Chaos of the MYTH

Welcome to the MYTH.

Or perhaps not welcome, so much, as you have always been part of the MYTH. We all are, even if we are not aware of it. The vibrant multiverse of thousands and thousands of worlds, some connected to others and some floating alone in the primal seas. But all worlds are linked by one thing - the World Thread, which ties them all to the Hub, the first world and the centre of the swirling nebula of the MYTH.

The Hub is a vast world, where the Council lives. They are the forces behind everything in the Hub and masters if all the other worlds, observing sight unseen via the Thread. The Council are temperamental and mercurial, often conflicting and allying with other members, sometimes causes worlds to collide in vibrant bursts of activity then split off again like nothing ever happened.

You do not know of the Council, but they know of you. You live in one of the many worlds of the MYTH, content (or not so much) with your life in that reality. But then, one day, the Thread started to expand, at first still invisible and intangible, but soon manifesting as a torrent of blazing energy at the centre of your world. And then, it plucked you up in its silver flames, pulling you through to the Hub. Why it chose you may be a mystery to you, but you were in some way important to your homeworld. The Council chose you, and now you are here.

----

You appear in the Hub in front of the vast tower that houses the Council, inside a courtyard attended to by a pair of men, one tall and dark-skinned with silvery hair and blinding white wings, the other shorter and pale, with flaming red hair and matching wings. They do not speak, but will sometimes smile at the gathering before them of all kinds, great and small. When the final player in this cosmic game appears, they finally speak, the tall man stepping forward.

"You are called before the Council of MYTH for a special purpose. A dark shadow is looming over the Hub, which holds all your worlds together."

The other man steps forward, smirking, and finishes where the other left off.

"You must take up a sigil of power to combat this darkness, for in your worlds you were great heroes, worthy of mighty power now. So step forward now, before the Council, and take your destiny in your hands."

And so, one by one, you are lead before the Council, in the vast chamber, their thrones so high you cannot see their faces, but some blaze with crimson flame and other sit in great cradles of vines... Then a voice booms your name and the shining Sigil appears before you, becoming you to just reach out, take your prize, face the darkness so you may claim your great reward...

----

The Council tower is a vast building, built into the side of a mountain that rises over a vast city, guarded by powerful magic to keep it hidden. You appeared here, in the courtyard outside, and now you are inside the Council's room. The walls go up higher than you can see well, with seats in the walls, most of them that you can see occupied by all kinds of people. A man wreathed in flame, a woman wrapped in vines, and many more.

One figure is standing in the front of the group now gathered, his long, white robes shining, broken only by a purple sash wrapped around his body. The man smiles out from under his sandy blond hair, watching the gathered group of heroes. He finally speaks when all have gathered.

"It's good to see you all now, in our time of great need. Our world thread is in danger, and you are all that stands between it and total destruction. The thread, which I do not expect you to have heard of, is what binds all of our worlds, called the MYTH, together. All of our homes are in danger now, from a great evil, we we have pulled you through the thread to combat it.

Look at the Sigils your now hold in your hands. These are your greatest weapons in this fight against the force wanting to destroy us. This force has even summoned its own warriors to work for its own dark cause, so be wary. Any questions?"

---

Finn watched the strange man talk from the front of the group, blue eyes wide, still trying to get used to this place. He missed Ooo (and Jake) a whole lot already, but the promise of fighting evil was exciting. He just hoped he could go back home after. He squeezed the pommel of his sword in his hands, the blade itself resting on the ground, being much taller than its wielder.

He looked around for a moment, then scratched the side of his head, frowning. What a strange group of people (not like he wasn't used to that), though many of them appeared to look like him...! He would have to find out later.

Striking a match over his arm, he bites the end of a cigar and lights it as the Priest before him mentioned their overall mission and why they were here. From what he could gather, the multiverse or whatever was in danger and they were called on like the cavalry. Nothing all that new to him really, hell he was used to his world being in danger to the point of it almost ending.

snuffing the match and flicking it on the floor before him, he takes a look at the thrones and people sitting in them with a almost amused look on his face. Of all the places he thought he would end up, a tower filled with some bunch of punks and old guys claiming to be some kind of important gathering was the bottom of the list.

"So these forces you are going up against. I take it they are too much of a threat for all you. So you called on...lets see here. A little boy, some little girl that feels like a vampire. A squirrel, Wombat. A one-eyed woman, and some pretty boy with a sword...and lets not forget, a ugly son of a bitch bastard that is me. You must be desperate if you called us in, Priest"

Makoto stared at the sigil she held in her hand. It looked rather insignificant, but she sensed a mysterious power from it. While she could ask the priest, as the big red guy referred to him as, and he certainly looked the part, what the sigil did, Makoto had the feeling that they were supposed to find out in their own time.

Looking around, it turned out the big red guy also gave an apt description of the group gathered in front of the celestial thrones. Of course, Makoto wasn't one to judge. If she was called upon, then Makoto had no reason to doubt the others around her now were just as powerful, if not more so.

In fact, now I have to wonder, why me? Why not... Tsubaki? She's always about justice and all that, Makoto thought, Oh well, I'm here now.

"So... what exactly are we going to do?", Makoto asked of the priest-looking man in front of the group, "Or rather, how are we going to fight these dark forces?"

The "pretty boy with a sword" in question was currently examining said blade. It was a habit he'd taken to in recent times, looking his summoned weapons over so he could imagine how they would look dyed red with the blood of others. Such a glorious color it always would be; the thought of that color titillated him time and again.

The demon known as Ghirahim looked up at that red creature, a contemplative look on his face. He himself had no idea why this council had called in him of all beings, a Demon Lord. In that previous land he had resided, he was known as three different things: the unforgiving master of all those creatures on the surface, the demon that constantly sought after that sky girl, in doing so facing another sky child - one that was certainly stupid enough to challenge him time and again. As for the third, that was what he was the most proud of: the glorious weapon of the Demon King, the blade that slew countless servants of the Goddess.

None of those exactly sang "savior of this Myth thing," now did they?

Ghirahim considered voicing as much, but thought better of it. For all he knew, this council had picked him on accident, mistaking him for... the sky child, perhaps. An outlandish mistake, considering my own beauty and the sky child's hideousness... but it's something I'll let slide. If they had been mistaken in choosing him, he certainly wasn't going to try and correct their decision and risk being cast back to... wherever it was they'd called him from in the first place.

No, Ghirahim was going to just stay put and see if this council realized their mistake on their own. He hoped they didn't; it would be cause for so many frowns if he had to leave without being able to impale even one creature.

The man smiled softly and watched the group as a few spoke, before holding up a gloved hand at about his eye level, palm up.

"Please child, call me Peter. And as for your questions... You will go forth and defeat the five generals the Evil One has summoned to attack the Thread - I know not their names, but only what they are known as. The Adversary, the Chaotic, the Judge, the Undead, and the Watcher. You were chosen for bearing a strong trait that would make a powerful Sigil to combat these evils. Anything else?"

Finn frowned, scrunching up his face a bit, as he tried to process all that. But hey, fighting evil! The boy grinned and gave a bit of a cheer, hefting the massive red sword over his head, blade pointed at the roof.

"Haha! Yeah, this will be easy! No need to worry, the Hero of Ooo is here!"

Peter didn't respond, but regarded the young boy with a soft expression.

Doctor Horrible was deep in thought, processing this information.

"They don't even stand a chance," he finally muttered. "I'm not letting them achieve my dream."

He glanced over the sigil in his gloved right hand.

"So what do those five generals do?" he asked. "Do you even know?"

Flandre stared down at her sigil curiously, turning it over and over in her tiny hands. Somewhere in that fluffy head of hers she did register the irony of her, a vampire, getting the sigil of Light. Light was a thing that, for the most part, caused her pain, but maybe this would fix that.

That train of thought, however, was quickly derailed as she looked back up to see the very strange gathering of people that had amassed. She made a soft sound and floated over, hovering just above the ground. Not like she wasn't used to seeing strange people, but even these were different. Why, some of them were actually male!

"This is exciting!" she said, raising her altitude and fluttering around everyone's heads, "Uuuh... I can try to do that stuff. Yeah. It'll be fun." Her words started to drift off and become quieter as she took to playing with her sigil again.

Cloud eyed the sigil in his hand again, after listening to this man... Peter, he'd said his name was. Cloud looked up again, his face almost emotionless, but his eyes showing a kind of curiosity. There was also some sadness deeper down. He'd been drawn away in a time of peace and comfort only to return to the chaos he'd finally averted, in some ways.

His thoughts went back to those he'd been drawn away from, their faces giving him both sorrow, and comfort. He knew that they'd probably be looking for him, waiting for him, but he though of how they'd feel now that he was in this... place.

He looked one more time at the sigil. A heart... a sigil of heart. Somehow this was fitting... his emotional turmoils often gave him strength, and he didn't always work with his head first. He decided he'd let the others talk about the situation, though, instead of questioning things. At least, not yet.

Sophie glanced at the Sigil in her hand. Compassion...it had taken her a while to understand Lambda, and she had been prepared to destroy him (and herself with him) without even trying to understand him. Asbel had been the compassionate one, not her...

Of course, now wasn't the time for doubting herself. Her previous mission had been fulfilled, albeit in a far different way than expected, and now she had a new one: protect Ephinea, Fodra, and all these other worlds from whatever threatened them, with this Sigil.

Sophie glanced around the room, listening to the voices of her fellow heroes. Some seemed worried or skeptical; others seemed very excited. (One boy's proclamation reminded her of Asbel's optimism, prompting a smile) She didn't say anything yet, content just to get a feel for her future companions by listening to them.

Digger was not in a good mood.

It all felt like the beginning of a recurring nightmare, she thought with a paw to her face in exasperation. She had been doing her job (although admittedly she had been helping Trader Manuel, but there had been tunneling involved so) and quite through no fault of her own she had ended up in some dumb place full of magic. Of course, the last time this has happened to her she had made friends, and it had been, maybe at certain parts, fulfilling, but that didn't mean she wanted to be ripped from her happy little life again. Not after how the last time ended, anyway...

This whole damned place seemed to be held up by magic and wishful thinking. The architecture was nice but it was probably similar to that of dwarves; sneeze in the wrong lunar phase and all of a sudden the walls crumble as the mortar turns to cheese.

Well, Mother always said not to throw stones at people who weren't rockheaded. Best to see if they could just send her home, or at the least get this glowing triangle away from her without it exploding and turning her into an earthworm.

"Hey, Pete, I've got some questions. One, how do I opt out, two, how do I get this magic junk away from me, and three, who gave you permission to kidnap me? My mother will be worried sick, it's only been three months since the last time this happened to me."

Digger ducked slightly as a human girl floated past. More magic, more problems, more headaches.

"Peter huh...not uncommon for a Priest. More so when he seems to be the mouth piece for gods or the like." he muttered, looking around the room a little more. Glancing down to his right arm, he studies the sigil that embedded itself into it, finding a home as if it worried about being lost.

Magic. Just any other day then.

He then watched the little girl float by, the feeling that she was a vampire still in his mind. But who was he to judge, he is literally a demon summoned from hell to end the world. He then watched the little boy hold up his red sword, looking like he was excited to get to battle against these forces that were too much for this council of gods.

Had to admire the kid's spunk, but he wasn't all that bright.

"Alright, Peter. Where do we start. I have places to be after this."

Turning to the man who just asked what these generals did, Makoto interjected, "Well, I get this feeling that their names will give us an idea of what they do... Although now that I think about it, their nicknames are pretty vague in this department. I guess not every supervillain can be straightforward..."

Makoto then looked back at the little Sigil in her hand. It depicted a little bull head with little white dots on it.

Raising it towards Peter, Makoto then asked, "So, Pete, if I can call you that, what the heck do these little things do, exactly? You said they were made with some sort of strong trait we have. Is this based on my astonishing charm~?"

With her military jacket on, Makoto was not exactly dressed to show off. She stuck her tongue out and said, "Just kiddin'!"

Ghirahim glanced nonchalantly at the symbol imbedded into the backof his glove. The symbol reminded him somewhat of a serpent, perhaps another one of those repulsive dragons that served the Goddess. When it had been first bestowed on him, he was told what it was capable of giving him, and that thought filled him with a - pardon the pun - newfound burning passion for causing all sorts of new pain. Granted, he didn't yet have a chance to test this power, but something told him the opportunity would present itself to him in due time. That would be something very much worth lookin forward to.

Then that red one spoke up again, asking when this entire crusade would begin. A faint smile flickered on the Demon's features before he himself spoke up: "I agree with the bulky red fellow here," he said in a singsong tone, letting the sword in his hands disintegrate into diamonds as he spoke, "we are wasting so much time standing here when your precious, precious Myth is withering away. If it's all the same to you I'd like to get this little show on the road and go and find the first... general, was it? If they are the cause behind all this fuss as you said, then standing around here won't really make any of you happy, now will it?"

Flandre was now floating upside down, some sort of magical... something keeping her dress from flopping down over her face. The gems on her "wings" clattered against each other, chiming softly. She smiled, showing off a rather impressive set of fangs. She drifted over to the... odd white-haired fellow that was speaking.

"You're in a hurry." She said, her tone light as she clearly wasn't grasping the gravity of the situation. Or maybe it was that she was just so overwhelmingly happy to be somewhere that wasn't that stuffy old basement. "You're all in such a hurry. We don't even know all of what's going on... and something tells me not everyone's here yet. So let's give a chance to meet everyone, okay~?"

She giggled and flittered off, righting herself and continuing to take good long looks (and on occasion, sniffs) at everyone.

Smoothing out his purple sash, Peter's smile weavers for a moment before he renews it with quiet dignity. He looks to the ones before him, then down at the one that asked how they can get out of their duty to help the worlds and dismiss their sigil. With a slight frown, he looks down at him, folding his arms behind him. "I'm afraid there is no way out, now that the battle is joined. The world outside sleeps, waiting for her heroes, and it's up to you to now - we are powerless against this darkness."

He then looks to the one that had turned his sword into diamonds. Unimpressed by this, seeing such magics on a daily bases, he withdraws his gloved hands and holds them out palm up, his smile returning but looking a tad worried now. "We know very little about the generals, but I do know where they have taken up bases - the closest to here is the Judge, who has taken an old storage warehouse."

He then lowers his hands and turns to the council and where they sit, a flicker of a questioning glance to them. After a moment of silence, he looks back to the supposed heroes that were brought to fight and protect the world thread.

"As for your comment...you do not seem to realize, Demon, that if this place falls so does all the other worlds. Think as you may, failing here and not truly taking this seriously will not help anyone in the long run...no matter where your alignment may rest in your worlds."

There came a point at which the situation was so weird that the only possible response was, You know what, fuck this, I'm just going to accept it. The alternative was a total shutdown of all mental functions.

Which was why, after learning that his universe was one of thousands upon thousands, each universe having, instead of pokémon, various magics and talking bipedal wombats (...was that a pickaxe), Ghetsis Harmonia was able to step back and analyse the situation and how he could use it instead of being overwhelmed by a myriad existential questions.

His "Sigil of Ambition" rested against a sweaty palm, and his only remaining companion, Hydreigon, hovered behind him, ever loyal. They were the only sources of power Ghetsis had to his name; even his vast knowledge of Unovan mythology would be useless here. But, well, that was little different from the past year.

"It seems to me," Ghetsis said, "that we should be collecting as much information as possible. My first question is an obvious one - I'd like to hear more about these 'sigils' you've given us. If these are truly our greatest weapons, we'll have to know everything we can. How do they work? What can they do? How powerful can they become?"

Cloud looked up again, first at the red demon and the white-haired one, then to the girl, who... had fangs? That was something he hadn't expected, and he quickly decided not to dwell on it, looking to Peter as he talked again. The first general was revealed now, but the girl was right, they couldn't rush this. The green-haired man then asked about the sigils, and Cloud for once felt like a reasonable question was asked, and that someone had some sense here.

He looked back to Peter, his face still fairly emotionless, but a serious curiosity in his eyes again, and he tilted his head a bit. "The question asked by the green-haired one... I'd also like to know. What are these sigils other than magic objects? You seem to have given a different one to each of us. What do they do?" He asked calmly.

A dark shadow emerged from the corner of the room and sighed holding the sigil in his hand, flipping it between his fingers, "So is that all?" his voice was deep and slightly raspy, "Help you and then go home? Where we go back to our normal lives?" he sighed at that thought.

No sooner did that Peter fellow explain just what was at stake did the faint smile fade from Ghirahim's features, if only for an instant. Now it made sense, why he'd been brought here despite not meeting the so-called "heroic" qualifications: this council was appealing to the nature of his belief that he only need serve himself and the Demon King. And neither would be able to cloak the world in darkness, death, and all those other wonderful things if the world wasn't there to begin with. "Well, there's certainly no accounting for taste," he said, his arrogant demeanor returning, "if you didn't choose us based on our heroism, it's rather obvious that you chose us based on our..." he gave his arms a dramatic look, eyes finally resting on the sigil again "...better qualities. Such as, say, our ability to slaughter each and every one of those generals and whoever they happen to hold sway over? Am I on the right track?"

It was then that he saw the small winged (and also fanged) girl fluttering about nearby him. His initial enticement with the diamonds on the length of her wings was quickly dispelled with her rather... inept demeanor. He was about to give a scathing retort to what she had said - something likely involving her being the test subject of his newest powers - but she flittered off before he could say anything at all. "Bah," he hissed, "another insolent child that's going to be in my hair now. Oh how wonderful." Although... she would certainly make an even better test dummy for the powers of these Generals before we are to face off against them... and assuming she survives whatever pain the first one throws at her, she'll be another instrument to use against the next one, and so on and so forth until her corpse is mangled by our foes, Ghirahim licked his lips at these thoughts, so it will be in the collective interests of... myself to keep her alive until the Generals.

Lowering his hands and clasping them together, Peter pondered for a moment at the people before him, especially the white-haired one. He gave a rather strained-looking smile, before motioning one hand upwards again, toward the shadowed Council.

"Your sigils are gifts from the Council, and contain your powers, which we have already explained to you. If you lose your sigil, you lose your power, so hold them close, though they won't go easily, having bonded to your very souls, and if stolen will try and return to you.

Some of you have a 'passive' power, always being active, such as yours, Finn the Human, and Ghetsis Harmonia. Others will need to be activated, by concentrating hard enough on channeling power to the sigil, or calling its name. Your sigils will get stronger as you defeat more generals.

As well, keep in mind that this world will have different...rules than your own. Some of you may come from places where you can shrug off attacks and wounds with ease, or there are special forces at work, but the case is not the same here. Be careful, shadows lurk here, waiting to taste you.

The first general, the Judge, was born from the shadows of the twisted mind, and will be very dangerous, so be wary."

Finn shifted on his feet a bit when his name was mentioned, scraping his sword on the floor a bit. How could this place differ from Ooo? Well, aside from the obvious lack of nature that seemed to be here, which was a bit odd. And this place kinda looked like some of the ruins he saw back home. This would be interesting. He turned to face the group, swinging his sword overhead again.

"My little...thingy says that I can make you guys fight better! Isn't that awesome!? Yeaaaah! We can do this! For Ooo! and for, uh... wherever you're from!" he cheered, pumping his free hand in the air, the other still holding the huge sword up.

Peter couldn't help but chuckle.