Persona! - The Prologue

"Ten thousand years ago the world was reborn in fire and water", said a withering old man as he limped to and fro across the room, cane in hand.

*CRACK*

The sound reverberated off of the walls. As creature appeared looking like a wolf covered in black feathers, with a large snakes tail and a bright yellow beak.

The old man walked to the creature.

*hssssssssss*

As the creature hissed its opened beak revealed rows sharp teeth that glistened against the soft light of the room.

The old man Jumped and struck the creature upon its head. "You are late Aamon find your seat"!

Snickering filled the room as Aamon whimpered, slithered past the old man, past his pupils that consisted of human children, young animals, and creatures of mythological context and into his seat.

"As i was saying, chaos was the law of the land. Human, Animal, Daemon, and Nomead were at odds with one another until..."

... the 4 great powers forged the city of Babel. Their names unknown, only their race is told. Human, Animal, Daemon, and Nomead united as one in peace that lasted 5000 years."

"But master Shooma, What of the shadows?" queried a young striped cat

"He he he, that was the main factor that affected our peace. The 4 great powers awakened the power of Persona within their followers to combat the Shadows that plague the land. Shadows are wicked soul less creatures the kill any and all life."

The class was silent, hanging on the woods of Master Shooma.

"Can anyone tell me what a Persona is?" he asked

A portly girl wearing a dark velvet robe and a tall pointy hat raised her hand.

"Yes Glenda?"

"Persona, the power of ones soul brought to the physical plane, it represents a powerful force from the past from before the chaos of ten thousand years. ".

Our heroes are recent graduates of the Academy of Babel; Carin the cairn terrier, Shira the amazon, and Terrance the construct. They are given their First mission, by Master Shooma, to explore a moving cave system that lies underneath the city of Babel. Since their mission does not begin for several hours, they decide to go to the Megami Lounge where only Persona Users are allowed to enter.

A giant rat stood at the door way. First Terrance walked forward, touched his power center that resided in the center of his chest, and a said "Serenity"; a beautiful moon goddess with long golden hair dawning white robes appeared.

The rat looked up and said "Next" in a unimpressed tone. Terrance returned his persona back into his soul as he walked into the lounge.

Carin walked forward and said "Persona", a blur of red, white and yellow flowed from Carin's body and formed next a white dog wearing a red cape with a large yellow "S" on it.

"Next!" the rat shouted again unimpressed. Carin looked down disappointingly and followed suit with Terrance.

Shira raised her nunchaku and shouted "AMAZONIA!", and from the depths of her soul released a Amazon that looked almost identical to the Shira except for minor differences like hair color and the basic look of her armor.

The rat looked amazed,"truly gifted" he bowed gracefully as Shira and Amazonia passed.

The club was filled with daemons, animals and humans a like. All former students of Babel Academy, all having their own story to share about victory over shadows. The music and heat within this darkened club gave it a atmosphere of secrecy and power. The room was a buzz over the discussion of a tower mysteriously appearing to the far south.

While there they spoke to several former upper class men and to a odd looking daemon with the head of a Jack-o'-lantern and holding a lantern with a blue cloak for a body. After discovering through conversation that he didn't have a persona Terrance tried to capture the daemon but it narrowly escaped and phased through the wall.

Hours later they all met with Master Shooma at the entrance to what they dubbed to be the "Changing Caves". Master Shooma was not alone, standing next to him was a young brown bear by the name of Teddy. "He is a new Persona user with great potential" explained Master Shooma.

The bear approached the heroes and said "I want to be of use, i want to help strengthen the city" (Or something sappy like that)

Carin motioned Terrance down and whispered "cannon fodder"

So the team whole heatedly agreed that Teddy should join them.

"Is there a map to these caves?" asked Terrance before leaving to explore the caves.

"No" Replied Master Shooma, "They are always changing, the last group of graduated we sent into the labyrinth did not return... well good luck" He handed Terrance a bag of healing potions and departed from the group.

While exploring the caves they came across a black puddle with a blue mask floating on it. Carin smelled death from it, while Terrance sensed a shadow. The puddle grew hands and a slug like blob of a body. The Team didn't know how to react as the shadow bellowed "Bufu" and hurled shards of magical ice. Shira dogged the shards of ice and slammed her nunchaku into the Shadow killing it. Its body exploded and turned into grains of black matter that disappeared into nothingness.

Shaken by their first encounter with a shadow the team slowly but surely continued their journey through the cave system until they reached into a cave that had 5 large colored crystals littered throughout it that seemed to radiate with power. They chipped away at the crystals and heard shuffling in a passage way ahead. Shria and Teddy decided to stay back as Terrance and Carin searched further ahead. In the darkness of the passage was a faint purple glow of a floating masks that crept closer. Seeing this Terrance and Carin ran back toward the room. Hearing them running back and now seeing the glow of the floating masks Shira broke off a chunk of the green crystal with her bare hands and hurled it into the darkness. A wave of wind erupted from the crystal as is landed by Terrance and Carin slicing not only them but the many enemies that were following them.

Part B coming soon...