Enter: Jive, Master of Illusion!! (71)

Akasan, Usagi, and their new teammate, Lazuli, went on their way to Diamond City.

Over the next week, they had finally made it to the Jade Mainland. There was grass everywhere, paths went near and far for travelers, and they could see Diamond City from where they were. The city was ginormous.

Lazuli and Usagi enjoyed the scenery. Akasan started walking ahead. "Come on! I'm gonna leave you two behind!"

Lazuli caught up to Akasan. "Hey, why do you get to boss me around? Do you know who I am?"

Akasan stuck his tongue out at her. "Because I won the fight."

Lazuli huffed, she couldn't say anything more because it was true.

Usagi laughed quietly from behind them.

Little to their knowledge, there was someone waiting for them in Diamond City.

At the top of the city's tallest tower, was Jive. He wore thick white clothing with purple highlights, and large, white, circular goggles with purple lenses. His hair was white as well. He watched over the city as the sun started to set.

--

Akasan and his crew entered the city.

"Where are we going?" Usagi asked.

Akasan looked around. "To whoever's running the place."

Lazuli pointed northward. "I'm pretty sure the king lives in a fancy palace up there."

Akasan noted. "Thanks Lazuli. Alright, let's go."

Lazuli's thoughts were all over the place as they ran. *"Why am I so happy right now? Is it because of him? No it can't be! Get yourself together!"*

Jive watched as the trio ran through the city. "Is this the Dark Angel?" He smiled. "Highly interesting."

He held a finger up.

*pew!*

 He shot out a purple beam of energy.

It hit the ground in front of Akasan. He slid to a stop.

"What was that?!" Usagi asked.

Akasan looked around. "Somebody knows we're here."

Lazuli took off her Herukyatto and held it.

"Up here!!!" Jive yelled from the top of the tower.

Akasan and the other two immediately looked up.

Jive jumped off the tower and nose dived to the ground. He landed cleanly on both legs and started walking towards the three with his hands in his pockets. He looked at them smiling. "What business do you three have here? I see two of you are demihuman. By legal means I should arrest you all."

Akasan answered him. "I'm here to talk to the king."

Jive's expression didn't change. "Oh? What for?"

"About the discrimination against demihumans. They're being treated like trash and it isn't right."

Jive chuckled at that statement. "I agree. It isn't right. But that's the way it goes. And my job is to apprehend people who don't seem to get that." He took note of the civilians in the area, watching him. "Everyone, you should all leave this area unless you want to get hurt. Pass the message."

The civilians, who trusted Jive, all obeyed his warning and ran away.

Lazuli stepped forward. "Don't do this, it won't end well for you! It's three on one!"

Jive chuckled some more. "The Dark Angel of Arbok. Lazuli of the Hellfire Blade, Herukyatto. Usagi. An illegal immigrant from Hampton."

The three jolted back at Jive's knowledge. He continued on, "I know everything about everyone. I can get information on whoever I want. I know full well that I'm at a disadvantage here. But still."

Jive started lighting up with purple energy. His goggles glowed. "You won't win against me."

Usagi held up her golden bow. Lazuli's energy flared up.

Akasan darted in at Jive and punched him in the face. He passed straight through.

Suddenly Jive was moving on the side of him, with no apparent injury at all. He sent a kick at Akasan.

Akasan dodged the kick, but he felt himself get hit anyway. He hit the ground hard.

Lazuli flew in to assist him, swinging her blade. She cut cleanly through Jive, yet he reappeared next to her as well.

Usagi quickly read his movements and shot an arrow through his head. "Got him!" But she quickly realized that she was wrong.

Jive appeared behind her.

pow!!

He kicked her in her backside.

Usagi was sent from the impact. Akasan caught her before she could hit any objects. "Usagi! Are you alright?"

Usagi nodded. "Yes."

Akasan let her down.

Jive chuckled, hands still in his pockets. "I thought I was at an disadvantage here!"

Lazuli rushed forward. She swung her weapon constantly as Jive casually walked backwards. Whenever Lazuli connected, her weapon simply passed through, not causing any injury.

Akasan flew in behind Jive, attempting to pressure him.

Lazuli cut through Jive again, but he disappeared this time.

Jive appeared in the air above Akasan, bringing his leg down.

Akasan braced for impact, but Jive's leg passed through his body. Instead, Lazuli felt herself get hit in her stomach. She doubled over in pain.

Jive then looked at Akasan, who was coming for him with a fist. It passed through his head, then Jive quickly brought his knee up, which made Akasan instinctively jump away.

Jive smirked. "What are you so scared for?"

foom, foom, foom, foom, foom, foom!

Six imprints were made in Akasan's torso. He coughed up blood as the force threw him into the side of a building. The glass shattered and fell to the street.

Usagi shot several more arrows.

They all passed right through Jive.

Lazuli's energy flared up some more, as she held her Hellcat in her right hand, spinning.

Owl watched the battle from a skyscraper, smoking a cigarette. "Jive. Master of Illusion. He won't reveal his trick to them, so they won't be able to win. Ahhh, what to do, what to do..."

Owl thought about it. He blew a cloud of smoke. "Lazuli, who is basically the queen of the demihumans in this country, softened up to this human, and is now fighting along his side as a teammate. I don't understand it. What does she see in him...?"

Lazuli rushed Jive again, this time even faster than before. But speed didn't make a difference. She couldn't hit him.

Jive sent a kick at Lazuli's head. She ducked, avoiding the blow.

foom!!

She was hit anyway.

"What's going on here?! He never hit me!!" Lazuli exclaimed.

Jive kept his hands in his pockets. "See? None of you are anything special. It doesn't matter how strong you are, if you can't catch me then it's meaningless."

Akasan came out of the building and landed on the street. He and Lazuli were catching their breath. They'd been chasing after Jive for almost five minutes straight now, and there was no progress.

Owl dropped down from the building and landed to the street.

Everyone looked to see who it was.

Owl walked out of the dust cloud. "Honestly. What am I even doing?" he said to himself.

Akasan frowned. "Who are you?"

Lazuli recognized him. "Owl? Is that really you?"

Jive smirked. But in a irritated kind of way. "Owl... what are you doing here?"

Owl casually walked up with his hands in the pockets of his jacket, smoking his cigarette. "Yo. Lazuli. Jive. It's been a while."

Lazuli turned towards him. "How did you know we were here?"

"I've been following your group for a while now, watching. At first I wanted the chance to fight the Dark Angel, but then I watched the fight between you two, and my curiosity got the better of me."

Akasan turned to Lazuli. "Can someone fill me in here?"

She looked at him. "Owl is an old friend of mine. He's demihuman like Usagi and I. He left us to become an assassin for the king. He tried to overthrow the kingdom once and failed. During that, everyone found out that Owl was a demihuman, and he became a wanted man."

Owl scratched the back of his head. "I wanted to overthrow the king because of how he treated demihumans. I tried by myself and it didn't work. But now I see that you're trying to do the same thing, but somehow you're able to influence others to fight with you. That's something I couldn't do. So here I am."

Jive didn't like this new situation. *"That Owl! He knows how my power works. But he's never shown me his ability before... this isn't looking good!"* he thought.

Owl walked passed Usagi and stood between Akasan and Lazuli. "Hey, what was your name, Akasan?"

Akasan nodded.

"Right. Akasan. Lazuli. Jive is an illusionist. He can create any number of clones of himself and turn his real body invisible. So while you can't hit him, he has two ways to attack. One is with his real body, and the other is with the energy in the air. When he charges up a field of energy is cast over the field. He can cause changed in density to that energy to attack from basically anywhere."

Usagi watched as she was excluded from the conversation. She knew that she couldn't fight, but even so, she couldn't help but feel left out somehow. *"I just, I wish that I could be like you, Akasan. You're amazing. Since we started travelling together, you've fought strong opponents consistently, and all I could do was shoot an arrow. I wish I was strong like you or Lazuli."*

Akasan and Lazuli began charging their energy.

Akasan covered himself in crimson fire. "That's useful information. Thanks, Owl."

Akasan and Lazuli took off, chasing Jive.

Jive smiled. He sighed. "Owl... you just had to spoil everything, didn't you? What a loser." His goggles started glowing even brighter than before as energy swirled upwards from his body.

Lazuli was the first to reach him. She cut through his body, but it was a clone.

Jive appeared standing on a skyscraper. "The two of you could never dream of beating me! I'm the justice in this city! You idiots!!"

Suddenly, clones of Jive filled up the space on the building's rooftop. Then tens of thousands of more clones appeared all over the place. On the top of every building in sight, on the street, on top of cars, just everywhere.

"There's so many!" Lazuli exclaimed.

Akasan grabbed Lazuli's arm and pulled her behind him. "Stay close to me. I have a plan."

Lazuli blushed. She quickly swiped her hand away. "Don't touch me so suddenly! All you had to do was say something!"

Jive made a total of 57,932 clones. They all rushed Akasan and Lazuli at once.

Lazuli and Akasan stood back to back. "I hope this plan of yours works...!" Lazuli said.

Akasan flared his crimson fire up so that it covered more area. About three feet away from his body. "Don't worry. The clones are just illusions. He can't hit me with his energy through my flames."

Jive's voice echoed through his sea of clones. "Brave of you to assume that all of my clones are mere illusions!"

"What...?!" Akasan was bombarded with real, tactile clones. "There's no way!"

Jive's clones hit Akasan's energy, but couldn't so easily break through. Lazuli was safe from inside the flames.

Owl watched from above. He didn't bother joining in. "Hm. You've learned new tricks Jive."

Soon the clones from the top of the buildings jumped down at Akasan too.

"Creation Art..." Akasan's Eye of Creation activated. A crimson hemispherical barrier spread along the ground. It caught a large amount of Jive's clones. Akasan raised his head upwards and took a deep breath. He blew out a high-pressured jet of hot steam. The force pushed away most of the clones coming from above.

The steam filled the entire barrier. Akasan's body then flared up with even more crimson fire. The flames exploded from his body, filling up the entire barrier to the top. "Crimson Superdome!!"

The ultra-hot crimson flames caused the steam to superheat.

The barrier cracked, as it couldn't hold the pressure any longer.

With a grand explosion, fire and steam burst from the area, totaling even the skyscrapers.

Jive, with only a few clones left, grinned. "Hey, hey! Why are you so strong? I didn't expect you to take them all out at once!"

Jive finally removed his hands from his pockets to reveal two short white sticks that were charged with purple electricity. He started thinking, "I don't have much energy left to keep making so many clones. I doubt I could win here, especially now that Owl came."

Jive connected the two sticks to make a staff. He swung it around in his hands. He then ran straight at Akasan.

Lazuli tried to intercept but he passed through her.

Akasan flew up in the air, and kept flying up.

Jive leapt after him. He kept his staff spinning in his right hand as hundreds of clones generated. They all started spinning until Jive's clones made up a purple tornado of electricity.

Akasan stopped flying and reached his hand out. "Right where I want you. Sirius Star!"

fwoosh!!

Akasan shot the star at the tornado.

The result was a blue explosion of energy that could be seen from across Diamond City.

The moisture in the air was sucked dry as storm clouds formed above. Wind from the sky rushed down and hit the street, obliterating everything in its path.

After the damage was done, there was no sign of Jive to be found.

Owl looked around. "He fled. He's smarter than he looks."

--

Jive ditched the scene, and nobody knew where he was.

Jive was running on top of buildings and on the sides of skyscrapers at high speed. He was trying to make it back to the king's palace.

He finally made it and walked inside, being let in by the guards.

He walked into the king's chamber and stepped into his presence.

A slim man sat on the throne with blonde hair and brown eyes. He wore fancy clothes, and had servants tending to his every need.

Jive immediately got down on one knee. "Your highness."

The king looked at Jive with a disinterested expression. "What is it Jive? This better be good. You humans are always bothering me for no reason."

Jive smirked, but he didn't let the king see. "The Dark Angel and Lazuli, Queen of Demihumans, has arrived into Diamond City. They plan on overthrowing you. Owl is with them as well."

The king sat up. "Is this true? The Dark Angel is here?! Now?!"

Jive bowed his head. "Yes."

The king stood up, life pouring into his face. "Amazing!! If I can get the Dark Angel in my custody, I will have a great influence over Arbok... or I can use him as a bargaining chip with the Seventh...This sounds interesting!! An excellent report Jive. You've earned yourself another two weeks of guaranteed days to continue living. Fine work indeed." He proudly walked out of the chamber to find his opponents.

Jive stood up, still smirking, but his fists were shaking. *"Nothing I can do about it."* he thought. He calmed himself and left.

--

Akasan and Lazuli were trying to figure out what to do.

Owl blew out a cloud of smoke. "He probably went to inform the king of you all."

Akasan's face lit up. "That's great! Maybe we can finally convince him to change the country!"

Owl shook his head. "No, we can't. You don't understand. The king of this country is the god Apollo. He's strong. And not the type to listen to words. Especially from humans."

Akasan looked around him. "That's weird. I don't feel any god energy around..."

Then it appeared. They all felt it at the same time.

What felt like a massive pool of bottomless power.

Apollo was flying not too far away from them with a grin on his face. "Jive was correct... it really *is* the Dark Angel."