Nowhere near the other Chicago., What with being on a ship and all.

[DianaDreamer]

The battle may have been a joke to those who watched, but Poe was fighting for something more than his pride. Hell, if he were still alive he'd have generations upon generations of sexy women in maid outfits and black eyeliner upon him. He was tired of being a victim, despite the fact that he didn't know how to escape his role save by fighting. Hence, the rage within him swelled, and the battle continued.

The arena became distorted from its Greek-style coliseum and was changed into darkness. Although he knew his opponent could see not see him, he could feel the intensity of millions of eyes watching him from a distance. Suddenly intense, blinding light shook away the darkened arena, and he attacked. He darted straight for his enemy, scythe in one hand, katana in the other. At the last instant he ducked between the man's legs, turned around and kicked the deity to the ground. He thrust the katana into his spine, then beheaded him.

Thor's head chuckled. "You're pretty good, for a deceased human. But this is the end of our match. I shall blink you out of existence with my bare hands!" His body grabbed his head, and thrust it at Poe.

The head sped so fast toward Poe that the face melted off, and his skull burned with destructive fury. Poe stood there in disbelief at the decapitated skull.

"Why... why are you still... how are you... I can't..."

Something inside seemed to pause the arena and his opponent. The light grew brighter, yet somehow it wasn't harsh. He saw the ocean of the past from where he stood: a grassy hill cut short by a rocky cliff. A woman in a white dress gazed at the ocean nearby, her long hair flowing down her back. She turned her head to look at him, and at the realization that his dearest Virginia looked back at him with love, he fell to his knees.

"Do you not see, my love? You are in love with a memory. Until you can face forward, you will not be able to conquer your title of 'victim'."

"Virginia... wait... you're fading away... don't go!"

She smiled. "I've been gone, Poe. Leaving now won't change what is."

As the vision faded and the arena returned, Thor's skull just missed Poe's kneeling body. Tears were in his eyes. He screamed in agony and rage.

"VIRGINIA!!!"

**Meanwhile, somewhere in the real world**
4:50 am, Friday, May 22, 2009

FALCON PUNCH! FALCON PUNCH! FALCON PUNCH! PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH!

A girl types furiously at her boyfriend's computer whilst she listens to music and tries to distort the sounds of the three Captain Falcon's duking it out on the TV screen.

"EXTREME!!!" one of the boys yells... right before another his Captain Falcon is defeated.

The battle continues after the last two Captain Falcons falcon punch their way into victory/ defeat. The next time the girl looks at the screen she notices that Squirtle has defeated Zelda, and then is defeated himself. Charizard is called out, and as her boyfriend yells, "Not very affective, LOL", the author wonders why she wants to give a play-by-play of a duel she's sure Sheik will win. And she was right.

[Jontar]

And then everyone died.

There was no one left to mourn anyone else.

Peace prevailed once more.

[Earthworm Jim]

Mang get the FUCK outa my store!

[DianaDreamer]

Meanwhile, back at the party's entertainment...

Poe was on his knees when he took Virginia's words to heart. Putting on his favorite music of ...old? The music that he liked these days consisted of metal, a type of genre that wasn't available when he was alive. Several bands came to mind... bands that were really awesome and could relate to, but weren't his because he had been referred to them by his friends... Then he remembered a CD he had more or less stumbled upon... a CD called Overworld by a band from Sweden (at the time he'd been surprised that something metallic came out of a yodeling country). He flipped a switch in his brain, and Radio Future started blasting throughout the arena.

...Yes... I can do this...

Nothing was unusual for the dead, but the living could also see the events from the land of Real. They were frightened by the sight of a dead man hovering in the atmosphere, fire emanating from his body, lightning escaping his hands, wind swirling around him until a tornado began to form beneath him. The debris rose up toward him until the lightning destroyed the largest pieces. With his hands Poe pulled the debris into a giant sphere, and let loose the rain from his palms. Each raindrop fell towards earth, then swooped back toward the debris until both elements met. The water came together in veins along the sphere and seeped into the body of debris, closing any gaps the tornado had made by ripping apart the Earth.

... I must do this... I must believe I can do it... I must...

The sphere had started to grow plants, and life began to blossom on the newly-born planet... timid creatures they were, and not necessarily the brightest or most beautiful beings in existence... yet it was magic in the making, magic that Poe would not have been able to explain without mentioning a "spiritual connection", though with who or what he would not say if you asked.

For inside of Poe's being, there stirred a reaching spirit... reaching to anything and everything. Simultaneously, he was searching deep within himself, searching through every thought and memory, every pore and molecule that had long since ceased to function in his body, but remained together so that he would continue to exist. He reached outward and inward simultaneously, until everything he knew made sense...

Suddenly he thrust the sphere out into the depths of space, and followed after it. Though shouting at the top of his lungs he reached the spirits, living and deceased, on Earth as only a whisper in their minds.

"Time will be safe, so long as you remember... remember yourselves, your lessons, your creativity and relationships... remember everything you can, and Time will continue. When humanity has ceased to exist, their voices will live on as an echo of life...
...And perhaps, life itself will be born anew."

[DianaDreamer]

zZz..._ _ _...zZz ..._ _ _...zZz..._ _ _...zZz



Poe's body faded from the world of Thor's arena. His flesh burned with boiling blood and a horrible heartache as his body curved into the form of a slim young woman with blond hair laying in a bunk bed.

"DAMNIT!!! I know what I needed to do!"

Itch whispered from within her skull. "Yes, and you did exactly that, you androgynous woman, you..."

Great... and Twitch is nowhere to be found...

...Pity that Twitch is on my side now, perhaps?

Poe Try chuckled sardonically. "Perhaps not... Perhaps it is simply... ideal timing."

Dawning her trench coat and boots once more, she painted her upper lip and outer corners of her eyelids with black liner, and let her hair fall. She knew how to handle the streets far better than what might be expected of such a "pretty face"... She wondered if she ought to register her hands as licensed weapons with the extensive training she had endured and recently renewed.

At this rate, these were the days in which to begin endurance lessons on poison immunity.

Another guttural chuckle escaped the depths of Poe's alto range. "Those demonic angels... They have no one to blame save themselves if I've already signed my own death warrant."

Holding nothing in her hands save the meditation balls, polished by the oils from her hands and cracked from excessive use, she wrapped a hair band around her wrist and left her father's house.