Free City, Truce - Fountain
A tiered fountain marks the center of Truce, water gushing from its
summit and trickling into a deep, wide basin, wrapped by a ring of benches.
Roads flow like rivers away from the fountain, and houses sprout like weeds
all around them. Not far to the east, the ocean roars in the harbor.

A small flock of birds makes a ring around the basins that make up the Fountain of Truce, some of them swimming in it, some of them dipping their beaks in it for a drink, and others just resting their wings. The sun still burns brightly in the sky, just before its inevitable ascent toward the horizon below to end the day.

However, this symbol of peace is unintentionally interrupted when a column of transparent white light suddenly manifests nearby, scaring away the entire flock as they chirp and shriek their disapproval, fluttering away as fast as their wings will allow them to. From this light steps a red-attired woman and a boy, both sporting hair colors of the same hue, and both smiling in varying amounts.

All-but-immediately after their touchdown, the light fades away abruptly, and the woman looks down at the boy, lowering his hand that she'd been holding up to this point. "Effie's around here somewhere, honey. You should go and find her, she only got here a li'l bit before we did. Go look in the fields." With a wide grin, the boy hugs the woman quicklike and takes off to the south, blazing a trail faster than someone of his early-teen-age likely should be going. The woman remains behind, clasping her hands in front of her peaceably.

As Eevee strolls in from the west, he wonders where his little sister is. He assumes she's still at Finn's place, but would have expected to see her out and about by now. As for Eevee himself, he seems notably more...vibrant than usual. As if he had recently washed away his troubles and was ready to really start being..alive.

Zerstorung walks in from the south of the fountian, eyeing the running boy as he does. He gives a small smile at whatever his precieved goal was, and looks forwards to spot Aura. He waves happily to her, and steps forwards where his smile grows. "Hi there Miss Aura!" It had been a little since they last saw eachother, so it was good to meet with her again.

"Ugh! Why won't you STAY DOWN!?" Seren squished the hat down against her head and held it there with both hands. It was hard to relax at this town's fountain this evening while fighting it. She really hoped her dad would allow her to buy a new one soon otherwise all this struggle to keep it upon her head might drive her mad. Her attention to it however was drawn away by the appearance of a woman and her child making an entrence in a pillar of light. She blinks at the two with a rather vacant expression, wondering if the two might be aliens or something. Aliens showed up in beam like portals, didn't they? It was how they get from thier ships to the planet.

Mogwai strolls in alongside Eevee, and gives him a quick hug. She's not her recent moody self. She's smiling widely, and is taking in all the sights.

A familier Blue Kirby can be seen fly towards the Fountain, but as he gets closer he looks differnt. Older in fact, by about 2 Kirby years. After he is off his Warp Star, Nagol walks over to Mogwai and says, "Mogwai! I haven't seen you in a looonnnnggg time! About 200 years!"

Finn walks right on into the fountain square. It seems to be about that time, even if he's a little bit late. He peers around a moment, spotting familiar faces, stretching his arms over his head. He waves a bit toward Mogwai, Eevee, Nagol and Zerstorung. "Hey, guys," he offers, flipping on over toward Mogwai. "What's goin' on?"

Julexa snaps her eyes open. This looks strangely familiar: Clothes on the left side, stacked in a neat pile that she stood on. The wallet was missing, but that was okay. She hopped up onto the clothing stack and pops her head out of the side of the backpack, seeing it was attached to Finn! Where she was, is naturally the first question that was on her mind.

Aura smiles at Zerstorung's approach, keeping her hands held together in front of her in a dainty ladylike fashion. She noted Seren's glance and acknowledgment, but he disregard thereof likely meant she got that sort of thing all the time. Or, at leats frequently enough; it couldn't be helped, either way. "Good evening, dear. How are things going for you since we last met?" A subtle green light pulses around one of her shoulders, but doesn't seem to be trying to be too prevalent.

Seren watched the woman for a moment, hand remaining placed at the top of her head to hold the offending headwear in place. If they were aliens from another planet, they certainly didn't seem to be here for her. Nor did they seem to be like her exactly... Not that she knew for certain she was an alien, though the thought had crossed her mind a couple times. Seren couldn't exactly convince herself she wasn't one, could she?

Mogwai waves over to Nagol "Hi there! I see you haven't matured a day." she gives Finn a hug "Enjoying life is what's up. That's important after all. Especially for me."

Upon seeing Finn arrive, Eevee smiles and runs up to him, taking a peek up at his backpack to see the head of his little sister pop out. "Eevee! (Hey sis! Did you enjoy your stay?)

Zerstorung stops before Aura and rubs the back of his head. Truth was, he hadn't been doing very much of anything since she helped him out, but he figured he'd tell her exactly what was up. "I've been mostly trying to do little jobs. I helped a guy get a bunch of rats out of his basement the other day!"

"Yeah. It's pretty important," Finn muses playfully, wrapping arms around the fuzzy Moogle to give her a squeeze. He feels the rustling in his backpack, glancing back at Julexa. It seems that they're in the Fountain Square. "Mornin', sleepy," he teases her playfully. At Eevee's approach, he looks down at him. "Hey, Eevs."

Gradually, the sounds of heavy footsteps can be heard coming from the north. Not long afterwards, an -enormous- yellow bulldog comes tromping into the plaza! "FINN!--Oh, there you are." says the massive creature, as it suddenly shrinks down size! Jake then runs up to Finn as well, that guy sure his popular huh? "Where's that little rat at?! I can't find my viola!"

Julexa looks down to see Eevee and lets out a happy cry of "PI~chu!("You bet! Finn and Jake are fun to hang out with! Their home is a lot of fun...I was able to run around outside in the fields, and it was a lot of fun. I'm so glad that I stayed!")" She gives Eevee a small wave, and looks up to Finn. She heard Jake and giggled, hiding her head back in the backpack.

Nagol turns to Finn and says, "Hey Finn! Long time no see, literally! I haven't seen much people in the last 200 years of training, but that's another story for later."

Eevee smiles. He's glad to know that she enjoyed herself and he didn't just drop her off somewhere so he could go..bonding..with Mogwai. "Eevee! (That's great! I'm glad you had fun.) With that, Eevee thinks to himself for a minute. She really was much safer with them than back in the forest..and Finn didn't--wait, who's this Jake? Eevee instinctively starts to growl as he observes the arrival of the once giant creature approach them.

Aura smiles openly, sincerely. Her violet eyes scoot to one side briefly as she takes in the fact that Seren still seems to be studying her for... something, but keeps her attention on Zerstorung otherwise. "This is not unpleasant news. If you are making a difference in your own life or in anyone else's, then you are doing what you should be. Not everyone starts out saving the world on their first day." She grinned playfully, perhaps implying something, but not obviously so.

Seren continues to stare at everyone. The fountain had been relatively empty before those two people showed up in that beam of light. It was almost as if the event was calling this crowd of people to gather in this spot. Maybe they were all aliens and she had somehow found herself sitting in the midst of a secret space alien meeting... Though she had to question why they would have such a meeting in a public place where the regular folk of this planet could just sit in and watch their activities. That didn't seem too smart. Though maybe she should stick around, pretend to be one of them them and see if they came in peace? Then again, maybe spying on them is exactly what they wanted her to do! ... Or you know, they could just be regular folk gathering for an evening at the fountain. Either way as a citizen raised on this planet, it was Seren's duty to be sure!

Zerstorung just gives Aura a sheepish smile. "Actually, I was going to go help out someone on another job! So I'm going to have to leave soon. Though, it was good to see you again! Are you doing well?" He really should have asked her that before talking about the job, but he was a bit mixed up."

Julexa peeks out of the backpack at Jake, but tries her best to remain quiet as the dog literally rushed up to Finn, wondering where his Viola was. Naturally, she didn't know, but she couldn't come out and tell him that..because of the barrier and all. She just hopes that he doesn't find her, who knows what this bulldog was capable of...he only was around him when he wasn't serious.

"Oh. Hey, Jake," Finn waves a little bit. "Oh, she's back there. Did she take your viola?" He thumbs at his backpack, chuckling. EXPOSED! He notes Eevee growling, and he glances down at him. "Chill, Eevs. This is Jake, my best bud. He's cool." He motions back toward the bulldog. As Nagol speaks up, he nods at him. "Two hundred years? Sure didn't seem that long.." He hums thoughtfully.

Nagol starts to walk off to the south and says, "I wish I could stay and relax, but I still have a few more Star Rod Pieces to find. I guess I'll see you on the Flipside!"

Mogwai watches what was going on with Finn. This creature... was that Jake? She'd heard a bit about him.

Jake says, "Hah!" as he enlarges himself a bit and stretches his arm over towards Finn's backpack to pull Julexa out. "Listen up, moochee! Rule #623 in Finn's treehouse: Never touch Jake's viola!"

Jake says, "Aha!" but then backs off a little as Eevee growls at him, "Whoa, chill man! I'm not gonna mess with you!" Jake then nudges Finn a little as he stretches himself up tall enough to whisper in his ear, "Yo man, what's up with the animals?" It seems Jake doesn't quite remember Mogwai from his very brief introduction with her. Hell, Finn's got too many damn friends in this weird new world to keep up with.

Busy as a bee, it seemed. Still, the fact that he was keeping himself occupied seemed to please her; it was what she encouraged him to do, after all. "I'm doing as well as can be expected, thank you much. Just keeping my duties in line at the Sanctuary and taking care of my son when needed. Though he's starting to take up his own responsbilities, lately. He's growing up too fast." Aura seems sad for a moment, but only for a moment.

Aura says 'Much too fast.'

Seren pulls her legs up onto the bench lost in thought. With all the conversation going on she couldn't quite keep up with them all, but there was one thing that she could at least conclude so far in her observations. If this group was a bunch of space aliens, they were terrible ones. Just look at their terrible desguises! A giant yellow bull dog, some fluffy looking things, a round blob that ran off... At least the woman and the guy she was talking to seemed to have something decent. Maybe she was their leader? Maybe their ranks were determined by how good thier disguises were.

Julexa cringes into a little ball as Jake pulls her up and out of the backpack. She has no idea what he's talking about..all she knows is that whatever she may or may not have did to an instrument that she may or may not know about was something that she shouldn't have done. How was she to know what a Viola was and that she wasn't supposed to touch it?

Zerstorung shrugs at Aura's precieved worries. "Some people grow up really quick! I knew a buddy of mine, he was running around before I learned how to walk! But then I learned how to talk before he did so it was pretty cool. Mom had a lot of cool stories about us." He kicks at the ground for a moment, remembering the past. "Anyways, I'm going to head on now! The guy I'm helping might worry about me! Have a nice day Miss Aura!"

Suffice to say, Jake's actions prompt a primal rage within Eevee as he lunges forward to bite him. Who was this..freak of a creature..and how -dare- he touch his sister and yell at her like that?!

A big koopa walks through some of the shadows towards an alley where a Magikoopa is waiting, they start to talk for a bit.

"Whoa, Jake, relax, man. She's young and she doesn't know any better," Finn muses, knowing that he won't harm her. But it seems that Eevee doesn't. He notes the streak of brown fur blaze past him on a JAke intercept course, and he blinks, reaching out to try to snag him.. and missing completely! As a result, he windmills his arms and winds up falling back on Mogwai. "Oof! S-sorry, Moggers." He quickly rolls aside, to not squish her any more than he'd done already.

Mogwai rushes forward to try and intervene "Woah, woah, calm down Eevee. Just... what exactly's going on here?"

Jake lets out an "Oww! It's biting me! Finnn! Make it stop!" whines Jake as he just kind of wobbles his leg. Though as Finn fails to stop it, Jake grits his teeth and mutters, "Oh that's it!" as he leans over to stand on his hands, stretching the leg that Eevee's gripped onto up a little ways into the air before slamming him on the ground.

Aura offers a half curtsey to Zerstorung as he bids her adieu, hands still held together at her stomach. "Tread safely, dear. I'll see you again sometime, I'm sure of it." She smiles serenely, almost striking it as unnatural. As if to capitalize on this, her hair blows gently to the left, caught up in a breeze that doesn't seem to be actually felt anywhere else.

Aura says 'Just remember not to lose sight of yourself. Okay?'

Zerstorung offers Aura a short wave before nodding to her. "I'll make sure I remember my limits Miss Aura! I'm only human after all!" He gives her a wide smile beofre he heads off to the north, apparently on his way to do an important job.

Seren put a finger to her lip in thought. What brief bits and pieces Seren was picking up seemed to indicate that these potential alien people were reporting their statuses to one another. If that was the case maybe they were trying to blend in with society to make this world easier to envade? She blinks as she sees the blue haired woman's hair move. She definately had to be their leader if they were indeed what she was pondering these people to be! She was the one doing most of the crazy weird stuff!

Julexa is frozen in place, because she's not sure if he's going to hit her, toss her somewhere ot just let her drop into or onto who-knows-what. "P-pichu..("Eevee..don't....I'm alright. Don't do a--")" Too late. As she tries to diffuse the situation, his teeth already sank into the bulldog's leg. Well, so much for that!

Mogwai tries to push Finn aside "Look, we can talk about...whatever's going on can't we?"

The Big Koopa, Magikoopa, and 2 Goombas? Head out of the shadows and they are better seen. The Big Koopa has yellow skin and a green spikey shell, the Magikoopa wears purple robes and is on a magic-broom, and the Goombas are well...just Goombas.

As Eevee comes crashing down into the ground, he can briefly see Finn falling down on Mogwai. Look what that dog did! This was all -his- fault! Sure, it was an accident. But once one enters a primal rage, particularly one from a background with little mental sense in the first place, they tend to misunderstand these things. It would take a lot to break him from this now, and that..-monster- was going to pay for it.

And so Eevee released his hold on Jake, but only to concentrate on Salamando's blessing. This dog was about to get fried.

Finn blinks as he's pushed aside, and he laughs a bit. "I dunno, maybe Jake needs to get beat for once," he teases playfully, knowing that his bud will probably hear his lighthearted ribbing. "And I don't see why not. You're the only one that can talk to him. Might wanna try to get him to chill." Due to the ruckus Eevee and Jake create, he doesn't notice the Koopas approach.

As Eevee releases his hold, Jake lets out a brief 'Phew!' as he returns to his normal size and inspects his leg. "Aww man..what's the big idea?"

Aura watches Zerstorung as he heads on to his destination, pretty much until he was out of sight. Satisfied, then, she makes an abrupt turn on her heels toward Seren, blinking only once. Those violet eyes were striking, but gentle and not unkind in the least. "Now then. Can I help you with something, sweetie?" She seems disregarding of the koopa quartet, not worrying about them in the least.

Suddenly, flames erupt around Eevee's body as they begin to cover him whole! And almost instantly, the flames die down to reveal Eevee in his Salamandeon form! Not giving Jake a second to react, Eevee takes off into a speedy tackle, leaving a trail of flames in his wake!

Julexa then, after seeing that Jake wasn't about to flatten her like pizza dough...she relaxes, looking to everyone present like a stuffed animal in the way she hung there. Looking up at Jake for just a brief moment, then she noticed Eevee. Well, she can try to talk him down..but that look in his eyes already told her all that she needed to know. "Pichu! Pichu-chu.("Eevee! I'm fine! Look, he didn't hurt me!") She called out, but she knew he probably wasn't about to pay attention...but she had to try

Mogwai chases after Eevee "Oh jeeze, this cannot end well... don't go getting yourself hurt!"

"What the glob--oww!" yelps Jake as flies back. "Alright buddy, that's IT!" growls Jake as enlarges his fist to twice his size and thrusts it forward towards Eevee, slamming him back towards the benches!

Another possibility here was that she was witnessing a meeting between two races of space aliens. One of the furry things didn't seem all that happy, did it? Some tension between them? And that line about being human that one possible alien guy said before he left; sarcasim? Maybe she-- "EEP!" Seren lept to her feet as the woman turned and addressed her, hat nearly falling away from her head. She pressed it down quickly and fumbled for an answer. "I...uh. No, all is well!" Should she pretend to be an alien herself? It would be silly if these were just normal people. But if they weren't normal, she was just caught spying.

Finn blinks as Eevs flames on, and goes for a tackle.. only to get punched right in the noggin' for it. He reaches out to gently snag Jules, pulling her close to both cuddle her and ensure that she's unharmed. He watches Mogwai try to settle things down, and he glances down at Jules. "Chances are good we might just have to let them fight 'til they wear themselves out." Though, he does look back at Jake. "Wait 'til he changes forms and restrain him, man!"

The 4 mysterous people start to walk north, but are cut off when a Guard appears in front of them. The Guard yells , "Everyone! This is an Emergency! The Koopa King, Bowser is her-" His sentence his cut off as the Big Koopa rams into him with a punch! Causing him to go flying north, the Big Koopa then laughs and says, "Bwahahaha! They really did loosen up their guards here!"

"I daresay all is not well. I cannot tell if you are lost or confused, but you do not seem as though all is well. If there is something on your mind, I would hear of it. I am not aggravated by it in the least, but staring is not what most people of this realm consider to be polite." Aura smiles anyway, letting the gentle tone of her voice speak (pun intended) for itself.

Aura still disregards the quartet of folk moving up the north. In fact, she goes so far as to step aside, a mite closer to Seren, to allow them to pass by undeterred.

Mogwai dodges a flying Eevee, and looks at the commotion. She strides up to Koopa and asks him a single question: "Who are you? Are you a god?" (Okay, it was more like two, but you get the point) It doesn't sound in awe in the slightest.

Julexa looks up at Finn, and snuggles in his arms. Strangely enough, she felt really secure in his arms. Of course, she's small, so, she's not much of a burden and she kind of didn't want to get in the middle of this anyway. Looking up at Finn, that sweet, innocent smile is seen on her face, as she settles in, her chin resting on his arms. This might complicate things, however!

One of the benches falls apart as Eevee is slammed on top of it. Not wasting a second, Eevee rolls to his feet and inhales briefly, firing a stream of flames from his mouth towards Jake! He also notices the arrival of the new unsavory individuals, but..first thing's first.

Seren quickly concluded that her best chance in either case would be to just act normal and completely oblivious. She was a normal human... Sort of. "Ah well I am sorry! I didn't mean to stare. That pillar of light thing was just a bit unusual and all. Then again I guess there are a lot of unusual things happening in big places like this." She laughed nervously and put on a smile as she continues to ramble. "From a really small town, you know. And even then kind of tucked away. I don't quite get out all that often. Is that beam of light some new form of transportation around here?"

Jake gasps briefly as he forms a 'shield' out of his left arm to cover his body. As the flames make contact, Jake lets out a 'Yeow!' as he begins to stretch his other arm to the right to grasp Eevee from the side.

Finn leans down to cuddle the adorable Pichu for a few moments, closing his eyes as he does.. 'least 'til he hears Mogwai walk off. He turns his head to watch her, and it's about then he notices the approach of Bowser and the others. He notes that she doesn't seem too upset by them, so he's not really on edge.. even if the group seems mildly menacing.

The Big Koopa looks down at the moogle as it questions him. He laughs and says, "Bwahaha! Of course! I am Bowser! The mighty Koopa King! And I have come to get my princess back. Bwahahaha!" Bowser says to the Magikoopa, "Kammy! Start with project 'Overtake' ASAP!" The Magikoopa flies off towards the south as Bowser ordered.

Aura nods in confirmation. "Strange things are not uncommon wherever you go, but it depends on whose standards you go by. But this town is anything but small, dear." She gestures somewhat, completely ignoring Bowser clamoring right nearby about taking over the town. "Truce is one of the bigger cities upon the face of this realm."

Mogwai appears giddy as a schoolgirl "Oh goody! I've always wanted to punch a god in the face!" she says, before swinging at the koopa.

Eevee snarls as he observes the approaching arm and lets off of the flames to take a bite at it.

Jake yelps as Eevee's fangs make contact, to which he angrily responds by stretching his shield shaped arm to slam him! "You need to let off a little steam!" he attempts to say slyly as his shield arm slams Eevee into the fountain!

Then it hits her. Of course! "Or are you new to the area, too? This will make two of you in just as many weeks." It was difficult to tell whether or not Aura seemed pleased or perplexed.

Julexa licks Finn's arm briefly as he cuddles her. She looks over at the giant Koopa and the Magikoopa that flies off towards the south and she tilts her head, not exactly sure of what to make of this entire situation. For now, she wiggles her feet as she gently danges from Finn's arms, humming a softtune and gently swaying back and forth.

Seren shakes her head "My dad and I come up here only a few times a year to sell our crops. I have lived in this world since I was a baby actually. The city certainly a bit different than what I am used to though. And a little overwhelming sometimes too. So many people. But back to that beam thingy. My dad and I saw one just like that coming through the mountains attached to a flying thing. Was that you?"

Finn chuckles softly, feeling the Pichu moves. He seems quite content to sit there, watching Mogwai and Bowser.. and glancing back between Jake and Eevee. It's rough, actually.. his friends are fighting, but Mogwai's trying to take on a Koopa the size he's never seen before. "Man, I'm torn." He glances down at Jules. "What do you think, Jules? Should I go help out Moggers?"

Aura thinks for a moment, tapping her chin lightly as she does. But alas, she wasn't able to come up with anything that came to mind. "I won't say it is entirely impossible, but most of my kin do not leave the Holyland unless absolutely necessary. So it is unlikely, and unfortunately, I can't explain who or what it was. When I travel as you've seen, it is typically from here to there, and naught else."

Aura says 'Still, there are many creatures and many races between the two of them. So the concept of 'strange' is really only a matter of personal opinion.'

Aura smiles again, brightly and sincerely.

Bowser immediately jumps up out of the way of Mogwai's punch and comes crashing down at her in his Shell!

As Eevee's body makes contact with the water, it results in an expected 'SSSSSSS!' as Eevee does, in fact, let off a little steam. Although he also screams loudly, writhing in pain until the flames wear down and his form returns to normal. Though the image of the steaming Eevee is short lived as the upper half of his body slinks down underwater. A dangerous combination.

Jake groans a little as retracts his arms and returns them to normal. "Man, what a hothead. Finn! I hope that wasn't one of your good buddies!..I think it's kinda dead now." he yells towards Finn as he turns around to face the Koopa Troop, his back facing the fountain. He then plops on his tail and rubs his burning, bitten arms. "Owww.."

Julexa looks over at Mog, and then to Jake. She scratches her chin some, going cross-eyed for a brief moment, before she slips an arm free with a soft rustle of Finn's shirt and points over to Mogwai. She didn't fully understand Finn, but she did understand 'Help' and 'Moggers'..making the connection of that to Mogwai

Mogwai rolls out of the way and slings a bomb back his way. "Poke your head out of that shell, or I'll make it come out!"

Finn blinks at Jake. "Uh, yeah, he's one of my buds," he muses, realizing a moment later that Eevee seems to be drowning. "Oh, Glob, you didn't kill him, did you?!" Good lord. He tosses Jules into the air and, with a leap, he manages to catch her in his backpack, landing on the edge of the fountain to reach in, plucking Eevee out of the water as quickly as possible without getting soaked. (c)

"Sorry, Jules, first things first," Finn muses back at her, gently tossing Eevee over to Jake. "You're a dog, too, man, give him dog CPR or something!" He snags hold of his sword off of his backpack and rolls off of the fountain, heading over to join Mogwai in this new battle!

Bowser comes out of his shell to find a bomb right next to him! He attempts to defend against the bomb as it explodes, sended him into a building. "Crud...*pant* *pant*..." Bowser gets up and charges Mogwai with a Punch!

"Oh, I see." There was a hint of disappointment in her voice as she learned this woman wasn't responsible what she and her dad saw on the way here. "So your people are not from here, then? Where is the holyland exactly? I don't believe I have ever heard of it." Her eyes drift to the commotion being caused by the fight momentarily. There certainly was a lot of unusual creatures here at the fountain. Seren guessed there just wasn't used to this kind of variety.

Mogwai takes the punch, bracing herself this time instead of trying to dodge out of the way "Much better!" she shouts out before delivering an uppercut

Aura doesn't spare a glance behind her. She'd seen and been involved in enough fighting, she didn't feel inclined to involve herself in another battle that didn't include her at the fore. "A good, general answer to that question would be 'up'" She points a small finger in the appropriate direction.

Aura says 'But that's only a general direction. Sparing you a long, babbling sense of historics and physiological distinctions, I will state that there are three realms within this universe; this realm, the one I hail from, and the Underworld. My realm is also known as the Mana Holyland.'

Eevee is fished up by Finn, but he just kind of lies there. Being doused in Salamandeon form is never a pleasant experience.

"What?! Aw hell no, man. You gotta be kidding! Didn't you see what that thing tried to do?! My hands are going to be sore for weeks!" gripes Jake as he remains seated, ignoring the dying Eevee. Though he should probably do something about that giant koopa and its friends.

Julexa lets out a soft scream as she was tossed into the air like some ragdoll being discarded by a bored child. Thankfully, Finn remembered to position his backpack to catch her, so..worse comes to worse? She gets the wind knocked out of her..which the impact in the pack proceeds to do just that.

Bowser takes the uppercut full force, but continues to launch a full bargade of Punchs. By now, the Goombas notice the fighting and begin to chase after Mogwai.

Mogwai starts to run off after she delivers her punch "Right, got what I came for." she says as Bowser starts to furiously attack her along with backup "Crikey! Danger danger danger!"

UP? Seren's head tilted up towards the direction the woman was pointing in the sky where the first of the night's stars begain to twinkle in spite of the last few rays of the sun. Her eyes widened as she slowly began to realize what this woman might be implying. "So you're kind of like an angel? Thats pretty amazing! My dad told me about them once, though he said they had wings and a halo and you don't seem to have either of those. If you don't mind my asking, what brought you down to this realm?" Seren has to quickly catch her hat as it begins to fall back.

"Aw, yeah! I'm totes in my element!" Finn grins, noting the interfering Goomba.. or, the ones attempting to assault her. He's there in an instant, Demon Sword covered in heavy rock as he moves to attempt bring his whole body weight down on the Goomba with a bodyslam.. and the way he's positioned, he uses his momentum - and gravity - to attempt to bring the rocky sword down on the accompanying Goomba!

Aura looks a little torn. To tell her story would take days, even weeks. In fact, it's a wonder she hadn't written a novel about it, by now. But, little things first. "Well, to start with, we're not -quite- angels, though we do have some similarities. We're protectors of the balance of the world, or more specifically, it's magical affinities. We keep tabs on the world's mana supply, energizing and waning as necessary from the very source of Mana itself, deep within our realm."

Aura says 'Essentially, we merely watch for trouble, and if it requires our intervention, then it may have it. Otherwise, we're a peaceful sort of folk, we try to keep to ourselves as often as allow. As to why I came to this realm.. well.'

Aura shrugs lightly, clasping her hands again at her stomach. "It's a long, long story. The shorthand version is that my father converted me into a Reploid when I was younger. Cue your standard 'coming-of-age realization' story, finding your true heritage lies elsewhere, and saving the world by accident with the help of random people in the attempt to find your home, and you've got what could pass for a children's-book version."

Bowser continues his punchs with the occasional fire breath. That's when...The Koopa Troop is here! Goombas, Koopas, and Koopatrols begin to fill the Fountain. They begin to attack the Gang at the Fountain.

Jake finally summons the resolve to stand up and approach this band of unsavory individuals. "Alright, listen up! I--" Jake trails off as he watches Mogwai run past him. "Right, so uh, listen up! I--" Jake again trails off as he watches his best pal charge upon the goombas. "Oh, whatever. I'm coming Finn!" he shouts as moves in to join Finn, forming a hefty mallet out of his right hand and attempting to squash one of goombas.

Mogwai runs on past Eevee, doing a roll and picking up without missing a beat "Right... so, I may have pissed off someone important, any bright ideas?"

Eevee keeps lying there, possibly dying, possibly just unconcious, who knows? Why don't you go ask a fiery demon how it feels when his entire body is doused and whether or not he survives afterwards.

Julexa finds herself able to catch her breath not long after, and she pops her head out of the pack to see the commotion turn into a full 'Hands-on' predicament. Seeing this, she does an "I'm done!" motion with her stubby arms and retracts into the pack. She waits out the storm wrapping up in one of Fin's torn shirts...she doesn't think he'll mind..

Finn certainly won't mind Jules using one of his shirts for protection. It actually has that clean river smell, so no doubt he does his laundry in one. Either way, he notes the presence of lots of new attackers, and he blinks at them. He peers back at MOgwai. "Well, obviously, we fight. Take out the general, we demoralize the whole attacking force!"

Seren listens to her explanation, nodding slowly. She meant the reason why the woman came today, but the story seemed interesting and the young woman didn't complain. From the sound of it, it really DID seem like a long story. It was a pity the woman didn't seem all that inclined to tell it in full. "So is something wrong with the mana now? Does the world need to be protected from something?"

Aura looks a little confused at this question, wondering all of a sudden if this girl was actually aware of events taking place elsewhere. Before she can repond, however, she takes note of the increasing hostility surrounding them all, and wanting no part of it, she quickly reaches forward, placing her hand on Seren's chest firmly!

A column of white light envelopes Aura and Seren, and without further warning, they are taken from sight, the light fading away and leaving nothing behind.

"Which one's the General, Finn?!" shouts Jake stupidly as he gazes over the massive Koopa Troop. They all pretty much look the same, except for the GIANT SPIKEY TURTLE and then some little goombas and other things.

Bowser notices the new challengers and picks the closest one, Finn. Bowser rolls up into a Giant-Spikey Ball attempting to crush Finn. That's when Kammy returns and begins to summon Blocks to crush the Gang.

Finn isn't quite expecting to get targeted, and so when he notices the spiked Bowser Ball coming at him, he moves on reaction, his Demon Sword snapping into a whirlwind where moments before it was covered in rock. The force of the transformation is enough to push Finn into the air, and over the ball.. but not high enough. He lands on his feet atop the Bowser Ball, and.. "YOW!" Spikeness! (c)

Mogwai reaches the southern end of town "Ok, keys, check. Bus... bus is... fuck, I came from the west today didn't I?" she looks back at the army of goombas as she feeds Eevee a healing potion "Right. Allons-y!" she cries out as she races towards the army head-on, hopping on top of one goomba and bouncing her way across them.

Finn topples over and, remembering poor Jules in his backpack, quickly adjusts himself so he bellyflops onto the ground with an 'OOF!'. "Jake! It's the big one! Let's get him first, man!" He calls, quickly handspringing onto his feet.

Eevee's eyes gradually open as he is fed Mogwai's healing potion. He moves to rise to his feet, though rather slowly and gradually. Man, what just happened? He was feeling it really out of it all of sudden.

Julexa feels a jostle as Finn is sent to the ground, and she quickly grabs onto something, nearly being expelled from his pack from the crash. She wants to run away..but hearing the stomping of feet outside..she doubts she would get -anywhere- with all of the commotion going on outside. It's settled: She's staying put!

"..Oh. Alright!" shouts Jake as be enlarges himself to Bowser's size. Jake then lets out a deep voiced, "Hey, buster. -I'm- the heavy weight wrestler in this town!" as he reaches his arms out to grasp Bowser in an obvious attempt to wrestle with him.

Bowser rolls out of ball form and starts to wrestle with Jake. Jake seems to be winning as Bowser is getting more tired, until Kammy begins to drop large blocks on Jakes head!

Mogwai bounces off more Goombas before reaching Bowser "Pardon me, coming through." she says as she aims to use him as her next stepstool

Finn notes Kammy's arrival, and the blocks. He can't do much about the blocks, as he's too far away, but Kammy, well.. he can do something there. His sword's whirlwind dies, and grows vines around it. With a quick whip-like movement, the vines extend rapidly, attempting to wrap around the femme Magikoopa's broom.. and yank it right out from under her, if at all possible! Or, at the very least, attempt to disrupt her. "You okay back there?" He offers back to Jules in the meanwhile.

A loud call of "POICHU!" can be heard as Julexa is tossed around in Finn's backpack like ice cream being blended for a milkshake. She's not very comfortable anymore..but then again, when are you ever comfortable in a backpack during intense fighting? Almost never.

"This is--" Jake says as the first block shatters on his head. "why they--" and the second. "call me--" and the third. "MAD DAWWWG!" he lets out triumphantly before he is hit by the fourth. At this point, Jake just slumps over. "..owwwww. Finn..I knew I should I have stayed in bed this morning.."

Eevee blinks twice as he watches his love interest run off, leaping artfully across the goombas. Who were these guys? When did they show up? Oh well. He was feeling pretty tired. In fact, he felt like everyone around here could use a nice long nap. As Eevee lets out a loud yawn, a series of wind blossoms gradually appear seemingly from no where and swirl around him.

As more and more petals arrive, they begin to cover Eevee's body whole! As the petals disperse, what remains of Eevee is now a bushy, treelike creature! "D..*yawn* Dryadeon.." he mutters sleepily as hypnotic spores start to escape his leafy body. Eevee starts to slowly walk towards the fight, yawning every three steps. More and more spores fly away towards freedom, and even more exiting Eevee's mouth as he yawns.

The Koopa Troop and Bowser are soon hit by the spores and are begining to doze off to sleep! Bowser Yawns, "I....can't....lose!....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Julexa peeks outside of the backpack as the spores waft on by. Not knowing what they do, she inhales, but all of a sudden, she lets go of the backpack and falls backwards into the pack, falling asleep as she hits the pile of clothing.

Finn blinks as he realizes people are falling asleep. "What the hey?" He glances over at Eevee. "Oh, hey, you're not dead! That's.." Yawn. ".. that's great, man.. good job on the.." Hum. ".. on the, uh.." A pause, as he tries to remember what he wanted to say, but his body has other plans. He falls forward and hits the ground, luckily on his stomach, so poor Jules isn't squished. "Zzz.."

Mogwai notices the air getting hazy. All this exertion has her panting, and she quickly breathes a mouthful of soporific air, passing out mid-jump and faceplanting on the ground

If the blocks hadn't taken Jake out, this would have. Zzzzzz.

Eevee stops to look around and notices that finally everyone agrees with him! Yes, sleep is nice. Why must we all fight each other? Can't we all just rest in this nice warm place and be friends? Eevee figures it's about time he does so, too. He moves up next to the faceplanted Mogwai and curls up next to her, falling fast asleep as well. Yeah..this was nice.



[------MEANWHILE------]



Mana Tribe's Village - Realm Gateway
The Mana Holyland: a lush sea of forestry that spreads out in all
directions as far as the eye can see, boasting trees of all origin and size.
Though bright and warm in the atmospheric sense, the sky is considerably
blotted out from the dense foliage that forms a neverending canopy over the
world. Wisps and motes of colored light dance and flicker about, joyful
spirits that are at peace with the calm serenity that fills this land. In
the immediate clearing, tall columns of different-colored light are spread
apart from each other in a circular formation, casting luminous hues on each
immediately-surrounding plot of land. In the center of this circle of
lights, a large white sphere is pulsing gently, half-embedded in a pit
within the grassy floor.

In only what would normally seem to be a simple blink's worth of time, the two of them reappear at the grand entrance of what appears to be an IMMENSE forest, encircled by lights of all colors within a small outlying grove. Aura seems to take a moment to gain her composure, offering a sigh. "My apologies. I didn't want to see you get wrapped up into a battle that you didn't ask for."

Seren stands stiffly, eyes wide and back straight. Did that woman just touch her chest? Strangely this is the first thing on her mind and not suddenly being yanked from the fountain. She only comes to realize the change in location as the woman starts speaking. "Ahm..." She looked around, she was still pretty shocked but slowly recovering. "W-where are we?" No where in Truce, that was for sure.

"My village. My son and I both live here, along with the others of my kind." Aura turns somewhat, inclining her head toward the north. "We are the Mana Tribe. It is our duty to undertake what I have already explained, and keep the flow of mana constant and steady. If you think of it in a general way, this realm is all one giant forest, with a little village and a really big Tree in the middle."

You say 'My son yet remains in the middle realm, but he'll find his way home when he's ready. He has the same means to return here as I do.'

Seren looks around, slowly turning as she stares up into the branches of the trees around them, one hand squarely placed upon her hat to keep it from tumbling off her head. "You mean this is the holyland?" She asked, mouth slightly agape. It seemed so... earthy. Pretty too. There was a forest near her home but it wasn't anything like this! Seren casts a glance back to the woman, " Am I allowed to be here? I mean, I am not one of your tribe or anything. Do you normally get outsiders?"

"From time to time. It's not expressly forbidden to allow outsiders in this realm. We are just encouraged to take precautions. I figure that as long as I don't let you out of my sight, we won't have any problems." Aura smiles peaceably, hands still held at her front in that dainty way. "My father was technically an outsider. He married my mother against the elders' wishes, a long time ago. Then I was born. After that... it was a long chain of things. I don't really remember much of my past, before age sixteen or so. I imagine it had something to do with the Reploid programming eliminating any prior memories I once had." Aura turns to look at Seren again, her smile still present, but a little bit lessened. "Things just happen to some of us, sometimes. It's the way the world works."

Seren puts her hand over her heart and nods, speaking with the utmost sincerity, "I see. I promise I will do my very best not to cause any trouble for you or your people while I am here so you won't have to worry too much." She frowned a little as she tried to imagine what losing 16 years of memories would be like. For Seren, that was most of her life so far. And many of those memories seemed important containing the many mile stones in her life. She felt sad for the woman. "I'm sorry. That must have been really hard."

Aura shakes her head lightly. "I've gotten over most of the grief involved. It didn't hurt as much as you might think, since it doesn't really cause pain to not remember things. It just means that I only remember the start of my life as I nearly reached the end of my own adolescence, that's all." She pauses, allowing herself a change of topic. "I won't keep you here long. I only wished to remove ourselves from that brawl. You mentioned a father, at one point? You have family elsewhere, then.

"Oh! Yeah my dad is still in Truce. He isn't going to get caught up in that if he comes looking for me, is he?" Seren looked a bit worried at the mention of her father. He had said he'd meet her at the fountain once he was done with errands. " He's going to be so worried if he finds I am not there. Even more so if there is a fight going on. I am sure of it!"

Aura takes a moment to step over to the only column of light that isn't like the others, more like a sphere of light embedded in the grassy ground, and leans over it, peering down. "Ah, no. Assuming he doesn't mind having to step over all of the sleeping bodies. It looks like someone let loose with a fairly large 'Sleep Flower' spell." Aura sounds almost impressed. "I haven't seen anything that all-encompassing from anyone aside from Jillian."

Aura says 'I should do well to return you soon, then. I don't want to be the divide between family members; I only sought to keep you safe for the time being.'

Seren peers into the glowing sphere as Aura does, "Well, hopefully they all have a nice nap. Naps are much better than injuring each other anyway. I should thank you though for getting me out of there Ms... Ms... Er, You know, I don't think I've caught your name yet. Not that I am all that great at remembering names. You could have mentioned it and I have have forgotten." She reaches up and lifts up her hat just enough so that she can scratch her head.

Aura looks up from the light, and smiles again. "'Aura'. And yes, I'm sure they'll be fine. Most people usually are. Truce tends to kind of attract that sort of crowd, on a regular basis. I never really understood why. But the two of you should be fine, as long as you don't stick around too long for them to wake up to."

Aura says 'As it is, I have things I need to attend to. And my son is due back soon, as well. When you feel inclined, merely step into that light; it will act in the same manner in which I brought us here, and return you to that which you are able to see within the light itself.'

" Alright, Thank you Ms. you." Seren gave an enthusiastic nod turning to look towards the light she had indicated. It would be kind of awkward for her father to show up at the fountain with all the sleeping people and find herself being the only one awake. She could only imagine what he might assume. Then again, it couldn't be worse than finding her not there at all. She glances back towards the woman and smiles. "I'm Seren by the way. Its was a pleasure to meet you."

Aura offers a half-curtsey, two green spheres of light forming upon each of her shoulders. "Pleased to have met you, Seren. By the way." Her smile changes to a sort of grin, as she turns away and starts to head toward the village. "Just an opinion, so take it as you will. But you should let your hair down and not worry about it so much. I'm sure your locks are as pretty as the rest of you."

With that, Aura heads on into the village, her movements swaying in a sort of sell-pleased manner.

Seren reaches around, taking hold the long pony tail at her back, blushing a little bit at the compliment "I just tie it back to keep it out of the way. That and its a bit more managable and easy to comb through when it hasn't been blowing about in the wind all day. You know, life on the farm means you are outside a lot working. It really ends up being a mess at the end of the day when I let it down. I really should cut it, but then I probably wouldn't know who I was when I looked in the mirror in the morning" with a small laugh she gave you a small wave, pressed down her hat just to be sure it didn't suddenly fall off, and stepped towards the light.