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[JoshuaFH]

I'm pretty sure I promised I'd share my works with you all a long time ago, and never got around to doing it, so I'll use this thread as a means to do so.

Spoiler: This is a Disgaea Fanfiction I wrote on GameFAQs a long time ago, and never finished, it details my extreme self-imposed challenge in lavish detail. Part 1 (click to show/hide)

This is the start of my Metal Gear Cleric Self-Imposed Challenge

i'll copy and paste the explanation of the rules from the other self imposed challenge thread.

You may only use One character. period. if that character dies, you have to Quit and try again.

You must start with your empty 16-slot inventory, and this is all you can use. Your 256 slot warehouse doesn't even exist as far as your concerned. if you don't keep it tidy, and an item from the bonus guage ends up in the warehouse, that item is considered LOST. You can't associate with your warehouse in any way, shape, or form.

Your one character must start the game naked, with no weapon or equipment. Any items you acquire must come from either the bonus guage, or, if you've acquired a hand from the bonus guage, you may steal an item from an enemy. You may NOT take your hospital prizes.

you may use the hospital, but you may NOT use either of the stores. While you can't buy things, your allowed to sell things in order to keep your inventory tidy.

You may not transmigrate to other classes, or even to the same class. So as to prevent Transmigration trickery in order to get any spell you want or manipulate your weaknesses. You MUST stick with your one character as you created him.

While my may not recieve help from other characters, Using the dark congress to improve your character and open up new areas is acceptable. If you plan to persuade by force however, you must do it with your one character, and, of course, any items you choose to bribe with must come from either the bonus guage or from stealing.

For the sake of challenge, avoid the temptation to grind on certain stages, either for levels or items, and try not to abuse the item world, unless its truly necessary to overcome whatever challenge lies ahead of you. Also for the sake of challenge, you may not get the Longinus from... err... Longinus. Nor can you use the Diabolic Sword when it's given to you.

Finally, IF (and this is a big IF), you make it to an item god 2 and defeat him with your one character following the above rules, pat yourself on the back and use that hyperdrive, you earned it.

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

I started a new game, with the intent of clearing the entirety of the game with only the cleric, and no shop, no transmigration, and restricting myself to the sixteen slots of my item bag for an inventory, and only using items from the bonus guage and by god, i'm goin do it!

starting off, i sold my three mint gums that i start off with, as their not from the bonus guage. i gave laharl two amulets filched off of the starting prinnies so he can mow down the enemies of the first two tutorial levels by himself, and thus gauranteeing that he has enough mana to make my cleric atleast of "incompetent" level when he starts off.

now this was important, the items my cleric would be using would be determined by the third tutorial level, which explains the geo grid, because this stage fills up the most of the bonus guage, and so i save my game beforehand and when i don't see items that would allow my cleric to survive, i quit and try again.

after about 11 tries, i lucked out and got a bonus guage with a common bow (the best type of weapon for a cleric, and meets my needs nicely) and two muscle brawns.

my new incompetent male cleric (with his one stat point invested in defense) whom i've named "Cleric Snake", his hp boosted to 26 thanks to the muscle brawns, and now attack capable thanks to his new bow.

for those that doubt the bow, its the clerics best non-staff weapon, and i'd argue that the cleric's better learning rate in bows compensates for the bows suckiness, considering the male clerics B in bows and E in everything else except guns, which is D.


because Cleric Snake simply can't survive the magnificent gate stage, i strengthen him with the tutorial level, which is still pretty damn hard for a single lvl 1 cleric, but this is how i did it.

first turn, duck behind the Null geo, pick it up and throw it forward one space so its on the same color as the gold geo, this way you won't get attacked, and sets you up for victory later. Second turn, make cleric snake goes as far as he can to his right and defend, one of the ghosts WILL attack him, do your best to prevent him from getting behind you, and finish him off while not attracting any more attention, you should have the ghost finished off withing the 5th or 6th turn. seventh turn, heal. eighth turn, keep going right, and press up against the edge of the battlefield. walk along the edge, checking the nearest enemies movement radius to make sure they don't attack you. Make your way to the opposite end of the stage, and use the bow's long range attack to be able to hit the gold geo without attracting attention. once you kill the gold geo, you'll set off a geo chain that uses both the gold and the Null geo to kill off all the ghosts, but not the hobbit. fight the hobbit normally, use your long range to prevent him from getting behind you, heal when you have to, and pray for Bull's eye's. Doing all this i managed to defeat the tutorial level with only a level 1 cleric. i repeated as necessary to level him up, learn poison shot and dark shot (i can't remember their exact names at the moment).

so far, i've managed to get past the first 3 stages of vyer's castle, but mid-boss himself is a definite cleric killer, so i'm grinding in the previous stages to prepare Cleric Snake for the challenge ahead.


I beat up midboss, but not without a dirty trick.

in order to nullify his strength, i blew past all the boggarts and stood right next to the geo symbols. for some reason this makes midboss come after me. i used this to my advantage and when he came near, i survived his adonic shot, and then picked up a geo symbol, and threw it between us, creating a geo symbol wall. With the geo-wall up, he stupidly stood there while i whittled his hp down to nothing. from their i just snuck around and carefully eliminated all the enemies one by one.

time to beat up an angel.


i'm stuck on the stage that has all the zombies all lined up, and all the flying creatures whose names i can't remember. I can't kill them all fast enough.

i managed to get a hunter's bow up to level 10, and that helped alittle, but it was a miracle i could get through 10 levels of the item world at all without using a gency, and i'm still getting raped.

as a side note, thanks to the power of stupidity, i managed to get a *legendary* Mr. Gency's exit. first time i've ever gotten one.

back to level grinding for me.


i finally got past those stupid flying things, they poisoned eachother with hell pepper and everything, it was cool.

beat flonne and her dragon too. it was a truly epic battle. i finished it with only 3 hp left, it was a real toss-up.

good thing i had already leveled up a hunter's bow to level 10, so i got instant access to dinero palace. the first two stages didn't pose much of a problem (on the second stage though, i got killed by the freakin' cleric... the irony).

now i'm up to a big challenge, the flashy passage stage, which exploits Cleric Snake's only weakness, tens of female brawlers just dying to jump on him and love him to death... with their fists... yeah...

i'm gonna need to grind some more and stock up on hp and sp restorative items for this war of attrition. the chick with the spear poses the biggest threat though, i'm gold if i can just kill her off.


to help with the grinding process, i've started farming for low rank items for the possibility they have statisticians or armsmasters on them.

the item world is really hard to go through though, no only can low level monsters kill my lvl 17 cleric just by ganging up on him, but sometimes i have to abort altogether just because the ledge that the exit is on is too high for my cleric to jump.

i'm gonna need some slippers.


got through the flashy passage, and put the beat down on hoggmeiser. Fortunately, hoggmeiser's stage can be beaten with a damn dirty trick. If you notice, you'll see that on the stage, there is a "nook" on teh left side of your home base, consisting of one panel trapped between the homebase and a pillar. Factor in this little bit of info with the fact that enemy units are forbidden from ever walking over your home base, and you can figure out that if you throw the enemy units in the nook, they can't get out! so thats exactly what i did, one at a time, i threw them in their, and whittled their health away from afar.

got through the first three stages of blazing core.

the first stage also has a dirty trick, just throw one of the geo symbols so its diagnally adjacent with the other geo symbol and your home base, and because none of the enemy have ranged attacks, just hide in their, and you can pick away at enemys on the other side of geo symbols.

looks like another fight with mid boss is coming up, all of mid boss' fights are gonna be pretty hard, so i'm gonna have to train extra hard in the item world.


For those that have never tried, the usual difficulty of the item world is increased ten-fold. i can't express the frustrating i feel when i make excellent progress, i kill lots of monsters, i go up a level or two, i subdue some specialists, i get an awesome item or two, then all of it gets Destroyed when a very small oversight stops me in my tracks.

i heard someone was doing a thief solo run, i wish he'd record his progress so i have someone to sympathize with and vice versa.


finally beat mid-boss! He put up a good fight though, because their isn't any opportunities for dirty tricks in mid-boss' fight, i have to do the best i can with the level layout.

the whole trick was to use the bridge on the lower end of the map to to guarantee that only 1 enemy is attacking me at a time, and they're all attacking me from the front, so damage is minimized.

the AI of all the enemies is pretty weird in mid-boss' fight, the two armors and reaper on the left side of the river, and the scarecrow have standard "enter their range of movement and they attack" AI, while all the enemies on the left side of the river have a weird "timed, aggressive" AI, where they'll skip their first turn, then flip into aggressive AI where they'll hone in on your position. Mid-boss himself has this AI too, but it lasts one turn longer.

Do the bosses have perfect status ailment protection? cause i was hitting him with 'Poison Arrow' every chance i got and that didn't do anything, not to mention i'm equipped with Hypnotist, Alchemist, and Amnesiac specialists, and my normal attacks couldn't inflict squat. If anyone knows, i'd appreciate it.

Time to beat up a weasly vampire.


After some awesome Item Worlding, i took on chapter 5, and Cleric Snake crushed it with his unsurmountable might!

the first of the stages, the one with the -50 attack, +50 defense, and 20% ally damage panels was defeated easily, i never had to move and only had to kill 3 enemies. it was simple, because the whole stage is covered in those panels EXCEPT the home base, i just summoned CS (Cleric Snake), and had him defend and heal every turn, for like 30 turns while all the imps surrounded him, and constantly used hell pepper on CS and eachother, and eventually the poison damage killed off all of the imps except three, who CS just dispatched normally.

the second stage was simple, just stand one square in front of your home base so only one enemy can attack you at a time, using every turn to return to home base, attack, then return to normal position in order to avoid counters. Then chase down the gunmen panzies in the corner.

the third stage, the one with all the invincibility panels, was definitely easy. CS threw a succubi into my home base (this is the only stage where i feel it is acceptable to do this, because it doesn't alter the outcome of the fight any) and combined enemies to make one strong succubi, who CS wailed on for a while. this is special because CS's weapon mastery was 19 when i started the fight, and doing this pumped CS's Weapon Mastery to 20, giving him the Doppelganger ability! With his strongest bow ability obtained, CS now journeyed towards his inevitable final encounter with Maderas.

Maderas was surprisingly easy, the home base is already placed inside of a nook, so CS doesn't have to move at all to avoid getting ganged up on or minimize damage.

From his starting position, CS was careful to pick his finest arrows, and to target his bouncy enemies with patience, as he picked them off from the safety of his position. Maderas foolishly clustered with his underlings, allowing no climax as many arrows rained into the back of his skull. With the enemy's leader killed, and the troops few, CS delivered the final blow to this incompetent band of foes with his newest ability, Doppelganger.

With this battle, CS is now level 30, his equipment is a rare common bow (level 30), and 3 imperial seals (lvl 0). his inventory includes a power gauntlet, 1 Hunter's Bow (lvl 20), 1 pair of slippers, 2 pairs of cross-trainers, 1 legendary open drink (lvl 10), 1 legendary unopened drink, 1 legendary garlic water, 1 charred newt, 1 Rare stealing hand (lvl 10), and 4 Mr. Gency's Exits, leaving 2 spaces empty in the item bag. All of these items were obtained from the bonus guage, except for CS's Rare common bow, which was stolen from an archer in the Corridor of Love stage.

CS Now travels to Blair Forest to defeat the enemies of his master, Prince Laharl.

I'm really worried, the fourth stage of Blair forest involves fighting 10 Lvl.75 Alt. Overlords, all of them much stronger than CS is. This leads me to a dilemma, even if CS can't defeat them, ordinarily King Krichevskoy's former vassals would mop the floor with them, but the problem is that CS absolutely HAS to be summoned, or else i can't select "end turn", and killing the Alt. Overlords takes more than 1 turn for KK's vassals, and the Alt. Overlords will ALWAYS take this opportunity to kill the weakest character on the map, in this case, CS, so now i can't select "end turn" to let KK's vassals finish them off. So in other words, CS can't complete this stage without doing some SERIOUS powering up, or i'm explicitly breaking one of rules of my challenge, by summoning someone else to finish the fight.

looks like the IW is gonna be my best friend for a looong time, until i can atleast get CS strong enough to survive 1 or 2 of the Alt. Overlord's attacks.


Blair Forest has been flattened by unstoppable stampede known as Cleric Snake!

Cleric Snakes first venture into the dreaded forest, he was met by a procession of daemons, all vieing for the throne. Unfortunately for them, what they had in ambition they lacked in experience, and to their ends, they throw themselves in front of Cleric Snake's mighty bow and are diligently shot and skewer and killed, down to the very last foul beast.

Traveling further, Cleric Snake was confronted by a self-proclaimed Demon Slayer, vowing to use her swordsmanship to slice her way to Overlordship. What followed was a great battle of sword and bow, and Cleric and Knight. Many blows were exchanged, great techniques were used, and strategies were exhausted, but it ultimately boiled down to a gruesome slugfest. To this end the Demon Slayer was put at an odds end, for Cleric Snake was experienced and resourceful, he did not fall to the desperation that his opponent fell to, and he emerged victorious in this Death Match that one might think would never end.

Upon patching his wounds, Cleric Snake passed into a glade where an unusual site beheld him: a band of the of diminutive creatures known as "Prinnies" attempted to coerce Cleric Snake into playing a foreign game, "baseball" they called it, if they won, they further mentioned, they would be allowed to contend for Overlordship. Setting his eyes upon this spectacle, Cleric Snake took a deep breath... and slew them all before making his way further into Blair Forest.

Somewhat at ease at how smooth his encounters were coming along, Cleric Snake was surprised to hell and back to find a giant daemon in his path. Claiming to be from an "Alternate Netherworld", he aspired to not only rule his Netherworld, but his Master Prince Laharl's also. This giant daemon prepared for combat by dividing himself into 10 identical clones, and seeing the fight upon him, Cleric Snake brandished his bow, and let out a yell as he attacked... and was defeated completely. Lying on the ground, bleeding to death, an unexpected salvation leaped from the darkness, in the form of Zombies and Ghosts and Dragons and other Herculean monsters, all claiming to be Vassals of the old dead king. They lept at the beasts from afar, and all Cleric Snake could do was witness their incredible might as they easily tore the Daemon's counterparts limb from limb. Once the battle concluded, they said their goodbyes and made their way, leaving Cleric Snake to continue his duties.
------------
to be continued


After that nightmare turn miracle, Cleric Snake was prepared for anything, and prepared he should be, for his next challenger was an odd man in a red uniform, unlike anything Cleric Snake has ever seen before. This man, with his squad of daemon mercenaries, assailed Cleric Snake. Cleric Snake was about to charge forward, but he stayed cool, as he noticed the ground glowed an unearthly shade of red. To his surprise, he found that the ground had been enchanted with otherworldly magic, so all that stood upon it would shoot from place to place unexpectedly. With this revelation, Cleric Snake stood his ground, and while foe struggled for even simple formation and unity, he picked them off casually at his leisure. At the battle's end, he looked back at the defeated Red suited man, and knew he would never face the battlefied again.

Reaching his ultimate destination, Cleric Snake was confronted once again by the Dark Adonis, who swore revenge for his previous defeats. It was rule of Cleric Snake, to never underestimate his opponent, but this judgement lapsed for but a moment, and as he stepped up to challenge him, was ambushed on all sides by Toxic gas breathing demons. Knowing that it was better to cut your losses than to die fighting, Cleric Snake put on a pair of shoes, then put on a second pair of shoes (a feat taught to him by his shrewd father), and he ran out of the ambush and to the far side of the marsh, where he engaged the Dark Adonis and his personal guard gargoyles, preparing for the worst, he fought conservative, turning his back to a corner, and transformed the battle to a long war of attrition, which the dark adonis had not prepared for, and ultimately lost. Afterwards, Cleric Snake took his revenge upon the toxic demons, this time the odds on his side, as he lured them out one by one and killed them mercilessly.

Now with the position of Overlordship secured for his master, Prince Laharl, Cleric Snake rests, but feels as though great danger is in the near future.
-------
Next on Metal Gear Cleric: episode 7! of being an Overlord.


Cleric Snake today finds his path through the treacherous land of Salamander's Breath, a violently volcanic land where it was rumored that not only does lava spew from the ground but a variety of dangerous magics. Cleric Snake begrudgingly treads these grounds on behest of his Master, Overlord Laharl, to handle a sudden outbreak of zombies and bring back their remains.

Walking through Salamanders breath, Cleric Snake takes a small rest, only to be ambushed by the surprisingly wily undead. the ordinarily slow lethargic beasts had gained some odd tenacity, taking every chance given to vomit the rotten contents of their stomachs at me, in an attempt to infect me with whatever godaweful sickness it contains, and would occasionally spin their bodies and arms wildly at me in feverish attempts to do harm. Hoofing it out of the center, Cleric Snake was careful only to do battle with only a few of the foul zombies at a time, and using all of his techniques, was able to destroy the fiendish zombies.

Traveling further, over a land bridge of a river of lava, Cleric Snake encountered a horde of the zombie menace. little to his knowing however, evil magic from below the earth had imbued the undead before him with supernatural strength and ferociousness. Realizing this, Cleric Snake retreated back over the land bridge where no trace of the magic lay, and diligently eradicated the zombies as they gave chase.

Walking along side a river of lava, Cleric Snake sees a flock of zombies on the other side, gearing up to combat them, Snake made a startling revelation, the normally dumb zombies had somehow mastered controlling the flow of the evil magic from the hearth, and had used it to quarter off the land that which he stood on, trapping him, and using other magics, sealed off the flow of power that allowed him to use his healing and bow skills, and made the ground sap the very life from him! Cleric Snake thought he was done for, but he saw one the odd triangular obelisks that allow these magics to exist. Without stopping to think, he ran over their and destroyed it, allowing him freedom from his prison. immediately the zombies gave chase, taking time to destroy the other obelisk that sealed his healing magic, he ran back into the life sapping territory and, kept alive by his magic, was able to lead the horde of undead into the territory, and they were killed by the very trap they had set.

His path now leading into a gulch, Cleric Snake was ambushed by more zombies, though this time, luck was on his side, as a little of the magic of this land was seeping out of the hearth and filled him with strength and vigor, using this magic, Cleric Snake was able to defeat all of the zombies.

the very last group of zombies were the most difficult, as it seems they had a definite leader, sitting on a throne of the obelisks, protected by their magic. Even though he knew the fight would be hard, Cleric Snake attacked, and fought viciously. Though, eventually the swarming of the zombies had put him at a disadvantage, and just when things looked bleak, the he had an idea, quickly, Cleric Snake stole the throne from the leader zombie, and protected by its magics was able to kill the remainder of the zombies at ease.

Having completed his master's task, Cleric Snake rests once more. Though sort of uneasy, for difficult battles are always just around the corner.

Next time on Metal Gear Cleric: a sight! the red moon.
--------------

Sorry if the next installment takes awhile, the next chapter in the game is a toughie! i'm goin to have to do some serious powering up to get past it.

So far, my equipment is a Lvl. 60 rare common bow (with as many stat-increasing specialists as i can fit on it) a lvl. 20 rare imperial seal (with all my miscellaneous specialsts on it, including my statisticians and armsmasters), and 2 lvl. 10 normal imperial seals.


Finally beat the first stage of Lunar Snowfield! its a real challenging one, because it was built to test your prowess in throwing, and team tactics. For those that don't know, this particular stage is completely covered in enemy 3x panels, and i start off completely surrounded by Maneaters (the tree stump monsters) with aggressive AI and the enemy 3x geo symbol is way on the other side of the map, blocked off by Cyclops' (the defensive space demons).
needless to say, this stage pummeled me a lot.

So i trained and trained and trained up my equipment in the item world. upgrading my rare common bow from level 20 to level 60. bringing my rare imperial seal up to lvl 30 and all my other imp. seals to lvl 10. Doing all this, i managed to power up enough to OHKO any of the maneaters in one hit from either sturmhimmel or zielregen.

though i did have to quit and restart many times until the nearest four maneaters (conveniently set up in a square formation) lacked resistance to fire attacks, so zielregen could OHKO all of them at once. from their, i hid by my home base, and knocked out the persuing maneaters 2 at a time with sturmhimmel until they were all gone. then i didn't bother trying to fight the cyclops' , i just survived their initial attack, then threw them out of the way. eliminating the enemy 3x symbol, and replaced it with a -50% defense symbol, i just leisurely knocked out the stationary cyclops'.

when i'm done with the chapter i'll storyize it.

by the way, two of the bows techs, sturmhimmel and zielregen, seem like german words. i know zielregen means "targeted rain", but does anyone know what sturmhimmel means? just wondering.


Prinnies have escaped Laharl's manor to Lunar Snowfield on this day, and it is the job of Cleric Snake to forceably retrieve them.

Upon reaching Lunar Snowfield, Cleric Snake is met with surprising hostility. A group of possessed tree stumps block his path, along with two cosmic daemons that are very rarely seen in the wild, attack him immediately. Cleric Snake was most unfortunate, for he knew of the magic emanating from the ground enhanced their strength considerably, but the obelisk responsible was very far away, too far away to be reached with the mob of evil tree stumps upon him, and so he fought. Although they were mighty and mean, they were disorganized, and this was their downfall as they ran headlong into Cleric Snake's bow. Throwing the cosmic daemons aside, Cleric Snake rushed to the obelisk and destroyed it. Good luck had apparently provided a nearby obelisk that provided the opposite effect, making everyone less stout in their resolve. Putting that in place, Cleric Snake took to eliminating the remaining cosmic daemons, and continued on his way.

Needing to go up a hill, Cleric Snake was assailed by entire families of the tree stump monsters. Actual fighting experience was possessed by few however, and all were shot to pieces within minutes.

The tree stump monsters now behind him, Cleric Snake was now confronted by a band of desperate out-of-work mercenaries who were journeying to the place the prinnies had ventured, with the intent of preying on the them. Cleric Snake could not allow these low-lifes to bring harm to his master's servants, and so he attacked. The spear wielding members of the group attacked first, and were shot down with ease. The sword and axe wielding members huddled around the magic obelisks that were providing their bow and magic wielding comrades with protection. While they put up a fight, they were skewered by Cleric Snake's rain of arrows. Disabling the obelisks, he cornered the bow and magic users, who were far to weak of body to withstand Cleric Snake's assault. Leaving a trail of corpses behind, Cleric Snake Traveled to his final destination.

Reaching his destination, Cleric Snake was surprised to see the Carriers of Death greeting the prinnies. Not knowing or needing their intention, Cleric Snake attacked. While they were strong, the ghosts were more experienced in carrying the living to the other side than they were in combat, and all were felled in time to apprehend the escaped prinnies. The lead Carrier of death approached Cleric Snake, asking why he was interfering. As he did not need to reply, Cleric Snake was about to deliver the final blow when an usual pink prinnie deviated from the mass and pleaded with him, "Tonight is the night of the Red Moon, Dood" she said, "This is why all the Prinnies came here tonight, Dood". Cleric Snake had not realized it until now, but the moon glowed a brilliant shade of Red. Prinnies on a nearby plateau we singing on ominous song. "On this night" she continued, "Those Prinnies that have fully repented for their sins may finally pass to the other side, and rest in peace". Gazing at the flock of prinnies, Cleric Snake's Heart swelled, for the entire existence of the prinnies was to be subjugated, and Cleric Snake knew what it was like to be subjugated. Silently, Cleric Snake put away his bow, and walked off. His mission would be a failure today, and so he only hoped for a lenient punishment when he returned.

Next time on Metal Gear Cleric: Space Invaders?! Showdown with Captain Gordon!

[JoshuaFH]

The story is interrupted about halfway through in this part as I briefly talk about Shining Force 2.

Spoiler: Part 2 of my Disgaea Fanfiction (click to show/hide)

We meet Cleric Snake today as he does cleaning duty at the Stellar Graveyard, picking up all the junk that falls from the sky, and returning to the castle with anything even remotely valuable. This demeaning job was formerly the responsibility of the Prinny Servants, but seeing as how he had allowed them all to pass on, Laharl saw it was fitting to give their job to Cleric Snake as punishment until he got more servants.

Things were going smoothly after a couple days, until huge explosion rocked the earth. A Plume of smoke was seen in the horizon. Sensing that something far more dangerous than a meteor had landed, Cleric Snake rushed to the site of impact. Arriving, he found Scattered remains of what appeared to be an interstellar vehicle, but no one around. Investigating further, Cleric Snake was jumped by a group of native cat women and a floating armor that had also been attracted to the site.

They appeared in a tight group formation, and using this, Cleric Snake dealt as much damage using his paralyzing attack "sturmhimmel" before they could surround him. The remaining un-paralyzed cat women quickly attacked from all sides with claws and an energy blast technique they knew. Thanks to Cleric Snakes toughness however, he survived the onslaught, and could heal. They were fierce warriors, but they lacked the combat effectiveness to deal lethal damage, and this was they're downfall. Surviving a second onslaught, it was apparent his enemy was running out of steam, and he backed into a corner, and pegged them all one by one.

After defeating them, Cleric Snake found evidence that some passengers of the ship may have escaped elsewhere, and ventured to find them.

Coming up to a ridge, Cleric Snake heard a woman and an odd voice speaking. He jumped out to ambush them, only to see they were unarmed. Cleric Snake declared he was the Warrior of the Netherworlds great overlord Laharl, and he demanded to know who they were and where they were from. "We're from Earth" the woman said, "And we came to slay the overlord, well, not us, but the Great defender of Earth, Captain Gordon! I'm just his assistant, Jennifer, and this is Thursday, the multi-purpose super robot.". Cleric Snake had heard enough, these were not would-be space travelers, but intergalactic assassins! Knowing that an assassin was roaming about, he bound up the woman and robot, and threw them into his junk cart before searching the stellar graveyard for this "Captain Gordon".

Before he could take ten steps however, more of the catwomen and floating armors ambushed him on all sides. An attack of this size would surely spell certain death, he thought, but then he saw one of those magic obelisks and threw it onto a path of green magical ground, dividing the enemy attack force in half! From this point on, he survived the Cat women's attacks, and picked them off one by one. After dealings with all the immediate threats, Cleric Snake could take his time to kill those on the opposite side of the magic barrier with his bow.


Searching further, Cleric Snake encountered some Brawlers that were resentful of Laharl's Overlordship, and upon seeing Cleric Snake, attacked! The much less experienced pugilists rushed forward to meet Cleric Snake. Cleric Snake, seeing some positively charged magic hearth ahead of him, took the fight their. the magic hearth's sporadice placement allowed Cleric Snake to reap its benefits while his enemy futiley attacked from less nominal positions. Whilst killing these amateur fighters, the more experience ones in the group caught up, and actually started doing serious damage. Cleric Snake stood his ground however, and healed and defended himself while they all whittled away at their stamina, and once they did, they fell to Cleric Snakes bow like so many before them.

Travellings into a nearby gorge, Cleric Snake was assaulted by platoon of ghosts. These were not ordinary ghosts however, through some machination or contrivance, these imps had learned powerful elemental magic! An obelisk with the power to seal away their magic was on the far side of the battlefield, and Cleric Snakes attempt to get it was thwarted as all the ghosts swarmed towards him, and attacked. These Ghosts magic was strong, but it was fortunate that Cleric Snake found it natural to be able to resist powerful magics, and survived the many spells. Cleric Snake withdrew and healed as best he could, but they would not let up, they cast spell after spell after spell, but it became apparent that they were not aware of how to use their magic properly and would often hit their own comrades needlessly. Very slowly, but surely, Cleric Snake destroyed the attacking force, and emerged victorious.

After all these battles, Cleric Snake came upon the only place he hadn't searched, the primordial soup, a lake of oddly green glowing water. When he came to it, he found an oddly dressed man with an odd contraption strapped to his back. Seeing that Jennifer and Thursday were in Cleric Snake's cart, he demanded to know who he was. Cleric Snake introduced himself as a Warrior serving under the Overlord Laharl, Cleric Snake demanded likewise. "I'm Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! I'm here to defeat the villain that is the Overlord of the Netherworld!". Cleric Snake knows that this assassin cannot be allowed to live, and so he brandished his bow and attacked. Gordon shouted a command and the robot sprang to life, breaking free of his constraints and jumping to Gordon's side, ready to fight.

This pair showed a great deal of tenacity as they converged on Cleric Snake and attacked. The robot and man showed much resolve in their struggle, using everything at their disposal to damage Cleric Snake, and while they put up a great fight, however it was their misfortune that they had to fight with Cleric Snake on this day and eventually lost.

Before dealing the finishing blow, Cleric Snake thought of a better idea. he disarmed, bound, and gagged the pitiful defender and robot, threw them into his junk cart, and made his way back to the castle. These would make a great present to his Master, Overlord Laharl.

Throwing them at Laharl's feet and explaining the situation, Laharl seemed pleased. The Assassins pleaded and cried for forgiveness, and Laharl, proving that he is a kind and merciful overlord, allowed them to live under the condition that they be his servants until death.

Next time on Metal Gear Cleric: A... Picnic?!?!?!?!?
---------------------------

This was a fairly easy chapter, only cross-point proved any sort of challenge, no changes in equipment, and Cleric Snake is lvl. 68 at the end of this chapter.


Today Cleric Snake accompanies his master Overlord Laharl as He, his vassal Etna, Flonne, and his newly acquired servants from the human world, go out to relax and enjoy a picnic on the smoldering plains of the land known as the "Sea of Gehenna". Laharl's disposition towards Cleric Snake seems mostly patched up, but Laharl is still resentful for his past failure.

After some searching, The group found a suitable location, completely covered in a magic that prevented harm to everyone within it, ensuring safety from sneak attacks or whatever other threat that might arise, unfortunately, a herd of wild gargoyles had already infested the area. While they were no threat at all, they were still a nuisance, and so Laharl ordered Cleric Snake to remove them by any means necessary. Coming into proximity of the gargoyles, Cleric Snake saw that a nearby river of lava had none of the protection the land around it had, and so a plan was born into Cleric Snakes mind. Standing at the mouth of one of the man land bridges going over the river, the gargoyles walked onto the land bridges for which to attack, and Cleric Snake Destroyed them as they did. Occasionally they'd attack from behind, and all Cleric Snake had to do was move from one of the bridge to the other, and allow them to pursue, and he repeated this strategy until all the gargoyles were eliminated.

Setting down to enjoy themselves, the group was beset by a familiar face, the dark adonis! He snatched the basket containing all the food, and ran off. Laharl immediately ordered Cleric Snake to pursue him. Chasing after him, Cleric Snake had inadvertantly ran straight into a large collection of monsters!

the Hobbits and many kin were their, as well as three dragons. Cleric Snake was greatly outnumbered, but knew he couldn't turn back now. pressing his back to a wall, he braced himself as the beasts hurled themselves at him and attacked relentlessly. Cleric Snake was in mortal danger from the hobbit's Sleeping gas attacking, and the dragons mighty strength, but Cleric Snake had been in life or death struggles before, and so was prepared. He continued to brace and heal himself for a long while, and eventually, the attacking monsters wore themselves out. This was Cleric Snakes time to attack, he unleashed on the foul beasts powerful arrows, and they fell, 2 and 3 at a time, all the hobbits were vanquished and it was only a matter of time before the last dragons took his final breath.


Going over the hill, Cleric Snake got sight of the petty Dark Adonis, and running down, was met by an odd band ofPucks, and a Sentinel sitting upon many powerful magics to make him unbeatable. These were not wild creatures, it was clear that not only were they civilized, but had motive to stop Cleric Snake. Apparently hired by the Dark Adonis, Cleric Snake set out to kill these monsters. due to the lethal power of the sentinel, Cleric Snake kept his distance, and set to unravel his might. He traveled around him and killed the pucks protecting the obelisks that gave the sentinel his strength. Instead of destroying all the obelisks however, Cleric Snake only destroyed one, which was the one that planted the sentinel in place. and doing this, Cleric Snake was able to throw the sentinel aside, and take his place, gaining the benefit of all the magics, and was able to easily defeat the sentinel.

Following the Dark Adonis' foot prints, Cleric Snake was confronted by a pack of treants. They lacked strength however, as Cleric Snake demolished four mere moments after the being confronted, and was able to fend off the rest as they piled on him.

Going over a couple ridges, Cleric Snake finally caught up with the Dark Adonis, and when he demanded that the basket be returned to his master Laharl, the Dark Adonis gave a small gesture, and many hired pucks and dragons leaped from hiding places all over the field. Vyers apparently has no intention of being peaceable, and so the battle is on. Vyers and all of the creatures except the dragons waste no time in descending upon Cleric Snake. However, being bunched up in the chaos, Vyers, despite being the strongest opponent on the battlefield, cannot get through his hired muscle to attack, and thus is felled easily from afar by Cleric Snakes arrows. Losing their leader, the fight goes down hill for them as Cleric Snake fells every last puck as they struggle to survive. The lazy dragons, are then approached slowly and eliminated individually.

Defeated, but still not dead, Vyers is asked by Cleric Snake one last time to return the picnic basket. Vyers replies that he has already consumed the contents of the basket, angry that this petty adonis would go through so much trouble for a simple meal, Cleric Snake informed him that he was getting the food back. Bewildered, the Dark Adonis was about to ask how, but then was forced to buckle over as his stomach was punched in. Collapsing on the ground, the blow to his gut was too much, and he vomited the contents of his stomach onto the ground. Cleric Snake didn't want to sully his hands with this trash anymore, and as he turned to head back to the picnic spot, he saw that Laharl had caught up with him, and witnessing this act of cruelty on the Dark Adonis, laughed lightly, and ordered that the day of relaxation was over, and headed back towards the castle.

Next time on Metal Gear Cleric: a ghostly challenger!
---------------------

Once again, not a very hard chapter, wasteland of woe almost killed me, but i triumphed over it.

Cleric Snake is lvl. 71 at the end of this chapter, and no changes in equipment.


In today's adventure, An odd letter was found was found by the main entrance of the overlord's castle, disturbing, as the only path leading to the castle is watched vigilantly and the surrounding premises is patrolled by Cleric Snake himself along with some other guards at regular intervals. The letter was then brought to Laharl where he opened and dictated it, revealing that a formal challenge had been proposed to him! The letter detailed that he would be waiting deep within the Forest of the Dead. Most strangely though, is that at the end, it was signed "the Defender of Earth". Gordon claimed that he wrote no such letter, but being a former assassin and one of the only people able to reach the door Laharl chose to not trust him. To be on the safe side, while Gordon was being squeezed for info, Laharl sent Cleric Snake to the Forest of the Dead to investigate the matter.

Venturing into the Forest, it was not long before a suspicious formation of Mandrakes and Star Skulls was found. Confronting them, Cleric Snake demanded to know who they were and what was their purpose in these woods. They did not respond however, they turned to face him, revealing their expressionless faces and glazed over eyes, as though all life had been drained from their frames. Before Cleric Snake could get in another word, they attacked! Cleric Snake fought them, hindering their attacks with zielregen and stopping their feet with sturmhimmel, but they piled on him with no regard for their own safety. Being pushed back, Cleric Snake was heavily damaged, by the powerful magic of the skulls and the relentless attacks of the mandrakes. Their disorganization was their demise though, as with Cleric Snakes battle experience, they fell to his bow. Cleric Snake thought these beings were very peculiar, for in battle they emitted no screams or yelps as they were hurt and killed, and the expression of their faces changed not in death. Why, it almost seemed as though they were possessed

Continuing onward, Cleric Snake discovered several tall steppes, occupied by many more skulls, scarecrows, and a knight. This time approaching more carefully, he saw the same expressionless look upon their faces. Accidentally stealing ones attention, they all faced to attack Cleric Snake. This time more prepared, Cleric Snake fought them more deftly, and while they were formidable, were defeated. Cleric Snake knows the Forest of the Dead, while ominous, is not known for these outlandish happenings, something deeper within must be responsible.

Traveling through a pass, an unusual sight beheld Cleric Snake, Alps lined the forest and cliff walls, enchanted by ominous magic. Coming upon them, they were immediately hostile, but refused to move from their enchanted locations, as though they were protecting something beyond the pass. Cleric Snake set to exterminate these pesky Alps and finally find what has been causing the atrocities he's found. All of the Alps seemed prepared with magic spells to use against intruders, and so Cleric Snake could not jump amidst them. Instead, he attacked them one at a time, and while they fought back, were but pests by themselves. One by one Cleric Snake destroyed the flying beasts, and made his way to what he was sure was the provenance of this mystery.


Arriving at a spot where the magic of the earth was so powerful that the soil glowed blue, a translucent man appeared before Cleric Snake. "My name is Don Joaquin, the Original Defender of Earth. It is my mission to kill the Overlord, and my soul will never rest until I do". Meeting this spirit, the letter and all the happenings now make sense to Cleric Snake, these things could only have been done by this Spirit. Cleric Snake introduces himself as a Warrior Cleric under Overlord Laharl's command, and he has been sent to investigate the Forest in place of the Overlord himself, Don Joaquin hearing this replies "Oh really? How despicably shameful of an Overlord to send a mere grunt in response to a challenge! If a letter isn't enough to earn the attention of the Overlord, then I will place the tattered corpse of his underling on his doorstep!", With that, many monsters leap out from the trees and bushes, and the battle was upon him. The blue glow of the heath empowered the many beasts many fold, making them strong beyond compare. Cleric Snake, realizing this, was wary. He carefully antagonized only one at a time, luring the fiend into the area was their was no magic from which to be empowered, and slew it. Having to eventually venture into the magical badland, Cleric Snake was glad that he had taken the time to line his arrows with many poisons, for when he individually provoked the scarecrows that were guarding the magic obelisks, one arrow is all it took to force the virulent poisons and tranquilizers into their bodies and render them incapable of fighting. Doing this, Cleric Snake broke the defensive line around the obelisks, and destroyed them, removing the magic from the land and returning all the creatures to normal strength. While not knowledgeable in exorcisms, Cleric Snake beset the spirit with what he knew, and that was fighting. The Centuries had taken their toll on this soul, as Cleric Snake, after exchanging blows with the old man, defeated him and all his cohorts. Don Joaquin, meeting his ultimate demise, seemed oddly relieved. As his soul dissolved into nothingness, he muttered that he was happy to be able to finally try his hand at fighting the Overlord, and know that he doesn't have to linger around the living wondering 'what if' anymore, and then he disappeared.

Traveling back towards the castle with news of victory should have lightened Cleric Snakes heart, but instead, it felt as though the ominous danger in the forest had simply relocated itself... into the sky.

Next time on Metal Gear Cleric: Invasion!
--------------------
This chapter wasn't so hard except for the last stage, which required a good deal of patience.

Cleric Snake at the end of this chapter is lvl.75

before going into stellar graveyard II, i got my hands on rare pixie bow, and so i spent a lot of time collecting spare stat specialists for it, and lvl'd it to 60 so i have a brand new weapon to trounce enemies with.

also, through sheer luck, i got my hands on 3 devil rings, i'm only wearing two through, as i also leveled up my rare imperial seal to sixty and thats more useful at the moment.

my game time so far is about 42 hours.


In today's adventure, the sky's of the Netherworld darken as a human invasion fleet screams across the atmosphere, and finally settles in the deepest realms of the Stellar Graveyard. Laharl, seeing this, makes haste and activates the emergency sirens and lets out a call to arms to all his minions. Cleric Snake, busy enjoying his rare day off on Sacrifice Street, witnessed the unusual ships and upon hearing the emergency siren, was glad that he always carries his bow and quiver in case of emergencies, and does not hesitate as he plunges into the normally forbidden sections of the Stellar Graveyard forthwith.

Upon arriving, Cleric Snake sees that the alien intruders have wasted no time in their invasion as he spies several oddly suited soldiers scouting the terrain and no doubt securing a defensive perimeter. Although he was the first to arrive, Cleric Snake knows he can't allow them to set up defensively, and attacks immediately. Advancing along one of the narrow paths through the acidic pools, the odd soldiers expressed no surprise, or even concern for their own safety as they waded through the acid pools, strangely enough, completely unharmed. Cleric Snake assailed the first to attack with an arrow through the heart, but the odd soldier not only did not die, but didn't bleed, or even slow in its attack! Puzzled by this, Cleric Snake did not worry himself on the impossibility of the situation, and instead let many more arrows fly. Eventually as the odd soldier was pelted, it's arms and legs became so perforated and skewered that they failed and crumbled on the being, forcing him to collapse, defeated, yet seemingly still eager to fight. With natural stubbornness, Cleric Snake assaulted each of the soldiers in this fashion, until they all lay in similar heaps upon the ground. Examining their bodies, Cleric Snake found that these odd soldiers were but clockwork mechanical abominations! The humans possessed such peculiar technology, Cleric Snake thought, first the "Thursday" he had apprehended earlier, and now these. Cleric Snake did not stop to examine or think any more than that as he made his way further towards the landing site.

Heading deeper into the Stellar Graveyard, Cleric Snake notices the now more numerous rivers and ponds of toxic brew, so fresh and undiluted that it would surely kill any living thing that dare tread into it, and the many poisons, seeping into the hearth, horribly corrupted the natural energy flow necessary for Cleric Snake's special techniques and magics. In his haste though, Cleric Snake stumbled straight into a defensive installment inhabited by many more of the clockwork soldiers, they all turned towards him a the battle was upon him! The many mechanized minions here all mostly used axes despite their high tech origins, and realizing this, Cleric Snake retreated into a tall peninsula where he could not be totally surrounded, and although he had to exchange many blows, was able to pick off a few of the soldiers. The resiliency of the group held strong though, and Cleric Snake by himself grew weak, and he was forced into retreating again. After using all of his rainy day magic healing items, Cleric Snake threw himself back into the fray, and this time, exterminated all of the Clockwork soldiers, except for two, who lorded over the entire installment atop earthen pillars so that they may look down on the base and see far into the distance. Rushing to the base of the earthen pillar, they exchanged shots, and Cleric Snake was surprised to find that these soldiers were a definite step above their metal brethren, but however well they were made, they could not stand in a real fight, and eventually fell from their high pillar as arrows flew into their helmets, and sparks, fire, and loud noise flew out, before splashing headlong into the toxic pool they lorded over. Cleric Snake, defeating these invaders, hurries to the core of the problem before matters got worse.

TO BE CONTINUED: no one post until I get the second part up.


The rivers of toxins take on more alien properties the deeper Cleric Snake goes into the Stellar Graveyard. The pools that once faintly glowed green now were completely iridescent in the bright starlight, as though the streams were now comprised of oil. The ground now possessed the eery quality of both making those in its domain impervious to injury, whilst still sapping actual life from those that walked upon it. The Landing site, now within view, but guarded by one last road, with the clockwork soldiers stiffly entrenched along it. Having the resolve and the toughness necessary, Cleric Snake dove into the nearby iridescent pool and waited for the clockwork soldiers to pursue him. The oily bath, while having no effect upon Cleric Snake, provided subtle yet substantial nourishment to the machine bodies of the Clockwork soldiers, allowing them to move faster, fight harder, and take more punishment than would be initially thought, as Cleric Snake soon found out when exchanging blows with them. Cleric Snake though, now free of the corrupting poisons, unleashed his electrically charged sturmhimmel upon the foes, and froze their steel bodies in place. The groups of soldiers were undoubtably made well, but nonetheless crumbled in the face of Cleric Snake. Further down the road, Cleric Snake ran into what appeared to be better made automatons, and dealt them his arrows before they collapsed in the same fashion as their compatriots.

TO BE CONTINUED: in a third part, I REALLY wish 4096 wasn't the max for characters.


Finally approaching the foreign craft, a man with green hair, unlike all the clockwork soldiers leapt in front of Cleric Snake from a high venue with the help of shoes that spit fire in an odd controlled fashion. "I am Kurtis, the other Defender of Earth" he composed, "and you are?", Cleric Snake introduced himself as a Warrior Cleric and Retainer of Overlord Laharl, "So that fool Gordon did fail his mission after all. I assume that since you've come alone, you are an emissary of surrender for his Overlordship?", the arrogance of this man burns Cleric Snakes soul, He demands to know how he can say that after the slaughter of his many clockwork soldiers, "You mean my androids? Those are but a pittance to manufacture, millions more are soon to arrive to crush your pathetic Netherworld. I am only here to show you piteous creatures the only flake of compassion you will ever see from our glorious conquest over your world" Cleric Snakes heart is enraged at this man's hubris, he states that Overlord Laharl will never yield to any invader, and all his enemies will be vanquished. With that, Cleric Snake wields his bow to kill this shameful man, and the androids surrounding him all bear arms to engage combat. Cleric Snake wades through the diluted green pools so that they he may engage them all at once, and when they charge him, unleashes every secret technique at his disposal towards their doom. He had gotten a little over his head though, as the machine warriors doggedly attacked, and so Cleric Snake ran across the battlefield to recover. The green hair man, Kurtis, revealed that he was not an ordinary human as he attacked Cleric Snake by dealing great blows from firing his hands from his arms! As the battle continued, all of the androids were eventually destroyed, and the fight raged on between Kurtis and Cleric Snake. They each delivered mighty attacks upon one another, and the fight was a stalemate for some time. However, Kurtis' eventually yielded, as when being close to death, unexpectedly activated his fire boots and flew into the hatch of his ship, which, despite its great size, nimbly spun to face the sky, and blasted far into the atmosphere, and its many smaller accompanying ships promptly followed it.

Cleric Snake guessing that was but the tip of the invasion fleet, wastes no time in rushing back to his Master to inform him of the great impending danger.

Next time on Metal Gear Cleric: Aboard The Gargantua!

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

This chapter is special because the average enemies make a noticeable jump in quality, so i'm glad i have my brand new rare pixie bow. i'm about 43 hours into my file now. with no other changes in equipment. lvl'ing up the pixie bow did lvl up Cleric Snake to about Lvl. 98 in preparation for this chapter.

Gargantua deck is goin to be a pain.

P.S. Sorry this installment took so much longer than the others, i wrote it much sooner, but then my computer suddenly froze up and i lost all my work. i was so frustrated it took me a while to get the motivation to write it again. Thats why I wrote this chapter so much longer just to make up for lost time.

P.P.S. in other news, Shining Force 2 is great. I named my main character Klar, after an imaginary barbarian I thought up after watching Conan the Destroyer a couple too many times. Here are some pics of me playing.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/slapstar/1shiningforce2pics.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/slapstar/2shiningforce2pics.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/slapstar/3shiningforce2pics.jpg


I finally completed Shining Force 2, and i gotta say, that was a great game, i'd even go as far as to put it somewhere in my personal top 20 best games of all time list, but that was one of the WORST game endings i've ever seen in my entire life-long career of gaming.

I mean, the story is alright, it's just a cliche good and evil premise, but its alright, it does the job. Some of the more major plot points have me questioning the internal logic of the characters involved, but nothing too egregious. So i beat the final boss, and the final scene kicks in, the ultimate evil has been beaten, the world is saved, all is good in the universe... until the epilogue starts, which is where the game bashes its own brains in.

i mean seriously, its so incredibly bad, and i don't wanna spoil it for anyone but trust me. Anything would have been better, like if say when you squeezed the last few hit points outta the last boss, the screen just faded to black with white text saying "Congratulations! you beat the game!", THAT would have been a better ending than what you actually get.

The ending defies logic, ethics, morality, and common sense in the most awkward and most alienating way i could never imagine. They did everything well up to the end, but it feels as though the last 10 minutes was made by 6-year-olds. Now I'm not a big critic hotshot, but when i read a book, my ultimate opinion of it is weighed heavily by its last 10-20 pages, and how that book leaves me feeling, and This videogame had me hitting my head in the back of my chair, refraining from cursing out loud as i watched the game maim and mutilate itself in those last 10 minutes, which when said and done left me with feelings of disgust at what had just transpired, sadness at how such a good game had to go end so terribly, and mixed feelings of contempt and pity at the developers because i can't fathom how they could have screwed up something so simple unless they had done it deliberately (contempt) or if outside forces had crippled their ability to stop it from happening (pity).

My only advice is that if you ever decide to pick up this great game, the moment you defeat the final boss, Just turn off the game and assume everything worked out in the end, you'll thank me for it.

I just wanted to get all that off my chest cause it was bothering me SO much. i'll write some more in a while.


Returning to the castle, Cleric Snake found his master Laharl closely watching the skies for more activity. Reporting what had transpired, Laharl, modestly surprised at this turn of events, continued gazing towards the sky. The whole of Netherworld was already in high alert, with even small anomalies being reported by the minute, but all that was left to do was wait for the invasion fleet to eventually arrive. It was not long before countless specks, growing larger and larger, appeared within the atmosphere, the Invasion was upon the Netherworld. Knowing this was a task beyond the power of his minions, Laharl confidently strolled to the highest point of his castle, which, being the highest place for many miles around, allowed him to welcome the human's fleet firsthand by flaunting his incredible power. With single movements, Laharl's manifest influence met the oncoming warships and they crumbled and exploded on contact. Thousands of the space vessels were destroyed in but moments, chaos quickly spread throughout the enemy ranks and many turned to escape with their lives or die trying. Cleric Snake looked on as the majority of the force was decimated by his Overlord's inscrutable might, but one ship in the sky stood out from the rest, one much larger and more menacing, unwavering at the sight of all its comrades being destroyed and coasting into the airspace unharmed. The human servant Jennifer, watching in complete horror as her fellow humans were being slaughtered, witnessed the large ship and blurted "Ah! The Gargantua!". It would appear that this was no ordinary ship, being able to withstand Laharl's onslaught, it would use this opportunity to wreak havoc upon the denizens of Netherworld, or even worse, upon the castle. Wasting no time, Cleric Snake rushed to Anita the Portal Cleric and ordered her to teleport him onto the Gargantua forthwith.

Jumping into the teleportation vortex, Cleric Snake found himself on top of the Metal Behemoth, with many of the cannon immediately noticing and training themselves onto him. Cleric Snake, knowing that he cannot withstand a barrage of these powerful guns, took cover, looked about and saw that the entrance into the ship was far away, and thinking it over for a second, decided to use a spell that is rarely used, if only because of the long preparation, his shield spell. After preparing it, Cleric Snake ran headlong into the live fire and braced for the worst. The Cannons pounded at his barrier, and left Cleric Snake scarred and wounded, but alive, and being alive, leapt into the hatch without hesitation, and he was inside the Gargantua.

To be Continued.


Diving into the hatch, Cleric Snake found himself in a stairway and, guessing that the residents of this ship must already be alerted to his presence, bolted down and went through door at the end and found himself in a long hallway. He found his guess was right, many of the androids were scrambling towards the door he had burst out of. Immediately brandishing his bow, he combated them.

Cleric Snake noticed the unusually helmets of these androids, which glowed an unworldly orange, and upon exchanging blows, It was apparent that these androids were of a much higher quality than those he had battled before, as they moved much more fluidly, yet with more force and direction, and wielded better weapons. Pelting them with his arrows proved just as effective though, as his prior experience with the machine beings has given him the knowledge to battle these more efficiently and these better androids fall eventually.

Hurrying to do anything to stop this flying behemoth, Cleric Snake runs down the hall to find anything significant, but is stopped by another squad of the androids. One of these androids in the far back, however, is unique in that it has a sword Cleric Snake has never seen before. More like a long brightly glowing rod than a sword, this android swung it about with rigid mastery as he approached, and accidentally hit one of his comrades doing so, slicing him in half as though he were paper, and Cleric Snake knew to be especially wary of this one. The androids in front were wielding axes and must be dealt with first. They charged at him, but met with a wall of arrows, and collapsed at Cleric Snake's feet. Then the two gunmen behind them set their sights at Cleric Snake, and were out-drawed as arrows pierced their helmets and a torrent of smokes and sparks gushed out as they fell to the ground. Finally, the android wielding the glowing sword charged at Cleric Snake, swinging his blade with seamless precision at the retaliatory arrows, each one disintegrating into fine clouds of ash as they collide with it. The android closed the gap between them quickly, and began swinging his glowing blade at Cleric Snake with intense preprogrammed fervor. Cleric Snake however, not taken by panic, merely allowed his mixture of adrenaline and experience in dangerous situations take over, and can calmly see every swing of the robotic swordsman, as if in slow motion, and although his opponent is too close to ready his bow, he deftly avoids every swing. He sways, ducks, and steps back to avoid the ever advancing android, not wasting any movements, but always looking for his chance to strike back, Cleric Snake is pushed back further and further. Watching his swordsmanship, he finally devised a plan, avoiding an upwards strike, Cleric Snake crouched down close to the androids feet which prompted it to strike down with robotic speed, Cleric Snake anticipated this and rolled closely to its side making the android plant its glowing sword into the ground and as it turned to match Cleric Snake's movements, it's swords burned through the ground and inadvertently sliced half of his own foot off in the process, narrowly missing Cleric Snake, but singeing the back of his green battle outfit and Cleric Snake rolled to his side again, but this time, when the android turned, its robotic precision erred and it lost it's balance for but a moment, but this was the moment that Cleric Snake used to flip back, and unleash his ultimate attack, Doppelganger, which skewered the lifeless machine in every way, leaving it broken and useless. Cleric Snake took no moment to savor his hard earned victory, and continued down the hall to find the head of this giant ship, hoping this time-consuming battle had not undone His master Laharl, his castle, or his home Netherworld.

To be continued. (I so satisfied my personal challenge to make a boring fight much more exciting)


Cleric Snake hurried down the hall, and found the decor to changed from spacious corridors, to narrow panelled halls as he progressed, and as he came to an intersection, illuminous red light sprang from the floor panels and spread in every direction. Cleric Snake looked about him, and what he thought was an empty hall was instead a carefully disguised trap as hidden compartments spontaneously flipped down from the ceiling and placed a trio of androids down in the path of every escape route, except one, and looking down it, a familiar face presented itself, Kurtis! Cleric Snake was surrounded, and at a moments glance, the helmets of his ambusher androids glowed much more brightly than the ones previous, possibly indicating that they were receiving some sort of energy from the illuminating floor. Kurtis spoke "You again? I was wondering who could have infiltrated the Gargantua, and my previous defeat has taught me to not underestimate you base demons, so as you can see, your completely surrounded, give up now, and save yourself the pain of defeat." Cleric Snake stands up to him resolutely and states that the Overlord and his subjects would never surrender, regardless of the situation. "Your Overlord may have defeated the many peon ships that made up this fleet, but all we need is the Gargantua to level your defenses. In fact, the Gargantua could have destroyed your Overlord's castle ten times by now, if it weren't for you infiltrating and scaring that cowardly General so much he brought the Gargantua to a standstill until we caught you, we would have already won. I'm sorry my worthy adversary, but you must die!", and with those words, the ambushing androids sprang into life as they're holding compartments released them and flipped back into the ceiling.

To Be Continued

Please take note that I'm only marginally proud of this work.

[JoshuaFH]

Spoiler: The 3rd and final part of my Disgaea Fanfiction (click to show/hide)

Cleric Snake, acting immediately, performed a zielregen and destroyed three of the androids right away, revealing something unexpected, that the power source of the odd illumination was from one of the magical obelisks that symbolize the world's magic, and Cleric Snake's next course of action became clear, he went over and destroyed the obelisk and noticed how the illuminated floor suddenly became dimmer. Cleric Snake realized that there must be others, but before he could engage the other androids however, Kurtis descended from his platform and sought out Cleric Snake, and like before, it was a one on one fight, in the odd hallway. Kurtis accelerated towards Cleric Snake with is fire boots, deftly dodging the preemptive arrows, and retaliated with what felt like air from his fingertips, but penetrated through his outfit and cut through Cleric Snake's shoulders, leaving painful wounds. Cleric Snake pulled out his ace, flipped back and performed Doppelganger, and many arrows were fired at Kurtis, who blocked a few, but could not keep up as the many projectiles pierced his body. Kurtis reeled in pain, and Cleric Snake was surprised that he even survived, but he noticed something odd, Kurtis did not bleed like a normal living thing, and as Kurtis turned to face Cleric Snake, his white trench coat opened for but a second, and it was apparent that through the perforations in his skin, that his flesh was but a facade for the machinery that made up his body, Cleric Snake, realizing this, was shocked and pondered for but a second what could have driven these humans to such inane fascination with the technology that they are blessed with, and in this moment Kurtis shoots out his fists as he did in their first encounter, but Cleric Snake having seen this attack before, was no longer caught off guard by it as he shifted slightly and allowed the fist to dent the wall behind him before leaping forward and firing an arrow, point blank into Kurtis' eye socket, pinning his head to the wall behind him. Surprisingly enough, Kurtis still had life in him, "It would appear... that... you've beaten me. Excuse me, but I do not recall your name, would you tell me again so I may know who defeated me?" Cleric Snake told him that names are worthless, he told him that he was once known by a different name, but the moment that the Overlord selected him to be one of his vassals, he was renamed, and suddenly everything before that point was irrelevant to him. He told him to just remember his face and his actions if it meant anything, and that was that. Cleric Snake confronted the rest of the androids, but dispatched them so quickly as to not be worthy of remembering them, and continued to his final destination, the Bridge of the Gargantua.

To Be Continued.


Marching into the Bridge, Cleric Snake makes his presence known as he violently slugs a lackey nearest the entrance into one of the many computer panels. Seeing this, attendants immediately scramble from their terminals at his approach, quickly ducking behind a bald man much more prominently dressed than anyone else in the room, apparently the leader of the Gargantua. "What is this! Who are you!?" Cleric Snake introduces himself by readying his bow, and aiming at the center of the man's head, "Your that Intruder! I..." suddenly sounding much calmer "I was hoping that Kurtis would have been able to take care of you, but I guess I thought too highly of him." redirecting his speech towards the men behind him, "It looks like we've been beaten men. Now all of you, make your way to the escape ships, I'll stay behind to try to reason with this mad man." the attendants behind quickly climbed into special hatches, many of them murmuring of how brave their General is. Turning back to face Cleric Snake "Now, Demon, Lets be peaceful about this, I'm General Carter, what is it you want from me?" Cleric Snake told him that nothing less than complete surrender would be acceptable. "Is... that so....." consternation was painted quite evidently across the General's face. Cleric Snake pulled back on his bowstring ever more tightly to urge his decision. several moments of tense silence past, only to be broken by the sudden roar of the escape ships starting their engines, and then fading as they flew off. Then the general did something unexpected, he began snickering, "You think you have me pinned, don't you, you filthy demon? I've already initiated my desperation plan, help is on the way. why in fact, if you beg for your life right now..." Cleric Snake had heard enough from this pompous human, and he let his arrow fly to let it do the diplomacy for him. The arrow soared unerringly at Carter's head, the surprise making him wince his face in preparation to be skewered, but when it didn't happen, he opened his eyes to find the arrow being held mere inches from his face. Cleric Snake looked in astonishment as the arrow had been grabbed in mid-air by an angel! Cleric Snake looked around, and realized that the whole room had been filled with angel warriors. "You had your chance demon! Angels, kill this cretin! I'll fly the Gargantua by myself if i have to, but no matter what, Earth WILL prevail over the Netherworld!", and with that, he pressed a button and he vanished in a blur of green light, and the angels all brandished their weapons of spears and bows.

STAY TUNED FOR THE EXCITING CONCLUSION... LATER!


Taken by surprise at the appearance of the angel warriors, Cleric Snake instinctively fired a barrage of arrows at his winged foes. The arrows were fired keenly and accurately, as Cleric Snake had done thousands of times before and was sure they would hit their mark. A wave of surprise hit Cleric Snake when the arrows didn't hit their mark, but instead lay broken on the ground, next to the broken arrows of a different countenance, and at the sight of the two angel archers, it was apparent that they had deftly destroyed his arrows in mid-flight with their own! Cleric Snake now knew to acknowledge the undoubtable skill of his opponents, and to run now would be the easily anticipated choice of a fool, and so for life and Master, Cleric Snake dove into the crowd of Spear Warriors, knowing that his enemy's arrows would not find him there. Cleric Snakes spear wielding enemies took liberty to surround him, where their proficiency was most evident, and they jabbed and lunged and pounced with ferociousness one would not expect from an Angel. Protecting himself with his magic, Cleric Snake was sure to deal three blows for every one he received, and thusly used every technique at this disposal. Dark Flashes flew without end, Sturmhimmels sprayed the room with electricity, and Zielregens filled the domain with arrows aplenty. Cleric Snake's female opponents were firm of resolve though, and whilst some were swinging and thrusting their spears, others flung powerful spells when their weapons were impotent. The savage fighting continued for some time, and Cleric Snake's durability through his magic eventually began pulling ahead of the Angels fierce attacks when one finally was felled. The Angels did not bemoan their fallen, and continued fighting with the intensity that only the highest calibre of fighters have, but with their numbers fewer, it became easier and easier to defeat the Angelic Spearwomen, and when the last one was felled, the line of sight of the two Angel Archers was reopened, and the standoff commenced. They looked at eachother knowing that either party could die in the following exchange, they looked at eachother noting the keen definition and perception of eachother's eyes, which only the best archer's possessed. Cleric Snake broke the tension and fired two arrows quickly, and each opposing archer fired one to counter the two. The two archers then fired their own arrows. Cleric Snake, being keen on the movement of arrows, waited for them to converge of him as he pulled his bowstring back, and when they met him, Cleric Snake fired, and the force of his one arrow smashed his opponent's two! Cleric Snake fired off another arrow quickly before his opponents could realized what had happened, and his arrow flew true and pierced the heart of one of the Angel archers, striking her dead. The remaining angel archer propelled herself with her wings headlong at Cleric Snake in a final kamikaze charge for victory. Cleric Snake however, met her charge with his own, and her, not anticipating this, missed Cleric Snake, and was then instantly defeated as Cleric Snake's pierced her chest and wings, causing her to lose control of her incredible inertia and smash head first into a wall, signifying the end of the battle. Cleric Snake bowed his head slightly in homage of the expert archer he had just defeated, for her loss was not for lack of skill or practice, but because, as a fellow master archer, Cleric Snake knew if he were in a similar situation, he would do the exact same thing, and thus was able to anticipate her death charge. Finally Cleric Snake did a Sturmhimmel upon the controls of the Gargantua, and the room began shaking violently, a bright red light lit up the room and a loud siren blared "DANGER DANGER TERMINAL DAMAGE TAKEN EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY". Hearing this, Cleric Snake shot an arrow through the window of the Bridge, and leapt out, and began plummeting back to the Netherworld at deadly speed.

TO BE CONTINUED.... IMMEDIATELY!


He knew the fall would surely kill him, but it was better than dying in a giant human coffin, he thought. Fortunately enough though, Anita the Portal Cleric was worriedly viewing the Gargantua from a balcony of the castle with binoculars, and seeing Cleric Snake plummeting to his death, rushed to her portal controls, locked onto him, and safely teleported him back into the castle. Lying on the floor, surprised to be alive, Anita helped Cleric Snake get up, and Cleric Snake realized it was Anita who had saved him. Expressing his thanks, Anita blushed a little, and quietly returned to her work station. Not having time to converse, Cleric Snake rushed to his master, Laharl, only to find him upon his balcony, smiling widely as he viewed the Gargantua dive from the firmament in flaming glory. He explained how Anita had told him what he'd done and would reward him properly for his service, but when Cleric Snake told him of the troubling things he had seen upon the Gargantua, Laharl's disposition became much more serious. After thinking for a few seconds, Laharl told Cleric Snake that a calamity between the Netherworld and Celestia may be inbound.


Next time on Metal Gear Cleric: The Celestian War
-----------------
Sorry for the incredible delay in posts, i've been exceedingly preoccupied lately.

Cleric Snake is level 139 at this point (leveled up a lot to survive the gargantuan deck) and no change in equipment.

I've been playing Shining Force Neo for the ps2 lately. i had high hopes for it, seeing as it is a shining force game, but it doesn't live up to shining force 2. its a good game, a little hard, but good. its just that it is always being dragged down by a terrible story, horribly bad writing and atrocious voice acting that the game makes you wade through every now and then. i'd recommend playing it, and i'd also recommend skipping every conversation in the game by firmly planting your thumb on the START button, you'll thank me for it later.


A dark day looms over the Netherworld, and a critical decision is made by Laharl, a Celestian conspiracy with the humans must be afoot. He states that serious and devastating preemptive action must be taken against the Celestians, or else allow them to devise an even more fiendish plan against the Netherworld. A rare face shows herself at Laharl's decision table, Flonne. Flonne states that her home of Celestia would simply not do such an atrocious thing purposefully, that their simply must be a misunderstanding somewhere. Over the long period of time since Flonne had first arrived, Flonne had slowly gained Laharl's trust, in spite of her Celestian origin. Flonne talked of the supposedly peaceful and father-like Seraph Lamington, and that aggressive actions were totally unknown for him. Flonne's words were weighed with the situation, and Laharl gave a final command before making his decision, that Anita the portal cleric try to open a multi-person portal to Celestia, which should be impossible as both sides had agreed to permanently disallow multi-person portals to each other long ago, but when Anita had tried, she had no trouble making connection to Celestia, and any blocks or resistance that my have been set up before were undoubtedly taken down covertly. Hearing this, Laharl made his final decision, Cleric Snake, chosen because of his extraordinary display of loyalty and ability, will infiltrate an uninhabited portion of Celestia, and covertly make his way into the heart of Celestia where he will observe the state of affairs and gather information with which to provide the invading force when it arrives.

Hearing this, Cleric Snake makes his preparations without question. He stitches and repairs the damage done to his battle tunic, he waxes and restrings his bow, he restores his quiver of arrows, and he sleeps, all the while mentally preparing himself to dive into a foreign land he has never before even laid eyes on. Cleric Snake had engaged in many life threatening situations, but the raw feeling of danger that Cleric Snake gets from this mission is greater than any other he had before. A strange land where he will undoubtably encounter more of the expert fighters he had encountered on the Gargantua. Cleric Snake knows this mission will probably be the end of his life, but he also knows that it is not his life to lose, it is his master's, and he must throw it away if he is commanded to.

The day arrives, and his master Laharl is their to see him off. Laharl wishes him good luck, and reminds him of the great duty he his performing. Cleric Snake walks up to portal and waits for Anita to connect the portal to Celestia. Cleric Snake notices how Anita seems very saddened, but neither he nor she speaks, and when she finally opens the portal, Cleric Snake begins walking through, and notices that Anita had thrusts her controls away from her and walks way. Cleric Snake travels through the portal and lands in a very large green field with flowers and a blue sky. His mission starts now.

TO BE CONTINUED.


Regaining his bearing, Cleric Snake looks about and studies the scenery. In the field Life proliferates in every direction as far as the eye can see. Cleric Snake climbs a nearby tree and sees civilization in the distance, and in the center of that civilization is a giant sanctuary, obviously the place he must travel. Descending from the tree, Cleric Snake makes his way over a hill, through some overgrowth, and into a very large field. All of a Sudden, their are small explosions from all four sides of Cleric Snake! Strigoi's have surrounded Cleric Snake, and right amidst them is Vyers! Cleric Snake demands to know what he is doing in Celestia. "Our paths have met again it seems, I'm sorry, but my reasons are my own." Cleric Snake states that his career as a petty thief could be overlooked, but this is grand treason. "It matters naught to me, En Garde!", and with that Cleric Snake brandished his bow and committed it to battle!

TO BE CONTINUED (sorry for the shorty, got interrupted with an unexpected matter)


Cleric Snake leapt into action, immediately performing his Doppelganger on one of Vyer's Strigois, grievously wounding him.The Strigois descended on Cleric Snake and a maelstrom of vampiric fury beset him. The Strigois summoned vicious bats and whirlwinds to thrash Cleric Snake about and lacerate him. Cleric Snake, determined to not be overpowered, dealt the finishing blow to the injured strigoi and rushed out of the center. Now at a distance, Cleric Snake kept it by showing the Strigois with arrows. The remaining Strigois were being pelted by Cleric Snake's arrows, and his concentration slipped for but a second, and suddenly a hard fist pierced the air with astounding strength and connected with Cleric Snake's face, digging into his skin and sending him flying backwards. Cleric Snake, hitting and rolling to a stop on the ground, quickly struggled to get up and recoup his jarred senses only to see Vyers, in mid-air with his fist cocked back, ready to deal a second mighty blow. Cleric Snake instinctively rolled out of the way just in time as Vyers fist came to the ground with such force that Cleric Snake was knocked some more feet away and the soil was flung violently into the air. The ground shook, and the nearby trees were disturbed such that the birds flew away in fright. The dust cloud dissipated, and Vyers saw his enemy not in smithereens in the crater he had left, but some feet away, and he made eye contact with Cleric Snake, and Cleric Snake saw him. It was obvious now to Cleric Snake, from this distance, that the Vyers that stood before him was very different than the one he fought so long ago. His wiry frame was now far more compounded with muscles, his clothes looked ragged at the ends as if from excessive wear, and most of all, the confidence he exuded in his strength and stature revealed that he had finally abandoned his awkward need for gracefulness and his poseur demeanor, allowing for rough, effective fighting. Their eye contact lasted for but a few seconds, and they both sprang back into combat! Cleric Snake jumped back on his feet, and readied his bow, but Vyers darted at his so quickly that the grass his feet were on was propelled behind him with the force he put on it, and was within striking distance in but a second. Cleric Snake drew his arrow back as fast as he could, but Vyers did a wild uppercut, hitting Cleric Snake's bow-hand, sending his held projectile upwards. Stunned at this, Vyers planted his foot, and took another full swing with all his weight, his fist violently colliding with Cleric Snake's chest, shattering his ribs as he is once again sent flying backwards and rolling to the ground.

Cleric Snake had not anticipated such a terrible enemy in this seemingly remote area, let alone one as apparently ultra-motivated. As he lies with egregious injury, he must quickly come up with a plan to combat this new Vyers.

TO BE CONTINUED (I promised myself i would finish this story, only one chapter left after all)


Cleric Snake lay on the ground clutching his broken ribs caused by the now devilishly strong Vyers. It dawns on Cleric Snake immediately that Vyers is not the only danger, but his two Strigoi comrades are closing in on him with claws and fangs readied. Cleric Snake's egregious wounds are something his magic cannot heal quickly, but action must be taken quickly, and a plan forms itself in Cleric Snake's conscious. Healing his wounds enough to allow him to move, Cleric Snake springs to his feet. Vyers notices this as his opportunity to deal the lethal blow, and once again sprints towards him, readies his arm to swing, and roars like a berserker. Cleric Snake takes his opportunity to grab one of the Strigois that had gotten near him, and forcibly moves him between himself and Vyers. Cleric Snake was sure that Vyers would hesitate to hurt his own ally, much like in his previous fights. A poor assumption, as no consideration or hesitation was shown of Vyers' visage his fist smashed into the body of his comrade, the force passing though him instantly warping the Strigoi's insides, and traveling to Cleric Snake, not causing serious damage, but certainly knocking him back. Retaining his balance despite the attack, Cleric Snake found the opening he had been looking for; as the Strigoi keeled over in agony at Vyers' feet, it revealed Vyers' face. Cleric Snake took great aim with his bow, right into his eye he knew his arrow would land and defeat him, as it had to so many before him, and he pulled back and fired, confident in his victory. The arrow did indeed fly true, as per Cleric Snake's prediction, but he did not anticipate Vyers' reaction. Vyers, with no hesitation or fear, calmly raised his forearm in front of his face, and Cleric Snake's arrow pierced his forearm and was stopped, the tip of the arrow protruding from the other side of his forearm, mere inches away from its intended target. Vyers, obvious with no concern for pain or his own well-being, brashly ripped it from his arm and made another mad leap toward Cleric Snake. Cleric Snake noticed the last Strigoi, standing nearby with a rather dumbfounded look on it's face, and jumped to him and once again forced him inbetween himself and Vyers, certain that the Strigoi would absorb another of those killer punches. Another poor assumption, as Vyers' striked this Strigoi with the same abandon as the last, but seeing through Cleric Snake's plan, fueled his fist with as much power as his whole body could muster, and his fist penetrated the body of his Strigoi comrade, spraying Cleric Snake with gore before the his fist reached him, and although it was depleted of power, was still able to dig into his skin and push him back. Once again able to retain his balance, Cleric Snake brashly shot off 4 arrows as fast as he could without stopping to look or think, believing that Vyers must be exposed again, and he definitely couldn't block all of them in the same manner. A third poor assumption, as Vyers had anticipated the volley, held up the corpse of his strigoi comrade to absorb the volley, and in an act of brazen aggression, let the strigoi drop, and kicked it with all his might, sending it hurling towards Cleric Snake at dangerous speed, and crashing into him, sending him hurtling backwards, completely stunned at what had just transpired.

While not very damaged physically, Cleric Snake's confidence in victory is shaken terribly. Looking at his attacker, Vyers' stature gives every hint that he is confident of his ability. Something odd is about him though, he does not seem happy that he has such a strong upper hand in the battle, and Cleric Snake, looking into his eyes, cannot see bloodlust or malice, but desperation, as though he were a man running out of time.

TO BE CONTINUED

To anyone that had the patience to read through all that: I'm sorry.

[JoshuaFH]

I have some more, but this is all I can bear to show. Everything else is too horrible.

Horrible, as in horrible quality, not horrible content.

I suppose I'll use this thread to try to continue writing, and try to hone my skills, if only a little.

[ToonyMan]

I will read these soon.  Then I will write review.

[JoshuaFH]

You can't read it Toony, no one can, it is far too long.

I suppose I'll write something I've been thinking of lately though. You know how I like Mecha?

Spoiler: Part 1 (click to show/hide)

"The world is dark, and spinning. I can tell it's spinning because it feels like I'm falling in every direction at once. There's a hum in the background, and a bright light in the distance, many bright lights. I'm filled with fear, fear the that the world is ending, and I can't catch my legs on anything to move. Everything I've ever known is at that light, and I need to reach out to it, but the universe conspires to destroy me. There's pain and panic everywhere, and if I could catch my feet, I'm sure I could wade through it... I'm sure this isn't a dream, because dreams can't be this terrible."
The screen blares warnings with all it's might, expecting the pilot it detects to take control. A goliath, experimental super AAA-class hanzer lies facedown, but relatively unharmed at the mouth of a gargantuan canyon. It's computer has gone through several protocols to awaken it's unconscious pilot, from shaking him slightly with the inner pneumatics, to increasing the oxygen levels, to blasting a series of alarming noises, and now it's down the last one. A small signal is sent to the transmitter his specially made AV suit, and he is given a small jolt of electricity.
"AH! FUCK!" The quick stab of pain wakes him up plenty fast. He jumps up, only to smash his head on the low ceiling of the cockpit. The loud series of noises and lights pouring into his eyes and ears immediately sends him into a panic as he tries to ascertain where the hell he is. He notices the control panel, and discerns that he's in a hanzer! He pushes some buttons to allay the AI's worrying, and turns off the aggravating blaring noises. His sits back down, covering his face, trying to remember what the hell happened. He looks at the screen, and does a quick periphery of his surroundings to find out where he is. Nothing is familiar, so he sits back in his cockpit recollect what happened, because he certain as hell doesn't remember entering a hanzer that day. Last thing he remembers was lying in his room aboard the Grey Sky, the airborne aircraft carrier and hanzer launcher. The fact that the hanzer is lying face down doesn't bother him, seeing as how the cockpit spins and turns as well to keep the pilot conscious and in-control.
A small communication signal pops up, requesting that he talk to it, to which he grants it.
"Hey! Answer! Who is in this hanzer?!" the female voice boomed at him, he could recognize it right away though, that was Rebecca Goldren, senior first lieutenant of the Flivian Army, and his superior. He flicks the switch to reply.
"Yeah..." He just realized how painful it is to speak, he pushes out his reply anyway though, "Yeah, this is Vik Juttee. Reporting for duty."
"Vik?! That's you?! Your machine doesn't register as anything in the Flivian Hanzer Force. How'd you get in that thing?"
"I'm not sure, I can't remember. I just woke up a second ago."
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, the AI gave me a shock, but I seem to be fine. I just need a second to get my head together."
"Is that a multi-pilot hanzer? Is there anyone there with you?"
Vik looks about, finally taking in his surroundings. The environmental sensors, environmental displays, physical and mental controls, technical displays, and general health sensors are all several notches more high-tech than the best hanzers in the Flivian Hanzer Force (FHF). His cockpit, escape measures, seat locks, exit hatch, and everything else not important to the hanzer's performance is surprisingly retro. There's no dual or split cockpit though, completely eliminating the chance of there being another person with him.
"No, there's nobody else with me. I've never seen a hanzer like this before though."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, everything just seems plain better than your standard-grade Hanzer. I haven't tried working this thing though, I'm not sure if it's properly tuned, so piloting it may be a real nightmare. Mind if I just get out, and a scout ship can just pick me up?"
It's at this point, that Vik reaches for the latch that would ordinarily allow him to leave the hanzer, but it's only now that he realizes that it's gone, and is replaced with an unusual monitor he doesn't remember being in any hanzer he's ever seen. 34,832 Meters it showed, with no clue as to what it's trying to indicate.
"Well, about that..."
"Heh?"
"The Grey Sky crashed, it's engines were completely destroyed by an unknown object as we were flying near the target. Everyone was lost..."
"WHAT!?"
"I know, the Dark Cloud, it's sister ship, the one I was aboard, had it's wings decimated by a series of unexpected collisions mysterious objects that we couldn't catch on radar, but were unusally large and heavy."
"Those ships had been flying for years! How can they both be taken out?!"
"The opposition here... is freakishly well-prepared. The Dark Cloud managed to make an emergency landing in the canyon near you, but I abandoned ship with my hanzer by performing a Regulation Escape Roll. I'm only slightly damaged myself."
"...That's good to hear..."
"I haven't been able to get in touch with any of the crew. Communication devices went down with the crash, but by my estimates, they should have survived, along with the hanzer force aboard it."
"Where are you?"
"I'm not sure, I'm in a gulch of some sort. It's some distance away."
"Alright, look. I don't think I can leave this hanzer, I can't find anything that'll let me exit. I'm not sure if this thing was designed to let it's user out..."
"That's odd... You're near the crash site anyway, get that thing up and check it out. I need to know if everyone else is ok."
"Alright, consider it done Lieutenant Goldren."
and with that, he flicks the communication window off, and looks over the controls. The layout is surprisingly similar to Troy, the modified hanzer he uses regularly, in fact, on closer inspection, it's exactly the same. Whoever made this thing, made it exclusively for him. He reclines back, and gives the AI it's cue to start the mental control support.
"Red, give me complete mental control. Password is 'bloody noses fix stubbed toes'"
"Password accepted, starting mind/computer synchronization"
Reclining back in his seat to start the synch, he realize that the names of the AI, and the passwords for the two are the same as well. Yep, this machine was made for him. Who the hell would put so much effort into giving him a machine like this?

To be continued.

[Capntastic]

So you didn't finish the challenge run?  Lame.

[JoshuaFH]

I did finish the challenge run, I just didn't finish the accompanying fanfic.

[size=8]EDIT: [/size] Alright here's part two.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The machine busied itself synching with Vik's brain waves as Vik himself relaxed. Using the mini-controls attached to his seat to turn the external sensors, he gets a grip on the type of environment he is in. His surroundings are, put simply, deathly and barren. Not a single plant or animal lay across the wasteland he was on, to which he could see a great distance. The ground was dry and cracked, not like any desert floor he'd seen before, but instead like ground that had been constantly torn and frayed by might storms but was never touched by water during any of them. The wastelands in every direction jutted up into precipices, or dropped down to form unnatural valleys.
"100% Synchronization complete, you may take control at any time." blipped Red the AI.
Vik, an experienced hanzer pilot, straps himself securely into his seat, so as to avoid getting shooken about when he starts moving and losing control.
"Alright, give me control!"
and all at once, the hanzer reacts to his thoughts, and animates to Vik's will. Picking up the arms and planting the hands down, he pushes down against the ground with all of the hanzer's arm strength, immediately throwing it into the upright position, where Vik then quickly rebalances to avoid falling over again. The specs and health of the hanzer finally click on in response to being moved, showing that there is very little damage to it besides some scrapes of it's armor, and it's fuel seems to be well tended to. He readies to go into the canyon, when all of a sudden a video message pops up on his main monitor. This one however, plays automatically rather than wait to receive his permission.
"Hello Vik..."
Vik is immediately stricken with bewilderment, for the person in the video was Hobb Dockins, the eccentric hanzer engineer and scientist that he frequently saw prancing about the Grey Sky.
"This is a recording, I have many vital things I need to tell you. Your life depends on what I'm about to tell you, so listen closely, as I'm completely serious. The war between Flivia and Capascia that has raged on for years... is but the work of a single man. Well, that's a bit too generous, I'm not sure if he is a man that likens himself as a devil, or a demon that is merely toying with human lives, but in someway or another... he has acquired forbidden knowledge."
Vik listens to the man, kind of dumbstruck by what he's hearing.
"You may have noticed several disappearances over the last few months. First, of your comrade Fredrik Bovi, who reportedly vanished at the Flivian border while still in his hanzer, with no trace of him whatsoever. This was very odd, but then the exact same thing happened to Haff'n Fied, the Capascian master strategist. Then of the Capascian's top hanzer pilots, Gred Viola and Jarridge Hadca. Then of Trus Bido, our very own commander, who vanished while in his own room, with no way he could have exited without being seen..."
Vik remembered all these names, they had all played major hands in the war.
"The truth is, all of these people sold their souls, or essence, or whatever you want to call it, in exchange for powers and abilities that would allow them to attain their goals in life. I had done the same, I made a deal with the monster in exchange for limitless knowledge, so that I could rise to the top of the scientific world, and turn the war in Flivia's favor. Very soon, I too will vanish, as the monster demands that we repay him with eternal loyalty and subjugation... I've exhausted all my resources trying to block his influence, but I will be gone soon. Which is why I've singled you out to save us... the machine you're is one I've built in secrecy, it is called the Verlosser. It uses technology much greater than anything else in the world. Although it may only seem slightly superior to your average hanzer, the synthetic muscles have been replaced with nanomachine enhanced bionic ones. This means that the hanzer you're in is technically a living thing, in the sense that it has cells and relies on nutrition to stay alive. This may not seem significant, but the brilliant function that it, and only it, can perform is the 'hyper burst'. In front of you, there should be two small green buttons right below where all the normal controls are..."
Vik looks, and there are indeed two green buttons.
"Each one is attached to large injectors full of a densely concentrated formula. Press one of the buttons, and this formula will be injected straight into the muscles of the hanzer, where the nanomachines will then break it down into simple, pure energy for muscles to absorb. From the way the nanos are made, they will do this at an exponentially increasing rate, giving the hanzer extroadinary amounts of power, as well as the ability to actively heal itself of battle wounds, something that your average hanzer cannot do. It can only do it for 4 minutes however, where the performance will then suddenly drop to normal levels, and you'll feel sudden backlash from using the muscles so hard. It may seem extreme, but this is the only way you'll be able to match up against the creatures that the monster will pit against you. Also, you might not have noticed, but on Verlosser's back is a specially made hanzer-sized sword. The blade itself is nothing special, but it is made out of an unbreakable alloy, and on the back are explosive charges. When striking something, one of the explosive charges will detonate, giving the blade substantially more striking force. That, combined with hyper burst, will give you enough power to strike down even the most nightmarish of enemies... Well, I hope, atleast. You may have noticed that you can't eject from Verlosser, instead the eject button is replaced with a meter that gives you a distance. This distance is how far you are from your target, the castle that the monster resides in. Only when you have reached it will the eject button open up, and you can leave the hanzer. I'm sorry, but I wanted to make sure you wouldn't chicken out."
Vik can't help but think that Hobb is a real asshole now.
"Last, but definitely not least, if you look underneath your seat, you'll find a 50 caliber handgun with extra ammo. You might not need it, you aren't exactly specially trained for handguns, and the recoil is atrocious, but it's there should you ever need a last ditch weapon..."
Hobb then turns silent, as an unspeakably sad look comes over his face. He turns to look at some papers. Vik blurts out at the recording.
"Yeah, so? Who is this guy! Why am I here? How'd you get me in this goddamn thing!"
Hobb continues to look over his papers for some seconds, then finally speaks again.
"Vik, I'm so sorry to have done this to you. I have alot of faith in you. I have faith because you're the best pilot in all of Flivia, and I have no choice but to entrust you with this final effort to save humanity..."
Save humanity?! What the hell was he talking about?!
"I'm not quite sure if you need to know this, but the monster in the castle is called Hrdreeje, and he... is not human. I'm not sure what his motives are, but he's been making deals, giving people unhuman powers in order to fuel the war. Just days ago, his Kingdom, the unholy continent, rose out of the sea, and in a few days from now, you'll be flying near there on a reconnaissance mission. The Grey Sky and Dark Cloud will undoubtably be shot out of the sky by his up-and-comers, but by then I'll have already drugged you, thrown you into the Verlosser, and then jettisoned you out of the vessel. I'm not sure what his ultimate goal is, but if he is not stopped soon, then tomorrow he will unleash unstoppable, supernatural armies, which will crush every city in the world in a matter of days. I wish you the best of luck my friend, because you might see me on the unholy continent... as an enemy. Verlosser only has a day and a half of fuel, it's best that you get going."
And with that, the recording ended. Vik sits back, not entirely sure what happened, letting all the knowledge soak in. Then he bursts out.
"Hey! You asshole! What do you mean 'supernatural' armies?! You mean, like fucking magic? Don't throw me in this piece of shit and expect me to fight stuff I've never seen before! Tell me what I'm up against!"
Vik throws himself back, recouping his concentration. He can't believe what he was just told, but supposes that it doesn't matter, with a momentary sych check to make sure he's still in 100% control of Verlosser, he marches into the canyon, to see if there are in fact any survivors of the Dark Cloud...

To be continued.

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

I did finish the challenge run, I just didn't finish the accompanying fanfic.

You won? :O

And I am stuck in the normal gameplay.

My head unto you, ChaoticAwesome.

[JoshuaFH]

Yeah, when it got to the point where I needed to use the item world to get strong enough to beat the bosses (as grinding on the storyline stages would be crazy hard), much frustration ensued due to the male cleric's low jump stat, and the RNG's evil tendency to place the exit someplace unreachably high, forcing me to continue from my last save over and over and over. This reduced me to tears on one occasion when I finally got one piece of equipment that I've been striving to get for hours, and then I couldn't keep it because the exit to the next stage was unreachable, and I didn't have a gency.

I still have the save file on one of my memory cards, I could probably start him back up and attempt the optional bosses if I wanted. The optional bosses though are MANY orders of magnitude more difficult than the final storyline boss. Cleric Snake was respectably tough where I left him, but I'd have to do MUCH more item worlding to get him strong enough to take on the optional bosses. It's not impossible though.

[JoshuaFH]

Is anyone reading these? I'm surprised noone's pointed out the super obvious homage yet. I'll do this without the italics, see if it looks better.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The ground thumps as the hanzer makes it's way into the canyon. The path inward descends gradually, but makes up for it through sheer length. The canyon walls, maintained an even appearance of being craggy, but also with having smooth surface. It would seem that nothing could climb out if they tried. With each step, the canyon walls get higher and higher, until they tower over the Verlosser. Vik travels further into the canyon, which only gets deeper and, although it was subtle, more menacing. The natural background noises that the hanzer's senses usually picked up were completely gone. There was no wind, or sound of the distant ocean waves. There were, however, deep metallic noises running through the earth. A slow but steady rhythm was faint, but detectable, as though steel were clashing against steel in the distance, but the air couldn't carry it, and so it travelled through the ground.
Vik, needing to speak, sends a communication signal to Rebecca, who promptly connects with him.
"Yes! What is it? Did you find any survivors?"
"Not yet..."
"Is anything wrong?
"You know that weird guy, the scienist, Hobb Dockins?"
"Yeah...?"
"He had this recording, telling me why I'm in here."
"Well, he was telling me that there's something weird on this island. Something that's been fueling the war with 'supernatural powers' or something. He didn't elaborate on it..."
"What do you think he meant?"
"I'm not sure, it was a bit confusing. He did say that whatever here is responsible for the disappearance of Fredrik..."
"Fredrik? What do you mean?"
"Can't say... I think he implied he might be here though... Hey, have a got a clue as to where you are?"
"...I'm not sure, Claret's holding up well, barely any damage. This gulch is twisty and covered in little caves. None of'em go anywhere though."
"Is that so.. Well... I got this feeling..."
"What type of feeling?"
"We might not..."
All of a sudden, like a goddamn bomb going off in his skull, a voice booms inside his head.
"You've entered the beast's den mortal!"
The voice is unlike anything he's ever heard before. It was obviously not speaking English, but it's refusal to be ignored forces the meaning of his speech into mind.
"AH! FUCKDAMNIT!"
Vik yells reflexively. His concentration shattered, Verlosser topples sideways into the canyon wall, Vik only managing to catch himself at the last second.
"WHAT? What is it!?"
Rebecca called out to him. The voice boomed again.
"A monster lives in this crack. Do battle against him, and you will die... Die... DIE!
The words claw against his consciousness, overpowering all his senses.

Geeze, small update. To be continued.

I'm really trying to become a better writer, in both quality and consistency.