Talm looked up at the darkening sky as he walked between the shops of Vane. He was half-daydreaming and clearly unprepared for what came next...
"Sometimes I really wonder what lies beyond the colorful skies... what in Althena's name?!" he suddenly exclaimed as a series of explosions rocked the western walls of the city.
The ninja turned in the direction of the attack and pulled out his darts. His quick eyes soon focused on a small group of winged Cannon Thugs hovering above the city.
"Such a small party bombarding a city this well defended?! This can't be a direct attack," he murmured aloud. "There must be another reason for it."
Another blast hit the shop closest to Talm. He leapt away from the impact... and was knocked to the ground by a strong blow from a cape-wearing figure.
"Ah ha! I guess our comrades thought of a better way out than running through that damn cave... the south egress is clear! Out of the way... Lord Leo and company chasing after a crest stealer!" yelled a person running beside the man that had sent Talm rolling.
Anti-Leo growled aloud, "Perhaps... I don't enjoy it when my orders are altered though... to the exit!"
Talm rose to his knees and glared at the trio of figures now running southwards toward the stairs leading out of Vane. One of them indeed appeared to be Lord Leo. On one side of the beast-man was a somewhat familiar girl in a karate suit. The other person was a dark-haired young man with a yellow cape and a big smile on his face.
"Another crest stolen... but I didn't see anyone running away with the red one this way... I'd better help Lord Leo catch the thief," the ninja spoke as he began to follow them.
Moments later Kara and Mauri ran to the top of the stairs, both noticing the airborne attack but unable to waste time worrying about it. Many of the soldiers from Meribia were already positioned near the western wall and hurled spears and other projectile weapons to combat the thugs.
"They're going to make it out into the wilderness!" Kara shouted, "We're going to lose them... wait! Talm!"
The ninja was halfway down the staircase when he heard his name yelled. He glanced over his shoulder to spot one of his partners from Horam and the beast-woman Mauri... Lord Leo's sister... rushing after him.
The doppelgangers also heard the call...
"Who the... some ninja wannabe?" Anti-Hiro puffed to his companions.
Anti-Jean looked back to see their enemies on the stairway and immediately looked back ahead, glancing down at her own body for a moment and thinking to herself.
"Fools... they'll never catch us now. The diversion worked better than the original plan and our escape is already prepared," Anti-Leo chortled as he pointed to the winged warriors waiting amongst the trees... behind a row of those Stix machines and the remaining doppelgangers.
Talm, feeling slightly confused, kept running until he reached the bottom of the steps and was very surprised to discover...
"Lemina?!"
Anti-Lemina waved to the ninja as she stood next to a grinning Anti-Ronfar.
"Yes... you're nega-correct. What's the problem?"
Talm scratched his head and noticed that Leo was holding the Red Dragon's crest as he neared a Cannon Thug standing next to a strange metallic creature.
"I thought you were hurt," he said as he looked at the odd assembly in front of him. "What is Lord Leo doing with the crest?"
"Talm! Watch out!" Kara exclaimed as she and Mauri got a little closer to the point of confrontation.
"Oh, that's an easy question," Anti-Lemina responded with a giggle. "We're taking the crest to Zophar's Cult to keep it out of your hands. See ya! Ha, ha!"
"QUIET! Destroy them, Stix!" Anti-Leo shouted as the Cannon Thugs airlifted him and the other four doppelgangers. The spherical machines began waving their arms wildly and advanced.
Talm took a defensive stance, his head spinning in confusion. Kara and Mauri quickly flanked him and prepared themselves for the attack.
The two martial artists engaged the Stix, backed by healing spells from Mauri, and conversed wildly at the same time.
"Why didn't you stop them, Talm?! Didn't you know those were doppelgangers?!" Kara screeched as she cartwheeled away from a flurry of strikes by the robots.
"Doppelgangers? Don't those monsters shimmer light-blue or something? How was I supposed to know until I saw the fake Lemina here?" he responded while stabbing one machine rapidly until it sparked and dropped.
Kara sighed and kicked another Stix, realizing he was probably right...
"Success!" Anti-Ronfar cheered as he and his evil friends made their aerial escape.
Anti-Leo held up the crimson icon and smirked.
"Yet another possible savior of the humans can now be used to our advantage... take us back to the Ruins," he ordered. The flying thug carrying him nodded as Anti-Lemina giggled wildly.
"Hold it."
Anti-Leo was surprised to hear Anti-Jean speak.
"I need to take care of a possible future weakness... we'll meet you back at the ruins later," she said, half-staring off into nothingness.
"We?" Anti-Hiro quested, his cape billowing in the night sky.
"Yeah, you and I are off to Meribia for a stop first," the dancer duplicate spoke.
Anti-Leo held in his temper for once. He didn't know what his partner was planning. She usually seemed very cold and calculating... she probably had a nasty idea...
"Very well, hurry with your little task and get back to the ruins as soon as possible," he replied.
Anti-Jean nodded and her carrier flew off to the west. Anti-Hiro's 'transportation' did the same amidst his questions and protests.
Vile laughter filled the frigid air of Zulan. The massacre was reaching its climax as the maniacal harpy continued to kill citizens and defenders of the doomed city.
KOMUSHA's actions were currently directed toward structural damage now. The piercing beams that he released from his arms and attack bits ripped into wood and stone alike and blasted building after building.
"Destruction level eighty-five percent... mission parameters accomplished," the metallic giant reported to the winged female.
Haranne had finally stopped her slaughter as well. Her armor was more crimson than shadowy now...
"An example... and an offering to DarkStar," she spoke.
At around the same time, the blue dragon Azuren had been flying over the carnage and dropped down to investigate. Transforming into a human shape, he dashed into the center of the village and found a dreadful sight.
A virtual mountain of bodies and rubble... and two very strange creatures standing in the midst of it: a shining titan and a gore-splattered harpy. But it was what was in the hands of the latter figure that intimidated the dragon. Although he had never seen the curved sword with his own eyes, Azuren knew at once what it had to be.
"The... Dark Scimitar..."
Both monsters noticed him and seemed to recognize him as something more than just a mere human.
He stared into the eyes of the lithe figure as she screeched. There was a look of eternal bloodlust within those orbs.
"You're too late... for this little town and for the rest of Lunar!"
She swung the sword faster than the blink of an eye and a wave of fire almost instantly collided with Azuren's form. He quickly extinguished the flames with a water spell and saw the duo take to the air... leaving a swarm of tiny phoenixes to bombard the remaining buildings and survivors of Zulan.
Azuren cursed inwardly and decided to reduce the new flames and fiends to steam in order to save what was left of Zulan. By that time Haranne and KOMUSHA were well out of sight.
The Necromancer glanced at the purple crystal that was brought to him by a Fly-Boy atop the Mystic Ruins.
"Excellent, lord Ornah will be pleased."
"But sir," the winged minion spoke, "we need help down below to get this shipment past the Destiny."
The foul magician's eyes widened and he looked over to the two dark shapes still awaiting usage on the roof of the spire. His mind started working.
"I shall save these weapons for later... I have a much less wasteful diversion," he cackled and handed the crystal back to the Fly-Boy. He spoke softly to the miscreant for a few moments and then began to chant the words of a spell.
The winged man saluted and flew back down toward the battle.
Meanwhile, Ornah had examined the 'life generators' found in the Salyan Desert ruins to be very fascinating. The only problem was that it would be very difficult to move the heavy equipment via airlifting or magic. The fact that the machines were connected to the ruins themselves certainly didn't help either.
"We'll need to defend these until DarkStar is powerful enough to make the task easier," he muttered internally.
The evil wizard walked amongst the cold metallic structures to investigate the android that was also hidden away in these subterranean ruins.
"Something about this puppet," Ornah said as he looked up and down the motionless figure with a tuft of crimson hair, "Seems to exemplify sheer power... something we can always use more of..."
Ornah smirked for a moment as he took a closer look at the workings of the machine, then frowned as he found the robot's 'heart' to be broken. It seemed a bit strange that such an otherwise perfect machine would be 'dead' but it didn't really matter to the mage. Under the tutelage of Baldour, Ornah had learned many things about both magical and automaton creatures from the past and present.
Beings similar to this robot were easily reprogrammed by intelligent creatures such as him and his master during Baldour's two recent comings on Earth. Even now on Lunar, Ornah was taking several of the Flash Lords and Cult Priests under his wing and teaching them to serve as veritable engineers when it came to repairing and controlling the mechanical minions they were unearthing from these strange ruins.
"This one will come with me and shall be revived. Guard the rest of this area until I return," he ordered the handful of Necro Knights that stood at the edge of the entrance tunnel. They all saluted him before he and the motionless machine teleported away in a flash.
It was dark by the time Anti-Hiro and Anti-Jean landed outside Meribia and made their way past the gates.
"Tell me again why you needed to drag me along?" Anti-Hiro whined.
Anti-Jean ignored him and glanced around the quite active town.
"Good... no sign of Lunn. C'mon."
She was actually afraid to see Lunn. The way the doppelgangers' minds worked was that each of them had the memories of the lives and experiences of their counterparts up until the moment of their 'creations' (sometime when Zophar had seized Althena's power within Lucia and threatened to destroy the world). At that moment the memories separated and became twisted and evil under the influence of Zophar's power.
Therefore, Anti-Jean knew Lunn the same way Jean did in the past. She had no desire to be recognized again...
The two fake heroes rushed off toward the shopping district.
"I certainly hope you know what you're doing, Anti-Jean. The dark sword's spell better not wear off soon or we're going to be in a big pile of steaming trouble," Anti-Hiro continued.
Anti-Jean glared at her compatriot and then winked at him.
"Oh, don't worry. You'll probably enjoy this... sicko..."
Ronfar's party pressed the Destiny westward as they fought through the horde of monsters. The valley they were rolling through was just wide enough for the Destiny to fit through.
Suddenly, Mistra yelled a warning as the ground right behind them burst open. The whole party ran to the defenseless stern of the ship to find an undead pirate ship, known as a Doom Rigger, emerging from the soil and opening fire with its cannons. Apparently, this was the result of the Necromancer's spell.
Ronfar leapt back to the wheel and found himself unable to turn the Destiny around to return fire. He cursed loudly and increased the speed of the steamship to hurry away from the Rigger... and the Mystic Ruins now far behind it.
"A clothing store?! Why?!"
Anti-Jean sighed, "Okay, you noticed how fast those people in Vane found out we were fake?"
"Well, yeah," Anti-Hiro replied, "I said the wrong thing about Lucia."
"Ah... that's true, but I noticed even before you opened your mouth that the real Lemina was giving me bad looks," his partner continued as they entered the surprisingly large shop.
"So what?"
They brushed their way past a shopkeeper as the fake Jean spoke more. "So I remember that my, ah, other self pledged not to use our karate skills after Zophar was defeated... and since he HAS apparently died, she wouldn't be walking around in an outfit like this if she wasn't using such skills anymore... the fool..."
"AH HA! I get it," Anti-Hiro stated as the confusion left his face. "If DarkStar removes our shimmering permanently, you want to be sure that you can get confused with her easily rather than appear vastly different."
The doppelgangers exchanged a quick high-five.
"You've got it," Anti-Jean said with a smile. "Now help me find a dancer's outfit close to what she... I should be wearing." The duo separated and searched the store.
Moments later... Anti-Hiro tapped his foot as he waited outside a dressing stall with a closed curtain.
"You need some help in there?" he quested with a smirk.
"Don't you dare," Anti-Jean warned. "Just a minute... I don't think this is right though..."
"What do you mean... this is the closest stuff I could find to what I remember she wore."
The curtain sprang open and out stepped Anti-Jean in a dancer's outfit that was CLOSE to Jean's current dress.
"Wow! You're hot!" Anti-Hiro exclaimed, drawing attention from a young male passerby.
Anti-Jean half-grinned, half-scowled. She stepped out to admire herself in front of a nearby mirror.
"Hm... the stripes on this top I picked are extra... and I couldn't find anything other than all these flower and leaf-shaped clasps and earrings... I don't think these are right, but they shouldn't be too noticeable... your stuff, on the other hand..."
"What's the matter with it?"
"Some of it's right... but take a look at this skirt. I really don't think I should be feeling this sort of draft... there shouldn't be a split back here... and," Anti-Jean continued, lifting one foot onto a nearby stool and pointing at her visible toes, "I'm sure she didn't wear open-toed dancing heels either."
Anti-Hiro protested, "That's the best they've got. How often do you look at someone's shoes anyway... and that skirt makes you look even more like a dancer. Don't you think it should flapping around in the wind as you spin and prance?"
The other doppelganger sighed and nodded. "I guess it's the best we can do. Let's pay and get back to the ruins."
The duo did so and proceeded out of Meribia.
"Stop staring at me," Anti-Jean mumbled as she felt rapid glances from her partner.
"I wasn't staring," he retorted, trying to change the subject. "I was just wondering why you've got a headband on still."
"It's just to keep the hair out of my eyes... I can rip it off at a moment's notice," she answered.
"Whatever you say, cutie..."
The two bickering villains found their transportation within the woods near Meribia and were soon flying through the night sky toward the Mystic Ruins.