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

[SUSTIC]

Washington D.C - City Streets

As they entered the lobby Pit turned to Midna as he rubbed the back of his head while letting out a slightly nervous chuckle. "Yeah well... we try to be as quaint as possible. Well that's what Palutena said. She also said something about not causing such a big ruckus within the city, yet also wants to be closer to her people. But don't worry though. Once we get to the apartment things will get a lot cooler!" Pit said as he turned back around to head to the stairwell to head upstairs. However as Midna and Pit began to make their way to the stairwell, a man who was busy talking with one of the owner of the apartment complex stopped talking with the owner of the building had and turned to look at Pit.

The man was rather tall. Standing pretty well over 6 feet. He had light brown, if not slightly red hair that reached down to his shoulders, but was kept in a nice ponytail. Along with that he also had a well kept moustache and goatee on his face. He also was dressed in a rather heavy brown trench coat with some rather nice looking short and vest underneath with a red ascot around his neck, dark blue pants, and heavy duty brown boots. This man also looked quite old, yet well built and fit. Upon seeing Pit the man smiled and walked over to the young angel.

"Well hello Pit. Nice seeing you here today. How are this quiet day?" The man replied as he took a quick glance over at Midna before turning back to Pit.

"Oh hi Julius! I'm fine. I had to go out and get groceries for today's dinner. You're still coming right?"

"Ah yes. The Christmas dinner that Miss Palutena is going to prepare today. I wouldn't miss that for the world.

"That's great! Palutena will really love to have you come to dinner! Anyways I have to go!"

"Hey wait aren't you going to introduce me to your friend here? I haven't seen her around these parts before... and just judging by her appearance and the presence I can feel from her... She does not seem to be of this realm of existence. Yet she doesn't seem bad or evil... more... I don't know how to describe it... Would you mind introducing me to her and vice versa?"

"Sorry... This is uh... What was your name again?" Pit spoke as he turned to Midna.

[Kristia]

Washington D.C - City Streets


"Iīm Midna kind sir, and you are right that Iīm not from here" Midna made a faint nod with her head "I can travel between worlds like this one, but there was a portal that threw me onto this one and nearly causing an accident with winged boy here" she gestured to Pit "So here I am as a guest for him and Lady Palutena" she explained the situation of her coming to the human world.

"And you are?" the Twili asked to the man called Julius

[SUSTIC]

Washington D.C - City Streets

The man heard Midna's description of how she got to this world, and how she had ran into Pit. It did intrigue him. Granted by now and even in the past the sound of beings that could travel between world's isn't that surprising, especially with how in this real world there are many different characters from other worlds or in other words, video games that can potentially do similar things. Either way since Midna did not seem hostile, in fact quite the opposite, he smiled warmly as he held out his hand for simple yet polite handshake.

"The name is Julius. Julius Belmont my fair madam. It's amazing that today of all day's we get visitor such as yourself. Juding by your appearance you must be of some upper class? Royalty perhaps? That headdress of yours is what points me in that direction." Julius replied as he continued to visibly examine the twili's physical appearance.

[Kristia]

Washington D.C - City Streets


"I do am, or was from the royalty, but after certain events involving a corrupt one of my kind and after dealing with him, I saw that my kingdom wouldnīt progress with my ideas since they were too stuck with bad traditions, so I decided to let my my court deal with it" Midna spoke totally calm despite the fact that she left her reign. "But anyways, why waste my life with people who preferred me dead if I can enjoy it by travelling around and meeting new people?"

"Yu did a good guess of me, and you.." she eyed Julius for a moment "You seem to have been through a hard life because of the tiredness of your eyes, yet you strive with energy since you body, despite being well aged, is prepared for another long journey, you also seem to have knowledge and etiquette of different social classes. I suppose you are or at least a sort of adventurer" the twili made a guess of him.

[S121]

Roxas' House - Tokyo, Japan | 12:00 AM

John was grateful for Roxas' assistance and hospitality, but reality quickly set back in as he realized all the things he still had left to do before the night ended, primarily him having to meet back up with Renamon and Nera to formulate a plan to treat Yukari's slowly encroaching madness and also having to speak with Satori about Koishi. With that in mind, John opened up a Corridor of Darkness before speaking to Roxas.

"Thank you for your hospitality, but now we have to go.", John said to Roxas before looking over to Mara, Reimu, Utsuho, and Jason.

"Let's go. We've got much more to do before tomorrow.", John said to the group.

Just then, John noticed that Mara seemed to be preoccupied with something in her small hands, some kind of device that looked a lot like Renamon's digivice. In fact, it seemed that Mara was having a conversation with someone with it. John wanted to leave as soon as possible, but thought it couldn't hurt to inquire what Mara was doing. Deciding to sate his curiosity, John looked over Mara's shoulder before speaking.

"Might I ask what's going on?", John calmly asked Mara in a curious tone.





Firestorm Citadel

Takoizu quietly considered all the skull had told her and smiled as she memorized all that it had said. This was exactly what she wanted to hear, information that would help her through this place. After listening to the skull, Takoizu decided to ask one last question.

"What should we expect once we get past the siege engines?", Takoizu asked the skull.





Rooftops - Santa Cruz - California | Night

Isaac quickly considered what Koishi and Shadow had said and decided that now was the time to act. Shadow was right; they were not going to wake up Malthael by standing on the rooftops and talking. The sooner they got to work, the more lives they could potentially save. With that in mind, Isaac spoke up.

"Right. The only way to wake him up is to go down there and try. Let's go.", Isaac said before activating his thrusters and flying towards the crater's center, determined to end this nightmare once and for all.





Chris and Claire's Living Quarters - Prometheus Labs - London

In that very moment, Six's eyes widened and his smile slowly faded as shock and surprise pierced him like a bolt of lightning. Time began to slow to a crawl as he tried to process what was happening, but was both at a loss for mind and words. He was going to be.. a father. It was clear that Six was trying to process what Claire had said, as evidenced by how he lowered his gaze from her with the same expression. To be honest, Six didn't know what exactly he was feeling. In fact, this was quite possibly the first time he had felt such surprise and shock, leaving him surprised that he was feeling this way.

Six's face then shifted to reflect what he was feeling, confusion. Was he feeling a negative emotion, or a positive one? Six didn't know, so he quietly stood there, thinking about it, but when he finally deconstructed his emotions and found that they were generally positive, Six looked back up to Clair with a small smile on his face.

"I can't tell whether I should be happy that we're going to have a child, or terrified that Chris is going to kill me.", Six finally said in a somewhat joking tone as he just barely turned his head enough to see Chris in his peripheral vision.





Mess Hall - Prometheus Labs - London | 1:00 PM

"Yea, we might be here a while.", Dr. Neuman said as he took note of all the SPARTANs getting lunch.



Observation Deck - Armor Technologies Lab - Sector 4 - Prometheus Labs - London

Once Raven, the head scientist, and the rest of the science team entered the room to watch the fruits of their labor, the head scientist pressed a button on the console and spoke into a microphone, allowing him to communicate with Lily, who was down below and selecting which weapons she would use for the test run.

"Hello Lily, can you hear us?", the head scientist asked over the intercom.

"Crystal.", Lily said as she picked an M6D up from the loadout table and tested her grip on the gun. The pistol was almost too large for her to comfortably use in one hand, but she at least had enough of a grip on it to effectively use it.

"Good to hear. We will begin testing once you have selected your loadout. After that, give us the green light and we will begin."





Bench - Streets of London (Vala's Location)

Nevermind the fact that this SPARTAN woman had a giant MAC cannon capable of decimating entire countries in space, nevermind the fact that she wanted to shatter a two-by-four against Halsey's head but then wanted to talk with her, and nevermind the fact that she was somehow able to gain partial access to some of their intel. What really struck the SPARTAN was the fact that this woman implied that Prometheus Labs was ONI.

"ONI? ...Where exactly do you think you are?", the red armored SPARTAN asked Vala in a noticeably confused tone.





Lima Tuberculosis Hospital - Lima, Ohio

As Hazama mused over The Hero of Kvatch's demise, Reaper had contacted his contractor to figure out who exactly this green-haired man was to PALADIN. It seemed that Hazama knew the countersign PALADIN often used to identify its personnel, but Reaper still wanted confirmation.

"This is Reaper reporting in from the field. Mission was a success, but there is a Character by the name of "Hazama" who claims to be affiliated with PALADIN as an informant. I request corroboration on this man's story.", Reaper said into his communicator as he waited for command to respond.

"All checks out. He's one of us.", the voice on the other end of the channel said to Reaper.

Reaper lightly scowled as he heard the news. This Character was a variable that he had not accounted for, someone that was currently unpredictable, and Reaper did not like that. There were so many things that could go wrong, so many ways that this Character could be of detriment to him. Surely there had to be a reason PALADIN would even think of breaking their usual habits and work with a Character. There had to be some reason Reaper was now stuck with this inconvenience.

"Since when has PALADIN been making deals with Characters?", Reaper calmly, coldly asked Mission Command.

"Since this guy fed us enough information to provide you intel on half your missions. In exchange for intel, PALADIN has made a deal to keep him alive when this is all over. Listen, just work with the guy. If he gives you any trouble, tell us and we'll handle it.", Mission Command said before disconnecting, leaving Reaper to contemplate his current situation.

Reaper made a barely audible sigh as he thought about how he now had to work with a Character that possibly knew more about him than Reaper knew of it. This Character was dangerous because of the lack of intel Reaper had on it, but if Reaper kept a tight leash on it, there wouldn't be much difference in how his team would operate. With that in mind, Reaper turned around and spoke to Hazama.

"Stop playing with the dead. It looks like we're stuck together, so here's how everything's going to work. For now, you are under my command. You may possess intelligence and specialize in intelligence gathering, but you must earn my trust... To be honest, I believe it was unwise for PALADIN to trust you without testing your loyalty first.", Reaper said to Hazama.

[SUSTIC]

Washington D.C - City Streets

Julius was surprisingly pleased with his assumptions had turned out to be correct. However her description of her past did sort of make him feel a bit sorry. "Well I apologize for what had transpired with your kingdom. I at least wish that they do well on their own and learn from their past errors." Julius replied with a small sigh. However Midna's further response did indeed get his attention. Someone as analytical as he is... interesting. It did impress him.

"An adventurer? I suppose you could say that. I've been on quite a few journey's in the past. To be honest I'm surprised that I even managed to live this long. With all the stuff I've been through though, all the training. All the things I've seen... it's really no surprise to be honest. But yes. That tiredness you see is also no surprise. I'm currently sixty years of age. Been through quite a bit. So of course I would be tired... but that doesn't mean I'll always rest you know?" Said Julius as Pit who had been standing on the sidelines tapping his foot impatiently turned to Midna.

"Hey Midna can I have my groceries? I'll just go up to mine and Lady Palutena's apartment. Mr. Belmont can show you there."

[Kristia]

Roxas' House - Tokyo, Japan

Mara was finishing her talk with Renamon when she noticed that the spartan finally looked at her "Well little fox, our soldier is letting his appearance with us, see you soon" She ended the comunication. "Now Johnny, I understand that you have thousands of things to do, or maybe not so many, but still, you canīt deny that you are a Yes Man" she spoke sighing, this was going to be an interesting talk to have with the chief.

What I needed from you aside from the dagger was to talk to you about your wife" the Froslass spoke and looked at his helmet knowing that her eyes met his "You may or not know about her growing madness thanks to being in the void on the end of the Devourer war, but it is getting stronger and sooner or later it will consume her. So I came here as both the request of the vixen and as a friend to tell you that she is in danger and we need you to help her, she already got most of the things needed to save Yukari, but you are a key element on this process to save her." she spoke and hoped that he would understand the situation.

Bench - Streets of London (Vala's Location)


"I know Iīm in London on the Real World instead of our universe, but I know that anyone could have crossed the border between universes, so I have to be careful that one of them might have gotten into your labs, not that you guys arenīt good with checking your people, Iīm just being cautious you know?" Vala spoke obviously honest with the spartan "We both knowth that they were a shady group that didnīt help UNSC to stop the wars, but to help themselves, do you understand what I mean?"

Washington D.C

Midna understood what Julius said "That is how life goes, one moment you are fine, the next one you are being chased by a demon or a horde of creatures, oh the joys of life" Midna actually laughed "At least with your experience you can both be a good trainer for younger lads or study the wonders of this world, surely you would get to places that the normal human canīt with your abilities"

The twiliīs eyes suddenly widened with Pitīs heated, but understandable question "Oh! Sorry about that, here" she pushed the groceries to Pit "They will keep floating until you put them on a surface, I will try to compensate this" she said and then looked back at Julius "It is good that I have some items for cases like this, shall we follow him?" she asked to the Belmont

[Kilelicus]

Lima Tuberculosis Hospital - Lima, Ohio

---

"Oh come now, Jerry-boy! Lighten up a bit! It's Christmas! You know: Joy to the world, the Hero's dead! Rea-per blew off his head! What happened to his body? You know I kicked it thoroughly! Come on, Jerry, join me!" Hazama sang, humming the rest after inviting Reaper to join in on the song. When Reaper simply blew it off, Hazama stopped humming, obviously a little bored with the lack of a real response.

"Huh... well... back to the matter at hand.. I don't have any qualms about being 'under your command,' it wouldn't be the first time I took orders from someone on a high-horse with a God complex. However! I do things my way. You can command me to do something, but how I go about it is entirely up to me. Yosemite? I've got all sorts of fun things planned for you and your unit. Fun little activities like pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and Mass Character Murder!" As Hazama spoke, he made a multitude of gestures to coincide with his words. He always did have a flair for the dramatic.

"So, 'Commander...' what's your first order? What do we do from here?"

[SUSTIC]

Washington D.C - City Streets

Pit after having been given the groceries nodded to Midna. "Thanks!" Pit replied as he quickly went sprinting up the stairs, of which Julius just watched Pit with a slight chuckle.

"That kid sure has a lot of energy... anyways as a response to your statement I would have to agree. Granted the threats I deal with aren't all too common in this town. So unless I move somewhere else, that option might not be so wise at the moment." Julius replied as he began walking up the stairs before turning back to Midna. "Also to answer your question I would say that it would be a wise idea to follow him..." Julius replied as he began making his way up the steps until he reached the peach of the first set of stairs, waiting to let Midna pass by.

However... for a brief moment Julius could have swore he sensed something... very faint, but... noticeable and almost... evil presense for a split second before it faded. When he sensed it his face became quite serious within an instant, almost as though he was ready to run down the stairs and outside. Fortunately the presence had quickly disappeared and Julius looked slightly relieved. "Listen why don't you go up the stairs with Pit? I'll be stopping by my apartment on the floor above. I need to do something..." Julius spoke up as he proceeded up the stairs towards the second floor.

[Kristia]

Washington D.C - City Streets


Midna didnīt need to think enough to notice how Julius demeanor changed from his formal and charming personality to a professional one "Let me guess, you also felt something odd, right?" she asked with a knowing smile "There is always something, but all right, if you need help with the nuisance" she made a small gesture with her hand and a small square appeared above her palm, it floated towards Julius and stopped closed to him. The square was one of the twilight particles and it was the size of a card, it changed its form as of a rectangle and going back again.

"Just break it" the twili said heading to Pitīs apartment.

[SUSTIC]

Washington D.C - City Streets

Julius took the card, rectangle thing without hesitation as he walked up the steps. Thankful for the twili's assistance he smiled and nodded at the twili.

"Yes. Doubt it was much, but can't be so sure. Don't want to risk anything. Just be sure to leave things to me for now. You're a guest of Pit and Palutena. You shouldn't worry, but if I need your aid I will be sure to use what you have given me." Replied the old Vampire Hunter as he walked up the stairs til he reached the floor of his apartment. Meanwhile Pit was already on the fifth floor of the building and standing in front of a rather... lavish door of red velvet cloth and gold lining. Compared to the other doors of the apartments which were just standard doors, this door seemed more like one that belong to a Goddess and the captain of her bodyguards. He was busy fumbling around with a key trying to get it into the lock to open the door...

Finally Pit managed to get the door open and as she did what was inside was an apartment larger than what the design of the rest of the building would allow. The place looked almost like a large palace. In fact it was almost like an entirely separate dimension. As the Pit opened the door he stepped in and began to make his way to the kitchen.

[Kristia]

Washington D.C -

Midna followed Pit through the building until they reached his door, and it was a different one from the others ("Hm.. what do you hide from the normal world..") thought the former princess while letting the angel boy open door. She could expect anything from a simple apartment from the looks of the building to a luxury type of place because of the living goddess who resided there. So when the door opened and showed a bigger place that the building shouldnīt have she laughed mentally ("Figures, with her powers she surely can manipulate space"). The place fitted the royalty and had the space of at least a high class home, but she could feel the warmth of happiness radiating inside such place.

[SUSTIC]

Washington D.C - City Streets

As Pit entered the apartment and began making his way to the kitchen he noticed Midna behind him, and as such he had called out to her. "Hey just make yourself at home! This place is quite big! I would give you a tour, but right now I have to get dinner started! So go and explore okay? Just don't go into Palutena's room~!" Pit yelled from the kitchen as he set the groceries on the counter.

The inside of the apartment was definitely more impressive than it was just by looking in. With large gold chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a large hallway with branching paths straight across from the front door, with 4 large doors sealing each passage. One was a rather normal yet large door that had a wooden sign with a cartoonish version of Pit's face on it. Obviously it was his room, while across from it was a more fancy, yet at the same time quaint door across from his. Palutena's maybe? The other two doors were just as large, being about twice Midna's size and were made of wood... possibly a bathroom and washroom... or guest room's. Either way the living room was just as large as the kitchen and dining room combined. Being decorated with comfortable, yet simplistic furniture with a rather large television screen hanging on the wall and some large speakers lining the corners of the living room, with bookshelves on both sides of the large television...

[Kristia]

Washington D.C - apartment building

"I got to admit that you two do have a nice place, enough room for movement, but not too much, a relaxing mood in the entirety of the area, a good place to live" Midna complimented the apartment. She walked around the living room and looked at the books rather than the television, she knew about the device thanks to her journeys in another times, but she didnīt have the enjoyment of using such thing, so here was the twili looking at the collection of books and then at the place again.

"I wonder if living on this world would be fine, hyrule seemed ok when I visited it and the kingdom was in perfect state when I left" she spoke to herself "I would need a home base when I need some rest, so a major city would be preferred" she walked and saw the city through a window "This city seems ok, I will see where I can get a good place"

[Koishi]

Firestorm Citadel

---

"Well, a lot, to put it short. You got fire, undead, demons, cursed fire, lots of stuff to get by, really. There's a reason very few knights have even seen Vanaduke." the skull explained. "There might be something else down there, though. Air's been different lately, something from below. Something bad. Might have tried to come up, take the castle from below. Tread lightly."

"Damnit." HP muttered, before glancing over to Takoizu, then back to the castle. "We need to move."

---

Santa Cruz

---

As Isaac flew lower and lower, the air became heavy, and some undead tryed to reach out from their climb, falling to the depths below. The cracks became brighter and brighter the lower they went, with the entire ground around Malthael covered in their bright blue energy. Malthael lay on the ground, his robes a little disheveled and weathered, yet even unconscious, his sickles were firmly gripped with his hands.