---

The note

---

Kyle, this stick is the Excalabur. Not the Excalibur. The Excalibur is famous. This Excalabur is not. But, it is just as powerful. It will make you fast, due to the sticks's magical properties. It also allows you to begin learning powerful attacks that can only be used by a skilled swordsman. The more skilled the better the attacks, naturally. This stick is being given to you because of your dark abilities. This stick of light can help you balance out your powers. I will remain anonymous. I know you, but you don't know me... too well. This sounds like some sort of movie, don't it?
By the way, since the Excalabur is now in your possesion, the illusionary world you have been in will begin to disappear. You will return to the real world.
This message will self destruct.

---

Harsemhin groaned.
"He doesn't seem all right," he mused, referencing Matt.
Harsemhin slumped down, his robes beginning to pile around him.
"If only I could use Lyra Orphean Rhapsody..."

"Go Cyan go!" Mani Mani urged. "And hurry up, you stupid UFOs!"

"There they are!" Nayc yelled. "And the battle's started already!"
"Finally!" Nath moaned. "Though the others have become wild cards," he added.
"Wild cards?" Eon asked. "You're still using card terms?"
"Stupid!" Nath shot back. "They're wild cards in that we can't predict what they'll do!"
"We can't predict what Ness will do! Nor Cyan!" Nual argued.
"But it's the others that are most dangerous to our cause! Anyway, we ought to join in the fight once we see an opening..." Nath finished.

The battle began in earnest.
"We've got to do something!" Cirra complained.
"Be careful," Tsurami warned. "There's something wrong about the entire thing."
"How so?" Siris asked.
"It just feels wrong to me. Like it wasn't natural..."
"Unnatural?" Luna inquired.

"Please work..."
Harsemhin stood up again. He drew as much of his energy as he could into his heart, focused on the deepest part of his heart.
"If this doesn't work... I'll probably die. And this time, I won't be in Diamond Stasis. It will be final."
He stood silent, waiting for his courage to rise. Then, he was ready.
"Lyra Orphean Rhapsody!" he exclaimed.
Fourside seemed to be suspended in time.
And then...

Mike let his sight fall down the street. Nothing was happening. "I wonder what became of those two?"
"Beats me," said Joe, twirling the psy-rod around. He was attempting to think of something else to use his rod for, having had enough pie. "Maybe this rod could help us find them!"
"It's a possibility..." said Mike absently. "However, if you're concentrating on it, it probably won't happen. It seems to work subconsciously right now."
Joe looked down the street now. "Do you think that we should find them? After all, they rushed into a battle."
Mike started to walk away. "Yeah. I still have to carry out my next assignment, anyway. Are you coming with me?" He winced slightly. Oh man, this should be good.
Joe trotted up alongside him. "Of course! I'm supposed to stop whatever caused Paula to die, so maybe we can find out what we need to do together."
"Okay. Let's find as many of those other people as we can.... with any luck, RG told them what's going on." Maybe it's good that RG came with me. It helps to have someone to spread the news.

Holding Excalabur tightly, Kyle rushed wantonly to the north. Great, I hope I can find Matt again. How far could he have gone? Without much direction, he kept his eyes open for any sign of the others.
While heading up another street, he could detect something. What is that?! Something feels odd.... the atmosphere almost stilled. It came from.... over there? He turned to south-northwest. Something important is happening, and with any luck, Matt's there. Kyle began again in the direction that he had felt the irregularity from.

The dark part of Rockwell's consciousness fed off of the torn feelings he experienced. Mani Mani obviously didn't care for his life, but it was his only purpose to further Mani Mani's goal. He didn't have control over his own swords any more, as they had kept Mani Mani from doing his will. My swords have betrayed me. ........ this has been a REALLY lousy day. Rockwell groaned on the floor. Mani Mani was in a near-sleeping state in his chair. Rockwell assumed that there must be something that he could do. If only he could do something to help his master's cause... and yet, he felt that Mani Mani had something that he needed. Not his swords, he had those. What was it?

Skulryk scribbled his notes. "An unnatural cause..." Luna hit him lightly. "Ah!" He turned to her. "What was that for?!"
"This is serious!" she complained. "Even if you are a reporter, this really isn't the time to worry about your career. More like your life."
Siris still had control of himself, but stress was beginning to push with each moment. "Does anyone know ANY way we can stop Cyan?" He suddenly thought of something. "Oh yeah, heh heh. I forgot." He chanted quickly and mumbled, "Ray of Paralysis!" He directed the energy at Cyan. But nothing happened.
"Maybe a few shots will bring him to his senses," said RG, getting out his gun.
"No!" rebuked Cirra. "That would probably get him to come after us. For the time being, we don't want to incite him."
Suddenly, a cry of pain came from TsuramiSea. He was hunched over, clutching his side from a laser blast, as the four UFOs advanced on him.
Cirra went white, and became frozen to the spot.
"You will die this time, boy!" declared Nath.
"Nobody's dying while we're around," remarked Dan, brandishing his Zapper. RG's gun also acquired new targets.
Luna noticed Cirra's condition. "Rita? Rita, what's wrong?!"
"Wait, what are we going to do about Cyan?" cried Skulryk.
"You'll do nothing! Stay out of it!" commanded Nual viciously.
Dan, RG, and an upset Tsurami all confronted the UFOs. Siris and Skulryk tried to decide what to do about Cyan, who was already tiring out Ness.
Luna shook Cirra. "Rita, please tell me what's wrong!"
Cirra shook her head, still not wanting to reveal too much to the others. "The UFOs. We have to get rid of them..."
The UFOs charged forward, and the three boys prepared to hold them off.
"I won't make the stupid mistake of just sealing you this time," said TsuramiSea in an apostrophe.
Ness barely dodged an attack from Cyan. Are they going to help? Maybe they're just bystanders.... but I can't hold off this guy by myself!
My magic can't do anything to Cyan! thought Siris, on the verge of panicking. What can I do? I have to stop him before he kills Ness!

Harsemhin looked down at his feet. Matt lay there, almost as though in sleep. His wounds seemed healed, but he could still see bruises and scars in several places.
Harse's shoulders slumped, and he started to fall back in his place. Groaning slightly, he hit the ground.
Cirra looked on in horror. "No! HARSEMHIN!"
She ran across from where she had been standing, and knelt by him.
"You can't die!"
She felt his pulse, and her eyes filled with tears.
"I think...he's gone..."
Cirra began to sob, and hot tears splashed on her dress. With a jerk, she straightened up.
"Where are you Cyan? Why have you caused so much violence? Why is a world in existence with so much pain?"
She kept crying, but continued. "Tell me you have enough energy left to kill me! Is there enough left to kill us all? Why go on living in such a loveless world?"
The others looked on, not quite sure what to say, not knowing what to do.

Ness and Cyan were in the heat of battle, and each was giving as good as the other. Ness swung out with his bat, but Cyan managed to block the blow. In a swift move, cyan grabbed the top of the bat, and flipped it out of Ness' hand, and into his own.
"It's time you die! And stay dead!" Cyan raised that bat high above his head, but suddenly felt a strong force hit him in the gut.
He looked away from the battle, knowing that Ness hadn't done it. About 30 feet away, he saw a small group watching, as a girl stood over a body, weeping.
In that single instant, Mani Mani’s grip on the illusions of cyan were lost. Cyan started to run toward Cirra, yelling out.
"Harsemhin!"

Nath, Nual, Nayc, and Eon circled through the sky, in a rapid descent.
"I can hear them!" Eon cried, as she dove in between RG and Dan. Nath nodded, and dipped into a freefall toward a small group.
Nayc rotated his robotic microphone toward them. "Sounds like one of them wants to be shot," he mused, slightly puzzled.
Nath snickered. "Well, lets give the fans what they want."

Cirra continued to sob, and no one could console her yells. Suddenly, she stopped, spotting cyan coming from the distance. "Cyan! You must destroy me now!" She yelled. "For a world such as this is no place to live!"

Cyan didn't hear her. He ran at top speed, desperate to reach Harsemhin before it was too late to revive him.

In the Sky, Nath prepared a beam. He aimed carefully at Cirra's chest, and triggered the assault.

Looking up at the sky, desperately, Cirra saw a blinding flash of light, and a force with the energy of a train hit her. She was sent flying back into a wall, to the surprise of everyone. When the dust cleared, a figure stood up.
"Rita!" Someone yelled. "You're alive!"
Cirra looked down, completely devoid to the outside world. She could only see the person below her.
"Cyan...you were hit!"

Cyan groaned, and looked up at Cirra. He could barely see her; a black mist began to fade over his eyes.
"You were hit!" He heard a voice say. However, he was not paying attention. All he could look at was the laughing UFO above him. With his last ounce of strength, he stood up, shakily.
"AAaaaahhh!" Cyan screamed. He held his hands high, and fired off a huge beam of energy at the UFO above him. The UFO laughed, dodging deftly.

"You can't destroy us!" Nath cackled, triumphant. Suddenly, he heard a voice behind him.
"Dodge this."
A bullet entered his system, and a large flame overcame his CPU. In a ball of fire, he crashed to the ground.

Cirra stood on the ground, holding her gun to the UFO. As though all her energy had left her, she dropped the gun, and began to stare ahead.
"Why..."
A hand tapped her on the shoulder.
"I can help them, I think."
Cirra looked down, to see a boy in a striped blue and yellow shirt.

"Don't move!" screamed RG as he turned his gun around and smashed Nayc with it. He spiralled into a rock and stopped moving whatsoever.
RG didn't know who the UFOs were, but they were smart. They rammed the gun into his chest and shot, four times. RG cried out in pain.
"Help me!"
The UFOs encircled him, ready to blast him to smithereens, but RG wasn't going to die. He pulled off his body armour and fired shot after shot at the small UFOs. It didn't seem to be affecting them.
"What do we do?" asked Dan.
"I don't know. I'm new here! You guys must know something!"
"Not much. They must have gotten stronger."
"Stronger?"
"Never mind, let's just get TsuramiSea out of here!" yelled Dan back as RG flung Tsurami over his shoulder and set him down near Skulryk.
"Take care of this guy, I have a fight to get back to!" cried RG as he threw Skulryk a small pistol.
"Watch my back!" were his last words before he ran back into the ever-growing fight.
"The odds are even, so we are going to finish you little creeps off once and for good!"

Kyle stopped running because he saw something in the sky. He stared for a while at the sky above some of the buildings between the group and himself.
"A UFO!" he said when he saw one of them rising up and shooting down at the street.
He looked around. For such a big city, there sure insn't alot of people on the streets.
Kyle created a black hole and concentrated it's pull at the small figure of a UFO a few blocks away.

"AHH!" Nayc screamed at the other UFOs below. "HELP ME! I'M BEING PULLED AWAY!"
But the others weren't paying attention and Nayc was pulled toward Kyle.

"I've got to test out the Excalabur. You're my test subject," Kyle said to Nayc when it reached him.
"I know you! You were with those other two! You can't take me! HA!"
"Come on then," Kyle beckoned to Nayc. "If you're so sure, then come and get me."
Nayc, without a second thought, immediatly shot a laser at Kyle, who was about a yard away.
"Stupid!" he said as he was about to fly off, but when he turned he saw Kyle and his Excalabur coming down on him. "AHHH!!!"
"Stasis Slash," said Kyle, landing next to Nayc. The Excalabur had gone straight through him.
Nayc was in extreme pain. But that wasn't the only problem. Although the sword didn't cut him in half when it passed through, it stopped all energy flow through his body. He wasn't able to move at all. Unable to stay suspended in the air, the 'Lil UFO fell to the ground.
Kyle swung the Excalabur a few times through Nayc's body to make sure it was going to stay dead, and then continued to where the group was.
Kyle couldn't wait to learn new Excalabur abilities. Sadly, though, there weren't too many of them and they were not easy to learn.
He was hurrying to the group because he had no idea what could be happening and he figured that, if the UFOs are there, they could probably use some help.

Curses... thought Mani-mani. Cyan has been reverted back to his light mentality!
Mani-mani pondered the turn of events. The odds were against the UFOs now, Matt had been revived and Cyan was back to normal. However a grin crossed Mani-mani's face as he realized he still had one weapon left in his arsenal...

CRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH
The wall of the Fourside museum fell two pieces. An unearthly growl echoed throughout the streets of the city. People scattered as the dust cleared and the form of the creature was revealed.
Towering near the height of a small office, the skeletal beast emerged. With teeth like daggers, horns like spears and spikes covering it's body, it lumbered towards its targets. It's bones were as black as night and glowing pools of darkness were in place of its eyes. It charged through the streets, grazing buildings cracking the pavement as it moved. It had only one goal in mind; to destroy its master's enemies.

Matt's return to consciousness was welcomed by an earth-shattering sound. He slowly got to his feet. Though he was in immense pain, he looked himself over and realized that he must of been healed. He rubbed his hand over a new scar on his face, but was quickly distracted from his injuries by the shaking, which was getting louder. He turned behind him, and was frozen in place. Approaching from behind the building was a gigantic monster.
It crashed into the middle of the battlefield with a vicous roar. with a sweep of it's tail it knocked over several of the fighters.
"Oh, Mani-mani has really outdone himself," said Eon, whizzing around the head of the monster.
The creature began thrashing all about the battlefield, savagely ripping apart buildings and landscape.

The noise of the skeleton erupting from its resting spot and approaching caused Cyan to jerk his head up to see what was going on. His glance fell on Ness again, and his temporary return to his senses caused by the near death of one so closely related to the one known as Anthadd in other dimensions.
His armour still had not reverted to its normal state, Cyan's eyes glazed over for a moment and he immediately charged towards Ness - again interpretting the younger boy as an enemy. Ness was caught completely off guard just after he used a curative ability on Harsemhin, bringing him back from the figuritive 'jaws' of death and barely managed to dodge out of the way in time.
"Cyan, what are you doing?!" shouted Cirra, not understanding how he was going through such rapid changes of behavior.
Siris was concerned too, but couldn't think of anything he could do.
Harsemhin rose as Ness' healing powers had their desired affect. He saw that Cyan was still fighting Ness and came to a conclusion. "We must end this now, before he can hurt anyone else, no matter what cost."
"Harsemhin?" asked Siris, unsure of what he had meant.
Harsemhin gave no response, he was concentrating, trying to recall one more ability from his past. The eternal fire ... the fire bird, the Phoenix ... Phoenix Consumption!
"...Harsemhin?" Cirra asked, worried.
Harsemhin's eyes had become completely red.
"Hurry up with whatever you're going to do, Hars'vin!" Ness urged, slightly perverting the true pronunciation of Harsemhin's name.
"Get over here!" Siris ordered Ness. "You might get caught in the attack!"
"Splitter!" Cyan exclaimed.
Ness, trusting this mysterious person's knowledge, wisely dodged out of the way. Cyan's sword missed Ness and firmly lodged itself in the concrete.
"Now," Harsemhin intoned, "I will bring an end to this great horror which has possessed Fourside; I will destroy this warrior for evil in the hopes he might never return.
"From the depths of mythology comes a story of the eternal fire; the fire bird that engulfed itself in its own flames and was later reborn from its own ashes.
"The phoenix and its consuming flames.
"The constellation which represents it, and its corresponding Stellar attack: PHOENIX CONSUMPTION!"
Cyan pulled his sword out of the concrete and fell backwards. Just in time to see the flames of the phoenix surround him.
Cirra gasped.
"Harsemhin!" she cried, pulling Harsemhin down to a level where they would be eye to eye. "What did you just do? I know he was evil and all... but..."
She let the sentence trail off.
The flames of the phoenix subsided and left nothing but ashes. And a blackened sword.
Ness lifted his cap and stood in solemn silence.
Cirra began to cry on Harsemhin's shoulder. She looked up at him.
"Is there... some way we could bring him back?" she asked.
Harsemhin's eyes dimmed.
"I'm not sure if you can bring someone back when they've been rendered like... like..." he replied.
RG just stared. He couldn't quite grasp what had just happened. One of them was crying, but the others were just standing there. It didn't make any sense to him.
He saluted and fired three single shots into the air. One had died, and he knew that it was uncalled for.
He went into serious thought, and one name came to mind: Mike. RG walked quietly over to Skulryk and whispered in his ear.
"I think we need to tell these people and get this stuff on the air."
Skulryk simply nodded and, with the help of RG, began telling the others.

After the explanation was all said and done, the topic of conversation shifted to blaming Harsemhin for all the troubles.
"Why did you kill him?" RG demanded.
"He would have killed us if I hadn't killed him! And he's not necessarily dead!" Harsemhin argued.
"It was uncalled for!" RG pointed out.
"So, would it be uncalled for if he killed me?"
"Harsemhin..." Cirra warned.
Ness wandered over to Cyan's ashes.
"PSI Healing Gamma!" he called out. No effect.
He called out again; nothing happened once more.
"See?" RG indicated Ness' futile efforts. "If you hadn't killed him..."
"You're not looking at it objectively!" Siris entered the argument. "If Harsemhin hadn't killed Cyan, we might not be having this conversation. In fact, we might have never been able to have another conversation."
"Listen, I can hold on my own. I don't really care. You could have at least sent him somewhere else where he couldn't hurt anything."
"Yes." Skulryk cut in. "I agree with RG this time. You didn't need to kill him."
RG wasn't sure what Siris' reaction would be. He could tell he wasn't the kind to kill someone, but he did have some powerful magic.
"Let's just set this aside, and I can tell this story of what happened to Mike and I." RG responded quickly
He then quickly explained the story to everyone. They just stared, and he awaited their reactions.
Dan walked towards the fight.
"Hey guys. Just left to get an Icee. I see you killed Cyan, Harsy." Dan sucked up some of the cherry icee, and let what he had said sink in. He dropped the icee, and by law of the five-second rule, picked it back up.
"Why is it that everytime I leave, something important happens? Why, I wouldn't be surprised if, in some distant universe, I missed out on an amazing adventure to defeat the ultimate evil because of failing to follow the events as they happened. I bet I was even forgotten as the History books recorded the event!"
Harsemhin began to answer Dan's question.
"No, it was redundant. Anyway...what do we do now? Dead bodies aren't exactly uncommon around here, but one in full body armor who was consumed by magic might get some looks..."
"Well..." Cirra began, dabbing her eyes, "We've tried to bring him back more than a few times...But no luck so far..."

Mani Mani frowned deeply. The person who was doing the most work for him, without even being controlled, was dead. Who else did he have? He remembered Rockwell. With a sigh of regret, he decided that he would be the best chance. he was expendable anyway. Concentrating his eveil energy, he doubled the level of mind control he had previously utilized. He left a single phrase playing in Rockwell's head...
Kill all who oppose the Mani Mani...Kill all who oppose the Mani Mani.

"It was the power of the phoenix, right?" Luna spoke up suddenly. "If the phoenix is reborn, then couldn't he be too?"
RG blinked. "What would we do with a baby on our hands?" This got him some scornful looks from Siris, Cirra, and Harsemhin. Dan blinked back at him.
Harsemhin answered Luna humbly. "I don't know of any way to use the power to cause a rebirth of the individual. I don't know if that's possible."
Cirra was carefully trying to gather Cyan's ashes in a bottle she had found on the ground. She felt somewhat ashamed about it, but it was the only handy object to store them in.
The ground shook as the primal terror of the dinosaur skeleton continued to ravage the town. "Um..... everyone?" called Ness, drawing everyone's attention. "I realize that this guy..."
"Cyan," stated Siris.
"...Cyan's death is a problem that we should try to do something about, but there's a dinosaur skeleton destroying the town. Shouldn't we figure that into what we're going to do?"
As Cirra was about to remark, Kyle came rushing up. "What's going on?" He spotted Matt standing up in a slant. "Matt!" He rushed over to his friend's side. "What happened? Are you okay?"
Matt smiled. "Kyle, it's good to see you. I should be all right, thanks to these people."
Kyle bowed his head. "Sorry for running off. I could've helped you if I'd been around."
Ignoring this reunion, Cirra made her response to Ness. "I'm sick of running around, trying to get away from people who want to kill us."
"Well, that's too bad," snarled an electronic voice. Everyone gave a start, and saw Nual and Eon hovering close by. "We're trying to kill you because you're getting in the way."
Nual's voice registered in the mind of TsuramiSea, who stirred, and slid off of RG's shoulder. He looked up wearily at the UFOs.
"Getting in the way of what?" argued Dan.
"You just killed our brothers, so that gives us all the more reason to do away with you," cried Eon.
"Everyone concentrate on getting away!" cried Tsurami abruptly, surprising all present. Then, he focused himself. A strange aura hovered around him for a moment. "Dream Haze!" After these words fell, a weird fog filled the street. Everyone became disoriented.
"We can get away now, hurry up!" cried TsuramiSea. Nearly all the party (except for Ness) regarded him with suspicion, but slowly stumbled away. The UFOs were too confused to follow, and the dinosaur skeleton's movements were slowing. Tsurami went around to the stragglers and entreated them to run from the area. Soon, all of the group had evacuated the street with the UFOs, and the skeleton had stopped moving completely, Tsurami's illusion temporarily overriding Mani Mani's power.
As they stumbled down another street, they ran into Mike and Joe.
"Huh?" mumbled Joe.
"RG! Do these people know?" asked Mike.
"Yeah, they do! But we had some problems...."
"Never mind, tell me later! We need to find someplace safe and talk about it."
"Who are you?" said Siris suspiciously.
"I'm Mike, and I want to discuss Mani Mani. It's important."
"We've had enough of Mani Mani," shot Cirra.
"Yeah, that's right," agreed Luna. "We don't want any more of this. We just saw someone get killed."
Mike growled quietly. I find the other people who know about it, and they just want to ignore it. Now what do I do? "Well, I still want to talk about it, so I'm coming with you." Joe, wanting to follow Mike, easily decided to follow as well.
It was quite an assembly now. Harsemhin, Cirra (carrying Cyan's ashes in the bottle), Dan, Siris, Luna, Matt, Kyle, RG, Skulryk, Ness, TsuramiSea, Mike, and Joe were all together. However, it was an association with ample friction. How the gathering would play out would likely produce further negativity...

"Ooooooh.... what a weird dream...." hummed Eon, still confused by the Trick that had enraptured her.
"It's not a dream!" screeched Nual, who had recovered her senses. "It's a stupid trick they used to get away!" She dragged Eon out of the fog with a tractor beam.
"H... wha? I'm awake!" cried Eon.
Nual sighed. "Look, Eon, Nath and Nayc were both killed by those jerks. We're on our own now, and we have a LOT of enemies. We need to make a plan."
"We'd better go back to Mani-Mani! Maybe he can help us."
"I hope so..." whirred Nual doubtfully.

The large crowd sat solemnly inside the Fourside Bakery. Mike talked to the baker, who eyed the band of people warily. They talked quietly.
"Listen," Mike said. "I just need you to lock up now and keep me and my friends safe for a little while. It's really important!"
The baker sighed at him. "Listen, I know we're friends, and I know I owe you." The baker had owed Mike a 'favor' for some time, from some business deals in the past. "Still, there's a lot of stuff going on here! First of all, time is money, and I can't just close up early."
Mike interjected. "Listen, I'll take care of the money for you. Whatever profit you've lost, I'll make up for it. This is important!"
The baker started again. "That's not it. Second of all, you brought quite a group with you today! A man with a huge sword? This guy with green hair? That rather cocky fellow over there who has more guns than the NRA? Don't get me started on the reporter; he was in my face a few weeks ago trying to get the scoop on something about unsanitary methods."
Mike sighed. This was going to be harder than he though. He looked up to the baker. "Please..."
The baker sighed. "Ai yai yai! Listen, I can't do this!" Looking to Mike again, then back to the people he had brought, he said "Just remember, if they start one bit of trouble, you're outta here! And you owe me! Big!"