[IC Board] All the World's a Game - Season II

[WriggleRid3r]

Roxas' House - Tokyo

---

"You better treat me to a real nice meal after this." Reimu sighed and shrugged, seemingly ignoring the owner of the house despite going out the way to say that the group has barged into the said owner's home. "So where are we?"

---

Scarlet Devil Mansion

---

"It's open. Lady Patchouli wants as many people to be interested, apparently. I don't know why she has gotten so... social... all of a sudden..." Koakuma fidgeted and responded. "Oh... pardon me. Come follow me please."

[Koishi]

Clockworks

---

Below the terminal was a myriad of different colors, all in respective corners. In one corner lied an area heavily concealed by some sort of fog-like miasma. In another, occasional huge orange sparks and even a faint whirring could be heard from this distance, the flashes piercing out from an area of steel. Another had a pinkish air, and the faintest smells of gelatin lingered. and While the last reeked of sulfur, huge flames erupting from... something. It was hard to see due to the smoke drifting up.

"Those are some of the most dangerous areas of the Clockworks. Only the most powerful knights have gone through those places and survived. They all have their reasons, and all of them contain creatures of great power. Though, truth be told, I at least feel bad for one of them." HP explained.

---

Scarlet Devil Mansion

---

Magolor and Marx did follow her down the long, same-ish hallways of the SDM.

"So, by that, I take it this Patchouli's a recluse? Reminds me of my younger days." Magolor replied.

"Younger days? How even old are you at this point?" Marx asked, a little confused.

Magolor stood silently for a few moments, muttering a few numbers. "around 238, give or take."

"Wow, you are OLD." Marx aid, chuckling. "Should I fetch you a cane?"

"Ey, I ain't the one who bounces around on a giant ball all day." Magolor retorted. "I've grown to be a little more mature than that."

Marx looked seething, but held back his anger. Magolor looked back over to Koakuma.

"Sorry, we just have a habit of arguing." Magolor explained.

[WriggleRid3r]

Scarlet Devil Mansion

---

"That is all very fine." Koakuma chuckled sheepishly as she arrived at a huge door at the end of the hallway. The two guests' conversation was normal... tame even, in Gensokyo, where rude banters and danmaku fights were frequent. Koakuma opened the door with ease and the gate swung open, revealing a stairway lit with torches of everlasting flames. Koakuma descended the stairs after looking behind her to find if the guests were following her properly, without nary a word.

[Koishi]

Scarlet Devil Mansion

---

"Everlasting torches, good stuff." Magolor said, as the three descended. "Though my ship has it's own lighting, so they're not really necessary other than for mood."

"Dinner by candlelight, smootches and all?" Marx leaned in close to Magolor's face, and was promptly pushed away by a hand.

[Kristia]

Roxas' House - Tokyo


"I actually meant the copy version of yours John, but thanks for the leak of information" Mara spoke actually having something planned "This will be good for the other two`s plan" she muttered actually smiling.

"So I still have to get at least you" the Froslass pointed to the spartan "To Yukari so we can deal with her madness, I know that the furry lovers aren`t on this plane at the moment, don`t ask how, but knowing them, they are getting what they need for what we have been gathering"

Henir`s time and space

The beast duo was heading to the hospital with the Pokèmon on the front, even thought without aura abilities, her animal ones were in optimal state, meanwhile the Digimon was doing a similar job on the sides and back. "I wonder if this city actually existed" Nera spoke out of the blue

"I guess it is probably, it is hard to come with something this big in terms of imagination, so it can be expected this was taken from somewhere else" Renamon answered calmly, but her mind was already formulating the possible things that could happen

"Well, you got that right, before you came in, we have fought things that came from already existing elements, I find it strange that someone who can create and manipulate a dimension wouldn`t be original" the Lucario continued already knowing how the conversation was going.

The fox nodded at that "Would there be a restriction on what can be created then? That man Luto had this feeling of total control, but there was something lacking.." she put her two cents and received an answer from that "Then comes Glaive and his locks, there have been two already opened, but I think there is something behind all of this"

[S121]

Roxas' House - Tokyo

"Fair enough... We're in this man's house. He brought us here after saving us, so that we could recover from the battle.", John said to Reimu as he motioned over to Roxas with a tilt of his head, a little annoyed over the fact that he had just added one more task to his "to do" list.

As soon as John finished speaking to Reimu, he heard Mara talk to him from behind, prompting him to turn around. At first John was confused. John had no idea that Renamon and Nera knew about Yukari's madness, much less had a plan, but he was relieved to now know that he wasn't the only person trying to help Yukari. Of course, to John's dismay, it seemed as if Mara was going to use what John said, possibly telling Yukari about the recent incident. Granted, it was for curing Yukari's encroaching madness, but it left John actually feeling somewhat... uncomfortable. If Mara was to reveal the event to Yukari, John wanted to at least know what exactly Renamon and Nera's plan was.

"... Seeing how you are going to use this information, could you at least tell me what exactly it will be used for? What is Renamon and Nera's plan?", John asked Mara.



Clockworks

Takoizu stared in awe at the sight before her. She had seen quite a lot in her years of traveling, scavenging, and exploring, but she had never seen anything quite like this. Each of the four worlds coupled with her standing over them gave the entire area a surreal atmosphere, one of wonder and eerie mystery.

The Higher Power snapped Takoizu out of her trance, bringing her attention towards him as he spoke about the worlds below. Each word he said only served to add to the mystery of the worlds, and after the Higher Power said how he felt sorry for one of the worlds, Takoizu couldn't help but be interested in learning more.

"Why is that?", Takoizu asked as she looked out to the worlds, then back to the Higher Power.



Streets - Santa Cruz - California | Night

Isaac was pleased to hear that Shadow had completely calmed down and even provided everyone a means to quickly get to Malthael, but before Isaac would tell Shadow to teleport them, he first needed to ask Koishi if it was safe. After all, Koishi had more information about the road ahead than anyone else in the group, so it only made sense to Isaac for him to ask her first.

"Hey Koishi, is it safe to teleport to the crater? You have a better idea of what's going on up ahead than we do.", Isaac said to Koishi.



Reactor Labs - Sector 4 - Prometheus Labs - London

Right after Raven called out for Dr. Neuman and Chung, Dr. Neuman's voice called out to Raven from far across the room, behind a fusion reactor that had to be about 35 feet tall.

"Over here."



Infirmary - Prometheus Labs - London | Dawn

Despite how rapid Birkin asked his questions, the SPARTAN doctor had no problem answering them all.

"52 percent of the SPARTANs that were injured by the B.O.W.s died. All of the injured SPARTANs were infected, but something caused them all to be resistant to the virus, or rather, not fully compatible with the virus. Many of the SPARTAN's bodies rejected the virus and killed the host, most likely due to certain key differences in the SPARTANs' physiology. The virus took hold in certain cells, but it triggered an autoimmune response from the hosts, killing them, but not reanimating them. Of course, the other 48 percent survived the process, and the virus seems to have either eradicated in some SPARTANs, or assimilated and rendered docile in others. We already tested the remnants of the virus in those previously infected, and there is no chances of it becoming contagious again. In fact, after a few more weeks, the virus should be completely out of the SPARTANs' systems, leaving just memories.", the SPARTAN doctor explained to Birkin, reassuring him that the virus did not currently pose a threat.

"As for Wesker, he was in a lengthy battle with Lily-223 before being killed by Spartan-B312, Chris and Claire Redfield, and 'Gerard'.", he added.

[Kristia]

Roxas' House - Tokyo


"Oh relax, I`m not going to to tell your wife about your suicide card" Mara answered waving her hand, but then got serious "That is something you should speak about with her, you aren`t just a person who can do what is best for the others, now you got people who do care for you and would do their best for your happines, take me for example, I was taken back from the grave because I was a friend of the fox, and Arceus forbid if the she or the Lucario would need help, they would go to hell and heaven to stay together alive"

"Back on track though" the ghost apologized "You should know that Yukari isn`t the most common person, she has it hard to trust people, so if you were to be gone for good, expect her to follow you, but I worry it would be to stay on the other side rather than taking you back" she spoke with a grim tone

The Froslass then sighed "We got our own stuff to deal with, one is the blonde`s madness, we need you to keep the girl calm while the madness is transferred to another host which is already secured since the cage may now be open. With that madness we could actually deal with our main problem that is a monster of a virus called D-Reaper, with the madness, it would be possible to destroy this creature`s mind, but just in case I already warned the big guys of both Renamon`s and Nera`s worlds."

[S121]

Roxas' House - Tokyo

John hated to admit it, but perhaps Mara was right. He was no longer living for just himself, and if he died, he would be leaving behind more than just his name and deeds. The only problem was finding a balance between his duty and what protocol dictated, and his personal life, the people that truly depended on him to be there. Perhaps in the future, he would try and use a different approach. John continued to listen to Mara, but after she had mentioned the "D-Reaper", he had to ask her who she was talking about.

"D-Reaper? Who or what is that?", John asked Mara.

[Kristia]

Roxas' House - Tokyo


Mara sighed rubbing her temples "The D-Reaper is a virus created by the humans to eradicate computer programs, thus that title, and it was contained after having its job done, but little they knew that it was alive and stayed as a cocoon, slowly gathering energy and intelligence, it was evolving. So when the Tamers, the humans who were partners of the Digimon like Renamon, appeared, it knew it was the perfect time to strike"

"I won`t lie to you, the Digital World was nearly exterminated if it wasn`t from the Ancient Digimon who gave most of their energy to keep it stable, but the D-reaper was an intelligent one and waited for the best moment to strike. When the Tamers and their partners finally could relax from a group of powerful digimon, the virus possesed one of the humans. This possession was possible because the humans needed to be digitalized to go to the Digital World, so when they went back, hell broke loose."

"It was a total epidemic, anything that was electronic was affected and gave the D-reaper mosre strength achieving the destruction of the center of a big city and almost spreading to the planet, but was managed to be stopped by the kids and digimon, but the virus wasn`t dead. That is when the fox decided to be direct with it" The Froslass closed her eyes remembering the memories since she had access to them because of the time she lived in the Digimon`s mind.

"Renamon and the others came with a plan to capture the D-reaper, there was still no way to kill it and the only way to keep such being caged was to put it inside someone with an unbreakable will, thus the golden fox didn`t hesitate to do it, heck,even she was the one who planned the whole thing. Sadly it wasn`t a perfect plan and casualties appeared, there was this long eared friend of hers who bombed the whole place to weaken the virus by using everything on his life.

The virus was captured inside the fox`s soul, a temporary work, but now with Yukari`s madness, it is possible to actually kill her, by making the D-reaper end her own life, such thing will be hard and taxing, for the moment, she is now free, but still trapped because she will do everything to murder her jailer."

[Koishi]

Santa Cruz

---

Koishi pondered that for a moment, rubbing her chin. "Well, I dunno, but considering the amount of zombies, it'd be like trying to teleport into a store during a Black Friday sale. You're more likely to teleport inside someone rather than just teleporting normally." Koishi tried to explain, sounding a little unsure of the idea.

---

Clockworks

---

"That one." HP pointed down to where the bellowing smoke and fire erupted from. "That is Firestorm Citadel, the only remnant of of the once great kingdom of Almire."

HP looked over to Takoizu, took a deep breath, and began telling the story.

"Once upon a time, in a place long ago and far away, there were three warring kingdoms, with the smallest being the kingdom of Almire., filled with beautiful trees and golden fields. The kingdom was ruled by a young, determined king by the name of Lord Vanaduke. Though the kingdom was small, it was recognized a a powerful nation, following military traditions and with a highly disciplined army. Given time, it could probably have become a mighty empire, but the other two kings saw this potential, and formed a truce to wipe it off the face of the planet."

"This is where is turned awry. From the top of the Great Citadel of Almire, Lord Vanaduke watched hiss kingdom crumble to pieces in front of him, and time was running short before the two kingdoms would completely overwhelm his own. He was going mad from the pressure of it all, so he fled to the mountains, vowing one day he would reclaim the throne. He journeyed there because of his people's superstitious beliefs in gods hiding in the mountains. He was looking for a deity to help him. It was most likely his people's only chance, truth be told." HP continued, taking a small pause.

He tirelessly searched the mountains, a shell of the man he once was, considered by most to be a mad hermit. But, then, he discovered a strange cave, radiating an unnatural warmth. He found a great chamber inside, floor waist deep in ash, and at the center, a blackened shrine, burned to the point that even I know not wht deity it was. He began whispering, reciting the names of his family, the names of the kings before him, and all the towns of Almire, eventually he grew louder and louder, it becoming a chant as he shouted. He yelled the names of the rival kings, all those crimes they had commited against hiss people, crying out to this mountain god to punish them. In this... frenzy, he looked to the face of the deity and saw it deform, burning the image into his eyes and brain like hot coals, the crack of foregn screams and the pounding of war drums echoing in his mind." Hp paused again, sounding a little more forlorn.

"With this, he sunk into the ash, choking on it as it pulled him below, tasting sulfur as his screams became roaring flames. He was transformed and cursed by the deity, his armor fused to his skin, his hand becoming metal claws, beast fur growing along his back. The only feature to tell that it was even Vanaduke at all was his face, twisted into the shape of a skull. But everyone knew who he was. Days later, the citizens of the kingdom watch great flames erupt from the mountains."

"It was Vanaduke, leading an army of twisted fiends, destroying both kingdoms to nothing but fire and death in but a day. Then he returned to his own kingdom, and it burned too, for everywhere he went, everything he touched was doomed to ash, and thus, he destroyed his own kingdom while reclaiming it. With nothing left to destroy, the fiends returned to the mountains, leaving the king in a throne of ash and cinders, surrounded by his dead people.

And there he remains, a cursed king ruling a burning kingdom from an ashen throne, surrounded by the lost souls of those who once served him. He mercilessly destroys any and all who dare enter his kingdom, however much of an ashen shadow of what wa once rivers that flowed with clear water, and trees that glittered like emeralds under the shining sun." HP finished.

[SereneGrace]

Streets of London - London

Carl just turned his head at Jack's comment about his dear sister, all the while Ada continued to have her arms wrapped around Carl as she portectively stood over him.

After Angkor absorbed the Dark El, Carl turned to look at them, however what he saw was Eve staring directly at him and his sister.


"Uhm... is there anything you might need?" Carl asked as he returned Eve's stare back to her.

[SUSTIC]

Streets - Santa Cruz - California | Night

Shadow sighed as he tossed the Chaos Emerald into the air with one hand before catching it again.

"I never said I would teleport directly there. There is no way I am that reckless. I would transport us to a safer location. A location that is far closer to it than our current spot. Say a rooftop nearby the location? Would that be safer for you?" Shadow replied as he turned to Koishi.


______

Meanwhile off in the distance at Dante, Komachi's, Jubei's, and Krieg's current location...


"POUNDS! OF! FLESH! POUNDS OF FLESH EVERYWHERE! IT'S RAINING MEAT!!!" Krieg yelled in a psychotic rage as he continued hacking away at the many undead that littered the street.

Krieg seemed to be in a state of psychotic bliss, combined with psychotic rage. He seemed to be enjoying hacking and slashing at the undead armor...

"You're really enjoying this aren't you?" Krieg's inner voice spoke inside Krieg's own mind. Krieg though let out a bloodcurdling roar that, if it wasn't for the army of undead, would echo throughout the city. However Krieg stopped in his tracks as he looked off into the distance... In the distance he saw how there seemed to be a large... glowing light in the distance... the light was obviously the crater... Though Krieg didn't know what it was, he seemed entranced by it.

"Don't you dare do what I think you... or we are going to do..." Spoke Krieg's inner voice...


"Pretty... light... Precious... light... I'm... going to MAKE IT MY PRETTY!!!" Yelled Krieg as he began charging through the undead army, hacking and slashing at anything in his path with his Buzz Axe.



Reactor Labs - Sector 4 - Prometheus Labs - London

Upon hearing Neuman's response, Raven was pleased as he began walking up to Neuman.

"So Neuman what are you up to?" Raven asked rather bluntly.



Infirmary - Prometheus Labs - London | Dawn

Birkin sighed in relief upon what the Spartan Doctor had told him. "So it wasn't as bad as I thought... Just make sure that those who still have the virus in their systems don't exchange bodily fluids with others... The virus tends to go into a dormant state at random... in some cases it has been known to actually mutate while it is in said dormant state... Just make sure they don't bite, scratch, or exchange their blood or saliva with anyone else's." Birkin replied as he yawned a bit, showing a bit of exhaustion in his voice despite barely doing anything at all.


"So... Wesker was killed... tell me... what exactly happened with him...?"



Streets of London - London

As Eve continued to seemingly examine Ada, she heard Carl spoke up. This seemed to break her of her trance.

"I apologize, but I am in no need of anything. I was just examining your 'sister'. She does not seem to have any bio-signs at all. In fact her body seems to be artificial. Made from cloth, metal, and other unidentifiable materials. If that is the case then how can she be your sister? Was she created by someone to serve as a sisterly figure? She cannot possibly be your biological sibling... it's physically impossible for that object to be your biological sister. It does have intelligence, but it is not flesh in blood... I am rather stumped with this one... Please answer my question."

[S121]

Roxas' House - Tokyo - Japan

John felt that the information Mara gave him about the D-Reaper was somewhat alarming, but it seemed as if it was contained and accounted for, so he did not worry too much. There was nothing John could do at the moment, so there was no need to worry. What he needed to worry about now was the current situation.

"At least it's contained for now. The sooner we get home, the sooner we can help Yukari and eliminate the D-Reaper.... Wait.", John said to Mara before suddenly realizing something.

There was Mara, Reimu, Utsuho, Jason, and himself, but what about Mickey? At that moment, John turned around and looked around the room, searching for their new aquaintence.



Clockworks

Takoizu listened to the Higher Power's story, and after he was done, she looked out to the Firestorm Citadel. It was truly a tragic tale,. This king, Vanaduke, destroyed what he had fought so hard to protect. To be honest, the tale was somewhat unsettling to her. Takoizu was in a very similar situation to Lord Vanaduke, only instead of trying to save a kingdom, Takoizu was trying to save her world, her timeline. She doubted that she could do anything to her timeline to make it any worse, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy about the topic. After taking a moment to quietly reflect on the Higher Power's story, Takoizu looked back over to him and spoke.

"We should probably get going.", Takoizu finally said.



Reactor Labs - Sector 4 - Prometheus Labs - London

As Raven approached the large reactor, Dr. Neuman's legs could be seen dangling out of one of the compartments on the backside of it. Raven may not have known what exactly Neuman was doing, but it seemed as if Dr. Neuman was working on the reactor's electrical systems.

"I'm trying to finish building this reactor. It's for one of The Labs's defense systems. It's supposed to create a 'null field' around the Labs, preventing anyone from teleporting in and attacking from the inside.", Dr. Neuman said, his voice echoing out from the compartment he was in.



Infirmary - Prometheus Labs - London | Dawn

"Well, we have the body in a cryochamber for now. I believe that some of the scientists were going to deconstruct his genetic code and reverse engineer his genetic augmentations.", the SPARTAN doctor replied to Birkin.

[SereneGrace]

Streets of London - London

The moment Eve began speaking Carl took a few steps back into his 'sister' before wrapping his arms around Ada, and vice versa. When Carl did this he looked just like a young child trying to cling to his mother defensively. Carl then shot a brief, and somewhat psychotically angry glare at Eve.

"I already told you guys! She is my sister! She is made out of flesh and blood! So just shut up shut up shut up!!!" Carl yelled as his 'sister' Ada turned to look at Carl with that same emotionless face. As Ada turned to Carl, Carl looked up at Ada and finally quickly calmed down.

"O-Oh... I'm sorry sister... I lashed out again..."

"..."

"Yes I am aware..."

"..."

"Very well I will apologize..." Carl 'exchanged' with Ada even though the living doll remained silent. After he was done talking with Ada he turned to Jack, Aisha, and Eve.

"I apologize for snapping at you. Honestly I did not mean to react so negatively, but my sister said that 'One does not need to be of flesh and blood to be someone's sibling.' "

[wonderweiss]

Henir's Time and Space

---

As they were walking, Jack had a few things on his mind. For one, he wanted to get a good bit of information on the time stream he was placed in. He wanted to know the people. So he decided to ask Rena and Nera a question about someone close.

"Hey, you two, while we're looking for the hospital... Do you know Otori Inozuka?"




Prometheus Labs

---

"I never liked that guy," Volgin said. "But in spite of that, he made quite a few advancements to the system. That much we were thankful for. And as far as Base 7... That's quite the amount of damage you put on. But I feel you should know...

"A replacement has already been set up. And ready for you." He mentioned. "Obviously not in the same area. But it's been rebuilt and it's ready for your men to come by."