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[Deraj]

Frosty suddenly slips down off the branch, catapulting himself down through the brush.
"What is he doing?!" Dusty asks.
"I think he's trying to save them." NiGHTS says, flying down after Frosty.
"Why?!" Dusty asks, confused. "It's Frosty we're talking about, here!"
"Probably trying to save his lunch." Luna says.
"Yeah, that sounds like Frosty." Dusty says, quickly following the others down through the tree branches.

[MSDEViN92]

A couple of python-esque Nightmaren had been lurking in the trees. One had the purple-clad Nightopian in its grasp, and was opening its jaws- wide enough to swallow her whole.

The blue-haired girl had been caught by the other one, which had taken advantage of her dive to wrap its coils around her muscles, completely binding her.

[Deraj]

Frosty quickly takes care of the immediate threat, sending a shard right through the roof of the python-maren's mouth, forcing it to drop the purple Pian.
"Ooh, you ain't gonna be eating anything solid for a while." Frosty says, landing in front of the python. A yelp of pain quickly reminds him that there where two targets at stake. Frosty spins around and gets a shard into the side of the other python-maren, diverting it's attention to him.
"All right, then. Shall we have some fun?" Frosty says mockingly as NiGHTS makes it down.

[Nyclone]

"Ugh... Guess I have to help..." Nyclone says. He pulls out his animal control staff, and starts to electrically choke the snakes.

[MSDEViN92]

Free of her attacker, the blue-haired Pian dove down and caught the purple-haired one in her arms, holding it protectively close as she leapt to a farther-away branch.

The purple-haired Pian reached out as they did, snatching her falling book by it's binding and clutching it to her chest.

[Deraj]

Frosty smirks. "NiGHTS, Nyclone, I think it's time we play a bit of 'Twister'."
NiGHTS smirks, beginning to fly in circles, opening up paraloops.
"Nyclone, the game goes like this. Whoever can think of the most painful, or elaborate way to send the pythons to their deaths in the paraloop wins. Extra points if it's painful AND elaborate." Frosty smirks. "I may be rouge, but twisted games like this never lose their appeal."
Frosty starts, grabbing the shard-through-the-mouth python, and tying it into a hissing, biting knot, before being goated with ice. "Lubrication." Frosty says, before dropping it to the ground, where a sort of spring/bumper made of ice quickly forms, sending the python high into the air.
Suddenly, a second spring appears, and a third, and a lot more. The python is continuously bumped around the jungle, going through tubes, funnels, and a whole bunch of other little gizmos made of ice, or conveniently-shaped leaves/trees/bark/etc, before finally meeting it's end inside NiGHTS' paraloop.

[Nyclone]

"Sounds fun!" Nyclone said. He smacked his pole into the ground, causing an electric shockwave, paralyzing all of the pythons. "You can handle the rest."

[Deraj]

Frosty smirks, dispatching each of the snakes into the paraloop.
"Now, where'd they get off to?" Frosty mutters, looking around for the Pians.

[Nyclone]

"Who cares?"

[MSDEViN92]

There was silence...until the purple-haired Pian slipped and fell over, causing her friend to jump out and grab her again.

"EEE- ...Oopsie."

[Nyclone]

"Who are you?"

[Deraj]

"Oi! You! Pians! 'Mere." Frosty says. "Before I lose my patience and drag you outta those woods kicking and screaming, and, more likely than not, bleeding."

[MSDEViN92]

"I'm Libri!" said the smaller one, now zipping around like an angry firefly. "And I'm not gonna let your stupid kitty friend hurt us, 'cuz I'm one of the good guys!"

"Libri, calm down before you give yourself another headache."

[Nyclone]

" 'Good guy' or not, He will eat you." Nyclone said.

[Deraj]

"Not necesarrily. I still got a big shiny purple Mepian up there, hiding behind the slab of meat named after fruit." Frosty says. "Besides, I got a bit of indegestion right now. I snuck some of that honey we brought back. Tastes like a rotting camel carcass that's been laying around for a few months. Yech." Frosty shakes his head. "I don't even wanna KNOW what those pills taste like."

[Nyclone]

"How do you know what rotten camel carcass tastes like?"

[Deraj]

"There's an ordeal!" Frosty says. "But, I'll give you the short version. Bad directions. Lost in desert dreamscape. Starving. Carcass. Food Poisoning." Frosty says. "You can fill in the blanks from there."

[Nyclone]

"Ugh..." Nyclone says in disgust.

[Deraj]

"Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer." Frosty says, turning to the Pian that WASN'T flying around his head. "Now, please, call off the Girl Scout."

[nightdreamer]

Not far from the battle there was another Maren a green one with a small blond ponytail poking out of her hat, but one desperately searching for someone she cared for very much...her older sister.

"Oh where is she? I've been following her trail for months...I hope she hasn't gotten captured by Reala and the Nightmaren. No NiGHTS is strong and clever enough to give me some sort of message before now...so she has to be safe somewhere around here."

Leaving a trail of pink twinkle dust behind her the green colored maren continued her search flying above the jungle concern etched upon her face.

[Deraj]

Frosty's ear twitches as a few high-up leaves rustle. "We've got a visitor, and not the human kind."
Frosty quickly fires a few shards into the air, but all he manages to hit is some pink twinkle dust, and the bottom of someone's pastel-colored shoe. "Oh, great. I missed. Now comes the hard bit. Or the yelling-at-the-blue-cat bit. Either one."

[nightdreamer]

The maren notices the shard poking out of her shoe and pulls it out recognising the shard instantly. "Frosty's here. What is HE doing around here? I wonder if he knows where NiGHTS is. I'd better take a closer and cautious look." She slips down into and hides in the trees to investigate what was happening down below her.

[Nyclone]

"Come out."

[nightdreamer]

She peeks out from her hiding spot and sees NiGHTS with Frosty and the others. "NiGHTS there you are!" Floats down and quickly races over to NiGHTS and hugs her. "I've been looking for you for months! What's going on?"

[MSDEViN92]

"You know, as much..." The blue-haired Pian made finger quotes in the air. "FUN as this is, I think we'll be going. ...You don't want to be captured or something by the bad guys, right, Libri?"

"Eeek. Let's go." D:

[nightdreamer]

"Right, Just as long as Frosty doesn't shoot me in the foot again." Illusia remarks a mischievious gleem in her eye.

[Nyclone]

Nyclone, without the power on, grabs them with his ele-control staff. "Oh, no. You two are coming with us."

[Deraj]

"Oh. It's you. The 'Constantly-trailing-behind-NiGHTS' girl." Frosty says, disinterested. "I figured you'd show up sooner or later. It was just a matter of 'when.'"
Frosty turns to Nyclone. "Go ahead and keep those two bound up. Take them with us." Frosty looks up into the trees, trying to find the position of the sun. "We're done here. I thought this would turn out a bit more profitably, but it turned into a waste of daylight... And now we've got three more sacks of dead weight slowing us down."
Frosty glances at the three newcomers. "No offense."

[Nyclone]

Nyclone tightens the grip and slings them over his shoulder. "Well, lets get going!"

[MSDEViN92]

"SOMEBODY HELP!" the tinier Pian wailed, thrashing.

[Nyclone]

"Look. The closest piece of civilization is quite a distance away." Nyclone says to them.

[nightdreamer]

Illusia looks as if she's either has a headache or is trying not to laugh until she realises something. "You guys might not want to go that way...I saw Reala and Jackle heading off in that same direction I turned invisible before they saw me. Reala was...now what was that expressions dreamers uses sometimes? That's it! Swearing like a sailor about being trapped in his own trap for weeks!"

[Nyclone]

"Why do you think we're going there in the first place. We're after Selph. They're going to look for it, and a quick 'bout over it would be fun."

[Deraj]

"Yeah, and telling us Reala is going that way just makes me wanna go there even more. A little a**-kickery never hurt anyone." Frosty says, before thinking over what he had just said. "... Shut up."
Frosty turns to the Pians. "Now, you two hang tight. It's a while until our next stop. And besides, It's not like I'm gonna use your hides to pay my debt to Jackle. I'd wipe out the entire Pian population if I did that. And THEN what am I gonna chase down for fun?"

[Nyclone]

"He has a point."

[nightdreamer]

Illusia rolls her eyes. "Oh brother, some people's logic drives me crazy sometimes. At least I'm not going to be a burden because I can defend myself and fight...despite what people may think about me. Growing up as a fugitive in Nightmare does that to you. And at least we aren't flying into...Oh boy...we may want to be careful. I just thought that if Reala knows about you guys looking for Selph...he may have an ambush or trap set up...even though I don't think he knew I spotted him and Jackle heading towards Frozen Bell.

[Deraj]

"A trap, hm?" Frosty asks, his eyes lighting up. "Well, there's only one thing to do, then."
"Please, no." Dusty whispers, knowing full well what was going to happen next.
"Spring the trap." Frosty says, instantly rushing off into the forest.
Dusty screams inwardly, reluctantly following Frosty and the others through the woods. "Why me...?"

***Slight timeskip***

"Do you even have a plan? You don't even know what sort of trap this is!" Dusty says, keeping pace with Frosty.
"I'm kicking around a few ideas, yeah." Frosty says. "But we gotta cover some serious ground, really fast. This stupid errand of NiGHTS' slowed us down, and now we're way behind, from the sound of it."
Frosty, without turning around, begins barking orders. "Okay, everyone get into wave formation! Three waves! Luna, Illusia and Fig will be in the first wave, springing whatever traps have been set up, while Nyclone, NiGHTS and I will be second-wave, taking out the traps as they're sprung, killing nightmaren and the like. Dusty and the rest of you will be the third wave, out of immediate harm, while Dusty takes care of the injured of our group, if any, after Nyclone, NiGHTS and I have taken out the traps! Any questions not from the first wave squad?"
"Yeah, why is Fig in the first wave? She could get hurt!!" Dusty says.
"Because, she can sense out the traps and help us avoid them to begin with. With her in the lead, damage to our personage is slim to none!" Frosty says.
Luna raises her hand.
"I said, no first-wave questions." Frosty says.
"Why am I in the first wave?!" Luna asks anyway.
"Because, like Illusia, you're disposable. ... From a military standpoint." Frosty says, earning himself dirty looks from everyone in the group.

[nightdreamer]

Illusia frowns and gives Frosty an icy glare. "Fine but I think you're going to find out that no one is 'dispenceable' in this group especially if you want to get to the staff before Reala does...unfortunately for him we do have THAT advantage, since NiGHTS is the only one who has any idea where it is." Mutters to Luna and Fig. "The only reason that we're in the first wave is because we're the only ones HE thinks can't help matters any or find traps before anyone else can. Why don't we show him just how much we CAN do...preferably without getting caught or killed in the process. My theory is that Reala's looking for NiGHTS because he KNOWS that she has a better idea of where to find it than he does."

[Deraj]

Luna and Fig nod.
"But Fig and I don't really have any fighting skill. Fig is a Tracking Maren... And I'm a failed Ideya-Maren." Luna says.
"Leave the fighting to Illusia." Fig says. "I'll guide us through any traps, and you can be the eye in the sky!" Fig says. "All we have to do is be careful... And hang a left here." Fig says, suddenly making a sharp turn.
"Wha-?!" Luna says, trying to imitate Fig's move, but she runs right into the near-invisible spiderweb. "Gah!!" Luna grabs at the web, trying to brush it out of her face, but before she can do so, she runs right into a tree.
"Owww...!" Luna mumbles. Frosty glances at her as he passes by, flawlessly imitating Fig's sharp turn, and says the one thing she hoped she wouldn't hear.
"Medic!"
Luna sighs, slumping down on a branch as Dusty comes to a halt in front of her.
"Already...?" Dusty asks, brushing some of the web out of Luna's face. "Is that a record?"
"Hurry up! We're not waiting for ya!" Frosty says, his voice becoming, literally, more distant.

[nightdreamer]

Illusia looks up into the sky before shouting angrily behind her at Frosty her usually cool temperment deserting her for a minute and then back at Luna and Dusty with concern in her voice instead of anger. "You want to go first instead, Frostbite! If not quit the comentary and picking on those that you 'chose' to go first! Luna, are you alright?"