We Were Born for This...(Guardians Meeting Thread)

A rip in space opened, and Arthas stepped through it, closing it behind him. he looked around, hoping to see Mikhael, but instead saw a face he hadn't seen for a while.

((BTW, Arthas and Max met in Car Trouble, in case you forgot =P))

"Hello. It's Max, if I remember correctly." As he turned, he grabbed a chair and sat in it, crossing his arms. "Mikhael told me the Guardians were to meet here, so...here I am. And I appear to be the first." With a chuckle, he remembered how he had given Mikhael so much trouble finding him.

"I guess we wait, then."

'Just one more' The ironclad Wolf Knight thought. As he was resting on the moving rocky platform that was swinging side to side in the water. The hut was inaccessible expect for this pathway of large stones in the water. But as the Knight started to jump from stone to stone, they started to sway, making the crossing far more difficult.
His armor prevented him to be able to swim. So Sir Lucas took his time to make sure he would succeed the jumps. The hut in the strange lake in the enclosed giant cave was very near now. The house of the wizard Merlin where the Guardians will meet.
Seeing the stone slab move close to the edge again, the knight dashed forward and leaped with all his strength, barely making the banks of the island where the hut was resting on.

Panting lightly Sir Lucas turned around and saw how the stones had stopped moving again and lined up perfectly in a treacherous simple pathway. Leaving the ordeal behind him, he now stepped toward the door of the large hut. A sense of anxiety and nerves flooded his body. This was a first meeting of all the members of the Guardians. Sir Lucas wondered what they would be like. And what they all would be capable off.

Keeping his manners and knowledge of protocol in mind. The Wolf Knight didn't simply barge into the hut. Instead he raised his silver gauntlet up and knocked on the door. Three short knocks, firm and hard. As the sounds echoed through the hut. Announcing his arrival to those inside. While he waited for response.

It wasn't too long before Jack Styx showed up as well. When he came to the door of the Third District, he had minimal Heartless to distract him, so he quickly entered. He had been in Traverse Town for a while before joining the Guardians, and he had seen this door dozens of times, but he never had the opportunity to actually go inside. What he saw almost defied logic.

There was a beach at the entrance, which led to a large moat, which encircled a small island with a hut on it. Between the beach and the island were a number of large rocks, some distance apart. Jack walked to the edge of the beach and jumped, holding his sheath so it didn't bring him off balance by the motion. To his great surprise, the large stone moved and he went, wth a great splash, into the moat.

---

Several minutes later, the annoyed teenager exited the moat, dripping wet. He trudged up towards the shack, not bothering to knock before he entered. He recognized a few of the individuals here, namely Max and Shiro, but he also knew he saw the one called Sir Lucas as well as Arthas had been around him a few times.

"Nobody. Say. Anything," he said in reference to his dripping form, after noticing that no one else was so wet. "I'm going to go on like I didn't fall into that stupid moat and the moving rocks, and as if I'm not probably getting pneumonia and being extremely numb. Max, I know you, mostly. And I've never officially been introduced to you three. Jack Styx. I've been tagging along with Mikhail for a while," he said.

OOC: <.< all right.....no more people can just join in anymore. Waited long enough for everyone to get their lazy butts in here and post...so what we have is good enough for now. Shun's the only one who can join in at a later time, since he's the only one who's actually given a reason for being absent in the thread. Anyway, continuing....

It wasn't long after he'd introduced Sir Lucas to the group that there was another member walking in through the doors. It was Jack Styx, the boy that had been hanging around Mikhail earlier in the zero district. The only real difference about his appearance now from then was that he was soaking wet. Apparently he'd fallen in the moat on the way there. Max did his best to hold back his laughs and hide his smile.

"Good to have you, Jack," Max said, nodding to the boy when he finished speaking,"The three here are Arthas, Shiro, and Sir Lucas. Mikhail's not here yet. He apparently had something to go take care of before the meeting, so don't worry about him. Go ahead and take your seat, and....well, I gues we'll get started."

Just as everyone was seated and Max was about to speak, a very sudden and strong gust of wind swept into the room as the entire hut began shaking. Max was still trying to figure out what was going on when, through a puff of smoke, Merlin appeared. The soldier let out a small sigh of relief as he saw the old man and not one of the Dark XII.

Max just gave Merlin a small smile and a nod as he sat down and dried Jack off.

"No problems Merlin, of course. Afterall....it is your hut, afterall," Max said with a small laugh, and then he turned to the others and addressed them,"Okay, so.....as you all know, Mikhail and myself are forming a group to fight a strong group of Heartless known as the Dark XII. Currently, we know precious little about them. We know a couple of the members, as myself and Mikhail have run into them, however....that's about as far as the extent of our knowledge goes, except for the fact that they are not your typical Heartless.

"They're all intelligent, just like you and me," Max said, looking at each of them in turn,"they're also very strong. They're not to be underestimated. You each have expressed a wish to protect the worlds from being consumed by the Heartless, whether because your own world suffered that fate, like my own, or for any other reasons. Your reasons, at this point, no longer matter. Now...you are Guardians of the worlds."

Max paused to let the effect of his words sink in. He'd never given any kind of a speech to anyone before, even in the moments before a large battle back in Dryden. He'd always been in the audience, listening to the speeches given by Captain Aldman, or the General or the King. It felt odd to now to practically be in their shoes. However, he had to do what he had to do.

"Mikhail and myself intend for us to be the first, last, and best defense for the worlds against the Heartless. Naturally, it will be impossible to prevent them from taking every world at their whim, especially given our current numbers.

"That's where you come in, Sir Lucas," Max said, turning to the silver clad knight,"You are also one of Queen Minnie's retainers. I would ask that you request her support for us, if we should need it, which I'm sure we will.

"As for Myself, Mikhail, and you, Jack, the three of us will be going with the Atlantis expedition that just crashed here. I heard some of their crew members talking: Atlantis has a great source of power. If we could somehow get them to join us, or give us just a fraction of their power source, it would be a great benefit to us. I've got no doubt we could find a way to use something so powerful to our advantage against the Heartless."

Then, Max turned to the last two left, Shiro and Arthas. Their position was difficult, but he'd thought up a plan for them. It was difficult, and probably likely to fail, however....it was something they had to try.

"You two, Shiro and Arthas....I would like you both to work together and try to learn more about the Dark XII. It will be extremely difficult, as they guard their very existence tightly. Not many know about them," he told them, and then glanced over at Merlin and back,"I'm sure Merlin here would be able to at least provide you with a place to begin, if not more. He's very knowledgeable."

Max looked around for a few moments as he finished speaking, making sure his words had sunk in, and let out his breath which he hadn't even realized he'd been holding.

"Does anyone have any questions? Anything they'd like to say? Please, speak up."

((If you really want to join the thread, I see no problem with it. However, we shouldn't be expected to hunt down every single Guardian... having a notice posted in the organization's discussion board was enough))

Mikhail Rutherford wasn't having a good day.

A soft sigh escaped his lips while he pushed that gigantic pair of doors open, stripping himself from any sense of security as he walked away from the First District's warmth. Though his face remained as calm and emotionless as ever, there was a strange air of annoyance around him. The pyromancer glanced around, stealthily sneaking around the Third District. He held his trusted blade, Flame's End, tightly in his right handed grasp, just in case a Large Body or two decided to ambush him.

However with so many things floating around in that mind of his, there was only so much he could do regarding his very own safety. Oh yes, he was quite irritated. The man's usual cocky self was certainly unavailable at that time; how could she live nonchalantly, acting like a complete idiot?! He just didn't get it, he couldn't understand it.

Mikhail stopped, his hand now against a familiar looking door. It didn't take more than a single fireball for the path to become wide open. However, he couldn't concentrate on the Guardians meeting taking place in the hut resting beyond the door. The pyromancer had a bad feeling about Antique and her curious, happy-go-lucky self.

If something happened to her, he... he just...

Solving the stone puzzle once again didn't prove to be a problem, and the man soon found himself standing right in front of the hut. He certainly knew he was late, quite late, but at the same time he wasn't really eager to get overwhelmed with the responsibilities that lied ahead. Rutherford sighed; there was no turning back now, anyway.

Silently opening the door, he found himself in the middle of Max's speech. Shiro, Jack and Sir Lucas stood nearby, and Merlin himself sat on his armchair. Mikhail wasn't in the mood for silly greetings, and introducing himself again would be pretty much pointless.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

Unlike his usual self, the pyromancer planned to go straight to the point; he was not going to waste time listing his reasons. "Instead of trying to start another pointless investigation, we should go ahead and seek out more allies. We're quite a small force; exposing ourselves to the enemy now wouldn't be the best course of action."

"I visited a tropical world, Destiny Islands, some time ago, where I seeked out the keyblade wielders residing there. Unfortunately, they were nowhere to be found. I'm assuming that word of the current chaos reached their ears, leaving them with no choice but to travel once again. One of them, Sora, joined the Atlantis Expedition. I shall try to convince him to aid our cause."

"While Sir Lucas goes to strengthen our relations with Queen Minnie, I suggest that Shiro and Arthas go and seek recruits and allies. I'll leave the world choice up to you but I must say visiting the Pride Lands would be a good idea. I personally know their king as well as their princess so that could make things easier."

"But anyway, each of you has a voice. Any suggestions or comments are welcome." Mikhail closed his eyes for a moment, relaxing. It seemed that his previous irritation had died out... at least for now.

((Go ahead. However, this takes place while the Traverse Town Atlantis ship is being built/repaired/whatever and it might conflict with your timeline since Rosie and Halenito are helping in Radiant Garden.))

(not when they have access to dark portals. Besides, no one will complain about her taking a break.)
Darkness swirled and parted. A red haired girl stepped out, followed closely by a dark figure. Halen had sensed a gathering, and recognized a heart. Mikhail. So that meant that he was gathering his people, the Gaurdians. And he hadn't invited her. She looked around as Halen closed the portal. There was a house on an island across a lake. She eyed the water with apprehension. "Jeez, Halen, couldn't you get us closer?" He shook his head, and mimed punching. "Oh, you didn't want to start a fight." She stepped near the water, and the two small stepping stone's began shifting. "Well. Damn. Screw it. I'm not solving a timing puzzle." She dove into the water, and Halen slipped in after her. She swam the surprisingly warm water quickly. They reached the other side, and heard an owl hoot. "Either that's a bird, or an alarm," Rose said. She clambered out of the water, and Halen, performing a little black fire magic, dried her. She motioned, and he hid in her shadow. Then she pulled the door open, and stepped in. She glanced around, and said, "Hello Mikhail. Hello other people."