Assault on the Shrine of Time
~superaielman

Zidane winced. The beating he had suffered at the hands of Sephiroth had been brutal, unfair, and record-setting for the amount of bloodshed. "How can we vindicate ourselves?" Looking around, the thief didn't really see a way. Valygar and Sten stood around in a corner of Charmles mansion, muttering. They were still galled at how viciously the One Winged Angel had ripped them to shreds. Charmles and Cray stood in another part of the room, muttering about the cost of damages done to the mansion and the stunning infirmary bill that had been paid just to revive the team.

A disembodied voice penetrated the room. "Perhaps I can be of assistance?" A ghostly floating head materialized in the middle of the room. Zeon stood before the crew. "There's one form of magic in the known universe that can break the barriers of illusions and lies..."

Zeon's spiel was interrupted by a screech. "Die!" Sten, having horrible memories of floating evil voices, launched into a brutal chain of slashes, followed by a missile. The demon's counter-attack breath fried the monkey in short order, allowing Zeon to continue unperturbed. "Time Magic. The gift of it, to be precise. TimeRecord will clear your names."

Zidane was clearly skeptical. "You know as well as I do that TimeLord won't help us willingly, and we can't beat him for the gift without your help. So why would you come to help us out of the blue?"

A horrid laugh filled the area. "I'll be glad to help you solve your problem. I just ask to inherit the gift myself. Only I am strong enough to control it, anyway. And with the gift of Time Magic, my return to Godlike will be unstoppable!"

Zidane nodded at this, fairly well convinced by the reasonable proposal by Zeon. "Ah, so you don't need a reason to help people either! That settles it. We're going to clear our names. Tonight, the Shrine of Time is ours!"

---

TimeLord ended his TimeRecord spell, amused. "So the loser King of the Greater Devils thinks he'll try for my Gift for Time Magic. A dangerous gambit. It deserves a fitting response."

--

It was night. Valygar and Sten had done their usual top-notch job scouting, with Cray's brilliant mind and Charmles' vast resources giving them enough support to reach the outside gates of the Shrine of Time. The scout duo returned to Zidane, grinning. "We can assure you, there's not a single trap here. But there are some guards. A few Time Mages and flunkies of the TimeLord. We should be able to take them out, though they might slow us down a bit. I think we're ready to breach the walls." The team quickly crawled over the gates and into the the actual shrine. "Nothing will go wrong!" Charmles' shrill voice caused the team to wince a bit. It also attracted... unwanted attention.

"I'm a pretty, pretty princess!"

A giant viewscreen dropped down in front of the shrine. A smirking image of TimeLord was on the screen, looking very amused. "Idiots. You didn't even bother to ward your rooms. Want my gift for Time Magic? Come and get me. I'm somewhere in the Shrine. As a bonus, I've decided to air a few lost episodes from Magical Girl Ghaleon to keep you entertained. I wouldn't dally for too long, though. Ghaleon will be on his way soon, and I'm sure he'll be less than amused that someone's watching his show. I'm gone as soon as Ghaleon shows up, anyway. Good luck reaching me before then!"
  • Zidane and co breach the Shrine of Time and slay TimeLord
  • TimeLord manages to fight off the invaders and all parties escape
  • Ghaleon reaches Zidane's crew before it can reach TimeLord

Lurking Registered User
Let me get this straight: The contest is whether Zidane and crew can reach an entity who controls time before an arbitrary time limit?

Zidane barely even gets *inside* before Ghaleon shows up.

TeamZidane: 21
Draw: 13
Monkeybeating: 39

legendaryflyingfailure
Needless to say even Zidane who has barely the brilliance to match a common forest owl had but one choice to make. Turning to leave Shrine he heard the Time Lord's voice echo from several dozen hidden speakers, "I said you could come and get me. I didn't say you could leave." No sooner was this said than a door some where in the neighborhood of a foot in hieght opened revealing a miniscule looking creature weilding a lantern and a cooking utinsil. Zidane instantly recognizing the seemingly innocent creature devised a brilliant plan. It was simple. He was a thief. He would steal the tonberry's kitchen knife. Needless to say on a scale of one to ten this plan ended far too poorly to be given a number. It was to Zidane's grave misfortune this particular tonberry had an immesurably sadistic sense of humor and was particularly fond of oragami. These elements all combined to end with Zidane lying in a puddle of blood with the tip of his tail carved and expertly folded into a quite lovely chrysanthemum.During the carnage Valygar and Sten had taken the opportunity to run like hell leaving only Cray and Charmles to tend to their wounded. While Cray and Charmles tried to encroach uppon a method of utilizing an appropriate number of pheonix downs, (they felt that at least two were needed) while still maintaining several yards between them and the lantern bearing baddass, Ghaleon made his unfortunate appearance. Here Zidane struck the gold mine of his luck. Ghaleon after viewing the circumstances decided that there was little he could do to match the "flowery-assed monkey's" humiliation. Unfortunately for Cray and Charmles there was still the lost episodes of Magical Girl Ghaleon playing in the vicinity. TV screens are very susceptable to physical damage. And people make great blunt weapons.

Mad Fnorder
I can't decide which is the greater source of fail- Seifer or Zidane. The vicious beatings the both deserve are certainly not "Romantic."

Fight, Ghaleon, for everlasting Beats.

Tidus Andronicus
When in doubt, vote for the option that involves Zidane failing the most.