Dragonball M, Chapter 2: Lighthouse! Across the Shores of Shattered Time!

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Blizzar glances around this land of fire, with rivers flowing with magma and where the stinging smells of soot and sulfur permeated the air. That life could arise from such an environment was truly surprising, but he supposed it was not the strangest thing he had ever encountered.

And there were other such lands, each embodying different elements as well. All the more curious."Pyrus...if possible, could you elaborate further on what kind of catastrophe your planet had endured to force it to evolve this way?" Blizzar asked.

“We were attacked millennia ago. Some demon race. Humanity, our great ancestors, and the Saurians did not survive. But through our guardian, their legacy was reborn within us even as the planet was balanced and safe once more. We continue Earth’s legacy.”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Pacing slowly under the familiar sky within a world so alien was, in a word, disorientating.

From the smoldering lava-peaks they descended into the ashen valleys, wherein the city of hundreds of burning presences lit their gazes towards them. On a world so separated from theirs, it was difficult to forget their group were the oddities here. The closer they came, the more acutely aware he became of a concentrated heat that only seemed to rise the closer they coalesced together.

By their very nature their space was one of immolation; to touch, to speak, an act of consumption. To still their quaking, Ochazuke folded his arms across his chest, and became all the more wary of the conditions that surrounded them.

No water here, for what use would these Pyrelings have for it, he mused to himself, standing there behind Pyrus at the clearing near the foot of the staircase. What's more, the Doctor turned his view to this place...

The ease of locating the Nexus, that fragment of Time's own essence, struck him with an alarming ease. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple.

No life as we understand by our reckoning. Yet it persists and shall simply be.

Shifting his stance, Ochazuke examined the genius loci of this shifted Earth with Muhen Seikai Keihatsu, reaching inside the very spirit of the planet to analyze the living energies that coursed through each of its polar extremities to understand what common force drove these Elementals.

OOC: 9

The Earth had died. Probably around the time when, on his Earth, humanity was first nearly wiped out and barely made it back so many millennia ago (the same time the Saurians were wiped out). Here they did not bounce back.

Instead, new life descended from them as Earth was born anew under the hands of a familiar energy.

Asha’rah.

Her energy like a faint heartbeat runs through the planet, healing what was broken but not restoring what was. No, this energy led to new life instead. A rebirth.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

There, sitting in a lotus position and meditating, was their guardian.

Asha’rah.

The form is not robotic, but the familiar energy is enough to confirm who it is. She opens her eyes and smiles.

“Hello visitors, friends, and travelers. I’ve been expecting you.”

Pyrus bows.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

There, sitting in a lotus position and meditating, was their guardian.

Asha’rah.

The form is not robotic, but the familiar energy is enough to confirm who it is. She opens her eyes and smiles.

“Hello visitors, friends, and travelers. I’ve been expecting you.”

Pyrus bows.

Praxat examines the Guardian . " She seems friendly." Praxat said.

[Tami]

There, sitting in a lotus position and meditating, was their guardian.

Asha’rah.

The form is not robotic, but the familiar energy is enough to confirm who it is. She opens her eyes and smiles.

“Hello visitors, friends, and travelers. I’ve been expecting you.”

Pyrus bows.

"Asha'rah!" Cyanna cries out in joyful amazement as she takes a step foreword, only for an alien impulse to stop her in her tracks. Catching herself, she resumes a standing position, looking slightly embarrased, "Um, oh, sorry about that." she then bows briefly, "It is an honor, Lady Asha'rah."

[bruceleegreyhulk]

At the Lookout Qaztoh walks towards Althena and Meagan then stops " Well at lest there's thermal gloves I gave Praxat is going keep her save from extreme temperatures on that Fire elemental's home world. Speaking which I also give a couple more of those gloves so she could give them to the others," Qaztoh said. Qaztoh walks around in a circle pacing herself. " This might sound strange but I have actually met a person similar to that fire elemental before and he was alien name Pyrrhos Vigor , He was a scary looking dude whos body was always covering in fire , he was always so serious, oh and he's the first mate of the Stratovarius Buccaneers and the last of his kind alien race called Pyrorainias, Qaztoh said.

OT: for Tami in case this was miss.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Alt Asha’rah smiles at Cyanna.

“It is fine. I understand you are friends with my other self. I would be your friend and ally as well.”

[KingofPie]

“We were attacked millennia ago. Some demon race. Humanity, our great ancestors, and the Saurians did not survive. But through our guardian, their legacy was reborn within us even as the planet was balanced and safe once more. We continue Earth’s legacy.”

Demoms, hmm? Interesting. Such forces could not be so easily mitigated by the defense grid as they come from within but the perhaps the magic dampening combat bots could be bolstered once all this was over. Something to consider when they had the time.

The Lynne, thsee denons. An unprepared wirld, without proper protection could easily go down in flames...er, no pun intended. It was curious that the Earth from their timeline never suffered the same fste...though one could say the bizarre interest in the blue planet from malevolent parties was a plague all on it's own.

There, sitting in a lotus position and meditating, was their guardian.

Asha’rah.

The form is not robotic, but the familiar energy is enough to confirm who it is. She opens her eyes and smiles.

“Hello visitors, friends, and travelers. I’ve been expecting you.”

Pyrus bows.

"You know what we are here for, I assume, Blizzar stated, half prepared for there to be some sort of caveat to retrieving the time stone. One of the of the other, more hostile, elemental tribes stealing it, perhaps?

[Tami]

Alt Asha’rah smiles at Cyanna.

“It is fine. I understand you are friends with my other self. I would be your friend and ally as well.”

"May I ask how you ended up being the Guardian of this world? I think you're other self is much higher up the ..." Cyanna pauses as she searches for the right words, "Corporate Ladder?"

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Demoms, hmm? Interesting. Such forces could not be so easily mitigated by the defense grid as they come from within but the perhaps the magic dampening combat bots could be bolstered once all this was over. Something to consider when they had the time.

The Lynne, thsee denons. An unprepared wirld, without proper protection could easily go down in flames...er, no pun intended. It was curious that the Earth from their timeline never suffered the same fste...though one could say the bizarre interest in the blue planet from malevolent parties was a plague all on it's own.



"You know what we are here for, I assume, Blizzar stated, half prepared for there to be some sort of caveat to retrieving the time stone. One of the of the other, more hostile, elemental tribes stealing it, perhaps?

She gestures and a familiar swirling nexus of temporal energy appears. The artifact with them floats up and absorbs it, pulsing quietly, as it settles back down.

“You thought a more difficult mission, yes? No, we are quite prepared to help as best we can.”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"May I ask how you ended up being the Guardian of this world? I think you're other self is much higher up the ..." Cyanna pauses as she searches for the right words, "Corporate Ladder?"

“I came upon its ruin and came down to investigate. Little of life remained, but I did find one human who persisted. A man named Zxu’ro. We spoke for a long time, and he influenced my perception on life and creation. He convinced me that Earth was worth renewing, and so I settled here and took up his cause of persistence. From my efforts, Earth was healed and new life, Zxu’ros’ and humanities legacy, appeared in the elemental tribes.”

[Tami]

“I came upon its ruin and came down to investigate. Little of life remained, but I did find one human who persisted. A man named Zxu’ro. We spoke for a long time, and he influenced my perception on life and creation. He convinced me that Earth was worth renewing, and so I settled here and took up his cause of persistence. From my efforts, Earth was healed and new life, Zxu’ros’ and humanities legacy, appeared in the elemental tribes.”

"It's sad when a world dies. I have seen a few like that during my training, but you saved this one. I imagine you had to give up something in exchange. Being a Guardian can mean making a sacrifice. Those who have never been chosen or who have never given themselves to it often don't realize what it means." Cyanna glanced out towards the world beyond, before turning back to her, "Even with that, you remind me of another Guardian I know of."

[Cyke]

Before the trip...

"If I had to make the assumption, It was my face." Etrina sighed. "I'm not sure if you were aware, but we had quite a fight the other day....Honestly I'm surprised I gave as good as I did. But in the end things went entirely overboard and I can't say it wasn't my fault either. She somehow got ahold of anti magic techniques.....a boon to our team, obviously, but vexing for me to fight against."

"But then I suppose you didn't come here to hear about my grievances with others.....You did good work on the first mission I hear..." Etrina smiled, then leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "To be expected of course.

Zaofan takes Etrina's hand with a heavy and pensive breath. "Yeah, well, you probably heard that your double was the key to our victory. But her whole story, what our counterparts -- yours and mine -- had to go through in that other world. It made me realize that, well... maybe we don't spend nearly as much time together as we should. That maybe I should commit myself more to you... ahem, dear mistress. But the other Etrina lost so much and she paid the price for it, and I don't want that to happen to us, at all!"

He pulls in her in closer for a hug. "I just... I just want you to know that I'm a fool but that I am yours."


Back to the trip...

Pyrus smiles and nods, leading them down a valley. As she walks she introduces her children, Cynder and Pyre, and explains that there are extreme elemental shifts all over the Earth. The Fire Lands are her home, but there are sections covered in other elements as well. The defeated Ice Knight came from one such place.

As she guides you further, more Fire elementals appear to observe the odd group. Soon they are in the midst of hundreds of them, and then a small village or city where they seem to dwell. No real sign of advanced tech as they would recognize it, though as Pyrus speaks she is clearly highly intelligent and worldly.

Noticing the attention the group was drawing from the elementals, Zaofan looks up and around, watching the observers themselves. "Huh... we um, normally don't get this kind of reception from the locals."

She refrained from mentioning how smoothly everything was going compared to the last one. Only a complete dumbass would tempt fate that blatantly.

Heedless and oblivious to any social clues or body language, and completely lacking in anything like telepathy or even the personal space around him, Zaofan asks outloud, "How fortunate! This is going much more smoothly than everything that happened the last time, huh, friends?"

With an optimistically naive smile, he turns and smiles at Sarada. "LUHHHH-KEY!"

"Learning the form is to seek out the formless, and the ultimate end of the practice is to cultivate quality." he said, exchanging a look with his martial brother, before turning his attention to the ashen earth beneath his feet.

The fundamental skill passed to them from a dead art had been instrumental to their resistances, time and time again. As the sweltering heat closed in about and threatened to consume them, Ochazuke was made aware of the condition which plagued the large share of their allies.

Raising his arm, he closed his fist and loosed a short exhale. Rippling through the air surrounding him and weaving between each of the gathered warriors, a spark of the Five ignited Karura no Kaen*. The ethereal flame, contrary to the encroaching physical one which assailed them from all sides, burned only impediments against them. The endurance of the legacy art they had learned from Balon, Ochazuke loaned to them all.

"Must be second nature to you by now, for fire cannot burn a Dragon."

Zaofan steadies himself as he processes yet another of Ochazuke's musings, and he nods to confirm receipt. "Wisely put. The things we take for granted and relearning the fundamentals is a useful reminder. Though I would have thought that our fire protection was only for ourselves; that would go against the philosophy of the Five Schools in general."

He watches Ochazuke motoin the technique of heat protection spread to the others. "Good call. You'll be a fine master some day."

There, sitting in a lotus position and meditating, was their guardian.

Asha’rah.

The form is not robotic, but the familiar energy is enough to confirm who it is. She opens her eyes and smiles.

“Hello visitors, friends, and travelers. I’ve been expecting you.”

Pyrus bows.

Zaofan's jaw drops at the revelation. "Oh my Kami! ... she's gorgeous!" He snaps out of focusing on the goddess's magnificence once he realizes what he's said. "I mean, *our* Asha'rah has always been brilliant, yes; but this is a different kind of beauty altogether!"

“I came upon its ruin and came down to investigate. Little of life remained, but I did find one human who persisted. A man named Zxu’ro. We spoke for a long time, and he influenced my perception on life and creation. He convinced me that Earth was worth renewing, and so I settled here and took up his cause of persistence. From my efforts, Earth was healed and new life, Zxu’ros’ and humanities legacy, appeared in the elemental tribes.”

The name. Zaofan's eyes grow wide, and for once it's not for blasting anyone. He makes his way to the front of the group and comes closer, tagging Ochazuke to join up front. "Zxu'ro! Master Zxu'ro! Wait... So, we're talking about Master Zxu'Ro from *this* timeline, correct? Where is he? What has become of him?"

[MrSandman]

Zaofan takes Etrina's hand with a heavy and pensive breath. "Yeah, well, you probably heard that your double was the key to our victory. But her whole story, what our counterparts -- yours and mine -- had to go through in that other world. It made me realize that, well... maybe we don't spend nearly as much time together as we should.

"....Well of course......With the non stop threats to the world its just been...."

That maybe I should commit myself more to you...

Etrina continued statement caught in her throat as her face turned red. Her mind suddenly spinning in reaction to his words. Realized they haven't been spending time together? That he should commit himself more? Commitment? Zaofan? Commitment to her? No...No Way.....they only just had one, but maybe it planted the seeds in his head. Then the other hers tragic backstory....and now.....

But the other Etrina lost so much and she paid the price for it, and I don't want that to happen to us, at all!"

Breath, Breath damnit! This was suppose to happen the other way around! There was no acceptance plan in play....STAY CALM. Just...Just have to accept it naturally....make it seem like you were expecting it all day. Your a time mage, of course you were. Then call him idiot for taking so long....on, a sheep....wait no, that might spoil the mood. But maybe he'd like that......But I have to accept first, but not too quickly or I'll look weak....but not too slow or I'll make him feel bad.....Maybe a 3 second period of knowing smirk, then a happy smile and 'of course I'll marry you, idiot'......I mean Sheep! No wait...I mean.......but this would......No this way is....

He pulls in her in closer for a hug. "I just... I just want you to know that I'm a fool but that I am yours."

So consumed with her thoughts, The moment Zaofans hands clasped behind her back the mage nearly rocketed from her spot and without thinking fired her acceptance line. "Of course I'll marry you, idiot!"

.....

Etrina froze, and started shaking violently.

[MrSandman]

Zaofan's jaw drops at the revelation. "Oh my Kami! ... she's gorgeous!" He snaps out of focusing on the goddess's magnificence once he realizes what he's said. "I mean, *our* Asha'rah has always been brilliant, yes; but this is a different kind of beauty altogether!"

"Hey Zao...." White Etrina floated behind his head with a smirk you'd find on Dabura himself. ".....I'll be expecting plenty of service from now on unless you want me passing that image back to the chief. Hehehehehe...."