To ascend in power.. [Stratus]

In the barren desert of Hueco Mundo, in the never ending night, the wind blows softly. The few dead trees around is untouched by the wind, the sand slithers along the ground, as it has always done. If it was not for the hollow, it would be like the bottom of the deepest rift in the ocean. In the mids of this desert, in the top of a tree, this lone hollow called Asura sits with his wings folded into his back and his tail wrapped around the branch. He scouts the dessert, trying to see if there is a small hollow to satisfy his hunger. Normally he wouldn't bother eating small hollows, but after the encounter with a rather strong Shinigami, he has forced himself to do everything he can to gain strength. If only there was some faster way to gain the strength he needed. He needs to obtain his godlike powers, especially if he wishes to make this world his own. He spots a small hollow standing by itself near a small sand hill. If he could ascend and then slowly fly towards it, he could devour it without it ever knowing.. But that kind of tactics are of no honor to a god! But then again.. He would get stronger. While Asura is trying to decide, the little hollow digs into the sand, disappearing from sight.

The small hollow Moldale grins to himself. He knew the large hollow saw him. The area he had dug into was a trap. He had been trying to track down a flying hollow for some time now. A well rounded group was needed and so they lacked aerial abilities. Confronting such a being in an open space was the last thing he wanted. If he could drawn him down to the ground, or underground caverns that honeycombed the desert, he might be more reasonable. Or at least Moldale would feel more comfortable. He he dug through the sand he adjusted his trap, the area was rigged to collapse quite readily and pull anyone down to the small cave below. He quickly resurfaced once he knew the sandpit was ready. He appeared again not far from the spot he had vanished. He zeroed his senses on the winged hollow. Now all he had to do was wait. From outward appearance he looked like he was just standing still, but in truth he had extended claws from his feet into the desert sands, waiting to spring the trap.

Once he has finally decided on what to do, Asura realizes that the hollow had vanished. He scouts the area again, and when he can see it once more, he grins and spreads his wing. His tail lets go of the branch as he ascends. If he could now just get a hold of this little hollow with either his hands, feet or his tail, then he wouldn't need to land to kill it. He bashes his wings once, and glides through the air while slowly descending to the hollow. But, he accidentally lowered his legs too much, making them get caught in the sand so he'd have to run the rest. He roars as he runs the last 12 feet towards the hollow. Obviously it would dig into the sand again, but if he could grab it before it did.. Dinner is served. He almost drools by the thought of putting his teeth into this little hollow before him.

The ground shudders beneath them and the cloud of dust rise as the sand below gives way. The sand quickly consumes them and they sink deep into the ground.
The descent is relatively short, but they land inside small cavern with several tunnels connected to it. As they hit the new ground the small hollow moves quickly, he jumps up and over the winged beast. His hands pointed downward his nails suddenly grow long. They rain down over the bigger hollow, but none of them hit. The spikes criss-cross around the hollow almost making a cage, preventing too much movement. The small cage gives Asura just enough room to stand, but the gaps between the 'poles" too small to move his arms through. The cage complete the small hollow falls to the ground, his nails now missing from both hands. New ones pop into place.
"Despite the current situation, I only want to talk." The small hollow speaks. As he does a slight rumble can be heard and a snake like head peaks in from a side tunnel and then another head pops in across from it.
"Hmmmmm? Is this the next one?" One of the snake heads asks, it's voice a constant hiss. The smaller hollow looks at the new arrival.
"Yeah" He responds looking at the caged hollow "he's got potential." He pauses and looks behind him. "Just like you do kid."
From the tunnel behind him another hollow emerges, he stands taller than the smaller hollow with white hair falling behind his mask. The small hollow sighs, but then coughs to clear his throat.

"Well since everyone is here, let's start." He looks at the gathered hollow "My name is Moldale, and I've gathered you all here for a reason. While each of you strong, you all lack something." The snake head hisses in disapproval.
"I lack nothing." it spat out, it advanced into the cavern showing it's reptilian body.
"And yet I bested you easily when you tried to eat me." Moldale calmly stated. Anger flashed into it's eyes, but it said nothing.
"Where was I?" His train of thought ruined, he rubbed his chin. "Ah yes! Potential is what you have, but alone it's wasted. You'll irk out a meager existence until a powerful foe comes to consume you." He starts to pace the floor. "I've survived here for a long time, but survival isn't enough for me anymore!" He stops pacing
"It's time to move up the food chain, but like you I too lack something." One of his nails extends out a foot. He points at each of the gathered hollow. "Together we can make up for what the others lack, together we can become more powerful than we could ever be alone."
The white haired hollow laughs "I was curious what you wanted, but now I'm sure I don't want any part of it. You expect us to help you gain power and rule? You're bound to betray us!"
Moldale snorts. "Who said anything about ruling? To be king is a kid's fantasy! You want to rule over a world of cutthroats and butchers? King of demons and fiends? You'd have to watch your back every second of the day."

Unable to even have thought of a trap in that one moment, Asura is almost stunned. And when he is 'caged' He realizes what just happened. He was bested.. by a small insignificant hollow.. Is he really this weak? He stares at the hollow as it starts to talk. He looks over at the serpent like hollow as it appears. Could he beat it? If he can't beat something as small as the one with the pointy nails, then could he even dream of beating a monster with several heads? And whats this? Another hollow. This one doesn't look like much though. But could he still take it? He listens again, standing still as a statue. Apparently the serpent isn't as strong as it looks, or maybe the small one is just far stronger than it appeared to be. And whats this about lacking something? Sure he wasn't at his full potential yet, however, he could gain that on his own. He does not need these people! He listens, and the white haired hollow has a point. Why help someone else rule? The only ruler of the world is this Asura.
"Do you really expect us to believe that? You say you just want to grow in strength, without any ulterior motive? Ha! What a fool. If you grow in power, your ambitions will grow as well, and then you would use us as stepping stones to get to your goal."

Moldale laughs, his mouth wide showing his rows of sharp fangs. "If I was so power hungry, why would I have let any of you live? Why would I gather you all here?"
Both the snake heads cast their eyes downward remembering their encounter with the short hollow. The other hollow does the same, but is quick to respond "Because you can't do it alone. If you attacked everyone and anything that moved you'd be attacked too."
This response doesn't shock Moldale. "True, but isn't it what you all plan to do?" He looks at each in turn. "Let's face it; you all want power. I'm just giving you a means, I don't care what you do with it, but going at it alone is beyond foolish. I speak only of an alliance of convenience. We work as a group until you wish to leave. I don't want power to rule, I want power of freedom."

What a foolish hollow.. Freedom is a concept. It does not work in the real world. But that doesn't matter. He has a point. Besides, Asura has been thinking of forming some kind of alliance anyways. This may be his chance. Even if he would have to play the role of a lacky for some time. He'd have to endure it, for the sake of gaining power. "And what do you plan to do if we agree? How do you plan for us to gain power? By fighting side by side? Something like that would not work." It probably would, but to get an answer, you will need to ask a question. And this little hollow seems to have a lot of answers, as Asura has a lot of questions for him. And for each answer received, this stepping stone grows larger. He hopes to be released from the cage soon, as it's getting quite annoying being unable to move freely. He feels like a prisoner. It's hell! Just answer the damn question and release this Asura!

"That's exactly it." Moldale smirks "We work together, learn to function as a unit." He looked at each once more "If each of us uses our strengths it covers the weak points of the other. " It was a simple plan, but in such a primitive place as Hueco Mundo it was genius. Team work wasn't a foreign idea, it was just not possible for most hollow to gather without trying to kill each other. A leader would need fear to keep most groups in line, but now Moldale was trying to form a group using reason.

The snake heads look at each other "Roun says your plans have kept us well fed so far. That's good enough." The other head nods in agreement. "As long as I get to kill something I'll help out." With that said the snake head retreat leaving the three hollows in the cavern.

Asura grins at hearing the serpent. Two heads, two minds? That could be a disadvantage. However, that is not the problem right now. He could use a stepping stone to gain power, so the offer from this little mole hollow could be a good thing. Perhaps if he just played along until he was at least strong enough to defend himself against useless shinigami such as the one he met. "Alright. Seeing as I lack power, I guess it wouldn't mind teaming up with you. However, I cannot promise to trust you, nor do I expect you to trust me." He moves his head slightly up, tilting it a little to the right as he lifts his chin, and lays his arms over cross in front of his chest, giving him a sort of arrogant look. And he was indeed arrogant. He is underestimating the ones around him, blinded by his own ego. But as he does not realize this, it does not matter. His tail moves softly along the ground, almost forming a circle around him. Without realizing it, he clenches his fists, as he deep down, feels disgusted with himself for teaming up with hollow lower than himself.

Moldale grunts at Asura's response. But then smiles "At least you're honest, that's good enough for now." He walked over to the bone cage and raises his fist. Scale plates similar to the shell on his back suddenly sprout up and cover it. Now armored he pulls back his large hand and smashes it into the the bars. Both them shatter and fall to the ground. The winged hollow is now free from his confines. Moldale shakes the remainder of the scales from his hand and kicks the pieces on the cavern floor. "Sorry about pinning ya down like that, but only way to get your full attention. Nothing personal. " His had raised again, this time opened like offering a handshake. Of course such a gesture was impossible for him, but he did it anyway.

The white haired hollow only looked on, somewhat impressed by the smaller hollow's style. To what end was his purpose, did he really not wish to rule? What good was power if you're never going to use it. As he looked at the winged hollow he knew this one was honest in it's words. Perhaps too honest, a promise of deceit was worse than lying about none. He sighed, this was quite a situation. Joining them was in his best interests, but at the same time what of their interests? Betrayal was suspected by all, how could a group truly function. "You already know my answer, I'm with you for now as well." He didn't bear any ill will towards the short hollow, it was more a like curiosity that kept him there. He wanted to see what went on in the little one's head.

As Moldale breaks the 'cage', the first thing Asura does is spreading his wings and then stretches his arms as well as his tail. He felt free again. Being trapped is the worst. Just having something limiting your ascending is troublesome. The small hollow called Moldale was obviously powerful, probably the strongest among them. He had taken down the serpent, which would seem rather difficult for something so small. But whats the deal with the white haired hollow? What to make of him? Asura folds his wings in to his back and has his tail fall to the ground, as he looks at Moldale. A handshake? Is he serious? A god does NOT shake hands! Especially not with lowlifes. He ignores it and looks over at the hollow with white hair as he speaks to Moldale. "And where do we start? What is our first objective, if you will?" He is curious to know just what the little hollow expects them to do. Surely, he would be smart enough to have them do something they are capable of at their current level.

"The first objective?" He turns around and faces the white haired hollow. In less than a second the scales cover his arms again, but it doesn't stop there. Scales appear all over his body, and then spikes grow out of the scales. He looks like a walking pin cushion. He sweeps his arms up and brings them down hard against the ground. His swings leave deep holes in the stone floor, as he shakes his hands free of the dust the scales and spikes crumble and fall off his skin. "The first objective is to get stronger. Think nothing about ability, but in application." It seemed like he wasn't talking to Asura alone, since he now faced the other hollow. "Learn you limits, not just your maximum ability, but also your minimum." He pointed his hand and but a single claw extended across the room and hit the wall. "Understand that if you can." He snaps the claw off and walls towards the opposite wall.
"If you need to get back outside this tunnel will lead you out." He points at one of the dark spots on the wall, there is what looks like several scratched beneath it's entrance. " You pop out somewhere near were you spotted me earlier. Try to remember it so you can find your way back."
The white haired hollow says nothing and walks back through the tunnel he entered from. Moldale grunts again, not much he can do to help other than instruct. Everyone is different. "If we need you we'll find ya, if you need us, use that tunnel."

"My minimum?" Asura isn't sure what to make of that. He has no idea what his full potential is yet, nor does he have the slightest bit of a clue to what his minimum potential is. But this hollow, Moldale, seems smart. Perhaps it would be wise to listen. You can always learn, isn't that what they say? He looks to the tunnel he is supposed to use, however, he was never good at remembering useful things. One thing he can remember for an eternity though, is the face of those who has humiliated him. He looks at Moldale and nods, as he then begins to walk over towards the tunnel with his tail waving behind him. "I'll make sure to contact you if I find it necessary." He does his best to remember the location, as it has just become an important part in his plan of embracing his stature as a god. He makes ready to spread his wings, and at this point he would only stop if asked to. If not, then he would simply walk out the tunnel with an evil glare in his eyes.

As he turned to leave Asura heard a voice from tunnel the gray hollow had taken.
"If he got captured that easy, I doubt he'll be of much use." Moldale, still in the cavern snickers at the comment. but shakes his head.
"Perhaps there is something for you to do." He rubs his chin glances at the tunnel. "That lad needs to train abit too, so maybe you two can work something out." Something similar to a smile crosses his face. "I think I know a good spot, but it can wait for later." Moldale waves at Asura and takes a side tunnel leaving the winged hollow alone in the cavern.

In the next cavern Stratus too is smiling. He had followed Moldale's instructions, but it wasn't far from what he was thinking of the situation. If Asura took the bait or not didn't matter he wanted to challenge him either way. The short hollow had promised to reward him later, but Stratus couldn't think of anything he could possibly give him. He sighed and continued with his training. Preparing himself for the possible confrontation.