<div class="floatleft">(http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q774/anniemaccloud/Tomoe%20Mami%20Avatars/Mami_avatar_37_zps5b45663b.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Alice Deschain (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=176393.msg8367695#msg8367695)</strong></span><br/><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Shadow Crow headquarters!<br/><strong>With:</strong>Fairy Tail mages, later only Gaius.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>"Hmph."</strong>Alice just looked at the other way at Ralena's statement. The gunslinger walked ahead with her arms crossed, giving herself airs. If they were in another time and place, she would answer the girl accordingly, but right now, with the world as they know in danger, it was better to just ignore and go ahead.<br/><br/>After some walking, they reached a large open room. That blue barrier in the center caught Alice's attention. She saw how it was connected by some sort of trail of energy that led to four other rooms. It was obvious the way they had to go through was pretty well guarded.<br/><br/><strong><em>"Oh hey! You guys finally decided to show up!"</em></strong><br/><br/>Alice sighed. Red.<br/><br/><em><strong>"The guardians of the old world vs the heralds of the new world... Should be pretty interesting, don't you think? Well, to help you guys along a little bit, I figured I'd toss an illusion out here to let you guys in on the setup we've got down here. You know, it's only polite."</strong></em><br/><br/>By the time Ralena asked who Red was, Alice turned to face him and answered:<strong>"The card owner. Someone dangerous."</strong>It would be good to take him down right there, once they had an advantage, but Alice knew that was just another illusion.<br/><br/><em><strong>"Anyway! As you can probably tell, these here stairs lead to the main ritual chamber, where the big boss himself is preparing to drain the world of magic as we speak. If you wanna get down there, you're  going to need to cut off all four of the power supplies to the barrier. Each power supply, however, is being protected by either yours truly, or a Shadow crow elite. I believe you've all met in the past. Anyway, put down all 4 of the power sources and you can go down to fight the boss man himself. If you can beat him, you win. Time's of the essence, have fun, fairies!"</strong></em><br/><br/><em>Well played, Red</em>. Just a mischievous plan to split up the party. Ralena was the first to choose a room and run towards it. Before Alice would choose her own path, she nodded at Lyuk's advice. Yeah, be careful and return alive. Easier said than be done. Especially when she would face a mage in Gaiu's level. Was everyone of the Shadow Crow as strong as him? Either way, Alice hoped that she didn't have to face him a battle.<br/><br/>The gunslinger mage ran towards the room of her choice. Once she stepped into the room, she heard that familiar voice again:<em><strong>"I was kinda hoping that you'd be the one that showed up. Back in that bar, you knew full well how heavily I outclassed you, but you held your ground regardless... I admire that, you know?"</strong></em><br/><br/><strong>"Red..."</strong><br/><br/>Alice tried to hide it, but the fear in her eyes were obvious.<em>How</em>, thought the girl,<em>how I can defeat him, if I can't even tell for sure if my target is real or not?</em>Alice was a good reequip mage, one that made an exquisite use of the guns, but besides that, she wasn't that resourceful. If her enemy managed to outclass her main skills, she couldn't do much to protect herself.<br/><br/>But... there was something in his words... Gaius wasn't using any illusion this time, also. Was he so certain of his victory?<br/><br/><em><strong>"Since you and your friends decided to show up, I'm just going to have to assume that you came ready to fight. Well, just like I said before, let's see just how determined you are to protect this world that you hold so dear." </strong></em><br/><br/>Alice gritted her teeth and summoned a pair of handguns, but she didn't aimed at him yet. She needed some strategy, but what she could do? It looked like the two mages already knew the result of that battle. Alice stepped back when he summoned the big Tarot cards.<br/><br/><em><strong>"Let's be realistic here, a straight up fight between the two of us isn't really feasible, so how about we had an element of luck to it? You're a gambler, so you should be all for that, right?"</strong></em><br/><br/><em>A gambler? No, I'm...</em><br/><br/>A light of hope lit up on Alice's heart, while she heard his explanation about each card. Red was really confident, he really thought a defeat was impossible. Maybe it was the truth, and Alice was beginning to believe in it too, but there was a way. A small chance. A gamble, thought Alice wasn't a gambler at all.<br/><br/><em><strong>"Ifin’ an ace-high is givin' you a hell of a trouble, he may think he already won. Let the bastard think that way,"</strong></em>said once Angel Eyes.<em><strong>"Hopefully, he'll let his guard down, and then you'll have  an one in a million chance. Just make sure you empty your shooting iron on the bastard's ass, got it?"</strong></em><br/><br/>Now she had a plan. She would use the truth to lie, she would show him how desperate she was in order to conceal her strategy, her only hope for a make or break attack. Alice made her guns vanish and looked at Gaius for a final, sincere plead:<strong>"Red! You... You don't look like one of these bastards from Shadow Crow! Why are you helping them? I know... I know you're a good person. Please, give up this crazy plan!"</strong><br/><br/>Meanwhile, the girl walked towards him and picked her card.