Chapter 6: [Spirits]

Echo's dreams were sweet. It is difficult to describe what she saw and felt, but all of it was wonderful, and all of it thanks to Asuya.

Of course, however, our DM is a bloody asshole who can't let two girls have a fucking nap.

Echo's eyes shot open as she felt herself falling with Asuya in her arms. She cursed under her breath before her legs crackled with energy. When they hit the ground, she felt her body being jarred as her arm fell limply to her side. She groaned in pain, but she had landed on her feet, and Asuya was safe in her other arm. She looked around before pinpointing the source of the energy.

In the middle of town stood a strange figure, with aura chaotic and clashing. Echo stood her ground for now, unsure of what to do.

Cobra sighed, and came down on a liquid snake. "And after i went through all that trouble to try and fix that broken arm of yours, doing it slowly so it wouldnt wake you." Cobra pulled on his neck collar. "Though i highly recommend that u sit, so that the healing agent i gave you takes effect."

adrein was floting in the air looking down at the pepol who had appeard confused to all hell as to what just happend.

"Reminder set!" Humonculon chimed as he jumped onto her shoulder.

Gajeel shook off the dust from his fur like a dog, a few traces of it left. "What the actual fuck was that?"

Rex shook his head, his ears ringing. "That was LOUD."

adrein landed next to the others and said "soooooo, what is going on now..."

adrein, walking nect to the mand and said "how do you espect us to trust you?.."

As the three of them fell, Asuya remained asleep, absolutely drained from both her lack of much energy and her losing half of her blood too quickly to save Echo. A train whistle couldn't wake her at this point. Willow and Kado, on the other hand, were not so merciful to Klaus as the others wanted. As Klaus was handcuffed, Willow grabbed ahold of his chin and stared him straight in the eye. At this point, she could've locked him in the Dream World with no hope for escape, but she didn't. Instead, she warned him.

"Try this shit again, science geek...and you'll wish I killed you right here..." She then let go of his chin, then her and Kado turned their attention back to Orpheus.

"Look, buddy, as much as we'd LOVE to help you out...which we don't...Our time here is finished for now. I can sense Asuya's aura getting faint, Kado's not finding any loot and I'm bored, so we're hitting the road for a bit. We'll leave Asuya here with you guys, but the two of us are out." With a wave, Willow opened up a shroud as her and Kado entered it, disappearing once again.

adrein shrugged at the man and said "eh... i got nothing beter to do might aswell.." he than walked next to the man facing what ever that thing was.

Gajeel sighed, walking close behind the man, Slots following closely behind. "This is a really bad idea."

Jaden woke up behind the others "Oww...what the fu....What happened to the city! Is Everyone alright?!?" Jaden stood up, some blood pouring From his head. "Sasha you okay too? I got knocked away by a flying spirit and had to fight it"

Cobra walked towards echo and asuya "You know, i could fix you angels up. Though one of my snakes would have to bit you. Cobra opened his hands and 2 small white snakes slithered out. They contain my healing potent, it heals extremely fast, as well as increases all your bodily function scenes muscles, etc." He looked at Echo. "But you'd have to trust me, cause i know you spooked by my whole poison thing." Cobra smiled, fangs showing.

Jaden saw Echo and quickly flet over "Echo! Oh my god are you both okay!?" Jaden yelled, tears at the corners of his eyes, his hands glowed as he put them in from of him and began trying g to heal them both as well.

Jaden looked over "What the hell...."

After the explosion, Viola awoke to see Shinyo on top of her. She blushed and freaked out a bit but then Shinyo awoke and saw the situation and he blushed a bit and said, "Sorry about that." and got off her.

They then walked with each other and they saw the others and Shinyo said, "Alright, I'll bite. What the hell just went down?" He then saw Klaus to his right and he then tackled Klaus to the ground.

Echo's eye twitched once before she looked at the others with a burning glare.

"What? First of all, Asuya is the only one asleep here and I'm not in the slightest worried. She's just fatigued. Second of all, my arm is broken, but its nothing that won't heal. And Cobra, you already bit me regardless. I know I simply need to rest for the healing factor to kick on. Honestly, you people... now, anyone care to tell me what Jack-o-lantern over there is doing?" Echo spoke through gritted teeth as her broken arm throbbed with pain. Truth be told, despite trying to brush it off, her arm was shattered. It was one of the worst breaks she had ever seen. A healing agent wouldn't do anything for her; in fact, her low tolerance had already allowed it to take effect. She needed healing.

Max had taken Onya and flown far away from the team. "Alright, screw whatever's going on over there, we have some catching up to do, Stark. What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story, really, but I was mainly doing three things. First, I wanted to find Klaus to see if he could further my research in understanding how to truly communicate with spirits. Second, I was searching for Metaion."

"Metaion? Why?"

"Because he owes me 20 bucks for losing a game of Hopscotch!" Onya said. The look on her face confirmed that she was dead serious.

Max sighed. His friend had an extremely overactive mind. Her mind went at hyperspeed, and she tended to say everything that was on her mind; but mostly when she was alone.
"Stark, first of all, you don't bid in hopscotch. Second, Metaion doesn't have legs. Well, I mean he can make it LOOK like he does, but he really doesn't."

"So? I still won!" Onya said adamantly.

Max decided to just go along with it. "Alright, so why did you track him HERE then?"

"Because he's here. Now what are YOU doing here?"

Max looked around. "Well, I've joined an organization known as Team Eclipse who destroyed bad guys. They're kinda like the group I was in before, the Spirit Masters, except that there are a lot of them. I'm really only here because I'm watching Melody's kids."

"She has KIDS?!" Onya was stunned to discover this.

"Yeah. Their names are Jaden and Shri...Harmony. Jaden and Harmony." He sighed and looked away.
"Hey, Stark, can you do me a favor?"

Onya looked into his eyes. "What?"

There was sadness in Max's eyes. "Well, it's been a long time since I've been home. My real home. The Underworld."

Onya was stunned. "You mean you want to go BACK there?"

"I've got two families, Stark. My sisters and the rest of the Coalition, and my pals in the Underworld. The ones who raised me and shaped me to become the person I am today."

"So what are you asking me to do?"

For once, Max turned and looked into her eyes. Onya was the only person he could ever do this to. There was a look of utter happiness in her face that could warm anyone to the bone; no matter how black their heart was.
"I need you to look after them. So that I can return home. I just can't live without going back anymore..."

"I..." Onya didn't know anything about any of this, but she had always told Max that she would be there for him. It was a pact they made out of friendship. She nodded. "Okay. I'll take care of them. But they haven't seen me yet, so I'm not so sure I'll make a good impression..."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I left B.U.N.N.Y with them. He'll fill them in on you."

Onya got an eyeful of the badge Max had pinned to his tuxedo. "I don't have to WEAR one of those, do I? I'm not big on being part of a unit..."

"Nah, you don't have to." Max sighed. "Thanks a ton, Stark. I'll see you on the other side. Well, not really. But you get the idea."
Max put out his hand, which was blazing with black energy. The energy projected itself outwards into a portal. He held his bionic hand to his temple, sending B.U.N.N.Y a message to relay to the twins. Finally, he turned to look at Onya.
"You still have the amulet, right?"

Onya fingered the small purple amulet around her neck. She nodded, smiling.

He smiled back. "Stay safe, Stark." Max stepped through the portal and disappeared along with it, leaving Onya to her thoughts.

Onya sighed and sat down. This was a lot to process. She unclasped her necklace and gazed at the amulet. She and Max had saved each others lives multiple times, but now he was asking her to babysit two kids? She steeled herself. Her best friend had asked her to do it, so she was going to do it. Still, Max had entrusted a lot of things to her, some that she was incredibly unsure of wanting to have in her hands. She looked in the direction of where the rest of what she presumed to be Team Eclipse was. There was no doubt that Metaion was among one of those Spirit Users. But which one...

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Harmony was cowering under a table back at the wedding area. She had decided not to get involved with the battle in fear that she would kill someone or something. B.U.N.N.Y had insisted on staying with her, but he was nowhere to be found at the moment. Harmony crawled out from under the table. Everyone was gone. She looked over at the city. Everything seemed normal, even though it had all been on fire a few minutes ago.
"Hello?" She called out. No answer. "B.U.N.N.Y? Jaden? Alanna? Anyone?" She called to no avail. That was when she noticed something rather out of the ordinary; a small space in front of her was rippling. She backed away. What the heck was that? She touched it tentatively, and it disappeared. In its place stood a large figure. He was human from the torso up, but below it he had no legs. He was also missing a head, but his chest was a large, pink face encased in some sort of glass. The rest of his body was a large, red suit, with spindly looking arms and a silver torso. White, mechanical wings protruded from his back.
"Harmony Rose, I presume?" The figure asked.
Harmony backed up, but nodded slowly.
The figure smiled. "My name is Metaion. We need to talk."