Hagrid stared at the goo-like Pansy. “Crabbe! Goyle! Take ’er to the hospital wing!” Crabbe and Goyle dragged Pansy away in the direction of the school.
Shade decided to distract Hagrid before he could punish her for injuring her classmate. “Hagrid! Have you met Tas? Professor Dumbledore decided we need more diverse students, so he let Tas enroll here. He’s a kender, a very dangerous creature.”
“He is?” Hagrid stared at Tas in amazement.
“Yes, just ask Professor Sprout. She can tell you how dangerous he is,” Shade said, remembering Tas’s behavior during Herbology.
Tas decided to introduce himself. “Hello! My name’s Tasslehoff Burrfoot. I’ve never seen anyone as big as you, Hagrid. Except maybe Caramon… Caramon’s my best friend. Did I ever tell you about him?” he said.
“Hmm… I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to let a dangerous creature stay in the school. I’ve gotta go see Professor Dumbledore. I’ll talk to ye later, Tas!” Hagrid ran away to visit Dumbledore. Hopefully, the Headmaster would let him take care of this “dangerous creature”.
“Hey Shade! I thought you said we shouldn’t cause anymore explosions,” Keyblade said.
“I didn’t explode anything. I just turned Pansy into goo,” Shade grinned. “And how’s that Aging Potion coming, Bookworm?”
“You’re making an Aging Potion?!” Hermione, one of Harry’s friends, gasped. “But we don’t learn that until third year!”
Bookworm had finally recovered from the shock of meeting her favorite book characters. “Yeah, I know. Do you think maybe you could help me?”
“Of course! I’ve been dying to brew an Aging Potion since I read that third year textbook!” Hermione said excitedly. Her friend, Ron, rolled his eyes.
“Great! We’ve still got some time before next class! Let’s go to the library!” Bookworm and Hermione ran to the school, eager to begin reading.

Witch!

2006-11-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

“How many times do I have to tell you?! I AM NOT A WITCH!” Sheena yelled at the angry crowd.
“But we saw you do magic! You cursed a poor helpless knight!” one of the peasants shouted back at her.
“No I didn’t! I summoned spirits to attack an idiot! I’m a summoner, not a witch! There’s a big difference!” Sheena yelled.
King Arthur glared at her. “You can explain at your trial. Then I, Arthur, King of the Britons, will decide if you are guilty of witchcraft.”
“You decide? What happened to the trial by jury? Or the voting system?” someone demanded.
“What trial by jury? When have we ever had a voting system?” Arthur asked in confusion.
“See? No voting or trial by jury! I told you we live in an oppressive dictatorship!” a rebellious peasant yelled.
“This is not a dictatorship! It’s a monarchy! And as king, I get to decide the guilt of convicted witches!” Arthur said, very irritated.
“When is this trial?” Sheena asked. She didn’t think she could stand to spend much more time with these crazy people.
“We will have the trial when we arrive at the village. It’s just up ahead,” someone answered.
A little while later, Mithos and friends arrived in the village. They joined the crowd at its center and watched as King Arthur and one of his knights forced Sheena to get onto a scale with a duck.
“I knew it! She weighs less than a duck! She’s a witch!” a peasant yelled.
“Burn her! Burn her!” the crowd screamed.
“I do not weigh less than a duck! There’s a bunch of bricks with the duck! I’m not a witch!” Sheena yelled.
“Burn her!” King Arthur shouted. The crowd cheered and ran to get wood and torches.
“STOP! You can’t burn my hunny!” Zelos yelled.
Arthur stared at him. “You travel with the knight who slew the killer rabbit, but I have not met you before. Who are you?”
“I’m Zelos Wilder, the Chosen of Tethe’alla and the prettiest guy in all of Symphonia!” Zelos introduced himself.
“Umm… Zelos, I don’t think he knows about Tethe’alla or Symphonia,” Mithos pointed out.
Zelos pretended not to hear. “So are you going to let Sheena go or not?”
“No! She is a witch!” Arthur said angrily. “And if you keep disagreeing with your king, I shall have to kill you!”
Zelos unsheathed his sword. “Go ahead and try! I won’t let you burn her, even if she is a witch!”
King Arthur unsheathed his sword too. “So be it. You will die, Sir Zelos.”
“Should we help him?” Rin asked Mithos.
He shook his head. “No, let’s just watch first. This should be an interesting fight...”

An Explosive First Day At Hogwarts!

2006-11-07T16:13:00.000-08:00

“I didn’t steal anything! I’m not a thief!” Tas said angrily.
“Umm… Bookworm, I think Tas is in trouble,” Keyblade said. Bookworm did not seem to hear her. She had started reading the books she had gotten from the library. Bookworm never paid attention to what was going on when she was reading.
“Liar! You stole George’s dungbombs!” Fred Weasley accused. “I saw you take them! They’re in your pouch!”
Tas looked in his pouch and discovered that the dungbombs really were there. He gave them back to George. “You must have dropped them. You’re really lucky I found them or someone might have stolen them.”
“I didn’t drop them! Fred saw you take them right out of my bag,” George said, stuffing the dungbombs back in his bag.
“No! I’m just really good at finding things!” Tas persisted.
“Are you sure he stole the dungbombs, Fred?” Percy asked. “No one else saw him. You had better not be saying this just to bother first-years… And you’re not supposed to have dungbombs anyway! I’m confiscating those.” He snatched the dungbombs away from George.
“Nice going! You got us caught!” George glared at Tas, then turned to Fred. “And that was the last of my dungbombs… I need to go to Zonko’s. When’s the next Hogsmeade trip?”
“Not until next month. We’ll have to use the secret passage,” Fred whispered.
“I could find those dungbombs for you!” Tas offered.
At this point, they were interrupted by a loud explosion.
For the first time, Bookworm looked up from her book. “What’s going on?”
“That sounded like it came from near the dungeons… That’s where the Slytherin Common Room is. Do you think Shade’s okay?” Keyblade asked. She got no answer because Bookworm had started reading again. Keyblade poked her to get her attention. “Hey! Do you want to go to the dungeons and find out what happened?”
“Okay,” Bookworm reluctantly put down her book and followed Keyblade out the portrait hole. They walked down to the dungeons where all the Slytherins were trying to explain what had happened to the teachers. Everyone was telling a different story and thought it was definitely not their own fault.
“Shade! What happened?” Keyblade asked when she found her friend.
Shade grinned evilly. “Some of the other Slytherins said a Muggle-born couldn’t do magic as well as a Pureblood. So I showed them some of the spells Raistlin taught me.”
“You exploded your Common Room!?!” Bookworm asked in amazement.
“Shade, do you think maybe you could try not to kill anyone while we’re here?” Keyblade asked.
Before Shade could answer, there was another explosion. This one came from the direction of the Gryffindor Common Room.
“Where’s Tas?” Shade asked suspiciously.
“We left him in the Common Room… I think he was going to help Fred and George get some dungbombs…” Keyblade said, realizing what had caused the second explosion.
“And you accuse me of trying to kill people! You left a kender unsupervised! He probably set off the Weasleys’ whole collection of dungbombs!” Shade yelled at them.
“Should we go see if everyone’s okay?” Keyblade asked uncertainly.
“No, if dungbombs caused the explosion, we should wait awhile first. We won’t be able to breathe in that Common Room for at least an hour… While we wait, we could go to the library!” Bookworm said excitedly.
“No! You already went to the library. You’ve got enough books for now. Maybe we could see how Ed, Al, and the Symphonia people are doing,” Keyblade suggested.
Bookworm reluctantly agreed. Shade decided to come too. (It was best if the teachers didn’t see her at the scene of the first explosion.) Hufflepuff was closest to the Slytherin Common Room, so they decided to visit Lloyd and Colette first. Halfway there, Colette flew right into them, knocking Bookworm down.
“Why aren’t you in your Common Room?” Bookworm asked in confusion as she stood up.
Lloyd flew after her and started to explain. “Colette tripped and knocked over someone’s Potions project. There was a little explosion and some people started to change colors…”
Colette continued his explanation. “Lloyd saved me! He hit the cauldron with his sword so none of the potion got on me. It hit some other students instead. They were getting a little angry, so we decided to leave.”
“You used your sword in front of everyone?! Please tell me you left before using your wings,” Shade said.
“Of course! And why shouldn’t I use my sword?” Lloyd asked, confused.
“This is a school. That means no swords allowed,” Bookworm explained.
“But I got to bring my sword to school in Iselia!” Lloyd protested.
“I think Raine was too busy making sure you stayed awake to complain about your sword,” Keyblade said.
Lloyd ignored her. “So why aren’t you in your Common Rooms?”
“I blew mine up,” Shade said proudly.
“Tas set off a bunch of dungbombs in ours,” Keyblade said.
“Since Colette blew up that potion, that means Ravenclaw is the only House that hasn’t been exploded yet,” Bookworm observed. “Let’s go see Ed, Al, and Genis!”
As they neared the Ravenclaw Common Room, a fourth explosion shook the school.
“I wonder who did that,” Bookworm said sarcastically.
“ED! What did you do?! We agreed we’d wait until later to try to get our bodies back!” Al yelled.
“That wasn’t what I was doing…” Ed muttered.
“Then what were you doing?” Genis asked angrily.
“I was just trying to use the Philosopher’s Stone to make myself a little taller,” Ed said, his voice barely audible.
“WHAT!?!” everyone screamed.
“But you said we’d only use it to get my body and your arm and leg, Big Brother! You know how dangerous human transmutations are!” Al shouted.
Ed yelled at him. “That’s easy for you to say! You’re a tall suit of armor! It was bad enough before, but now Shade cast that spell…”
“I have an idea!” Bookworm said. “I was reading something earlier about an Aging Potion. If I can make that, we can return to our real ages when we’re ready to leave Hogwarts.”
“Wow! That’s a great idea, Bookworm!” Colette said happily.
“Okay, you can make the Aging Potion, Bookworm, but make sure you keep an eye on Tas too. We don’t want anymore explosions,” Shade said.
“Fine,” Bookworm agreed reluctantly. Keeping an eye on a kender was a nearly impossible task, so she wasn’t expecting much success.
Later, Shade cast memory spells on the teachers so they wouldn’t remember who caused the explosions and everyone returned to their Common Rooms. While Keyblade and Bookworm were gone, Tas had become the Weasley twins’ new partner. (They thought the dungbomb explosion was great!) Now Filch would have to deal with a kender, along with Fred, George, and Peeves. Bookworm almost felt sorry for him. Almost. She read more about the Aging Potion. It didn’t sound too difficult, but she wasn’t sure she could do it correctly… Suddenly, she had a brilliant idea! She could ask Hermione to help!

Killer Rabbit!

2006-11-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

“Is this world peaceful enough, your highness?” Zelos asked Raine.
“No! Can’t you see all the bones? We need to go somewhere peaceful to save Mithos! Get us out of here, you idiot!” Sheena yelled at Zelos.
“Lord Sesshomaru does not run away from piles of bones!” Jaken announced.
“Raine, heal Mithos. I will protect you all from the monster responsible for these bones!” Kratos unsheathed his sword and looked around for some frightening monster. He completely ignored the fluffy little bunny.
“We do not need your protection! Lord Sesshomaru will kill the monster!” Jaken glared at Kratos.
“RESURRECTION!” Raine shouted. Her staff began to glow and a magic circle appeared beneath her. Light surrounded Mithos as he stood up, fully healed.
“What’s going on?” Mithos asked in confusion. “Where are we?”
“We do not know where we are. We came here because Raine needed a peaceful place to heal you after the DDR machine exploded. Kratos and Sesshomaru are looking for the monster that killed these people,” Presea explained, pointing at the bones.
“Monster?...” Mithos looked around curiously. He noticed the cute little rabbit and screamed. “It’s the killer rabbit! We’re in the Monty Python world! Run!”
Everyone stared at him. “I think his brain may have been damaged in the explosion. It is beyond my skill to heal. Hopefully, he will return to normal after some time,” Raine said worriedly.
“No! I’m okay! But that rabbit’s dangerous! It will jump up and bite our heads off! It can kill us all!” Mithos yelled as he ran away. Everyone stared at the bunny, which looked cute and harmless.
“Hmph! Humans are such cowards!” Jaken said. “Lord Sesshomaru and I are not afraid of rabbits!”
Once he was a safe distance away from the killer rabbit, Mithos started to look for a way to defeat it. He had seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail enough times to know that the only way to kill the rabbit was to use the Holy Hand Grenade. But where could he find the grenade?
Then something very random and convenient happened, as it usually does in Monty Python movies. A group of monks walked by, carrying the box with the Holy Hand Grenade.
Mithos ran up to them. “Hey! Can I use that? I need to kill a monster!”
The head monk handed him the grenade while the other monks chanted. “Do you need to hear the holy instructions?” he asked. Mithos shook his head. “Very well, but remember you must count to three, not five. Three!” Mithos nodded and ran back to his companions.
“I can’t believe Mithos is scared of this!” Zelos laughed as he poked the rabbit with a stick. The rabbit opened its mouth to reveal nasty big pointy teeth! It jumped high in the air and bit Zelos’s throat.
“ZELOS!” Sheena screamed in horror and dismay. “PYRE SEAL!” She threw her magic cards at the ferocious little monster, forcing it to let go of Zelos.
“Thanks hunny… I knew you liked me…” Zelos said before he lost consciousness.
“No I don’t!” Sheena protested. “But don’t you dare die!” Rin and Presea carried Zelos away from the rabbit. Raine hurried after them to heal him. Sheena, Kratos, Sesshomaru, and Regal continued to attack the killer rabbit. Jaken shouted encouragement at Sesshomaru from a safe distance.
“Get out of the way!” Mithos yelled as he ran toward them. He pulled the pin from the grenade. “One! Two! Three!” He threw the grenade as hard as he could. The explosion annihilated the rabbit and gave minor injuries to the four who had still been fighting it. Raine easily healed these wounds. Everyone was very worried about Zelos. Raine had healed his wound, but could do nothing about the blood he had already lost.
“I told you not to die!” Sheena screamed at him.
Zelos was just barely conscious. “Sheena… I’m sorry… I don’t think I can survive…”
“Stop talking, you idiot! You need to save your breath!” she shouted.
“No… I need to tell you…” Zelos’s voice kept getting quieter. Sheena leaned closer to hear his last words. “Thanks hunny!” His voice seemed to have miraculously healed. And now that she had moved within his reach, Zelos was able to hold Sheena still long enough to kiss her! Clearly, he was not dying… yet. Everyone ran for cover, even Kratos and Sesshomaru. They felt the land shake from many huge explosions, as if Sheena had just summoned all her Spirits and commanded them to attack Zelos. When they finally came out from their shelter, everyone saw Sheena stomping furiously on a pile of goo that somewhat resembled Zelos.
“He deserved that. Wait until Sheena calms down before you heal him,” Regal told Raine. She nodded in agreement.
“Excuse me!” A man wearing armor and a crown ran towards them. “I am Arthur, king of the Britons. I seek knights to join me in my court at Camelot. Who was it that slayed the terrible beast with the nasty big pointy teeth?”
“Uhh… I did,” Mithos said uncertainly. He did not want to go with King Arthur to Camelot. (It was a very silly place.)
Before Arthur could invite him, a crowd of excited peasants ran to them. “She’s a witch! A witch! We saw her summon terrible monsters to kill a poor helpless knight! She’s a witch! Burn her!” They crowded around Sheena, accidentally stepping on the pile of goo that had once been Zelos.
“A witch?” King Arthur gasped and stared at Sheena in amazement. “We must take her to the nearest town for her trial!” The crowd cheered and followed King Arthur away from the cave of the killer rabbit. They dragged Sheena along with them. She had used all her magic powers attacking Zelos, so she could do nothing to stop them.
“That was… very odd,” Presea said, staring after the crowd. Everyone nodded in agreement, still confused by this strange turn of events. Raine took this opportunity to resurrect the pile of trampled Zelos-goo.
“We have to help Sheena! She’s innocent, but they’ll probably burn her anyway!” Mithos said.
“What?! I won’t let them burn my hunny!” Zelos shouted, trying to look heroic as he stood up, but failing miserably because he was not fully recovered. He fell flat on his face. “I will save Sheena! And then she’ll be so grateful, she’ll finally go on date with me!” Zelos eyes became heart-shaped at this thought.
Mithos didn’t think Sheena would be quite that grateful, but he didn’t argue. “Come on! We have to find that town quickly and save Sheena!” He led the way away from the killer rabbit’s cave and toward a village where a crowd of excited peasants waited to see a witch burning.

Sorting Hat

2006-11-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

Eventually, Snape did manage to get everyone to stop killing each other and listen to him. Now Bookworm, Keyblade, Shade, Colette, Lloyd, Genis, Ed, Tas, and Filch all watched as Snape opened the secret door to the Headmaster’s office. (Hagrid stayed with Fluffy and Mrs. Norris decided to continue to roam the school in search of troublemakers.) They followed him into Dumbledore’s office.
“Hello Severus,” Dumbledore said as they entered. “What is going on?”
“I just caught these children fighting in the forbidden corridor on the third floor. They claim they are not students,” Snape said dubiously.
“Really?” Dumbledore frowned and turned to the group of children. “Then who are you? And why were you in that corridor?”
“My name’s Shade,” she introduced herself. “These are my friends: Keyblade, Bookworm, Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Edward, Alphonse, and Tas… Tas! No! Put that down!” Tas moved away from Dumbledore’s pensieve, trying to look innocent.
Bookworm took over the explanation while Shade yelled at Tas. “We missed the train at the beginning of the term, so it took us a while to get here. When we finally arrived, we got lost and had to ask for directions. Someone named Peeves told us the Headmaster’s office was in the third-floor corridor.”
“I KNEW IT! I knew it had to be Peeves’s fault! I’ll get him this time!” Filch ran out of Dumbledore’s office in search of Peeves.
“We didn’t know that corridor was forbidden. We’re really sorry,” Keyblade said.
“Can we still enroll at Hogwarts?” Shade asked hopefully.
Dumbledore considered what they had said. Something didn’t seem quite right… He decided he would just have to keep a close eye on this odd group of new students. He picked up the Sorting Hat and handed it to Lloyd.
“HUFFLEPUFF!” the hat yelled after a moment. Colette had the next turn and was also sorted into Hufflepuff. Then Genis, Ed, and Al were sent to Ravenclaw.
Tas put on the Sorting Hat. “Wow! This hat’s talking to me! This is amazing! I’ve never met a talking hat before! I wonder if Flint will believe me when I tell him about it?”
“Shut up! You’re in Gryffindor!” the hat snapped at the chatty kender.
Keyblade excitedly took the hat from Tas, who had tried unsuccessfully to sneak it into one of his pouches. “Hmmm… GRYFFINDOR!” the hat shouted.
“My turn!” Shade snatched the Sorting Hat from Keyblade. The Hat paused to think for a moment, then yelled, “SLYTHERIN!”
“Haha! You’re in Slytherin! You’re evil, Shade!” Bookworm laughed.
“So? I asked the hat to send me here. Slytherin is great!” Shade said, not at all bothered that she was in the most notorious house in Hogwarts.
“My turn now!” Bookworm said, jumping up and down in excitement. She tried on the hat and mentally argued with it for a few moments. Finally, it announced, “GRYFFINDOR!”
“YES!!! I’m in the same house as Harry, Ron, and Hermione! Come on, Keyblade! Let’s go find the Common Room!” Bookworm was so happy, she forgot she was angry at Keyblade.
“Hey Bookworm! Don’t forget Tas is in Gryffindor too! Have fun babysitting the kender!” Shade said with evil grin. But by this time, Bookworm had already run out of Dumbledore’s office, leaving both Keyblade and Tas behind.
Dumbledore stared after her. “How does she expect to enter the Common Room? She didn’t stay long enough to get the password.”
“Don’t worry. She’ll probably stop at the library first anyway. I’ll find her and tell her the password,” Keyblade said.
Dumbledore told everyone their passwords and directions to their Common Rooms. They left his office and headed for the Common Rooms. Keyblade and Tas stopped in the library first. Bookworm already had a pile of books and was trying to figure out how many she could carry back to the Common Room without collapsing from the weight. Finally, she decided to just take the risk and bring them all. On the way out of the library, a few books flew out of Tas’s pouch and starting pounding him on the head. He thought this was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him, but Bookworm and Keyblade managed to stop him before he could steal more library books. They walked to the portrait of the Fat Lady, told her the password, and entered the Gryffindor Common Room.

Spells, Spears, and Snape

2006-11-02T19:33:00.000-08:00

“So now what do we do?” Keyblade asked. “Are we just going to wait here for Filch to catch us?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Bookworm nodded. She had just used all the Symphonians’ Life Bottles and Apple Gels to recover from her horrifying experience in the Mirror of Erised.
“I’m bored!” Tas announced. This was an absolutely terrifying thing to hear from a kender, but there wasn’t much anyone to do about it.
Suddenly, the wall exploded! Three enormous dog heads appeared through the giant hole. Everyone started running around screaming. Fluffy watched all the noisy little people run. He hadn’t gotten to eat the intruders earlier and was feeling very hungry.
“No Fluffy! Bad dog! Don’t eat my friends!” Colette ran to try and stop Fluffy. The giant dog ignored her. A large glob of drool fell from his mouth and landed on Tas’s head.
“Wow! This is great! I’ve never been drooled on by a three-headed dog before! I can’t wait to tell Flint about being eaten by a three-headed dog! Do you think it really will eat us?” Tas asked excitedly.
“Not if I can help it!” Shade said. She stopped running around screaming and recited a spell that she hoped would prevent Fluffy from eating them. Unfortunately, the spell did not work the way Shade hoped. As a powerful magical creature, Fluffy naturally had an immunity to some spells. Shade’s spell bounced off him and shot off in all directions around the room. It hit Shade, Bookworm, Keyblade, Ed, Al, Lloyd, Genis, Tas, and Colette. Instantly, they all grew a lot younger.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Bookworm screamed. From inside the Mirror of Erised, her reflection fell over laughing.
“Oops… sorry,” Shade said. “That spell was supposed to turn Fluffy into a little puppy.”
“So now it made us younger instead?!” Keyblade complained.
“Yeah, I think we’re all about eleven now,” Shade said.
“Waah! Now we’re short!” Bookworm whined.
“Hey! I don’t think Ed got shorter… but he does look younger,” Keyblade said. “Does this mean Ed hasn’t grown at all since he was eleven?”
“No! There must have been something wrong with that spell!” Ed said, alchemifying a spear to kill Shade.
“What is going on here?” demanded Snape. He walked through the large hole Fluffy had made in the wall, followed by Filch and Hagrid. They stared at the group of crazy eleven-year-olds trying to kill each other. Mrs. Norris meowed loudly. Fluffy drooled on little Tas’s head again. Filch went to Mrs. Norris to congratulate her for catching all the rule-breaking students. Hagrid fed Fluffy some large dog biscuits. Snape snatched the spear from Ed, who was still trying to stab Shade.
“I love your doggie, Mr. Hagrid,” Colette said, patting Fluffy. “I knew he’d be able to bring us to Lloyd and my friends.”
Snape glared at everyone. “Using dangerous Muggle weapons in the forbidden part of the school… I think you can all expect expulsions and many points taken from Gryffindor,” he said with an unpleasant smirk.
Filch laughed. “Pesky students! They think they can get away with their stupid little pranks! I’ll bet you all thought it was really funny to sneak into the forbidden corridor… If I had my way, you’d all be whipped while hanging from your ankles in the dungeons!” A huge grin spread across his face at the thought of it. An equally large grin spread across Tas’s face. He had never been hung from his ankles in a dungeon before! What an interesting experience!
“No! You can’t torture us! And you can’t expel us either! We aren’t students here!” Bookworm protested. Tas stared at her in disappointment.
“Not students? What do you mean by that?” Snape glared at them. Ed decided this would be a good time to snatch his spear back from Snape. It might have worked if he hadn’t tried to fight Snape and stab Shade at the same time. Shade easily moved out of his reach. She recited a spell that made Snape, Filch, Hagrid, and Mrs. Norris freeze momentarily.
“What did you do now?” Bookworm asked. She had had enough of Shade’s spells.
“It was a powerful memory spell. They were getting too suspicious of us. Now maybe they’ll listen to our excuses,” Shade explained, dodging Ed, who had now successfully gotten the spear away from Snape.
Keyblade hit him with her alchemified keyblade and took the spear. “Can’t you wait to kill Shade until later? If you keep doing this, we’ll just get in more trouble with Snape.”
Ed muttered something like “you’re expelled… not my apprentice… probably taller than me anyway…”
“Don’t worry, Keyblade. Big Brother doesn’t really mean that. But I don’t think you need any more training anyway. Congratulations! You’ve passed your alchemy training!” Al said.
Keyblade got really excited at this news. “YES!!! I rock!” She said, jumping up and accidentally hitting Shade with the keyblade and Bookworm with the spear.
When Snape and the others finally recovered, they were completely confused. They could not remember what was going on. For some reason, they were in a forbidden room where two first-years were trying to kill another, very excited, one. This made no sense whatsoever. Snape realized they were obviously breaking school rules and were probably Gryffindors. That was more than enough reason to try to get them the strictest punishment possible. “Stop! All of you, come with me! You’re going to explain this to the Headmaster!” Snape smirked unpleasantly at them, but no one really noticed because they were too busy trying to kill each other.

Mithos and the DDR Machine

2006-10-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

“How do you work this?” Rin asked, staring at the DDR machine in confusion.
“I’ll help you, my future hunny!” Zelos volunteered. “Hmm…” As he stared at the DDR machine, he realized he really had no idea how to work it. “I’ll be right back!” He said and quickly ran away to find Raine. She knows about machines and stuff like that. And she’s a super gorgeous ultra beauty! he thought excitedly.
Sheena rolled her eyes. “Idiot Chosen… Hey Mithos! Help Rin work this thing,” she said.
“Okay! Rin, here’s some tokens. You put them in that slot and then pick a level. You should start with Beginner. Then just pick a song,” Mithos explained.
Rin nodded and followed his instructions. “Master Jaken! What song should we do?” she asked.
“Hmph! I will not play this silly human game!” Jaken said.
“Give it a try, Jaken!” Mithos said. “Or are you just afraid Rin will beat you?”
“WHAT?! She won’t beat me!” Jaken said, offended by the idea. He ran over to the DDR machine.
“I want to try this song!” Rin said, selecting “Nori Nori Nori”. She and Jaken started stepping on the arrows. Rin was doing well for a beginner, but Jaken fell flat on his face.
“What is wrong with this machine? There are more arrows on my side than on Rin’s!” he complained.
“Oops, I think I picked Heavy for you instead of Beginner,” Mithos said, trying not to laugh.
“Stupid human!” Jaken shrieked. “I do not need to play your silly DDR game! Lord Sesshomaru is better than you anyway!”
“Has Sesshomaru even played DDR before?” Mithos asked, confused.
“No! But even so, he can easily defeat a foolish human like you!” Jaken retorted.
“Hey Sesshomaru! I challenge you to a game of DDR!” Mithos yelled at Sesshomaru, who was still arguing with Kratos outside the arcade.
“Mithos, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Rin said, getting off the DDR machine. Mithos ignored her warning.
“I accept your challenge,” Sesshomaru said as he entered the arcade, which was almost empty now because all the little kids had run away in fear of the scary demon.
“Can I pick the song, Lord Sesshomaru?” Rin asked.
“Yes, go ahead, Rin,” Sesshomaru nodded.
After looking through the song list a few times, Rin selected “Witch Doctor”. Mithos selected Standard level and stood on the first DDR mat, which worked better than Sesshomaru’s mat. Sesshomaru selected Heavy level.
The song began. Sesshomaru moved so fast it was unbelievable. Mithos didn’t stand a chance. He fell flat on his face, just like Jaken had a few minutes before. The song ended and their grades appeared. Mithos got an E. Sesshomaru got an AAA. Mithos didn’t even bother to get up. He just lay where had fallen on the DDR mat, crying pathetically.
“Ha! Foolish human! I told you Lord Sesshomaru would beat you! No one can defeat Lord Sesshomaru!” Jaken jumped up and down, cheering.
“Sesshomaru! I will defeat you!” Kratos said, stomping into the arcade. He was tired of arguing with Sesshomaru and wanted to prove once and for all that he was better than the strange demon. He would rather have challenged Sesshomaru to a swordfight, but after Jaken’s bragging, he decided to do DDR instead.
They both selected Heavy level. Kratos kicked the sobbing Mithos off the DDR mat. Mithos fell onto the floor beside the DDR machine, still crying about his defeat. This time, Presea picked the “Waka Laka” song. Kratos and Sesshomaru started dancing. They appeared to be doing equally well. The only way to tell who was better was to see the grades at the end. They were almost done with the song when they were interrupted. For the second time that day, the DDR machine exploded. The force of the explosion sent Kratos and Sesshomaru flying to the other side of the arcade.
“We were almost done! Why did it explode like that?!” Sesshomaru demanded angrily.
“Yes, we were about to complete the song. And I liked that song!” Kratos complained angrily.
“Oops! Sorry everyone!” Raine appeared from behind the remains of the DDR machine. “I was just examining this fascinating magitechnology device! Now I simply must dissect it to find out why it exploded like that!” Raine started to examine a piece of debris that looked a lot like one of the arrows. She did not even notice Kratos and Sesshomaru approaching with their swords unsheathed. Zelos decided this would be a good time to heroically save his hunny. He just had to think of how to save her.
Mithos had not bothered to move before the explosion. When the DDR machine blew up, he had still been lying on the floor next to it, crying like a little child. The good thing was he had now stopped crying. The bad thing was he was now either unconscious or dead. Zelos wasn’t sure which and didn’t really care. He just needed to take the Mage’s Ring from Mithos and save his hunny. He grabbed the ring and activated, sending everyone back to Derris-Kharlan.
As soon as they got there, Kratos forgot about his anger at Raine. Something was very wrong. He heard noises from outside the door. No one was supposed to be in Derris-Kharlan without his permission! Furiously, he opened the door and was knocked over as Noishe ran into the room. The giant green and white dog licked Kratos’s face and told him that Derris-Kharlan was under attack by the Renegades! So far, they had been unable to enter because of Cruxis’s amazing security system, but it wouldn’t be long before Yuan, a former member of Cruxis, found a way in.
Kratos was the only one in the group who understood Noishe’s language. Everyone else just stared at him being licked by a big dog. (Except Mithos didn’t stare because he was still either unconscious or dead.)
“What’s going on?” Rin asked in confusion.
“Noishe says the Renegades are attacking Derris-Kharlan! We must defeat them before we continue our search for Lloyd and those other people!” Kratos said, standing up.
“Why are they attacking?” Raine asked.
“They want to kill Mithos. They think he is Yggdrasil,” Kratos explained.
“Where is Mithos anyway? I hope he’s not still crying about that DDR game,” Sheena asked, looking around.
“Umm… I think he’s unconscious… or dead…” Zelos said.
Raine looked at Mithos. “He’s not quite dead yet. I think I can heal him, but we should go somewhere else. We’re about to be attacked and I can only heal one person at a time.”
“No! I will not flee from a battle! I will not let Yuan capture Derris-Kharlan as long as I’m alive!” Kratos yelled.
“But if we stay here, Mithos could die. Isn’t that what Yuan wants anyway?” Regal asked.
“He will probably be very angry if Mithos survives. And after Mithos recovers, we can return and defeat Yuan,” Presea said.
“Fine,” Kratos reluctantly agreed.
“Zelos, change the function and activate the Mage’s Ring. Hopefully, it will take us to someplace a little more peaceful,” Raine said.
“Okay, your highness!” Zelos eagerly followed her orders.
They all vanished from Derris-Kharlan and appeared in another world. “Peaceful” was not a good word to describe this world. The first thing they saw when they arrived was a large pile of bloody bones. Standing innocently next to the bones was a fluffy little bunny. And it had nasty big pointy teeth!

Mirror of Erised

2006-09-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

“Now what do we do?” Bookworm asked. Mrs. Norris was just sitting on the floor, glaring menacingly at everyone. Ed was trying to get the Philosopher’s Stone away from Tas, who did not want to share his mysterious rock. Everyone else was pretty much just standing there waiting for Filch to come.
“Couldn’t we use the Sorcerer’s Ring to get out of here before that Filch guy finds us?” Ed asked as he tried to grab the Stone from Tas, who was hitting him with his hoopak staff.
“No! We can’t leave Colette behind!” Lloyd said angrily.
Bookworm tried to entertain herself by examining the Mirror of Erised again. Her reflection still would not let her see the book. She was getting very mad at the reflection. “Hey Shade! What do you see in here?” she asked curiously.
“I’m not telling!” Shade said, sticking her tongue out to annoy Bookworm.
“Okay… What about you, Keyblade?” Bookworm asked. Keyblade was too busy to answer the question. Lloyd had suddenly realized that he did not know if his twin swords were stronger than Keyblade’s alchemified keyblade. He had immediately challenged her to a fight. Now they were both attacking each other. Bookworm turned her attention back to the Mirror. Her reflection was now making faces at her. Bookworm suddenly had a brilliant idea. “Maybe I can use the Philosopher’s Stone to actually get into the Mirror! Tas, gimme that Stone!” she said.
“Okay! I want to go into the Mirror too! I’ve never been inside a mirror before.” Tas eagerly handed her the Stone.
Before Ed could attempt to take it from her, Bookworm held the Stone near the Mirror. She stepped forward and walked right through the glass of the Mirror! Her reflection stared at her in horror. Shade, Ed, Tas, and Genis watched as Bookworm pummeled her annoying reflection. After about a minute, the reflection was unconscious and Bookworm was hugging the seventh Harry Potter book. She was about to start reading it when Tas decided to follow her into the Mirror. Suddenly, she was standing in the world that was a kender’s greatest desire to see. Everyone on the other side of the Mirror looked away. It was just too horrible. A moment later, Bookworm and Tas both fell back through the Mirror. Before either could protest, Ed took the Stone. It was not safe to leave such a powerful object with them. Tas was eagerly telling everyone about his adventure in the Mirror, which he said was the most interesting experience he’d ever had. Bookworm was slightly burned and looked absolutely terrified. Worst of all, the seventh Harry Potter book was now only a pile of ashes. Bookworm hadn’t even gotten to read it. Now she was just lying on the floor, still in shock because of the book’s untimely demise. Her reflection stood on the other side of the Mirror, laughing at her and making faces, despite its black eye and many bruises.
Meanwhile, Mithos, Kratos, Sesshomaru, and their party had finally arrived at the Triet Ruins. Several monsters immediately tried to attack them. Sesshomaru glared at them. Instantly, they all fell over dead.
“There’s my hunny!” Zelos said, running toward Raine, who was examining the ruins and had not noticed their appearance.
“Raine! Give us the Mage’s Ring! NOW!” Kratos said.
“No! I haven’t finished examining it yet!” Raine complained.
Mithos suddenly had an idea. “Raine, if you let us use the Ring, we can go to lots of other worlds. I’m sure they have plenty of interesting ruins,” he said.
“Really?!” Raine said excitedly. She handed the Ring to Mithos. He activated it and sent them all back to Derris-Kharlan.
“We should start by looking for them in their own world,” Kratos said, pointing to the device that led to the mall.
“No! First send us home!” Sesshomaru demanded. He and Kratos glared at each other. Mithos decided not to let them fight about it. He changed the Ring’s function and activated it. Everyone was suddenly standing in front of the mall’s arcade.
“Oh! What’s that?” Rin pointed at the DDR machine. “Lord Sesshomaru, can I try it please?”
“Of course not!” Jaken said. “Lord Sesshomaru will quickly deal with these humans and then we will return home!”
“Please?” Rin repeated, making puppy dog eyes at Sesshomaru.
“You may try it once,” Sesshomaru said.
“Thank you!” Rin said happily. “Come on Master Jaken! Let’s go!” She grabbed Jaken’s arm and pulled him toward the DDR machine.
“Wait for me, future hunny!” Zelos shouted, running after them.
“Stupid Chosen! Leave her alone!” Sheena yelled as she ran after him.
“What is that machine? Is it some kind of magitechnology?” Raine wondered, heading for the DDR machine.

Beyond the Trapdoor

2006-09-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

“Wow! This plant really is strangling me! This is great!” Tas said happily.
“Shade, could you hurry up with that fireball?” Keyblade gasped as the Devil’s Snare reached for her throat.
A huge fireball hit the killer plant. It immediately drew away from its victims. “Hurry! Get into the next room! That fireball won’t stop it for long!” Shade yelled running toward the door. Everyone followed her, although Bookworm had to drag Tas away from the “interesting plant”.
The next room was filled with shiny winged keys that fluttered around the ceiling. “Hmm… We need to catch the key that will unlock that door, but there aren’t any brooms to fly on… Lloyd! Use your wings to fly up and catch the big silver key!” Bookworm said.
“Okay!” Lloyd’s giant angel wings appeared. He flew up and began chasing the silver key. The other keys kept flying towards him, trying to attack him, but he outflew them. Finally, he caught the key and flew back down with it. “Wasn’t that great? Did you see how I dodged all those other keys? I wish Kratos could’ve seen that!” Lloyd bragged, holding up the struggling key for everyone to see. His boasting was interrupted by the sound of a door opening.
“They really don’t have very good security around here,” Tas muttered, stuffing several flying keys into his pouch as he looked at the lock he had just picked. He walked through the door and into the next room.
“Wow! Look at this! When you try to walk across the room, these soldiers stop you!” Tas giggled. He was standing on a giant chessboard. A white pawn looked really annoyed as it kept stopping him from crossing the board.
“Awesome! We get to play chess!” Bookworm cheered.
They began to play on the giant chess board. They would have been winning, if it hadn’t been for Tas. Being a typical kender, he could not stand still when it was not his turn to move. He accidentally made many stupid moves when he went to investigate the enemy chess pieces.
“Can we let them capture him? Pleeeeeeease?” Bookworm begged.
“No! Sacrificing people will never help!” Lloyd said angrily. After Colette had tried to sacrifice herself to save the world, he had promised never to sacrifice anyone ever again.
Bookworm was about to start arguing, when the enemy’s turn ended. Before anyone could issue orders, Tas said “Oh good! Now I can move! Wow! That’s a really strange-looking queen!” and ran towards the enemy queen.
“No! Tas! Stop! You’re supposed to be defending Al!” Shade yelled.
Too late. Tas had already moved. The queen immediately attacked and captured Al.
“Al! NOOOOOOOO!” Ed screamed, starting to run to help him.
“Ed! Stop! In the Harry Potter book, one of the kids got captured, but was okay. Al’s got really strong armor. He’ll be fine!” Keyblade said. Ed reluctantly stayed in place.
“Okay, let’s sacrifice Tas now!” Lloyd said eagerly. This was definitely an exception to his promise.
“No! I’ve got a better idea!” Genis grinned and raised his kendama. The ground around him lit up as he recited a spell. “ICICLE!” Ice suddenly appeared all around Tas, trapping him and preventing movement.
“It’ll only last for a little while, but it should hold him still long enough for someone else to move,” Genis explained.
“Wow! There’s ice here and it’s not even winter! This is great! This is the most interesting experience I’ve ever had!” Tas said excitedly. When the ice vanished, he immediately started begging Genis to do it again. After that, the chess game went very well. After a few minutes, they won and gained access to the door on the other side of the room. Because of his armor, Al was perfectly fine. Everyone proceeded to the next room.
In it, they found themselves face-to-face with a gigantic troll. “Wow! That looks like a giant goblin! Did I ever tell you about how I fought some goblins in the War of the Lance?” Tas asked, oblivious to the obvious danger they were in.
“Not now Tas!” Bookworm and Shade said in unison.
“I can take care of this thing!” Keyblade said excitedly. She clapped her hands and alchemified a keyblade, then began attacking the troll. The troll had endured spells, swords, clubs, and even wands that had been stuck up his nose, but he had never been attacked with a giant key. It was too much for his miniscule brain to handle. He collapsed unconscious from over-thinking.
“Wow… umm… you get an A for today’s alchemy training, Keyblade,” Ed said, shocked at her alchemy skills, which he hadn’t noticed previously because he had been too busy reading in the Palanthas Library.
They moved on to the next room. As soon as they passed through the door, odd-colored flames appeared in the doorways at either end of the room. Al grabbed Tas before he could run into the fire to see if it was real.
“I know this room! This is where Hermione solved the riddle with all the potion bottles!” Bookworm said, excitedly staring at the potions on a table in the middle of the room.
Lloyd stared in bewilderment at the paper with the riddle written on it. “How are we supposed to figure this out?”
“Don’t worry! I memorized the answer last time I read the Harry Potter books! We just use this potion and we can go right through those flames!” Bookworm held up one of the potions.
With the potion, they were able to enter the final room. In it, there was only a big mirror.
“Wow! Look, Al! Our reflections have our old bodies!” Ed said excitedly.
“Cool! I have the last Harry Potter book!” Bookworm gazed at her reflection.
“So how do we get the Philosopher’s Stone?” Al asked.
“Someone who wants to find the Stone, but not use it, has to look in the mirror,” Shade explained.
“Oh…” Ed said sadly. He thought he might finally get the Philosopher’s Stone and return himself and Al to normal, but it looked like they had reached another dead end.
Bookworm gave up on her attempts to read the seventh Harry Potter book reflected in the mirror. Her reflection seemed determined to hold it in a way that left no pages visible. “Hey Tas! If you look in this mirror, you’ll get a mysterious rock!” she said.
“Really? I’ve never had a mysterious rock before! I’ve had a lot of normal rocks, but then I had to get rid of them because Flint said my heavy pouches were slowing everyone down,” Tas said, running towards the Mirror of Erised.
Bookworm grinned. “He wants to find it because of his kender curiosity, but doesn’t even know what it does, so he doesn’t want to use it,” she explained.
“Hey! I don’t remember putting this red rock in my pouch!” Tas gasped and removed the Philosopher’s Stone from his pouch.
At that exact moment, a loud meow echoed around the room. Ed glared at his brother. “What was that meow?” he asked.
“Umm… Nothing!” Al said, trying to look innocent.
“You have another cat!” Ed said, grabbing the front of Al’s armor to let the cat out. A cat jumped out of Al. Bookworm instantly recognized it.
“Oh no!” she gasped. “It’s Mrs. Norris, Filch’s cat! Filch himself will probably be here in a minute! We’re gonna get caught stealing the Philosopher’s Stone!”
Tas instantly recited the kender classic excuses, “I didn’t steal it! I was just borrowing it! I found it on the ground! Filch must have dropped it! I was going to give it right back!”

Fluffy!

2006-09-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

“Oh no! They’re bothering the poor doggie!” Colette wailed as she flew towards the door.
“No! Colette! Wait for me!” Lloyd yelled, running after her. Everyone else dashed after him. When they arrived inside the small room, they saw an enormous three-headed dog chewing on Al. Because of his strong armor, he hardly hurt at all, just dented a little. Ed was running around, throwing things at the dog to distract it. Unfortunately, his distractions failed because he was too small for the dog to notice.
“Come on everyone!” Keyblade yelled. “We have to save Al!” She quickly alchemified a keyblade and started attacking the dog. Lloyd unsheathed his twin swords. Shade and Genis started to recite powerful spells. Tas pulled out his tiny dagger, saying something about this being an even more interesting experience than the time he met a wooly mammoth. Bookworm was going to throw a heavy book, but decided not to because she didn’t want to get dog drool on it.
“STOP!” This scream drowned out all the noise from the battle. Everyone stopped and looked around. Even the three-headed dog stopped gnawing on Al. Colette was glaring at everyone furiously. “What do you think you’re doing? This poor dog was probably just resting and you woke him up and started attacking him!” She turned to the dog. “Are you okay? I know what to name you! You’re Fluffy! You’re such a cute doggie!” Colette started to pat the dog. Fluffy dropped Al and rolled over for a tummy rub.
“Where’s the Philosopher’s Stone?” Ed asked as soon as he was sure his brother was safe.
“It’s down that trapdoor,” Bookworm pointed towards where Fluffy had recently been standing.
“Okay, thanks! Come on Al!” Ed said, running towards the trapdoor.
“Stop! There are lots of other dangerous obstacles before you get to the Stone! For example, at the bottom of the trapdoor, there’s a giant plant that will try to strangle you! The only way to survive its attack is to light it on fire,” Bookworm said.
“Hmm… Shade, didn’t you say you learned a fireball spell while we were in Krynn?” Ed asked.
“Why do you think I want to help you steal the Stone?” Shade asked.
“Because you owe me a Philosopher’s Stone! You lost my other one!” Ed said, glaring accusingly at Shade.
“I did that to save Keyblade’s life!” Shade protested.
“Hmm… If we stole the Philosopher’s Stone, there’s no way Voldemort would be able to get it! We could be saving the whole Wizarding World! And I’d get to see all the obstacles in real life!” Bookworm said excitedly.
“Yeah!” Ed agreed. He was not exactly sure what Bookworm was talking about, but it sounded like she was on his side in this argument.
“Fine,” Shade agreed. “Are you coming, Colette?”
“No thanks. I think I’ll stay here with Fluffy for a while,” Colette said. Fluffy licked her face happily.
“What are we waiting for?” Tas demanded impatiently. “This should be my most exciting adventure yet! I can’t wait to tell Flint about this! Let’s go!” He laughed as he jumped headfirst down the hole beneath the trapdoor.

Philosopher's Stone

2006-09-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

It had taken many days, but finally Kratos, Sesshomaru, Mithos, and friends arrived at Derris-Kharlan. The trip shouldn’t have taken long, but they hadn’t been able to ride the rheiards. Yuan was mad at Kratos and didn’t want to share them with him.
“Please let us use them. This is an emergency,” Kratos tried to explain. “Lloyd, Genis, and the Chosen are all in trouble. We need to get to Iselia and find Raine as soon as possible.”
“Who are those strange people with you?” Yuan asked suspiciously.
“This is Sesshomaru, Jaken, Rin, and Mithos,” Kratos introduced them.
“I knew it! You are still supporting Mithos Yggdrasil and Cruxis!” Yuan yelled. Then he ran off to find more Renegades to help him attack them. They decided this would be a time to leave. Without the rheiards, they had to ride Noishe the whole way to Iselia.
When they finally reached the village, they started looking for Raine.
“Sorry, we haven’t seen Professor Sage in weeks,” the villagers said.
Kratos groaned. “How could we have been so stupid? On the way to the Renegade Base, Raine would have passed the Triet Ruins. She’s probably still examining them!”
Noishe did not like being ridden through the desert and he did not like all the monsters that lurked in the Triet Ruins, so he had hidden in Dirk’s house. So, Mithos, Kratos, Sesshomaru, Sheena, Zelos, Jaken, Rin, Regal, and Presea had to walk all the way back to the Triet Ruins.
Meanwhile…
“Now where do we go?” Tas asked.
“Hurry! Activate the ring! Kratos will kill me if I let a kender in Derris-Kharlan!” Lloyd screamed.
“Okay,” Keyblade said, selecting a random device. A few minutes later, they arrived in a hallway in a large castle.
“Where are we?” Colette asked, looking around in amazement.
“I wonder what’s in here,” Tas muttered as he picked the lock of a large door.
“Stop!” shouted a greasy-haired man wearing black robes. “The headmaster said the third floor corridor on the right hand side is off limits to students! Hmm… You look like Gryffindors, so that will be fifty points each from Gryffindor and detention for you all!” He walked away, smiling unpleasantly.
Bookworm was jumping up and down in excitement. “I know where we are! We’re in Hogwarts! If that corridor’s off limits, we must be in the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone! Yay!”
“Wait! Slow down! What book did you say we’re in?” Ed asked.
“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone! It’s one of my favorite books!” Bookworm said happily.
“Why’s that corridor off limits? What does ‘Gryffindor’ mean? Who was that man?” Genis asked.
“That was Professor Severus Snape,” Shade explained, “Gryffindor is one of the four houses of Hogwarts School. Snape hates Gryffindor and takes points from them whenever he can. That corridor is off limits because there’s a giant three-headed dog in there.”
“Why is it in there? I’m sure it would much rather be outside! Poor doggie!” Colette said.
“It’s in there because it has to guard the Philosopher’s Stone,” Shade said.
“Hey! Where did Ed and Al go?” Keyblade asked. They had both vanished. A loud scream came from the room with the three-headed dog.

Fanfic!

2006-09-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Raine was very happy. Kratos was busy arguing with Sesshomaru, instead of paying attention to protecting his Mage’s Ring. Raine saw this as an opportunity to get a fascinating new magical artifact. She snatched it from Kratos just as he raised his sword to strike Sesshomaru. Kratos, surprised by the interruption of his battle, tried to grab the ring back from Raine. Raine held up her staff to block him. Unfortunately, she was too busy examining the Mage’s Ring to pay attention to where exactly she was waving the staff. Instead of just stopping Kratos, she accidentally hit Mithos in the head. The heavy wood knocked Mithos unconscious. Rin wandered over and started to poke him with a stick to see what he would do. Sesshomaru kept trying to attack Kratos. Raine was no longer paying any attention to Kratos at all, but Zelos had decided to protect his hunny, so Kratos was still having a hard time getting the ring from her. Suddenly, Raine activated the Mage’s Ring. Everyone, including Sesshomaru, Rin, and Jaken, were in Derris-Kharlan.
“Hmm… I think I left my archaeological equipment in Iselia. I’ll have to go get it before I can take this ring apart to discover what type of magitechnology makes it work,” Raine muttered as she walked away from Derris-Kharlan, still examining the Mage’s Ring.
“Where have you taken us?” Jaken wailed, looking in dismay at the strange surroundings.
It took a very long time, but eventually Kratos, Sesshomaru, and Zelos calmed down, Mithos regained consciousness, and the Symphonians explained the situation to Sesshomaru, Jaken, and Rin.
“So we cannot return home until we get the ring back from that strange woman?” Sesshomaru asked.
“Yes. The Professor said she was going to Iselia. We should look for her there,” Presea said. A few minutes later, they set off on their journey to Iselia.
Meanwhile, Tas was having a great time exploring the mall. His pouches had never been so full of fascinating items that people had “lost”. Tas’s friends had been following him for a while, but kept missing him. Finally they found him being apprehended by mall security. The mall security people were not in a good mood. First, they had had to go to the arcade because angels were breaking the DDR machine. Then they had to find a small, strange-looking person who was stealing from every store in the whole mall. They had finally caught him and found many stolen objects when they emptied his pouches.
“I think there’s been a little misunderstanding,” Tas was trying to explain to the security people. “I’m not a thief! Someone must have dropped these things. I just found them on the floor. I was only borrowing them.”
“Tas!” Bookworm shouted.
The security people watched as Bookworm, Keyblade, Shade, Ed, Al, Lloyd, Genis, and Colette ran toward them. Unfortunately, one person recognized Lloyd, Genis, and Colette from the previous incident. “Hey! You’re the ones who destroyed the DDR machine!” he yelled.
But before he could arrest them, Keyblade noticed the pile of things from Tas’s pouches. At the top of the pile was the Sorcerer’s Ring, which he had apparently borrowed from Shade without her ever noticing. “Yay! I’ve got the ring again!” Keyblade cheered. She quickly activated it before Shade or Bookworm could take it from her again.
A moment later, Keyblade, Shade, Bookworm, Ed, Al, Genis, Colette, Lloyd, and Tas arrived in Derris-Kharlan, just a few minutes after Kratos and Sesshomaru’s group left.

Fanfic Again!

2006-09-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

“Lord Sesshomaru! Why did those people appear out of nowhere?” a little girl asked.
“They look human, but wear such strange clothes,” a green impish creature said.
“Hmm… They remind me of that human girl my brother is in love with. Who are you and what are you doing here?” Sesshomaru asked the Symphonians.
“Give me you name and I shall give you mine,” Raine said, stealing Lloyd’s favorite line.
“My name’s Rin and this is Lord Sesshomaru and Master Jaken,” said the little girl. “Who are you?”
“I’m Zelos Wilder, the Chosen One of Tethe’alla,” Zelos said. “You’re pretty, Rin, but a bit too young… Don’t worry! In another fifteen years, destiny will bring us together again, hunny!”
Rin stared at him in confusion. “What’s he talking about?” she asked Sesshomaru.
“Leave her alone!” Sesshomaru was getting very angry. “I don’t know who you are, but if you value your lives, you should not bother us!”
“What!?! Don’t threaten me!” Kratos yelled, grabbing his sword.
“Foolish human! You cannot defeat me!” Sesshomaru said, unsheathing his sword too.
Meanwhile, Bookworm, Keyblade, and the rest of their friends were standing outside the Shoikan Grove, yelling at the Tower of High Sorcery. “SHADE! Get out here right now! Give us the Sorcerer’s Ring! We need to save the DDR machine!” they shouted.
“What’s the matter now?” Shade asked, appearing suddenly behind them.
“AAAAAAAHHH!!!” they all screamed, startled by her sudden appearance.
Tas was the first to recover from the surprise. “Hello Shade!” he said. “We were just wondering if you could give us back the Sorcerer’s Ring. We want to play some DDR. I’ve never tried it and it sounds like a very interesting experience. And we need to go soon because Keyblade says she’ll go crazy if she doesn’t get to do DDR soon. I’ve never seen anyone go crazy before. I think it would be very interesting to watch, but Bookworm says DDR is more fun than watching people go crazy. And can I have my Kender Spoon of Turning back? If anymore undead warriors attack Palanthas, I need to be ready… Do you think there are any undead warriors at the mall?”
“Umm… no, there usually aren’t any undead warriors at the mall. Bookworm, Keyblade, I think you’ve both gone crazy already. You want to take a kender to the mall?” Shade said in disbelief.
“Can we just have the Sorcerer’s Ring?” Keyblade asked impatiently.
“No, I told you I’m holding on to the Sorcerer’s Ring from now on. But I’ll come with you to the mall. I’ve already passed my Test, so I don’t really need to stay here,” Shade said, quickly activating the Sorcerer’s Ring before Tas could start talking again. They arrived in Derris-Kharlan. Lloyd watched Tas very carefully. He knew Kratos would not be happy if Tas “borrowed” any of Cruxis’s stuff. Shade selected a function-changing device and activated the ring again. A moment later, everyone stood in front of the remains of the DDR machine.
“I’ll fix it!” Keyblade volunteered. She clapped her hands and fixed the DDR machine with her alchemy.
“Yay!” everyone cheered. For the next few hours, everyone played DDR happily.
Finally, when they were too tired to even move, Shade noticed something was wrong. “Has anyone seen Tas?” she asked.
This question was followed by a horrified silence. Tas had wandered away while they were playing DDR. A kender was loose in the mall!

More of the Fanfic

2006-09-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Palanthians were victorious! The Dragon Highlords had almost won the battle, when suddenly a lot of the undead warriors’ heads got smashed. Although the Knights of Solamnia complained about it being dishonorable, even they had to admit it was much easier to fight an army of undead warriors who kept bumping into each other instead of destroying the city. A group of talented fighters had suddenly appeared in the middle of the battle and were responsible for the sudden victory. For years, the Palanthians would talk about how angels had flown and attacked the enemy from above, how a girl made a key-shaped sword appear out of nowhere, how a boy used his metal arm to break the bones of Soth’s skeletal soldiers, how a young half-elf caused tidal waves to wash away the enemy, and how another girl threw a book at one of the Dragon Highlords. (It was a very heavy book and it knocked the Highlord unconscious, providing the Knights of Solamnia with a valuable prisoner.) There were also rumors that one of the knights kept fighting after his head was knocked off. And someone swore they saw Tasslehoff Burrfoot jump into that knight’s suit of armor and then jump out, screaming that there was an angry cat in there.
Meanwhile, Shade was impatient to take her Test. Dalamar had already passed his. (He was an apprentice first, so he got to take his Test before Shade.) Raistlin was explaining the history of the Portal to his apprentices when he was interrupted by a loud ringing.
“Someone has entered the Shoikan Grove,” Raistlin said. The three mages went to the tower’s entrance to see who was foolish enough to try to enter without a charm. Bookworm and Tasslehoff were excitedly poking the undead guardians with sticks again.
“Fools! They will not live for much longer,” Dalamar said.
Tas heard him and stopped poking the guardian. “Hi Shade! Can I have my Kender Spoon of Turning back? I think I might need it soon… Hey! Stop that! No! I don’t want to go down into the dirt! Stop pulling me! Help!” One of the specters had finally gotten tired of being poked and decided to pull Tas and Bookworm into their graves.
Shade tried to think of a way to help them. In just another moment, Bookworm and Tas would both join the undead guardians in their eternal torment. She remembered a spell that might work and started to recite the necessary words. A magical fireball hit the specter, forcing it to let go of Tas and Bookworm! They both ran away from the Shoikan Grove, headed in the direction of Astinus’s library.
“Congratulations,” Raistlin said. “You have just passed your Test.”
“What?” Shade said in shock.
“That was all an illusion. Your friends never entered the Shoikan Grove. Most likely, they are causing trouble somewhere else,” Raistlin explained. “You have passed your Test and are now an official mage.”
Meanwhile, the Symphonians were having a hard time fighting Lust and Gluttony. No matter how many times he was killed, Gluttony would not die. And no one had even wounded Lust yet. Anytime someone almost hurt her, Zelos stopped them, saying he would protect his hunny no matter what. Finally, Sheena got tired of this. She summoned Volt and had him zap Zelos a few times, which made him shut up.
“This battle will not be a victory. Retreat is the best option,” Presea said.
Kratos agreed and activated the Mage’s Ring to return to Derris-Kharlan.
“Now what should we do?” Mithos asked.
“They did not seem to be in that world. Perhaps we should try someplace else?” Raine suggested.
“Very well,” Kratos agreed. “We will try this world.” He randomly selected a function-changing device and sent them all to another world.

Fanfic Again

2006-08-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Palanthas was under attack! The evil dragonarmies were attacking earlier than they had planned. The Highlords, evil dragons, draconians, goblins, and hobgoblins had taken a few weeks to prepare for war. The Palanthians were not doing well at all. Not only were they taken completely by surprise, but Lord Soth and his undead soldiers led the attack.
“The city’s under attack! Will you please leave now?” Astinus begged the people who had been sitting in his library for the past few weeks.
“No! Now be quiet! We’re trying to read!” Bookworm snapped at him.
Suddenly, an undead warrior of Lord Soth charged through the library door. Wailing horribly, it threw its weapon at the bookshelves, instantly destroying them.
“The books… all gone…” Bookworm said in shock. “NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” She threw her book at the undead warrior. Ed clapped his hands, turning the book into stone as it flew through the air. It hit the undead warrior in the head, knocking the skull right off the body. The headless warrior wandered around the library in search of its head, frequently bumping into shelves.
“You transmuted my book! And I hadn’t finished reading it!” Bookworm screamed, throwing several more books at Ed.
“You threw it first! Ouch! Stop throwing stuff at me!” Ed said, ducking behind a bookcase to avoid the books that Bookworm was hurling at him.
Chasing after him, Bookworm grabbed the skull and threw that at Ed too. Unfortunately, Bookworm did not have very good aim. Instead of hitting Ed’s head, she hit his right arm, which was made of very strong auto-mail. The impact shattered the skull.
“Hey! Bookworm! Stop! I know how to defeat these skeleton soldiers! You distract them, then I crush them with my auto-mail,” Ed said.
Bookworm considered this and, after throwing one more book at him just to get her point across, decided to help Ed defeat Soth’s undead army. Astinus watched them leave, then stared in dismay at the remains of his once perfectly organized library.
Lloyd, Genis, and Colette had spent a few days following a group of draconians. They were very surprised when the group joined a huge army. They had offered to help the Knights of Solamnia fight this army, but they refused, saying something about alliances with rogue mages being unholy. This made no sense to any of the Symphonians. So, they decided to go find Keyblade, Al, and Tas to see if they were doing anything interesting. It turned out Keyblade had spent the last few weeks doing nonstop alchemy training. Al had been searching for his chalk that he used for drawing transmutation circles. It had mysteriously vanished, although Tas’s pouches did look a little more full.
Ed and Bookworm arrived then and explained their brilliant plan for defeating undead warriors.
“I suppose that will work,” Tas said, “but are you sure we can’t just ask Shade to return my Kender Spoon of Turning?”
This would not have worked because Shade was very busy in the Tower of High Sorcery. She was preparing to take her Test, in which she would either become an official Red-Robed Mage or she would die.
Meanwhile, Gluttony was attempting to devour Kratos. Kratos did not want to be eaten. He unsheathed his sword and sliced Gluttony in half.
“That was very mean of you. You’ve killed Gluttony,” Lust said calmly. “Perhaps you wouldn’t be such a bad human sacrifice.”
“Aw! I wanted to eat him!” Gluttony’s horrendous wound healed instantly.
“That is very odd,” Presea said calmly, watching Gluttony’s miraculous healing.
“Hey hunny, I don’t think you should try to sacrifice Kratos. Or eat him. He’ll probably kill you for real next time,” Zelos said.
“I… didn’t… kill… him…” Kratos stared at his sword as if it had just betrayed him.
“Come on Gluttony,” Lust said with a laugh, “let’s capture these humans. We should introduce them to the rest of the homunculi.”

Fanfic

2006-08-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

“Come on! We can kill this dragon!” Lloyd unsheathed his twin swords and ran towards the dragon. Colette’s wings appeared as she prepared to throw her chakrams. Genis raised his kendama and started to recite a spell.
The dragon stared at them for a moment, then raised its wings, preparing to fly. “These are strange creatures. I must alert the Dragon Highlords to their presence when I report back,” it said as it flew away.
“Why did it just fly away?” Colette asked.
“I think it was just a scout for a larger army. It mentioned Dragon Highlords, which are the commanders of the dragonarmies in Dragonlance. I think we must be in Krynn,” Shade said.
“Yay! We’re in a world with dragons! I don’t wanna go back to the mall for a while!” Bookworm said, looking around for more dragons.
Shade glared at her. “Give me the Sorcerer’s Ring.”
“What?” Bookworm stopped her dragon search.
“You and Keyblade can’t seem to use the ring correctly. You keep sending us to the wrong worlds. I’ll hold on to the ring for a while,” Shade said.
“No, it’s my ring. I had it first,” Bookworm complained.
“No you didn’t! You stole it from me!” Lloyd shouted.
“And you stole my DDR tokens!” Bookworm yelled at him.
“And you broke the DDR machine!” Keyblade added.
“And you tried to transmute gold without permission!” Ed shouted.
Soon everyone was fighting again. They did not notice when someone approached them.
“Hello there! Why are you all fighting?” it asked curiously.
“Oh wow! It’s a kender! Hi! I’m Bookworm!” Bookworm said, stopping her attempts to punch Lloyd.
“What’s a kender?” Genis asked.
“I’m a kender!” the kender announced. “My name is Tasslehoff Burrfoot. You can call me Tas.”
“A kender is a creature from Krynn. It’s very curious and has a bad habit of ‘borrowing’ things that don’t belong to it,” Shade explained.
Ed instantly held tightly to his state alchemist watch. Colette held her key crest necklace. Shade tightened her hold on the Sorcerer’s Ring, which she had succeeded in taking from Bookworm. Bookworm reached for her DDR tokens, then remembered they had already been stolen.
“Where are you going?” Tas asked. “Not many people travel here. They say the land around Sanction is dangerous with so many dragons and draconians around. I think they’re very interesting creatures. Did you know I fought some of them and—”
“We’re going to one of the Towers of High Sorcery,” Shade interrupted Tas’s story.
“Why are we going there?” Bookworm asked. “I want to go to Solace or maybe Kendermore.”
“Solace and Kendermore don’t have Towers of High Sorcery. We can either go to Wayreth or Palanthas,” Shade said.
“We are NOT going to the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas! It’s evil!” Bookworm said.
“Actually, it’s quite an interesting place. It’s surrounded by the Shoikan Grove, which is full of undead guardians. It gives me an eerie feeling when I go near it. It’s lots of fun! Hey! I know the way to Palanthas. Can I come with you?” Tas asked.
“See? Tas wants to go to Palanthas too. Let’s go!” Shade said.
“Fine,” Bookworm reluctantly agreed.
Meanwhile, in Sanction, the dragon scout had reported back to the Dragon Highlords. They agreed that these strange people could be trouble for their plans of Krynn-domination.
“There was a large group of them,” the blue dragon said. “The tallest wore armor, like a Knight of Solamnia, but he did not carry a sword. Most of the people seemed harmless, but three tried to attack me. They were a young warrior, a winged girl, and a half-elf magic-user. The half-elf did not wear white, red, or black robes. He must be a rogue mage!”
“A half-elven rogue mage is working with the Knights of Solamnia? This could ruin our plans for the domination of Krynn! Dark Queen Takhisis will not be happy if we fail,” said one of the Highlords.
“Yes, we will have to change our plans. We must attack Palanthas sooner then we originally planned!” said a female Highlord.
After a while, Tas, Shade, Bookworm, Keyblade, Lloyd, Genis, Colette, Ed, and Al arrived in the city of Palanthas. They were soon standing before the dreaded Shoikan Grove that guards the Tower of High Sorcery.
“Come on Shade! Let’s go walk through the Shoikan Grove!” Tas said excitedly.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Colette asked.
“No, not really. There are a few undead guardians that try to pull you underground with their skeletal hands, but I can handle them. I have this!” Tas held up an ordinary-looking silver spoon. “The Kender Spoon of Turning! It’s a holy relic given to my Uncle Trapspringer by the goddess Mishakal!”
“Can I hold the Kender Spoon of Turning?” Shade asked, taking the magic spoon from Tas. “I think I’ll go to the Tower of High Sorcery alone. I don’t think Raistlin will be very happy if I bring a kender with me.”
“Actually, Raistlin and I are great friends. Well, maybe not exactly friends, more like acquaintances really. But I’m sure Raistlin would be very glad to see me!” Tas said.
“I’ll come back later,” Shade said, ignoring Tas, “after I’ve learned a lot of magic.” Shade held up the spoon and said “Begone foul wraiths!” Shockingly, all the undead guardians immediately crawled back into the ground, moaning piteously.
“The spoon actually worked?” Bookworm gasped.
“Of course it worked! It’s the Kender Spoon of Turning!” Tas said indignantly.
“Hey! Did anyone else notice that we just let Shade go into an evil tower with the Sorcerer’s Ring?” Genis asked.
“Noooo! Now we’ll be stuck in Krynn forever!” Bookworm complained.
“So now what do we do?” Lloyd asked.
“Let’s go walk in the Shoikan Grove without a charm or magic spoon! I’m sure it will be a very interesting experience!” Tas said. He started to walk into the Grove, but Bookworm stopped him.
“No! Let’s do something a little less dangerous,” she said, “like poke the undead guardians with a stick!”
“Yay!” Tas and Bookworm grabbed sticks and started poking the undead guardians.
“AAAAAAAHHH!!!” Bookworm screamed as their skeletal hands started to pull her down to her grave.
“Bookworm, I don’t think it was a good idea to poke them like that,” Keyblade said. She clapped her hands and alchemified a keyblade. After using the keyblade to save Bookworm and Tas from the undead guardians, everyone decided to leave the Shoikan Grove.
They walked through Palanthas, looking for something interesting to do while Shade was learning magic.
“Oh wow! Look! It’s the great Library of Palanthas! Yes! This is like a dream come true!” Bookworm shouted happily.
“A library? Awesome! Let’s go!” Ed said excitedly. He and Bookworm ran into Astinus’s library.
“Look! They have books about science!”
“And they have books about dragons!”
Astinus, the great historian of Krynn, had hardly even reacted to the Cataclysm, but now he stared in horror at the two people who were determined to read every book in his enormous library.
“Okay, I think they’ve found something to do,” Keyblade said. “Now what about the rest of us?”
“Colette! Genis! Let’s go find some draconians to fight!” Lloyd said. “Kratos will get mad if I don’t practice my fighting at all.”
“Let’s practice some alchemy, Keyblade. Even if you did see the Truth and alchemify a keyblade, you’re still an apprentice,” Al said.
Meanwhile, Kratos, Mithos, Raine, Zelos, Presea, Regal, and Sheena had arrived in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist.
“We must find the thieves who stole the Sorcerer’s Ring… And where did Lloyd go?” Kratos asked.
“I think they ran ahead again,” Raine said.
“Forget about Lloyd! We need to go find all those girls! Do you think they’ll be my hunnies?” Zelos asked. “Hey! There’s another hunny over there!”
“Oh my. Who are these people?” said a strange woman.
“Can I eat them, Lust? Can I eat them? Please?” said a fat man.
“Go ahead, Gluttony. They don’t look like worthy human sacrifices,” Lust said.
“Yum!” Gluttony yelled as he reached for Kratos, trying to bite him.

Fanfic!

2006-08-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

“Is everyone ready?” Kratos asked. They had returned to Derris-Kharlan and were standing in the room with the function-changing devices. It took a long time, but finally everyone agreed on which device Keyblade had used.
“I’m not ready!” Mithos said. “Everyone else gets a cool weapon, but I don’t have anything to defend myself with!”
“Yeah, you should probably give him something, Kratos. I don’t think we could have survived in that last world without our weapons. It was a scary place,” Lloyd said, remembering the exploding DDR machine.
“Fine,” Kratos said angrily. He was in a bad mood because of the delay. “I’ll go find something for him. Everyone else, stay here… Or on second thought, wait outside this room.” It wasn’t safe to let Raine wait in a room with such fascinating artifacts. Kratos looked all over Derris-Kharlan. All the angels seemed to have taken their weapons with them when they left after Yggdrasil’s defeat. Finally, he found something and returned. “Here, use this,” Kratos said as he handed Mithos a sword, “But be very careful with it. It belonged to an old friend of mine… and more recently, an enemy.”
“Cool! I’ve got a sword!” Mithos said excitedly as he grabbed the sword from Kratos.
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to let him use Yggdrasil’s sword?” Lloyd asked, still distrustful of Mithos.
“It was the only weapon I could find in Derris-Kharlan. There is no time to go shopping for a new weapon, so this will just have to work. Now is everyone ready?” Kratos asked. Everyone nodded. He activated the Sorcerer’s Ring and they all left Derris-Kharlan instantly.
Meanwhile, Keyblade had learned a lot about alchemy. Bookworm and Shade were very, very bored. Ed and Al were also bored because they had to go to Central Headquarters, where Lieutenant-colonel Hughes would probably spend hours telling them about his daughter. They told Keyblade to read from an alchemy book while they were gone.
“It’s no fun just watching you learn alchemy, Keyblade. Can’t we go explore somewhere, like maybe a bookstore?” Bookworm complained.
“What are you going to do with your alchemy anyway?” Shade asked.
“I can do lots of cool stuff with alchemy. I’ll show you. Watch this!” Keyblade said, putting down the alchemy book and starting to draw a transmutation circle.
“What are you gonna make?” Bookworm asked.
“I’m gonna make a bunch of DDR tokens!” Keyblade said excitedly.
“No! Stop! It’s dangerous to alchemify gold!” Shade tried to warn Keyblade, but she was too late. Keyblade had already put her hands on the circle and started the transmutation.
Something was wrong. The transmutation wasn’t working. Keyblade was sucked into the Gate! “No!” Shade screamed and threw a rock at the gate. Suddenly, Keyblade fell out of the gate. She was unconscious, but still had all her limbs. The Gate disappeared just as Ed and Al returned. They stared at unconscious Keyblade and the pile of goo that was supposed to be DDR tokens.
“What happened?” Al asked Shade and Bookworm.
“Umm… Keyblade kinda did a little bit of alchemy and—” Bookworm was interrupted by Ed.
“WHAT!?!” he yelled. “We told her not to do any alchemy without us! She was just supposed to study! What was she trying to do?”
“She wanted to make DDR tokens. They’re made of gold. She tried to alchemify gold and failed,” Shade explained. “She got sucked into the Gate and I threw a rock at it…”
“What did the rock look like? Was it small and red?” Al asked.
“Yes, I think so,” Shade replied.
“You threw my Philospher’s Stone into the gate!?!” Ed screamed.
“Calm down, Big Brother. It was an incomplete Philosopher’s Stone. I’m sure we’ll find another. And it looks like that stone just saved Keyblade’s life,” Al said.
Ed was about to yell some more when they were interrupted. Lloyd ran into the room, followed by Genis and Colette. Once again, they had run ahead of Kratos and the rest of their friends. Lloyd looked around and spotted Bookworm. “Hey! You stole my Sorcerer’s Ring!” he yelled, reaching for his swords.
Bookworm noticed that he was carrying her bag. “And you stole my DDR tokens!” She ran over to Lloyd and tried to punch him. He dodged her punch and tried to hit her with one of his swords. Shade, Genis, Colette, Ed, and Al watched Bookworm and Lloyd beating each other up.
“Bookworm doesn’t need to get so angry about the tokens,” Genis said. “She can’t use them. Lloyd and Colette broke the DDR machine.”
“WHAT!?!” Keyblade suddenly regained consciousness and started yelling. “Stop fighting! We need to go to the mall right now!” Keyblade activated the Sorcerer’s Ring and they all returned to Derris-Kharlan.
“Why do we have to go to the mall?” Colette asked curiously.
“I need to fix the DDR machine! I’m going to use alchemy. I don’t even need a transmutation circle now that I’ve seen the Truth inside the Gate,” Keyblade explained.
“That’s not a good thing!” Ed yelled at her. “You shouldn’t have seen inside the Gate and you shouldn’t have tried to transmute gold!”
“I think this is the right device,” Bookworm said. She took the Sorcerer’s Ring from Keyblade, changed its function, and activated it again. They all left Derris-Kharlan, but did not arrive at the mall. Instead of a DDR machine, they found themselves facing an angry blue dragon.

Fanfic Again

2006-08-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

As Lloyd raised his swords to attack Mithos, he was hit in the head by a kendama flying through the air. “Ouch! What was that?” Lloyd yelled.
“I think Genis is mad at you, Lloyd,” Colette pointed towards the arcade.
“Lloyd! You idiot!” Genis yelled, snatching his kendama from Lloyd. “What do you think you’re doing? We’re in enough trouble already without you attacking innocent bystanders!”
“But he’s not an innocent bystander! He’s Mithos Yggdrasil!” Lloyd complained, rubbing his aching head.
Genis glared at him. “Don’t you think I would recognize him if he was Yggdrasil? We used to be friends, remember?” Genis hit him with the kendama again, just to make sure he understood.
Mithos had just recovered from the shock of nearly being attacked by a video game character. He finally noticed the bag Lloyd was carrying. “Hey! What are you doing with Bookworm’s bag?”
“Who? I just found this bag near the DDR machine. It had a lot of tokens in it,” Lloyd explained.
“Bookworm is one of my friends. I was meeting her, Shade, and Keyblade here to play DDR. She’s gonna be really mad that you stole her bag,” Mithos said.
“Oh… Sorry. Do you think she’ll notice that all the tokens are gone? The DDR machine doesn’t accept Gald and Colette really wanted to play,” Lloyd said guiltily.
“She’ll probably notice that you used all her tokens, but it doesn’t really matter,” Genis said, “not since someone broke the DDR machine!”
“What? How did that happen?” Mithos asked.
“Umm, I tripped and fell on the DDR machine,” Colette explained. “And then there was a little explosion. And Lloyd got worried about me, so he started hitting the machine with his swords and then there were even more explosions. Then we decided it was time to leave.”
“Hey! I just had an idea!” Lloyd announced.
“Wow! That’s the first time that’s happened,” Genis muttered.
Ignoring Genis, Lloyd said, “My Sorcerer’s Ring disappeared and his friends left all their DDR tokens here. What if they took the Sorcerer’s Ring and went back to Derris-Kharlan?”
“What!?! They went to Derris-Kharlan without me! I feel so left out!” Mithos whined. However, he did not feel left out for much longer because suddenly Kratos, Raine, Zelos, Sheena, Regal, and Presea appeared.
“Can I examine the Mage’s Ring now? Please? PLEASE?” Raine begged, trying to snatch the magic ring from Kratos.
“Lloyd! Are you all right, son?” Kratos asked, holding the ring out of Raine’s reach.
“Yeah, but Mithos’s friends took my Sorcerer’s Ring,” Lloyd said.
“Mithos!?! He’s still alive?” Kratos said, looking as if he expected to be attacked at any moment.
Colette shook her head. “Not that Mithos! It’s a different Mithos. I didn’t know it was such a common name.”
“We should go back to Derris-Kharlan and then try to find the Sorcerer’s Ring,” Presea said calmly.
“Yes, and maybe we should bring Mithos with us. He could help us find his friends,” Regal suggested.
“All right, let’s go,” Kratos agreed. He dodged an attack from Raine’s staff and activated the Mage’s Ring, sending them all back to Derris-Kharlan.
Meanwhile, Keyblade was excitedly looking at the new world she had found.
“Why did you have to do that, Keyblade? Now how are we going to get back home?” Shade asked.
“I don’t want to go home yet. I want to explore,” Keyblade said.
“If we can’t get home, we may never see another DDR machine, anime, or book ever again,” Shade said. She and Keyblade both stopped arguing when they heard a soft thump behind them. Bookworm had fainted at the mention of never seeing another book.
“Hey! Who are you?” someone yelled at them. Shade and Keyblade turned to see two people running towards them. One was a large suit of armor. The other was a short boy. He was the one yelling. “What are you doing here? No civilians are allowed in Central HQ!”
“Calm down, Big Brother,” the armor said.
“Hey! I know you two! You’re Ed and Al from Fullmetal Alchemist!” Keyblade said excitedly.
“Yeah, I’m Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist. And this is Alphonse Elric. You still haven’t answered me. What do you want here?” Ed said impatiently.
“Teach me alchemy! Please! Please! PLEASE!” Keyblade said, jumping up and down in excitement.
“No way! We’re way too busy to have an apprentice!” Ed said.
“PLEASE! I really want to learn alchemy! I’ll be a good student! Please teach me!” Keyblade made a face like a sad puppy.
“Ed, maybe we should try having an apprentice,” Al suggested.
“Oh yeah? Give me one good reason,” Ed said.
“She’s not shorter than you. You two look about the same height,” Al pointed out.
“Yes! I told you I’m not short!” Ed cheered.
“So, will you teach me?” Keyblade asked hopefully.
Ed thought for a moment. “Hey Al, do you think we have to abandon her on a deserted island before training her?”
Al shook his head. “No, there might be more homunculi on the island. Let’s just teach her.”
“Okay,” Ed said, turning to Keyblade Alchemist, “then you are now our apprentice.”

More Fanfic!

2006-08-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

“What do these do?” Keyblade asked, pointing at the function-changing devices. Kratos hesitated, confused. Usually, people paid attention when he yelled angrily and reached for his sword. Keyblade grabbed the Sorcerer’s Ring from Bookworm and held it near one of the devices. There was a bright light, indicating another change of function. “Let’s see what it does now!” Before anyone could protest, there was an even brighter flash of light and Keyblade, Bookworm, and Shade had all vanished to another world.
“Now what do we do?” Regal asked.
“We have to save Lloyd! And Genis and Colette!” Kratos said.
“We would need to use a Sorcerer’s Ring to do that,” Presea commented.
“Or we could use the Mage’s Ring,” Zelos muttered.
“WHAT?” Everyone demanded.
“Oh, you don’t know? I’ll tell you if my hunnies give me kisses!” Zelos announced excitedly.
“Don’t you want to save Colette? Isn’t she one of your ‘hunnies’?” Raine asked.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Zelos was extremely disappointed. “The Mage’s Ring is in the Martel Temple near Meltokio. It’s the Sorcerer’s Ring’s twin.”
“Of course!” Raine had the look she usually had when she spotted an ancient ruin. “With two Chosens, there would be two magic rings! The Sorcerer’s Ring was enshrined near Colette’s home in Iselia, so the Mage’s Ring would be near Zelos’s home in Meltokio. Let’s hurry! I can’t wait to examine the ring!”
Meanwhile, in the mall, Lloyd and Colette were discovering the delights of DDR.
“Look! I can do Light level already!” Colette smiled.
“No fair! You’re using your wings to float above the arrows!” Lloyd complained.
“You have wings too,” Colette pointed out.
“I’m not sure if my wingspan will fit here… I guess I’ll try,” Lloyd said, spreading his huge angel wings. One of the wings bumped klutzy Colette, causing her to fall against the DDR machine. A few explosions later, Genis was trying to explain Symphonia to the mall’s security guards. Apparently, most shoppers are not used to seeing two angels blowing up an arcade game, so Lloyd and Colette were able to sneak out amid the chaos.
As Colette put her wings away, she tripped again, bumping into someone standing nearby. “Oh! I’m sorry!”
“That’s okay,” the person said. He had been planning on meeting some friends at the DDR machine, but was three hours late already. He did not realize his friends were currently lost in an unknown world. “Hey! You look like the people from Tales of Symphonia!”
“Yes, we’re from Symphonia. My name is Colette and this is Lloyd. What’s your name?” said friendly Colette.
“I’m Mithos,” he said.
“AAAAAHH! It’s Mithos Yggdrasil! He’s still alive!” Lloyd screamed, reaching for his twin swords.

Bookworm's Fanfic, Continued

2006-08-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

More of my fanfic! (Once again, it's a little long.)

“Look! That’s me!” Colette pointed at the cover of the Tales of Symphonia game. She didn’t seem very bothered by the loss of the Sorcerer’s Ring.
“Yeah, I’m there too,” Lloyd grinned and pointed at the picture of himself.
“What’s wrong with this thing? It has Zelos on the cover, but not me!” Genis complained. He reached for his kendama. Lloyd held out a hand to stop him.
“Don’t destroy it. It’s not ours. Let’s just find the Sorcerer’s Ring and get back to Derris-Kharlan. I bet Kratos and the Professor are worried about us,” Lloyd said. He, Genis, and Colette walked out of the video game store. After getting lost several times, they finally stood outside the arcade. They all agreed this was where they had first arrived, but the Sorcerer’s Ring was nowhere to be found.
“Wow! What’s in there?” Colette exclaimed as she walked into the arcade. Lloyd followed her eagerly.
“No! We have to look for the Sorcerer’s Ring and get back to Derris-Kharlan!” Genis shouted as he ran after them.
“We can look for it later,” Lloyd shrugged. “Right now, I want to try this game!” He pointed at the DDR machine.
Meanwhile, in Derris-Kharlan…
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Kratos demanded, furious that Bookworm, Shade, and Keyblade dared to be in Derris-Kharlan without his permission.
“Hi! I’m Bookworm. This is Shade and this is Keyblade Alchemist. We were going to do some DDR, but I’m not sure what happened. This doesn’t look like the mall,” Bookworm said, glancing around the room.
“What is this ‘DDR’?” Kratos asked suspiciously.
“DDR is the best arcade game ever!” Keyblade Alchemist explained enthusiastically. “You have to step on the arrows when they appear on the screen. It’s really fun! And it has great music!”
“Yeah, like the Waka Laka song!” Bookworm added.
Kratos did not understand a word of this. Fortunately, he was spared the trouble of answering because the rest of his friends finally joined him.
“Is this DDR some kind of new advance in magitechnology?” Raine asked excitedly.
“Hey! When did so many girls get here?” Zelos asked even more excitedly.
“Leave them alone, you stupid pervert,” Sheena said, elbowing Zelos.
“Where are Genis, Colette, and Lloyd?” Presea asked.
“They are probably far ahead of us by now. Lloyd usually does go ahead like this,” Regal answered.
“Be quiet everyone!” Kratos shouted. “These people have been caught trespassing on Derris-Kharlan. Before you all started yelling, I was trying to interrogate them.” He glared at everyone, making them instantly shut up.
“We’re in Derris-Kharlan? Like in Tales of Symphonia?” Shade asked.
“Yes, this is Derris-Kharlan. Outside is Symphonia,” Kratos said.
“So, we’re in a video game?” Bookworm asked, incredibly confused.
“That girl has Lloyd’s Sorcerer’s Ring,” Presea observed.
“What?! How did you get that? What happened to Lloyd?” Kratos demanded furiously as he reached for his sword.

Fanfic Attempt!

2006-08-20T17:07:00.000-07:00

Shade wanted me to post a fanfic on this blog, so here's the beginning of one. This is my first attempt at writing a fanfic, so if it's not particularly good, that's why. Also, it contains spoilers for Tales of Symphonia. Beware! And sorry it's so long...

"Wow! This is so cool!" Lloyd Irving shouted as he ran through Derris-Kharlan.
"He certainly is enthusiastic," said Kratos Aurion. Following the defeat of the evil Mithos Yggdrasil, Kratos had planned to leave Symphonia. However, his son Lloyd convinced him to give him and his friends a tour of Derris-Kharlan first.
"He's always enthusiastic. That's why he's always the first to get bored," said Genis Sage, Lloyd's best friend. He dashed away in pursuit of Lloyd.
"Wait for me!" Colette Brunel called as she ran after her friends.
Genis's sister Raine shook her head. "Why do they keep running ahead? If they went slower, I'd be able to tell them all about Derris-Kharlan's fascinating history!"
Lloyd paused before a door with a Do Not Enter sign. "Hey! I wonder what's in here!" As Genis and Colette caught up to him, Lloyd opened the door. "Wow! Look at this! The room's full of those devices that change the function of the Sorcerer's Ring!"
"Wow! That's great! Oops!" Colette tripped as she ran into the room. She bumped into Lloyd, causing him to fall against the nearest device. A bright flash of light indicated the Sorcerer's Ring's function had changed.
"Lloyd, don't do anything! Let's wait for Kratos and the others. There's probably a reason that door said 'do not enter'," Genis said, looking around suspiciously.
"Aww! Can't we just see what the ring does?" Lloyd asked. Without waiting for Genis's answer, he tested the ring. There was another bright flash of light that caused all three of them to shut their eyes. When they opened them, they were no longer in Derris-Kharlan. They were in the middle of a place filled with people and stores.
"You idiot! I told you not to do anything! Get back here!" Genis yelled as he ran after Lloyd, who had gone to investigate one of the nearby stores. Colette followed her friends.
A few minutes later, Genis and Colette had once again caught up with Lloyd. He was in a video game store, staring at a game called "Tales of Symphonia".
"This is getting too weird. Let's use the Sorcerer's Ring to get back to Derris-Kharlan," Genis suggested.
Lloyd turned his attention away from the strange game. "Yeah, good idea," he said as he reached for his Sorcerer's Ring. A moment later, he gasped. "Uh-oh. The Sorcerer's Ring is gone!"
Meanwhile, three friends were taking a break after playing Dance Dance Revolution for three hours. Bookworm, Shade, and Keyblade Alchemist sat outside the mall's arcade, feeling completely exhausted. Bookworm, who had the most energy left because she preferred the easier levels of DDR, stood up and started to walk toward a nearby store when she noticed something shiny on the floor. "Hey! What's this?" she said as she picked up a strange ring. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light that caused all three to shut their eyes. When they opened them, they were not in the mall. They were in a room full of function-changing devices. Kratos was glaring angrily at them. *to be continued as soon as I decide what happens next*

Greetings

2006-08-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to the Dragon's Lair. This is a blog to discuss anime, manga, video games, and books. Tell favorite animes, brag about video game sucsesses, and share favorite book titles and authors with others. If you're an upcoming author, share problems and tips to beginners. If you've got a (clean please) fanfic, post it here. Please enjoy the Dragon's Lair!