Catching Achelois's knowing look, Enyalius nodded and, still in flight, made a hasty decision. "We'll take the creature's room and attempt to find the Chaos agent." She did not want to split the group, but something had to be done, and with that cloud they could not afford to stand still talking or thinking about it any more. Whether Pluto was hesitating, considering, or curious as to what the enemy essence might do, if they had any hope of surviving a fight against a Chaotic Agent, they needed to conserve as much energy as possible. She flew to Achelois's side, careful not to hit any heads with her feet. She did not relish the idea of searching in the dark, but the eerie giggles of their foes might be enough to save them. And besides, a momentary smile twitched at her lips, Achelois's staff occasionally glowed when she was using a lot of magic, so if something bad happened they'd at least be able to see what was coming at them. She hovered upright, her sword sheathed at her hip and her arms crossed against her armor. "My guess is that those revived fairies could tell you where the Princess and Queen are. No matter what path you choose," she looked pointedly to the growing cloud, which was condensing by the second, "I suggest leaving this corridor."

Her eyes found Achelois's, and with a nod towards the room behind them, she leaned in and flew into the room.

Movement wrote:

Enyalius moves to LL21 to talk, then in to QQ17

Achelois nodded in agreement with Enya's choice and flew after her into the room.  She looked back at the group hoping they would make their choices quickly.

Location:

Sailor Ganymede watched the smoke move, trying not to get too close to it. She was starting to get nervous about what it could possibly do, and leaving seemed like a good idea. Walking around the condensing cloud towards the doors, Ganymede turned back to look at the rest of them. 

"Should we go left or right? We can check on the fairies once we're safe," she said, mostly to Pluto, but everyone else could hear her too.
 

Movement wrote:

Ganymede moved right 2 squares, up 1 square, and diagonally 1 square to LL23.

Sailor Leviathan's illusion diminished as she grimaced as she made her way through the smoke. She walked forward and nodded in agreement with Sailor Enyalius.

"Yeah, I'm all for getting out of here. We're not going to be much help to Shadow, the goblins or to the pansy fairies in here."

She nervously looked about.

"So... what do we do when we find this... Chaos Agent? Do we destroy it or something?"

Movement wrote:

Leviathans moves from her unknown position to PP18.

Andromeda did not need to be spurred twice; her last experience with a smoke was not pleasant and she was tired of dying. She, too, summoned her wings, remembering of Shadow's fate when he stepped into a room and triggered a trap, figuring it was safer not to touch the floor. Then she flew through the middle door following Enyalius and Achelois. That was where the most vicious creatures had been, so... maybe they were protecting something. It made sense to put the strongest defenders around the most important places, right?

Quote :

Andromeda moves to PP18.

Seeing everyone else move, Soul quickly summoned her wings and flew around the smoke, making her way to the entrance. Hopefully they would be able to trap the smoke in this room somehow. 

Movement:

Sailor Moon didn't like the thought of splitting up the team, but Enyalius and Achelois had already headed off into the room that the Krekken spilled out of. Given the chance, Lady would have gone for the room with the bright light--in her mind, bright light typically indicated good things. Plus, no creatures had rushed from that room. They needed to act fast, and cutting back through the smoke to peer through the brighter room did not seem like something the group had time for. Maybe the room the changed fairies came from would lead to more changed fairies... possibly the ones they sought.

She wished she still had the fairies she had healed, to see if they were waking up yet. They would be the right guides to ask for directions in this castle.

"Come one, we need to hurry!"

Sailor Moon stepped over the threshold, ready to close the door behind the other members of the group. Maybe Andromeda could use her chains again?

Movement wrote:

Moon moves to NN23, unwilling to leave Enyalius and Achelois as a separate party just yet.

Pluto bit her bottom lip a little as she considered the rooms, but then Enyalius decided. She frowned a little, looking at the rooms regretfully. She had wanted to make a somewhat informed decision instead of rushing! But everyone was following her, and Pluto sighed as she did the same, going with everyone else through the center door, gripping the pot with the captured fairies in one hand, and her Garnet Rod in the other.

"Come on, let's go before that smoke finishes!" Ganymede said to Soul, waiting for her to catch up before she followed the group as well.

Movement wrote:

Ganymede moved up to OO22.

Enyalius felt the others enter, but did not assume for a moment that they were set on following Achelois and her just yet. She paused where she was to catch her bearings - as much as she could in the dim lighting, and answered Leviathan's question quickly and simply. "Yes." 

As Moon shifted her position in the hall, more of their room caught the light, softly pulling a dining table and chair out of the oppressing darkness. She kicked out in front of her experimentally, then flew forwards to investigate the confines of their room further, as much as she could manage with senses other than sight, with her arm extended.

Movement wrote:

Enyalius is stalled at WW17 when her foot catches a chair, sending both the back of the chair and her forward so her arm hits a wall at XX17

"Wall over here," Enyalius called back over her shoulder, "And furniture," she added to explain the noise of wood on stone. The wall was cold beneath her fingers. "I'm going to trace it to the far wall," she commented. Keeping her right hand on the stone surface, she traced out the wall, ignoring the faint glow of light behind her in favor of opening her senses to the darkness around her.

Movement wrote:

Enyalius's incomplete mapping will appear on the map.

Enyalius runs into more chairs in her path.

When her leg bumped into a second chair, Enyalius raised herself so she were standing atop them, and, with her wings to balance, stepped on chair-backs, her hand still on the wall.

movement wrote:

Enyalius moves to XX15

Seeing that everyone had passed, Sailor Moon grabbed Sailor Saturn's arm and pulled her to the other side of the door. She pulled it shut, watching the smoke to see if anything could be noticed as she blocked it by the door.

"Should it be blocked with chains?" she asked the group, looking towards Andromeda. She wasn't sure how effective that might be, but Sailor Moon felt concerned from that moving, nebulous smoke. Would a mere door keep it out?

The pink-haired sailor soldier swung the Crystal Carillon around, hoping to illuminate more of the room, listening for anything unusual.

Movement wrote:

Sailor Moon takes Sailor Saturn (I hope that's okay--if not, I'll rewrite. I just didn't want to leave anyone in the hall!) and moves to NN21 then OO20.

As everyone moved into the room and Moon suggested blocking the door, Andromeda moved slowly toward it, not sure chains would do much good for something made out of smoke. She shot out two chains criss-crossing the door anyway, just to be safe. "I'll add more if it seems it's trying to get in," she assured Moon.

Looking around the now illuminated room, she thought about what Enyalius had said earlier about the healed fairies knowing where the Princess and Queen were. She landed on the ground carefully (NN19), approached Pluto and carefully peeked into the pot in her hands. She couldn't see much, but it looked as if the fairies in there were moving. "I think they're awake," she said. "Maybe we should let them out. They're healed, so they can be our guide, right?"

Especially with all the other fairies missing.

Pluto looked around the room, still feeling a bit upset. Was she failing as a leader? She saw Enyalius at the edge of the room exploring and sighed softly. When Andromeda came over and peeked into the pot she held, Pluto looked down. She blinked a bit at her comment that the healed fairies could be awake, and lifted it carefully. “Agreed. If nothing else, they can't stay in the pot the entire time.” She peeled off the tape and spoke into the pot softly, hoping to soothe the fairies inside. “Please be calm. We are senshi, and we're here to help your planet. Your queen and princess have been captured, and we are trying to rescue them from the evil. And we are hoping that maybe you can help us.” With those words, she gently lifted the lid off the pot, and looked down into it with mild curiosity.

Sailor Leviathan watched idly by. The scout had been very quiet for a while. Her aura still remained dark as she glanced at Sailors Soul and Ganymede.

A part of her wished she could do more to help the planet. If only she was like Sailor Moon. She could have come down on the planet and saved the goblins herself. Then she could have told the fairies to go to hell.

She could dream as much as she wanted, but she had to stay with these senshi if she could get anything accomplished. She felt she could depend on warriors like Sailors Enyalius, Pluto and Saturn. Even the new Sailor Moon seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. There were those there though that she felt she truly did not want to be with.

A strange thought crossed her mind that maybe if she could talk to Chaos, she could bargain the goblins' safety with a trade. After all, what was a race of pitiful people compared to the power of star seeds?

Looking at Soul and Ganymede again, she wondered at the possibility.

She heard the rumbling on the other side of the door. Whatever the smoke was, it has finally taken form. Soul jumped ever so slightly as the door was forced open by the creature. Distracted by the shrapnel that had flown through the air with the door breaking, Soul didn't see the creatures hand reach through the door and grab her. 

The air was forced out of her, stopping her scream as the creature squeezed her mercilessly. Part of her couldn't help but wonder if her ribs would break if the Krakken continued to squeeze. It than begun to flung her around. Every time her body connected with someone else, she could feel the sharp pain radiating through her body.

Sailor Moon barely had time to react when the door splintered open. The force of the debris knocked her down; she cringed as she struggled to her feet, feeling the sting of pain from the various cuts and bruises acquired. She just had time to see the horrible thing that the smoke had born grab Sailor Soul and thrash the woman around.

"We need to protect the fairies!" she called to Pluto, fearful of losing their potential guides to this new monster.

The pink-haired sailor soldier looked fearfully up at the creature, over at Sailor Soul held in its clutches, and then back at the pot that Pluto had the fairies in. She knew that she was supposed to be reserving her energy for restoring the Queen and Princess, but the tug in her soul to fight and save their teammate was unbearably strong, especially after the earlier loss of Jasper. The girl hesitated, then her eyes glittered with determination and she hurried to where she hoped was out of the range of the beast's reach.

Movement wrote:

Sailor Moon from OO20 to PP19 and QQ18.

The Eternal Tiare appeared in her hand--the one that did not hold the Crystal Carillon-- in a shower of glitter.

"Moon Gorgeous Meditation!"

She hoped it could at least distract the thing into releasing Sailor Soul.

OOC:

Pluto's head jerked up as the rumbling began and she frowned. She turned towards the door and her eyes widened fearfully as she saw only the two chains crossing the door. She opened her mouth, but it was too late. A giant creature broke through, and Pluto saw the debris rushing into the room. She quickly sidestepped the items, and then saw it grabbing Soul. She stepped forward, taking in the scene a moment. Leviathan was gravely wounded, and Chibiusa had been hit as well, though not as badly.

She narrowed her eyes, her expression turning deadly calm as she began yelling out at the others. “Achelois! Take care of Leviathan, don't let her die! Andromeda, Ganymede, Saturn, Enyalius, take your bladed weapons and start hacking at those fingers, get Soul free! And get that arm out of here!” She thought a moment, remembering the earlier creatures in her cold clarity and what had happened when they were 'destroyed'. “Moon, use Luna-P to make your giant fan, and be ready to fan the smoke out of the room!”

Leviathan's head turned to see the door kicked through. Those moments seemed almost frozen in time. A brief memory came to mind of when she began to research the different senshi. She discovered that Sailor Pluto had the ability to stop time, but to do so would cause her own death. It was such a useless power. If she really was the Scout of Time, shouldn't she have been able to stop time whenever she wanted?

She kept thinking this as she came to on the floor. Her mind felt like it was in a fog. How did she get here?

Damage wrote:

Sailor Leviathan takes 17 damage.

She began to sit up, but saw a jagged piece of wood jutting out of her thigh. It pushed her leg up from the floor. In rotten chance, it stuck right through her. Her stomach sank as she began to feel sick. The pain came all at once as she screamed in a terror. The other senshi had been witness to her cowardice, but it was unlikely they could fault her for being afraid now.

Her screaming halted she was shoved aside from the Krekken's attack. In her daze, she could hardly interpret what the being was. All she could feel was the pain and the loss of her leg's feeling. Her fear got the best of her and clouded her mind so that Sailor Pluto's orders were as tangible as static noise. To stop the monster, but mostly to protect herself, she used Leviathan's...

"Wrath!"

A powerful torrent of water erupted from the space behind her in the shape of an eastern dragon. It was only until midway through the attack that Leviathan noticed Sailor Soul in the monster's grasp.

So apparently the thing outside the door was trying to get in. It just attempted to do it way too quickly for her to react with adding more barricade. One second she was looking at the fairies, the next suddenly… chaos. Literally. She ducked as the door’s shrapnel flew everywhere, and her eyes widened when she saw the creature’s hand grab Soul. At least the creature was too big to get through, but that was only a small consolation because now that it had one of their own within its grasp, they couldn’t just run and leave it behind.

Moon and Leviathan had attacked with magical attacks, and Andromeda used the opportunity while the creature was hopefully distracted or weakened by the previous attacks to run as quickly as she could and attempt to stab it as deeply as possible on its forearm with her Chrome Blade. She decided to focus on the bigger target—the forearm—rather than the fingers, figuring she’d have less chance of hitting Soul, who was trapped around said fingers, that way. The creature might be big but Andromeda wasn’t taking any chances right now. Besides, a strong enough pain on that arm would be able to weaken its grip either way.

Achelois was keeping an eye on Enya as she moved around towards the back of the room.  She twisted slightly as the others came into the room but stayed hovering where she was. They needed to move away quickly before-CRACK!  The door splintered off, flying off into the room.  Achelois dipped and rolled in the air, dodging all of the degree as it flew.  Her eyes scanned the room as she heard different voices being thrown around.  Singling out the information she needed her eyes found Leviathan as the injured Senshi let out a water attack at the monstrous creature, and the Senshi it had hostage. 

Achelois turned her attention back to Leviathan; she would trust the others to get Soul back.  She glided over to her and landed immediately focusing on her leg.  There was a piece of splintered wood piercing completely through.  Achelois gripped her staff and held her hand over the massive wound.  She allowed her energy to flow into Leviathan.  One hand still gripping her staff, the other hovered directly over the wood and began pulling it out.  It took just a few moments for her to pull the wood free from Leviathan's leg.  She used her energy to decrease the pain and heal the wound after discarding the shrapnel a few feet away.

Heals!:

Ganymede turned to look at the door just as it burst open, revealing the monster that had formed form the smoke. Shrapnel flew in their direction from the broken wood, striking Leviathan and stabbing her through the leg. She mentally cringed, hoping she didn't try to yank it out and make it worse. The monster's hand groped for something to touch, and caught Soul. Sailor Ganymede tuned everything else out after that, too enraged to hear much. The Krekken's hand swung Soul around like a club, one swing connecting with herself and knocking her down. It didn't even hurt, but it slowed her down. 

"Let her go right now!" She yelled at the the monster, even though it probably couldn't even hear her voice. She didn't care. All that mattered now was saving Soul. She pulled out her axe and turned it on, making the blade as wide as she could, and then charged at the hand gripping the senshi.



"Lightning Slice!" Ganymede tied her best to drive the weapon into the Krekken's wrist, wanting to sever the hand.

As the light illuminated the room, Enyalius took stock quickly. Benches, tables, chairs, old instruments and fireplaces -- it was the Great Hall. Her eyes alighted on the door at the end of the hall and was making a beeline towards it when the door exploded. She whipped around quickly just in time to see a hand break through, lash about, and grab Sailor Soul. She kicked off the wall and propelled herself back towards the battle, but the others' reactions made her interference unnecessary. As the bloodied hand dropped Sailor Soul and retreated, she spread her wings to break her momentum, and hovered.

Movement wrote:

RR19

Mentioning that they should clear the doorway was a waste of time. With how much the creature had struggled, she doubted it could get in through the open doorway, so they could, potentially, in relative safety, discuss how they wanted to continue, as another pair of doors seem to head to the room the changed fairies had exited. As for her, she'd wait for Achelois to finish tending Leviathan, then try the doors she had seen on the other side of the room.

Pluto watched anxiously as the others acted somewhat on her commands. She watched them drive their weapons in, then let out a happy cry as Soul was dropped. She ran forward and put her staff under her arm for a moment. She used her free hand to help tug Soul to her feet, and to guide her away from the hand. “Everyone! Get away from the doorway now!” she called out.

Being dropped suddenly by the Krakken jolted Soul's bruised ribs causing her to groan in pain. She sat up slowly, struggling to get air into her lungs. That hadn't been pleasant. Her body felt like one giant bruise. She looked down at her arms and could see them already forming. It looked as if the creature was gone now and no one else was hurt. Wait, no Leviathan was hurt. Darn, that looks painful. The other senshi had taken some debris into her leg. Hopefully Achelois can heal her so she'll be alright.


What had that thing been anyway? It had formed from the clouds that came from the Krakkens they had killed. Was it one of Chaos's creations?

Sailor Ganymede yanked her axe out of the krekken's flesh as its hand retracted, and then she saw that it had dropped Soul. She ran the distance over to her as she was helped up again, dropping her weapon on the ground to help steady her. 


"Are you okay?" Ganymede asked. She wanted to hug her, but she was afraid she was too hurt for that.

Movement wrote:

Ganymede moved to NN19.

"M'sore but I'll be fine eventually. Probably going to be black and blue all over soon," she said leaning into Ganymede, pressing her forehead against the other senshi's shoulder. "That ride sucked, I highly don't recommend you buy a ticket." She smiled at her lame joke. Surely it would be ok if she just took a moment and stayed here to compose herself while Achelois healed Leviathan right?