The Aftermath (Oact)

The attack on Eirini left its scars on the family; Alvin's parents returned, his mother bandaging the scarring wounds on his father's arms and chest. While Alvin ran home with Kelsia after being ambushed by mechanical creatures and being saved by the mysterious woman, his father helped protect the civilians, holding his own against the beasts. Although he couldn't kill any of them, he was certainly capable of defending himself. Kelsia was just as frightened by the incident as Alvin was, but he mustered the courage to see what happened to the city.

The city was in shambles. The streets were torn up, littered with the pieces of the mechanical beasts. It seemed like plenty of them were defeated, but by who? As he pondered this, he saw a familiar figure wandering the street as well.

"Cyrus! Cyrus!"
Alvin ran up to Cyrus, an expression of concern and bewilderment stretched across his face/
"Cyrus! You're alright. W-what happened here?"

Earlier that day, Cyrus had been expecting things to deviate slightly from the norm. What he definitely, absolutely, positively did not expect was for a giant robot to break the barrier, kidnap the maiden, and have a ton of robots invade the colony. Additionally, he was also not expecting to receive seemingly supernatural powers OR to be assigned to saving the maiden (Granted, that endeavor was cut short, but it was still very much a thing that happened)

After that, Cyrus wandered the streets confronting the few, separate Sfalma that appeared. Through an ability that for some reason he immediately identified as "Hama" Cyrus would blast them the moment they saw him (Partially out of fear, partially out of a desire to protect the colony). Most of the time it seemed to do nothing, but a small fraction of the time the Sfalma would go up in bright, photonic flames.

But back to the present. Cyrus was standing over the scorched remains of what used to be a Wolf Sfalma, holding his Scythe in hand, his persona hovering low behind him.

"What do you think Darwin, does it work on chance, or do certain requirements need to be met for it to work?"

"That's a good question." Replied his Persona in a deep, echoing voice.

"Tch. Fat load of help you a-"

"Cyrus! You're alright. W-what happened here?"

Cyrus was cut off by the sound of a familiar voice calling out his name, he turned around and was greeted by the sight of Alvin rushing towards him. Cyrus startledly dismissed his Persona and unsummoned his soul-bound scythe, but he was still pretty sure Alvin saw both.

He gave Alvin a sheepish smile. "H-hey, Alvin! W-what are you doing here?" He said, hoping Alvin hadn't actually seen them.

As Alvin ran towards Cyrus, he caught sight of the huge human-like figure hovering at his side and the black, double-bladed scythe in his hands. His shouts must have caught Cyrus off guard, as he tried to quickly dismiss them before Alvin could see. Unfortunately, that surprised look in Alvin's eyes explained that he already saw them. Where Cyrus would likely expect him to question, "What are those?!" or "How did you do that?", he would likely be surprised to see a silent smile stretch across Alvin's face.

"...You too, huh? That's... pretty cool. A-anyways! I was just coming back to survey the damages and find out what happened at the festival. Did I hear correctly that... something happened to the Maiden? And that there was a huge mech or something in the center of town?"

Should Cyrus answer yes to the events Alvin described, he would likely hear him muttering under his breath.

"Dad... Can't believe he made it out of there. Master swordsman, indeed."

"...You too, huh? That's... pretty cool."

The moment those words left Alvin's mouth, Cyrus was overcome by a gentle wave of relief. If Alvin was also a persona user, then he was able to tell him the whole story without hiding anything!

"So we're not the only ones? Good, I was starting to get worried. It's good to see you're alright." He replied smiling.

"A-anyways! I was just coming back to survey the damages and find out what happened at the festival. Did I hear correctly that... something happened to the Maiden? And that there was a huge mech or something in the center of town?"

Cyrus swapped his expression of joy for one of seriousness. "Alvin, listen. Since you seem to have the same power we have, I'll tell you the whole story..."

Cyrus proceeded to tell Alvin the entirety of his day. How a giant robot broke the barrier, how he and a few other people awakened to their new powers and beat the ever-loving crap out of the robot and his minions, how he and another man were recruited by Captain Nightfang to escort Lady Lux to her castle, how he had been roaming around killing robots and Sfalma for the rest of the day, all of it.

"Dad... Can't believe he made it out of there. Master swordsman, indeed."

"Don't deprecate your old man Alvin, those robots can't be hurt by conventional means, from what I've seen only our powers can deal any sort of damage to them."

"Speaking about our powers..." Cyrus looked around to see if anyone was looking, they seemed to be out of anyone's sight, so he grabbed the gun replica strapped to his waist and held it in reverse againts his forehead, then pulled the trigger. A large humanoid figure made of DNA standing at nearly three meters and wearing an old trench coat and chainmail wings emerged from behind Cyrus.

"This is Darwin. Say hi Darwin."

"Hello."

"Well aren't you just a big ol' heap of friendliness." Cyrus said while staring at Darwin with an unamused look.

Cyrus turned his attention back to Alvin. "What about yours?"

"So we're not the only ones? Good, I was starting to get worried. It's good to see you're alright."
Alvin was a bit taken aback by how quickly Cyrus had accepted how Alvin understood their dilemma. He also mentioned "we". Did this mean that there were others who had the ability as well? If so, Alvin might want to see them some time, introduce himself, and even become a part of the group. He listened to all the details Cyrus gave him, sucked into the details.

""So, there are others? Good. Might want to say hi later. As for me, well, I didn't get to see what happened in the town. I was just out looking for my sister when those mechanical creatures dropped from the sky and started chasing us away from town. There was this guy that showed up out of nowhere, and this lady who just blasted the monsters apart with some butterfly creature thing, and- Sorry. Must've been rambling for a while."

"Don't deprecate your old man Alvin, those robots can't be hurt by conventional means, from what I've seen only our powers can deal any sort of damage to them."

"Certainly wasn't devaluing him, mind you. He explained that his greatsword wouldn't even leave a scratch on him, but it's impressive that he managed to keep them back for so long. Granted, they managed to wound him through his armor, but he managed to get civilians to protection and come home in one piece. He's good with a sword. I learned from the best."

As Cyrus was explaining his powers, he suddenly made a move to grab something at his side. A gun. He was carrying a gun? Suddenly, Cyrus pointed the barrel to his head and was prepared to pull the trigger!
""Cyrus?! Wait! What are you-"
Where Alvin expected Cyrus to blow his head open, the figure Alvin had seen before appeared overhead. The figure appeared to be made of double helixes similar to DNA in structure, wore a trenchcoat, and had chain textured wings on its back. The creature was introduced as Darwin and gave a bland response, much to Cyrus's annoyance.

"What about yours?"

"Well, my circumstances are a little different. See, after we made it home, Kelsia was off crying in her room while I stood guard ear the door. At some point, I must've... fallen asleep. See, I had this dream with... Nevermind. Point is, when I woke up, I found this."

Alvin held his hand outstretched in front of him, where a twinkling blue tarot card appeared in his hand. He quickly crushed it in his grip, the shimmering card crushed into nothingness.

Behind Alvin shone a powerful light, as if the sun peaked overhead. Instead, what appeared to be a golden lion decked out in scaly green armor wearing a golden mask to guard the face strode into view, the shining rays at its back. The lion roared loudly, seemingly shaking the area, but nobody was nearby to notice it. The lion strode down to Alvin's side, eyeing Darwin.

"Darwin, Cyrus, I'd like you to meet Altinaslan, or Aslan if you prefer. This is my Persona. Go on, Aslan, say hello."

"Greetings, fellow warrior. And to thee, fellow guardian. Indeed, I am Altinaslan, guardian of nature and all dying creatures. I am here to protect all allies to young Alvin."

At the sight of the massive golden lion known as Altinaslan, Darwin gave a courteous, gentlemanly bow while Cyrus gave a recognizing head nod after having scanned its features.

"It's good to know that Alvin is in good hands" Said Cyrus to Alvin's Persona.

Just at that moment, a thought came across Cyrus's mind. "Hey Alvin, you haven't run into any of the people I was with by any chance, have you? There was one lady with purple hair wearing a sailor-ish uniform and a beret; a thief with white hair and cyan eyes; a girl with a red strand of hair and a dark orange sword; a couple of girls wearing victorian-ish dresses; a robot looking pink-haired girl; and a blonde guy wearing a red outfit wielding the fanciest sword you've ever seen. Any of them ring a bell?"

Cyrus pondered this dilemma, if he knew any of them, then maybe he'd have an easier time being admitted into any reunions they might have in the future should they ever regroup.

Altinaslan, in response to Cyrus's assurance, nodded its head in reply. Meanwhile, Alvin thought over the people Cyrus was describing. It sounded like there was a sizable group that gained their powers at the same time, but none of them seemed too familiar to him. Not too many people wanted to associate themselves with that kid out on the fields who spends most of his time in the library or in the forest.

Alvin shook his head in response.
"Sorry, those don't sound like people I've met. Only other people I've met related to this incident is you, that pale, casually dressed guy with the dark hair, and that girl in the black and white outfit who obliterated those machines on my tail. But, if you can manage to get in touch with them again, I'd really like to meet them. ...Oh, wait. I almost forgot to show you!"

Alvin held both hands together, as though holding an invisible sword, when a jet black longsword with gleaming gold symbols on the blade appeared between them. He gripped it with one hand and held the blade with his other hand, showing it to Cyrus.

"Pretty sweet, right? Aslan showed me how to summon this thing. It's pretty powerful, if not a bit heavy."

Cyrus studied Alvin's weapon closely, it looked like it could deal some heavy damage, but it didn't look very dynamic.

"You think THAT'S cool? Check this out!" He said before summoning Ouroboros, his dual-ended scythe. It was jet black, with two crimson blades looking in opposite direction, one at each end. It also bared an image of a self-devouring snake in the middle.

"Pretty cool huh? I decided to name it Ouroboros after the engraving in the middle, I have no idea why but I feel like I've been using it for ages, so I can do this-"He said right before he threw his scythe in a spinning motion, only for it to come back to him, whereas he grabbed it from the handle without a single cut"- without any problems." Cyrus finished smiling.

As he was caught up in his gleeful state, both him and Alvin heard a mechanical roar form the other side of the block. Cyrus's expression turned to one of seriousness.

"Listen, I gotta go, but I'll be sure to give my teammates your number so they can contact you and maybe see if they'll let you join us. Try to stay out of trouble okay? These things are resilient."

Cyrus jumped from one piece of rubble to another before reaching the top of a wall and looking down on the other side of the block "Holy hell, this one's huge." He muttered. Cyrus then turned around to look at Aslan.

"Take good care of Alvin, okay? I'll be counting on you two!" He said as he hopped down to the other side of the wall to assault the Sfalma.

[Cyrus has left the scene]

Alvin watched with admiration as Cyrus effortlessly handled Ouroboros by tossing it tinto the air and grabbing it with no mistakes in his handling. He claimed to be pretty experienced with his weapon despite barely training with it. Alvin had prior training with the sword, so handling it became second nature to him.

[color:4b97=#ff0033"Listen, I gotta go, but I'll be sure to give my teammates your number so they can contact you and maybe see if they'll let you join us. Try to stay out of trouble okay? These things are resilient."]

"Can do, Cyrus. I'll be seeing you."

He watched Cyrus hop to the top of the wall to observe the unseen threat, remarking its size before turning to Aslan.

"Take good care of Alvin, okay? I'll be counting on you two!"

"And we shall rely on you as well. Farewell."

As Cyrus hopped down to confront the Sfalma, the fiery gold lion disappeared in a blue mist before the tarot card reformed and disappeared. Deciding that he had spent enough time near the site, Alvin returned home, eager to begin practicing with Aslan.

~Alvin has left the area~