[GAME] Vanguards of Hope

[thunder]

Steve changed back from his wizard form to find more monsters to fight, humanoid eels along with a 20 foot anemone spawning them off in the distance, they were eating some of the people fleeing to the university.

"Holy ****! That's a lot of monsters." Both Draco and Steve said in unison. Steve Switched the twice so it would utter the words.

"SHABADOOBIE TIME TO CHANGE!" Steve ran his red ring through the belt.

"FLAME! PLEASE!" The flamming red seal appeared to Steve's Right and drew closer as the belt uttered it's chant.

"HI! HI!! HI HI HI!!!" The Red magic seal changed Steve's element from Earth to Fire.

"Alright, Hope the students like Fried Eel." Steve said with an overconfident-grin as he readied his WizSwordGun Steve Stabbed the first Eel monster in the chest, with the monster fell to the ground puking up green blood as Steve removed his sword from it.

"You can concentrate your flames into your kicks and do more damage." Draco tipped Steve off. Considering the odds, it was a good time to try Draco's suggestion out. Steve concentrated his power into his feet and started kicking a couple of the Eels and cutting through another 2. There was one Eel headed towards a student who didn't get in the dorms in time before the doors shut.

"Oh no you don't." Steve said in a serious tone of voice. Steve ran to the Eel while hopping the gate, He switched his red ring with his green ring and ran it through his belt.

"HURRICANE! PLEASE!" The green seal appeared in front of Steve as he jumped through it while changing his form.

"FU FU FU!!!! FU FU FU FU!!!!!!!" The belt sang as Steve flew fast and grabbed the Student before the Eel smacked head-first into the wall. Steve jumped up to the second floor. With Steve knocking on the window, the students who were more concerned than scared shitless at the eel monsters or amazed at Steve floating, opened the window and Steve managed to get the student in the dorm. Steve pulled on the top of the window and floated til he got on top of the roof.

"I dont think I can handle this alone, Draco. Anyway you can help me in a non-tutorial sort of way?" Steve asked

"Well, there is a ring i saw in your backpack you can use to make me visible and tangible for 10 minutes-"

"Why didn't you say so earlier? We could've owned these suckers." Steve said interrupting Draco mid-sentence.

"...But it's a last resort. After it's effect wears off, you'll have five minutes to finish it and your transformation will cancel." Draco finished in a rush to prevent more time from being wasted.

"Note to self: Do not interrupt your spirit dragon mid-sentence." Steve told himself. "Ok, I'm going to see if there are any other people like me. If 1 cosmic lord chose me, I'm kind of hoping other cosmic lord's chose other people as well."

With that said, Steve jumped from roof-top to roof-top searching for another Eel monster, or another of those "Vanguards of Hope" that the bartender talked about.

 

[Ziginz Zegell]

As Raye made his way across the cityscape, he would feel something near him that made his skin crawl. Looking about the area, he would only see five individuals eating a pizza and seemingly staring into space. The feeling soon subsided, but as he walked further away he would not be able to shake the feeling that something was odd with those five. As he turned back to investigate further, a punch struck him in the face and sent him stumbling back. The one who had thrown the punch, a hansom, blonde haired man with green eyes and wearing a casual, white suit, smiled pleasantly at Raye. He was undoubtedly on of the five he had only passed moments before. It seemed his intuition had been right about them, though now he wished he had listened to it. Then again one on one seemed like better odds than five on one…or so he hoped.

”Of all those chosen by the Cosmic Lords, it would be one of Philemon’s elected that would stumble upon us. The fact you could not perceive me is sign of your inexperience, yet you still felt something from me and my comrades that compelled you to turn back. This is a good sign of your potential, or at least that you are not as dull as some others that have been sent to this city in the past. I would see more of your power if you will, so that I might better grasp what sort of man you are.”

The man spoke kindly, if not a bit elegantly as he lifted his hand as if to present something to Raye. A light shone in his hand, and there floated a tarot card with the depiction of an angel upon it. At the same moment another light shone around the blonde man’s waste as a belt materialized. It was a belt much like Raye’s, though the buckle was shaped more like a closed gate of some sort. As the man swiped the card past the buckle, it slid open to reveal the image of an angel formed out of crystal. The belt let out an angelic symphony as the angel glowed with a white light before two sets of wings unfolded from behind him. The wings enwrapped him, but then exploded in a blizzard of feathers as the mysterious man now stood clad in angelic armor. The armor sat atop a black suit and was white with gold accents. Majestic in design, it depicted angelic wings and bore a visor like that of a knight’s. He spread his arms before pointing upward with his right hand and bringing his left to rest upon his chest.

”Behold the splendor of the heavenly host: Arclight.”

With this, an angelic being appeared behind the warrior called Arclight, and spread its wings while many magnificent weapons floated around him. The figure vanished, and Arclight stood resolute before Raye, intent to see the man’s power for himself.

”My persona, the Arc Angel, is but one manifestation of my soul’s power. I wonder, what shape has your soul taken upon receiving Philemon’s gift?”

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

(Mood Music)
[hide][ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VWui4oDAF8"]Dark Moor - Swan Lake - YouTube[/ame] [/hide]

 

[Havoc Knight]

Back on the rooftop, Ryan grabbed his backpack that he'd left behind after his fight. He was about to shove Byakko back inside of it, when an impressive sounding crash took place behind him.

"What was that?" Ryan asked, trying to look through the fog.

"Ryan, we need to leave this area." Byakko said with a hint of fear.

Now Ryan was really concerned. In the time he'd know Byakko, he'd never shown fear before. "Why, what is it?"

"A fiend in its true form. We cannot stop it ourselves." Byakko replied.

"There are people here who need our help! What the hell are we doing here if not to help people!" Ryan shouted at the blade as he headed towards the edge of the roof.

"If you die, how can you help people?"

"If I run, how do I help people?" Ryan replied, climbing down. "We're going over there, and we're saving everyone we can." Byakko remained silent as Ryan landed on the ground. "Bring out the Kiba Rider."

"I do not approve of this, Ryan."

"I don't care! Don't you understand? Having this power means that I have a responsibility to at least try and protect everyone I can. If you won't help me, then I'll leave you behind and do it myself."

"Fine." Byakko responded after a few long moments.

Nearby, a sleek street cycle took shape. The motorcycle had the same designs as Ryan's armor, and had a slot on the main console, where Ryan inserted Byakko, making him part of the vehicle. Ryan revved the engine a few times as Byakko attempted to speak again.

"I will not be held responsible for any injuries you sustain." Byakko shouted over the engine.

"Just do your part and we'll be fine. Have a little faith, okay?"

They raced towards the sounds of explosions, hoping that they weren't too late to help. Speeding through the fog, the explosions got closer and closer, and an eel-like creature suddenly came into view. Ryan pulled back on the handles and put the bike in a wheelie stance, driving right through it.

"Was that the thing causing the explosions?"

"No. That was." Byakko said, as a 20-foot tall creature came into view. It looked to be a mass of tentacles, sprouting out eel creatures one after another.

"What the hell..." Ryan said in astonishment.

"Wake up and transform!" Byakko commanded as another creature torpedoed towards them.

Inserting the key into the newly formed wrist morpher, Ryan shouted out "Kibachanger!" moments before the eel reached them. Before his armor had fully formed, he drew Byakko and cut the creature in half.

Dismounting the cycle, he raced towards a group of civilians, slicing through the flying beasts as he pasted by them.

"Are you guys okay?" Ryan asked the terrified group.

They shook their heads yes and took the chance to run for cover.

As more and more of the eels flew around looking for prey, Ryan was a bit relieved at how easily they were destroyed. However, the giant spawning them was a completely different matter.

Suddenly, he noticed that the eels on the other side of the creature were being destroyed by another figure. He couldn't make it out fully through the fog, but a quick flash of fire revealed a red and black armored warrior.

Could this be another of the Vanguards?

 

[thunder]

Steve was about to jump from another roof-top that was towards the anemone, to see a warrior in a white suit and gold/black armor with a motorcycle matching his armor fighting some of those Eels monsters.

"Hey Draco, I think that guy qualifies as one of the guys we're looking for." Steve said to his spirit dragon while pointing to the warrior.

"Enemy of our enemy is our friend. So, I guess you should help him out." Draco agreed. Steve found another Eel that was headed straight to the warrior from behind.

"Ditto." Steve jumped from the roof and landed on the ground using his magic wind to cushion the landing while switching the hand-scanner setting from right to left and running the red ring through the belt.

"SHABADOOBIE TIME TO CHANGE! FLAME! PLEASE! HI! HI!! HI HI HI!!!" The belt uttered as The flaming red seal changed Steve from his wind wizard form to his Fire wizard form. and Switching his hand-scanner settings from left hand to right hand again to run the connect ring through to get that motorcycle and the WizSwordGun back.


"CONNECT! PLEASE!" the Red seal appeared and Steve grabbed the weapon in it's blade mode, and the bike out of the seal. Steve got on the Motorcycle, and rode towards the Eel that was headed for that armored warrior and sliced it in half through the waist. Steve pulled the brakes and wiped the Eel blood of the blade.

"So, I take it you're a Vanguard of Hope also?" Steve asked the warrior.

 

[Guardian07]

Gift? well, I guess you can call it a gift, Raye muses to himself.

This turn of events are unexpected. For a while, he thought that he'd be only facing monsters in the likes of the ogre, but a Persona user? Is he in the same side as the evil that has been terrorizing the town? Who is he, and how he obtained his power? This...angelic form?

Raye had to push all that thought to the back of his head as the man in front of him transforms, ready to do battle. In his current state, he would not be able to hope to defeat this opponent. Reaching deep within him, he calls upon the power that has been awakened. He extended his hand forward, palms up.

In a shine of blue light, a card materializes, floating above his palm. It is a blue tarot card, on its face side is a portrait of a dark creature. With a swift backhand, the card was "crushed", emitting a bright bluish light to the surrounding.

"...Persona!"

The creature depicted on Raye's card now stood in front of him. As he laid eyes on it, he asks himself the question he asked himself before as he summoned it before, "Is this truly the form of my Persona?". The form of his Persona was that of the Grim Reaper, the mythical personification of death. Remembering the form of his opponent's Persona, he vaguely wondered what influences their different forms.

"...my belt..." Raye recalled his last meeting with Philemon, where he was grant a curious item; a belt buckle, in an vertically-elongated hexagon shape. He placed both hands on his waist; the said belt promptly forms around his waist.

It is a gift to you, to aid you in your ordeal. You will need its power to brave the challenges ahead.

"Like this one, I take it." Following his instincts, he stretched his right arm towards the sky while keeping the other above his belt. He then brings the outstretched hand to his left in a fist. The words came naturally at him.

"Persona, Fusion!"

The reaper creature howled into the night air out, as if in approval. As it flew in the night sky, it turned into a streak of black, that rained down on him. In his place, stood a figure clad in gray leathery suit, and carapace-looking armor. The helmet had the design of a knight's helmet, but jagged, and the mouthpiece was shaped like vicious teeth and jaw.

The center piece of the belt was opened up, split down the middle. It revealed a slot for a card, which now is occupied by the card of the Grim Reaper. The buckle closed up, completing the transformation.

 

[The_Bladesman]

After a brief walk through the fog filled night, a series of incomprehensible and fantastical noises in the night had caught Hayato’s attention. After running to the source of the sound Hayato found himself in a park though, through the thick fog all he could make out were a few shapes of people an adult, a child and three not quite human things.

Hayato growled in anger as he quickly unclipped his brief case and took his black and red armour from it. G1 was still little more than a prototype, there was no fast way of putting it on and those precious minutes could make all the difference. After suiting up and storing his brief case within, Hayato slapped the driver buckle on the armour and points his trusted his arms to the left. G1’s compound eyes lit up brightly as the armour came alive with power.

Running into action at a reasonable speed (certainly faster then he should considering how heavy the armour was) G1 stopped suddenly startled by what was before his eyes. A fifth figure clad in black and magenta armour not too dissimilar from his own delivered a mighty slash to a cat like monster causing it to explode suddenly. Beyond the simple display of power the fact he had appeared so suddenly as if time was moving slower for him created question. But seeing the pair turn to the armoured hero drove G1 to abandon his train of thought and run to his aid.

Emerging from the fog the red armoured G1 burst from the fog and sucker punched the wolf fiend with an incredible force knocking it far back.

“Are you one of a vanguard as well? Either way I hope you don’t mind if I lend you a hand?â€

Hayato voice sounded out with a metal clang distorting it enough to mask it, from familiar faces. Keeping an eye on the slug monster as he moved to face the angry wolf as it charged toward him at break neck speed, ready to counter it assault.


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


Reika had made it to the university and quietly cursed her pessimistic premonition. The university was under attack by of all possible things a giant invertabral mass of tentacles and a gaggle of eel people, words could not quite convey the odd mix of horror and bewilderment she felt just then.
This lapse was ended when the sounds of people in distress spurned her into action. Dialling 335 into her digitizer a bright pink light filled the night for a moment as megapink stood in Reika place. Taking her mega sniper and splitting it into two, megapink fired rapidly at the eel people catching their attention and luring them away from the few remaining students. Slowly the creatures surrounded her and began to attack, only for megapink to leap into the air and combine her pistols with a third satellite looking gun and form the capture sniper. The eel people could do little but stare as ball of crackling energy hurtled toward them and engulfed them in an explosion.

Turning to the anomie, megapink charged toward it only for the image of Binos to briefly appear on her visor as his voice to sounded out in her mind.

“Are you stupid, you can’t fight that something like that up close dial 259 already!â€

Binos vanished from her vision before she could respond, left without an outlet Megapink dialled 259 on her digitizer. For a moment nothing happened then sudden a pink surfboard darted from the sky and rested by her.

“I’m not dreaming…this is a flying surfboard right?â€

Megapink asked allowed almost expecting a response before she hopped on board and began to fire at the amorphous beast.

 

[G.K.]

It was hard to keep pace with them in the dense fog. Unlike Thomas and Molly Gin had no clue of their destination. Each turn put him seconds behind the two he was fallowing. In spite of the difficulties he caught up to them. He took cover behind a parked car and set the smart brain briefcase down in front of him. He flipped the latches on the briefcase up revealing a neatly folded stack of papers atop a slightly beat up metal belt. It was adorned with scratches and scuffs but had been polished to a mirror sheen. Under the cover of the fog he looked over the papers. He eyed the numerous diagrams and number sequences. Among them the first page stood out as the easiest to understand. What with it being the only diagram to feature a human wearing the belt. There was a number sequence printed in bold on it.

555

He picked up the belt wondering where the input for the number was. He flipped the belt upside down and a portion of it which Gin had thought was fixed into it fell out. That piece turned out to be a cell phone. One in the fashion of something made in the early 2000's. When it was flipped open the phone's screen displayed and few number combinations. The first amongst them was 555. Gin glanced back at the first diagram. He'd figured it out. Put on the belt, 555, plug in the phone, ????, profit?
As he tried to maneuver the belt over his waist he took a peak over the car's bumper.

From there Gin was like a deer caught in headlights. He witnessed Thomas swinging an ornate sword at what had to be a walking skeleton. Then Molly summoning an even more ornate staff. The impetus to involve himself grew when the creatures began to transform. Gin fumbled with the phone and dropped it. As he scrambled to recover it the sound of an engine revving caught his ear. As the sound grew louder He caught sight of the vehicle and it's rider approaching the park. Making sure he was out of eyeshot Gin witnessed the stranger on the bike plow into one of the monsters then dismount, and transform into some kind of armored man before dispatching another one. Seconds later another armored figure came running in out of nowhere and clocked another one of the monsters.

Strangely the two armored figures didn't startle Gin the way the monsters did. If anything they were the polar opposite. He felt a strange comfort looking at them. Like he had little to fear in their presence.

"Are you one of a vanguard as well? "

Hearing this shook Gin on a core level. His brain rushed back to the old barkeep encountered earlier. He'd called Gin the same thing. Gin looked down at the phone and the belt attached to his waist. There were equal feelings of relief and horror coursing through him at the thought of what this revelation might imply. He felt his legs give under um and fell into a sitting position against the car. He looked again at the briefcase. His thoughts brought him back to the beginning of his final case and all that had brought him to this point. How unlikely, and impossible it all was.

Was this fate?

 

[Havoc Knight]

"I guess you could say that." Ryan replied to the red warrior.

Before either of them could say anything else, a huge mass of eels attacked at once. They cut through the creatures with their swords, creating a mess of bodies around their feet.

"Look out!" Byakko shouted as a huge bolt of lightning flew at them.

Ryan and the red warrior dove in different directions to avoid the blast.

"Where did that blast come from?" Ryan asked Byakko.

"From the giant." Byakko replied simply.

"So he's not going to just stand there. Great. Guess this isn't going to be as easy as I'd hoped."

The giant continued to just stand there, but its eyes started glowing as it shot out a dozen more creatures, along with four more bolts of lightning. Ryan dodged them with ease, and cut down several more eels. However, to his right, he noticed several civilians cowering under cover and eels heading their way.

"Red, can you keep big ugly distracted while I get these guys out of here?" Ryan shouted to his new ally.

Without giving him a chance to reply, he rushed towards the civilians.

 

[Icefish]

“Are you one of a vanguard as well? Either way I hope you don’t mind if I lend you a hand?”

Decade shrugged. "Vanguard? I'm just a guy doing his job." The man in the bar had said something about vanguards, but he hadn't been very clear about it. Not that it mattered at the moment- they had other things to worry about. "But if you wanna help out, I'll take it." The red newcomer seemed to have chosen the wolf as his prey, leaving the slug to Decade. He grimaced under his helmet as he switched the Ride Booker into its gun mode. "Well ugly, I guess it's just you and me."

Decade opened fire on the slug. The results were...less than impressive. The shots clearly hurt the beast, but not nearly enough as Decade would have hoped. They also didn't do enough damage to dissuade the monster from attacking, as it rushed with surprising speed towards Decade. It slammed down with its single massive fang, as if trying to split Decade in half. The pink warrior lept back, not deftly, but effectively. He drew another card and slid it into the belt. "Let's try a little more firepower then!"

ATTACK RIDE: BLAST

Decade opened fire again. This time, both his weapon and the shots were aglow with the same pink energy from earlier. This attempt was more successful. The slug staggered from the force of the attack and let out the sound one might expect an angry slug monster to make. It rushed at Decade, this time electing to just slam its slimy mass at him. Decade was not so lucky as to dodge this one. He was sent tumbling, covered in slime. "Okay," he moaned, "that's gross."

He raised his weapon again and tried to fire. Unfortunately, the weapon was as covered in slime as he was. As a result, it merely sputtered a bit before doing absolutely nothing. For a moment, both Decade and the slug stared at the weapon.

"...."

With a sigh, Decade put the Ride Booker back on its place on his belt. It wouldn't be of any help now. He instead elected for a simple punch. It was like striking a punching bag full of jelly...that is to say, it did absolutely nothing. To make matters worse, his had was stuck. The slug, taking full advantage of its foe's folly, slammed down with its fang. Decade tried to block the blow with his free hand, with little success. Sparks flew and pain raced down his arm. On the upside, the force of the blow had managed to get Decade unstuck from his opponent. He backed off, his arms up in a defensive stance.

"Well, this could be going better..."

 

[thunder]

Steve was not surprised at all that the warrior's sword talked. After having a talking spirit dragon and becoming a magician, Talking swords didn't really have much of a surprising impact on Steve.

"OK, looks like to cripple that bitch's Eel birthing, You'll need to cut those tentacles off." Draco suggested.

"On it Draco!" Steve said as he put on the green ring, switched the hand-modes on the belt, and then ran the green ring through the scanner.

"HURRICANE! PLEASE! FU FU FU!!! FU FU FU FU!!!!" the green magic seal appeared in front of steve with him jumping through it and changing him green. Steve used his sword and speed to start chopping some tentacles off. Some of the giant's tentacles were aiming at the warrior and the civilians. Steve turned to the tentacles and opened the hand on his sword.

"COME ON AND SLASH! SHAKE HANDS!" The phrase kept getting repeated.

"Oh, no. Not happening." Steve said as he put his green ring on it's hand-scanner.

"HURRICANE! SLASH STRIKE! FU FU FU!!!" the sword started producing winds and Steve struck with his sword creating a gust of wind that sliced those tentacles off.


"Ok 'Dark evil', What do you say to that?" Steve asked in a mocking tone to the giant. As if in reply the monster spewed out 2 more Eels with the numerous tentacles that weren't cut off.

"You had to ask, did you?" Draco ask Steve rhetorically. Steve ignored Draco and continued distracting the monsters.