The Secret's Aftermath

[gantzgun74]

Bonsai Village...

Again we turn our faithful views upon this medieval town as everyone went about their usual business. The people that lived in this town were usually seen walking around the place wearing Japanese themed clothes... ...

Which is exactly why Kosumu fit in this town just fine. His pale green martial arts ghi helped greatly.

Only a few odd minutes ago, Kosumu had landed in the outskirts of this town, thankful partially that he did so gently. Polaris must've once more listened to him, allowing him enough strength and magic to carry Fujin, his new friend, but even then he knew blessings like these were still temporary. As the two walked through the town, Kosumu looked around carefully.

"Someone may know... where Wally and Otto are..." Kosumu said to his friend. "Hope flight... Wasn't too bumpy."

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Meanwhile... ... ... ...

Two figures walked through the town looking around at the various merchandise.

"Metaru..." Said the taller of the two. "Do you think Gantz will ever come back?"

The shorter of the figures was scanning some of the fruits, he appeared to have his head lowered. "I'm... ... I'm not sure Climber..." He then raised his head... Revealing the robotic hedgehog under the hood. Metal, in a way that would surprise anyone that knew him previously, talked as if he was a normal person, rather then with his mechanical voice. He had Nutcase, Taffy, and Beatrice to thank for that. "With Soul Calibur around, I just don't know anymore..." He shook his head. "I hope he does though... Heaven knows that Nutcase and Star Man were deeply hurt by what happened."

[Just ignore the second part of the post Mugenginga, Kosumu and Fujin will meet them later.]

[mugenginga]

(OOC: Is that a set up for NiGHTS' introduction I smell? XD)

Fujin seemed a little off balance as Kosumu set her down, but a oddly stone looking tree nearby helped her regain her balance. Actually, all the trees around here looked like some odd mix of rock and plant. She found herself looking at the leaves, wondering if they were really plants at all. It was the reaction many people had to the not quite tree but not quite bonsai foliage of the forest.

She turned to Kosumu as he spoke again. She brushed her hair out of her face. She really wanted a tie or something to pu it up. She shook her head softly, "The ride was not a problem. You did not have to work so hard to keep it soft," she paused, "With your will to find your friends, I am sure something will come up. Fond memories are one of the best places to start."

What she was thinking, however, was more along the lines of "memories are a place to start". Whether they were fond or not. She looked around the village. It seemed rather quaint, but she liked it. The hard work the people had put into making the town thrive was very evident.

[aerospine]

Amongst all the villagers possibly walking around the different buildings stood a lucario standing against the wall of a building. He came here by a portal that opened up in his area, and he along with a few other's came to this bizzare place. Though they each went their seperate ways, Zeo ended up coming here. "I wonder where Aero ended up." He closed his eyes and remembered how it started, not surprisingly, he and Aero got into a fight which resulted in them going seperate ways. It didn't matter to him at this point, as the greenish blue lucario sighed and left his position to check out his surroundings. No reason to do anything else for that matter.

[nutcase17133]

With Nutcase, he and Clown Man along with Starman were really depressed at this turn of events.

"*sighs* Man, this isn' fair..." Nutcase said as he looked into an old photo of himself and Gantz that was taken back in Toon Town after one of their many adventures in which they along with their friends and several others saved the country of Ivalice from a crazed bandit leader who had a magic mask stolen out from under their noses. The incident ended up witht he bandit leader getting killed as an anceint warlock by the name Vaati was released from said mask. The main reason why this memory was so important to Nutcase was that it was almost New Years at the time the events took place, he had met his girlfriend, andhad a whirlwind adventure during the entire christmas vacation of that particular year.

Now it seemed like that there'd be no more adventures ever again.

Starman took this the hardest, however. Gantz gave the former solo navi a second chance, and the usually cheerful and mischevious navi was crying heavily. The navi was not seen on the screen of the PET he called home, either. Instead, Starman's crying was heard offscreen, and there was a sign that popped up on the PET screen that read 'Currently out of service.'/u]

Clown Man was also in a bad mood. He had started wearing a black peice of cloth on his arm to show he was in mourning. Nothing could be done to cheer either of the three up.

"I still say you should have called the Ghostbusters, man. They could have drivin the soul Caliber's spirit out of Gantz!" Clown Man said in response to Nutcase's earlier comment.

Looking at Clown Man with a flat look, Nutcase said, "Oh sure, and risk having my best friend in years lose his atomic stability when hit by the partical beams fired by the proton packs. Yeah, I'm sure Gantz's parents would be just fine with that idea."

"You don't have to be so sarcastic, you know." Clown Man said in a grumpy tone.

[gantzgun74]

From inside his P.E.T., Star Man barely didn't say a word at all to this conversation, in fact, it didn't seem likely he heard the conversation at all. Sniffling, he wiped a few tears away, "(Sniffle) How... How could it have ended like this?" He broke out into tears before he could think any more on this...

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

Kosumu nodded at Fujin, smiling. "Yeah! Memories!" After saying that, he looked around a bit. "Get started!" He said before taking Fujin's hand and pulling her behind him "Ask around! Ask around!" He said cheerfully, as he poked someone in the shoulder. "Excuse me!" The man that Kosumu has asked turned to the boy, easily towering over him. This didn't seem to bother the Star Child though. "You know Wally.. Or Otto? They heroes!"

"Leave me alone kid!" The man said before walking off.

"Thanks anyway!" It seemed that Kosumu didn't know what to make of the man's rudeness, but took it as a sudden but polite 'I don't know'.

[mugenginga]

Fujin didn't fight Kosumu's action of dragging her along, but it did startle her quite a bit. She frowned sadly as the man told Kosumu off. She pulled back a little.

"Kosumu, I am of the opinion people are a little put back by how forward you are," she suddenly realized he might take that as an insult, "I mean... forgive me. I do not mean to be rude. Perhaps it would be better to be softer?"

She felt terribly rude for cutting off Kosumu's enthusiasm like this, but some part of her mind was telling her that they needed to be more diplomatic to get information.

As for the scene itself, it was rather humorous. This energetic and bubbly pre-teen boy pulling around a disheveled yet exotically beautiful blue haired young woman. Anyone observing would have sworn they were siblings despite a lack of similarities. They seemed to interact like an older sister and little brother might.

[aerospine]

So far everything had been pretty basic to any other village here. Buildings, villagers, etc. Zeo had made it to the central area of the village, and so far saw nothing that stood out from other ones. After touring the village, Zeo couldn't really think about what to do next, maybe move on to another location? That could work, but where could he go; he came here by pure coencidence. "Well, since I'm here, might as well go find something to eat..." Zeo stayed in the central area confident that there was a restaurant here somewhere.

(Yeah sorry about the boring post, don't know what to do exactly)

[42zombies]

"Heh-heh..."

A villager chuckled as he stepped out of the nearest resteraunt, a grin spread on his face. "Heh... eha..." Within seconds, the poor sap was on the ground in hysterics. People were rushing up to him to try and help the man up as his face went white as a sheet, but ultimately it was to no avail. Slowly, like a dying breath, the man stopped laughing.

His eyes were wide and yellow-- his mouth, stretched out in a macabre grin that would give nightmares to children. Blood trickled down from one of his ruby-red lips as a man passed by, not a care in the world.

"I wouldn't eat there!" The man exclaimed, though everyone on the island was so used to strange characters that they didn't question the man, wrapped up to his eyes in a bright-yellow scarf. "Doesn't look like the food agreed with its last customer!"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

In a seperate area of the village, Beatrice and Taffy were wandering around, searching for Chip. The alien had been gone for a rather long time. This didn't bode well at all. Chip wasn't normal, and he hadn't been acting quite right since he'd seen Soul Calibur's mark.
As they searched for him, the two of them were discussing three topics: Treetune, Chip's odd behavior, and Soul Calibur taking over Gantz's body.

"Man, you know who I miss?" Taffy asked Beatrice.

"Don't say it."

"Oh, come on, you miss her too," Taffy said to Beatrice.

"I said shut up. And if I see her, I'm gonna kick her ass," Beatrice said, punching her fist into her palm. Taffy rolled his eyes.

"Hey, be careful, Bea. You're being all Flamel-y again," Taffy said, pointing to the paint on the buildings nearby, which was turning into solid gold. Beatrice took a couple deep breaths, and the gold stopped spreading.

"This town is as oriental as it gets, down to the freaking paint," Beatrice said, groaning.

"Nice to see you're toning down your language a bit," Taffy said. Beatrice responded by punching him across the alley.

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

"Chip" was closer to Beatrice and Taffy than the two of them knew. He was having a hard time keeping the morph. If this kept up, he'd end up revealing himself.
He'd thought he'd had it downpat too. The personality, the biology, even the sleeves!
But as it was, he was failing his assignment. But he had to get that toon's life force. That human toon... the reality warping powers of the toons... If "Chip" could get his lifeforce, the effort would be even more aided.
And there was the matter of the Philosopher's Stone inside the Beatrice girl, or rather, the Philosopher's Heart, as the stone had been weakened somewhat by being changed into an organic object.

But he had to fufill his mission, or he'd never be forgiven for that debacle at town hall.
So, his goal was to murder the girl and the toon and take their lifeforces. And maybe the doll, just to take the Chaos Emerald. It may be being greedy, but anything to get on the good sides of the leaders again.

For the sake of the mission, "Chip" would kill again.

[gantzgun74]

Back with Climber and Metal, they had seen the entire episode of the man quite literally laughing himself to death.

"Did that man... Just die laughing?" Climber asked looking utterly bewildered and horrified.

Metal however, trained his steely eye on the man wearing the yellow scarf...

Something didn't feel right about him... "Maybe we should find Beatrice and Taffy..." He noticed the yellow scarf man staring right back at him. "To let them know what happened, and see if their done with their errands yet." He walked off ahead of Climber, with the doll quickly following behind, casting a look of both regret and horror at the dead man on the ground.

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With Kosumu and Fujin, their search definately wasn't going any better.

"What? Wally and Otto?" The man shook his head. "Um... I'm sorry kids, but I've never heard of them before."

"Oh..." Kosumu lowered his head, frowning... Before he lifted his head back up giving the man a thankful smile, "Thanks anyway." the man walked off after hearing that. Once he was gone, Kosumu sighed. "Never find friends... At this rate..."

[mugenginga]

"It will be alright," she gave a warm smile to Kosumu as she bent down a bit to look him in the eyes, "The only way you can fail is to give up. Never send your hopes away, it will always be all right."

Something in her mind argued with that, but she fought the pessimism. She succeeded in keeping her warm grin. She straightened up and glanced around, looking for some business or such.

"Perhaps we will have more luck if we find the village elder..." she seemed to be talking more to herself, as if to confirm her choice of actions.

[aerospine]

As Zeo got to a restaurant, he saw that a man walked out laughing hysterically at who knows what. This man continued laughing, and laughing until finally he feel over and stopped laughing. What the heck just happened? Why did that man die from laughing? What was he laughing about. And as Zeo stared, all he could say was, "Man...must have been some joke..." He looked back up to see a man in a yellow scarf pass and leave as if nothing had happened. The first thing that would come in someone's mind was "did he do this? Does he know who did it?" Not only was he walking away, but someone else was walking away in another direction. "Something is not right here," Zeo said to himself walking away the same direction of the two that just left.

(I don't know what Climber and Metal is, so sorry if it isn't clear)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

After a bit more walking, Beatrice and Taffy came around to where Nutcase was, which meant they had gone full circle since that morning. Which was not good.

"We still can't find Chip," Taffy said to the toon. "But, no one's shown up missing or dead, so I'm pretty sure he's still alright. Hopefully."

Beatrice sighed. "Still have no idea what happened to him earlier. Dude doesn't typically act like that."

Taffy sat down. "That's what worries me. Bea, have you seen Tree at all since coming to the island?"

"If she had, she'd be dead."

"Good point. Well, I saw her right before she went missing, and there was something up with her. She was really paranoid, asking a lot of questions. Kept telling me to be careful about something..." Taffy said. "Can't remember what it was."

Beatrice sighed. "Great. Nice going, Saltwater." She looked up at Nutcase. "You alright? You've been kinda down since... forget it."

[nutcase17133]

Nutcase glanced at the two and said, "How do I feel? I feel like shit, kid. Gantz was lost to us once already years ago, and now it seems like this time I'll never see him again... This will really hurt all our friends back home. Otto, Wally, Crow, Servo, Mallow, Zane, Shin, Cindy........everyone. It was partly due to to him that I was able to fully grasp my powers."

Clown Man then said, "Yeah he went to ACME Looniversity back in Toon Town when he was younger, but even though he had been able to learn some Toony tricks from his teachers, he was still human. It took a huge act of courage to get the boost he needed to do all his other stunts. This act earned him his Keyblade, and wth it he got the power needed to pull off all the other toon abilities. But to do that he had to save Gantz's life at the risk of losing his own. Now it seems there's nothing Nutty here can do to help Gantz this time... Oh sure, we could ask the Ghostbusters to help-we've become friends with them a while back, you see-but I doubt their equipment could do anything about the Soul Caliber's spirit inside Gantz since the Soul Caliber is technically a tool for good."

"Some weapon of goodwill...caring nothing about the people Soul edge preys upon...as far as I'm concerned, that bitch sword is no better than Soul Edge. (pulls out his Keyblade, the Key to Peace. Taffy, Beatrice, the attatchments to this keyblade all have meaning to them. The heart-despite the fact it's stereotypically childish in apperance-represents joy and love. It is based on an item from the game Yoshi's Story, one of my all-tiume favorite games growing up as a kid. The game never failed to cheer me up when in a bad mood, and the likeness of the heart symbol here is one of the game's items which makes one happy enough to be completely invulnerable. The spaceship at the handle is of a very funny show I used to watch called Mystery Science Theater. As such, the bone-shaped ship on the handle represents laughter. Finally the eagle head and wings are of an American Bald Eagle, which is the USA's national bird. The eagle is the result of this keychain which I got from a friend one Christmas a few years back. All wrapped together, this makes my Keyblade five thousand times better than anything Soul Caliber could ever be. Gantz's own Keyblade is just as impressive as mine-perhaps moreso."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Beatrice punched her palm, just to look strong. "That's why I fight with my fists. I don't need any weapons to be strong. My own heart and soul are packed into my fists. It's why I've always refused to make a living weapon, even when my two best friends went on to make their own. I believe in one's own strength, and so I don't use a weapon."

"Well, I can't say the same thing about the weapon part, but I can empathise with the friends part. Me, Bea, and Tree were best friends back in the day. We went to Alchemy Academy together, and we did everything together too. And whenever Tree was getting bullied, me and Bea stepped up to help. Whenever Bea needed help with her homework, me and Tree stepped up to help her out. And whenever I..." He groaned at this. "...Needed to get busted out of detention, Bea and Tree always made a distraction so I could get out of dodge. We were the original Power Trio. 'Course, we're not so much anymore..."

Beatrice sat down on a barrel and sighed. "It was right before the Christmas Party incident, I think. Some time after that was when Tree started acting really weird. Didn't want to be around us much anymore. Started thinking really deeply and stuff too. Said that the individual didn't matter, and all sorts of stuff. Basically, she was talking like that little bitch who's taken over Gantz' body. I think she was just depressed though. See, the whole reason she got into Alchemy Academy is because she stole a whole bunch of money from her parents and ran off to Oregon, which is where AAU is. It had taken them a while, but shortly after she graduated, they tracked her down, and tried to take her back home since she wasn't a legal adult yet and all that crap. She ended up running off and buying a house with what cash she had left, and we all know how well that went."

Taffy laughed. "Yeah. Burnt crispy by way of a giant fish."

And then, the happy little conversation got cut off because someone they hadn't seen all day limped back into the alley.
Chip was back.