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Description
September 14, 2010. A stroll in wintry woods: This was precisely what Machelix needed to cool himself off. It had been so long since he felt he could wear a smile on his face, what with the disgust of his forced Organization Infinity resignation. The fact that he wasn’t walking in on the group’s big projects gave him further reason to take things easy.

Looking around at his peaceful surroundings, he could hardly believe that one of his most devious accomplices came from here, this Land of the Living. It was almost exactly like Halloween Town, albeit a more normalized version of it (if one only bothered to look at the surface and no further).

Gazing up at the trees, he noticed a few crows in their boughs above him. They were tiny little things. However, Machelix knew of their special ability in this world: free reign to traverse between the Lands of the Living and the Dead.

A rustle in the trees told him something else was here, considerably bigger than one of these crows. It was too late in the evening to be one of the townspeople out for a stroll; Machelix readied his staff. The cawing of the crows alerted him to something on his left. The Mage flipped backwards before he could be attacked. A little ways off from where he had been standing, a feather stuck out from the ground.

This one hadn’t fallen, though. Despite the birds around him, none of them bore coloring like the eagle-like specimen this was. Machelix also thought it impossible for any of them to bear pocket watches. Quickly the Mage scanned the trees around him.

Alighting in the branches, a white-haired male made himself known. “Yo.”

Immediately the crystal ball of Machelix’s staff was trained on him. It was soon lowered, however, when its holder looked harder at this unforeseen guest. Hardly taller than the Mage himself (not that this could be seen from his crouched position) and not any more muscular, he wasn’t a necessarily violent threat. In fact, his demeanor was rather laid back. The smile on his face (with a single fang sticking out by his left cheek) and the way he carried himself in the tree spoke of a leisurely mission. “Sheesh, testy, aren’t you? No wonder you hang out with ol’ Bonehead.”

New realization donned on Machelix. This man unknown to him was aware of his partnership with Fexyregof in these worlds. The only “official” Nobodies here were those from Organization Nu, and if they were to get word of this…

“Dude, you’re bummin’ me out with this silent treatment. And here I thought that you were the chatterbox of the pair.”

Jarred from his concerns, the Mage looked up to him and replied, “Ah! Where are my manners?” He slung his staff over his shoulder and continued. “So you know Fexyregof, do you?”

“Yeah, I know about that guy. Real strict and gloomy. Reminds me of a few of the higher-ups with my old gig.”

To this an eyebrow was raised. “And where was that?”

“Eh, you know, here and there. I hung out with the dudes from the Soul Society for a while, but it got too strict for me. That, and I had my heart stolen. Fish gotta swim, bird’s gotta fly, Nobody’s gotta travel, right?”

“And speaking of Nobodies, what do they call you for your Nobody name?”

“Ah, right, I never said, did I? Name’s Knuxks, the Foolish Flyboy.”

“And mine is Machelix Mexilhann. So, why did you come here?”

Knuxks smirked with his visible fang coming up, answering, “I got bored and heard that there was someone here who wasn’t supposed to be, so…”

Mentally the Mage cringed; his fears had been realized. If this Knuxks character was to return to Organization Nu with news of his presence, it could jeopardize his operations in these worlds. He needed to ensure his silence, whether through verbal or physical convincing. To this end he raised his staff again and fired a Twilight Pulse at the white-haired Flyboy.

Laughing Knuxks escaped him, shouting, “You’ll have to do better than that!” as he took off ghost-like into the trees!

This definitely complicated matters. From what Machelix had seen, he guessed his opponent’s element to be Flight. The feathers made sense as well when coupled with this element. It was almost like a reverse version of Xiru’s configuration…

Feathers made into weapons would prove painful no matter who controlled them, like the one that was launched at him in Knuxks’s escape! A forward roll allowed the Mage to dodge it as well as give him momentum to follow behind.

The fact that his opponent was fleeing via forest rather than portal meant that he was here as much to alleviate his boredom as much as surveillance. He would be sure to hang around.

Then again, the more he chased after the fleeing form, the more he realized that it was slowly shrinking. His suspicions were proved when the shadow shape released a ‘caw’ and flew up into the sky. He had been chasing a crow! Either Knuxks had gotten lucky, or he was more skilled than the Mage initially thought. He had to be found. His footsteps slowing to a dead halt, Machelix perked up his ears and scanned the area.

A slight noise from behind caught his attention. Turning to it, another feather (a little more colorful than the last couple) caught him in his left shoulder! Laughter resounded in the trees as, no doubt, Knuxks escaped farther away from him.

Machelix grit his teeth. Being toyed with like this… it was embarrassing. He wrapped his fingers around the feather, giving it a sharp tug to rip it out. What resulted was a sharp pain in his shoulder. The nature of this piercing injury became apparent to him with this test: like a thick porcupine quill it was stuck, barbed just as much going in as it was coming out. Were all of his feathers like this…? Groaning in frustration, the Mage gripped the offending feather again and gave it an even harder yank. The pain was great, but Machelix had taken worse. He would be sure to return the favor to the Flyboy if and when he was found. With renewed vigor the Mage searched the branches for his opponent, keeping his staff trained on the same spot as his eyes.

Watching from a shadowy cluster of branches out of Machelix’s vision, Knuxks readied his next attack. Several eagle feathers appeared in his hand, brought into a ball with the points still sticking out, and pitched like a baseball at the Mage on the ground.

The larger projectile was more easily noticed. Machelix turned to it and shouted, “Twilight Shotgun!” Several orbs of black-and-white energy shot from the staff’s crystal ball, blowing the feathers asunder and even going back into the branches. Several were broken off and fell to the forest floor, exposing Knuxks!

Realizing that his hiding place wasn’t effective, the Foolish Flyboy flew over Machelix’s clearing on his element and prepared a good number of his feathers at once. Different colors and a few different sizes came raining down on the Mysterious Mage like deadly hail, like falling shards of glass. “Face the power of the Three-Feather Typhoon!” Knuxks shouted as he dove into another thicket of branches to hide.

He didn’t see what happened next. On each of his four sides, a portal of darkness appeared that brought forth one of Machelix’s Ninja minions. They all faced him and had their caped raised above him, forming a protective shield above him. A few of the feathers (mostly the larger ones) pierced it, but none went all the way through the barricade of cloth.

Their purpose hadn’t been exhausted quite yet. The Ninjas turned around and, on Machelix’s command, drew the single large shuriken from their garments. Their fingers deftly spun them until they very nearly resembled buzz saw blades. Thus armed, they released their weapons into the woods’ heights, slicing apart the branches in front of them.

Remembering what Fexyregof had said and warned him about when coming here, Machelix looked around him for the landmark to remain untouched. Nothing of what the Disgruntled Scholar had said was around: no gravestones, no brook, and no large oak tree. Inwardly Machelix breathed a sigh of relief; the last thing he wanted was one of his own giving him grief. Satisfied with the survey, he added to his minions’ destruction with a series of Twilight Pulses launched in an arching pattern, the Twilight Strafe. Even more branches crumbled and plummeted onto the pile.

At the very end of the forest clearing, Knuxks himself dropped onto the pile of sticks and snow. There was nowhere left for him to hide; the look on Machelix’s face told him this. At first he was hesitant to attack with the Ninja vanguard separating them, but once the Mage dismissed them he was more up to it. He reached out a hand and summoned another of the large feathers into his hand, a tri-pronged feather almost like a saber. One of his signature pocket watches hung from this one as well towards the plumage’s color, right before the grip. Like a saber Knuxks held it, rushing forward to deliver a slash.

Now Machelix had him. The staff in his hand transformed into its Morningstar form and caught Knuxks’s attack in the chain links. A swing of the spiked ball disarmed the Flyboy. As Machelix brought his weapon back, the chain receded into the weapon, the whole thing reverting back to its wizard staff form. The Mage thrust his weapon, landing the crystal ball in Knuxks’s gut.

He staggered backwards with the hit, doubled over and clutching his stomach. “Oh, I think I should’ve eaten something before I did this…”

“Perhaps you should’ve. Too late to turn back the clock now.” A small Twilight Pulse sent Knuxks onto his rear end, allowing Machelix to step up to him with his staff still trained on his seated opponent.

“It was a decent fight,” admitted the Mage before adding with serious tone, “But I must ask that you refrain from mentioning that you saw me. It would be more trouble for you than it’s worth.”

Groaning as he got up and continued to hold his aching gut, Knuxks said, “No problem. It’s not like I’m one to tell people about losing a fight.”

Machelix smirked as he put his staff away, his hand to his own sustained injury, and replied, “Good enough for me. Now, if you will excuse me…” A snap of his fingers brought forth one of his Ninjas to his side again.

‘You called, my liege?’ he asked.

“Yes, Captain,” replied the Mage, turning from the battlefield and walking down the cleaved corridor through the trees. “Our work here is done. Now we must make those preparations regarding our plans in our own worlds. Of course, that would all depend on what they had to say. Did Kespix or any of the others receive word as to their reply?”

Knuxks had no idea or any desire to know what they were talking about, but whatever it was he could see made the minion Nobody uneasy. “Tough luck, dude,” he threw over his shoulder as he took off into the sky and into a portal of darkness. His only concern was his stomach and something to fill it.

Description
September 14, 2010. A stroll in wintry woods: This was precisely what Machelix needed to cool himself off. It had been so long since he felt he could wear a smile on his face, what with the disgust of his forced Organization Infinity resignation. The fact that he wasn’t walking in on the group’s big projects gave him further reason to take things easy.

Looking around at his peaceful surroundings, he could hardly believe that one of his most devious accomplices came from here, this Land of the Living. It was almost exactly like Halloween Town, albeit a more normalized version of it (if one only bothered to look at the surface and no further).

Gazing up at the trees, he noticed a few crows in their boughs above him. They were tiny little things. However, Machelix knew of their special ability in this world: free reign to traverse between the Lands of the Living and the Dead.

A rustle in the trees told him something else was here, considerably bigger than one of these crows. It was too late in the evening to be one of the townspeople out for a stroll; Machelix readied his staff. The cawing of the crows alerted him to something on his left. The Mage flipped backwards before he could be attacked. A little ways off from where he had been standing, a feather stuck out from the ground.

This one hadn’t fallen, though. Despite the birds around him, none of them bore coloring like the eagle-like specimen this was. Machelix also thought it impossible for any of them to bear pocket watches. Quickly the Mage scanned the trees around him.

Alighting in the branches, a white-haired male made himself known. “Yo.”

Immediately the crystal ball of Machelix’s staff was trained on him. It was soon lowered, however, when its holder looked harder at this unforeseen guest. Hardly taller than the Mage himself (not that this could be seen from his crouched position) and not any more muscular, he wasn’t a necessarily violent threat. In fact, his demeanor was rather laid back. The smile on his face (with a single fang sticking out by his left cheek) and the way he carried himself in the tree spoke of a leisurely mission. “Sheesh, testy, aren’t you? No wonder you hang out with ol’ Bonehead.”

New realization donned on Machelix. This man unknown to him was aware of his partnership with Fexyregof in these worlds. The only “official” Nobodies here were those from Organization Nu, and if they were to get word of this…

“Dude, you’re bummin’ me out with this silent treatment. And here I thought that you were the chatterbox of the pair.”

Jarred from his concerns, the Mage looked up to him and replied, “Ah! Where are my manners?” He slung his staff over his shoulder and continued. “So you know Fexyregof, do you?”

“Yeah, I know about that guy. Real strict and gloomy. Reminds me of a few of the higher-ups with my old gig.”

To this an eyebrow was raised. “And where was that?”

“Eh, you know, here and there. I hung out with the dudes from the Soul Society for a while, but it got too strict for me. That, and I had my heart stolen. Fish gotta swim, bird’s gotta fly, Nobody’s gotta travel, right?”

“And speaking of Nobodies, what do they call you for your Nobody name?”

“Ah, right, I never said, did I? Name’s Knuxks, the Foolish Flyboy.”

“And mine is Machelix Mexilhann. So, why did you come here?”

Knuxks smirked with his visible fang coming up, answering, “I got bored and heard that there was someone here who wasn’t supposed to be, so…”

Mentally the Mage cringed; his fears had been realized. If this Knuxks character was to return to Organization Nu with news of his presence, it could jeopardize his operations in these worlds. He needed to ensure his silence, whether through verbal or physical convincing. To this end he raised his staff again and fired a Twilight Pulse at the white-haired Flyboy.

Laughing Knuxks escaped him, shouting, “You’ll have to do better than that!” as he took off ghost-like into the trees!

This definitely complicated matters. From what Machelix had seen, he guessed his opponent’s element to be Flight. The feathers made sense as well when coupled with this element. It was almost like a reverse version of Xiru’s configuration…

Feathers made into weapons would prove painful no matter who controlled them, like the one that was launched at him in Knuxks’s escape! A forward roll allowed the Mage to dodge it as well as give him momentum to follow behind.

The fact that his opponent was fleeing via forest rather than portal meant that he was here as much to alleviate his boredom as much as surveillance. He would be sure to hang around.

Then again, the more he chased after the fleeing form, the more he realized that it was slowly shrinking. His suspicions were proved when the shadow shape released a ‘caw’ and flew up into the sky. He had been chasing a crow! Either Knuxks had gotten lucky, or he was more skilled than the Mage initially thought. He had to be found. His footsteps slowing to a dead halt, Machelix perked up his ears and scanned the area.

A slight noise from behind caught his attention. Turning to it, another feather (a little more colorful than the last couple) caught him in his left shoulder! Laughter resounded in the trees as, no doubt, Knuxks escaped farther away from him.

Machelix grit his teeth. Being toyed with like this… it was embarrassing. He wrapped his fingers around the feather, giving it a sharp tug to rip it out. What resulted was a sharp pain in his shoulder. The nature of this piercing injury became apparent to him with this test: like a thick porcupine quill it was stuck, barbed just as much going in as it was coming out. Were all of his feathers like this…? Groaning in frustration, the Mage gripped the offending feather again and gave it an even harder yank. The pain was great, but Machelix had taken worse. He would be sure to return the favor to the Flyboy if and when he was found. With renewed vigor the Mage searched the branches for his opponent, keeping his staff trained on the same spot as his eyes.

Watching from a shadowy cluster of branches out of Machelix’s vision, Knuxks readied his next attack. Several eagle feathers appeared in his hand, brought into a ball with the points still sticking out, and pitched like a baseball at the Mage on the ground.

The larger projectile was more easily noticed. Machelix turned to it and shouted, “Twilight Shotgun!” Several orbs of black-and-white energy shot from the staff’s crystal ball, blowing the feathers asunder and even going back into the branches. Several were broken off and fell to the forest floor, exposing Knuxks!

Realizing that his hiding place wasn’t effective, the Foolish Flyboy flew over Machelix’s clearing on his element and prepared a good number of his feathers at once. Different colors and a few different sizes came raining down on the Mysterious Mage like deadly hail, like falling shards of glass. “Face the power of the Three-Feather Typhoon!” Knuxks shouted as he dove into another thicket of branches to hide.

He didn’t see what happened next. On each of his four sides, a portal of darkness appeared that brought forth one of Machelix’s Ninja minions. They all faced him and had their caped raised above him, forming a protective shield above him. A few of the feathers (mostly the larger ones) pierced it, but none went all the way through the barricade of cloth.

Their purpose hadn’t been exhausted quite yet. The Ninjas turned around and, on Machelix’s command, drew the single large shuriken from their garments. Their fingers deftly spun them until they very nearly resembled buzz saw blades. Thus armed, they released their weapons into the woods’ heights, slicing apart the branches in front of them.

Remembering what Fexyregof had said and warned him about when coming here, Machelix looked around him for the landmark to remain untouched. Nothing of what the Disgruntled Scholar had said was around: no gravestones, no brook, and no large oak tree. Inwardly Machelix breathed a sigh of relief; the last thing he wanted was one of his own giving him grief. Satisfied with the survey, he added to his minions’ destruction with a series of Twilight Pulses launched in an arching pattern, the Twilight Strafe. Even more branches crumbled and plummeted onto the pile.

At the very end of the forest clearing, Knuxks himself dropped onto the pile of sticks and snow. There was nowhere left for him to hide; the look on Machelix’s face told him this. At first he was hesitant to attack with the Ninja vanguard separating them, but once the Mage dismissed them he was more up to it. He reached out a hand and summoned another of the large feathers into his hand, a tri-pronged feather almost like a saber. One of his signature pocket watches hung from this one as well towards the plumage’s color, right before the grip. Like a saber Knuxks held it, rushing forward to deliver a slash.

Now Machelix had him. The staff in his hand transformed into its Morningstar form and caught Knuxks’s attack in the chain links. A swing of the spiked ball disarmed the Flyboy. As Machelix brought his weapon back, the chain receded into the weapon, the whole thing reverting back to its wizard staff form. The Mage thrust his weapon, landing the crystal ball in Knuxks’s gut.

He staggered backwards with the hit, doubled over and clutching his stomach. “Oh, I think I should’ve eaten something before I did this…”

“Perhaps you should’ve. Too late to turn back the clock now.” A small Twilight Pulse sent Knuxks onto his rear end, allowing Machelix to step up to him with his staff still trained on his seated opponent.

“It was a decent fight,” admitted the Mage before adding with serious tone, “But I must ask that you refrain from mentioning that you saw me. It would be more trouble for you than it’s worth.”

Groaning as he got up and continued to hold his aching gut, Knuxks said, “No problem. It’s not like I’m one to tell people about losing a fight.”

Machelix smirked as he put his staff away, his hand to his own sustained injury, and replied, “Good enough for me. Now, if you will excuse me…” A snap of his fingers brought forth one of his Ninjas to his side again.

‘You called, my liege?’ he asked.

“Yes, Captain,” replied the Mage, turning from the battlefield and walking down the cleaved corridor through the trees. “Our work here is done. Now we must make those preparations regarding our plans in our own worlds. Of course, that would all depend on what they had to say. Did Kespix or any of the others receive word as to their reply?”

Knuxks had no idea or any desire to know what they were talking about, but whatever it was he could see made the minion Nobody uneasy. “Tough luck, dude,” he threw over his shoulder as he took off into the sky and into a portal of darkness. His only concern was his stomach and something to fill it.