Subj:	 [ffml] [HD] Cataclysm
Date:	01-01-27 10:57:30 EST
From:	dshumate@bbtel.com (Arcanis)
Reply-to:	ffml@yahoogroups.com
To:	ffml@yahoogroups.com (Final Fantasy Mailing List)

 "You hear me, you crummy scumbag? I don` need no of ye` creepy protagonist
type magicians `round my store!" The shopkeeper shouted, unnecessarily loud,
at Arcanis. Arcanis struggled between calming himself and irritably ripping
the man apart in frustration.

 "Sir, I am only trying to find out the whereabouts of my friend. I can tell
you had your storeroom frozen by ice magic, and it has traces of my friend's
aura in the residue--" Arcanis tried to explain politely, but the shopkeep
interrupted him again.

 "I don` need no of yer fancy magic talk and whatnot either! Now, git out of
muh` store before I call the city guard!" the  man yelled, clenching his
dirty apron with a mix of anger and fear. Arcanis wondered why the man was
so hostile, surely it wasn't merely because he was a mage. But then, Arcanis
noted, mortals tended to fear what they were ignorant of, which is why most
shied from even mortal magic users. If the man knew that Arcanis was an
esper, and what an esper was, he would probably be huddled in the corner
from sheer terror. Arcanis sighed.

 Deciding that there was no information to be gleaned here of the
whereabouts of Lia, Arcanis touched a finger to the hem of his raised cowl
in passing as he turned from the shopkeeper. As he turned, Arcanis wrapped
fine threads of psinetic magic around the shopkeeper's mind. The
shopkeeper's face went blank for a moment, and he blinked confusedly,
wondering who the grey cloaked man leaving his shop was. Arcanis certainly
couldn't leave even the smallest rumor floating about. Not with Kefka about.

 As Arcanis stepped out of the musty shop and onto the dusty, cobblestone
street of Nikeah, there was a slight alarm in the back of his mind. He
turned to watch a globe of mana, invisible to all but the trained eye,
slowly rise above the rooftops in the distance. He estimated that the point
of origin was about a dozen blocks away, and stared in shock as he also as
he realized what spell it was. After all, he had taught it to his young
apprentice just days before, an exercise to magically enhance the caster's
awareness. The aura of the spell shouted the identity of just the person he
was searching for: Lia.

 Abruptly, the spell cut off, as if the user's concentration has been cut.
As if from an attack. Arcanis, guessing that a teleportation spell would
likely stir up more rumors than a simple inquiry, broke into a quick sprint
in the direction of the spell, idly noting that he hadn't thought Lia had
enough skill, yet, to make the spell as large as she had.

 Arcanis muttered angrily under his breath several minutes later, trying
desperately to navigate the maze of city streets that would lead to Lia's
location. He stopped as he passed an alley, and took several steps back to
look through the alley. Lia was in the adjacent block, by a diner, and...
playing a flute!? Arcanis guessed she wasn't in any danger as he'd thought,
and edged through the narrow alley. Emerging from the slim space between the
houses onto the wide block, Lia spotted him and stopped playing. As Arcanis
raised his hand across the square in greeting, his mind shattered.

 Arcanis fell to his knees, groaning and clutching at his head, thinking
that perhaps whatever god had struck him down before, on the ship, was in a
fit of black humor. He realized that it wasn't really pain, however. It felt
like an intense need to be elsewhere, as if someone were....

 Arcanis stopped breathing. Was somebody *summoning* him? He really had no
idea of the mechanics of summoning, and had never inquired closely of other
espers who allowed themselves to be summoned. *How could I be summoned!?*
Arcanis yelled mentally, *I don't know any summoners well, except...*
Arcanis stood up unsteadily, fighting through the flurry of... well, it
could only be described as intense *need*... that filled his mind. Pyxie.
That was the only person that could summon him, and she didn't know how to,
right? Unless she was in *very* deep trouble...

 Arcanis barely noticed that Lia seemed to want to rush across the square to
him, though she was glancing anxiously back at the diner, as if she were
bound to it. He brushed the thought aside. Fixing the location of where
Pyxie was summoning him from in his mind, he folded space around himself,
nevermind who might see him disappear.

   *   *   *

 Arcanis stepped from his teleportation spell into a dark forest. Surrounded
by several hundred men. By their dirty, makeshift armor and weapons, they
appeared to be brigands, but Arcanis noticed little of that, as his eyes
focused on his summoner.

 In the middle of the forest clearing, Pyxie was tied, by a robe binding her
wrists together, to a thick wooden pole, planted deep in the earth. Her
clothing was in tatters, and she seemed to be very near unconsciousness.
Several of the bandits surrounded her, grinning lecherously, and stripping
off what remained of her clothing.

 Fury filled Arcanis in instantly as he realized exactly what was happening,
and the bandits immediately around him, suddenly noticing his presence and
turning to him wielding clubs and swords, were the first to die.

 The brigands screamed in agony as the second and third fireballs ripped
through their mass, incinerating and scorching them. Arcanis drew all the
power he could, which wasn't currently very much, since the alien feeling of
overwhelming *fury* unsettled him and broke his concentration severely. He
flung waves of energy around himself furiously, not bothering to even shape
the destructive mana into spells, and creating a seeming vortex of death
around himself. He threw up a circular wall of incendiary flame around the
perimeter of the bandit's camp, which seemed to extend through the forest,
with the clearing in the center.

 The bandits realized, after several of them were incinerated by plunging
into the wall of flame, that there was no chance of escape, and turned to
fight Arcanis. There were hundreds, an obviously well-organized group.
Arcanis noticed his concentration slipping away, the ring of destruction
around himself becoming smaller. He glanced down at several arrows piercing
his body, probably poisoned, and cursed himself a fool for not thinking to
physically shield himself. The poison may not be lethal to him, and his body
would fight it off eventually, but he felt no wish to become magicite under
the bandits' weapons.

 Arcanis still seethed in furry, even with his vision blurring. Pyxie was
fully unconscious now, he could feel that through their bond... what?
Arcanis fuzzily reached through his mind, mentally brushing against a
strange, fragmented psychic band that somehow connected his consciousness to
Pyxie's. In his mind's eye, he could see a glowing, shimmering orb of power
and knowledge where his and Pyxie's minds linked.

 Few espers cared to admit it, but the main reason many espers chose to
become the Guardian of a summoner was that doing so unlocked their reticent
abilities, their most powerful magic. Every esper supposedly had such an
'ultimate' spell, different for each esper, that could only be learned
through that bond. Arcanis strained towards that shimmering orb, know that,
subconsciously, it was *his* spell, *his* ultimate ability.

 Touching the orb would cause the fractal bond between he and Pyxie, the
result of the summoning, no doubt, to permanently solidify. Arcanis didn't
care. He mentally reached out, and closed his mind around the incandescent
orb.

 Power and knowledge rushed through him in a frenzy. As if he had studied it
every day of his life, a certain spell was imprinted on the surface of
Arcanis' memory. He didn't have time to think this through, though, to
identify it, despite that fact that the spell seemed quite powerful,
overkill, even.

 Wrapping himself and Pyxie's in a powerful shield, Arcanis dropped the fire
wall. Whatever this spell was, it was sure to be huge. He doubted any
bandits would escape it. He focused his concentration into that spell,
wrapping the complex multitude of magical threads throughout the clearing
and far in all directions, beyond where he could physically see, and high
into the sky. The spell was not nearly as large as it could be. Large enough
to deal with the bandits, but if Arcanis made it any smaller than he was, it
would probably fail. Arcanis closed his eyes, mana rushing through him in a
barely contained torrent of power, and released that energy into his spell.

 Pure, destructive energy, lanced away from Arcanis in a deadly, spinning
stream of mana. Energy crackled through the air, killing bandits and
smashing apart enormous trees, before suddenly snapping back onto Arcanis'
glowing form. There was a moment of stillness.

 Abruptly, a silvery white beam of energy materialized on Arcanis, engulfing
him and the terrain around for several feet in its destructive, rushing
energy. The beam slowly extended outward, catching up screaming men in its
power and knocking others away with its shockwaves of concussive energy. The
pillar of magic stabilized for a moment, power crackling along its surface.

 The spell intensified, a surge of energy rolling quickly down the beam from
the sky. When it hit the ground, the spell erupted into a massive, quickly
expanding globe of solid energy. The sphere expanded and engulfed the forest
for miles, instantly annihilating everything within it for several miles
before stabilizing. The sides of the sphere bulged, and it exploded in the
last stage of the spell.

 Huge shockwaves of energy flew outwards, leveling the forest. Nikeah was
many miles away, and the shockwaves only managed to brush the city, as if it
were merely a sudden, strong gust of wind, lasting several minutes. A sudden
gale of wind, really, that sent several people flying, carried by the
currents of air. No buildings were damaged, and few people injured, but the
populace gathered at the edge of town to stare outward at the smoking crater
that had been the Nikeah Forest.

   *   *   *

 Arcanis struggled to open his eyes, groaning in pain. He sat up,
instinctively pulling arrows from his body before gathering his thoughts.
When he did gather his scattered thoughts, he fell quickly back, wondering
if he would black out again. *What have I done!?* Arcanis wondered in
horror, remembering the awesome power of the spell he had cast. He was
really still in shock that he had cast it. He might be a powerful esper, but
only one spell's description matched the effect of the one he had cast.

 During the War of the Magi, the most destructive war in history, and the
war in which Espers and Mogri had been created, many powerful spells were
crafted for use by the espers. One of the most powerful, perhaps *the* most
powerful spell, had been known to only three espers. The spell was capable
of leveling mountains, continents, worlds. The three goddesses who drove the
war agreed that such power was far too dangerous to leave in any hands but
that of a deity's, and the three espers were killed, and their magicite cast
into the deepest regions of nothingness. That spell was the legendary spell
known as Cataclysm, and, though it was a very, very small version, it was
the spell Arcanis had just cast.

 Arcanis sat up again, clutching at his head in pain and surveying the
landscape around him in horror. The forest had been leveled. Blackened,
smoking ground filled his view in all directions, and Arcanis easily spotted
the figure of a human girl laying several yards away.

 Arcanis scrambled to his feet and rushed to Pyxie's limp form, dropping the
shield he had maintained about her during the spell. He checked her
breathing, and sighed in relief when he found she seemed that, besides a few
cuts and bruises, and unconsciousness, she was unhurt.

 As Arcanis picked Pyxie's limp form up, he noticed he could somewhat feel
her presence, like a pocket of dimmed emotions in the corner of his mind.
Right now, it was merely blank, as could be expected from an unconscious
person.

 Wrapping Pyxie and himself in a barely managed spell, he teleported back to
where he had been in Nikeah, hoping that the town was still there.


-Arcanis


Subj:	 [ffml] [HD] Bad News
Date:	01-01-31 13:32:20 EST
From:	jaypyx@yahoo.com (Jaymie DelaCruz)
Reply-to:	ffml@yahoogroups.com
To:	ffml@yahoogroups.com

Heyo! Sorry this took so long in coming. I will write another quick 
post of when Pyx wakes up right after this. 

*********

A warm splash of something on his face caused Pokey to gradually come 
out of his unconscious state. Groaning at the aching muscles all over 
his body, he carefully opened his eyes. Bix's scraggy face loomed 
right over him.

"Finally you wake up. Ho ho ho!" Bix shook the chamber pot he was 
holding right under Pokey's nose, splattering more liquid onto his 
face. "I was running out of ammunition."

Pokey's face first turned a sickly shade of green. But as he wiped 
his face an ominous tick began on his forehead.

"Uh oh bro," Hortian yelled from across the room. "You better take a 
hike 'fore he takes a whack at ya!"

"Pokey, are you ok?"

A tiny finger tugged on his hair and he turned to see Rydia sitting 
next to his bed.

"Where's Pyxie? What happened? I heard there was a big fight."

Shame at his inability to protect his mistress caused Pokey to bow 
his head and brood. Bix, Hortian and Rydia just waited quietly until 
he told them everything.

"She'd been kidnapped by the Gyro Bandits. As you probably saw, I 
took about 20 of them down but there were just too many."

A low rumble from somewhere could be heard. Hortian abruptly stood 
up, the scar on his cheek looking wicked on his pale face.

"YOU... LET THEM... TAKE OUR MISTRESS?!?!?!?!"

The fist coming towards him was too fast for Pokey to block. And 
besides, he felt he deserved the punishment.

"Why you good fer nuthin' piece of shit!" 

Bix rushed over and joined his brother in beating the crud out of the 
giant. 

"HOLD IT!!!!!!"

Rydia's command caused the twins to stop mid-punch. Even though she 
was just a kid, something about her tone caused them to feel like two 
boys about to be scolded.

"Beating Pokey up isn't gonna help us any!" 

Bouncing on the bed, Rydia gave Hortian and Bix a quick pinch on the 
nose. They both yelped in pain and backed away.

"We've gotta figure out what's going on and save Pyx. So let Pokey 
tell us what happened."

Two glaring eyes and a green one turned to stare at Pokey.

"Why did they take her?" Rydia asked patiently.

"I have no idea," Pokey's low voice was filled with frustration. "But 
I do know that those guy are scumbags. They have no morals 
whatsoever."

"Yea, I've heard o' them too," Bix reluctantly added. "They're so 
greedy for money they'd do anything for it."

"They're well known for being assassins-for-hire." 

Rydia let go of the bed sheet she had been tightly clutching onto.

"Why would anyone want to kill Pyxie? If they lay a finger on her, I-
I'll be ch-chopping up fingers for dinner!!!"

Her sudden burst of tears caused the three men to fidget. Fake 
alligator tears they were used to. But real ones were always a 
shocker.

"Hush little one," Pokey gathered Rydia next to him and hugged her 
tight. "I promise you we'll find her."

"Yea, don't worry you're purty little head, Ry." Hortian turned and 
fetched his axes from the table. "We'll go look for em and chop us up 
some Gyro strew!"

Rydia hiccupped and nodded her head. All of them set about on getting 
ready on their hunt.

But before they reached the bedroom door, a blinding flash erupted in 
the middle of the room. All of them gaped with surprise, their 
weapons up and ready.

Two forms appeared as the light gradually diminished. A weary and 
rumpled Arcanis staggered onto the floor, carrying an unconscious 
Pyxie in his arms.

"ARCY!!!! LADY PYXIE!!!!!!!!!"

The small group rushed over to the pair, babbling at once and 
basically causing Arcanis to loose his temper.

"How did you find her?"

"Are you both ok? What happened to the Bandits?"

"Where the hell are her clothes?!?!?!"

Arcanis shakily made his way to the bed and carefully put Pyxie on 
it, covering her with the blanket. Taking a deep breath, he turned 
around to face the bewildered but happy group. Their mistress was 
alive and that was all that mattered.

"They're dead."

The silence stretched on. The only sound was Pyxie's even breathing 
and the bustle from outside.

"Every last one of those bastards are dead." 


Subj:	 [ffml] [HD] Jailbreak
Date:	01-02-03 00:49:12 EST
From:	dshumate@bbtel.com (Shumate)
Reply-to:	ffml@yahoogroups.com
To:	ffml@yahoogroups.com (Final Fantasy Mailing List), HillionDynasty@egroups.com (Hillion Dynasty Mailing List)

*I'm afraid I might have gotten a bit morbid and strange-sounding near the
end of this one... it happens when the caffeine wears off *yawn*. At this
point, pretty much anyone can pick up, so go ahead :-)

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

 A bright flash filled the small bedroom with light, making Arcanis, whom
the light was originating from, wince painfully. Actually, the light wasn't
specifically coming from him, merely from the imperfect straightening of the
time/space continuum, usually caused by extreme fatigue. Arcanis was lucky
it was just a flash of light, since such haphazard teleportation often
resulted in violent explosions. But then, he didn't care about any of that,
he was more focused on standing without falling when it felt like his body
had been mutilated and turned inside-out. Mentally, that's basically what
had happened.

 The four occupants of the room, Pokey, Rydia, Hortian, and Bix, had their
weapons ready as the light died down. At least, until they saw who he was.

 "ARCY!!!! LADY PYXIE!!!!!!!!!" The small group rushed over to the pair,
babbling all at once excitedly.

  "How did you find her?"

  "Are you both ok? What happened to the Bandits?"

  "Where the hell are her clothes?!?!?!"

 Arcanis shakily made his way to the bed and carefully put Pyxie on it,
covering her with the blanket. Taking a deep breath, he turned around to
face the bewildered, but happy group. Their mistress was alive and that was
all that mattered.

 "They're dead." He said wearily. The silence stretched on. A pin dropping
could have been heard. "Every last one of those bastards are dead." Arcanis
leaned against the wall, his mind a jumble of pain and confusion, and drew a
small vile out of his belt pouch. Normally, he would sooner drink a
concoction of rotted mayonnaise and spoiled milk than take the potent and
rare medicine simply referred to as "Elixer". Closing his eyes and bracing
himself against the wall, Arcanis tilted his head back and downed the
solution as quickly as possible.

 Despite his best efforts, a great deal of the liquid splashed onto his
tongue, and he struggled not to vomit as the incredibly foul taste him like
a kick to the head. Of course, that was the mild part of the Elixer's
effects. Arcanis gasped as burning cold shot through his body, making him
feel as if he were immolated in the hottest flame at absolute zero
temperature. Deep cuts, gashes, and lacerations on his body slowly closed up
as his body reknit its flesh within seconds. Energy and mental focus,
utterly drained in his fight with the Gyro Bandits, flowed through him as if
he had been sleeping for a month. It also felt as if he hadn't eaten in a
month-- most of the Elixer effects drew from the body rather than the
potion, which is why more people, ignorant of the potions properties, died
from taking them than those who survived.

 Arcanis drew his hand out of a splintered gap in the wall as he reopened
his eyes. He must have flailed out during the potion's effects. Rydia,
Hortian, Bix, and Pokey, bent over Pyxie, were alternating checking her for
damage and glancing at him apprehensively.

 With his regained mental focus, the full import of what he had done hit
Arcanis like giant a sack of stale bread. He had cast *Cataclysm*,
supposedly the most powerful spell ever created. At least, the most powerful
to non-deities. And he had bound himself to Pyxie, become her Guardian
Esper. He could feel her mind, which was currently emotionless, in the back
corner of his consciousness. Arcanis found himself sliding down the wall
until he hit the bottom.

 And her had leveled a forest. That stabbed at Arcanis. An entire forest.
Hundreds of lives, thousands. Primitive, non-sentient lives, but lives
nonetheless, snuffed out by his action. An entire ecosystem wiped off the
face of the planet, as if it had never existed. The bandits that had died
deserved it, but he was an esper, closely bound to nature. The animals had
not deserved it.

 Arcanis picked himself up, pushing the guilt away to deal with later, and
walked over to examine Pyxie. Her only injuries were minor cuts, and a
concussion, it seemed. Arcanis laid a hand gently atop her forehead, the
others around the bed eyeing him nervously as he poured healing and
regenerative mana into Pyxie's body. Her minor cuts closed quickly, and
Arcanis wove a psinetic web around her mind that would let her rest
peacefully until her body, and especially, her mind, had recovered from the
trauma inflicted.

 "Wh-what did you...?" Pokey said worriedly as Arcanis removed her hands.

 "She'll probably be asleep for about a day, then she'll be fine," Arcanis
said, surprised at how relieved he himself was. Once again, part of that was
probably the bond. Arcanis glanced around. "Did anyone find Lia?"

 Everyone shook their heads. Arcanis fixed the location he had seen Lia last
in his mind. "I'll check around." The others, save Pokey, who was perched on
a chair to watch over Pyxie's calm, measured breathing, moved as if to
accompany him, and Arcanis smiled faintly. After all the had happened, faint
was the best he could manage.

 "You guys can stay here, I'll be teleporting around. Since there's no way
Kefka wouldn't know there's an esper here now, there's no real need for my
secrecy. But if he sees you with me, he'll probably go after you as well..."
Arcanis shrugged. Rydia, Bix, and Hortian looked confused, but Arcanis
didn't really feel up to explaining exactly *how* his cover had been blown.
Folding space around himself again, Arcanis teleported to the last place he
had seen Lia.