And I don’t wanna say I told you so...

[shoottokill]

Gin Ichimaru's footsteps were light on the Desert Palace's ancient stone floor. They were soft enough to barely echo off the walls except for the scuff of a toe or heel.

He liked the Palace at night. It was more peaceful, like any populated place tended to be when most of the inhabitants were in bed and, for the most part, quiet. Even the air seemed to move more quietly when the hum of conversation and the distant sparks and flares of spiritual pressure were felt from the training centre, where the wards applied didn't keep it back if the door was left open.

Peaceful as it was, he rarely slept there. He had somewhere else for that, somewhere within his jurisdiction as a Gotei captain. He retained a room though, and it was from there that he was walking, heading in the direction of the quiet kitchen, while the borrowed sky outside the window was dark and the air was cool and filled with the smells of night time.

Nobody seemed to be up. He was sure that some of the denizens would still be awake, doing whatever they felt like in their rooms, but nobody was up and about. It was too late for the night owls and too early for the morning people. He smiled to himself as he reached the top of the stairs down to the main hall, but the expression fell away abruptly when the sound of an alarm split the silence.

The noise set every nerve in Gin's teeth on edge. Halfway between a scream and a siren, it was a magically amplified and erratic, half-undulating sound that had obviously been designed not to be ignored under any of the circumstances it might be set off to. It was hideous, organic and ear-splittingly loud, akin to the sound of a thousand babies crying and just as many tomcats yowling, foxes screaming and nails being drawn down a chalk board and it rose and fell in tone enough that it was impossible to get used to. For a moment, even Gin stood frozen at the top of the stairs, eyes briefly wide, the hair on the back of his neck on end.

"That's new," he said to himself, his soft voice drowned by the screechy baying of the siren.

He headed down to the hall, feet quick on the stairs. From beyond the front door, and the hall that separated the door to the Zertinan Caverns from the palace proper, he heard a low roar, angry and bellowing, even with the siren's wail doing its best to block everything else out.

"Oh," he said. "Look's like one of Kuja's little pets has slipped its leash." He smiled to himself, directing his gaze up the stairs, anticipating appearances from other members of the Clan. "This should be fun."

Comments

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra paused again at the door handle, taking a moment to strengthen his already formidable Hierro. He took in a breath, held his weapon in two hands, and opened the main door with a touch to the glyph and a pull on the handle.

[palehornedprince]

"Being weak to it didn't stop Even with that Zaltys," Yylfordt muttered. He glanced at Tayuya, who looked unhappy both with being kept back, and with the fact that Grimmjow had been called up front.

If Grimmjow got hurt, Yylfordt got the distinct impression Tayuya would take a leaf out of Even's book.

He hissed a quiet curse when the door was finally opened and everyone could get a taste of what this thing's unrestrained reiatsu felt like. He couldn't have gone up front if he'd wanted to anyway, because he wouldn't get as far as the door before that flattened him.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel moved to the back of the assembled watchers. He had no intention of getting involved in this fight, but it would be interesting to observe, at the very least.

He watched Kadaj have a quick conversation with Gin, and Even put himself at the head of the rear guard. Lumi and Marluxia were staying well clear, of course, and it had been impossible to miss that little look from Ulquiorra to Ienzo before he'd gone forward.

He ran his fingers into his hair and paid attention to the reiatsu levels. This was going to be educational.

[joinmyreunion]

Kadaj frowned. He didn't like this, he didn't like this at all, but there was also little else he could do about it. He'd have to trust that Gin would step in if he had to. He had to trust that Gin would step in before anyone got killed.

Some of them, perhaps, Gin might hesitate for, but Nel, and Grimmjow, at least, surely?

Did he trust him to do that? If it didn't cost him anything?

"I hope it's enough," he said, quietly.

He needed to speak to L. He needed to know if L had been tracking Kuja, if anything had happened on Kuja's end of things, and if it hadn't, why this might have happened, which was a question Kuja might be able to answer. He knew his security measures better than the rest of them, after all. Of course, if L hadn't been tracking Kuja then he wanted to make sure L was doing his bit to get in touch with him right now.

He frowned and glanced around at everyone else before he headed off to question L. Kadaj was no use here, after all, not right now, at least.

[spira_npc]

The door was a tiny little thing, made for little scurrying creatures of soft flesh and splintery little bones to hide behind.

Hide they did. The magicks around the door were familiar, the same as the kind that had bound him for who knew how long. He'd been bound before, but that magick had worn away and he'd been free, and then he'd been bound again, mind and will as shackled as his body.

It lay in the collar. Little scurrying creatures had put it on him when he was young, and weak, but though the collar had remained, the magic had faded, and he had become strong, and old.

Then one of them had come along, after a long, long time, and revived the faded magic. But he was old and strong now, and the magic was no longer as strong as him, and he was free once more.

He wanted to stay free, and he knew where the fragile little things that had kept him tethered stayed.

Claws battered at the door. He could feel them beyond it, strong ones, ones that weren't as fragile as he was used to, but that only made it all the more important to destroy them. They didn't feel like humans, and their ilk, they felt like things much older, and much darker, though not as old as himself.

The magic of the door flared, and it began to open, and he raised his talons to swipe at whatever came out.

[guntoaknifefight]

Nothing emerged.

Stark did as planned and fired a Cero through the open door, aiming blindly. It came quickly without the need to charge it, but the feeling and the noise was the same.

With just his Mask fragment out, the chargeless Ceros weren't exactly top-level in terms of power, but they were enough to sear most things, and easily the same level as those of the other Arrancar. To achieve anything more spectacular, time had to be put in, and Stark didn't have that.

He caught sight of what had set off the alarm in the light of the blast. It was a massive wyrm, huger than any he'd seen before. It had a collar around its neck, suspended in the way that only the ancient people knew how. It was older, and harder, and meaner than any he'd ever seen.

Stark had a feeling that the Cero wouldn't do a lot of good.

[shoottokill]

Gin stepped forward.

He didn't make to join in, or follow those going into the throat of the connecting hallway, he just wanted to see which of Kuja's monsters had managed to slip its leash.

Ahhh. One of the collared ones. Were he a lesser man, the disappointment would have made his smile falter, but he kept it in place. The Wyrm might not have been one he had forced into submission, but it had fought the spells that had bound it and won. It wasn't such a big strike against the spellcaster as a resistance to subjugation would have been, but it was still a strike.

He smirked.

The Arrancar were in for a fun time.

[jawmask]

Had Grimmjow been aware of Gin's opinion of the monster, he would have disagreed.

The moment Nnoitra opened the door he felt the monster's spiritual pressure pushing down on him as though he was a magnet. He could breathe, but it was a close-run thing. He saw Nnoitra ahead of him give a gasp when the seal was broken, but that could have been Stark's cero rushing past him as much as it could have been the monster.

He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to straighten up.

Without releasing, he wasn't sure he'd be much use. It was enough to make him swear.

[spira_npc]

A dead thing's blast erupted from the doorway. The mean and twisted spirits of the deceased used that to attack. Some of them grew huge, bigger even than himself, but the small ones, they were the dangerous ones.

It was unexpected, and he roared in anger as he moved back, and snarled.

These creaures were small, and they looked, and smelled like fragile little things, but now the door was open and they were there, there was something of the dead about them. They were more dangerous than he'd thought.

He stepped back and braced, inhaling to build the fire within.

[declaregamuza]

It was a wyrm. They knew Kuja had a thing for dragons, but this was one with a ring around its neck and forelimbs, which marked it as something horribly ancient, and anciently horrible. Its reiatsu was unpleasant to stand in, at this level of release too.

It didn't seem happy to see the Arrancar, and even less happy to have been shot at with a cero.

It was also going to hit them with magic. They had hierro, of course, and fire wouldn't present a threat to the water elementals among them, but that wouldn't protect them all. She raised her hand and threw a shellga around Nnoitra, and then Grimmjow.

Now she had to hope it wouldn't pick her out as a healer and decide to go for her in particular. That depended how smart the thing was.

[destroytiburon]

The wyrm backed off, which gave them an opportunity to spread out. Halibel took it.

There was no point, however, in trying to face an opponent of this strength, and this elemental type, with only her mask fragment in play. They could fight as a team, Nnoitra, Grimmjow, and Ulquiorra to keep it at bay, Nel to heal, and herself and Stark to inflict damage.

Ulquiorra was water elemental, but his Hollow was not, and he rarely used his element to his advantage in a fight.

"Destroy," she intoned, holding the sword containing her Hollow's power ahead of her, "Tiburon."

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra followed suit.

Unlike Halibel, he held his weapon aloft, his Chakra collecting, gold in its visibility, in the hollow of his crescent-shaped blade.

"Pray!" he said. "Santa Teresa."

[jawmask]

Grimmjow moved back, giving himself some space. The monster's reiatsu left him gasping, even in the hall, so he drew his sword and raked his nails down the blade, leaving the steel singing.

"Grind, Pantera."

[guntoaknifefight]

Stark, unlike the some of the others on the front line, did not release. He stood there, dressed in his sleeping clothes and with a thoroughly grouchy expression on his face, staring at the dragon beyond the door.

With a short sigh he fired off another Cero, pleased with how the first had driven it back. With any luck, the second would give it pause when it came to its impending attack, but he doubted it. Its hide was thick enough to withstand the full force of a Hollow's attack, he doubted it would be deterred by one, not when it had murder in mind.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi stood back, watching the Arrancar play their hands.

He glanced at Marluxia out of the corner of his eye, expression thoughtful, a smirk on his lips.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia watched the display from the Arrancar with a plain smile on his lips. It was a rare opportunity to see an Arrancar fight in their released state, and here three of them were doing it at the same time.

One of them wasn't new information, but the other two certainly were.

He raised his chin, keeping his eye on the fight as it built. He didn't share Lumi's glance, but that side of his mouth pulled up higher than the other, as if for Lumi's benefit. The Arrancar were ranked by strength, which was fairly common knowledge in the Palace anyway, seniority very much went by numbers with them. Yet it was the weaker two, and the second strongest that had released.

This was going to be educational.

[palehornedprince]

Yylfordt hissed, taking another small step back as the higher ranked Espada released, adding to the sense of pressure in the area.

"They're really taking this seriously," he muttered, unhappily.

Which was fine, but it also meant that if they couldn't handle this between them, then the rest of them weren't going to be much help. Yylfordt and the likes of Szayel were weaker than Halibel and Stark by several orders of magnitude.

[tozasemurcielago]

Nel bolstered the defences of those weak to fire as the others spread out, and released their power. Ulquiorra, personally, preferred to use only as much power as was strictly necessarily, and for this fight, his strength was not going to be the deciding factor.

Halibel had already released her Resurrección, and Grimmjow and Nnoitra needed to in order to fight effectively.

Ulquiorra joining them would be an unnecessary extravagance. This was not an enemy to take lightly, however. Neliel's magical support would be required for their success.

Monsters, however, especially the smarter ones, recognised the importance of a mage. Ulquiorra stayed near to her, raising his hand and charging a cero to keep the monster busy, much as Stark was.

[destroytiburon]

When the water that encased Halibel with her release fell away, she glanced at the others. Nnoitra and Grimmjow had followed suit, and Stark had seen no need.

Stark could almost certainly make this fight much shorter if he put the effort in, but that was the problem with Stark.

Halibel raised her weapon. It was a sword in name, but not in appearance, or use. It looked, and felt, more like an extension of herself.

[spira_npc]

The attacks enraged him. One fired them quickly, with no warning, and it struck like a hammer blow that left scales smoking. But it didn't pierce.

Another hit came from a different one a moment later.

He snarled, interrupting his building attack for barely a moment before he dipped his head and let the fire flow forth, spewing the cloud forth and turning to engulf as much of the space as he could.

[guntoaknifefight]

Stark didn't bother bracing himself for the blast. One of his natural elements, available to him even unreleased, was Fire. He stood in the midst of it, in the throat-like hallway, hoping that the others standing further back were suitably protected. The blast would undoubtedly get less serious the further into the main hall it crept, but even so.

When the attack trailed off, Stark looked around at the other members of the vanguard, Grimmjow and Nnoitra, and directed them with a hand.

"Outside," he said, coughing as he inhaled smoke. He wasn't strong against that. "We need to stop as much of that fire coming in as possible."

[thechillyacademic]

Even, eyes wide at the oncoming wave of fire, brought up a wall of ice ahead of him, and those behind him, to stop as much as he could getting past.

Remembering the Zaltys, he didn't want to experience that again. As such, his barrier, a haphazard structure, acted as a block, the surface melting upon contact with the flame, but doing enough to keep it at bay until the dragon's breath ran out.

It left the hallway of the main hall wet and slippery, but it was a small price to pay.

[prayingmantis]

Nnoitra held a hand up ahead of him when the torrent of flame swept over those in the hallway. The main hall was spared most of the attack, but the few on the front line got the full force of it.

Obviously the scaly bastard had had plenty of time to hone its skill with a breath attack, because even he felt the sting of a burn through his hierro, though it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been.

He narrowed his eye and followed Stark's instruction, heading out into the cavern beyond. Mercifully, the ceiling was high, and he had a feeling that the integrity of the structure had been magically reinforced.

He glared at the thing and decided that Ulquiorra's plan wasn't bad. Holding his spears tight in his hands, he charged a cero, preparing to defend should it come at him with claws.

[jawmask]

Grimmjow headed outside, swearing.

His hierro did most of the work, but an attack like that still sucked. He knew, in the back of his mind, that Tayuya was all right being Fire elemental, and that Apache, as Water elemental, probably wasn't affected either. Yylfordt and Kadaj should be okay. They'd been closer to the Zaltys when it had pulled the same shit.

He didn't look back at them. He didn't dare take his eyes off the wyrm. It was too big and too strong for him to play fast and loose with this one and his tail lashed as the gold light from Nnoitra's impending cero lit up the cavern.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

It really was Warsend morning.

Szayel kept the majority of his attention on Even. He knew the abilities of the Arrancar, although performance reviews were probably due for a number of them so their development could be tracked, but the Ryoka were new information. Knowing Even was ice elemental was one thing, seeing him use his sentinel abilities combined with his element was another.

Of course, it was hard to miss Marluxia and Lumi, who were clearly analysing the abilities of Nnoitra and Halibel, and anyone else that showed anything interesting. It was an unfair exchange, as far as Szayel was concerned. He hadn't been permitted to study one single little sample from Lumi. Marluxia had stopped short of threatening to kill him, but the threat had certainly been present.

Still, if he could get some data on Even, it was something.