Rise from Darkness (OPEN)

[ParamountKeymaster]

Toby swept away the shadows and landed on his feet, continuing to repel them as Mario and Lark conversed. Partway through his defensive maneuvers, Sanguine took a swing at him, to which he reacted by surrounding his own hand in shadows and catching the general's hand. The action was repeated with their other hands, locking the two together as they pushed against each other.

"You're quite good at this. I hope you realize that." Sanguine smirked at the green-eyed boy. "But why are you fighting? This is only a pointless diversion. No matter what happens tonight, you're not going to stop-"

"Y'know, maybe you should take Melancholic's advice and SHUT UP!!!" A mighty wave of shadows erupted from Toby's form, knocking Sanguine back. He and countless more Air Præt'nos simply rode the tide, throwing themselves down on Toby from above, while Melancholic and his Earth Præt'nos surrounded him from all sides, lunging at once.

[ryocker]

Mario quickly slid something into the box, what looked to be a cartridge with a shuriken on it. The moment the Prat'nos lunged them in all direction, he chucked the box upward.

"NOT-A SO FAST!!!"

The box suddenly expanded and unfolded, knocking the Praet'nos away as it became what appeared to be a gigantic hammer. "Okay you two- try to herd them in one place!" he instructed, gripping the bottom. "Then help me swing it down on them!"

[DanteMGalileo]

"He he. Leave it to me!"

I take control of the earth as I use it to erect walls and barriers. It's a simple herding tactic.

... Man, they sure can panic when the walls are closin' in.

"So, what's your plan, flammable parchment man?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

Toby nodded and stood firm. Though he repelled any shadow that veered too close, he took no other action. Simply leaving himself open for attack should've been enough to draw the Præt'nos to him.

"Rgh... They're luring us. This is pointless!" Melancholic snarled. "FALL BACK! WE'LL DEAL WITH THE ANOMALY ANOTHER TIME!"

"AIR ARMY, STAND YOUR GROUND!" While the yellow-eyed Præt'nos retreated alongside their leader, Sanguine and his white-eyed Præt'nos continued to surround and advance towards Toby. A playful smirk danced across the demon's face. "I wanna see where he's going with this."

"Oh boy...!" Enlightenment giggled with excitement. Toby was just full of surprises, wasn't he?

[ryocker]

With the other two now similarly latched onto his hammer, Paper Mario gave it a heave, slamming down on every Praet'nos that had stayed in the herded group. Every last Praet'nos caught in the hammer was converted into an image on paper, Mario, Toby, Lark, and their new victims suddenly engulfed in an odd, dimension warping light.

-----

The next second, Toby and Lark found themselves in a very japanese hall, a paper scenery blurrer in front of them. The one odd thing about this world was that everything was made out of cardboard, immediately catching the pair's attention. Mario appeared between them, making a silly ninja pose just for the heck of it... before clones of himself suddenly fanned out, a total of ten Marios now present as half took a side by either one of them.

"Welcome to the Trio Attack world for Trio Shuriken!" Paper Mario cheered. One next to Lark folded himself into a shuriken, landing in the magical man's hands. "This one's easy- our-a enemies are-a gonna fall from the sky by the mat up ahead, but you two get to use me to shred them to pieces! Well, all of me," he offered. "You take turns- but don't worry about proper aim. I can-a take care of a little inaccuracy."

After a moment, one of the helplessly paperized Praet'nos began falling in front of the mat, swaying. "Alright you guys! Let me fly!"

[DanteMGalileo]

"So you give me permission to do delicious ultraviolence?" I blinked, staring at the... paper man... throwing star thingy in my hands.

It last about a second before I feel my face split into a grin. "Right on ya bud! And away we goooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!"

I helds out my arms, and began spinning around and round and round and round ad round...

Then I let it fly. "This is so freakin' cool!!"

It should be hitting dead on the mark if my calculations are correct.

Hmm, why do I feel flat? Oh well. I'll think about that later.

[ParamountKeymaster]

Toby could only stand there and blink for a while. His nerves were already shot as it was, but now he was tripping balls on top of that. Still, with the paper Præt'nos drifting down, there wasn't much room to worry about details. So, ignoring the oddness of the situation, Toby picked up a paper Mario shuriken, aimed and gave it a toss, aiming for their weak spots.

"Right between the neck and shoulder. It might not kill them, but it's the only surefire way to get rid of them."

Sanguine was nowhere to be found... and yet the breeze that kept the Præt'nos drifting wildly through the hall seemed shaky and suspicious at best.

[ryocker]

Each paper Mario Shuriken flew by, spinning fasted the moment they got to the paper, shredding some of the paper in half, but making others simply fly straight back up, only to tumble back down. After a few rounds of this game of frisbee shuriken, Paper Mario's clones all stopped their folding, gathering in the center. "They're all about to come at-a once," he instructed, the clones jumping high out of sight. "One of you stand on top- we're pretty big like this!" the marios chorused, a giant shuriken soon falling toward them. "Try to get all of them with one swing, okay?"

[DanteMGalileo]

"Oh! Let me do that!"

This boy would become aware of me standing on his shoulders. Was that a groan I heard? I think that was a groan. I'm not that heavy am I?

Oh well. Time to shred this stuff.

I start by actually chucking the paper man shuriken inside my Galaxy Cloak. Paper man and the kid both look at me incredulously for a moment...

"Oh, don't worry. It'l be back. I'm just sending it on a ludicrously fast run throughout the solar system first to have it pick up a bit of kinetic energy." I give a chuckle at their faces. "It'll be back in three... two..."

I don't even bother to say "ONE!" as I wish open the opposite side of my Galaxy Cloak, sending the ludicrously fast paper man shuriken out of it towards the paperized shadow creatures.

[ParamountKeymaster]

"HRK-!" Regardless of how much Lark weighed, Toby was not the strongest guy in the world. Any weight on his shoulders threatened to surpass his capacity. Not wanting to let the others down figuratively and literally, Toby lifted his shadow off the ground all around him, gathering it around his shoulders to provide Lark with extra support.

To his surprise, this was working surprisingly well. The paper shuriken launched out of the cloak just as the paper Præt'nos drifted together into one group... though he was fairly certain that Sanguine still was not among them. Still, a direct hit to every Præt'nos' neck at once felt like an unqualified success in Toby's book.

"Eheh... Wow."

[ryocker]

One swirl through space and a rocket powered blast through the galaxy cloak later, Paper Mario soared through the papery scenery, cutting through the paper moon in the process. With that, done, the world began to glow, shattering apart...

---

Barely a second had passed since the attack was executed, the three of them landing safe on the ground as the Praet'nos began to yell and scream, the bodies melting into the shadows as their necks bled out an odd, shadowy mist. "...hey, wait a second- I don't-a see that big one among the fellas falling apart," Mario noted. The box fell right back into his hands, ejecting the cartridge quickly and painlessly. "I wonder where he went..."

[DanteMGalileo]

"Oh, the king shadow creature? You mean the biggest and ugliest of 'em all? ... Do these guys have a name or should I just call 'em shadow creatures?"

I chuckled a bit as I resummoned my bow, forming an energy arrow, pointing it into the shadow mass...

"Just give the world and I'll start shootin' 'em!"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Sanguine..." Now that a vast majority of the Præt'nos had retreated, whether it be by choice or necessity, Toby felt much more comfortable summoning a barrier of shadows around himself and his allies. "One of the generals. He's not gonna pull any punches, and no amount of damage is gonna keep him down for long. It's probably best if we-"

CRUNCH

One of Toby's shadows morphed into a hand that immediately slammed down on Mario. Sanguine then erupted from the ground with Mario crumpled into a ball in his hand.

"My my, Toby, I'm very impressed! You certainly have a talent for making interesting friends!"

"M-Mario!" At Toby's command, the shadows wrapped around the undeterred general's arm. "LET HIM GO!"

[ryocker]

It came wiuout any warning- Mario was gripped in a giant hand, his Trio attack shuffling about as he was crunched into the shape of a large, messy ball. He kept getting crushed and manhandled, five of his trio attack cartridges soon flying from his pockets- and torn up beyond repair. "Ow! watch what you're-" Mario was silenced the moment the man crushed the paper ball even denser. He was still wriggling in the man's grasp however- but didn't seem capable of doing much in his current position.

[DanteMGalileo]

"So, you're Sanguine..." I chirped, turning myself, my bow, and the arrow towards what appeared to be the lead shadow creature.

"Funny, you don't seem to bleed. I don't think ya really deserve that name." My voice comes out icy cold, before resuming its usual tone.

"You have until the count of five to release the flammable parchment man, otherwise I ain't hestitatin' to stick this in your neck. One..."

I pull back the string.

"Two."

I point the arrow at Sanguine's shoulder area.

"Four."