Interweaving Threads

#16

The Collector, Nero and Raph all removed their hands from the wall at roughly the same time, and the direct being of Neutrality clapped his hands together so loudly it made an echo inside Limbo. It seemed he was doing it more for attention than for emphasis-and it mostly succeeded as the majority of heads in the room snapped towards him. Dragon, mutants, minion, draconian, werewolf-even Sallah, perched so comfortably on Raphs arm, snapped towards the glowing being. The mass of plant matters vines receded as a large head with bulbous, black eyes but no other visible features rose up from it's thorny defence to stare. Even Harpy stared, muted for the moment by her previous ordeal, her eyes no longer showing any sign of the liquid but her head still throbbing.

"Excellent, excellent, I see I've got your attention well. Now" the indeterminate being went on, rubbing his hands almost nervously "you're probably all wondering why you've been brought here with your friends-and enemies-and I'm afraid we're going to have to ask you all to work together on this. Most of you have a link to what we're going to have to ask you to stop, so-"

"Get on with it Nero" the sultry female voice interrupted irritably "the last thing I want to hear is your incessant prattling"

"Much as I'm disinclined to agree with our Sisters viewpoint, I find I do this time" Raph spoke this time, his voice far more gentle and calm "we shouldn't mess them around any more than we already have-any more than we absolutely have to"

"Hm, oh very well" Nero relented, stopping his longwinded speech in favour of a shorter sentence "Then to business, first thing's first-are you all familiar with a glowing white wolf that goes by the name of Lykaios?"

#17

While Coolpikaaa wrapped up his thought process, one more kidnapee was dropped into the universe between. Craning his neck to see just who this new arrival was, he was slightly surprised to find a normal looking woman kneeling on the ever changing floor. He wondered what her part was in all this, especially compared to those like the Dragon and werewolf.

Upon the new woman's arrival, the trio began to speak. Err, perhaps 'bicker' would be a better term in this case. Either way, the electric mouse picked up on several important hints as to why they were all there.

First, they needed to stop... Something. Something they all had a personal link to. So that was why this lovely ragtag bunch was gathered. They were all connected in various ways, and now needed to band together to stop this menace.

Working together...

Coolpikaaa looked at the faces in the crowd. Sure, he knew Tala and Syllak, but as for the others though... Fade, Swix, Furnace. They were some of the largest names in bad! Not to mention The Collector herself. The thought of being on her side made him squirm more than those tendrils of hers...

As the trio went on, Cp felt even more uneasy. Lykaios, he didn't recognize the name. He was fairly sure he would have remembered an glowing white wolf if he had ever met one. This was troubling, and he glanced towards the trio with silent discomfort on his face. If they were all supposed to be connected, how come he had never heard of such an apparently important character?!

#18

The trio just looked on, watching as recognition of the name spread through the crowd and one by one peoples expressions changed. What was most telling, was the sudden look of recognition followed by pale fear, surprise and disbelief-however in Talas case it was followed by resignation and even guilt, whilst anger followed Blues. ES sat down on one of the chairs above their heads, looking down at them all with grim interest as well as confusion-, whilst Fade simply raised an eyebrow.
However, CP would find that he wasn't alone-in a sense-as Furnace reared his head, snorting, two large puffs of smoke escaping from his nostrils as he also wore an expression of confusion. The electric mouse wasn't the only one who didn't know of this creature.

The trio remained silent until someone else in the room spoke up-Blue, who raised a hand above her head as though she was in school. "I know about Lykaios. The clearest memory I have was when he drained my energy and then left me for an... old friend to finish off. He left me to die-and then bought my shattered personas back to make me whole. I never knew why... and he still keeps trying to absorb my energy whenever I've met him after. But I think I... we, met him before that. I'm sure I have."

"Good, good. I see it's working" this came from Raph, who looked very pleased at this unexpected recall that was sweeping the room. An apparently, planned consequence that the three had been expecting. His gaze then went directly to the werewolf in human form, who was starting to look uncomfortable. "Yes, did you have something you wanted to say Tala?"

"I..." Tala started, looking ever more nervous as her eyes grew wider "I think I... I might have had a... hand, I suppose you could say, um, paw, in releasing him. And we were all there-except for him" she pointed at CP "and him" the finger travelled to Furnace, who was looking ever more perplexed "and her" it came to rest on ES, still sat on the ceiling watching the meeting nonchalantly. "I'm sorry. Whatever's going on is all my fault"

Finally the adolescent Dark Fire Dragon could take no more of this. His muscles rippled as he tossed his narrowed head in frustration, then filled the room with a puff of black smoke when he finally opened his narrowed maw to speak "Just what is going on here? Who is this Lykaios and why am I here if I wasn't there? I remember nothing of this incident that has the rest of these soft-skins shaking like pebbles in a minor quake"

"Yes, well, we were getting to that" the glowing indeterminate being said, a little irritated himself "but there's no harm in telling you now. You and your colleague share a bond that we will not break. It made more sense to bring you in now anyway"

"Swix is here because she is mine" The Collectors voice cut smoothly across Neros, as though this particular part of the conversation had been preplanned "and she will do as I ask. As for Coolpikaaa over there..." the physical embodiment of evil paused, and the physical embodimentr of neutrality and good shared a disapproving look before they both turned to regard C.

"You did not indicate Coolpikaaa before. We were wondering"
"Wiy did you bring him here, Sister?"

The Collector sneered at the both of them, glanced at the electric mouse, and then spread her snake handed arms. "Why, well, let's see. Because he amuses me, and to help the cause of course. Since I'm sure the dear interesting one will be oh so happy to help stop our old friend from destroying reality. Right, dear interesting one?"

#19

An odd spike of emotion wracked the room while Coolpikaaa stood watching faces in silence. Fear, confusion, anger. All such negative emotions, all from people who had experience with this wolf. One by one, they shared tidbits of stories, more than once leaving the electric mouse to view the teller in a new light.

He wanted to ask Blue what exactly she meant by "multiple personas". She had seemed so... Stable when he had talked to her. It was almost alien to think of the nice little girl with the draconian bits as someone who could be, well, 'disturbed' could be a word for it.

But Tala's addition was even more revealing. From what he was able to gather, it seemed like this group had been... gathered at some point, also regarding the wolf named Lykaios? The more this whole reunion went on, the more awkward Coolpikaaa felt at somehow ending up in this. Everyone here seemed to have a story (oddly enough seemingly fueled by the trio. It was almost strange...) except a select few, himself included. Luckily, the others were far more vocal in their discomfort.

It produced results.

Coughing briefly on the smoke from Furnace's outburst, CP came out of his thoughts to his name and a whole swack of disapproving glances. Apparently as fun as The Collector thought his little cameo would be, she hadn't cleared it with the others.

Coolpikaaa's ears twitched as she went on, hinting, quite simply, at the end of all things.

"I- of course not." The electric mouse sighed, finally breaking his silence. If the fate of reality reality was at stake because of this wolf... Thing, he definitely was not going to simply stand by. He still had questions though, and needed them answered before he could even think of cooperating fully.

"But... What's the endgame? I mean, this Lykaios... If he truly wants to put an end to reality itself, what do they gain? If nothing's left, how is it worth the effort?"

#20

The trio each exchanged glances with each other once more, each and every one of them looking uncomfortable. Raph was the first one to speak to directly answer Coolpikaaas question "That is exactly the point, I'm sorry to say Coolpikaaa" he sounded genuine in his remorse "from what information we have gathered since his accidental release, he's been on this mission of mutual self destruction from that time onwards. But we weren't sure that was what he was after until recently. We assumed he was after what got him banished in the first place, so we had our agents follow him wherever he showed up. How wrong we were"

The next to speak was Nero, smoothly picking up where Raph had left off. "Lykaios is an ancient creature who's very name was lost in time, and most traces of his influence on other cultures erased. He is also very difficult to work out-that is why one of his titles is Trickster"

The Collector stared at Nero at this point, with one eye narrowed as though she couldn't quite figure something out, before apparently deciding it was irrelevant or unimportant and too turning towards CP. "Have you ever met anyone, or anything, who was so... shall we say, driven to destroy that they wouldn't care if they destroyed themselves in the process?"

#21

"Err... No, to be honest." he said plainly. "Everyone I've encountered with some master plan has had a reason to inact it... Or else there would be no reason to even go through the hassle."

Coolpikaaa paused for a brief second, judging The Collector's odd expression. He had to wonder if she asked him that specific question to illicit a specific response. If so... He simply hadn't caught on to whatever it was supposed to be.

"So... Now... Straight to the point, I suppose. What's the plan? Obviously we need to stop this "Trickster" from accomplishing his goals, but how exactly is that done? You three have gathered quite a vast army here, for just one Wolf. Are we to simply overpower him and... Beat him up?"

Cp felt odd to give such a simplistic summation in front of all these people, but without any real other straws to grasp at, it seemed all he could do to further the conversation.

"I would also prefer to have my gear. Somehow, drowning on the insides of my mattress didn't exactly give me time to pack..." He said, this last jab aimed specifically at The Collector.

#22

"To find out exactly why he is doing this you will have to ask him yourself" the angelic being told CP, apparently picking up on something that the other two would be more uncomfortable saying "he's not exactly forthcoming with his answers"

"it's a bit more complicated than that, I'm afraid" Nero also interjected before The Collector could say anymore. "this is going to require more teamwork than physical violence"

"We know enough to stop this from happening however-Fade and Furnace will seek out an ancient spot in the multiverse where reality runs thin, whilst Blue and Laur will seek Lykaios out in another. Harpy and ES will seek out an item-a pale pink collar in particular, which we believed was lost until now. It is somewhere on Pax, most likely Ana. Syllak and Tala, I'm afraid you will be sent off to the same planet as Blue and Laur though in a different area. Endorphine will accompany you. For the others protection-that planet has a constant full moon. It never wanes or waxes, and you know what that means"

Tala went pale, looking horrified at what was being asked of her. "I'd transform every night spent there... But I can't say-Ow! What was that for???" the werewolf exclaimed, staring at the draconian who had just painfully booted her in the shins with armoured feet. Syllak stared at Tala, and pointedly jerked her head in C's direction "Uh, right. I can't use the advantage if I'm transformed"

"Then you must find a way to make the conflict happen during the daytime" Nero told them "so that you can rely on yourself. Coolpikaaa, since we were unawase of our Sisters... desisre for you to take part, you may pick where you feel your talents would be best suited"

A tendril pose up out of the ground in front of CP, bearing the single small pack that held the electric mouses belongings, before it dropped it's burden and sank back down.

"One more thing, once you're out there you will not recieve any more help from us other than with travelling long distances" Raph stated to all, with an air of regret mixed with finality "we can give you guidance here only. Once you're back outside of Limbo, you're on your own. If you've got anything you want to ask or get off your chest, here and now is the best place and the best time to do so"

#23

Coolpikaaa bent down, picking up his belongings that had been oh so unceremoniously dumped on the floor. Hitching the strings onto his back, the electric mouse thought briefly on how quickly the morals had divided the group. In all honesty, judging by how the previous conversation had gone, he had never expected to be on his way so soon....

It still took about a minute of awkward silence for Cp to realize that no, they couldn't exactly leave yet, despite apperances. Everyone except him had been assigned, and in order for anyone to procede, he had to pick a team.

"Uhh..." he mumbled, stalling for much needed precious time.

Although the trio had given assignments, it dawned on CP that they hadn't exactly explained why these tasks needed to be done. Why were some members of the group sent to investigate holes, while others could very well be dropped into the fray against the enemy itself?

As uncomfortable as it made him feel to be doing tasks with out all the answers, especially with The Collector involved, eyes were still on him to just pick a team already. As quickly as his mind could work, he sorted out the options.

First was the dragon and Fade, two faces he could say he didn't know well. He believed them to both be high ranking members of what was left of the EC, but aside from that, nada. Their journey to investigate a weak spot in the multiverse, as interesting as it could be to see, was probably not exactly begging for urgency.

Cp did find it kind of funny that the Dragon ended up being assigned to a team anyway, despite a shared lack of knowlage on the happenings, or any sort of indication that he wanted to participate.

As for Harpy and Swix, that would also likely be a no. The dynamic could certainly be... interesting, but the clash in personalities would probably do more harm than good.

So that left two groups, both headed to the same planet, with the same goal. These two squads were tasked with tracking down the enemy itself, and could very well be the first involved in any sort of scuffle. Coolpikaaa knew Tala and Syllak well, and easily could join them...

The two bouncers could handle themselves, he reasoned. Moving closer to Blue, he made his decision clear. He had no gauge on these two's abilities, and while not exactly the most powerful battler, he wouldn't feel right sending them off to fight alone.

Plus, Tala and Syllak already had a group of three with the inclusion of the plant... Thing.

Ready to go, the electric mouse braced himself for another gut wrenching trip through Limbo, when one last thought came to him.

"Wait... You three arn't going to help us? Surely we could use your abilities if we end up facing this thing!"

#24

"No, we cannot" Raph answered, looking directly at CP like he wanted the electric mouse to look into his eyes and see there was no lie there "it's in the rules of our existence.
that's why you never saw any of us before now. Unlike our dear dark sibling, we do not desire to break those rules. It's only this dire situation that made us feel it necessary to show ourselves to you. We do not go outside of our own realms, that is why we had to bring you all here. Do you understand?"

((Sorry, short one today

))

#25

"I do." CP replied, detecting the truth behind the angelic being's words. He was glad to be getting straightforward answers now, even though they would now be parting ways with the three. He wondered if he would ever end up meeting them again after all this...

Cp could very well add on to his question, though. If The Collector was already so prone to breaking the rules, couldn't she at least provide assistance? He wondered if the others would actually prevent her from intervening, based solely on moral principal.

But time was wasting, and they needed to get going. Nodding to let them know he was still ready to head out, he hitched up his bag of belongings and prepared for what comes next.

#26

"Good" Raph said, clapping his hands together in a satisfied manner-before immediately being interrupted by Fade. The assassin appeared to have been waiting for the three to divulge all the information they wanted to before jumping in on her own terms. Her calm, cool voice clearly rang out across the inner globe. "I did not agree to doing this for you" she stated "or for anyone else. Enlighten me as to why I should do as you ask"

"You will not exist anymore" Nero answered, apparently not quite believing his ears. The Collector on the other hand, was regarding Fade with a mixture of pride and annoyance, choosing to stay silent for now.

"Indeed" the assassin confirmed her understanding icily.

"Noone and nothing will exist anymore, noone will remember this reality ever existed" Raph also joined in, eyes wide with disbelief.

"I am far from deaf," Fade retorted with a very slight raise of a blue brow "I understand this. However, should Lykaios succeed then none of us here will exist. Since we would no longer exist, then existence would not be a concern and your actions to stop it here, pointless"

Only then did the Collector speak, her expression finally giving way to pure annoyance. "Neither will your precious Council be remembered, Fade" she said, but her words had equally as little impact on the emotionless mutant. "It is not the Council or what's left of it that is asking this of me, it is you. So-"

"Fade!" this outburst came from ES, of all people, who had stood up on the ceiling to turn around and glare at the blue clad mutant "forget about them, I'm asking you"

The assassin looked up at ES, the two sharing what seemed like a long glance before she turned to the adolescent dragon next to her to fix him with that same look. "What do you say, Furnace?"

The mythical beast turned his massive, narrowed head to stare back with fiery eyes at Fades coldness, his tail swinging this way and that uncomfortably, then let out almost as big a cloud of smoke as earlier to answer. I'll do as they're asking" he raised his head a little here to emphasise his next words. "but I would talk to you about this privately"

Fade quickly looked away from the reptilian being towards the trio, her mind now set. "Then I will help. How will we know when we are close to this tear?"

"Oh" the being of evil answered this one rather lazily "you'll know". In little more than a minute, the two completely vanished from Limbo.

ES and Harpy soon followed, much to Raphs suspicion as he shot a raised eyebrow at his sister, who offered nought but a shrug in return. Syllak, Tala and Endorphine went next, as did the golden fire-lizard Sallah who chirped happily after lifting off the angelic beings arm and seemed to vanish of her own accord.

That left Blue, Laur and Coolpikaaa alone in the centre of the strange dimension. "You've been very quiet throughout all of this, Laur" Nero said, an edge of concern colouring the tone of Neutrality itself "is there something you wanted to say or ask before you go?"

Laur · #27

Once Laur had processed the information of her whereabouts, along with the surreality of her vastly diverse present company, the once reluctant mutant proceeded to draw her knees up to her chest whilst staring at the golden girl sat in the chair set apart from the motley crew. Laur fixed her bright blue gaze upon Harpy the entire time, a myriad of emotional conflicts chasing each other across her expression. When resignation grew to dominance and the woman finally opened her mouth to draw the feathered girls attention towards her, she was spirited away in as efficient a manner as they had arrived.

"I have but one question that requires urgently answering. My daughter, Lianna, do you possess knowledge of where she is??"

Laur asked her one burning question, smartly standing tall from her previous position whilst turning piercing blue eyes towards the three moralities simultaneously.

"Is she safe?"

#28

All three of the trio exchanged another meaningful glance with each other, this time though the glance was a fleeting few seconds before The Collector answered the question. "We know where your child is" she stated, but did not go any further into the subject. She didn't have to, as Nero took up the next part of the conversation. "But we can do little more than tell you that"

"Other than that she is safe" Raph added, dissatisfied with the shorter lengths his siblings wanted to tell. He even frowned at both of them-Good and Neutrality didn't always see eye to eye, it seemed.

At this point The Collector raised a snake headed hand, offered CP one of her most sickening grins, and closed her hand with an overdramatic snap.

At the same moment the tendrils that were their mode of transport earlier rose through the floor, wrapped themselves around each person and then dragged them down out of the strange dimension of Limbo, back into the realm of the multiverse.

CP, Laur, and Blue found themselves deposited upon a bed of soft grass this time, on a strange world where a blood red moon shone down on them, embraced in a night sky full of strange stars. The plants which they had landed on were equally as strange, their leaves a deep purple hue. Behind them lay a thick, dark forest canopy whilst ahead were dark, solid shapes from which the occasional bright blue light source flickered on or flickered off.

Blue stood up from where she had been deposited, brushing off the dirt and dead leaves from her clothes as she did so. In the dark, her slit pupils widened like a cats as she stared up at the full moon. And like a cats, they reflected the light back out, making her enlarged pupils glow a soft orange with the light.
"Oh" she said, apparently none too impressed with what had just happened "brilliant"

<hr />

Far away from here, on a different part of the planet, in what appeared to be dense jungle, Syllak, Tala and the strange plant creature called Endorphine had been dropped moments before.

Endorphines large, insectoid eyes were glued to the werewolf, who's own had immediately changed from brown to yellow when they'd landed and whose body was shaking as the change forced itself upon her. Tala fixed Endorphine with the increasingly bestial eyes of her own. "Can you hide from a dangerous, beast? I'm not all that familiar with you" the werewolf winced a little as her teeth began to extend and rearrange themselves, becoming lupine fangs. This felt wrong, the forced change during a full moon always felt wrong. "and I don't want to tear you to pieces. But I won't be able to stop myself" as she spoke, her ears began to take a more pointed, lupine shape and slowly migrated to the top of her head.

"I can take care of myself" Endorphines two way radio, attached to what passed for his neck, translated his language of clicks and rustles into Common (and vice versa) with a slight delay "do not concern yourself, I am good at hiding from animals"

Tala nodded, unable to speak now, and a howl forced itself through her throat mere seconds later. The ears were now fully on the top of her head, making the werewolf looki increasingly strange, now her nose turned black, beginning to shrink. Her nails followed suit, becoming thick and dark, changing into a wolfs claws.

Meanwhile, Endorphine couldn't tear his eyes from the strange change happening to an animal right in front of him. He'd never dreamed he would see anything so fascinating. "At what point does she become dangerous?" he asked through his translator, obviously talking to Syllak.

The draconian had put her helmet back on, regarding her friend with a mixture of pity, compassion and determination. "Usually about the time she hits the ground on four paws" Though Syllak answered the plant, she had no words for Tala. She'd seen this before, and knew words rang hollow in the werewolves ears at this stage.

Sure enough, Tala began screaming, her voice becoming more bestial even as they listened. Bones could be heard loudly cracking even over the screams, as her body reformed them into their lupine shape. In the case of her tail, bones elongated and shot out from the bottom of her spine, it looked a frail and ugly thing when not covered in fur. Fingers shrank to toes of paws, her feet elongated. Finally,with a last crack her body lost the ability to stand upright and she fell to all fours, a furless wolf. Her rational mind had already fled, replaced by that of a bloodthirsty predator.

The spot that Endorphine had occupied was empty, only a disturbed patch of earth remained where he had burrowed underground, replacing the soil above him as he went ever deeper.

The werewolf snarled at Syllak aggressively, teeth bared, backing away as silvery fur finally sprouted over her body. When Tala was rational, she and Syllak were friends, but when the werewolf was overcome by the bloodlust, she hated the draconian with all of her being.

With one final snap in the sivaks direction, the werewolf turned tail and ran off, deeper into the strange jungle.

#29

"Yeah, it really is..." Cp breathed in wonder, perhaps missing the point of Blue's statement. The strange new world they had materialized in had him captured in it's uniqueness. For a quick minute he nearly turned in a complete circle looking at all the completly different flora of this planet. Resisting the urge to pick a leaf for further study, the electric mouse now turned back to his teammates, seeing them rise.

"Everyone make it alright?" he said before moving closer to the group, especially the woman he hadn't yet talked to. "Err, Hi!" he said, introducing himself. "I don't think we've met actually! I'm Coolpikaaa, or CP for short."

"Pretty different place we've ended up in." He began, addressing everyone now. "You guys see the lights over there? I thought it could be a building at first, but that doesn't really explain the blinking..."

"If we were looking for the wolf, I think it's probably a better place to start looking than wandering off into the woods. Unless you two have other ideas...?"

#30

Fade and Furnace landed on a planet totally different to the one with the purple leaves. This place had silver leaved trees with black trunks scattered around, making harsh metallic noises whenever the wind blew them into each other. It was night here too, and the planets moons were of an orange and pale blue hue, their shapes totally irregular.

Fade stood up, brushing soil that tinkled when it fell to the ground off her clothing. Furnace had somehow, been deposited upside down, and his thrashing around in indignation caused Fade to test her avoidance skills far earlier than she'd thought she needed to. She ducked under the swipe of a spiky tail coming one way, had to jump over a gigantic claw from a flailing back leg, and ran for cover. But when she was just nearing the edge of the danger zone and safety, Furnaces wingtip came down across the mutants back, flattening her. The dragon had finally righted himself with an annoyed snort, but in order to steady himself had had to bring his wings down onto the strange ground, thus flattening the fleeing assassin.
"Er" said the mythical beast uncertainly, once he'd folded his wings tightly to his back, his narrow head staring at what he'd just done "Fade?"

<hr />

ES and Harpy landed on Ana, together. Both landed upright, neither one was upside down or simply dumped on the ground. All seemed fine for these two-until Harpy looked down that is.
"Oh, come on" she almost yelled, pulling her legs up and out of Anas soil "does she have to do things like this?"

"No" ES answered, shooting the golden girl an odd look and offering her a shrug. "she doesn't have to, she just thinks it's funny. She is the physical embodiment of evil after all"

"Uh huh" Harpy said, making a show of not listening as she carefully removed Anas dirt from her yellow trousers. She was annoyed, and now she didn't have that... thing around her she didn't think twice about showing it. Harpy looked up at ES once she'd gotten as much of the dirt off her legs as was possible without ruining her clothes. Speaking of clothes... "Wow" said Harpy, staring at Swix's torn dress, black boots and bright red bag "you're almost as gothic as Blue. Did you tear that dress by accident and just never bothered to fix it, or is it just some bizarre fashion statement where you come from?"

ES's eyes narrowed at this, but she gestured impatiently away from the spot they were on anyway "Don't you think we should get going, now you've finished your mudbath, featherbrain? Or should I call you airhead? Or goldilocks?"

The golden girl matched ES's nasty grin with her own equally nasty glare. "Harpy will do just fine"

"Oh yes? It suits you. I'm Evil Swix, but it'd probably be easier to call me ES or just Swix"

"Just ES huh? Suits you too"

"Oh I can see working with you is going to be fun"