Company and Calamity

"SURPRISE!!" The group had entered the last room of the gauntlet with the four royal guards stationed in the back. "Enough praying and some crazy requests can be compromised." Pip was once again brewing tea. Magnus stood nearby. Simon was not too happy, but not at the group. Ivan was awake and was tending to Simon's injuries.

Kyuubi and Life looked at Simon in surprise. Life came rushing over to him and he held out his hand as it started to glow like before, "Please allow me to help you." he said as he approached Simon, hands gently pulsing with pleasant energy. The rest of the group came walking forwards but didn't approach anyone like Life did.

Simon didn't say a word, but looked thankful. "So of course there was a trade off for having you start here..." Six giant locks formed on the doors behind the guards. "That was the trade off. You have to earn a key from each of us. Of course each of us have prepared options for you so make things easier."

"I'm always open to options." Kyuubi said and he shrugged a little "there's usually a best option." Syrix chimed in. Life knelled down and put his hands on Simon and the energy swirled around him and in almost no time at all, all the wounds inflicted on Simon were gone. Life Sighed and smiled "There...you're all better now." he said and stood back on his feet.

Simon simply smiled at the healing, but the wounds split wide open as if Life hadn't done a thing. "It's... going to take a lot more... Time... to heal these wounds Life." Ivan looked at Life in his usually sleepy way. "So the options for me are either: Me, or several vials." Pip seemed uneasy about either option.

Life looked down at the wounds on Simon that had reappeared and he sat back down and started to heal Simon again, "these are very odd wounds...I've never had this sort of problem before." Life mumbled. "Several what?" Syrix asked Pip, clearly confused.

"Vials. For liquid." Pip looked at Syrix in the same manner Kyuubi usually does.

"oh..." Syrix retracted a little in embarrassment. Kyuubi laughed a little seeing someone else discipline Syrix the same way he does. "But...what are we supposed to do with the vials?" Sky asked this time.

"You're supposed to drink 'em." Pip shivered.

The group looked shocked and confused, "drink them?" Kyuubi looked concerned "w-what's...What's in them?" Daybreak looked at Pip's reaction and felt a bit scared now

"Are you takin' the vials or are you fighting me?" Pip seemed exasperated.

"I take back my previous statement...there really isn't a 'best option' here is there..." Syrix said looking kind of disgusted. "these are our only options?" Kyuubi let out a frustrated sigh and contemplated the decision...It was Shade who stepped forwards, "I'm not taking any chances. he said, and he looked at Pip"sorry, but I'm not interested in drinking anything that I don't know what it is." he took a sort of stance, Kyuubi and Daybreak looked at Shade and then each other nervously. "My decision is to fight, unless I'm told what exactly those vials contain." he said, the others prepared themselves for the threat of a fight and Life looked nervously between Simon and the group and Pip not sure whether or not he will have to abandon healing Simon.

Pip draws her daggers and slithers into a stance. Her mask shows no emotion. Her wings fan our and she takes flight.

Shade smiles the tiniest bit "Fine then." he makes a complete stance. The others also take a fighting stance "Shade...why did you have to jump to a conclusion like that?" Sky said still in his fighting pose "too late for apologies I suppose. Get focused, were gonna need to." Tide responded. Life let out a frustrated noise and stood up "Apologies, I have to go join them now. I'll be back to lend a hand." he trudged over to the other group members.

Spores rain down with every beat of her wings. Pip then sprays a torrent of water at Shade. Throughout all this, she seems to avert her attacks from hitting Life.

Shade gets swept up in the water but Tide raises both his hands and swings around to fling the water back around at Pip as Shade recovers from the hit. Sky thrusts his hands forward and a strong icy wind rushed out towards Pip with no upwards angle making the wind only go straight.

Pip protects herself with a quick blast of sand before diving underground, causing a slight quake.

Life puts his hands on the ground as he makes vines dig into the ground to feel around and possibly locate or trap Pip. Shade puts his hands close to one another and a sphere with a strange glow like a black light forms between his hands. Kyuubi guards himself and prepares for an attack from underneath.

Pip emerges behind Sky, constricting him with her body. The more he moves, the tighter her grip is. Pip seems to be trying to provoke a strong attack from the others when she begins to take off her mask.

Sky makes a choked noise of surprise as Pip attacks. Kyuubi noticed and quickly lobed one of his swords aimed at Pip's head, Life stood up and ran around behind her and fired off two vines that wrapped and tangled around Pip's neck and hand she was using to pull off her mask so that her arm was forced to her neck by the vines. Tide brought some water around and dumped it on Sky making him all wet and more slippery in an attempt to help him be harder to hold.

The combined efforts of Kyuubi, Life and Tide were enough to release Sky. Kyuubi's sword had actually managed to break Pip's mask clean off, but surprisingly, Pip intentionally had her eyes closed. She was merely goading their attack. Pip stood there struggling as Life's vines were forcing Pip to choke herself. Given her grip, she was turning blue. Magnus steps forward. "I cannot allow you to continue Pip. You know when you've been beaten." He glances at the rest of the group and notices Desire holding the stick. "And I'm afraid the worst has yet to come for us."

Desire noticed Magnus looking at her and the stick, she lowered her eyelids and smiled as she lifted her hand and gave a wave by gently moving it back and forth, she giggled. Life releases Pip and Kyuubi's sword comes circling back around to him and he catches it in his hand that he threw it with. Sky lies face down on the floor holding himself up with his hands and on his knees as he takes a deep breath in. Daybreak helps Sky back on his feet.

Pip simply lays there, keeping her eyes closed, trying to catch her breath. One of the locks on the door turns green and disappears. Magnus speaks once more. "For me you have three options: me, a feisty duo, or smoke. The two other options are aspects of Hyrax. That is all I will tell you."

"alright, right back into the fray." Syrix says "Next decision, alright..." the group contemplates the three options. This time it was Tide who stepped up, he pointed at Magnus "I'd like to see what you can do. We missed out on that before, so why not try it now?" he said, he was already in his odd relaxed fighting stance but he probably was hardly ever not in it. "let's see what you can do." the others took their respective stances.

"Accepted." On cue, Magnus slams his volcanic hand into the ground and waves of flames shoot across the floor. The shards of light around his neck glow brighter and brighter, making it increasingly difficult to see.