Mai-X-Project Act II: Redemption of the Gods Part 1 [RP in session]

"I wish I knew how to help her," Midori sighed "I was once in that dark place Mikoto," leaning in close to whisper her darkest secret to one of her dearest friends and comrades "During my second Carnival I tried to win by killing the HiME as opposed to their CHILDs, after 300 years alone it was just easier and it sent me down a dark path that took a long time to get back from, I remember each of their faces and they haunt me during every waking hour" the memories flooding through her made her shudder, "If she loses herself though, I promise to take care of it..." solemnly she added "...no matter what it takes, there is too much riding on this"

Patting Mikoto on the back she smiled a solemn smile "I'm just glad we managed to keep you from that same path all those years ago, you're a good friend Mikoto, I'm glad to have you along for the ride" she added turning around and smiling towards Gabby, while she had little to smile about sometimes the biggest smile could hide the most pain.

Midori smiled, "Come on Gabbrielle, Callisto knows were here already, a little race shouldn't hurt...unless you're just afraid of losing" Midori's smile cocking into a full blown smirk, "Unless you don't think you can win"

She looked back when Midori and Mikoto decided to bring up the rear for their own whisper party. Her ears let her get much of it when she heard her own name spoken, her face hard as steel and unnerving. Saying nothing, she continued to trudge along with everyone, feigning oblivion while her eyes traced over the two conspirers hauntingly. They wanted to talk, let them talk, she'd follow her own will, problem or not.

"If Shirley were here she'd beat all of us for sure in any race!" She threw in to divert suspicion.

Mikoto smiled back at Midori, glad to know that she wasn't alone regarding their times of dark paths and madness.
In a way, Mikoto still couldn't believe that the goofy and friendly homeroom teacher from Mai's class was also immortal.
Which meant, she understood the pain of out living everyone.

"Thank you, Midori, and I'm sorry..."

Just then, her somber expression turned into a bored pout. Her feet were starting to hurt and her butt itched from the leather she was adorning as a disguise.

"UGH! Walking is so BORING! Horses, gods, and goddesses, and Calisto, here I come!"

And with that, Mikoto got on all fours and ran past the others.

"Come, slowbros, let's race!!"

"It's Okay Mikoto" Midori smiled "and sorry, I know I haven't done it yet...but if my future self is anything to go by, I'm sorry I didn't hang around, I know what its like to be alone, the world aging around you and I feel awful for not staying around, heh, we should tell eachother all about it sometime, we both probably have an amazing list of stories."

Smiling she recollected the past, and responding to Lucchini's quip about her friend "If what you say is true about her, she can break Mach 5, no doubt she would win" Midori said with a wink "...but I think I can keep up with you guys"

summoning her Labrys and with it the wind Midori takes off like a bullet quickly catching up with Mikoto and then going past her, riding her Labrys like a hoverboard sheer windpower propelling her forward, her cape tied like a scarf fluttering in the wind,

The Phoenix looked back at everyone, taking in all of the words. In some way she knew what was going on. I mean sure she doesn't know their situation but she also knew from experience. The way that Mikoto and Midori care for Lucchini like they knew her forever seemed so real to her. She wanted to be apart of that, she missed her family of friends and Ahmes to death. What better way to help than to have a new batch of family members from other worlds.

Gabrielle had a dumb smile on her face, thinking about the care that the two were showing Lucchini.

"Then, it's settled. Gabrielle, looks like we're racing!"

All of them lined up at the line of trees at the start of the path. "READY!!!! GOOOOO!" Gabrielle shouted, running at top speed.

The Bard just shook her head, it was true that Callisto did know that they were there but they still needed to watch out where they were going. Who knows what they could run into. Hopefully nothing.

"Gh! Hey wait up!"

She broke into a run after them with honest lighthearted joy for a brief second as part of her now ghostlike old self possessed her again, her speed fast but not enough to reach with Midori's cheating hovercraft like method. She needed more power! With this thought, her blood boiled, putting heat into the thought, her magic set to work and propelled her forward as though she were an engine firing on all cylinders. Now she was fast enough to head over Midori, eyes wide at her own sudden achievement.

"Guys, I think I did something new!"

Midori smiled "That was sweet," Midori smiled as as she rode on the wake caused by Lucchini's propelling heat, "but you just secured my victory" the rising air and rapid wind current combining blasting Midori forward like a bat out of hell, the heatwave just pushing her forwards, as she passed Lucchini she gave her a peace sign from her Labrys, as the heat from Luchini just pushed her forward even faster

Midori's dress flying off in the jetstream revealing her usual clothes underneath,

'this was what it was like to fly, the freedom I always loved' she smiled remembering the first time she had flown, the first HiME to know the joy of flight in her first carnival, back then she had dubbed herself the Kaze no HiME, the Princess of wind, after 900 years and many switches in title, this was still her domain, the winds of the world bending to her whim with joy in her face she began to laugh...this race was reminding her of old times, kind of a funny thing to be thinking about when your speeding on a Labrys across the Greek countryside, but then again she had always been a little weird. "Catch me if you can" she said forcing one last burst of speed to secure her victory.

Gritting her teeth she narrowed her eyes.

"I won't let you!"

More energy, faster and faster she went! But each time she only proved to help Midori rather than give her the edge. It was clear, defeat was neigh for her here, she was simply outmatched.

"Dammmmnnittt!!!"

Mikoto, running like a leopard, found herself struggling to keep up with Midori and Luuchini.


"Hey, no fair using powers!"

To even things out, the cat goddess in amazon clothing jumped from one tree to the next like a ninja, catching up with the Phoenix woman and Luuchini.

"GUYS!!! CALM DOWN!" Gabby had a sweat bubble above her head while running. She was a bit a ways from them because Midori was using her hoverboard.

"That is so not far." Gabrielle huffed while putting her run in. She wasn't going to use her fire to help her win this race, it was all for fun plus she didn' t want to catch the forest on fire. Would be a good impression on her part.

Up ahead they The Bard heard a bit of commotion while she watched the others race. She could hear a cluster of men on horses, could more than a hundred men. "Baccahe!"

The Bard ran as fast as she could to catch up to everyone. She knew this would happen. Not a good way to go unnoticed.

Midori's thoughts of freedom through the air came to a rapid halt as she reopened her eyes revealing a column of Horsemen led by a woman on horseback "OUT OF THE WAY!" Midori yelled too late crashing into them at full force sending them flying, as Midori flung through the air landing on her feet her Labrys falling into her hand as she stood amongst hundreds of soldiers many glaring at her, the other laid unconcious around her feet.


"Well this is not the greeting I intended to give, not at all" Midori said sheepishly waving at the leader "Hey, sorry about this" she waved apologetically,

Seeing Midori's accident made her feet skid hard to a halt. Waving her arms around to try gaining balance, it only barely seemed to do much of anything.

"Whoa, whoa whoa!"

Eventually she managed to stop but only at the cost of burning her own flesh, the soles of her feet smoking at the impact.

"OWWWWWW!!!"

Pain made her scream and ignited her anger, all cheer she felt moments before evaporated.

"Fucking merda!!"

Even her dress had slight loose ends freshly created by the speed, a mess of thinly dangling threads. The realization made her curse louder.

Mikoto spotted the horsemen and Midori colliding with most of them with her flying board. She jumped from one last tree and leaped out, showing off with a few trick flips, only to miscalculate her landing. Instead of landing on the grassy ground, she landed right on top of Luuchini.

The dizzy cat goddess slowly got up and clumsily walked towards Midori's side.

"What happened...? Did you find us some free horses?"

The army of men collapsed as soon as Midori collided into them. The bodies of them hunched over, feeling the hurt all over their body. What in the world was that? The contraption that slammed into them?

Livia looked around, seeing a group of girls running towards them. She snarled, and turned to look back at Midori.

"WHO IS THAT GIRL? DOES SHE BELONG TO YOU?" Livia snapped, jumping off of her horse with a thud. She started walking over to Gabrielle, she knew exactly who it was. "Oh...Mother's lover. I should have known. Did you find these people to kill me as well?"

Livia touched the Bard's face with her finger, feeling the soft skin as she traced her jawline. "Little Gabrielle brought some playmates."

"Eve.....These people are here for a reason. Please ignore their rudeness and running into you. They're not from around here and they were having fun."

"Fun? What the hell is fun? Fun is what I would like to call murder, murdering the innocent." Livia looked back at the group. "So, what is this? Why are you in such a hurry?"

Mikoto shook herself from out of her dizzy stupor and took a few steps ahead of Midori.

She peered around the army of men on horseback and then fixated her golden eyes on the woman touching on Gabrielle's face.

Suddenly, the cat goddess in amazon disguise changed her serious expression into a cat smile and issued out an blunt, straightforward order,

"Give us your horses, we need them to kill Calisto!"

Once again, after that blunt comment, facepalms were made.

"Mikoto...of all the ways you could have helped us take them you choose that? That?!"

The sheer ridiculousness made her mind briefly lessen the pain to process what had just happened. Gritting her teeth, she showed a far fiercer face with a demandingly rude tone.

"Give us your damn horses or get annihilated, your choice. It's also the only one you're getting, we'll be needing those cuz as you can see we're in short supply." She sarcastically quipped while sweeping an arm over the horseless air around her comrades.

Midori facepalmed as Mikoto quite directly gave away motive and intention, then again after her little crash landing she had little room to complain, After hearing Lucchini snap at her Midori turned quick "woah! that's no way to show hospitality, I'm sure the lady stroking her mother's girlfriend will see reason" after a moment of silence she sighed and added "Okay...maybe threats work better against a weirdo like this...well, its worth a try anyway"

Walking over towards Eve and Gabrielle she stood between the two "Yeah, So I'm from out of town and I'm sorry I crashed into you with my Labrys" she said tapping her element with a smile "But yeah, like she said, We're from out of town and need to go kill an ancient...well current...goddess, so if you could kindly just give us five, maybe six horses, some Roman armor and maybe treat us to a nice meal, then there will be no need for violence and you and your men, albeit five of them naked and without their horses, can go on their merry way"

Midori then added in a more serious tone "We were playing around before, you don't want to see what we can do when we're serious"

Gabrielle looked away at Mikoto's little outburst. Was that really her way of asking for something? Well, then again. The Phoenix wasn't surprised, it was Mikoto afterall.

"Mikoto....." She placed to fingers on the corner of her temples.


Livia lifted her gaze up, eyelids slowly revealing the whites and iris's of her eyes. The warrior began to laugh, at everyone. The way they looked and the way they talked. Livia was amazed at the stupidity in front of her. These people really think they could just walk up to them and request horses?

The Bard placed a hand on Midori. "There is no need for this. She is Xena's daugher, Eve. Long story but it's not needed at this time.

"MY NAME IS NOT EVE!" Livia swung her sword but the Bard intercepted it with her bow staff. The force from the attack made her muscles shake like jello.

"You're not getting anything from me or my army. Take one shot at me, I dare you. Your little friend, that one." Livia pointed to Lucchini. "Put a cloth of something over her mouth. She needs to learn her place and that's on the bottom of my boot. BOYS!!! Get rid of these pathetic imbeciles."

Midori jumped back as a pilum landed in the ground where she had been standing mere moments before, Roman soldiers drawing gladius and shield, other's wielding their pilum in front of their shields, Midori called out at the top of her lungs some valuable information to the rest of the crew

"Good news and bad news" she yelled "Good news, Roman soldiers are predictable in their tactics and training, it was always the same...Bad news is that they are still amazing soldiers that even conquered Gaul in the 1st century BCE..." looking at a confused soldier in front of her she added "...though that may be a spoiler" softly to him before turning and blocking a Gladius strike by jumping on top of his blade and kicking him in the face, only to have to summon a heavy torrential gust of wind in an instant to ward off some of the thrown pilums.

landing she swung her labrys knocking 3 soldiers off their feet but before she could make a secondary shot at them she had to turn and use her Labrys to block a Soldier with his gladius drawn shield thrown to the side, big mistake on his part, Midori used her free hand to draw her Kopis and make a slash at his free arm, slitting up to the shoulder from the wrist, in his shock he dropped his sword which Midori used as a chance to slash his jugular. turning she spun her Labrys summoning an upward wind, the tornado like wind flinging shields that caught the wind like metal sails upwards, Midori throwing her Labrys, spinning like a spiral of death slicing through Four Romans and returning to her hand.

"You want none of this right now," Midori urged one Roman who was shaking as he pointed his Gladius at her, falling to his knees and rather than face defeat he screamed and impaled his sword through his own stomach,

Romans, to fail to follow orders was to commit treason, to commit treason was to die, Midori just sighed "Why can no one ever just pick the easyway and give us what they want?" she sighed jamming the butt of her Labrys into a soldier's nose shattering it.

Mikoto frowned, as she predicted that this Livia or Eve character wouldn't cooperate kindly or quietly.

"Hmph! I knew you were shady business the moment I caught whiff of your yucky scent!"

Flashing a wicked grin, the cat goddess grabbed a near by forest frog and threw it at the nearest soldier's mouth. The choking Roman soldier made feeble attempts to spit the frog out until Mikoto approached him from behind. She used her newfound shield to bash it against the man's head, rendering him unconscious.

"Why you...!" shouted another Roman soldier, lunging his sword at Mikoto.

Again, she used her shield to reflect the sword in the nick of time. Then, without skipping a beat, she launched her left foot upwards, connecting it to the rugged Roman's crotch. Right away did one of Livia's troops yelped and groaned in pain like a whining child.


Now that he was distracted in the worst way, Mikoto delivered a round house kick across the man's face, snapping his neck and killing him.

After she did that, a Roman found an opening and kicked Mikoto in the back. She used her hands to break her fall and did a handstand. She back flipped away from some Romans and jumped high in the air. When she landed back on the ground, a large crater was formed, causing several Romans to quake in fear and run off like scared children. She looked around and realized there were more enemies than she thought. Even a cat goddess like her can't hope to take them all out.

Noticing a stray horse from the crowd, Mikoto took a risky chance. She leaped up and stomp walked on each of the Roman heads to get to it.

She leaped up again and caught the horse, wrapping her arms around the animal. Startled and confused, the horse started wailing like a raging bull, thrusting its hoofs everywhere. A couple of Romans tried to force short girl out of the horse only to get shoehorned in the face, groin, foot, and stomach. The horse was now taking off in circles trampling Romans left and right. 

"Yahoo! YEEHAW!!" Mikoto shouted with glee and excitement.

"That's my line, only it'll be your own intestines I shove there!"

Cloaking in a reinment of flame, she charged forward with a thunderous war cry erupting from deep within.

"I'll take your head!"

Her fist stopped in place at the guard of the flat side on a Roman gladius and the hawk eyes of a tense Roman soldier from within his helmet. Her eyes widened. Jumping back, she studied him and laughed.

"So, a regular human thinks he stands a chance against me?"

Grinning with a mad gleam to her eyes, she charged again, barely missing him in a dodge before throwing in a roundhouse kick without missing a beat. He slashed at the blur of her leg, making her wince at the sting of blade against flesh drawing her blood. Landing, she glanced at the damage, a small cut. No matter, she just had to keep trying! Again and again she charged, each time he deflected or evaded yet gradually she felt herself gaining as he lost stamina over the hard minutes.

"You're...you're gonna die!"

Seizing control of his body heat, she slowly cooked him alive but not before with a yell he called a few comrades to his side, retreating behind their shields as they drew up a formation. Deterred only to take in the sight, she roared and heated the metal of their shields with the sun rays glancing off them. Eventually molten in seconds, they dropped them and drew their swords and spears in a last ditch effort. In a desperate charge, they threw themselves at her while she simply laughed with her arms crossed, lighting them in their own walking pyres, reveling in the screams.

"This could have been avoided if you didn't resist my offer." She delightedly giggled. Grabbing a horse in the confusion, she mounted it and gave a Roman Salute.

"Later bastardi!"

Mikoto's joy ride was cut short when a Roman soldier used a rope and hoist it around her neck.
Feeling the pressure, the cat goddess gaged as was being forced down on the grassy ground. The Romans wasted no time coming after her.
One of them used his sword to slash at the girl's leg, creating a a well sized wound. Mikoto screamed in pain while another soldier kicked her in the stomach and slashed her left shoulder. The Roman holding the rope began to drag her against the dirt, swung upwards and slammed Mikoto back down again.

Enraged, the girl's eyes glowed bright yellow and a shadow was cast over her face, a form she possesed during the dark times of the Festival events.
She grabbed at the rope and swung the Roman soldier around like a ball in chain. She slammed him against a tree, breaking his spine and legs.
Another soldier prepared a sneak attack. However, Mikoto's senses were stronger than ever.

She ferociously kneed him in the gut and used her xiphos short sword thrust it downwards on his cranium. Not once, but three times.
The beard faced Roman face planted on the dirt and could only scream and grunt as he skull and brains were being brutally pierced through.

Midori turned only to be met by a Gladius strike to her abdomen, while it may have missed any vital spots the pain was excruciating, as the soldier retracted his blade Midori swung her labrys decapitating him, turning she looked at some approaching soldiers, holding her gut the pressure keeping the bloodflow to a minimum Midori used her free hand to swing her labrys, the air condensing and like a blade decapitaitng the approaching troops, quickly Midori fumbled through her bag for a bandage, using blades of wind to protect herself fumbling to tie the bandage one handed. after securing it she turned to a legionary who stood over her sword drawn, Midori grabbed him by the throat with one hand using her free hand to hold his sword arm above his head, unable to swing his blade he flailed trying to get free of the red head's surprisingly strong grip around his neck, as his face turned blue he dropped his blade, Midori using her now free arm to reach down and pull out the roman's dagger, pulling him in she whispered "Shhh, stop struggling...it's like getting into a warm bath," she said stabbing him in the gut and leaving him, gasping and bleeding out, his stomach acid now leaking into his organs...

Midori turned to another legionary who stood in shock, who proceeded to run for his life from her, whether he was a coward or the smartest man their, he didn't even know

With her back exposed a spear shaft seized its chance to pierce her left shoulder clean through. With a scream she fell off her new steed and crashed bleeding to the ground. In all the mayhem she caused, only one soldier had steeled his nerves to strike the demon, in turn rallying his remaining comrades when they saw her stricken. He pulled out his spear, she still yelling in agony before twirling her head around sharply to combust him with a sharp glare. Struggling to her feet, it was too slow as men from all angles grabbed at her to pin her down, punching, stabbing and slicing with their swords before she knew right from left again. Bloodied in tremendous pain, she let out a drawn scream loud enough and with such emotion to tear the heavens asunder. They all burned, only herself remaining in tact with the veins of her temple popping and snaking across the sides of her head. Tears rained from her eyes at the violent assault that left her writhing helpless on the ground, all that protected her the fear spread by her displays of power. Blood pooled under her and stained her whole body in red sin. Her screams and whimpering guttural cries were savage and primal, more animal than thinking human.

"LUCCHINI!!" Mikoto shouted in horror, struggling to aid her friend and comrade.

One of the Romans tired to pin her down with a thorny rope but the cat goddess used her short sword to cut it in half. She dodged an arrow, caught it and threw it towards the archer right between the eyes.

She hurled another enemy into the air, causing him to land near a charging crowd of his allies.

Getting a breather for a moment, Mikoto took out a bag of potions and struggled with trembling fingers. After a few daunting moment, she was able to find the right one. A healing potion.

She ran to her comrade's side, held on to back of the Italian's head and slipped the green substance into her mouth. It wasn't going to make all the pain go away but it had to do something for Lucchini. Anything! Now she could only wait for the temporary healing to take effect.

"Work...please work...!"