A campfire was on the verge of dying. More wood was quickly added as what little of the glow illuminated eight forms surrounding it. The darkness of the cavern echoed and fleeted as the fire regained its strength--the only other light was from moonbeams shooting though holes in the rocky ceiling. At last, the eight forms could clearly be seen...

"Another rampaging god? When will it end?" Complained a young man with long, blond hair (some of it braided) and short bangs; a stalactite in his hand that he used to poke at the fire with. He wore a pirate suit without the eye-patch. His name was Matt, and he was quite the avid sword collector. Many called him a thief, but he didn't give a damn--especially if the sword stolen was unique. He also used Bushido left and right despite this nature of robbery.

"I'm not sure, Matt. But we cannot give up now." Said a green-haired youth in a leather dress as she kicked a rock. She had a bow in one hand, and a pet green bush in the other. Her name was Anna, and she specialized in ranged attacks and nature, believe it or not. One time she was told she lived in a tree, which really wasn't that far from the truth. Behind her stood a robot-lumber hybrid fittingly named the Mighty Oak, who was keeping watch should something attack. Despite being the smallest of her group, she could do what the others couldn't (read as: climb three consecutive mountains and not be tired).

"She's right. Why do the girls keep growing more balls than us?" Chimed a man with short, scarlet-brown hair; keeping his gaze on a gunblade he was busy polishing. He, quite simply, dressed like a Nazi with a reverse swastika on a red sash wrapped around his arm--which was really the Buddhist symbol for peace. He had way too many guns on his person if you asked anybody else that wasn't a gun collector themselves. His name was Lance, and he had a war-tank equipped with machine guns, goddamn drills, satellites that could cause a solar-powered laser whose projector was in the far reaches of space (slightly past the moon!) to fry enemies when needed, laser cannons, more guns that could freeze anything not Ice-resistant quicker than the South Pole would, spikes on the front between the wheels that could slice and dice enemies whilst the tank simultaneously ran aforementioned enemies over, and fucking nukes. This tank was named the Valkyrie, and it also sometimes crashed onto enemies from the sky before Lance made it go boom. Don't worry, the damn thing was expendable. He also carried two-handed guns called blasters on his backside to perform even more variations of 'trigger happy' that could easily redefine Bullet Hell--which was actually the name of one of his fire-based skills!

"Why did it imprison GodCat?" Questioned a girl with red-orange hair with a sigh. She was dressed in holy robes complete with a priest hat and a staff with a blue crystal and white wings to match. Her name was Natalie, though she was often called Natz. She was the mage of the group, being able to use both black and white magic. She was also the target of Lance's...darker desires, though more often than not he got berated for it. The reason for this? She could buff her allies by doing a fanservicey pose. Not only did she look cute as all hell doing it, but it made men like her a LOT more and as an embarrassing result would flock to her like ducks heading south for the winter--whereupon she either ran away (far, FAR away) or called down heavenly thunder to fry them because of the unwanted attention she'd be getting, and Lance was no exception!

A blue cat with beady, black eyes and no legs to speak of meowed. His name was NoLegs. If you had a translator on hand, he would be saying 'to beat our behinds to kingdom come.'

Something stopped everything--an indescribable sound, most likely an echo, hit the ears of the group. Anna glanced around. Lance froze in place. Matt dropped the stalactite. Natalie glanced at NoLegs who meowed and cocked his head to the side.

Nothing. Nothing was there to ambush them...right?

A rock suddenly hit Matt on the side of his head and bounced off into the darkness. He shot straight up and drew a sword. "Who's there?! Show yourself!"

No answer, save for an echo mimicking/mocking his voice. The swordsman sat back down.

The room shook, causing some debris to rain from the ceiling. This made more holes for the moonlight to shine through.

"We shouldn't be here..." Natz cringed, hastily glancing around.

"Nonsense." Lance replied before another rock missed his head by mere inches, causing the hat to land between his feet. He too got up and looked around.

Once more was the darkness that greeted him. "Figures." He snorted before sitting back down, reclaiming his hat in doing so.

A third rock hit Anna right between the eyes. She shot up angrily and aimed her bow at Matt because the rock came from his direction.

"I swear, it wasn't me." Matt deadpanned, dropping the sword and holding both hands up nervously.

"I hope I don't end up half-blind." Anna hissed as she sat back down.

Footsteps echoed in the darkness.

Something was rapidly coming towards them.

They all got up hastily as something suddenly lunged at them from nowhere, Matt picking up his sword again.

Anna was sent to the sky right off the bat, she broke through the ceiling and there was a white star indicating she was now in space. The Mighty Oak soon followed.

"What--"

Lance was sent flying in the opposite direction, much like Anna. The Valkyrie went with him. Another gaping hole was in the ceiling.

Matt and Natz were sent in the same direction, clutching each other and yodeling like they were Team Rocket. NoLegs went with them in the same manner. A third hole appeared and the moon's light could've illuminated everything in place of the dying fire.

"A change in scenery would be nice." Hissed the thing that attacked them as it stomped out the campfire while admiring its handiwork.

____

Anna woke up in the arms of the Mighty Oak. Her vision was blurry and her breathing was rapid as if she survived a tsunami to the face.

"Ohhhh..... my....head....." Anna groaned, squinting both eyes shut in pain.

Her green bush sat on top of the Mighty Oak, and judging from its point of view, Anna was roughed up pretty bad. Nothing she couldn't handle, though. She helped to defeat both halves of the GodCat, creator--and destroyer--of the universe as she knew it.

Anna's eyes suddenly shot open as she cast a healing spell of her own. It revolved around plant magic, and she couldn't tell if she casted either Renew or Refresh--it was one or the other. Probably Renew since Refresh would've blessed her by now. The pain and bruises went away as the Oak gently lowered her to her feet. She picked up the bow and looked at her surroundings.

A forest of darkness. Thanks to her being a ranger, her eyes quickly adjusted to the dim lighting her surroundings had to offer. She was in a really high place in the sky-mountain earlier before she was sent to what was assumed to be Timbuktu. Something rustled in the bushes, and she immediately raised her Fairy Bow in a fighting stance and loaded some Spark Arrows, taking aim at the aforementioned rustling bushes.

"Wait! I am not dangerous!" Shouted a...tomboyish voice?

"Show yourself!" Anna said, taken aback as she withdrew her bow.

Out of the bushes walked a cyan...horse. It had a rainbow mane and rose irises. On its flank was a cloud with a tri-colored thunderbolt. Wings were visible on this creature.

"You're....a pegasus?" Asked the archery girl.

"Um, yeah. My name's Rainbow Dash." Replied the horse.

"I see. My name is Anna." Said nature woman as she shook hand with hoof.

"You need to get out of this forest. It's nighttime, and many monsters lurk about." Rainbow said.

"Listen, I don't know where I am at or what these monsters you talk about are. But I'll protect you if you're willing to lead." Anna responded as a manticore was going to make her a snack...before a Frost Arrow hit it square in the face and made it into a popsicle. She then flicked the ice with her fingers, much to Rainbow's shock. The ice fell off of the beast as it roared in pain and ran off into the darkness.

"So, where're you from?" Rainbow asked.

"We have to be in safety first before you can get even a smidgen of an explanation out of me, because it's a long story." Anna said with a groan of coherent boredom.

"What about that big tree and the bush with eyes?" Asked Rainbow.

"They're coming too. Don't worry, they're tame." Anna reassured as the pegasus led her, the bush, and the Mighty Oak onwards. She kept her bow at the ready should something else jump out. Once they reached a clearing, a purple horse greeted them. She had a horn, a darker purple mane with a fuchsia streak and a light purple star surrounded by five much smaller white stars on her flank.

"Who is this?" Asked the unicorn to Rainbow.

"Her name is Anna. She says we must be safe if we get an explanation out of her." Rainbow replied.

"I see her point. Let's go to the library." Said the unicorn, turning her flank to the archer.

"Wait." Anna said, holding a hand into the air as she looked into what little of the sky she could see. Shapes were passing by over the moon. Humans, or horse-like?

Then she saw the silhouette of a tank.

"I knew it." She sighed as she realized she'd have to save their asses again for the millionth time.

The bushes rustled, and out from the shadows the manticore rushed into battle once more. It was more than enraged now--in fact, the damn thing was endowed with the berserk status. Anna tried using a Frost Arrow once more, only...it became a regular arrow upon hitting the creature. It sent the beast running off again, but that wasn't the main issue.

"There is no way this is happening." Anna hissed. "We have to move to the library now!"

The horses, Anna, and the Oak all ran into the darkness, the bush sitting on the Oak's head.

And butted right into the manticore once more. It was much more angry now. Readying its poisonous scorpion stinger, it jumped at the green-haired archer with a deep, thunderous roar that shook the area around her and the horses.

"Stand back!" Anna cried as she lunged forward herself and grabbed the neck of the chimera-beast with her bare hands. Her bow was unceremoniously thrown onto the mossy, damp ground. The monster, now caught in a tight grip that held its windpipe in tow which caused it to be forced onto its hind legs, roared once more as it frantically tried swiping at the archer with its sharp, feline claws.

Rainbow and her unicorn friend found themselves backed flank to flank by two more manticores who were equally as pissed. Both beasts roared and howled as wolves with glowing lime eyes and bodies of twigs and leaves also entered the fray. There were precisely three of them.

The unicorn wanted to help, but backed off as the Mighty Oak crushed the sudden wave of enemies, save for the manticore that was trying to eat Anna.

Anna's eyes glowed evergreen as a runic circle appeared below her. "Mother Earth, aid me in this dark hour!" She bellowed, clearly straining her body and struggling to hold the beast any longer, "Make it so that this sour beast cannot harm anything more, be it hero or coward!"

The circle emitted a dome of light around archer and chimera and obscured all but their silhouettes from the sight of the horses and Oak. The manticore let off a final cry of pain as it was flung clean off the bush-tamer and into a tree headfirst. It died with a sickening crack. The dome and circle faded from the world. Anna nearly collapsed on her knees after a bit of stumbling backwards. She fell in such a way her hand rested on her bow. She glanced back at the horses with a reassuring nod and failed to notice the unicorn's jaw hanging open.