Heart of Horrors

The teasing caress of fog and wind entertwine across your brow as you exit the underground jungles and cross the boundaries of sand. The solemn resting of graveyards undisturbed, and yet the high pitch sounds of merriment and music roll through the lands- drawing you near even as the hollows seem to ignore you; cascading through the trees under the setting moon with unusual cheer and the smell of cooked steak luring all closer. The weave of reiatsu past set an atmosphere as darkness falls, Hueco Mundo's malevolent nature ebbing away as the endless sand beneath your feet turn to cobblestones and pathed walkways of atlantean origin. Fences of vines deceptively burst from the ground to pull through a maze of colors as torches flare into existence from afar, wood creaking in the distance to an disbelieving roar of lesser hollows and beasts being rewritten.

But no, the atmosphere compells you deeper, roaring extinct salamanders and drakes cascading like ink from the page to shimmer beneath blooming trees and children playing poker with poorly disguised abominations. Felines prowl through the dark as yellow eyes follow you under the shield as you pass through the images without contact, yet eventually you cross a lantern lit stream through a broken sandswept tunnel and there it is. Colossal, magnificent barred doors finally spread full open under the moonlight, the ground rumbling as the creatures inside await your leisure even as moaning and tears pour from your lips unheeded, the last thoughts of a dying land trapped in time to save the future from their... mistake.

Knocking aside a bizarre creature oozing black lights from its orfices straight as you hit a machine barrier of immense reiatsu, the wires of electrical cables snapping like living tendrils from a waterwheel down by the coast. Before you can think of leaving, however, a blast of wind flows through the wilderness and glimpses of a white garganta behind the barrier flood your thoughts of a hole in the Seireitei....

The Death of Hueco Mundo, the Heart of Horrors. The past beckons, and the universe offers a single chance to change the cruel fate that looms over you all. Beware, the past's fangs are still sharp.

>> ENTRANCE: [Open] How It All Started

The shudder of their arrival drew dust upon the metal and stone upon which the visitors landed, a massive attic of some ancient guardhouse stained with blood and soul fragments, carvings of men turning into monsters and slaughtering their kin drawn in reiatsu through steel. The faint sound of etching in the far corner of the gargantuan room blocks the staircase below, a hooded figure murmuring darkly as it twitches and shudders with a clanking sound not unlike bone marrow. A burning set of eyes glance your way as it swerves with a wicked blade in hand, a horribly flesh ridden ribcage flickering in the moonlight as a broken voice sounded lightly in the darkness- yellow eyes disappearing from the wall as it began to address the unknown visitors.

"Light..Darkness.....If you're another one of those monsters here to devour me, my bones will not hesitate to tear you to shreds. I am Relampago, Last of the God Kings of Hueco Mundo! Identify yourselves or be cut down where you stand!" the abomination calls out with a horrible grinding of sharpened teeth, a crown of bone jagged and ripping out from his forehead even while the fanged edges of his armor ripple outwards. Reiatsu smashes through the side support columns as the roof tilts to the side, yet the threat lingers upon the air like a cold reminder of whatever mess you've gotten into. Will you answer the gatekeeper of this garganta?

As the tree came crashing down into the newly found land that the garganta had pulled him into, Alister rested in the leaves of the tree. He was both there for two main reasons. One, because he was thrown there and the other reason was because he knew if he moved then he would be found out.

He raised his hands from the ground and his puppet jerked and flew up into the air only to come back down and landing on her feet. Her head quickly spinning around to be put on the correct way and did the same thing with her leg as it turned around and she kicked a few times to make sure it was working correctly. Alister activated his puppet skill once more as his own body went limp and the doll looked around.

It stopped looking as the voice echoed out and it held its hands together trying to find the so called 'God King' and spoke out but not as loudly as one would think added it wasn't very threatening "Your the one that opened the garganta aren't you?"

*The tops of the trees start rustling and Shinji pops his head through the branches and crawls out, dusting himself off and looking around*

God, I've had hangovers that felt better than that. Now where the hell am I?

*He then sees the lady puppet pop up*

So it got the puppet lady too huh..

*He then hears the ominous voice echoe and sees the cloaked figure in the distance*

Who am I? Well, I'm Shinji Shinamori, I'm a pisces and I like long walks on the beach...

How did I get here? Well perhaps you could help me with that. One minute I'm looking at a white garganta and the next minute I'm in Hueco Mundo in a pile of trees with a stick up my a$$...

Thasti was next to fall from the sky. Watching the ground speed towards him, Thasti flipped over and landed softly on his feet. Landing on concret a small sting rippled through his body. Shaking his legs, Thasti got some feeling back into his legs, before he started to look around. Spotting a puppet, and two shinigami one standing beside a fallen tree, and one inside the tree.

It wasn't long after spotting the three of them, when a voice filled with menanice distrubed his train of thought. Thasti was impressed by the amount of reaitsu this guy was emitting, but that just made Thasti more excited and pleased that he had decided to visit Soul Society.

"Thasti Col, a fallen shinigami. And what would you want with us, cause I don't want my time to be wasted while I try and find people to satisfy my thirst for battle."

Lightning flashed outside the window, misshappen figures staring up into the attic with acidic yellow eyes. Hundreds upon thousands, just standing there, watching in silence in perfect symmetry. But as one of the visitors spoke of shinigami, all of them snapped their head towards the building and the sound of animals racing to reach the attic broke upon the walls with a howl of horrible laughter.

But they had bigger things to worry about. The God King, pausing from shaking his skull in denial to Alister suddenly swerved its colossal form with a burning fury in the eye sockets of the damned. Shinigami, the word resounded against bone and stone in hideous scrutiny. s-h-i-n-i-g-a-m-i, the echo rolled through the room as the attic grew dark with a blanketing reiatsu of horror. Clawing broke upon the blocked entrance of the stairwell, and a dread sense of foreboding rocked the building.

"What have you done. WHAT HAVE YOU CREATURES DONE! They'll find me now... they'll find ME! I WONT DIE ALONE, YOU HEAR ME! I WON'T DIE ALONE! SHINIGAMI!?!? SHINIGAMI, SHINIGAMI SHINIGAMI SHINIGAMMMMIIII! I WONT DIE ALONE!" it wailed hideously in an unearthly tone, swinging it's berserk arms down with a colossal thud at the place where Col sounded but a moment before, blind without the eyes that dimmed the skeleton's sockets. Its shattered zanpaktou clung wildly through the air as it throbbed in pain, but the creature was slowly fading. "I- I WONT! I WONT BE DEVOURED LIKE THE OTHERS! YOU ATE THEM, YOU GODFORSAKEN MONSTERS, YOU ATE THEM ALL!"

And just like that, the attic cleared of the blanketing reiatsu, and the gaping maw of the giant skeleton was nowhere to be found as the sound of wood breaking open to the sight of bright yellow eyes is the last thing you see. The carvings of blood upon the walls were no more, and the shapes outside the window had vanished. The stairwell was open for them to pass through.

The puppet girl slowly turned her head to the side as the creature answered her and would have not liked to have gone any further into it. She slowly let her head turn from one side to the other and looked at all the eyes, even going a full three-sixty just to make sure she got a good look for the eyes that watched them.

She then turned around and looked to see two new arrivals, one a Rogue Shinigami as he claimed and the other...loud. The newest shinigami seemed to have come for selfish and brutish reasons and this made Alister want to watch him more closely.
_____________________________________________________________________

Through the same entrance as the eleventh squad captain, Lee stood in a crouched position in the distance to watch the scene. It seemed as though there was a nice little gathering going on and it held a diverse group of people with it.

Thasti watched as the God-king screamed reletnessly about not being devoured and being found, which had just happened. What happened next made Thasti smile. The God-king attempted to attack him, but was disappointed when he disappeared and the sword flew above him.

"Looks like the insatiy got to him," Thasti chuckled.

Kicking the floor, Thasti looked up at the staircase that had appeared. "I hope someone can give me a warmer welcome home," Thasti voiced, as he semi-ignored the person who just fell from the sky. Keeping his zanpaktou at his side, but in a relaxed grip, Thasti made his way towards the stairs. "Considering I've never seen this place, I think it's time a went on a search." With that said, Thasti started to climb the newly revealed staircase.

The puppet girl turned toward the Rogue Shinigami as he was seemingly attacked by the self-proclaimed king. She held his hands up and was about to attack the king but he seemed more in a fray and disorder rather than blood thirsty. She looked back toward the Rogue Shinigami as he was the first to head to the staircase.

With a firm nod, the puppet turned its head around to the back to speak to the other captains

Let's try and keep on guard and watch for anything that looks like it might be dangerous.

And with that, the head spun around to face forward as it glided across the ground to the staircase, just a few centimeters from the ground.

______________________________________________________________________

Lee held one hand over his mouth while the other rested on his knee as he watched the ruckus below. So that was the 'God Kings of Hueco Mundo'. He was quite the sight and even more the force but was pushed to the edge for what seemed like his own kind. Lee rubbed his chin lightly as he stroked his cheek in thought. He would have to wait for the others to move on before he did himself.

*Through the whole speech, Shinji had a puzzled look on him He was about to attack after the king swung at the rogue, his hands sparking with energy. But then the king started going crazy and he noticed all the eyes starting to look at him*

*Sigh* This can't be good....

*He readies himself for the onslaught of what could only be random hollows. Then the king freaked out and vanished and a staircase opened up and the puppet lady started talking while more people showed up*

Sooooooo we're all supposed to work together to defeat this "Dog King"? He did say dog king right? With my luck I probably just got too drunk and wondered onto the set of a weird fetish movie.......again.

*After looking around a bit, he finally set off up the stairs*

Kyouga fell out of the White Garganta, and landed in the room that the others were previously in. He could sense that Shinigami were walking up the steps, and he instinctively attempted to catch up with them quickly. What excited him the most were two Shinigami that felt also like hollows, but he sensed one of those two was almost exactly like an Arrancar. All the while, he wanted to see what power the latter one had. Perhaps Kyouga could help him find out what he really was.

Thasti was at the top of the stairs when he felt an Arrancar's reaitsu. Was this part of the God-king's plan or had some unfortunate arrancar got caught up in the white Garaganta as well. Either way, Thasti had found his first opponenet, and if he was lucky he would be able to go all out as well. Twirling his zanpaktou around his hand twice before grabbing the hilt again.

Rushing back down the stairs, Thasti saw the Arrancar, and smiled. "Come Arrancar, provide me with some entertainment so I can relieve this boredem."

"Don't disappoint me, I won't have it!" Kyouga shouted with a wide grin stretched across his face as he made an attempt to pierce into Thasti's chest with his bare hand. It should also be noted that Kyouga was armored all over his body except for his head, chest, and abs. Kyouga wanted to see how strong this guy really was, and he kept his focus entirely on him.

appearance:

She was probobly the last to arrive, strange enough, she pulled in first, but was the last to arrive, landing on the desolated area, there was still unconcious, unaware of where she was, or maybe, when. She took great deal of damage from Fuzen Breaking, but even up to this point, its still broken, for some reason, her reiatsu cant re-formulate properly, as if, the other half of her was gone. Opening her eyes and darkness covered her, this place had no recognizable life forms, just a dead landscape, 'wasteland' she thought, sitting up, and looking around better. The place looked like Hueco Mundo to here, but theres a sense of familiarity she could not explain, what was it.

She kept thinking, wondering if she would meet anyone in this wasteland much like what the prophecy says about where the other he was thrown into.

Not taking his eyes off of Kyuoga, Thast jumped over his oppontent's hand, and placed his left hand on top of Kyouga's arm for balance. Feeling the cold metal of Kyouga's armour, Thasti tossed his zanpaktou at his feet, catching it half way up the blade, and using the momentum of his moving body, made an attempt to stab his opponent in the face. And if that didn't work, Thasti pointed his free hand Kyuoga's feet. "Hado #31 Shakkaho," A red ball of energy appeared in front of Thasti's hand and flew towards Kyouga's feet

The energy swirled from the kido, suddenly cracking open like shards of glass upon the air as the Garganta devoured itself behind them, a sudden roar of white light flooding their consciousness before a scene played out before them each in turn, all in the space of a second.

The scene warped, and their minds were no longer there own...

------
It was a light day, sun glaring through the trees as you ran to go report to your first duty with Captain Ootori. Not two steps out of the Seireitei, however, and a glaring white reiatsu poured into the ground in front of you, a masked stranger weilding a small sword- quite odd- collapsed in its place before a throbbing ear splitting pain smashed you down to your knees.

But then the stranger stands up and thinks for a moment, looking at the trees and the sky as though he's never seen them before."I think I died. But I got better."

He looks back at you, still barely able to stand after seeing him collapse and freezing icepicks ram themselves under your eyelids. "It's good to not be dead. But... I think I am still maybe a bit dead. I can smell it. I can smell myself being dead. But it's okay," he whispers, kneeling down next to your twitching body as a jolt of suffocating reiatsu shoves itself down your throat like radiation. "It's good to still be walking around and making friends to people. Like you."

The world is darkening and turning red. The stranger's dark aura touches you, and it feels warm, prickly, makes your muscles jump and writhe.

You can't move. Your breathing slows to a halt. With the buzzsaw groping around in your skull, you can't even think.

"You're hurt,"says the stranger, blank eye pits surveying the blood dripping from your eyes, nose and ears. Grey and black spots are swimming through the grass, multiplying, bringing their friends. "I think you might be dead. Yes, I think you might be. All dead. Let me have a smell, to make sure." You're blind. He leans in to you, and at the moment the mask's nose brushes against your forehead, you feel the muscles twitch and shift to get away from it. At the same moment, something odd happens in your chest - as though a background noise to which you'd become accustomed had suddenly cut off, leaving you in a black silence deeper than before.

It was your heart.


You hear him inhale.

A pause. "Yes. Yes, you're dead,"he says, his voice sounding muffled and distant and sad. "It's horrible, isn't it? I came here to stop this, but here I am, infecting the very thing I tried to save."

You say nothing, because you're dead, the entrance to the Gotei just paces away, still hearing the conversations in the nearby woods. The pain is going away - but it's not fading, it feels instead like it's being slowly eaten by some dreadful anaesthetic, and the grey spots are turning black. Suddenly you want the pain back. You want to be alive enough to feel it.

"I have some medicine,"he says, and suddenly the pain rushes back. "Some medicine for your eyes." Slowly, through holes in the grey curtain, the stranger appears. He's standing up, reaching inside his suit jacket - he's taken a couple of steps back, and you feel a lurch in your chest as your heart kicks in again.

Everything is high-contrast, almost blinding. Against the blackness of his suit, you see him pull out a white hypodermic needle.


"Hold still,"he says, and kneels down again, bringing the pain back. "Hold very still indeed." You can't look away - you can't shut your eyes. The hypodermic is filling the field of view of your right eye, but you can still see the stranger's arms, and in his absent-mindedness he's bent his elbows back the wrong way. "Being still will be easy for you. You're dead. But when you're alive again, hold very still please." A droplet of something black and oily drips from the point of the needle, now just millimetres away, and falls into the very centre of your pupil. In your unblinking right eye, the world darkens.

The point is too close to focus on. Close enough for your eyeball to feel its coldness. The stranger is close enough for you to smell him, and he smells of soot and filthy black oilsmoke. Like... a machine. "Sshh, be very still... This won't hurt."

Your heart slows down to a whisper again, but you've got more pressing matters on your mind. The point of the needle touches your cornea, and very gently builds the thinnest, most concentrated point of pressure before penetrating, slipping cold inside you with a plupping sensation that seems to echo in your skull. You feel the stranger's needle hesitate a moment, he's being so gentle, so polite, and then he slithers the point to something deeper inside which gives a little resistance before breaking with an even deeper pop, and then he presses the plunger. Coldness rushes into your right eye socket, followed by pressure.

The pain evaporates. The stranger withdraws his needle; your pliable cornea holds onto it for a moment before letting go. "There,"he breathes, standing up. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Needles pierce and prickle every nerve in your body as sensation returns. You almost feel like you can move. Your lungs ache with pleasure as you take in your first breath since the stranger knelt next to you. Your legs are cold and wet, and you smell urine.

"I expect you feel much better after that,"he says, running the needle casually into his mouth and sucking on the tip like a lollipop.

You get to your feet. Suddenly the only thing that hurts any more is your right eye, and you wink it shut. Behind your eyelid, it feels wet.

"Are we friends now?"asks the stranger. "Now that my stuff is inside?"


You turn and run. You get a good ten paces before you fall, the world spinning around you. The stranger is right behind you.

"Why do you run?"he asks. "It doesn't hurt any more, does it? There's nothing to fear- We ate the hollows years ago, can't you taste them?"

No. Being around this abhorrent thing doesn't hurt, now. That seems somehow worse, as though he's stripped you of your right to be repulsed. You feel degraded, tainted, unclean - nothing that's good and wholesome should be able to withstand being around this stranger.

"I can't be friends with you,"you say, as loudly as you can manage - barely a squeak. "I'm sorry, but I just can't."

"Then what will I do?"breathes the stranger, and you look behind you, see his wrong-way shadow behind his black-suited legs, his smart shoes. "I'm sorry I tricked you, my friend. But if you're to be my friend, then you have to not hurt around me, my friend, don't you friend? I have to save our kind after all."

You pull up your foot and piston it out, and the stranger's right kneecap reverses upon impact. "HELP!"you cry to the gates, now only feet away. "BLOODY HELP ME!" That this should happen to you, so close to the city... A chill comes over you as you realise that nowhere is safe from the stranger, and something that belongs to him is inside you, close to your brain, probably slithering around your memories right now.

The stranger looks down at his knee, bent the wrong way. He shifts his weight, and it rebends to the correct position with a sickeningly wet crunch. "It's okay,"he says, "You're my friend and I wont let us die. It doesn't really hurt, the mask I ate makes the hunger go away, don't you see?"

You roll onto your back, look up at the stranger as he leans down to you, and you can see his eyes now, dull orange coals behind his mask. No pupils, just burning ashes.

"Should I take you to my division? That would be fun, wouldn't it friend? I think I'd enjoy not being alone in this time anymore!"



You set your weight on your shoulders and mid-back, and jab both feet into his face.

The mask cracks. The stranger screams, a scream like a mirror in a cement mixer, a scream like a cat turned inside-out, a scream like a nuclear bomb whistling through the air, and he folds down to his knees, backwards - forgetting in his pain that knees are supposed to bend the other way. Dark red blood runs from the cracked mask, black smoke rises like an engine broken from the inside. At once, the concern leaves his face as if it never existed, and he cooly and collectively drives his sword through your stomach while his shade darkened face gave a cruel smile.

"Mm...Thank you, I forgot the taste. When the time comes....I'll eat you first." the man says as he rips off your shinigami robes, letting you bleed out just a few feet out of sight from the gates. And just like that, you died.

--

The scene snaps like the popping of a bubble, and the kido backfires and crashes back into Col's hands. Whatever the hell they just provoked, it didnt like signature attacks of the shinigami, that was apparent. The stairs had now reversed, and they were heading down now, the moaning of wind crashing against the outside of the building like a wraith in the night.

Kyouga dodged the sword by tilting his head to the side, but was shocked by the vision that came to him. However, Kyouga simply chuckled when he saw the Kido hit Thasti Col instead of him. "Are you okay?" Kyouga asked Thasti politely as he put a hand on his hip and leaned forward.

Thasti's blade flew past Kyouga as he dodged. The kido had somehow backfired, yet that wasn't what had Thasti spooked. It was what he had saw. Thasti was still in a cold sweat as he was blown downstairs by the switch that had just taken place. Col placed his hand on his head and was breathing heavly. What was that? he thought. He knew it wasn't from any of his memories, for he had entered the SS for. Was the guy with the mask like him, odds are Thasti would never find out.

Hearing Kyouga's voice, Thast looked up and saw him leaning towards him.

"I'm fine, thanks" Thasti relplied as he got up and shunpo'd towards his sword and picked it up with his right hand. "Shall we continue," Thasti said as he shunpo'd toward Kyouga and swung downwards at his right shoulder.

Kyouga immediately stepped to the side as he saw the attack coming. "Shouldn't we get out of this place first? This should be Hueco Mundo, but it also isn't anything I have seen before." Kyouga said with a small smile as he gently patted Thasti's shoulder. He could be nice when he wanted to be, but he was very aware that he would have to work with these guys if he ever wanted to get out. Besides, the labyrinth could go on for days.

Thasti stopped after being touched on the shoulder and thought about the man's words.

"Your right. Having travelled most of Hueco Mundo myself I have never come across this place." Keeping his zanpkatou in his head, Thasti started to head back down the stairs.

"Everything flipped around when I used the kido. It should be obvious if you study everything for a second." Thasti slipped behind the doorway leading into the corridor where the others were.

Chiruka fell into a kneeling position, as flashes of memories came through her brain, she recognize Hanzo from the memories, but something wasn't right about it, she fell on the deserted land grasping for air feeling her heart clench in pain. "What..." her first words after it stopped, just when the illusion felt real, it stopped, she couldn't do anything to prepare her self for the wave of attack, but she wasnt sure if it was an attack or something else, she thought it was her memories for a few minutes, but she accepted it wasn't. She trekked the deserted lands once more, searching for a familiar face, or just a face she can speak too. "There must be life here somewhere." she kept walking.

The doll paused and dropped to the ground as the vision hit. Alister threw his hands over his eyes to try and stop the appearance. It wasn't the fact that he didn't know what was happening or why, but the fact that he was being looked at by people and it was freaking him out now.

He let out a deep breath when it was finally over and rested on the ground, still under the cover of the tree's that had followed the ground into the portal. He slowly held out one of his hands and activated his ability once more as the female puppet jumped back to life and looked around to find that...she was no long in the same spot...or at least, she was turned around but that could have been done any way.

_______________________________________________________________________

Lee kept still as the seemingly real events started to unfold in front of his eyes. He simply watched and acted out the parts that seemed to follow as if on cue. When the vision was over, he raised a hand up to his eyes and rubbed them to make sure that he was in the real time. He slowly turned his attention toward the stairs and continued to watch as he thought 'What in the worlds is going on here? This is just to risky...but...it is also a idea.'

With that, he turned around and looked for a few moments in the different directions and tried to make sure the little party was stuck to them. Within the moment, he used his flash step to make it to the Garganta and make it out of the place. It wasn't for him but he couldn't say he didn't get anything from it.