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It really depends on what you're looking for in a band. If you want pure shredding guitars, dexterious keyboarding, and super-chop drumming, then Dream Theater (or Liquid Tension Exeripement), would probably be the best in that category. Not to mention all of those people are beyond technically proficient.

However, if I had to pick one band out of the crop as having been the 'best,' I'd have to go with Queen, for the sheer variety of what they did. Queen has always been a band I can listen to without hearing even a hint of one song in another. They just put out something different each time, so far as I've been aware.

“I’m afraid I’m unsure if I will be able to help you, Mixt.” Xiao fell into a grimace, a true one this time, her eyes drooping, and her face falling into a frown. For the first time in a long while, she was actually somewhat depressed. “I can do a number on spiritual energies, especially those rooted within the souls of beings. But really, I can’t even tell what’ll come of trying to do this thing in. Not that I definitely can’t,” she added hastily. "In fact I like to believe I can get this little sucker to come open. But it’ll take time; and probably lots of it. It all depends on how dense, and how pure this seal has been made. By the look and feel of it, it’s amongst the purest, and certainly not thin in packing.” Expression evening out to a simple seriousness, she tacked on, “But I’m positive that I can take care of this little issue. Just give me some time, and I’ll have the job done. Unless, of course, time isn’t an option right now.”

“Whoo! Those things pack a punch don’t they!?” Zei fell to his rear end, sitting down on the now shattered stone plaza. Around him, the remains of the town’s defense forces reeled in their ending success over the dragonic beasts, as well as paid homage to their fallen comrades. “I can see the lot of you have got a lot of spirit, even after nearly being wiped out there,” he said to them in a joke. “Yeah,” a younger, female member of the force said, laying herself down, and undoing the bun in her black hair so that it flowed freely down her back. “That was quite the fight. But we believe that just mourning the deceased is an insult to their memories. So we celebrate their lives, rather than sulk in their deaths.” Zei nodded at the woman’s remark, finding her to be one of the few sensible people he’d run into so far. “Indeed! Honor the dead, not mourn. I can live by that until my own day comes!” He fell back, laying fully on his back; at last, he felt exhausted by the war.

((Xiao would ever so much appreciate a response from Mixt (the character)).

"I see you're enjoying yourself. The way this war is going right now I would be surprised if you weren't. I've got a job for you. This box was acquired from Nathaniel's office at the City of Light. Problem being that he placed a magic seal on it. Your job is to open it. Preferably leaving the contents intact."

Xiao looked back at Mixt, almost begrudgingly of him for coming up at such ‘sensitive moment.’ But in the end, she cracked a smile at him, one that was even more than a smile would have been. “You know me all too well Mixt,” she said. “Why shouldn’t we all enjoy ourselves here? It’s only right for us to like what we do.” She gave him a wink, and a smirk; She hadn’t picked up the part of the boxed item, but was quick to take note of Mixt’s outstretched hands, and the relic that rest in its grasp. Without hesitation, for this thing of mystery intrigued her, she swiped it from his hand, commencing to examine it as though she were a doctor. She fiddled around with the box, held it against the sunlight, and even drew it away from herself at times.

“This object, and the box it’s in… they’re both powerful in the spiritual effects. It's almost frightening to feel it's presence so close. You’re taking a big risk carrying something like this around with you Mixt. You do realize that, right? I mean, everyone, anyone, would do just about anything to get their hands on something this potent.”

The shrill, far from empowered shrieks of fright from the small frame of a young woman might have easily pierced through the alarms, if not for the circumstances that reduced such an attempt to fodder. Solid, and tough against the kicking attempts to drive him off, Kai held firmly to his grip upon his younger sister. With his right hand, he had managed to subdue her voice; the palm patted down over her mouth absorbing whatever words might have been apt to escape into corridors. With his other hand, he had struggled for, and regained, control over the chain of an ‘Aether Proofed’ set of handcuffs; this object well at hand, he had managed to pull the girl along, reaching to within ten yards of the stairwell leading to the vehicle bay. They’d be gone, once hey reached there, and far from the reach of the Resistance, if not for the fact that Sarah still persisted to resist Kai’s pulling against her. “It hurts!” she managed to force these words out, even through the hand over her mouth.

While not having shown that he was aware of what she was saying, Kai was entirely perceptive of it all. His response to her pleas for release was iced over with easy words, spoken in a harsh manner, that made the words seem harsh in their own right. “You should have thought of that before you tried fighting against me,” he said to her, now just five yards away from the door. “If I let you go, you’ll run from me again, like you tried to do last time this happened. I won’t have it that way. Little sister isn’t leaving big brother’s sight after that little mess.” He yanked her forward, or backwards, as both were moving with their backs to the direction they were heading. Just as he made for the last pull, the alarms on their end of the building had died out, leaving them in an otherwise silent condition. They must have disabled the alarms on us. The guards might think the attack is over though. It’s clearly not though. I can still hear machine guns going off somewhere.

“That’s it!” he chimed, rushing his Aether through his veins as though it were his own blood, charging it, in doses, into each muscle that it came to. “We’re not playing it like this any more, Sarah. You’re coming, and there’s no way you’re getting out of it. That’s final.” Abandoning hope of stifling her shouts for aid, he turned around, facing forward finally, and commenced to simply drag her along the floor, covering that last few feet in less than a second. “NO!! HELP!!! HELP!!!” Her cries carried through the building, through every hall adjacent to her cell’s, and possibly through to others more disjoined from it. But it would have been too late at that point. She was already feeling the hard concrete bumps of the stairs as Kai continued to drag her petite body. She imagined herself as nothing more than a bagged bit of trash, something that was best disposed of, regardless of the worth it might hold to other people, were it given away, or sold. I guess this is where I say goodbye to home, again. Goodbye home.

Captain Greggs stood at the center of a small squad, consisting of roughly fifteen elite Sanction troops. They weren’t amongst the gifted; but technologically, the lot of them was well equipped with the latest of armors, and Aether based weapons systems. Their tactics, had thus far, proven effective in previous breakout attempts. “Keep it steady men,” Greggs said to the formation, backed in a corner between two corridors. “This corridor is one of the few ways deeper into the cell blocks. If we can hold out here, we should be able to push the resistance back.” Greggs himself kept his firearm at carrying level. But despite his relaxed appearance, standing in with battle-ready Sanction marksmen, he was by no means the most vulnerable of the group. He could have his weapon up in a flash, and at that, his aim had always been top notch.

“Here they come,” he announced, as the ‘main force’ of The Resistance break-in made its way further down the corridor. Greggs snapped the Aether Rifle to firing position, butt held firmly, but comfortably against his shoulders. “Ready,” he whispered to the troops. “Aim,” a second passed by before he spoke again. “Fire!” the magic word having been uttered the soldiers released a volley of projectiles unlike bullets. Each shot taken was composed of a form of energy derived from, but not quite Aether. Each gun carried by the elite branch of the defense forces operated on the basis of ‘Aether Cells’, which were siphoned to produce a material form of energy. In essence, the guns were most akin to lasers, or particle blasters than anything, for the Aether was merely fueling what they did, rather than producing the energy itself, granted of course that without Aether, the weapons wouldn’t be possible as such.

((I am currently putting together a profile for Captain Greggs)).

((What?? Yeah, those creatures aren't exactly so weak so as one could just slice them in half. Not terribly powerful offensively, but pretty damn durable. Kind of like battling against miniature dragons. I did cover their resistance capability within the summoning post)).

These beasts aren't much unlike the heartless. But at the same time, they are totally different to them. From a looking point upon the halted tram car, Zei overlooked the hovering of the dragonic creatures from afar. With the moves they made, the young warrior found himself both horrified, and deeply impressed. Each move they made seemed to be orchestrated, fine-tuned to towards achieving their goal. It wasn't unlike the heartless to swarm as such; but these beasts were of a different definition of the term. Their movements, now that they had become accustomed to the world they were in, had grown to resemble the hearding of sheep by dogs, or the corninger of a larger prey by a pack of wolves. Within the common, ten or so of them had effectively managed to keep a twenty man defense force at bay while the rest had their way with fleeing citizens, who also seemed like sheep being hearded. This could get horrid. I best have myself a crack at those things.

With as much a force as he could spare, he pushed off from the tram car setting on a colision path with the nearest of the monsters, one keeping watch over the defense squad. Shattered Balance, being now imbued with a fragment of Zei's chi, had begun to let off a faint glow as it made thrusting contact against the side of the monster. It seemed to have worked well enough, the creature having doubled back to regain its form. But damage, at best, had been glancing. True, a scar, bleeding of purple or black blood oozed out gently from its stomach; yet it was almost totally unconcerned by the fact that it had been attacked. Like swatting at a bee, all Zei had done was enrage the beasts, which, in a split decision, ditched their post over the squad, and focused in a gang assualt on the warrior. Outmatch? Sure hope not.


For one trying to discern, and define the pleasure with which Xiao observed the assualt, they'd have likley found themselves ill-equiped; her half-maddened laughter, her fanged teeth born in revelry, and that almost childlike demeanor in which she resided hinted towards one who seemed to lack finite purpose. Chaos, for the sake of enjoyment, was, and would forever would be, the routine at large for the demoness, or whatever she was. Such it was, that any level of destruction would do only little to quench the thirst that itched the inside of her desert mouth. In this manner, she watched over every proceeding of the attack. Mixt, for all she knew, could have gotten mixed up within the ruckus. HA! Mixt... Wonder what he's thinking of it all now.

"Don't flinch!" The nurse had nagged on pretty much every patient along the infirmary wing of the castle, divulging that little secret. "If you move too much, it's going to hurt even more than it does right now. If you'll let me finish, Sergeant Boroughs, you can get out of here, and to your home station in no time." It was Cornelius' turn now, the backside of his torso where Xiao had so graciously torn the skin and mucsle in towards the spin was now being mended in the most outlandish way he thought possible. A few stitches had poked through the nerves at first, but the doctors had abandoned that hope, and tried something that they called 'new, experimental stuff.' As it turned out, that stuff was an artificial plating, made from an unknown substance that could contour with the mostions of the spinal muscles.

Despite the nurses' warnings, he had resisted having the artificial patching implanted, asserting that the flesh would grow back over time. But what did he know? As the nurse pointed out so coldly, and efficiently, he had no medical experience. Thus, he was subjected to that awkward sensation of having a slab of assembly line mtaerial embossed upon his backside, forming a bionic sort of system that mimiced the necessary functions of what was lost when Xiao had stabbed his body. The spirit inhabiting the body of the mind, taking place of its soul, had taken pleasure in this event. It would give itself a little more security in the sense of avoiding inquiry. A body didn't just last after being sliced through the back.

In a short while, Cornelius was released from the operation ward, and into more of a waiting room, from which eh was escorted to what the castle staff reffered to as the "adjustment dorms."

((Ugh. Writer's block strikes when it's least desirable)).

((Not sure if it should be implied that Mixt and Phisoxa have been moving. Regardless..))

In a bid of self-education on the matter at hand, Zei trailed along close with Phisoxa's conversation with the new man, Mixt, as it had sounded. Just as he had discerned, the item within the container was one of great power; the nature of that power, however, was still left undefined. It's likely that they'll not be uttering anything of extruciating importance on this endeavor. At least, not in the open. Although. "Ummm.... If I may," he asserted, hoping to catch their attentions. "Is, you know," he pointed back in the direction of Torxber, who had appeared to be in a solem delirium. "Is he still to be counted amongst our little party here. Or will we be proceeding on without him from here on?"

He wasn't overly concerned for the man's involvement in the affair. He'd never admit to having wanted to see Torxber making good on his threat earlier. A man with greater integrity surely would have been inclined to follow through on a threat of such magnitude. But then, Zei guessed, perhaps Torxber was just a man of words. A few shows of power, as evidenced by the wasted alleyway, were to be expected from him. But Zei could have caused just as much, possibly more destruction, had he really been inlcined to have done so. Mhmm. Nothing impressive. Just a whining fit, compared to what some could have done to this world... I wonder where that woman went off to.

So my dear Mixt IS here. I'm certainly a luck woman. I'll have to say to him later on. Xiao, having ditched the cumbersom canvas shroud, took the sky. Each wingbeat brought the demonic woman ever higher, until she was well above where the chaos might soon errupt. And she bore the perfect recipe for such chaos. With Eclipse materialized within the graps of her hand proper, she gave a cackling chuckle. Fun time was about to begin for real; fun far more entertaining than the mere killing of a passe of healthy teens. Oh! Just you all wait... Or don't, seeing as you won't be waiting too long for it all to go down.

She gave the blade a flourish, as a wizard's wand, and upon that spot, the fabric of space and time within the skies of Twilight Town ruptured, and cracked as a glass pane. From beyond this tear within the Realm of Light, piercing passed even Naught, and Darkness, the eyes of those below, were they attentive enough, would gaze upon a shining, yet dark blue light; this was the initial cosmic gate, which bound, for that moment, this dimension with another one. It only lasted about a second before the light faded, and the view, clear as day, became that of a torn up city, followed closely by the emergence of the very creatures responsible for that city's destruction:

A swarm of some hundred dark purple, winged creatures, akin to something of a cross between bats, gargoyales, and dragons; roughly three feet in height, with generally sturdy builds, these being were well guarded against many an attack, whether magical or physical. And of course, they were equiped with being able to breath out what could be referred to as fire, colored to match the tone of their scales; that, and sets of lethally sharp claws upon their hands and feet. This swarm descended upon the town, much to the dismay of the otherwise oblivious townsfolk. "Tee hee hee!"

Oh, and as a side note, I'm a 'him'.

Sweet! But alas, that'll have to hold out until morning. Heading off to bed right now. It will happen though.

A lightly charged stream of magical energy whizzed by over Torxber’s head; it was a dangerously close shot, aimed any lower, it would have made contact. “A friendly word of advice, Mr. Torxber,” Zei said, revealing both his presence, and that of the shrouded figure under the canvas (who had followed him to see to it that his word held true). “When you give a person the slip like that, it usually does well to not go blowing things up once you’ve found what you wanted.” Measuring up the area, Zei’s conclusion was that it would have been an illogical place to be starting an actual fight. It was a narrow, crowded in alleyway. Any attack cast here would have the chance of ricocheting around, or just plane decimating everything. And the girl would be caught up in the crossfire. “And I dare say. By doing that, over there,” he indicated the ruined building, “and that, right there,” his finger pointed down to Phisoxa, in her defeated slump, “serves well to prove you wrong in the denial your peoples’ corruption.”


The gummi ship hovered over one of Radiant Garden’s main hangar, descending in a controlled thrust into the landing bay. A voice rang through the ship’s interior, that of Captain Orville. “Attention all passengers, we’ve arrived at Radiant Garden, and are now in the process of guiding the ship into hangar 15. We’ve already sent a transmission in to the communications center to inform Ansem of the wounded on board. He should be able to arrange immediate care for the majority of you, depending on how serious your infliction is. Thank you or the orderly flight, and welcome to Radiant Garden.”

I guess I’ve got no choice but to recant what I’ve come to know, if there really is anything I’ve come to know. Cornelius stood up, asserting himself to the front of the pack of wounded soldiers. With each one he passed by, he was greeted by a suppressed gasp of shock. By far, the wound he had received upon his backside was one f the more serious wounds taken by any of them. The only one that seemed to have taken a worse blow than he, was a young woman, possibly a teen, who had lost her entire left arm, which had evidently been abandoned after the wound itself had been healed over, and the blood loss ceased. What do they expect to do with HER? When the ship had come to a full landing, and the passengers allowed to disembark, Cornelius was the second, after the girl, to be rushed off by nurses.

“She could have easily slipped out the front door through the crod though.” Zei had begun to peer over the crowds within Central Station. His main focal point was the front entrance from which the most densely packed crowds seemed to flow out, and in. “Those folks would never second guess her if she did meld into their little party to give us the slip.” He paused, entertaining that thought for a few moments before saying, “I don’t know about you, Mr. Torxber, but I think we’d best go into town. If anything, we could wait for her to show there.” He tread towards the door, pushing and shoving others out of the way, still impressed by how the lot of them just took his actions for naught. He didn’t have to say excuse me, as for whatever reason, it must have just been implied that he was thinking courteous thoughts to those he edged through.

But he could only make his way so far before getting caught up by someone who wasn’t in such calm mood. The man, or, as Zei found out, the teenage boy, appeared in fluster, eyes darting in panic, and his face in pure terror. He didn’t pay any attention to the man he had just nearly rammed over, nor even seemed to notice that he had in fact ran into someone. But his fear was rightly attributed, for as he reached the thick of things, he started screaming for someone to help him. Zei didn’t catch most of it, but the reason he was panicked came out clear: five of his friends, undoubtedly about his age, had just dropped dead out of no apparent cause. Zei, being so close to the door, and with such little attachment to the boy, was the first to make it out into the plaza, where all five teens still lay lifeless on the stone courtyard. Kneeling over them, like a medic would have been, was an awkward looking figure, draped with a canvas cloak.

“What happened to them?” Zei asked the figure. Whoever they were, they remained still, and calm, despite the mystery of the situation. “I wouldn’t be able to tell you,” said a female voice from underneath the makeshift cloak. The figure rose to its feet, remaining turned away from her company. “But it’s obvious the lot of them are dead. They’ve no pulse; no tell of any life left in them. It’s likely that more people will meet a fate like these ones here. But when, where, and who, we can’t be so certain. You’d best be off from this world before anything horrid takes place. It’s… for the better. Unless of course, you think you can solve the mystery of what happened to this lot before anymore get struck down.” For a moment, Zei was unsure of what to say. He could just leave, but then, he’d have to abandon his path. He couldn’t sway, not because of some freak accident. “I think that things will resolve themselves whilst I, along with my company, are present.”

“Kai!” The sound of the voice felt so distant from the napping young man. “Kai!!” The voice called out again, starting draw closer. But the young man still dozed like a log in the forest, undisturbed, and at that moment, uncaring of anything that was happening around him. WHAM! The cold, hard butt end of an assault rifle plowed into Kai’s abdomen, causing him to cringe, holding his gut to shield it from further pain. Finally, his eyes opened as he rolled off of the desk, onto the floor. It was just as cold there as it had been against the butt of the rifle. So it wasn’t exactly the best choice for sleeping. He opened his eyes, instantly coming face to face with a uniformed man, decorated in what seemed to be random, self-awarded badges, as they were like none that had been seen on too many others, even around the facility.

It was less than a second after that, when the officer was forcing him onto his feet, that Kai realized that the room was tinted in the classic red light of an emergency. The alarm was crying out for someone to answer, drowning out most of the voices that strayed too far into its range; the office Kai had been in was, of course, blocked off from the sound in its entirety, so hearing wasn’t really an issue. “Sup, Greggs?” he asked with a yawn. “I was dreaming this awesome dream… Man, I’ve gotta tell you about it! I—.“ The officer named Greggs raised a hand, and Kai fell silent, though his half-excited face waned only a little bit. “Kai,” Greggs said, contrasting Kai’s lighthearted take on things with a bout of seriousness. “We’ve got a break in. The Resistance, that group of people that broke out last time, has come back.”

“Oh!” Kai said, fighting against his drowsy, loopy mindset to get worked up about the situation. “Why the hell would they be coming back to this place anyway though? I mean, they’ve already broken out? What IS their reason for returning?” Greggs just breathed out a heavy sigh, as though the answer to that question was a heartbreaking one; and to him, it was. “We suspect they’ve come back for the sake of breaking out the rest of the lot. They’ve already gotten into one of the main cell wings. Now they’ve been taking out the rookie guards left and right, as well as few veterans on site.” Greggs turned around, walking to the door before turning his head back to Kai. “I trust you know your jurisdictions here. Go and take care of your evacuation assignments. All specimens must be rounded up, and moved to the secondary site.”

Greggs waited for no confirmation of the mission; before Kai could even get another word in edgewise, his CO was out into the hallway. Kai, now alone in the office overflowing with the sound of the alarm, reached into an open drawer, removing from its content, of all things, a pair of large aviator style sunglasses. They weren’t his, but they were now. Fun time. The trip from the office to his destination was a short one, literally right across the hallway. There, there stood a tough steel door, one amongst a row of many. He had the key to each door on that side of the facility, the complete opposite from where the break-ins had been reported. The door opened instantly once the key device had been slipped in; the door opened swiftly, steadily, and with an iron screech to accompany it’s motion. “Time to go, sis.”

The sole occupant of this particular cell, a younger girl, two, maybe three years down on Kai, moved her head slowly to face his visage, a mere shadow of black, imprinted against the red lights from the hallway. She looked much like Kai, bar her meeker, more serene appearance, and frightened expression. “What’s going on Kai? Are we leaving now? Are… are we going to go home, finally? Please tell me we’re going home.” When all her inquiry got in response had been silence, and a threatening step forward, she knew that it wasn’t home that they going. “So you’re just gonna keep me locked up, aren’t you? You’re gonna let them screw with me, and all the others here, bring us all to some other location? Well, I won’t have it!” Kai being two feet from her, she threw a punch at his gut, which was caught with ease. “Sarah… it’s for everyone’s good that the testing resume. "Things need to be… learned.” He snapped her wrist back, sending a jolt of pain up her arm. “You’re coming, and that’s the final word."

((For now, try not to do much of anything with Greggs (if you bring him into things). I want to see what, if anything, I can do with him as a PC before he gets too roughed up)).

She certainly will like that. She's been searching for him. It would appear that now is about the time the posting in the RP settles down,...

I intend to, actually. She's about to raise a bit of chaos in town, such is her nature.

"Hmph. Now look at who's pride has been hurt," Zei muttered to himself. He had ben partially oblivious to Phisoxa's outburst, and more than shocked to see her leave of her own accord. "Well, looks like my job leads me to whereever it is that she's decided to go off to." He followed close behind Torxber, through the light portal, and found himself standing amongst what he'd have earlier labeled as droves of people. But they seemed, upon that first look, different... like they didn't care much for other peoples' business. At least that was the impression he got from the lot. They seemed to walk by each other's conversations without anything so much as a double take.

"This might well be a good world after al," he said to Torxberl. "It doesn't look like these people are too threatening to anyone right now. Where'd she go though?"

"I don't doubt the power of this company you speak of sir. But if I may say so: Would it not be unwise to outright trust any body of people at the moment? I'd sooner place my trust in the use of an out of way environment, than in some governing body. You see, if we go to the right place, whether it be somewhere on my home, or on some backwater world, we could easily lay low, with no one other than our own selves to know a thing of it. A government, or company of some sort, could well enough be corrupted by this war. No. I think our best bet would be to stay away from the droves of people; find a place that's not going to see too much traffic of soldiers, and civilians. We could figure out where to go from there."

Or he could always just find her by the fact that all hell is about to break loose there.

"Perhaps I did. And of what insult did that do you? None whatsoever. I did what I had to to ensure that my mission for the worlds could being coming to fruition. And believe me, mine IS a mission for the worlds. And at any rate, you've clearly taken little damage. The history of a world, even one built upon such a violent past, should not be so influential as to label it a dump. Why, the honor, and nobility is that we persevered through an age of strife, just the same as any world. I syour world really so perfect as to have a clean slate on the pages of history? I would surely think not. You'd do best to not jump to a conclusion about any person's home. Mine's as safe a place as any, at this point, perhaps safer, seeing as it is out of the way of things these days."

Zei snapped under this insult, his face contorting into a rage, which he fought inside to hold down. It was no good though; his home, his people, weren't such to be mocked. "I would inform you, good sir, that my home world is one of a proud, and noble history. It one that has struggled to maintain itself. Why, after hundreds of years of warring, we had grown into true prosperity. It is grand, and beautiful to boot. And it's people are quite honorable, man and woman alike. We've bred the bravest of warriors, and the wisest of sages!" He approached Torxber, leering at him with contempt; he'd be willing to fight the man before him, if need be. "I ask of you to receed your comment... your slander against my very heritage, for I've done nothing to insult you."