Another Year Goes By [Machinima]

[Fredrex00]

Suddenly the door to the room is kicked open by a robotic foot and out steps Great Mazinger. His arms are to the sides of his hips and he has a smirk on his face. Burning Gundam appears beside him, whispering to the bot, "You know...you could have been quieter about that..."

Great Mazinger laughs and grabs the Gundam in a headlock. "Nonsense!! Its a party! Its time to relax a bit!! BWAAHAHAHAHA!!" he barks. Burning Gundam sighs, muttering to himself, "I think you don't any parting...you're already drunk..."

Great Mazinger then lets go of Burning Gundam and looks to everyone at the party. "We picked this guy up on the way here. Seems pretty cool." He says using his thumb to point behind him. A red machine steps up from behind him, his arms crossed and the same kind of smirk that was on the Mazinger on the red machine's face. "His name's Gurren Lagann. Hope you guys get to know 'em!"

Gurren Lagann just does a hand motion and says, "Yo" in a low voice. He looks to see Solranous and points at him. "Hey! You're the guy that helped out with the Anti-Spiral attack a few weeks back!" He says in a happy voice.

"Well, I see you've gotten to know some people here!" Great Mazinger chuckles then rubs his palms together, muttering in a drinking addict voice, "Now...where's the booze?"

Burning Gundam comes into the room, his head slightly hanging down. He went to go sit down next to where Sol and the others were, hoping to get away from Great Mazinger's drunken quest to find booze.

Gurren Lagann follows the suit by walking up to Solranous and holding out his hand. "I don't think we got to introduce ourselves properly. Name's Gurren Lagann. Nice to meet you!"

[shdwdrgn]

Shiryu stands amazed at the entrance the supposedly drunk robo had made just now. Just then he remembered his Flame Dagger that was given to him by Draco.

"Well that was quite an entrance. Hey Sol what do you make of this blade that I received recently from a Wolf Anthro named Draco before we fought with Khimera. It seems like I could turn it into something greater if I use a bit of my reiatsu to morph it. Any clue as to its potential?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mercurio was still sitting over at the table with ingram when the robots burst into the room. She gasped as the door was torn down.

"What a shame and it looked so good too."

She then pulled out her rose of fire and slowly turned it around between her thumb and forefinger admiring its radiant beauty.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Solranous nodded with a smile, "A pleasure returned, Gurren. I'm Solranous. It seems I meet most of my friends as allies side-by-side on the field of battle. An ironic coincidence, don't you think?" the dragon replied.

"Oi, Sol, just how much danger can you get yourself into in a year? Especially without any of us knowing!" Kisara said to/yelled at the dragon, making him cringe and chuckle nervously.

"Uh... about that..." Solranous began. At this, Kisara snapped, and everybody in the room was startled by the sudden shout.

"Solranous, I swear if you're going to tell me that you narrowly avoided dying AGAIN- Ack!" Kisara was rudely interrupted as the two Myrrs pulled her away from a surprisingly cowering emerald wyrm. After making sure that Kisara wouldn't be coming after him all of a sudden to chew his head off for the amount of danger he got into, the dragon regained his normal composure and sighed.

He turned to Shiryu as the reaper asked his question, and took the dagger Shiryu had to inspect it more closely.

"Hmm... the energies are somewhat different... but it essentially works on the same property as my Zanpoktou, Kizoku. You should be able to freely morph it into many different weapons, with enough control over the specific energy type. If you need help figuring out how, I could help." Solranous paused for a bit, nibbling his lower lip.

"In fact, you may be able to do more with it then what I have described... once you can tap into the energy that makes up things like this, you can do almost anything with it, even going so far as to summon it to you if you find yourself seperated from it. at any point."

Cynder just stared as Solranous replied to Shiryu, blinking dumble because she didn't know about what was being discussed.

[shdwdrgn]

"Well I guess that Kisara doesn't take your fighting too well from what I see. Mercurio's the same way. Anyways I think this little dagger could be quite useful."

He accepted the dagger back from Sol and then pushed a bit of his reiatsu into the dagger causing it to become a black flame rather than a normal red flame. After taking notice of this he put it away.

"Well I have a favor to ask of you after this party is over I would like to train with you to try and control the Spirit Rage you saw earlier before it gets out of control."

[Talon]

After consuming his fourth plate of food, Shive blankly watched the two Myrr's hall away Kisara, then shrugged, making his way to where the others all seemed to be congregating, then sat down near Sol, shaking his head and smirking.

"Getting chewed out?" He asked sarcastically.

Mortis sighed, and followed suit, touching down on the seat next to Cynder, eye twitching slightly.

"Hey..." He sighed to the onyx dragoness.

Ryouki had slinked his way over to the bots, chuckling at Great's drunken stupor as he did so. He then tapped the Mazinger on the shoulder, then nodded to the bar, grunting before he exited the room,

"I do believe O'Malley has you covered, Great."

Garrett noted the bots coming in, then grunted, leaning back in his chair. He began chewing on his lip as he recalled what the bots had experienced not a few weeks back, and he sighed, muttering to himself. Meanwhile, Ingram blinked at the bot's intrudence, then turned back to Mercurio and replied,

"I suppose it's an interesting color... but it's natural to me. I don't believe we've met..."

ZX-Tole took a seat at Garrett's table, nodding to the teen and asked,

"So... 'you the kid that used to be a Guyver?"

Garrett's eyes widened, then narrowed as he muttered,

"Yeah..."

ZX-Tole simply nodded, saying nothing. Lastly, Lora was now slumped over her table, staring at its surface with a somewhat-saddened look on her face. A hand laid on her shoulder, and she jumped before whirling around, finding a familiar LED-like eye staring back at her.

"O'Malley...!" She muttered in surprise.

The bot's tail swayed as he took a seat next to Lora, eye sweeping the area before he asked,

"So... what seems to be the problem?"

Lora blinked, then leaned away from him, muttering,

"Problem? There's no-"

"Lora... you should know better than to lie to me."

She sighed, looking away. Meanwhile, outside of the base, Ryouki and Nocturn were discussing... something, until Nocturn acted as if he'd heard something, and glanced at the base.

"Five more minutes, eh?"

[Fredrex00]

Great Mazinger cackles and zooms towards the bar. He grabs everything he can and begins to chug all the alcohol he can. He continues laughing as he drinks more and more. Burning Gundam lowers his head in shame, embarrassed that he knew the Mazinger. Gurren Lagann notices it and pats Burning on the shoulder. "Ah, he's just having some fun. I mean, its almost a New Year, gotta party hard before the new year arrives." the robot says in a reassuring manner.

Burning Gundam looks to Gurren Lagann and mutters, "But...I'm just surprised he's even happy now. Especially after what happened to-" The Gundam is interrupted by the raised hand of Gurren. The super robot shakes his head, meaning to not speak of the incident. The Gundam once again lowers his head in shame, almost silently muttering "I'm sorry.."

"Nothing to be sorry for friend!" Gurren Lagann says with a smile on his face. Burning Gundam chuckles for a bit and the sadness disappeared from him. Gurren Lagann stands up and stretches. "I'm going to the roof. Gotta get some air."

Burning Gundam nods and watches the red robot walk up the stairs to the roof. There is suddenly a small crash and the Gundam turns to see Great Mazinger fallen over in a drunken stooper. The robot is laughing in an almost insane manner. Burning Gundam rushes over and buts the bot into a seat. The super robot continues laughing and drinking in his seat, teater-tottering from side to side in his seat.

Burning Gundam sighs and laughs, "I'll never understand you and your alcohol, Great Mazinger..."

[shdwdrgn]

Mercurio was shocked that she had actually forgotten to introduce herself.

"Oh I'm so sorry my name is Mercurio I'm with the Shiryu, the guy over talking with Solranous. We're new here in Nightshade so we haven't met many people yet. Ooh is that robot over there next to that lady the one called O'Malley that threw this party together?"

She set the rose on the table while she was talking with the Blue haored man. Taking in the sights and sounds of the party at Machinima.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shiryu looked at Shive who had swept the tables clean several times before amazed that his gut had hardly expanded.

"Looks like we are joined by the master of the iron gut technique. You have quite the appetite there friend. We haven't met before so let me introduce myself. The name's Shiryu I just arrived here in Nightshade a few weeks ago."

He held out his hand to the new member at the table for a hand shake.

[Azure_Ghidorah]

"Must you point out the obvious..." Solranous grumbled to Shive, annoyed that he was actually afraid when Kisara started rampaging, as it were, if only verbally. Solranous then nodded to Shiryu, "Certainly, I'll help you master it, I'll have recovered my energy more then adequately by the time this party is over."

The dragon stretched his neck back, satisfied at hearing a few 'pops' before returning to normal.

Cynder turned to the azure wyrmling she felt she could relate to, noticing his condition. "Hey yourself..." She replied. She then glanced over at the others, before whispering to Mortis, "You wanna go somewhere quieter and talk? So we aren't over heard? You look like you've got a lot on your mind."

[Talon]

Ingram blinked, glancing at O'Malley, then nodded slowly.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mercurio, I'm known as Ingram Plisken, or Astranagant in combat. And yes, that would be O'Malley, the propieter of Machinima."

Shive laughed, then abruptly fell silent and nodded.

"I have to point out the obvious; otherwise I won't know it's obvious." He stated in response.

The dragonkin then turned to Shiryu and wrapped his hand around the Reaper's hand completely, then carefully shook it, replying with a laugh,

"Nice to meet ya, Shiryu! Name's Shive, and I can do a hell of a lot more than just eat!"

Mortis slowly nodded at Cynder's question, and slinked to a table far away from the others, and as soon as they both sat down, he slammed his chin down on the table and gave a heavy sigh, muttering,

"Seems I've been made a tool again... s'worse this time, apparently... he's 'upgraded' me..."

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Cynder cringed at the thought of what 'upgraded' could mean. She didn't know what to say, so she merely drew close and wrapped not one, but both wings around the other wyrmling.

Solranous, meanwhile laughed to Shive's responses, both to himself and the Reaper. "I'll tell ya now Shiryu, he's being completely honest when he says that, I've seen him fight before..." the emerald wyrm commented. However, he noticed that the two wyrmlings had 'abandoned' them, and noticed the state they were in.

"Shive... You've noticed how Mortis is acting lately? He doesn't seem to well, from what I see..." Solranous asked the dragonkin through telepathy.

[Talon]

Mortis simply sighed and leaned into Cynder, rubbing his cheek against her forehead as he muttered,

"I have almost no control over that form now... and he'll just randomly force it at times..."

He appeared to wince, then added,

"...I'm so thankful to have you here..."

Shive mentally sighed to Solranous, then replied,

Yeah... a certain 'someone' has reinstated his control over him... seems to be worse this time around, however... I wouldn't mention anything about it to him right now, the 'wounds' are still rather fresh.

Meanwhile, Lora looked back up at O'Malley, and muttered,

"I'll... I'll tell you after the party. I don't want anyone else listening in..."

[Azure_Ghidorah]

Cynder sighed as she practically clung to Mortis.

"I'll always be there, no matter how much you change." the onyx wyrmling whispered to what was essentially her azure counterpart now.

Solranous grimaced when Shive responded.

'When will it stop?' he wondered to himself, 'When will evil stop going to such lengths...?'

However, something caught his attention. A new mental pattern, a signiture he knew he had never sensed before now, along with a familiar, but potentially altered one.

"A new comer?" Solranous asked in a low whisper, "And Artecaex too... It'll be nice to see him... and I'm curious at who he found.

Kisara sighed, wondering if O'Malley would let her start a little karioke like at the party held at Solranous' place. Without anyone's notice, she got the two Myrr's and started talking about how they could get karioke going, in the hopes it would sprout some life to the party again, which was dying way too fast for their tastes.

[shdwdrgn]

Shiryu sharpened his hearing and caught part of the conversation that Kisara had started with Myrr and Xeno. He silently levitated the microphone over to their group with a small smile on his face.

"Well Sol thanks for all the help you're giving me. It's really appreciated. It seems that the party's entertainment might be kicking up here soon. We seem to be getting many newcomers as of late. Also I do believe I haven't met this Artecaex you speek of."

[zachjack77]

?I'm not doing to well at this party am I? Zeke thought to himself. ?I haven't even begun to understand half of what most of these folks are talking about and Quick keeps stealing food off of people's plates. The last thing I want is for him to start a fight here." Saying this he couldn't help but notice how close Quicksilver was getting to where the robot they called Great something or another was drinking...

[Talon]

Mortis sighed, simply enjoying the company he got from his black counterpart as he mutered in a hoarse tone,

"And I thank you for it..."

Shive grimaced, replying to Sol,

It won't stop, so long as evil exists. And sadly, it will always exist... as long as good does, as long as chaos and law continue their futile war against one another...

It was then that Artecaex stepped into the room, with Kyokan in behind as he mentally informed the Eva,

Green one that looks like me. He'll help.

He then glanced at Sol without slowing,

Hey Sol. New guy wants to talk to ya.

He took up a seat at Garrett's table, which seemed to lighten the teen's mood after what ZX-Tole asked. Meanwhile, O'Malley glanced around at the party goers, mentally scowling, then leaned over to Lora and asked in a low tone,

"What say you... we give them what they came for?"

Lora nodded, her mood lightening as she glanced up at the television screens and replied,

"Even if they don't know why they came...?"

O'Malley nodded, then casually made his way to the stage, whereupon a cord shot out of the stage floor, and O'Malley snatched it out of the air, hooking it into the back of his neck. His voice then echoed over the speakers in the room,

"I'd like to thank everyone for coming tonight, it means a lot to us at Machinima. I know it's been a rough year on us all, but that's why this party is being thrown..."

The screens all flickered on as O'Malley continued,

"That's right... we're here to honor you, the warriors of Nightshade- hell, at this point, the world, as you've started to be called here. Even I, the resident assh*le, wants to thank you all."

The screens all snapped up the same picture, that of O'Malley in his human guise, walking down the street with a microphone as the camera man followed him.

((Television screen))

"The Paranormal. Anywhere else, this subject is rarely touched. In Nightshade, however, it's one of the biggest things around. Sightings and reports of some of the strangest sh*t can be found all over the media, in newspaper, on local websites, etc. Let's ask some of the locals about their encounters, and what they have to say, shall we?"

Over the next hour, O'Malley and several other droids disguised as humans asked random people on the street, in offices, and at their homes. Some of the responses were:

"Yeah, I saw some creepy bat-thing take out several cows on a trip outside a town... damn that thing could eat!"

"I saw a pair of what I coulda sworn were dragons hanging in a tree... one of 'em was black, the other one was blue- can you believe that?! I couldn't!"

"About a year 'nd a half ago, I coulda sworn some black guy and a big green dragon-thing were wailing on some white spikey thing outside my apartment window!"

"Yeah, few weeks back, looked like some huge-friggin lizard was racin' through downtown! Someone was riding the thing, too!"

"I dunno if it was some wierdos cosplaying or something, but I swore I saw a buncha 10-foot robots stomping around the power plant!"

"Saw what looked like a big bug up in the forest the other day... I'm afraid to go back up!"

O'Malley then began asking another question:

"And what would you say... if you knew these things, the ones we usually see, were protecting us from the worse things out there?"

Some responses were:

"There are worse things out there?"

"Hell, if that was true, I'd tell 'em to keep doin' their job! I haven't really seen anything bad out of 'em anyway..."

"I'd have to take a look at what the 'bad ones' were, heh."

"I'd thank 'em!"

"I'd probably thank them."

"I'd tell 'em this: Keep doin' what you're doin'! Maybe someday we can learn to see ya for what you really are!"

"I'd buy 'em a drink."

"We'd like to thank 'em."

The last people asked were a pair of familiar faces around Nightshade, Lora herself and Garrett.

"I'd do all I could... to tell them that what they do is most likely... well, the best thing anyone's done in ages on this planet. I'd tell them to keep it up, even if it's a hard and thankless job..." Lora stated.

"I'd thank them personally; hell, if I could, I'd be there fighting with 'em! They're setting an example for all mankind! I wish they'd get paid for doing what they do!"

After the interviews were over, the video swapped to a slideshow of blurry pictures (assumingly taken by more citizens) and some of which were recorded videos, of the various 'odd' members of Nightshade: Kiva at the graveyard, a picture of Shive's back as he rooted through someone's trash, a night-vision image of a distant shape assumed to be Hollow Cynder near the lake, a snap-shot of Great Mazinger at the cliffs, giving a salute to the photo-taker, a blurred pic of Solranous at the Abandonded District, a short phone-clip of Varion/Garrett beating up a Xenolith, a stoplight image of Onyste & Kisara rushing down the street, and dozens of other similar images & short videos.

((Back in current setting))

The screens all flickered to a solid blue as the video ended, and O'Malley turned back at the audience, noting quite a few different reactions.

"Just thought I'd show you how the populous reacts to us..." He chimed.

Shive promptly fell out of his chair.