Desert Rumble

Desert Rumble
Date of Scene:	08 February 2013
Location:	Arabian Nights - Cave of Wonder - Entrance
Synopsis:	A pair of villainous hunters go seeking out the local rumors of an ancient treasure only to cross paths with the unwitting traveler who holds the key to their success.
Cast of Characters:	Stitch, Clayton, Royce

---

Royce has posed:
The stifling and oppressive heat that is common among all of the hellish wastelands of endless sand that humanity has all but abandoned is gone now, giving way to the equally tormenting cold that grips the land in icy talons as if trying to sink into their very bones and drag them down into an abyss of numbness.

The figure that makes its way across the desert this night is no stranger to the cold of death. A loose hood hangs low over her face though it is the bite of wind-born sand that wears at her alabaster skin not the gloomy chill of night. Royce lifts her head slightly as she crests yet another dune, pausing momentarily to peer over the barren expanse of the Eastern wastes.

Silver sand glitters in the pale moonlight for as far as she can see offering little in the way of landmarks or guides to take her bearings from. Her gaze continued to drift up. It was the stars that would lead her on the correct path tonight, though the points of light hovering overhead now were strange and foreign; out of proper alignment somehow. Still, she would manage.

Another cursory glace revealed that the girl was still alone as far as she could tell. That was good. It meant that the merchant who had sold her the information regarding this place had not yet allowed his greed to overcome his common sense. Ofcourse, there was no guarantee that would last or that he had not passed on this same tip to others before her.

However, if the legend was to be believed getting in was no easy feat, and legends were often more true than most suspected. Her metal-clawed hand goes to the massive weapon slung over her shoulder instinctively at that thought and the dark voice that was her only companion for nearly five hundred years rumbled in the back of her mind as if confirming her own musings.

Hmm but you have what many of the worthless fools of this land do not - power! Power to take what you want.

"And what do I want...?" She asks the same question that has plagued her for as long as she can remember, already knowing the answer it would give but wanting to hear it all the same as if it were somehow reaffirming the truth of it.

Why... more power, ofcourse.

Clayton has posed:
It was easy to get the merchant to talk, after threatening him with a gun. When no one was looking, Clayton liked to rough up foreigners as a show of superiority. Besides, Arabs were naturally shifty. You had to use a little strong-arm tactics to get them to be honest. Never mind they called themselves 'Agrabahns' here or whatever, it was all the same. So the adventurer slash hunter John Clayton thought, and many other thoughts, moving through the desert on camel-back wearing a wrap around his head and his trusted shotgun slung to the side. With him was a hired manservant, bought by coin.
He was getting impatient with the funds he was scraping up. He was eyeing some prime real estate in one of these worlds, and that would take good money. Somewhere in this godforsaken wasteland, he would find that. Power came in many forms, after all.
Clayton stopped his camel, looking around. "Blasted merchant said it would be here," he commented, more to himself than anyone else. If he was lying, he would be back for him.

Royce has posed:
Almost before the malignant voice has faded and the pressure on her mind receded the sound of another voice broached the sanctuary of solitude. Royce whirls about in a flash, her unwieldy weapon raising up to point at the seam of the horizon and the sky as she scans for the source of this disturbance. Impossibly the girl manages to heft the gun, which is easily as large as she is, in a single hand.

Ah... I knew we could count on that shifty man to sell us out.

"We don't know that yet."

Royce's single blood-red eye continues to move very slowly back and forth as she picks apart the glints and shadows in the dunes, waiting and watching for some sign to present itself. It doesn't take long. The man astride the camel seems completely unconcerned with stealth or subterfuge which causes her to relax - barely. If he wasn't trying to sneak up on anyone he either wasn't a threat or wasn't afraid.

Instead of calling out to him or immediately opening fire, which she can tell is what the voice would prefer happen here, the girl merely lowers her weapon and watches him pass in the distance. It would be far less troublesome if he just kept going. Then again if he was here for the same thing she'd have to confront him eventually, though letting /him/ go through all the effort of tackling the ancient traps and puzzles that all such labyrinths held wasn't such a bad idea either.

Clayton has posed:
Clayton's eye twitches. If he saw someone out there or not, he doesn't say. "That Arab said a key was needed to summon the entrance, did he not? So where in the blazes is the key?" he asks irritably of his servant, who only shrugged. This was pretty much out of his heads, or he wasn't being payed enough to care. Frustrated, Clayton kicks the sand. "Just get me my tea. There's got to be something missing..."

Stitch has posed:
Stitch in the Sand.

The cute & fluffy alien of doom is making his way through the sand, without anything different about him, except for a small little fez on his head and a purple vest worn over his entire body. He's pretty much just attempting to traverse this easy enough landscape with his little self, clearly intending to continue his search for his best friend. There's a lot of worlds out there to search through and right now he's trying to get his search on through Agrabah.

His little footsteps are making all kinds of prints in the sand as he just kind of trudges through the grains without even looking back. There's a golden chain hanging around his neck that starts to glow the closer he gets to a particular section of this sand. Stitch doesn't necessarily notice, as he's too busy trying to make sure his Fez stays on his head. And he's occasionally cough-waving at the fact that there's sand that keeps getting him in the face. "Ick! Blech! Thppt!"

To anyone, though, with a keen eye they'll be able to see the SPECIAL GLOW from any distance. Magic works that way, you see.

Royce has posed:
"The key..."

Royce's eyes narrow imperceptibly at the mention of keys and entrances. There could be no further doubt as to this man's purpose here. Still, that did not resolve her course of action just yet. He could still be useful to her if she could get him to cooperate. Commons sense told her there was little chance of that, however.

Another sound, distant but slowly drawing nearer, rides on the faint breeze and catches her attention. The girl's head swivels on her shoulders as she shifts her focus from interloper to the other. The appearance of the small furry creature out here in the desert and his strangely human attire causes her to stare at him quietly for several long moments.

The golden glow of the amulet about Stitch's neck does not go unnoticed either nor can the whirls sands obscure the scent of magic in the air. A ravenous sense of hunger rises up from within at the realization that this animal has an artifact of power. Her fingers twitch on the trigger as if in anticipation.

Clayton is forgotten and Royce turns to stalk towards the wide-eyed monster, her weapon slowly raising as she draws near. Ever since coming to these strange new worlds she has seen many manners of life that do not match what is normal, so she does not fire immediately when Stitch crests the dune before her. He will however find himself staring down the end of the mother of all rifle barrels.

"The pendant. Give it to me."

Clayton has posed:
There's the click of something being cocked, and cold metal presses against the woman's neck. Clayton is standing there, grinning unpleasantly in the night, eyes seeming to gleam. "I knew I could count on that shifty man to sell me out," he says in his deep baritone voice with the British accent, his words an odd echo for Royce. "Don't move an inch or I blow a hole clean through you."
He moves, keeping the shotgun perfectly leveled at her face, reaching suddenly and grabbing Stitch by the scruff of the neck, holding him to face level. "You're coming with me, you..." he gets a good look at Stitch and his little fez. His jaw drops a little. "...thing."

Stitch has posed:
Stitch's head tilts to the side and he just kind of looks at both of the people that have decided that they are wanting to stop him and his journey to save Lilo. He shakes his head, one claw reaching up to grab around the amulet that's hanging around his neck and he takes a couple of steps back.
"Stitch need to find Lilo." is explained, though he doesn't take his eyes off either Royce or Clayton. He's focused on pondering which way he can go or what he can do to get himself around them. Because if this thing on his chest is glowing, that's probably a good sign. A sign that it is getting close to Lilo. Eyes are narrowed, though, to be on the safe side.

Royce has posed:
Royce's head tilts up slightly as the unyielding metal cylinder is settled into the base of her neck. Her expression remains placid and her eyes devoid of emotion but internally she is beset by a plethora of curses that would make a grown man's ears bleed.

Stupid girl! I told you to deal with him while you had the chance! Now look at the mess we're in.

The voice continues to berate her once its short tirade in ancient and foul tongues no longer known to humanity is over. She does not respond to it with both the creature and her momentary captor standing so close. A long time ago the girl learned that people tend to freak out when it looks like you're talking to yourself.

Clayton's motivations are obvious to her at this point so she remains motionless as requested, instead turning her piercing stare on the furry monster before her as Stitch recoils to protect the amulet. Lilo. That could be a person or an object. She didn't care either way. It was obvious this was going to become a confrontation. For now Royce merely waits and lets the others make the first move.

Clayton has posed:
Clayton thought for a moment. Ah, but then it was clear. He could string the little mutant along. "Lilo? Where, I MIGHT know where you can find Lilo," he says, trying to sound smooth. "In this desert, where we stand, there is a Cave...of Wonders. They say you can find ANYTHING in this cave. All you must do is put two halves of an amulet together...it looks like a bug. Then, the entrance will open." He smiles at Stitch, filled with perfect teeth. TOO perfect.
He looks back at the girl and her rifle. Well, he wouldn't mind having a gun like that. "Well, that isn't for a picnic, I can see that," he snorts. "Meant to kill me and take my valuables and whatever's in the cave, no doubt. Who are you?"

Stitch has posed:
Distraction. That's exactly what Stitch needs. And that's also why he's taking what Clayton has just said to heart, as he's focused on looking at him and the way he's looking at the woman with the rifle and it all seems to be coming down to one thing. That glowing amulet on his body. He peeks at it, from beneath his claw and sure enough it looks like a bug. And the moment that Clayton looks away, Stitch is down on all fours and rushing past him, the glowing bug shimmering and shining as he runs! Clearly trying to get to the spot where this Cave of Wonders will open up.
"Stitch coming Lilo!" Apparently, Stitch is more worried about getting to Lilo than he is making any deals with large chin'd men! He's dealt with those types before. Except, well, fishier.

Royce has posed:
The girl merely stares straight ahead as the hunter prods her for information and panders his half-truths to the koala bear-thing. Its manner of speech did not ingrain a deep sense of intelligence into her view of the creature but even a child could see through the ridiculously fake smile Clayton offered along with his explanation.

Whether or not Stitch saw through the ruse or was merely too caught up in the sudden opportunity to find whatever it is he is looking for, he takes off and Royce uses that opportunity to attempt an escape from the rather unfavorable position she is in.

Chains erupt from her back with a wet splatter of blood, smashing into the side of Clayton's gun to push it away from her neck. The witch throws herself in the opposite direction at the same time, whirling around mid-leap to level her own weapon at the hunter with surprising speed.

"Your doom."

Red light gathers in the gaping maw of her gun, a hellish glow that streaks the sands with crimson hue. With a cacophonous explosion dozens of shards of burning brimstone erupt from its steel depths in a dazzling display of red and yellow that blossoms outwards like the petals of a rose. It would probably be beautiful to see if it weren't coming straight at him like the breath of an angry dragon.

The flames and cinders billow out around or past the large-chinned man to lick at Stitch's heels before he has gone even ten feet and a wave of invisible force explodes in the sand at his feet, trying to trip him up and prevent an sudden escape.

Clayton has posed:
Clayton's eyes bulge when Royce presents the chains and then oh my, fire everywhere. Clayton rolls and evades the shot fire from her rifle, ending in a crouching position as he takes aim. But then one of the exploding flowers erupts and singes him to a crisp, causing him to cry out and roll in the sand to put out the flames. He gets back up just as the trap snares his leg. "I'LL BURY YOU IN THESE SANDS!" he shouts. Then he sneers, because he left something along before he jumped her earlier.
Royce may soon step on a trap that bursts open and covers her with poison gas, as Clayton takes aim and fires twice with the shotgun. The loud reports echo through the desert. He can't move, but he'll sure as hell make sure she doesn't either.

Stitch has posed:
Stitch is in an all out dog-style run in this particular moment, attempting to get himself away from the attackers and the hunters and the whatever else-rs that seem to be wanting the thing that he has around his neck. Not that he even knows where he got it. Hell, he just kind of found it and put it on because it went with his outfit. And now there are people attempting to get it from him. And it could be the key to saving Lilo.

Stitch can barely dodge the explosion of sand that tries to trip him up. He stumbles a bit and leaps, though his leg is yanked and he can't get the height he wants. He comes crashing back down into the sand, losing his fez and rolling a bit, but still manages to get back to his feet, even though it's looking like he's going to be in for some kind of battle.

"Making Stitch angry..." is muttered, as if that's some sort of warning or something. He turns his eyes towards the battle that's starting to form between Royce and Clayton. He growls and goes into a small tirade of sand flinging anger, using both of his clawed hands and both of his feet to try and kick up a small dust storm to conceal his movements and maybe even ruin a few things.

Royce has posed:
Royce hits the sand hard, her body tucking into a tight roll moments after hellfire bellows from her gargantuan weapon. The twin chains protruding from her back whip and flail about like a pair of living tentacles. Their bladed tips dig into the ground to arrest the girl's movement, ploughing a pair of deep gouges into the malleable dune.

She flips upright with their aid after a moment but the dastardly trap laid by Clayton is touched off by the wanton chains and a thick hiss of pressurized gas fills the air. A hand goes up to cover her face and Royce coughs a few times as she is beset by a visible sickly haze. Her hands move back and forth erratically, seemingly trying to wave the fumes away for a handful of seconds which gives her assailant time to recover or turn his attentions back to the wayward Stitch.

In truth the strange motions of the girl's hands have a more sinister purpose. Dark magic gathers about her clawed fingers as she calls on ancient words that flood her mind, the dark voice in her head feeding the profane knowledge necessary to wrap her frail body in unholy magic. The poison gas rolls off her harmlessly, her knowledge of venoms and herbs sufficient enough to identify the toxin at work and neutralize it with a swift spell.

The clusters of hot lead are another matter. The first blast tears into the girl's exposed midriff and nearly rips her left side completely off. Ragged chunks of flesh and skin flutter away from the gaping hole that used to contain her kidney and probably other vital organs. Before she can even cry out the second deadly hail of bullets embed themselves in her arm though the hit is less solid and merely tears a small chunk from her shoulder.

Both impacts cause the girl to stagger painfully though only the barest hint of suffering shows on her face as her eyes narrow and the mask of cold detachment folds into the slight notion of a glare. However, instead of crumpling into a useless heap of dying flesh she merely stands up straight once more and the purpose of the foul incantations becomes frighteningly evident. The dreadful wounds begin to close up and seal over before their very eyes, shreds of skin and flesh pressing together again like some ghastly jigsaw puzzle while Royce quietly stares dead ahead at the hunter and beast.

Stitch's retaliation is somewhat comical though with his tremendous strength the sheer amount of sand flung into the air is enough to have the desired effect of filling the small area containing the three of them with an obscuring haze of grainy particles. Royce ignores this as well, though she tosses one of her lesser hexes in retaliation to keep the creature busy.

Clayton has posed:
Clayton throws the hood over his mouth, running through the sands that Stitch kicks up. He doesn't seem to be bothered by it much, as he focuses squarely on both targets. "You think a few burns will stop me?" he yells. "No one attacks John Clayton and gets away with it!" His hair is now askew, but he doesn't care. His blood is once again singing, he feels in his element. In the midst of danger, tracking dangerous prey.
He takes careful aim to fire precision shots at both the figures before him. Plan B, kill them both and take the amulet for himself. Always the best idea!

Stitch has posed:
The sand is doing its job as Stitch has taken it upon himself to try and burrow himself into a much better position. Honestly, that has to be the only place that he's went because the little blue creature is gone. It's almost like he hasn't been there at all... unless you want to count the extremely awesome and amazingly designed Sand Castle that has been erected within the dust storm of awesome. Yes, Stitch was able to build that thing that fast.

There's a loud wince that comes from Stitch as something impacts him without him even realizing it. He frowns and ends up popping out of the sand, looking at himself, as though there's something wrong. He keeps feeling... heat... weird. He's supposed to be fireproof, according to Jumba. This stuttering in his figuring out what's wrong is what allows him to get SHOT IN THE FACE by a giant shotgun bullet. It knocks him heel over head and he goes backwards, rolling a bit of ways before he just kind of comes up from the shot and shakes his head. There's a growl.

In the Sandcastle, there's a familiar gold glow that's coming from it. Since there's no gold glow that's coming from Stitch anymore. Huh.

Stitch just takes it upon himself to draw his Plasma Cannons and starts firing off blasts at both of them. He's starting to get angry now. And losing his focus on finding and saving Lilo.

Royce has posed:
The cyclopean stare of the slender witch narrows in the storm of sand and gun smoke. Though her eyes are not in any permanent danger here getting stuff in them still hurts. And even if she doesn't really show any pain watery eyes are a liability in combat therefore the decision is made to expend the effort to slide her eyelid down just a little to help ward off the flying particulates. Yes, she spends that much mental processing on narrowing her eye to glare at people.

Even as her flesh mends itself from the horrific shotgun wounds another volley of gunfire comes crashing down upon her position. This time Royce reacts and her own massive firearm is brought up to ward the pellets off like a swarm of angry gnats. Her arm snaps out and the sights of the beastly cannon are lowered until Clayton's chiseled features are squarely within the pips.

Red light coalesces inside the weapon once more but this time it belches forth in a paired wad of red fireballs, each streaking into the sand at both the hunter and Stitch's feet in rapid succession. A counter explosion answers this assault as the shotgun barks more of its fury with the careful aim of an experienced killer. Metal shards slam square into her chest and Royce goes spiraling to the ground in a messy heap.

Red liquid drips from her injuries and though it looks like blood it glows with an infernal crimson light as if even her vital fluids are infused with unholy power. The girl coughs harshly for a moment as she attempts to regain her footing.

No, you foolish girl! Don't you ever learn? Strike where they cannot see it coming!

Royce pauses as she considers this then plunges her hands into the ground as more magical incantations form on her lips. Beneath the earth the long dead bones of man and beast alike come at her call and the sands ripple upwards in dozens of geysering pillars as spears of bone skewer upwards with incredible force, carrying the festering pestilence of disease and rot.

Stitch's own counter strike against the two villains who would interfere with his noble rescue quest erupts into her side even as the bone blades turn the area into a hellish trap. Plasma sears into her delicate flesh, melting and cracking the skin until it turns black as the leather cloth that wraps it. The two chains upon her back lash out in retaliation, swinging wildly like whips to lacerate and flay them.

Clayton has posed:
Clayton rolls and leaps to avoid the counter-fire thrown his way. Despite his graying hair, he is clearly slender enough to dart about the sands quickly. He crouches, hungrily eying the amulet. "You all had to make this complicated," he growled. Suddenly, a bone pillar shoots up and stabs him in the arm, carrying him into the night sky, blood trickling down his arm. "Gah!" Luckily nothing vital is hit, the artery near the wound missed by a few inches.
He leaps down, and uses the whirling sands as sudden cover to avoid the two, possibly letting them shoot at each other a little. He takes a moment to rest, too, regaining some energy. He quickly takes out some gauze from his jacket and begins quickly bandaging up the wound. His nostrils flared. He would win this round.

Stitch has posed:
Stitch is not doing too well at this moment in time. He's got things taken care of, hopefully, at least he's got the object that everybody is after hidden in a cool Sand Castle. Luckily, these two foolish villainesque people are too busy trying to hurt him to notice. Hooray!

How the sand castle is managing to continue to be standing through all the sand geysers is anyone's guess. Disney Magic, maybe?

When those skewering bones are thrust up, Stitch can't move fast enough to get out of the way. It's just too much for him to handle and he get thrown into the air, landing with a crumple and his Plasma Cannons get knocked off to the side. He can barely get back to his feet, as he's getting more amd more dazed from the way he's being completely destroyed here. This is not something he's used to. "Stitch... need... Lilo..." is muttered as he tries to stand his ground. And suddenly, he's got a Ukelele in his hands. And he's strumming it, sending out physical manifestations of Jailhouse Rock twirling through the air and off in the direction of Royce. Just something to try and buy some time until he can figure out how to get rid of these fools!

Royce has posed:
With her opponents tied up by the gauntlet of deadly spears, Royce has the few moments she needs to gather her strength and regain her feet. Withdrawing her hands from the sand, she pushes upright with little apparent effort and once again the devastation done to her flesh by firearm and flame has vanished as if wiped away like chalk on a blackboard.

A hand goes up to grasp at the thin black cloth wrapped over her left eye but a pounding wave of pressure on her mind stays her from pulling the veil away as she intended.

No! Do not reveal your trump card so quickly, girl. We never know who may be watching.

"Yes, ofcourse..."

Hesitantly at first, as if unsure that this was really the wiser option, Royce lowers her arm but by the time it has settled against her thigh once more she dark mask of empty emotion has returned to her features and she turns her cold red stare on each of them in turn.

"You should not have come here. Now this place will be your graves."

The witch's weapon make a dull thud as she plants it barrel-first in the sand at her feet, driving it down like a spike until the stock is level with her chest. The dark book bound to the metal seems to shine with unnatural light as if in anticipation of its horrid pages being flipped open to reveal the collected evils of humanity it has gathered over many ages. Royce touches the chains and they fall away, leaving the Necronomicon to float eerily in the air.

With a sharp snap the book opens. Pages flutter chaotically on their own as if some mad ghost were hurriedly searching for a specific passage. When the right one is found the book hovers up into the air and Royce begins to chant the ancient magics contained within. The language she speaks is utterly incomprehensible, seemingly a string of gibberish that sounds completely alien and if focused on too hard causes headaches and pains.

Overhead the sky begins to rumble with the ominous threat of lightning even though such a thing is practically impossible in this place. Nevertheless several peals of deafening thunder boom in the heavens as if warning the foolish mortals below that they have tampered with powers beyond their ken. Spidersweb of blue-white static crisscross together for several seconds and then all at once they join together and stab down at the sands between Clayton and Stitch.

There is a brilliant flash of white; a bone-rattling shock wave; and then the world seems to explode around them. All the while in the background is the horrible grating strumming of a lonely ukelele whose tune manages to be even more painful than Clayton's bullets.

Clayton has posed:
The sky darkens, chanting begins. Clayton wonders what the hell is wrong with this woman, when lightning begins to strike. He keeps under cover, evading the lightning blasts and the erupting Earth merely by staying mobile. He crouches, waiting, tense, clutching his shotgun until the barrage is over. Whatever the hell THAT was, he seems to have survived it. He grins, sweat pouring down his face, his eyes wild.
The sand settles, and Clayton is standing there pointing his shotgun at Royce, ignoring Stitch completely, grinning from ear to ear. It's a massive, cheese-eating grin. "Never rely on a woman to do a man's job," he chides. "You can use your fancy magic tricks as much as you like. Nothing beats true steel...and the true grit of a SEASONED killer."
He fires quickly to blindside her by shooting at her arm, then firing a much more point-blank shot to her chest. Finally, he attempts to smash the gun butt up against her chin.

Stitch has posed:
Stitch's ukelele is the first to get destroyed as things take an even more terrible turn for the worse in regards to him. Considering the creation of unimaginable power and magic and whatever else comes along with epic things of this nature that comes crashing down upon him like there's no tomorrow.

Stitch has been launched so far backwards that he's nowhere near the Sand Castle protecting the Amulet at this moment. In fact, when he sits up, looking as though he's about to pass all the way out, the only thing he can do is look into his palm... where he sees a small blue experiment pod that's labeled: 606. And he grins.

"Yooohooooo!" Stitch says, being so far away and waving a hand to see if he can't get the attention of those other two. "Stitch want you meet somebody!" He laughs what can only be a maniacal laugh, before spitting in his hand and HURLING the pod with amazing force. As it flows, the wetness from the epic amounts of Stitch Drool activate the pod and it explodes open (Pokemon Style) releasing what can only be considered one of Stitch's family members by the looks of it.

Pod Activation Sequence Initiated - Experiment 606: Holio

What hits the sand next is a small, red, chipmunk-like creature with a large mouth, two thin antennae and three thin black spines. He stands up on his hind legs and tilts his head at both Royce and Clayton. Blink. Blink.

Stitch, though, takes the moment to take off in a run after his cousin. As he does, he seems to be Feeling The Ohana Within, as having a Cousin nearby is making him feel even better, pushing through the pain and attempting to gather himself up into something more akin to being able to fight. After all, he has to fight his way back to the Sand Castle so that he can grab the amulet and get the heck out of here. And find Lilo.

"Hajmha Sihkism!" Stitch exclaims as he launches himself up and into the air, soaring with great speed as he aims to literally kick, claw, scratch, headbutt and punch (in no particular order) at both Clayton and Royce, in what appears to be a Last Ditch Effort motion. This is, of course, the signal to 606.

Eyes lighting up, Holio crouches and levels the spines on his back into being straight up and he unhinges his already large mouth, immediately creating a matter-sucking black hole (yes, literally) which starts to spin and swirl the sand and whatever else may be too close for comfort as he attempts to help his Cousin Stitch.

By the way, Stitch's attacks are more clever than they appear at first, as he seems to be attempting to send the villainous pair in the direction of Holio's Black Hole.

Royce has posed:
The massive explosion in the desert creates a towering plume of sparkles and dust as the incredible heat from the lightning fuses thousands of grains into a glittering rain that is visible for miles in every direction - as if lightning in the desert wasn't already going to be turning some heads. Royce stands stoically at the outskirts of the dramatic magical assault her arm held up towards the sky as if channeling the very wrath of nature itself through her slender frame.

Clayton's appearance out of the mist of glinting sand comes as a complete surprise. Her eye swivels in its socket towards the hunter as he makes his proclamation, preceding the slow turning of her head to face him as if unsure he were really there. The blistering report of gunpowder does a better job of proving it.

Bullets meant to take down feral beasts at least three times her size rip into the young witch's outstretched arm, shredding her bicep completely even as she rips her own weapon from the sands and moves to swing it around towards him. Brilliant neon red light explodes from the gaping crater where her shoulder once connected and fountains into the air with grotesque ferocity. After a few seconds of this continuous display it is clear that there is no way this can be actual blood.

Unprotected in her choice of somewhat scandalous attire, Royce's body gives way to the superiority of lead and flame as she is assaulted at point blank. Red light erupts around the impact and the sheer force of the blast sends her skidding away like a rag-doll tossed down a hill. Impossibly, the girl almost immediately begins to push herself upright once more but again the voice in her head stills her movement.

Enough! We have already expended more effort than was wise chasing rumors and stories. Let these fools be claimed by the desert.

"Yes... the desert will be their executioner..."

Royce touches a hand to her forehead, the slender tip of the metal claw carving a ragged symbol into the flesh as she speaks arcane words aloud. Stitch comes flying in with claws and kicks but casually lifts the other arm, deflecting his rage with her armored gauntlet. The air about her seems to distort for a moment and then she sinks into the ground and is gone moments before the strange Squirrel-vortex begins consuming the desert.

Clayton has posed:
A flying mass of fur, teeth and claws flies Clayton's way, but he...ducks under it. When it comes around again he merely smacks it out of the way as if it was a mosquito. "You'd barely be worth a throw pillow casing!" he barks, scowling. Damn, he has to reload. He does so quickly, never taking his eyes off the demonic girl.
Clayton watches Royce sink into the sands, firing over her head. "We'll see, won't we?" he roars, but she is already gone. He rests the shotgun against his shoulder, then starts to stagger. This was a bleeding stupid idea. Forget this 'Cave of Wonders', he's going to need bandages and a hot bath. He's too tired to even take notice of Stitch.

Stitch has posed:
Stitch pouts as the violence seems to be over. He lifts his head up from where he was knocked into his sandcastle and he spits out the nasty sand. And with that, he's turning to look at the Sand Castle and-- "..." The golden glow is no more. Blasted Sand. IT COULD BE ANYWHERE BY NOW. Oh well. Back to the Lilo Search.

... But first he's gotta' find his Fez.