It's not Hell, but it's close enough [OPEN]

[Denarius]

Thank you for waiting. Your journey through Hyperspace will be ending shortly. Please be prepared for landing.

"Finally, it took long enough."

It wasn't like the Hyperspace to take this long in teleporting someone, but could it really be helped? Even with all the advancements made, especially with assistance from Patchouli, traveling through entire worlds would always take long. Well as long as the world continues improving, perhaps such problems... No. No matter how you look at it, the world will always be as troublesome as it always was. Though it was no bad thing, not at all. In fact, Alice would have it no other way.

...Or at least, that's what she would like to think. After her last experiences in Makai, the last thing she wanted to smell was hellfire, sulfur, and the dark essence that is her loving mother. Ick... And now she's feeling shivers just thinking about that... She's severed ties, yes. And she's confronted... confronted what she had missed. Still feels like yesterday when she visited Makai... Wait, that was yesterday! Even after all those days, she's still being dragged back there! Woman, what does it take before a clinging mother will let her daughter travel?! It was 40 years since their last meeting, but that doesn't mean that she has to visit her 40 times for the next 40 years!

Well forget about that. Alice walked out of the black void of Hyperspace travel and stepped out into the new world, taking a deep breath at the... hellfire... sulfur... ... Oh for the love of a hypothetical God, why is irony playing its card this time? She opened her eyes and groaned. Shanghai fell out and slid against the gravel a few feet before looking up. Giving a small cough, she stood up and began cleaning the dust off her clothes, and then continued to dust Alice, who was looking at the lava flowing down from the distant volcano.

So that's why the trip was so long.

[Red Queen]

The lava coursed through the river that parted the ground, beginning at the volcano and ending down towards a cliff. While Alice's eyes were on the lava they would soon see another pair of eyes staring back up at her, followed closely behind by a mouth. As if someone had carved a face in the lava like they would a pumpkin. A small, round ball came out of the lava and floated up in the air, a dim yellow orb coming from within the two eye sockets as it hovered above the river of lava and in Alice's sight. A ball made entirely of fire.



The creature moved to the left and right, eyes going from Alice and then to Shanghai before back to Alice. Its body suddenly starting to shake as the small body grew by a couple of inches from an unseen force. A cruel laughter coming from the beast while it resumed its stare on the female. Just like that of a pumpkin on Halloween.

[Denarius]

As expected, this area was not tamed of monsters. So the Hyperspace had malfunctioned and sent her to one of the outside worlds. Unstable as well. Looks like she'll have to stay around here for a while. She put her feet together and began levitating, moving back while Shanghai moved forwards, pulling out her spear and shield. The doll stomped its feet in the ground and lunged, spear aimed for the spot between the monster's eyes. Alice stayed away, moving away from both the monster and the lava.

"Strife Formation, Maiden Bunraku. Single target. Shanghai, keep a defensive position."

While she would allow Shanghai to aggress the enemy, Alice took the time to examine it. Unfortunately, she had abandoned the idea of using elemental magic in favor of the more strategic use of overwhelming numbers. But there were other things to battle than an elemental advantage. The fire sprite didn't seem to have any weapons on it, and its origins from the lava could mean it also uses magic as its main weapon. Though the swelling was equally disturbing. It probably grew in power the longer it remained active. She raised her right hand and pulled back, causing the blue-white strings that connected Alice to Shanghai to shine in the light for a split second, before Shanghai would receive its orders. The doll would move forwards again, this time to try and land a quick killing blow by impaling the small creature.

[Red Queen]

Here was the thing about fire. It burned. More often than not. It also melted things, and the heat of its body was strong enough to melt the doll's spear as it made its mark between the eyes of the creature. Another cruel laugh came, though this sounded more like a cackle as the beast just moved itself forward, leading itself by the top of its head now while the fire engulfed the spear and then threatened to engulf the doll as its body alone was a weapon in and of itself.

[Insanity Renaissance]

Before Alice’s doll, Shanghai, could be overtaken and consumed by the fire, another force intervened. The sprite seemed concentrated on Shanghai until a voice cried out “LEEROYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY JENKINSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!”

Out of nowhere, a blur flew in, and suddenly, there was a young woman flying past the creature. Dressed in khaki shorts and a tank top, there was nothing remarkable about her save for the fact she was flying, and that in her hand was what appeared to be a fire extinguisher. And given the fact that when she pulled the trigger and the class fire extinguisher chemicals came out, bathing the creature in cold. The constant flow of super cooled gas quick ran out, but it seemed that the woman wasn’t done. Throwing the empty container, she reached into the bag at her side and pulled out a large weapon that looked much too big for her.

“Ice to meet you!” Pulling the trigger, a stream of ice shot out and at the fire sprite, the knock back forcing the young adult to brace her legs a little better. You couldn’t see her eyes, as they were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, but she looked back to Alice and gave a wave. “’sup? The name’s Swarm.” A thick coating of ice now covered the fire sprite, so the woman powered off the weapon and put it back inside the bag before it could cover Shanghai. The bag didn’t seem to have the room for such an object, but she put it in without any problem and didn’t seem affected by the weight. Then, fishing around for a moment in the messenger bag, she pulled out a rather large hammer. “I wanted to get Mjölnir, but unfortunately only Thor can use it.” Shrugging, she hit the frozen creature, aiming to shatter the ice as well as the beast.

[Denarius]

Tsk! Guess this wasn't just a Salamander, but a true lava being. What an annoyance, she didn't want extra work today. Alice raised her right hand, causing Shanghai to jump back and pulled out a card from her pockets when...

“LEEROYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY JENKINSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!”



"....! Original Formation!"

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Shanghai moved back just in time to avoid being caught in the fire extinguisher's chilled air. It had already dropped and abandoned the molten remains of her spear, and brandished the shield instead, ready to defend for anything either the now frosted creature or this frosty newcomer would bring. Because as far as Alice could get from the "battle cry" and the madness of what just happened, everything that was in sight right now was nothing but flat out annoying right now.

Why hasn't Alice finished her summoning yet? As this... Swarm, as she called herself, continued her assault, Alice spun the card and threw it onto the ground, where it grew to match the size of Shanghai before spinning whilst vaporizing, leaving the red counterpart to Shanghai, Hourai, in its place. Hourai didn't hesitate, as it seemed to also reflect Alice's annoyance at the situation. In the meantime, Alice took the time to eloquently express her emotions. The facepalm. ICE to meet you? Is this all a game to this person?

"...Save your breath. We'll get pleasantries out of the way after we finish battle. Hourai. Curse Sign Operative."

"Hourai Operative. Curse Beam!"

The doll raised both her hands, creating a circle with the middle fingers and thumbs. She opened her mouth, causing a magic circle for form over the doll's face and hands, which suddenly glowed white and shattered as a vermillion beam shot from the doll's mouth, aimed directly for the assumed to be frozen monster. The attack wouldn't last long, and afterwards, Hourai would turn around and return to Alice's side.

"Is that all?"

[Red Queen]

The creature released a terrible screech loud enough to shatter glass and threaten the eardrums of Alice and Swarm as it tumbled through the air weakened before it was frozen solid. Gravity bringing that block of ice down into the ground, as it was only a couple of feet above the ground it didn't shatter on impact. The monster's expression displaying shock as it stood frozen in the ice. But just as it appeared to have been defeated in that single swift motion the surrounding heat of the area itself began to take effect. Melting the ice from the inside out and freeing the monster who returned to the air and then evaded the beam that came from the second doll's mouth.

[Insanity Renaissance]

Even though the creature dodged the beam, Swarm couldn’t help but whistle in appreciation. “Wow! Puppet used hyper beam!” Sometimes she wished she could do stuff like that. But no, she was stuck with telekinesis. And all the stuff she stole from people when she went around traveling. Eventually, she supposed she would have to pay up for her constant thieving, but wasn’t like she didn’t return it after she was done with it.

Magneto had been pretty pissed about the helmet, though.

“Hey, random girl I’ve never met before,” Swarm mentioned, taking a few steps back from the creature as she stood by Alice. As if to hold the creature back for a few moments, many rocks rolled in and built themselves in a box around the lava monster. But it wasn’t going to hold, evident by the slowly growing glowing red spot on the makeshift container of rock that had been formed at Swarm’s will. “If I go and distract the thing, do you think you can hit it with that beam your… puppet thing used?” It seemed potent enough to kill it.. as long as it actually hit the creature.

[Denarius]

Alice was a little too busy keeping the inside of her head from ringing due to screaming for Swarm's Pokemon reference. She was, however, not distracted enough to continue attacking. Hourai was just about to fire another shot, but was stopped as rocks began to fall down and block off the monster. Though it was a futile effort, it did seem this girl had telekinesis. Or earth magic, but right now wasn't the time to think about it. What mattered was that this person was eager to not fight Alice, and that this person could be a legitimate assistant. It was nice for Alice: She had another "puppet" to work with.

"Yes, Hourai can strike it. The matter will simply be whether you can keep it pinned down for long enough or not. Let's begin."

She crossed her arms together in an X formation as both Shanghai and Hourai suddenly shined with light, their forms turning into small cards. The two cards collided with each other in front of Alice, who suddenly spread her arms wide open. The cards suddenly flashed white again, and split into six other cards: The back was marked with a pentagram design, while the front was marked Ace of Clubs. These cards spun around Alice as she brought her hands together, as if in prayer. Her body relaxed as the summoning ritual continued, though her eyes stayed solely on their opponent.

"The monster is composed of fire itself, maintained at a very high temperature. Any physical barrier, be it rock or steel, will do very little against it. You managed to freeze it, which is probably the best bet we have right now. Although the ice will only last for a short while in this environment, if I fire at the right time, the monster should not stand a chance."

The card suddenly shattered, revealing smaller dolls in the likeness of Hourai. They hovered around Alice, looking around for any potential targets, waiting to be spent.

Looks like this human was less annoying than she had initially thought.

[Red Queen]

The being grew in size again, going from small to about a medium. Good news, this meant it was becoming an easier target to hit if cornered. There was still enough empty space for evasive maneuvers on its part to make all the difference. Bad news, it was obviously building to something the bigger it got. Seeing the rocks, the lava monster charged head first into them. Stupid rocks, they were in the way. The creature shook and screamed, fire erupting on the rocks by its power as it laughed, or cackled, or choked. It was hard to tell.

[Insanity Renaissance]

"Right." Grinning, she pulled out the ice gun again, looking at the power meter on it. "This thing isn't designed to be used without being hooked up to Mr. Freeze, so I'm not sure how much more ice I got on it." Swarm shrugged, powering the weapon up with a malicious grin on her face. "One way to find out." The creature growing in size only made her job easier.

"SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!" Pulling down on the trigger, more ice shot out from the weapon and towards the creature. She waved the shot around in a manner that personally reminded the young woman of the Ghostbusters. Maintaining the stream, she eyed the slowly dropping power level of the gun. "You might want to shoot. Just dont' cross the streams."

[Denarius]

It's growing. That's the last thing Alice needs right now, a reminder that she only has limited time before everything goes up in smokes. Well it doesn't matter if it does or not, it simply means that she's going to need a new set of clothes after this if they don't take care of the matter quickly. To make it worse, it seems as if Swarm here doesn't have a lot of ammunition. Well, if they can finish the fight now, it should be fine.

"Knight and Rook, Hourai. You know what to do."
"Initiating Curse Beam!"

The Miniature Hourai dolls locked eyes with the monster, and opened their mouths. However, only four fired at first. These four did not aim directly at the creature, unlike the ice beam. Instead, the beams would fire in every other direction, serving to try and lock the creature in its current position. Of course, with only four dolls firing, there was no way to guarantee that the creature would be locked, though it would probably graze and harm itself if it tried to slip out of the beams. Regardless of whether the creature stayed still, risked danger and moved out of the beams, or was quick enough to completely dodge the attacks, the last two Mini-Hourais would fire, homing in directly at the bomb.

Alice drew four more cards. She was hoping not to use them.

[Red Queen]

A look of horror struck the fireball's face as it avoided the ice beam, only to find more beams from those blasted dolls cutting off its escape routes. Grazing the beast's side and causing another loud screech to hit the air. Its eyes spotting the last two dolls who finally fired in its direction, quickly shooting itself up into the air to avoid the beam and then came crashing back down causing smoke and debris to be hurled in the two direction's while a barrage of flames came shooting every which way.

[Insanity Renaissance]

“Goodness gracious great balls of fire!” As the fire came blazing towards Swarm, a rustling came from her bag. A casual smirk on her face, Swarm remained unmoving as several thousand small ball bearings flew out in a stream and arranged themselves in a protective shield in front of Swarm, the fire rolling off and causing Swarm no damage. As the fire dissipated, they collapsed into a platform when Swarm then stepped on, rising into the air. Many broke off and fashioned themselves into propellers, which spun rapidly to clear the smoke out of the air.

“Only you can prevent forest fires,” Swarm remarked in a deep voice that was an imitation of Smokey the Bear. “But seriously, what are we going to do with this thing? It’s getting rather annoying.” Swarm’s grin was bit like that of a psycho killer’s, the malicious glint in her eye hidden behind her sunglasses. “I want to tear it apart. Painfully, if possible.” Still in the air, a group of the bearings formed together in front of Swarm into what appeared to be several .50 cal bullets. As each one formed they were sent off towards the fire creature at the speed of an actual bullet, making the distinct crack that one would often hear when a gun would go off.

[Denarius]

Alice has yet to fully comprehend half of these words that Swarm gives, and still wonders whether she's worried about DEATH or not. Even now as the bomb's risking just flat out destroying us all, she's just as lighthearted as before. Something about it annoyed her, but just a little bit. It was actually a bit lightening now. Well, would be. IF THEY WEREN'T UNDER ATTACK.

Either way, Alice was a bit overjoyed to find that her tactics had landed a blow on the monster. Her tactics were showing promise, though she wasn't exactly sure what else she could do. Then again, the monster didn't really have any ranged attacks... Alice moved back to avoid majority of the flames, sacrificing four of her mini-Hourais to take whatever came in her general direction. Not a good tradeoff, trading damage for defense, but it had to do. Besides, it cleared up some room for some other dolls. She stood up straight, a confident grin on her face as she threw four cards in front of her.

"Bishop and Rook. Matryoshka Dolls."

The remaining four mini-Hourais fired again, firing beams in a similar fashion as before. However, they were farther away, so it would be easier for the creature to notice the incoming attack. However, the four cards would then spin and turn to smoke, causing four "Matryoshka" (Not actually matryoshkas. They're Hourai dolls dressed in green cloth) dolls to fly towards the monster, glowing white as they approached it. They would explode once they got in range of the monster, though if the creature decided to run for long enough, the dolls would detonate automatically.