The Secret Stories of the Masquerade

Heaven took Will's hand without hesitating and stood up. The huge dimensional crack in one of the walls of the ballroom was still there, proving that her experience with the Watchclock Phantoms wasn't merely a weird dream she had.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks for asking." Heaven replied. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Will." he answered. "Also known as Shakespeare," to which he smiled a bit sheepishly.

He glanced about, still bewildered that everyone seemed to be taking the events very casually. He still had no idea what was going on, aside from the obvious. Maybe with time, something would reveal itself.

"So, uh, what's your name? Maybe I've met you somewhere. Any local parties?" She did look a bit familiar, she may have been a face in the crowd one night, one that he'd happened to pick out. Well, with those eyes, she'd be hard to miss.

"My name's Heaven." She said. "Heaven Onkyou. And I don't think I've met you before..."

She was right. Apparently, those who were in the battle earlier were complete strangers to each other, yet destiny decided to pull them together into this... surreal experience they were currently facing. Yet Heaven was trying to hide the fact she was completely lost, her mind submerged in a sea of questions, and didn't know what the hell to do, stay with them or leave the place like if nothing had happened at all.

Suddenly, she caught... something in the corner of her eye, in between the crowd of dancers. It was a surprisingly soft, white glow, coming from a teenager... An angel? A halo was directly above his head. The sight let out more questions inside the poor girl's mind. She turned to Will.

"I think there's someone... interesting to say the least over there." She moved her eyes where the boy was, in a sign of direction. "I think we should go and investigate."

"Hey now," Kit protested. "I am not scary in the least! No need for you to react that way, sheesh." Kit sighed. Though his costume was and demon tiger, he did actually look like one. Just a guy with fake ears, a tail and claws. The fake fangs, maybe. That considered, the smile just might not have been that disarming. He followed the retreating boy (straitening the chair as he passed), pretending that he didn't the looks of people around are hear the whispered comments. Under his breath, he muttered to himself, "If this kid keeps this up, people'll think I'm a pedophile or something."

"I thought your costume was an angel, not a timid little field mouse. Though the field mouse would have looked tastier. Joking!" he hastily added, remembering the kid's seemingly timid nature.

Will gave his customary glance about and noticed the cat-man and the angel boy, the angel looking very scared. The boy was beautiful, but Will wouldn't state that for fear of losing any semblance of manliness he might give off to anyone ever again. Then again, he had been a complete coward in the battle with the phantoms.

He made his way through the dancers once more, over to the pair. A passing Nightworld person smiled benignly at him, and he grimaced back in an attempt at an amiable grin.

"What's going on over here?" Will's gaze switched between the two. "You okay?" he added to the cat-guy.

"I'm fine," Kit said with a grin, "but little field mouse here looks like he is about to have a heart attack." Kit's fingers twitched as he thought about how the angel-boy would react to a touch. He restrained himself though. Kit nodded greeting to the newcomers, trying to place them.

"You I know," Kit said, pointing at Will. "Shakespeare, right? I was at a party you did a few weeks backs. Pretty good work you do." He pointed at the girl. "You I don't know. I'm Kit Edwin; freelance writer, contract landscaper, electrician, exterminator, artist, general Jack-of-all-trades and owner and operator of Kane Antiquities and More." He handed them a business card that listed a long list of jobs and credentials, a website, an address, three numbers and a cartoon-like picture of his widely grinning face. "Nice to meet you."

Will nodded at the cat-guy. Sure enough he wouldn't remember him, but he certainly looked like the type to be at one of the parties Will had DJ'ed for. He pocketed the card and was about to go and look for the others, the sword-wielders at the top of his list, when the people gathered outside abruptly started screaming and shouting.

Wild howls and yips sounded, followed by the rest of the people inside screaming as well. They were beginning to turn into a mob, a scared one. Will quickly pushed through them to the wall, taking the girl by the hand as he went, and rushed to the huge crack. Despite his fear, he had to know what was going on. He got a lot more than he bargained for.

Outside, the night still looked as beautiful as it did before, but about a dozen black shadows were roiling through crowd, causing chaos where they struck. In the distance, Will could something much bigger than the little shadows. It was huge, with glowing markings all over the parts that he could see.

"Aaaagghh! Somebody, help!" It sounded like a woman yelling. 'Of course, it would be a girl.' Will thought, thinking of the stereotype, but pushed onward towards her. She was being surrounded by maybe three of the shadow things. It seemed like they were taking turns swiping at her and yipping at her heels.

"Go! Run away!" He shouted, instinctively slipping his headphones on and opening his laptop. He'd been holding it? It didn't matter, he could use it to help her.


Prologue - Part 2: Darkness in the Night

Theme - Night of Fate

Objective - Defeat All Enemies
Fail - Woman Dies


Outside - Small field

{|} { } { } { } { } { } {|} A
{ } { } { } { } { } { } { } B
{ } { } { } {U} { } {=} {=} C
{=} {=} { } {W} { } { } { } D
{ } { } {D} { } {S} { } { } E
{|} { } { } { } { } { } {|} F
{ } { } { } { } { } {S} { } G
-1---2---3---4---5---6---7

{=} - Bench
{|} - Small Lamppost

Player

Spoiler:

Neutral

Spoiler:

Enemy

Spoiler:

Players may start in rows F - G.

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

Shakespeare starts in G-6.

Will's laptop sprung to life as soon as he opened it. The program was still there, which was good. He'd be needing it if he meant to save this girl. He had no idea if the others would be out here, ready to fight whatever was there. 'It'd be nice of they were . . . I can't do this on my own.' He remembered how he'd cowered at the last second fighting the phantoms. The others had been there to take of them, but what if they weren't this time?

Heaven starts at G7.

Heaven had been following Will since the screaming occurred, and barely noticed passing through the dimensional rift separating the Masquerade Ball and the Nightworld, the infamous crack. As soon as she saw the woman being attacked by the shadows, her cyan MP3 Player began vibrating like when the fight against the Watchclock Phantoms.

This time though, she let the MP3 loose immediately, stopping in midair while being enveloped in the morphing sequence she had seen before. When the Universal Tone was ready, she caught it and maneuvered it until it was on the guitar-like position the Sound Enchanter used on her first battle. But this time, the girl was ready.

Kit starts at G4

Damsel in distress? Shadowy demons? Cue knight-in-shining-armour and riding a white horse. Unfortunately, he wasn't knight, nor shining (though angel-boy fit that bill nicely) or even on a horse (but he was a white tiger, she'd have to settle for that.) Rescuing her could prove fun, with the three creatures. Despite being shadows with a head and legs, Kit was sure they could put up a good fight.

He nibbled his claws as he waited for the rest of the fighters to ready themselves. There was going to be bloodshed tonight -wait, did shadows bleed?- and he was going to be a part of it. Till then, he could wait. Unfortunately, he had a feeling that the battle would somewhat worsen the image angel-boy had of him, but so be it.

"Let's get this thing started!" Kit grinned fiercely. "Those shadows need wipin- I mean, rescuing that lady is our main priority!" Kit grinned again and sucked in a massive lungful of air. He kept pumping in air until his lungs felt like they were bursting. As he did, he concentrated it with his mana. He was just about ready to release the pressure, but every good technique needed a good name.

"Howling Tempest!" he roared as he let out the blast of air. The force of the attack ripped up pieces of the floor and tossed them about in the bast area and the shadow creatures cringed as the wind buffeted them and the echoing concussion of the blast rippled through their bodies.

Kit uses Howling Tempest! (-10 MP)(MP: 20/30). Cells F4, E5, E4 and E3 targeted! Two hits! 13 dmg each! Darc and Shade are affected!

The Sound Enchanter had so far attacked her targets with the Piano Installment, but she was sure there were myriad of distinct functions there were left to be discovered in the Universal Tone. She looked throughly at her weapon, up and down, left and right. Something claimed her whole attention, this was little pipe-like protrusions on the lower side of her weapon which were a sparking golden color. They had some turning switches directly above them, also of the same color as the pipes, indicating that each one was for turning on the pipe below the corresponding switch.

Because the golden pipes were pointing downwards, Heaven had to turn the whole Universal Tone in a swift movement 90 degrees clockwise from the original position she was holding it. The girl turned one switch in the way it would supposedly turn the function, whatever it was on. Before her hand could move to the next switch, a really thin string bathed in a shining silver color shot out from the pipe Heaven had activated, curving so it wouldn't hit the lamppost, but one of the Shadow Peons ahead. Without warning, the string piercing through its body, curving downwards into the ground.

Seeing what she made her weapon do, the Sound Enchanter turned on the second, third, fourth and fifth switches respectively, and five silver strings shot out of the remaining five pipes. They curved towards the injured Shadow peon and pierced it like the first one. As she was about to turn the switches off, they started to slightly vibrate. It wasn't that much, but it was enough for Heaven to understand what she had to do. With a quick movement of her hand, she played the strings randomly, propagating the most harmonizing sound one could ever hear at a situation like that. The sound was carried all the way to the targeted Shadow peon, golden musical notes materializing out of thin air as the harp sound traversed the silver strings until it "hit" the creature. After that, the strings recoiled to the Universal Tone's unknown depths, and the switches reset automatically to "OFF".

Heaven casts Calming Harp on Shade!
MP: 31/40

Shade takes 12 Damage, Chance of Sleep!

None of the creatures had fallen yet, but the foremost ones had taken some damage. One of them even fell asleep. He was about to batter the other one to stray specks of shadows, but the scream reminded him that the woman was still in trouble. He needed to take care of that first. Kit tried to remember what his mother told him about the Byakko. Something about them being tigers with the ability to change forms...

Grasping that stray though, he pictured to guardian deity that his mother claimed watched over the family. It wasn't hard. He had been looking at the exquisite carving that crowned the mantle place for years. As he formed to picture in his mind, his body started glowing white with mana until it appeared he was composed of nothing but the magic.

Ok, Byakko, he thought. It was a take, duh, but a big one, almost twice as big as a normal one, or maybe half again as big? As he pictured it, his body swelled into to the form of a tiger. Their fur was thick and rich. Nice and glossy too. Like liquid white sliver, but slightly glowing with power... Fur rolled over his body, thick and gorgeous, rippling in the stray winds with a faint silver sheen to it. Of course, they had huge fangs, and massive claws... On cue, claws erupted from his paws and fangs sprouted from his jaws. It was then he realized what happened, and he growled, a first with surprise, but then with pleasure as he felt the power.

Kit cast Beast Within! Kit gains Haste Status!
ATK- 14, DEF- 7, INT- 5, SPR- 6
MP: 7/30

Heaven casts Organ Barrier on Self!
MP: 26/40

There was no way the Sound Enchanter was going to get any closer to the Shadow Peons without getting proper protection applied beforehand. The question was, would the Universal Tone grant her a barrier of some sort? Heaven knew there was no other way of finding out. There was something she hadn't tried before, the golden pipe organ.

As she was gazing at such magnificent feature, the girl noticed a small, yellow button below it. Without thinking it twice, she proceeded to press it. Nothing. Since it wouldn't be smart to go crazy and start slamming her finger again and again on it, she shrugged it off and decided to play the piano to attack one of her enemies. To her surprise, the ominous sound of a pipe organ filled the area, and soon a myriad of golden particles materialized out of nowhere and shot straight at the Sound Enchanter's current position and formed a golden, transparent barrier around her.

Smiling at her find, she stepped forward and readied for her next move...

Heaven is Afflicted with Protect Status!

Heaven moves to F6 (G7 - G6 - F6).

Kit moves to D4.

So he couldn't see. No problem, he could find the oddly blank stench of the shadows with two paws tied behind his back. Hitting them might be a bit trickier... He stalked over to the one who caused his current predicament. His large paws were surprisingly quiet as they padded across the ground, his approach as silent as a light summer wind through a meadow.

The scent welling in his flaring nostrils, he slowly raised a paws, long curved claws barely glinting in the moonlight. He paused, relishing the feeling of supple body and the hyper aware state of his senses before crashing his paws down four times in powerful slashes.

Kit attacks Umbre! Four hits! 14 dmg each!