The Ibis Gazes also into You (Archer, Trog, and Death)

The Bloody, Busted-up, Brute was happy that there seemed to have been a slight pause in all of the fighting. Even though he had somewhat managed to come to peace with the fact that he might have to kill his own clones, he had not yet gotten used to the fact there was more than one or two superhumanly powerfull foes to fight at once. He had been quite a few scraps with quite a few powerfull opponents, but he had never encountered as many as he had done this time. He had killed seven of his own clones and probably two or three dozen of the tentacle-critters, and that was probably not all that he would have to do tonight.

Death seemed to be standing a slight bit away for the others, looking like he was brooding over something. His black robe-like clothing, his dramatically billowy jet-black cloak and the metallic mask with its skull-like visage made him look a bit like his namesake, Death. Normally Gwharr would have put down a man such as Project Death as an evildoer, but he was not so sure anymore. The skull-faced man had saved him when he was too distraught to fight back when the first of his clones attacked him. He had actually saved his life, even though it would have been alot easier ot just leave him there to be ripped apart by the clones and run off whilst they were busy. Even though the one they called "Skeletor" was a rather menacing figure, Gwharr did not doubt that he had a good heart somewhere undearneath*, even if it was very deeply buried.

Gwharr turned quickly as he heard Auroras voice next to him. She asked him if he was ready. At first he considered just answering 'yes' and leap into the fray and fight the good fight, but then he realized that there was something he must do first. Even though they had barely had time to get to know eachother Gwharr had already realized that Aurora was someone he wanted to be close to. He had barely talked to her, but it was just that she radiated such an extreme goodness and kindness. She helped things grow and nutrured them. Turned small plants into big plants and restored the life of nature around her. She helped her plants grow and adapt to the world around them, no matter how inhospitable the ground they stood in. He wanted to make her laugh and know what went on in her head. He wanted to hold her and never let go.

. . . She helped seeds that had ended up in inhospitable enviroments blossom into beautifull flowers, maybe she could help a caveman that had ended up in an inhospitable timeperiods to find some sort of happiness.

"To be almost ready!" Gwharr said with a brief nod. He was a very emotional creature, and whatever he felt, he felt very strongly. He had never believed in repressing or controlling himself, and he was not going to do so now. But unlike He gently, but quickly placed his arm around the waist of aurora, and leaned in to steal a quick kiss. It wasn't an overtly invasive kiss, but rather one to let her know how he felt. "To believe that actions speak louder than words"" The caveman said cheekily, his face breaking into a self-assured, yet mischevious crooked grin. "To not be all that good with words anyway." he added, winking at her, in a playfull, mischevious manner

"To be ready now! No regrets!" he said finally

In the midst of battle, Ibis stood silently, watching idly as the forces of Doctor Necrodium and the forces of the New York City Defense clashed against one another around him. The forces were matched in a sense of the word, some wouldn't consider it so. The defense forces were large in number and strong in military might, but the supernatural power of Doctor Necrodium's ground forces were more than enough to face off against them. However the soldiers were human, filled with courage and valor, fighting despite the hopelessness of their situation. Ibis could see the desperation in their eyes, the primal instincts taking over as the savage primal forces converged around them. Though Ibis could never understand the concept, he always could get a vibe off of the fact that he was winning, even without his influence. He wasn't yet ordered to do anything since deployment, and he wouldn't until he got his order.

As the battle waged on, minutes, even hours past by as Ibis waited for his orders. Artillery shells flew high into the air, pounding against Ibis' massive body, streams of fire and massive boulders flew back towards the New York Defense. Slowly but surely, Doctor Necrodium's forces were lowering the defenses and slowly breaking the line. When the sun reached its highest point, suddenly Ibis was given an order. "Follow the forces and head to Manhattan, destroy any resistance you happen to meet." In an instant, Ibis' eyes opened, the order clicking his limbs into action, letting loose an earth-shaking roar. Without a pause for thought, Ibis instantly began to charge towards the city. Due to Doctor Necrodium's influence, Ibis' body was greatly enhanced to create an even more efficient killing machine. As his charge began to speed up, Ibis' body began to build up the kinetic energy from his powerful limbs running at such incredible speeds. As the soldiers noticed Ibis charging straight towards them, shooting bullets and tank shells at Ibis' massive body, but no matter how much was fired his way, nothing could stop Ibis' charge.

Without even slowing from the impact, Ibis smashed through the entire defensive line, tanks flying left and right as Ibis swung his arms back and forth. Throughout the entirety of the run, Ibis was stomping and smashing aside crowds of monsters and soldiers alike, bringing in a new force of monstrous clones in his wake. The disruption of Ibis’ charge was big enough to completely overthrow the entirety of the New York Army. Each time Ibis broke a line, the gap would be filled with flowing amounts of monsters coming in, with barely any effort on his end, the entire Bronx military defense was compromised. As Ibis worked his way through defense relays and artillery positions, he noticed a familiar feeling as he was mid-charge. Feeling the earth shift and change, Ibis felt a warm sensation from when he was previously alive. Seeing no problems with looking for this feeling, Ibis began to move towards its direction. Breaking through wall after building wall, Ibis’ pursuit became even more committed, for some reason being compelled to come towards the feeling.

Once he reached a certain distance, Ibis could see who was giving him the feeling, his former teammate, Aurora. Back when Ibis was alive, Aurora had become the only kindred spirit he really had after his time in the deep sea, even being an item of affection. Ibis watched as Aurora battled against the forces of Doctor Necrodium, along with the beast Gwharr, one of the only beings in the world that Ibis considered a rival, and Project Death, the former right hand of Doctor Necrodium. Despite the tactical importance, Ibis could see that they would soon be overrun on their own, no need for him to interact. But as he began to turn around, Ibis saw something in the corner of his eye. Turning to see what he couldn’t believe, Ibis witnessed first hand Aurora being forced into a kiss with Gwharr. Suddenly a rage boiled down within Ibis, even with Doctor Necrodium’s orders, Ibis found a good enough “loophole” to find reason to rip of the primitive caveman’s head off. Letting loose a mighty roar, Ibis charged straight towards Gwharr, not stopping to care for his own allies, throwing them aside as he began to close the distance.

(Note: This version of Ibis is a final boss meant to face off against you. As requested before, Project Death has requested for a personal match against Ibis, and thus will be the next to reply. Ibis’ powergrid is as follows.)

Project Death stood, waiting for the beasts to come forth so he could destroy them one by one as he was borne to do. This was his sole purpose in life, the only damn thing he knew how to do and it was to kill any and all who got in his way. A Gwharr clone ‘rushed’ at him, only for the Destroyer to side step the beast, grab its mangled hair and slam it down into the ground as hard as he possibly could, the ground steeping in a couple feet. He then smashed in the things throat and spinal cord not only cutting off oxygen flow to the brain but also connection between the brain and the rest of the body. Needless to say the clone was dead before one could even say ‘hey’. As he stood up he heard a sound, a sound he had been hoping to hear all night.

This sound was the battle cry of Ibis himself, he had finally been unleashed by Doctor Necrodium and from the sound of it was heading their way. When the beast came into site he took notice that he looked at him and then continued on his way down towards Gwharr and Aurora. This was exactly what Death wanted as he rushed off to a building and on top of it jumping from building to building as quietly as he could, and with his control of his body it was very quiet indeed. When Ibis rushed at Gwharr and Aurora he knew it was his time to attack and attack he did. He leaped with all of his might into the air and landed in front of Ibis where he held his ground, feet dug in the ground he reached for the beast’s leg attempting to grab it and flip him over to the side and down upon the ground.

If this was successful, and Death figured it would be as the dumb beast wouldn’t be expecting an attack to come out of nowhere, he would jump into the air and attempt to land on Ibis’ face throwing a punch right into its left eye. Sure Ibis was made of much tougher stuff than he himself was and could probably take the punch but an eye was one of the weakest points in the body, if anything would hurt this beast it would be taking a punch into the eye. If the flip didn’t work in the first place than Death simply would roll out of the way and try to distract Ibis by throwing a bone shattering punch into its leg with his fists locked together. “Tonight, You die Ibis, tonight you face Death!”

Gwharr could feel the intoxitacing effect of the rather plentifull amount of less than reputable cocktail consisting of various hormones and adrenaline. This rather unwholesome mixture that was currently released into the bloodstream of our Transient, Troublesome, Terror-inspiring, Thug. Partly because of the kiss he had recieved from Aurora, partly because of the battle that had been raging untill very recently, and finally because of the reappearance of an old aquaintance from the bad old days.

Gwharr had undertaken the journey to destroy some creature called Ibis that was supposedly leading the clonens attacking the bronx. Alhough, up untill now he had been blissfully unaware that this mysterious 'Ibis'-creature was in fact the 'Son of the earth' he had squared of against earlier, with disastrous results. He looked slightly different than when they had met the last time, but there was no doubt about this Ibis was the same as the one he had faced earlier. The smell was just the same. He smelled like a mixture of rock, dust and most of all, magma. He could not stop himself from harkening back to the day when he had tried to save the villagers from Ibis wrath. The battle had started off unevenly, what with Ibis being bigger, stronger and faster than our hero, and continued in an even less even manner, as the son of earth literally ripped him apart before everything became rather fuzzy due to the blood-loss and pain he had experience.

The "Son of earth" looked slightly taller, stronger but less clumsy than before he seemed to have slightly longer limbs and a slightly less craggy 'skin'. In essence, it seemed that he had managed to shift into a form that allowed him to take the best qualities of both his humanoid form as well as his scorpion-like form. However, the biggest difference was not his body, but his eyes. Back before, he had been all but mindless, completely subservient to his animalistic instincts, but now it seemed that he had somehow gained sapience. It was obvious that it was an intelligent mind hiding behind those eyes, and the rage the creature irradiated suggested that this was a malevolent intelligence indeed.

"You!" The caveman said, his voice low and composed, radically different from his earlier primitive bellowing and bloodthirsty roaring suggesting that the Big, Boisterous Bruiser had at least lost part of his confidence when Ibis/Son of the earth was entered into the equation. Before he had time to do much more than to look at the monstrosity, Death had already leapt towards the creature, ready to face him in combat.

"Wait!" Gwharr shouted out behind him. He had seen the skeletal man fight before, and whilst the skeleton-like warrior was faster than he was, and far more skilled when it came to combat, he was still inferior when it came to strength and endurance. No matter how skilled the skull-faced warrior was, Gwharr could only see one outcome of the battle between the two warriors:Project death would not survive. . .

. . .Unless he helped him. . .

Aurora was seemingly on the same page as he was, trying to keep death back, going so fat as running after the Badass, Bioengineered Brute, trying to call him back. She obviously knew how dangerous The son of Earth/Ibis was too, but unfortunately to death he seemed to have been left in the dark when it came to the true power of the Murderous, Massive Monstrosity. "To stay back! To think Gwharr help Skeletor! To be stronger than you'se both! As strong as Ibis!" The caveman said holding out a massive forearm to prevent aurora from joining the battle.

"To think Aurora need stay back. Attack from a distance! To not want you'se hurt," The caveman continued, his eyes somewhat moist, partly because of the previously mentioned cocktail of hormones and adrenaline rushing through his blood, but mostly because he could simply not bear the thought of Aurora getting harmed. He had just met her, but he was sure he wanted to protect her, even if it meant that he would get hurt himself, even if it meant he would have to throw her halfway across the city. He would do it if he had to. After all, Aurora was tough, far tougher than any ordinary human or tree. Possibly even tougher than he himself was!

"Primordial go help Skeletor!" The caveman said, getting ready to leap towards the Rock-monster

As Ibis edged closer towards Gwharr and Aurora, he picked up his pace, growing in speed with each step. Once he got within lunging range, Ibis began to jump towards his rival. However, as he was aloft mid air, Ibis was struck in the face by Death, who had taken him by surprise in his moment of rage. The force of the hit was enough to send Ibis tumbling against the adjacent building, causing a massive tremor from the shockwaves. Making contact with the building supports, Ibis was soon covered with debris from the chunk of the building that was broken off. Soon covered in debris, Ibis burst out in a single roar, flexing his rocky molten muscles.

Standing straight and proud, Ibis looked down at his predecessor, the one who denied him his kill with his very presence. Ibis watched as Death rolled away from him due to his success in attack. Without a single word, Ibis walked towards Death, looking down at him the entire time, the earth rumbling with each step. Standing at 15 feet, Ibis towered over the man before him, almost three times his height. Death was once Doctor Necrodium's right hand man, but due to Death's failures, Doctor Necrodium replaced him with a resurrected Ibis. Afraid of extermination, Death ran away from Doctor Necrodium, now openly defying him. Now, for stopping him from destroying Gwharr, Ibis would rectify that mistake.

"Death, it's been a while. The last time I saw you, you were running with your tail between your legs like a beaten dog. The Doctor always wanted me to come and find you, but we were too busy dealing with more important things. Now here you are, open for me to gut and rip apart at my leisure" Ibis said in an amused tone, if you could call it that. As Ibis talked, his voice sounded as if someone was grinding stones together, his tone like tumbling earth. Truly Ibis was the Son of the Earth, and his voice reflected that perfectly. "The Doctor pays his respects"

With a single movement of his mighty arm, Ibis ripped a chunk of the street, one large as himself from the ground and flung it to the side. The large chunk smashed into an already broken building, causing it to tumble from the impact and block the way between Death, Ibis, and the incoming Gwharr. With his newfound intelligence, Ibis knew that together, Death and Gwharr would prove more of a challenge, but alone, they were nothing compared to himself.

"Now..." Ibis began, his rocky features forming into a smile "I think it is time that we settle once and for all which of us is better"

Without warning, Ibis threw a punch faster than any he had ever thrown before. With his new enhancements, Doctor Necrodium had made Ibis stronger than ever before, and gave him the intelligence and skill to defeat even enemies like Death, who would have thought to use his lack of intelligence against him. Now in terms of skill, Ibis and Death stood at almost even footing, but in the end, Ibis would reign triumphant.

Project Death smirked as the attack was landed successfully though harder than anticipated as he did not calculate in Ibis’ apparent speed. When the beast got up and roared its mighty roar he stood his ground ready for whatever the rock monster was going to throw his way. Yet, nothing came, nothing that could be considered violent or in action that is as the beast spoke. Something he never thought the beast would do, and not only did it speak it gave a small speech of its own, startled he listened to what it had to say before answering. “I did no such thing Ibis and you know it! The family left me there when the foolish Doctor Everyone escaped, I do this only to get the attention of the family and regain their respect…but yes it is time to decide that … brother, it is time for you to die.” Death said in his dark, broken, stony, almost sarcastic and thick Russian sounding voice, a voice barely often used as tonight was the most he’d ever spoken.

He watched every movement, every action, and every little detail the rock monster made not wanting to underestimate this Son of the Earth again. The rock which knocked down the building to stop the caveman from coming out to help Death whom probably would have denied the help at first but the caveman’s help would have been good at least. He rolled his neck, cracking it before cracking his knuckles and getting into a fighting stance, one that Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan combined would be jealous of, as he prepared for anything and everything Ibis would throw out at him. He knew that Ibis was stronger than him but Ibis was not as skilled a fighter and as that was his only upper hand he would use it as best he could.

The punch came sooner than he expected and with more precision than old Ibis could have probably lashed out with but this was expected. Hell, everything was to be expected with this new creation of the monster. Death dodged the punch just barely by jumping to the side and then again up onto the hand of the beast, running up the arm as fast as he could. When he deemed himself close enough he jumped with all of his might and aimed a punch out at his right eye this time with enough force to allow him to bounce off and send out a round house kick as well, this aimed for the middle of the monsters face. Landing on the ground he rolled out of the way of Ibis’ feet and waited for the attack to come, unsure of when this would be but he knew he was ready for it. In his mind there was no way Ibis would win this fight, though more powerful he could hopefully dodge whatever Ibis dished out.

Gwharr roared like a mad beast as he leapt into the sky, arms over his head, obviously aching to join the fray. It was probably the only oppurtunity to get even with his old enemy and avenge the earlier loss he had suffered at Ibis hands. He had been brutalized, beaten into a pulp and literally cast aside as the 'son of earth' had defeated him with disturbing ease, and even though his body had fully managed to heal its grievous injuries in a mere minute, his pride had still not entirely recovered from that moment. He had always thought of himself as unbeatable, or at least very close to that. As someone who were powerfull enough to be reckoned with, someone who's fury aught to be fear, but Ibis had put a rather large crack through that view.

However, he had grew stronger since then. Somehow the magic of the witches he had fought with bliss had entered his body and caused him to grow several times stronger than he had been back when he fought Ibis the first time. Sure, Ibis might be different too, faster, smarter and meaner, but he had learned from his mistakes, and this time he knew about how Iibis fought. This time he would be able to match the strength of the beast. This time he was ready.

However, the Raging, Roaring, Reject would not reach Ibis this time. He was not aware of it yet, but just as he left the ground, Aurora had treacherously summoned a gargantuan venus flytrap that was just summoned quickly enough to catch his shin and hold him down, using its green "mouth" The caveman's vicious roar turned into a grunt of confusion then into a growl of frustration as the impressive leap was cut short and he instead slammed into the ground like a lead-weight.

The Big, Brutal, Boisterous Bruiser turned his head and looked upon thesudden emergence of a new enemy, trying to figure out where it had come from before it tried to gobble him down completely. It was somewhat as if he was a particurlarly tasty treat and the plant was a hungry dog. Gwharr groaned dissapointedly as the struggle, since he had really managed to pump itself up to fight Ibis. That was when he noticed Aurora, looking at him. He was just going to cry out for her help, when he realized that this flower of doom, this Perverse, Predatory Plant was one of her Nature-style minions. She had betrayed him for som reason. . .

. . . But he loved her, why would she do that to him?. . .

"Aurora, why this?" the caveman asked flatly, his voice filled with confusion, but also with terror, because he was far more terrified of what that answer could be than anything that Ibis could do to him.

As the not-all-that-clever brain of the caveman went 'Tilt' the plant took its oppurtunity and swallowed Gwharr, trapping the caveman in the sticky substance in the back of its 'mouth'. The caveman was somewhat perturbed by this. He had felt how strong and durable the plant had been as it had gobbled him down, and he was quite sure that he could punch his way out of this if he wanted to, but that was not the main issue. Why had Aurora done this to him?

As Ibis unleashed his mighty punch, he watched as Death dodged as he knew he would, Death was always an amazing fighter, even more so that Ibis in his newest form now. However, the problem with great skill, is that Death did not have the speed to perform at top capacity, unlike Ibis. As his punch passed an evading Death, Ibis watched as the former project began to use his arm as a striking platform to get at his exposed face. Normally, Ibis would have been unable to dodge such things, being stupid and uncoordinated. This time was different. Once the movements were cast, Ibis moved out of the way, ducking his head. This not only allowed Ibis to dodge the attack, it left Death in the air, possibly off balance, with nothing to hold onto.

"Nice try Death. Maybe one time you were a possible creature I could call a rival, but times have changed" Ibis sneered at his opponent, his movements more precise and agile than anyone would ever expect from the giant rock monster. Reaching out towards Death, Ibis executed a perfect spin, spinning beside Death. With a breath, Ibis span his elbow high above Death, and brought it down with tremendous force. The move itself was a spinning elbow drop, one combined with Death's lack of footing, would equal an impact strong enough to shatter most humans. Even with Death's superhuman body, the damage from this strike would be devastating.

"And so have I"

Project Death watched in confusion as his attack completely missed, nothing was going right for the Destroyer tonight it seemed. He could count the seconds as he fell from the air, fifteen fight high the Hero Killer fell off balance and uncoordinated not only from surprise but also from the way he had to position himself from the attack. There would be no way he could position himself to land completely straight and get a perfect landing but at least he could try. Twisting his body he tried to position to land on his feet but with his weight and the low height he fell faster than he should have and even with his enhanced reaction timing he slipped up and stumbled when he landed. Because of this he had no time to get ready for the attack sure to come, and with superhuman speed and strength Ibis landed his elbow and body down on top of Death.

All that was uttered out was a grunt as the body of the beast landed down upon him, a grunt and the cracking some of Death’s bones. The personification of death its self, the man who has only tasted defeat once before finally tasted again and this time it might just be the last time the Hero Killer would walk the battle field. He muttered a small curse as he knew his entire left leg was broken as was as couple of his ribs, and his right arm, but he would not give up just yet, no Death would continue on until his last breath was given out. Lifting with his left arm he attempted to push Ibis off of him or at least high enough for him to be able to roll out from underneath the crushing weight. When the beast was at enough level he pushed up one last time and rolled with all of his strength out from underneath him to open ground.

Unbeknownst to either Ibis or Death the true Grim Reaper was presiding over this battle waiting to claim the soul of both of these unstoppable creations. By the end of the night he will have collected their souls yet the one known as Victor Cord would be in his possession and he would not escape like he has before, this time the one known as Project Death would stay dead if he had it is way. The abomination created by science would die the cruelest and quickest way the grim reaper could think of and that was a heart failure suffered from the injuries infected upon him this night. Death coughed and grinned up at Ibis, the first true grin to ever appear upon the face of the Hero Killer. “Fought well Ibis, you proved you are superior to me, but Gwharr will take you down as you have me.” He groaned out and then coughed out blood looking into Ibis’ eyes, “Doctor Necrodium I know you are in there, do not under estimate your opponents as it will be your down fall just as I helped to bring about Ibis’ tonight. I will be back and when I do I will wipe out your kind.” He coughed out and then smirked and died that faithful night.

Around the same time The Grim Reaper took the soul of Victor Cord It also took the soul of a well fought American Soldier, a newly promoted Sergeant who had recently taken down five ibis clones, twenty Gwharr clones, and ninety chaos clones. Leonardo Cratus was the man who did this and met a untimely demise, one he did not deserve as it was a bullet in the back by a comrade who was jealous of the rising man. Victor saw this when the Grim Reaper took the soul and proposed a challenge to the real Death and defeated him, so both his soul and Leonardo’s returned to the body of the soldier and became an entirely new person all memories of the two whipped clean as they became their own man. One put on the earth to complete the vow made by Victor Cord on his death bed.

Gwharr could not help but to feel somewhat betrayed as he suddenly found himself trapped in a flower by someone he had fallen in love with. Being the emotional brickhead that he was, he spent quite some time mentally cursing the fact that he had once again let his emotions run away with him. Ibis was a Son of earth and Aurora was a Daughter of earth. They were probably siblings or something, or maybe at least cousins or something like that. Even though he could not see out of the giant venus fly-trap, he could still feel how the ground vibrated and the thundering noise of blows stuck with unfathomable power as the two titans outside clashed with oneanother, like two titans out of legend, locked in single-combat. Soon however, the thundering noises and the vibrations ceased, and Gwharr was fairly sure why. Ibis had won. He had presumably punched him into oblivion, as Sleketor did not seem to be the sort of fellow that would run from a fight such as this.

Gwharr whined in desperation. A part of him lamented the fact that he had not been able to help his friend, but what was far more distressing was that it was a Aurora that had prevented him from taking action. Why had she done this to him? Why did she allow Skeletor to die. He had sensed no cruelty comming from her at all, wich made it very unlikely that she would side with a creature of rage and destruction such as Ibis. Gwharr was well aware of his own status as a harbringer of rage, destruction and violence, but no matter how destructive Gwharr had been throughout his long life he had still had mercy. He had not needlessly killed and always did his best to prevent children from getting injured, but Ibis was a force of nature, devoid of such sentiments. He destroyed all that got into his path, like a great flood or a tornado. He prayed that it was some sort of mistake, that she would be able to explain it to him, so that they could be together without having this little alteraction coming between them in the future.

However, a slight tremble told him that someone was trying to break him out of the flower. His heart took a leap! It had to be Aurora! Maybe Ibis had found some way to tap into her flower-power or something, or maybe the Deliciously Dreamy Dryad had realized her mistake and was trying her best to free him. His dark brooding thoughts banished by the powers of hope and love the Gargantuan caveman managed to pull himself out of the Dready Depths of Depression and focus on the present.

With a quick punch he had managed to brought a hole throug the flower, allowing him to see the outside world again, but soon the whole Plant-Prison Toppled over, revealing his liberator to be none other than Leo, The Cave-cat! Gwharr quickly ripped the flower apart and gave the cat a quick hug, wich the Ferociously Flustered Feline had no patience for, as it grabbed his foot and slowly pulled him off, towards his destiny. Gwharr quickly decided it would be alot more dignified to travel under his own power than being dragged in there like a captured cave-mouse, so he gently but decisively released himself and instead traveled under his own power, like a knucklewalking gorilla, ready to face off against Ibis. Leo was Auroras pet, so if the great cat had freed him, then his mistress MUST be on his side, right? No matter how it were, Gwharr decided to tell himself so, as it was the only way he would keep himself focused on the task at hand, rather than to brood over his barely-existant lovelife.

It did not took long for the pair to lay eyes on Ibis and Aurora, but strangely enough it was not either of them that managed to catch his attention. It was Project Death, lying motionless on the ground. His leg was twisted in an unatrual angle, and his chest seemed somewhat deformed, as if it had lost its internal support, causing it to collapse. The strangest thing was that he seemed to be smiling somehow. On his chest someone had left a bunch of roses, wich buyoued Gwharrs spirits even more. Who else but Aurora would do such a thing. . . She was on the side of the good folks at all. . .

Ibis looked down at his defeated opponent, broken and beaten from foolishly taking Ibis' power head on, he never bothered to consider Death much of a rival, and even now he still didn't consider it. The failed experiment had faced an opponent far superior to him, and failed in the venture to do so, the only thing that Ibis could commend him on would most likely be his courage, but courage and foolishness were two sides of the same coin. Even without Doctor Necrodium's orders, Ibis knew what the good doctor would have wanted, nothing left behind to be used against him. Death cursed at Ibis and Doctor Necrodium, threatening them with empty promises and false praise, saying that even with him dead, Gwharr would be able to stop him, but Ibis knew that he was superior. Giving his opponent a final glance, he scoffed at his grim visage, happy with his own personal victory even in death, regardless of how hollow it was.

"You are a fool death, even with your greatness, you would never understand Doctor Necrodium's plans, nor would you ever understand just how much you damned your allies by trying to face me alone. So curse all you like, think that you'd wipe out my kind, but I am the last, and you have fallen." Ibis said sending off his fallen opponent and former comrade, Ibis felt no remorse, all he saw was a weak fool, one who thought he could face against Ibis' godly might and fail. "Doctor Necrodium shall win this day, it's a shame you won't be alive to see the end of the work you started."

Preparing to rid of the remains, Ibis stopped himself as Aurora returned to his view, honoring the fallen project with her presence and flowers. Even changed, Ibis cherished Aurora, something that Doctor Necrodium had missed, or never bothered to rid him of. Standing before him was the most important creature in his past life, looking at him like some sort of monster, an ideal that was more than accurate. Averting his eyes from making contact, Ibis looked away from Aurora, not out of shame, but of something else, a sort of uncomfortable feeling. It was clear to Ibis that some small part of him was still in there, something that he would have to overcome if he was to rid himself of Gwharr, and possibly Aurora once and for all. Once her words reached his ears, Ibis looked down at her, remembering her fragile form before even seeing it with his own eyes.

"You can see what has been done Aurora, I am no longer the Ibis you once knew, I am Doctor Necrodium's greatest creation, and his general for the destruction of New York. Just like with Death, I am to destroy everything that gets in my way, and make sure that Doctor Necrodium's forces reach Manhattan" Ibis explained with growing passion, now with an intelligent mind, Ibis was adamant about serving Doctor Necrodium, it was all he had left. "But in light of our former friendship, I'm asking you to leave Aurora, leave here now and don't come back. If you choose to remain here, I will kill you. No one stands in the way of Doctor Necrodium's goals... not even you."

Without warning, Ibis kicked away Death's body, sending it flying into a nearby building, and ripping it apart even more than it already was. Without missing a beat, Ibis began to walk towards Aurora, his aura emitting a massive wave of heat around him, showing his withering patience, and growing rage. He was saving his best for Gwharr, but if Aurora got in his way, he wouldn't hesitate to kill her too, as far as he thought.

"Make your choice now Aurora, leave and live, or stay and die"

Gwharr looked onto the pair of elemental creatures standing in front of him, totally involved in their own conversation, seemingly unaware that he was once again involved, and strangely enough The Thuggish, Thickheaded Throwback felt as though he no longer understood what was going on. Aurora may be his friend and he was certain that he loved her, but in some ways she was as different to him as the sun was from a particurlarly moist sponge. He understood now that her and Ibis where both of the same kind, both where children of the earth itself, and even though he considered himself closer to earth than most of his rather dissapointing 'descendants' that spent their sad, short lives in this concrete prison, bound by strange, unnatural rules and utilizing arcane perversions of nature calle science, he had a gnawing feeling in his gut, that whatever he thought about the humans, they in turn thought about him. Compared to them, he was as wayward as the humans were when compared to him. Who was he to interfere in their discussion?

"Ibis! You touch Aurora, Gwharr kill you'se in the face! To go away now, if go, to promise not follow. To stop hunt-hunt. For Aurora Gwharr do even that. To even be honorless coward for her. " he said in his primitive, bestial voice, seemingly forcing the words out of his throat. He had hated the rock-monster known as Ibis for too long to make saying this easy. He had loathed him ever since they had first met, when Ibis had ripped him apart and thrown him across half the country. It had hurt so much, and he had been so scared. Ibis had also killed innocents and children, not to mention his companion, Project Death. Honor dictated that he should avenge his fallen pack-mate, but for Aurora, he would give up his honor. For her, he would be a coward

Even though he had made a promise to his best friend that he would do his best to vanquish the ferocious, Collossal enemy in that now front of them, but maybe it would work just as well if Ibis merely gave up, so that they could take him away from the battle untill it was all over. Wouldn't his removal from the battlefield have the same purpose wether it was done by removing him from the tapestry of life itself, or merely dragging him out of the battlefield and leaving him in a desert for a few hours. Aurora seemed to think there was good in him, and if he was truly honest with himself he could feel that he would not be able to kill someone who was obviously so dear to her as this gargantuan genocidal rockman seemed to be. There was enough misery in the world, without him cursing the woman he loved with it.