Wartime Reverie

The Phantom was about to speak when Allen asked her name, she just facepalmed before backhanding him, except the force was enough to send him flying. She looked back at Nny "I would say me and the consumers a perfectly even in power" she said as she jumped out of range of Allen's spell and vanished into the darkness. Raxtion also vanished. In the distance the tower became visible as it lighten up.

 

Allen hit the ground and stood up. Before his time in the illusion he would've chastised himself for how easily she had hit him. Now though, he had decided to see it as an advantage, he had learned a bit more about the enemy. He turned to Nny. "What do you want to do now?"

 

Nny walked over to Allen. "Well..." Nny looked at the lit up tower and knew that's where it wanted them to go. Of course there was nothing better to do, so they only had one choice: move forward. Without even turning his gaze away from the tower, Nny said to Allen "We move on." Nny then began walking towards the tower.

 

Allen looked up at the tower. "To there? Isn't there something else we could do? Somewhere else we could go? I mean, we already walked into one trap, and that's about as obvious as traps get." Allen wanted to fight the girl and improve, but walking right into the enemies waiting jaws didn't seem like the best way to do it.

 

"She..." Nny paused "... It isn't interested in fighting us. It only wants to play games... It is evil, for sure, but it is just like a child." Nny looked at Allen. He could see the honest attempt the boy wanted to make at getting better. But Nny just didn't see the point... "It's too much for the both of us. It's just too powerful. When it said that it wasn't even trying with that blast, it wasn't bluffing! I could tell. Regardless of whether or not we play the game, the outcome is going to be the same. Except if we play, we might get lucky and it might be generous." Nny began to walk towards the tower "Regardless of you, I'm going. There's no more time for talk... it's waiting."

 

Allen caught up with Nny and started walking next to him. "I'm going, and didn't you say we stood a better chance working together?" Nny was right, the girl seemed more interested in playing with them than fighting. Maybe they could use that to their advantage. He looked at Nny. "Maybe we can beat her at her games."

 

"Her games revolve around torturing us psychologically. Unless you know more about her than you let on, then I think she has the advantage." Nny sighed "But you are right, we do have a better chance fighting together. But, odds are we won't fight her until she breaks us first." Nny continued to walk. He walked somewhat slowly. moving quick enough to see things pass by within minutes but slow enough that he could enjoy what he figured would be his final moments.

 

"Maybe we know more about her than we think," Allen suggested. "Let's put our heads together and see if we can't figure something out. Just by pointing out that she was like a child you gave me a decent bit of insight. And even if we can't figure out how to get in her head there has to be some way to win. When have you ever heard of a children's game that couldn't be won?" Allen thought for a minute, then spoke up again. "Maybe we can get her to play our games instead."

 

"Obviously you didn't hear it when it explained the first time Allen. It isn't actually a child, it's called the Black Phantom. It possessed that little girl. It acts childish, but the games are much more inhumane than any normal child would play." explained Nny "Aside from it possessing that child and whoever that other guy was, we know nothing about it." Nny and Allen walked up to the entrance of the tower "Well, here we go. Get ready Allen. We are going to be facing the worst once we enter through..."

 

Allen thought to himself, he had no idea what the Black Phantom was, but whether it was actually a child or not, it was certainly acting like one. He ran over several possible strategies in his mind. Quickly deciding to wait and see which one would be best. He braced himself. "I'm ready." Then suddenly he turned to Nny. "Actually before we go in we need a way to make sure we don't get separated. It split us up pretty easily last time, so if we're going to take it on together we should have some way to make sure that doesn't happen again."

 

Nny gave Allen a dirty look for a couple of seconds before saying "I'm not holding your hand." Nny then nonchalantly walked through the front door.

 

"I wasn't suggesting we hold hands. Believe me, I want that less than you do. I just figured of you wanted to stick together maybe we should have something to ensure we actually do stick together. Have it your way, though. Just don't come crying to me when you're facing her tricks by yourself." With that Allen walked through the door too.

 

The door opened and in front of them was the main dinning hall from the academy filled with students as if nothing was wrong. The city behind them vanished instead the corridor that lead to the dinning hall was there instead. None of the students seemed to notice Allen and Nny.

 

Shero followed Allen and Nny closely, Dante on the other hand stopped and then seemed to wander off into the shadows, following his own mission. Shero didn't seem to notice Dante's disappearance till a few moments later." That's strange... hes gone..."

 

Nny ignored Allen and walked around the academy. It was good to see it again, but Nny realized how fake it was. Nny saw the familiar faces of students he passed by everyday. He never knew a day would come when all these familiar faces would die in a single attack. He looked at the food they were eating. It was the same type of slop they used to serve at the academy. Indeed, every detail was there. But what was the true purpose behind showing them this?

 

Allen looked at Nny as he walked away. Apparently Nny had forgotten that they had better chances if they stuck together. He walked over to a corner f the dining hall and sat down, figuring if he did nothing long enough the Black Phantom would contact him. He would wait until then.

 

Nny looked back at Allen and then turned back towards the rest of the academy "Phantom! SHOW YOURSELF!!!" yelled Nny. He was testing two things, whether the Black Phantom would respond or not and how the people around them would react to his screaming.

 

The students gave Nny strange looks before going back to their business. Bit by bit the students seemed to notice them more and more. There was no sign of the Phantom or that anything was wrong.

 

Allen continued waiting patiently, sure that his inaction would eventually draw the Phantom's attention. He considered getting up to get a drink, but questioned the safety of ingesting anything created by the Black Phantom. He stretched out his legs and leaned back against the wall, then folded his hands on his stomach, relaxing. Allen was a patient person, he could wait a long time for the Phantom to act.

 

"Realistic..." Nny said to no one before deciding it might be fun to poke at the students, see what would happen. Nny walked up to a random group of students, took a fork and began eating off of one of their plates. "This is very good, mind if I take this?" Nny then took the whole plate away from the student, waiting to see what he would do next...