darkSpyro

Jessica flew around on her mechanical dragon. Despite it being in-animate, no more than a vehicle to be honest, she called it Mek. "Come on Mek, we have a group of dragons to party-crash" She then swooped into the room and laughed, care freely, despite being a human, whose race was at war with dragons.

"Now don't be hasty, I'm more than meets the eye, I've been around since before Banks' and was a great Engineer, I even worked with Teron himself on Mek!"

Teron looked over at the human, "Wrath?" He asked, she laughed and remained silent, "Hey, why you not talking?" Asked Teron, sh smiled thn said, "My name is Jess!"

Luminas looked at Jessica, "Mrs. Wrath, I will be inclined to believe that you are not here as one of Banks' spies or as a hostile, but if you show even. Hint of wanting to betray us, I'll be forced to kill you."

Then Luminas addressed all who had gathered there, "Dragons who have come here today, you come serving a great cause. An arbiter is a person who settles a dispute or has ultimate authority in a matter, we are going to do just that, we shall settle the matter brtween Jeff and us, no matter what theatrics must take place."

He looked around st all of them, "If any of you are weak of heart or weak of claw, you should go, it is not shameful to admit that you do not wish to risk your life, for risk it you shall, I know this isn't the greatest boost of morale, but I don't vrlieve in lying to those that trust me, I wan to give my allies the facts, if we are caught we will most probably be executed. And if we get to the Rise, he himself may overpower one of you."

"Do you stand with us?" he asked

Varedis, Chromatis and Nefarian raised thei claws in the sign of agreement.

Jolt raised his talon. "I want to point out that I'm a thunderbird, not a dragon."

Jillian didn't have fly far before she saw a group of four; two dragons, one phoenix, and a wyvern. Even though the wyvern's back was turned, she would recognize that shape anywhere, "Twy!

Twy barely had time to register the tackle-hug before Jillian wrapped her wings around Twy. She squeezed her old friend, happy to see him again. After a long second, Jillian stepped backwards, and said, "At least there is someone here that I know. Who are your friends, they are friends, right?"

Looking over to Storm, Skouri raised an eyebrow (of course no one could see the expression under her helmet).
"What I mean is, with such a variety of species, we have a variety of techniques and skills. This means they show potential. Although, I do believe its strange for a human of all creatures wants to join. They don't have many real skills after all," she answered.

Kumara slowly entered the shrine. "Hello? I'm here to join the rebellion," she said unsure. Most of the creatures here were draconic in a way, although she did spot a Thunderbird and Phoenix. Being the only griffin shouldn't be too bad...

Shadow walked in silently behind Kumara. He never said a word, but shot a bored look at all the creatures inside.

((What?))

"Hey, I don't think everyone's here," Storm tilted her head quizzically. "Didn't you say there were more of them?"

"I'm not going!" Silver growled.

"C'mon, they won't kill you!" Skyward coaxed.

"If they kill me, I'll make sure to haunt your dreams with my misery," Silver threatened.

"That's just a myth," Skyward shook her head. "We are going."

••••

"Ebony!" Electra yelled. "We're late!"

"What?" Ebony growled. "Is it so bad to try to catch a butterfly?"

"If it makes us late, then yes," Electra growled. They both went in the meeting room.

••••

"See what I mean?" Storm asked once Electra and Ebony came in. "There were more, and you forgot about them."

"This is Chimera, Blarna, and Glare. Guys, this is one of my old friends, Jillian."

"I'm not an 'old friend', thank you very much." Jillian protested.

"Well, technically you are." Twy remarked back.

"Uh, I don't know about you guys, but I had come here to sign up for some kind of group; it was for getting rid of an evil king or something." Blarna spoke up.

"Yeah, yeah, I think I had come for that." Chimera replied, "Come on."

The group of five soon arrived at the meeting chamber, "Did we miss anything?" Twy asked; out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a couple other wyverns that had arrived too.

Luminas was slightly embarrassed as he hadn't waited for everyone to arrive. He whispered to Pyrina, "Can you use your telepathy crystal to tell the latecomers the information so I don't have to repeat myself?"

Jessica had been listening to what the Ancients had said, and didn't like what they'd said about her. She walked up to Luminas and said, "You should do a test to see who has enough powers."

Teron heard that and liked the idea, "Everyone! We shall be doing a test of your powers, please assemble in the Training Room at the back of the Shrine". Jessica laughed, she an Mek would he through this easily.

Luminas was unsure about this turn of events but Varedis and Nefarian had already gone as had Wrath. "Guess I'm outvoted." He sighed, "Even though we didn't even have a vote, for goodness sake Teron, what happened to deciding things as a team and not just pulling the strings.

Jolt flew to the Training Room.

Luminas walked in and said, " Since we are doing this, all of you go and stand in one of the 34 squares. Each has a target, a metal cube and a cage with an enemy in it." When everyone is in their square, I'll tell you what to do."

Jolt stepped into the closest square.

"Hold on, one more," Skyward yelled, practically dragging Silver into the room.

Luminas shouted, so that all in the Shrine could hear, "Stand at the farthest point from your target, and then do a single blast of your element at it, the closer it gets to the centre, the more precise you are!"

Varedis and Nefarian stood in the squares next to each other, while Chromatus stood at the back of the room, with shadow walls around five of the squares, with each head he reared back and let of a burst of an element, each one hit the target.

Nefarian shot a sliver of darkness and it passed clean through the middle of his target, leaving just a tiny shard left.

Varedis glowed with light then flicked it all off his tail at the target, it slammed into the target's center, knocking down the target and spreading cracks all over the thing, yet the whole in the center was indeniable.

Luminas began walking around to inspect.

Chimera grined; this was all she had to do? She fired a pin-point blast of shadow energy, tearing through the middle of the target with ease.

Glare too, had little trouble as a light veiled ice shards shot through his target's center.

Blarna blasted out a fireball, destroying most of her target.

Twy also shot out a blast of fear energy, hitting the center and knocking his target away.

Jillian felt nervous as an earth bullet tore through her target.

Luminas walked down the alleyway,, "Commendable" he said to Chimera and Glare, he said the same to Nefarian, "not bad," he said to Varedis, Twy and Jillian, "Well done!" to Chromatus, who had unkowingly done the next stage of the test already,

"Hmm, well, when you are finished, you can go on to the next stage," Five more targets sprang up in each square, Chromatus jumped as he realised, since he'd gone and took on five squares woth of tasks, he would have to continue, there were now 25 targets he had to hit,

"You have to try and hit all your targets, with the same accuracy, but at the same time," said Luminas.

Chromatus, despite excelling at the first task, only managed to do it with 15 out of his 25. His darkness and fire elements had gone wild, searing and blasting higgledipiggledy.

Nefarian reared up on his hind legs that slammed into the floor, five shards of Earth, guided by shadow, pierced the centre of each target.

Varedis was even worse than Chromatus, he just let off an explosion of flame that sent all the five targets flying off willynilly.

Luminas walked past him and said, "Control, control!" then continued on, "You can do it Chromatus" and "Good job, Nefarian!"

Icicles formed on Electra's wings and she launched them, two perfect holes through the center.

Ebony launched a fireball, however it was slightly off and evaporated most of the left side.

Silver created a snowball and threw it at the target, splattering all over the center.

Skyward flicked her tail lazily and created a small thundercloud, which launched two hailstones at the target.

Luminas walked past Electra, Ebona, Silver and Skyward, saying various forms of "well done, now onto the next task" and five targets sprang up in each of their squares.

((I got ninja'd!))

This time, Electra's horns became covered in ice. She launched all of the icicles at the targets, four of them hitting the target and one hitting slightly off.

"Hands, wings, mouth," Skyward whispered to Silver. She nodded and snowballs formed on her hands and wings. She threw the snowballs and breathed out ice, all hitting their mark.

Chimera charged a shadow sphere and when it was fired, it split off into five arrows, destroying the center's of the targets.

Glare did a similar thing with his ice, and so did Blarna and Twy with their fire.

Jillian didn't have as much luck, trying to use her water breath and knocking the targets away.

Jolt charged up lightning in his wing and blasted it at his target, electri-frying the whole target.

luminas walked up and down the line ((he must be losing those pounds like fire!)), "Alright, task three, there is a block of stone going to appear in your square, doing whatever method you can, carve it into the likeness of yourself."

Chromatus, by mistake, accidentally had six blocks, then smiled at himself, he could work with that, he carved five of the blocks into one of his heads, then made the sixth block his body, then using his fire, he melted the five heads onto the rock body.

Nefarian just looked at the Earth, and using his Earth element, made the rock-block explode outwards, leaving a perfect replica of Nefarion (with extra muscles and longer legs, that sort of thing).

Varedis tried to make a perfect copy, but when he was finished, everything was a little bit droopy, as if he was frozen and had a hundred icicles hanging from his wings and head and tail.

Skyward used her tail to chip off pieces of stone. When she was done, about five minutes later, there was a perfect replica of her.

Ebony covered the stone in a darkness cloud, and when it dissipated, a statue remained of her.

Electra used her fire to melt part of the rock, and ended up with a slightly off-kilter statue.

For test two, Jolt shot a cloud of lighting, encompassing all five targets. For test three, Jolt shot precision lightning bolts, carving his face into the stone.

Chimera, Glare, and Twy had no trouble getting their images into the stone. Blarna had to be extra careful due to her feathers, and Jillian took a short while to be complete.

OoC: Oh jeez. I have some catching up to do.

Pyrina nodded at Luminas and swept her tail forward. The crystal brightened a moment as she focused on all whom had not attended yet.

Rune perked up as he felt something in his head. Was someone speaking to him telepathically? Greetings. I am Pyrina, one of the Ancient Dragons. We have heard that you are unsatisfied with human Jeffery Banks' rule. I must ask you to come to the Ancient Shrine, in Greenwood- we are assembling a group called the Arbiters. Master of Light Luminas has a message for you, and it is this; those who believe in the path of light and prosperity should join us as an Arbiter. An Arbiter is one who settles a disagreement. But be warned, for this path is not the safest, and not for the weak of heart. If you seek us out, you are putting yourself at risk. Luminas does not wish to frighten, but believes in the truth. However, if you join us, you are beginning the most noblest of paths in this dark time.
The dark phoenix was moved by the message, and bowed his head. When he looked up, determination burned in his eyes. He flew down to Greenwood, and spent a few minutes locating the Ancient Shrine. When he found it, he peered in. He was surprised at the number of creatures in the shrine, but upon realizing not all were dragons, he relaxed slightly. "Hello? Do you have room for one more?"

"You'll have to catch up, but Luminas here is leading everyone through a couple of tests," Storm replied.

*What's going on here? I fell behind...*

((Same... They're doing a training course))

Shadow had sent a blast of dark fire towards his target, leaving it totally annihilated.
Kumara shot some of her dark and lightning energy as well, leaving a gaping hole in its centre.

When they had to shoot the 25 targets, Kumara's electricity seemed to lock on its targets, destroying them. Shadow had slight difficulty as he was used to putting large amounts of energy in a single blast. He managed 19/25.

For the third test, Kumara used her control over lightning to expertly carve her stone. Shadow used his dark fire to mild the stone as he had perfect control on his energy.

Ura quickly blasted each target, and proceeded to chip the stone away expertly with her claws. When she was done, she used her ice to add color. There was now a perfect replica of the silver dragon.

Silvara closed her eyes, sending a gleam of light out to destroy the targets. Then she used Ura's statue tactic.

Darkess looked around at the targets, her fury slowly being focused into one point. She thought of her family, her friends, all killed... Darkess transformed her rage into a single black ball. The sphere erupted into a flurry of black smoke, shredding each target. She roared and the statue was carved by the smoke, colored the same black and purple as Darkess.

*Hope this is fine...*

Rune nodded. "A training course? I suppose that's alright. Lead the way, please, to the training room?"

Two more shapes revealed themselves from the shadows. Spiral cast an annoyed look at the indigo dragon next to him. "For the last time, you idiot, I'm not a human! I'm a shapeshifter!"
"Prove it!" The dragon's lime-green eyes shine cockily.
"If you'd stop throwing me against the wall and choking me, I might," Spiral replied, annoyed.
"How was I to know you weren't an infiltrator? You looked like you were being chased!"
"I'll show you." Spiral quickly became clad in scales as wings filled in from his arms. His face lengthened into a snout as his feet became paws and a tail burst forth. As a wyvern, Spiral now towered over the smaller indigo dragon. "Seen enough?"
"Okay, okay! I give in!" He shrank against the wall as he noticed Rune. "You're not an infiltrator."
"Darn right," Spiral snorted. "Now look. I'm going to go and train to be an Arbiter, and stop this stupid war. It may have been by accident I stumbled in here, but I can deal. And if you're not in the right place, I'll kill YOU for being an infiltrator."
The indigo dragon swished his tail nervously. "Fine! I wanna be here, too. Name's Dax."
Spiral glared at Dax for a moment more, then sighed. With that, all hostility was gone. "Fine. I am Spiral. Now let's get going."

OOC: recap? I was busy yesterday

OoC: Luminas told everyone about the task and for everyone who came late, Pyrina sent round a telepathic message, then they all went into the training room and had to do 3 tests so far; To hit the centre of the target with an element, to hit the centre of five targets at the same time, and to carve a sttatue of yourself out of the rock.

Luminas stood at the front of the room and said, "Test 4: Physical strength, there are situations where sometimes you can't use your elements, or it would be bad if you did in those cases you have to use physical strength. Try to carry your statue to one of the circles at this end of the room.

--

Chromatus used all of his heads to bring them up, then he placed it on his back and walked along slowly but steadily, eventually, he got to one of the circles, and using his wing, slid the statue down onto it.

Nefarian just picked it up, he had inhuman strength due to his powerful earth element, which had strengthened his muscles. So he lifted up the statue and jumped forward, using his back legs and wings to stop him from smashing into thee ground, then he placed the statue down.

Varedis struggled, he pushed and pushed and pushed, and the statue grated accross the floor torturously slowly, but eventually he got it in the circle.

Shadow easily picked up the statue with his paws and flew over to a circle. His harsh training in flight proving useful as his wings could support three times his wieght.

Kumara carried her statue on her back. It took a lot less time then Shadow, but still made it in pretty good time.

Jolt leaped into the air and grabbed the statue with his strong talons. He flew to one of the circles and gently set down the statue.

Chimera shifted her feet in anticipation; she had carried deer on her own, and after walking over to the statue of herself, she grabbed it with her claws and dragged it to then end. Glare had similar success, but Twy and Jillian had a hard time as they carried their statues with their wing claws. Blarna flapped above it and grabbed a feather-like slab of the sculpture and flapped harder, dropping it off at its location.

Luminas continued walking up and down, "Now, for the final test, Mental Strength. I'm going to ask Pyrina to send out a wave of mental energy, you have to try and block your minds from it, it might be an attack, a probe, I don't know, but you have to try and block, this is, by far, the hardest of the test, I'll give you 7 minutes to finish of the previous four tests and get ready for this one.

"Pyrina? Can you send out some sort of mental attack/probe in 7 minutes for the final task? thanks"

Ura struggled to heave the heavy statue onto her back, and managed to barely get it across the room. "I'm not cut out for this!" she said. "I guess I'm better at magic."

Silvara easily picked up the statue and carried it to the circle.

Darkess had little trouble carrying the statue.

Ura sighed and fell against the statue. "Maybe I should stick to magical tests..." she panted.

Ebony lifted up her statue and carried it a fourth of the way across the room before dropping it, knocking her out.

"Ebony!" Electra yelled. She picked her up, even though she weighed much heavier than the statue, and walked over to Luminas. Her eyes blazed as she yelled, "This is your fault, you light-bringing lizard!"

Skyward shifted her statue on her back, and keeping it in place with her wings, set off at a steady pace. She wanted to run across the entire room twice, just to show that she could do it, but dismissed the idea.

Rune, Dax and Spiral all made their way to the training room. Each one stepped in a square and prepared for the first step. After a moment of concentration, Rune spat out a blast of dark fire, which met the center of a target.
"Show-off," Dax scoffed. Spiral hit him with his tail. "Instead of wasting time admiring the phoenix, why don't you just do it yourself? Honestly! Are you a dragonet or what?"
Dax shot the dragon-shapeshifter a poisonous green glare, then sent out a rippling screech using his Fear element. The target shattered. Spiral smiled and shot a light-darkness blast that nearly hit the bull's-eye.

The Fire Ancient smiled at Luminas and nodded. "Of course I can. Training mentally is a good idea." Pyrina watched the Arbiters train, trying to decide on a mental technique to pit against them.

"How dare you speak to Luminas that way you inconsiderate creature!" Skouri hissed. The one this she hated was disrespect towards wiser more knowledgable beings. Especially if they were on the same side.

"It's his stupid trials that made Ebony get injured!" Electra growled.

"Now, now, hold up Skouri, the young wyvern has a point. These trials are responsible, perhaps Ebony is not ready to be an Arbiter." Keron spoke up.

(hope I got his possible reaction right.)

Skouri 'humphed' and turned her head to the side, "even so, she has no right to speak that way to us," she responded a little less aggressively.

((Hope I'm doing ok as well '))

OoC: Same here!

"Look what's next," Spiral noted. "Five targets at once."
"Got it!" Dax replied, sending a humungous whirlpool of water of the targets. He was trained in accuracy, and every little droplet made its mark. Though the center targets were obliterated, the edge targets weren't completely destroyed. The dragon-shifter opposite him raised an eyebrow. Dax puffed up his chest proudly. The sound of targets smashing nearby implied the dark phoenix had made his mark as well. Dax could also tell because he smelled smoke.
Once again, only Spiral was left to do the next challenge. He sent forth another light-dark blast, bigger than before. It looked like it was going to hit the center one, only for it to split into five beams and break each target. Only the middle one had been hit in the center, however.
"I'm rusty," Spiral grunted.

((When Pyrina sends the mental energy, what effects does it have if they fail?))

OoC: Depends on what kind she does, and you''re playing the Ancients fine,

Luminas looked at Electra, "She seems to still be breathing, and it is but a small bruise, it can be healed, the reason for these tessts are because, if you want to go out there, and have to face Banks and Thanatos, it will be harder, if Thanatos knocks you on the head with its tail, not only will you fall unconscious, you will most probably die and come back to life as one of their servants. If you can't hit five targets at once, then if there are 10 dragons coming at you, you'll need to hit them quickly, in the right placeswith your elements. If Banks' happens to have a Nexus Crystal, it can create an ElementalDisruptor, which'll mean you'll have no elements, and would need to rely on physical strangth alone. And if youre captured, or are in a battle with someone skilled at mental energy, they may try to probe your mind, to find out all your secrets, to witness all your memories. Or they could try and attack them, they could send the most horrific nightmares into your mind, making you see whatever they went, the could hypnotize you, make you see things, find out whatever they want to know or if they're malicious enough, could just strike your mind, breaking everything, destroying neural pathways, blocking paths with the senses, leaving you just like a vegetable, unable to do "

"That sounds... Awful," Kumara said.

"I-I'll take her to my parents then," Ebony sighed. "She'll be able to heal safely there and maybe come back, but I'm not so sure."