AN: Once again, as I have said before, this is a story using characters of both Kate's and my creation. I may as well get this out too. This is the last Author's Note... I'm tired of writing them. Anyway, all my future works on the webpage will have our characters along with some Breath of Fire characters and Persona Characters. All characters are copyright whoever owns them. Anyhow, thanks Kate for letting me use your characters! Please e-mail all comments to FrankMayn@comcast.net
"Myah... Janet... wake up... are you..."
Janet Meyers was in pain. It was to be expected, but still... she hurt... all over. It took awhile, but she was finally able to get her bearings straight.
The Windian's eyes slowly fluttered open, only to be greeted by darkness. There were a few lights along the wall, but they were very dim.
"Ugh... Neko-Chan? I thought you stayed back at the school..." Janet said weakly.
The demoness shook her head. "Myah... No... I'm not Neko-Chan... I'm the one that's with Tammy, remember?" The cat girl then offered Janet a hand, which was greatly accepted by the Windian.
"Thanks... Where are the others? Yuki, Tad, Tammy..."
All the Nekomata did was shake her head before answering.
"Myah... They won't wake up... You're the first one that I've been able to rouse, meow..."
Janet shook her head painfully. "Well... we've got to wake them... If something decides to come by... Dammit... I wish it were a little brighter in here... I can barely see, even after my eyes have adjusted!"
The Windian looked at the cat girl in the darkness and was able to make out a sly grin on the demoness's face.
"By Ladon... what are you smiling about?" Janet asked as she put a hand to her head and shook it ever so slightly.
"Myah! I can see down here! Natural abilities and all, purr..." The Nekomata said before grooming her whiskers.
"Good! Can you lead me to the others?" Janet asked the purring demoness.
"Myah! No problem!" The Nekomata said energetically. The demoness took Janet by the hand and took her to another corner of the place they were in. From what the Windian could tell, there was a deep pool at one end, while the rest of the room was like a walkway. Luckily, the place wasn't too dirty.
Janet looked down and noticed Tammy, who was curled up in a fetal position. The Windian painfully got to one knee and began to shake the Persona User/Devil Summoner.
"Hey... Tammy... Wake up! Are you..." The Windian was greeted by a groan.
"Ugh... That hurt... Where... Janet! You're alive! Thank God... What happened?" Tammy started.
"Your guess is as good as mine... All I know is that I was talking to Frank, when the room began to shake... that's all I could remember... Then I woke up down here..." Janet explained.
"Do you know where Tad and Yuki are?" Tammy asked with a worried tone to her voice.
Janet was going to reply, when a pair of groans kept her from doing so. The Windian turned around slowly yet painfully, and caught a glimpse of both Tad and Yuki slowly moving about in the darkness.
"Kami-Sama..." Yuki said quietly as she shook her head... "That was a hell of a quake... though nothing compared to the ones back in Tokyo..."
Tad searched around for his glasses. After finding them, the Persona User quietly cleaned them with a handkerchief before slipping them back onto his face.
"Jeez... what happened? Kami..." Tad muttered.
Janet turned back to Tammy. "Can you still use your Persona? It sounds to me like everyone here is in pain."
The Nekomata spoke up. "Myah! I'm okay!!!"
"Oh? How did you manage that?" Janet said as she turned around to look at the cat girl demoness.
"Meow!!! I landed on my feet!" By now, the demoness was beaming proudly, both of her tails waving around spastically. Janet just rolled her eyes and turned back to Tammy.
"Figures..." The Windian muttered. "Anyway..."
Tammy stood up painfully before gripping her side. "I can, Janet. My current Persona has a healing spell."
"Please come to my aid!!!" Tammy yelled as she held a hand up.
Immediately, wind and magical energies kicked up around the Persona User. Suddenly, a blue circle opened up underneath the teenager, which then engulfed her in a column of soft blue light. A beam of bright light shot up from the top of Tammy's head and formed into a woman dressed only in feathers, carrying a harp. The woman began to play a soft melody, which soothed all those in the room. The Windian and the three Persona Users were engulfed in a soft golden glow, which in turn healed their wounds. When Tammy lowered her arm, the circle, the column of light, and the woman faded back into her.
Janet stretched to ease the kinks out of her shoulders. "Not bad... What was that anyhow?"
Tammy chuckled lightly. "That was one of my Persona... Lovers:Siren. That spell I used was a mixture of Bardic magic and healing magic."
Janet lifted a hand to her chin in interest. "What was the spell, anyhow?"
"Song of Healing. Most of Siren's spells are songs, save for a strong lightning spell and a strong water spell." Tammy explained.
The Windian was about to ask something else, when another shockwave hit the room, knocking everyone to the floor. The only one who was standing was the Nekomata, who managed to stay standing thanks to her natural cat balance.
"Ladon..." Janet muttered from where she had fallen. "What the hell is going on here?"
"I don't know..." Yuki said as she pulled herself up and dusted herself off. "But whatever it is..."
Tad took the moment to interrupt. "Yeah... your Persona felt it too? There's something down here... Besides the shard..."
The Nekomata was looking around. "Myah! There's the shard! Across that metal bridge, on that island, purr..." Immediately, the demoness made her way to the catwalk.
"How do we get back up?" Janet asked no one in particular.
"Honestly? I'm not sure... but there should be a ladder somewhere around here... Hey... a power switch... this should brighten things up a bit..." Tad replied as he threw the lever. Immediately, the room was brightened, much to Janet's distaste.
"EWW!!! GROSS!!!" Janet screamed as she finally had a clear view of the sewers. Immediately, she noticed the smell that permeated from the walls around her, making Janet's nose wrinkle in disgust. Her eyes darted around her surroundings, making her even more nauseated.
"Ladon..." Janet muttered as she eyed the murky water from where she was standing. "I hope that... thing... that just floated by was a candy bar..."
Various people around the room just began to chuckle. The Nekomata was also laughing a cute, kitty laugh, when the room began to shake violently. Once again, everyone was sent to the floor, save the demoness. The catgirl looked over the railing of the catwalk, and noticed that some of the water was bubbling.
"Meow?" The Nekomata said curiously as she peered over the railing. "Myah... That shouldn't be happening..." Immediately, the demoness's tails stood straight up as she quickly scrambled away from the railing.
"Hey! What's wro-" Was all Tammy got out before something big snapped out of the water. The Nekomata did an extravagant backflip and mid-air twist, narrowly avoiding the massive jaws of a giant, demonic alligator.
"HOLY SHIT!!!" Janet yelled as she scrambled to her feet, grabbing frantically at the Beretta strapped to her belt.
"Holy shit is right! What the hell is that thing?!" Tammy replied as she unsheathed her rapier and eased into an en guarde position.
"Well..." Tad said as he calmly changed the SilverTips in his gun with a magazine loaded with jet black 50 A.E. cartridges. "Whatever it is... I don't think it wants us going near that shard!" The Persona User pointed his massive pistol at the beast.
Yuki was the first to react. She lowered her right arm and raised her left hand high.
"DO IT!!" Yuki yelled. Immediately, a blue circle appeared underneath her, which then engulfed the Japanese teenager in a column of soft blue light as wind and magical energies kicked up around her. A bright beam of light shot from her head and into the air above, morphing into her main Persona, Empress:Vesta.
Vesta, who appeared in the form of a translucent, red woman floated above Yuki's head and pointed both her hands at the alligator.
"BOLT!!!" Was all Vesta said before a few bolts of lightning struck the alligator, doing some damage, but not enough to make the massive demon flinch. As Yuki lowered her left arm and brought her throwing razors back up to a ready position, Vesta, the circle, and the column of blue light faded back into her soul.
"MOVE!!!" Janet yelled as she dove to the side. Where she was once standing, a set of massive jaws clamped down, taking a good chunk of the floor with it. The Windian fired off round after round from her Beretta, but much to her dismay, the 9mm SilverTips weren't doing that much damage at all. Janet landed, and quickly rolled to her feet before loading a fresh clip into her handgun.
Ladon! What the hell?! Won't anything hurt that goddamn demon?
Tad fired his Desert Eagle at the alligator, drawing it's attention. Unlike Janet, the kick didn't knock him backwards, but the gun just flew in an upward direction. Unlike Janet's bullets, the jet black round found it's mark, and obliterated one of the eyeballs of the demon.
"Shit! It hurt him, but it didn't paralyze... HOLY!!!" Tad yelled as he dove out of the way of a swinging tail. It missed the Persona User by scant inches, but the demoness that was standing beside him was thrown into a wall.
The Nekomata didn't even get a chance to say anything at all. She impacted against the wall with a sickening thud, and slid to the floor. Both her tails were waving slowly as her ears drooped painfully.
"Tammy..." Tad started as he watched the demoness. "Distract that thing... I need to heal her..."
"All right Tad... Be careful, okay?" With those words, Tammy charged the demonic alligator and began to whittle away at its thick skin with her rapier. Tad rushed to the demoness's side and pointed an outstretched hand at her.
"Please..." Tad said quietly. Immediately, wind and magical energies kicked up around the Persona User, causing his unruly black hair to swirl around. A blue circle opened up beneath the teenager, and soon after, he was engulfed in a column of soft blue light.
Like with the other Persona Users, a beam of light shot out of the top of his head an enveloped into his current Persona, which was Emperor:Paladin.
The white armored Persona slammed his sword into what would have been the ground in front of him. He raised both his arms, and yelled the word "ELIXIR" before pointing an arm at the injured demoness. Instantly, a rainbow colored glow engulfed the catgirl, healing all of her wounds instantly.
Tad lowered his hand as his Persona, the circle, and the column of light faded back into his soul. Ignoring all the danger around him, he got to one knee and gently raised her head.
"Hey... are you... Will you be okay?" Tad asked, voice full of concern.
Slowly but surely, the Nekomata's eye's fluttered open. She gave a pathetic sounding mew before speaking to the Persona User that had healed her.
"Myah... Tad... I'm tired... that hurt... I'm not going to be able to do much in this battle... And... meow... thank you..." The catgirl demoness punctuated her sentence by giving the oriental teenager a light kiss on his cheek.
Janet noticed what had happened. "Tammy! Yuki! We've got to keep that thing away from both of them!"
"Well..." Tammy said as she lowered her rapier. "That's going to be easier said than done... Look where it's heading!"
Sure enough, the alligator demon was stomping over at both the Nekomata and Tad Williams. However, both of them hadn't noticed that the demon was now stalking them.
Janet closed her eyes and began to chant. "Element of Breath... fill me with your power..." Immediately, a magical aura surrounded the Windian.
"HURRICANE!!!" Janet yelled as she unleashed her spell. However, at the same time, Tammy and Yuki had summoned their respective Persona. Siren had used Storm of Ages, while Vesta had used Bolt. The combination of the three spells was enough to start a Fusion Spell.
Immediately, mystical forces pulled the three girls into a triangle formation surrounding one thoroughly surprised demon. However, Janet was equally surprised.
"What the hell??? That's not Hurricane!!!" Janet screamed.
"ALL RIGHT!!! LET'S GO!!!" Yuki yelled, as her spell added into the mix.
The three spells combined into one gigantic spell above the demonic alligator. Immediately, torrents of rain, combined with powerful gusts of wind battered the demon, making it roar in extreme pain. However, the spell was not quite finished. Bolts of lightning began to rain down around and directly on top of the demon. A giant lightning bolt struck the ground near the demon, causing it to flip up on it's back. Finally, the spell came to a close, leaving one shocked Windian due to what had just happened.
"That was Tsunami... that's what Siren told me... I think we can finish this now!" Tammy slammed a new clip into her sub-machine gun and pulled the hammer back.
"Chew on this!!!" The Persona User yelled as she unloaded round after round into the demon. Each bullet that entered left a wound that oozed some type of green liquid out onto the concrete. Finally, the demon just ceased up and stopped all together, and faded out of existence.
"Tammy..." Janet started. "What the HELL did we just do?!"
"A Fusion Spell... Come on... Don't tell me that you haven't seen Frank, Ellen, and Nate perform one before?!"
Janet thought back to what had happened before she had come to Lunarvale. She remembered an incident when she had provoked Ellen into a fight because of her beliefs, and the spell that she and Frank had performed. The Windian lightly shook her head at the past event, apparently sorry for what she had done to Ellen and Alex in the past.
"Yeah... Frank and Ellen... I remember a spell called Sleep Storm... But... still... why did my magic work with yours? They're both different!"
Tammy put a hand to her chin for a moment and began to think. However, Yuki was quick to respond.
"Easy... Though they're both different types, your spell is still an element common with ours... Then again, the Persona spells may have an effect on your magic as well..." Yuki said as she leaned back and crossed her arms.
All Janet did was offer a slight nod, though she was still wondering why that happened when she used her spell alongside Yuki and Tammy. The Windian wandered over to where Tad and the Nekomata were.
"Tad... is she..." Janet started.
Tad was now reclining against the wall with the demoness's head resting in his lap. If one was to listen closely, a light purr could be heard from the sleepy catgirl.
"She'll be okay, Janet. That blow took it out of her... And thanks... Thanks for keeping her safe." Tad said quietly.
Janet just shook her head. "You're the one that healed her, then you stayed with her... You don't have to thank me... We all chipped in to help you both. All of us weren't going to let you die..."
Tad smiled, before pushing his glasses up on his face. "Thanks again, Janet... you know, you are a great leader... you seem to care about those around you..."
This remark caught the Windian totally off guard. Janet began to think.
I guess... No... he is right... I never thought about it that way... Frank saw things in me that I didn't realize... I never would have believed... The Angel was right about that... I do have many new friends here...
"Janet? You're crying a little... are you okay?" Tad asked in concern.
"I'm fine... Just was thinking of something someone told me earlier..."
Tad just watched the fleeting Windian as she crossed the catwalk calmly to retrieve the shard.
Janet picked up the piece of the Holy Mirror and stared at her reflection.
Hell... I have changed... and I guess... It's for the better...