This post was thumped by the Codfish in a Derby Hat

Guan Yu was caught off guard by a great many things happening at once, and didn't get his act together until the chains had caught the earthbender. He grimaced at his lack of preparedness. Not only was it extremely shameful, but his lack of action meant that he hadn't been able to do anything when Lina had been thrown against the wall (making a rather nasty sound too; if Guan Yu had to guess, he would say her arm had cracked, if not outright fractured or broken). At least her assailant wasn't paying her anymore attention, and thus not trying to finish the job. Hopefully, she didn't have a concussion.

But Guan Yu couldn't devote anymore time to that. He saw the earthbender raise another small boulder and prepared to fire it at Beryl. While Guan Yu was too far away to stop him from doing so, he was not too far away to intercept the boulder before it reached its target. He sprinted forward right as the boulder began its quest to paint the walls red (with a touch of pink). When he was directly between the boulder and Beryl, Guan Yu swung the Green Dragon in an upwards slash and cut the boulder in two. The two halves barreled harmlessly passed both its target and its deflector, embedding themselves in the ground behind Beryl.

After he did this, he turned to Beryl and said "I'll keep this ones attention. You focus on the water wielder!" before refocusing on the enemy in front of him. He then charged the earthbender.

---

The Banshees kinetic barrier had been weakened by Owl's shot and practically devoured by Marvelous' barrage. When the Psychic blast hit, the barrier fell, and the Captains shots found their mark unhindered. As the shots hit her, the Banshee let out another cry. This was not like her earlier screaming, however. This was a shrill roar of unbridled fury.

She turned, the red clothed man now having her undivided attention. She teleportaled again, and in an instant, she was directly in front of Marvelous. The Banshee shot out her left arm extremely fast at the Captains throat, obviously trying to grab it.

In addition to the latest events in The Crazy Bio-Robo-Zombie Bitch Adventures, the Husks were finally making it to the top of the wall. None of them had managed to actually finish the climb, but it would be only a matter of seconds before they did. Some of them had also noticed Bradford, and were now climbing towards him as well.

edited 11th Jun '12 2:06:44 AM by AkenJizo

The other creatures climbing the wall reminded Angela that the banshee wasn't the the only thing she needed to worry about. After making sure she wasn't in any immediate danger from the less worrisome soldiers, she turned her attention to them. She noticed that the fire she had set in front of the gate was dying down. Renewing it is gonna be a waste of energy. It hasn't helped any, anyway, she decided.

As she headed for the Husks, she fired of a number

four, to be exact

of magic missiles in the form of small orbs of light that homed in on some of them. In her hand, she could feel Graestra already changing shape from all the fighting, the handle lengthening and the blade morphing. In a few seconds, the weapon had turned from a demon sword into a demon scythe.

The weird fluffy pink things flying around were also proving to be very distracting.

edited 12th Jun '12 2:14:32 AM by Thanatologist

Bradford grabbed a fluffy pony and about to toss it over the wall - "why no wuv fwuffy?" - but then noticed the husks were starting to scale the wall. Worse yet, the bombs strapped to the genetically created equines were starting to detonate.......

A lightbulb briefly appeared above his head.

"Hey, would you like a new daddy?" the gremlin asked the fluffy.

"yu be fwuffy daddeh?" it asked.

"No, someone better!" he said.

"yay, fwuffy hav daddeh!"

Bradford then dropped the fluffy right into the mouth of nearest husk. Said husk became slightly confused that something big and furry was inside its mouth. "NUUUUUU, DADDEH NO EAT FWUFFY!" the pony screamed, involuntarily pooping as well, distract one of the husks directly under the highest. The gremlin then fired a lightening bolt right in the husk's face - "BIG OWWIES!" - causing the husk to fall off, landing on the ground - *BOOM*

The explosive went off, destroying the husk.

The second wave of explosions from the unknowingly suicide bombing fluffies started to go off, though thanks to Bradford's quick thinking most of them were on the outside of the wall......unfortunately a few of those explosions were near the fight against the elemental benders, risking damage upon all involved, including the heroes.

-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-

Both father and daughter sighed simultaneously breaths of relief when the Banshee teleported away from them. Owl quickly collected himself, pulled out his sniper rifle again, and aimed for the banshee's again, once again aiming for the chest. He fired.

edited 11th Jun '12 8:11:04 PM by UdtheImp

The office room was wide, with plenty of spaces for shade to fill. The light flickering from the ceiling gave an eerie feel to the surroundings, or what little there were. On the other end of a wide, crimson carpet, there stood an ornate desk, the scarred butler cleaning it, a fern, a painting, a disused lamp...

...and a leather office chair, turned away from them. A pale child's arm could be seen on the armrest.

   "I apologise for the zealousness of my underlings. They attacked of their own accord, I assure you. If you don't mind, I'd like to discuss this matter calmly."   

The two members of the Black Dragon turned out to have a surprising knack for coordinating attacks. Taisha shot the paralyzing purple projectile out again, this time aiming for the Banshee's leg. Then, once the projectile was nearly there, Tremor punched the ground, causing a small earthquake. The quake's range included the Banshee, and it had the capability to throw the Banshee off-balance. If all went perfectly, the Banshee would be both unable to move and off-balance, allowing the others an opening to let loose. The question was, would it work?

Agatha had cautiously entered the room, pistol up and ready, taking in the opulent furnishings, the scarred minion, and the figure behind the desk. Apparently, they were the one in charge of the soldiers attacking the town *

Assuming this wasn't a trick, which Agatha wasn't prepared to rule out just yet

. Agatha snorted derisively at its "apology". Whoever it was in that chair they were stalling for time, or simply gloating. The whole scene reeked of well-rehearsed ominousness.

"Please, if you wanted a calm discussion you could have called off your army. Don't insult us with this charade." She said scornfully, keeping her weapon trained on the back of the chair. "I don't know what you could possibly hope to accomplish by attacking a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, but it stops right now."

edited 11th Jun '12 4:14:45 PM by Gaunt88

Apparently, Rogue had missed dropping the block of wall onto the Banshee, the Banshee having teleported away at the last moment. Rogue landed on top of the piece of wall trying to recover her own strength. After all, the piece of wall was the heaviest thing she had tried to use in Extremus so far. Her fingers and shoulders were both sore from the strain of lifting it. Hopefully the general quiet where she was at the moment would help her to recover some of her strength.

Oswald unstrapped his shotgun and pointed it right at the chair. "And if the point of that attack was to whack us, I think all chances of a "calm" discussion went down the crapper as well, buddy, " the rabbit said. "Hopefully your still aren't using Emily as a body? Kind degrading for an evil God being to have its ass whooped as a little girl."

Zidane's eyes widened as the chains were caught by a stream of water and then redirected at him. When his foot hit the ground from running he did a quick pivot on it and twisted to the Waterbender's left. He pulled his shoulders back and bent backwards slightly in order to spin out of the way of the attack. He held his breath as the stream shot right past him. It wasn't the most grateful of dodges, but it got the job done.

Zidane kept the momentum from his dodge and continued to spin on his foot. The already short blond ducked down as he stuck out his leg and swept at the Waterbender's leg in an attempt to knock him off balance. Then he would follow it up with an upwards slash with both of his daggers as he rose back up to his feet and regained his footing.

Thankfully, it seemed the Makuta didn't hear Wheatley's taunts, simply flying away to the menacing structures in the distance behind the advancing army, which had now come within fighting range of the town. It had been decided that the group would split into two; one half would stay to defend the town, the other would push through the army to assault the menacing buildings in the distance behind the army.

Liu Kang, opting to stay and defend the town, set Wheatley down on the top of the Raven's claw and leapt off the join the battle. "Oh, you're going?" Wheatley called to him "Um-a-alright, good luck with your Kung-fu fighting. Ah-er-give em' some good 'Wataahs' for me, uh, c-cause I-I can't... really move right now, probably you already know!" As the Bruce Lee clone ran out of Wheatley's sight, Wheatley muttered to himself in thought "Okay, so~... hmm. Not much I can do right now so" Wheatley gave a small nod while flipping the handle above his eye, giving a sort of 'shrugging"movement' "guess I'll just... wait atop this jet-fighter, or... whatever it is."

Before Wheatley could get a good look at how the battle was proceding however, he noticed something odd. The buildings around him were moving. This was certainly odd, Wheatley didn't know a village with such low technology was capable of alternating building structure like in the enrichment center. Upon closer study however, Wheatley noticed that it was not in fact the buildings that were moving, but rather him, along with the vehicle he currently was resting on.

It occurred to Wheatley that he was currently riding with the attacking group.

As the ship began to clumsily climb over the gate, Wheatley *

Who's nervousness level had shot up at the prospect of having to accompany them to the menacing towers in the distance

looked at some of the group members riding atop the vehicle and said "Hey, uh, just so you know, I truly have no problems at all with you riding to~ what is likely to be your untimely deaths. Uh-but I'm not entirely certain that the death over there is entirely timely for me, y-you get me- you get me? Good! Um, so in light of that, I don't suppose it would be too difficult for any of you if you could- whooooaaaah!!" Before Wheatley could finish his request, the slant the Vehicle's path had taken caused Wheatley's round form to roll off its wing right above the wall.

"Never mi~nd!" He called as he fell off, plummeting towards the wall where the archers were firing away at something. Wheatley's fall sent him on a collision course with an unwitting guard's scalp. With a comedic "bonk!", they were both momentarily knocked out, with the guard crumpling over the wall and Wheatley hanging from one of his handles on the guard's bow, precariously over the edge, his eye idly spinning in confusion. They were both roused from their stupor by a series of explosions and an ear-splitting shriek.

"Aah. Ooh. Huh?" Wheatley grumbled as he gave himself a quick shake, only to notice by his swinging and a quick look up that he was suspended from the guard's bow. What naturally followed was a quick look down, followed by a scream from the personality core upon seeing a horde of pale mechanically augmented horrors at the bottom, beginning to scale the wall. The guardsman, upon snapping out of it, noticed this troubling fact first and got up with a start. Neglecting to notice the round yelling oaf hanging from his bow, he reached frantically for another arrow.

Just then however, someone rapidly yelled about throwing something back. In response came many shouts from other guards informing the others to "Throw the bombs back!" Wheatley and the guard perked up on hearing mention of bombs. "Yeah-yeah go ahead, throw them back!" Wheatley yelled "Prefferably outside the wal-no-no wait, inside, throw them inside!" The guard, who had been frantically looking around any bombs, followed Wheatley's voice and noticed, for the first time, the round mechanical object hanging from his bow. Being of a world in Medieval Stasis, the guard interpreted the odd machine in question to be the sort of bomb everyone was yelling about, and responded accordingly.

"Huh? Ah-nonononono don't throw me!!" Wheatley yelled as the guard raised the core above his head, aiming for as strong a throw he could muster within but a couple of seconds. Unheeded, Wheatley was tossed over the side, thankfully beyond the pale hordes. Wheatley's screaming form bounced off a human form on the ground before coming to a stop at its feet. With a meager "Ow...", Wheatley shook his eye and looked up at the form he had hit, seeing a red-haired woman in dark clothing with a white sleeveless shirt carrying a large Scythe*

Angela, to be clear ooc

.

Wheatley stared for a moment, giving a few rapid blinks. "Uh..." Wheatley spoke in a cautious tone "H-hi there uh... Scythe... carrying~ girl. Say, um, I-I don't suppose you'd mind doing me a favor an~d per-perhaps throw me back over that wall? I-I-I know-I know i-it's uh k-kinda-sorta a long throw... for you, b-but maybe given the right form, y-you could pitch me~ ~ju~st far enough to... perhaps whack another person on the head and... hope I roll in the right direction. Um, u-unless-unless you're working for that invading army -ah you've certainly got that blackish look about you- i-in which case, yeah tha-thats fine- I understand if you didn't want to. Maybe you could do me ju~st as big a favor by not killing me. Good enough deal, would you agree? I-I mean personnaly I-" the light in the personality core's eye suddenly shrunk as he looked at something behind the red-haired woman. "Hey look out!!" He yelled as a straggling husk attemped to leap on the woman's back and claw at her.

edited 11th Jun '12 6:10:04 PM by SonofMelonHead

This post was thumped by the Stick of Post Thumping

   "I implore you, look at this rationally. You have seen what my army can do. Once it gathers more momentum, it might be capable of so very much...when it reaches the pillar of light, and the multiverse is our oyster. I could make new order from chaos, topple existing tyrants, unify nations like never before. Tell me, once in your life, have you never wanted something more? To be the strongest one of all? To be free from destiny's constraints? To be united with the ones you loved? Anything could be arranged..."   

The chair was slowly turning. A rumbling could be heard from above.

   "But then, you're probably too angry to accept this calmly. So let me put it to you this way. Will you join me, will you die, or will you join me of your own free will?"   

"Lemme think for a minute, " Oswald said to Makuta in response. After half a second: "How about 'none of the above', followed by us kicking your butt hard?!" he asked rhetorically.

   "I thought you'd say something like that...as a matter of fact...I was counting on it."   

The chair rotated fully, revealing the body of Emily, absent and comatose once again. As Makuta's dark chuckling reverberated through the shade, several juddering booms reverberated down through the building. They dry wall ceiling crumbled like an ancient shortbread cake, revealing a great vertical tunnel through the middle of the building. The irregularly shaped holes on each ceiling, could be used as steps upwards to the top. The only problems were loose electrical cables, and of course the gangsters riding giant insects flying down.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT

The insects were battered with bullets, to say nothing of the luckless riders. The bugs retreated up where they came, even as a couple of the gangsters fell off, and struck the ground below. The butler opened another draw, took out a clip, and reloaded his submachine gun. "Go!" he shouted with a booming voice, "Get to the top! I'll cover your ascent!"

_____________

Meanwhile, at the top, everything was falling into place. The gangsters manning the consoles were instructed to 'make it happen', and fed the massive surge of power through to the ring of huge metal spires. The hunk of protosteel in the middle of the circle was bombarded with lightning, as the ethereal force within stirred. The shine of blackness grew ever darker around it, and drifted into the air.

_____________

Back at the town, the fighters began to see a strange smoke, coloured the darkest red, rising up off the distance building top. Too far to do them any damage, but a likely threat to the ones who'd gone on ahead. Vezon, part way through giving an infected monk a noogie, portaled to beside anyone seeing the far-off sight. "That doesn't look good. Does that look good? I don't think it does."

A couple of new sword slingers had arrived in town, both wearing infected masks. But these ones might have looked familiar. One was tall, with spiky blond hair, a big white longcoat and no shirt, ◊ the other was a short, fully dressed amphibian.◊

Rogue was still recovering from lifting the piece of wall when she saw... Well, the silhouette of someone she had thought was dead. Rogue flew over towards the two figures, though wary. After all this was a battlefield and she could be mistaken.

Gene watched the strange man walk past them into another room, not looking like he cared at all that a small squad of angry people were right in front of him. Regardless of whether it was a trap or not, Gene figured there would have to follow the scarred man anyway. Through the red doors was a office that was far more intact and decorated than the entire building. It was similar to the office he fought Elvis in the first time the two slammed heads, and if the God Hand had to guess this guy was just as full of himself as the bald headed deva.

The mysterious boss (who wasn't all that mysterious) was blocking their view of his body and the battle outside with the back of his chair, a cliche move by any standard, and gave an apology which everyone in the room doubted it's sincerity. It was the kind of apology you got from the school bully, hollow and foreshadowing future pain. Gene couldn't help but laugh as the offer to calmly discuss about the fact that their comrades, friends, and innocent people were in danger of being torn limb from limb by fanatics and monsters from across the multiverse. "Since when do they ever just want to talk?" Gene cracked, leaving the "they" vague for the others to fill in the blanks and waiting for the eventual sucker punch.

Following through with the super villain screenplay, the madman hiding behind the chair spilled the beans on his plan to rule the universe (of course!) and offered them the chance to join him or die, a lucrative offer and a first for Gene, only been given the choice to die before. But despite that, the martial artist simply refused to fall to the dark side, and even if Gene was more moral dubious he would have doubted the deal to ever be honored and only end with a knife to the back. The God Hand was actually looking bored, though this was a intentional move to piss off the boss. "Can we just get this over with?" He said as he moved into a fighting stance "We're on a time schedule here"

Finally the leather chair turned around to reveal the useless body of Emily, the girl Gene barely remembered from the few times the groups of adventurers met. While he wasn't all that shocked that something would posses an innocent girl as a disguise, that it had been with them almost the entire time they have been in this horrible world was slightly unsettling. What did it know? What personal secrets were revealed to the innocent girl the others trusted?

As Makuta retreated up, the building itself began to shake and crumble. Cheap drywall gave way to a metal monstrosity, the building they had been standing in moments ago now looked like a doomsday weapon. While it was hard to see all the way to the top, it was a fair chance that at the top was what all the electrical equipment was feeding into and where their battle would be. Getting up there look difficult, a vertical maze of girders was between them and their target, made worse by electric hazards and airborne gunners barring down on them. Gene had been about to jump for one of the bug riders when the air was filled with bullets, the manservant holding a smoking gun and giving then covering fire. Gene thanked the man with a nod, and wondered where those scars really from.

"Alright, going up. Top floor; perfume, ladies undergarments, and megalomaniacs"

A round object fell from the sky and hit Angela. Slightly disoriented, it took her a second to realize it wasn't one of the fluffy pink exploding things. It started babbling, but Angela was able to collect that it probably

seeing as it seems to be mistaking her for one of Makuta's minions

wasn't an enemy, and it was saying something about throwing or not killing it.

It cut off with a "Hey look out!" and Graestra twitched in her hand. She glanced behind her, only to see a creature like the ones climbing the wall leaping at her. She turned, swinging the scythe as she did so, but she had swung too early, and merely succeeded in having the Husk's midsection land on the outer edge. It fell off the raised weapon, landing on its feet, and made another charge at her. The wind magic she had cast on herself was still in effect, meaning she could react quickly enough at the creature's next move.

She didn't have to wait long. It leapt at her again. It was from a farther distance than Angela expected, but she still had enough time to prepare a spell. She flung her palm outward, from which flew a sizeable

about the size of a watermelon

fireball. The projectile hit the husk full-on, and exploded. The resulting smoke made it difficult to see if it had worked, but Angela sure hoped so.

Raspberyl's moment of self-congratulation evaporated as the earthbender proved more than capable of continuing the fight without using his arms, but Guan Yu stepped in just in time to shield her

with his pike

from his counterattack before it could close in on her. The bearded warrior shouted for her to deal with the more agile of the two, which the demon girl supposed might be better for her immediate health, but it was becoming obvious that she had basically nothing with which to handle the waterbender. He was simply too quick for her, with his fluid and graceful weaving around her mana-chains, and his elemental specialization just so happened to completely nullify practically all of her fire magic.

It simply didn't seem possible that she could defeat someone who seemed to have been trained in all the ways best-suited to crippling her own combat style, but she immediately agreed anyway; how could she not? Guan Yu was counting on her to pull her weight, and to point out how far from ideal she was for dealing with this particular opponent would just add someone else to the slowly-building list of people who thought she was too fragile to properly contribute; the people who'd seen the inside of her Heart and walked around inside...the people who knew how cowardly she'd been before.

Thou art I...and I am thou...

Raspberyl blinked with surprise as her thoughts were pulled from the battle, causing the fireball she'd hurled at the waterbender to fly wide, simply evaporating against the flowing stream he'd been spinning through the air. Twice now, she could have sworn she'd heard a woman's voice whispering in her ear, tugging at the corner of her brain as if it were a child asking for its mother's attention. The last time had been a day prior while sitting with May in the town's inn, but where had she heard it before? She knew she'd heard it before then; recently, too...inside her Heart, maybe? But who had told her that?

Her eyes darted around the battlefield, frantically trying to catch up to the few precious seconds she knew she'd lost just standing around. Lina was hurt. They'd thrown her into a building and she'd smashed her head against the side. This was the guy Guan Yu had asked her to fight. The blonde boy with the daggers was keeping up with him alright, but who knew how long he could keep that up? How was she going to do this? She couldn't even attack without having her spells thrown at her allies or just absorbed by the water. She may as well have not even been there.

...From the sea of thy soul, I emerge triumphant...

Again, a voice she recognized, powerful and proud, like a quiet lioness standing beside her, poised to pounce. She knew this voice. She'd heard this at least twice before, so why couldn't she remember where it had come from and why did she keep letting herself get distracted her fireball missed again and Lina was hurt and May was probably in danger and Aki was going to get hurt and everyone else was fighting that screaming thing and she couldn't do anything to this water mage so why had Guan Yu asked her to-

I am...

It was as if a cog had begun to turn, an inert set of grinding teeth had suddenly spun into motion, pushing each piece in turn to move the whole. In that moment, that second of utter clarity, she could practically feel a door being eased open. She recalled the woman's words and when she'd seen her, what she'd looked like; tall and toned, protected by shining silver armor and brandishing a silver spear◊ and ornate buckler◊, her shoulders draped with a cloak of dusky falcon feathers, long hair colored like straw and eyes a wintry blue. 'Thou art I, and I am thou.' She'd heard that before; before her own Heart had projected itself onto the world...

It had been inside Minako's Heart, hadn't it? The moment in her past when she'd first manifested her power; a 'Persona', as she'd called it. Did that mean she could do the same thing Minako had? She didn't have one of those 'evokers', but somehow, she thought maybe...no, definitely. Definitely. She didn't need one. Somehow she knew that. The cogs pulled themselves forward by their gently-rotating teeth, nudging her mind in the proper direction. She didn't need one. She could call it out by herself. Her power was different from Minako's, though she couldn't say how. What mattered...what narrowed and focused the demon girl's gaze with a determination pushing back her fear...was that the woman had been absolutely right:

She had a chance now.

This was her power to use as she needed to.

This was her power.

This was her.

"Thou art I...and I am thou..." Raspberyl murmured as a shining cobalt card◊ found its way into her hand from nowhere. She knew what to do with it, somehow. She'd never been taught, but somehow that made it better. She hadn't needed to be told what to do; she just knew.

"Persona!" she bellowed, crushing the card as her fingers clenched around it. In a plume of brilliant blue flames, the card dissolved, and before Raspberyl stood the very same woman who'd appeared before her in the wake of her Shadow's defeat.

"From the sea of thy soul, I emerge triumphant! I am Freyja, Lady of Vanaheimr!" the lady shouted, he voice strong as tempered steel and crisp as a winter storm.

Mighty and proud, the valkyrie dove through the air like a bullet, sweeping her spear horizontally in an attempt to push the waterbender's spell aside, followed by her shield arm swinging forward, readey to smash the face of her buckler into her opponent's unguarded stomach*

assuming it was still unguarded, that is

. As the spear attempted to tear through the water, its bender would notice the weapon coated in an ethereal blue glow, followed by the water slowly freezing as it was shunted, then splintering moments later. It obviously did not remove the water, and as a waterbender it would be easy for him to retrieve his chosen element, but until he did, he would be working with significantly less of it.

Still elated by her new-found power, Raspberyl found herself forcing back a grin as she weaved a fireball in each hand, embers dancing between each finger as her spells laced themselves together. She couldn't afford to celebrate, as even if she managed to win here, there was still a small army to deal with just outside their gates

in reality, they had already breached the gates, but she had no way of knowing that yet

. Still, she couldn't think of a time she had ever felt so powerful; so capable. This was like a miracle.

Raspberyl rushed forward just as her spells had finished forming themselves, looking for an opening in the waterbender's agile dodging before hurling both fireballs at his side, one after the other

doing her best to also make sure she didn't hit Freyja or, Magog forbid, Zidane

. The key was to overwhelm him and perhaps knock him out before he could cause any more serious harm. She had a plan. At long last, she had a plan.

edited 12th Jun '12 5:38:46 AM by DoctorThunder

As they'd followed the scarred man, it seemed to have led them straight to the mastermind. Truthfully, Lucas did not pay much attention as to what the malevolent force was going on about, after it all, it was some implausible bad-guy nonsense like, 'we could take over the world together' and 'your desires can be granted' and other stuff like that. After some apt responses by Agatha, Gene and Oswald, it seemed they'd given their easily guessible answer.

As trouble started to brew, it seemed they were actually helped by the scarred man. It seemed the place was starting to crumble around them, and with the help of a few retributive gangsters the group was fully able to ascend the tower and hopefully take down Makuta.

The young boy followed Gene's lead, ready at a moment's notice to attack any opposition to their climbing.

As Guan Yu began to charge, the earthbender stomped once again, this time placing his heel down just a fraction of a second before the rest of his foot and sliding ever-so-slightly forward. Following the elemental master's command, a wave of earth shot forward, rapidly growing taller and gaining momentum as it rolled towards the charging general. By the time it intercepted Guan Yu, the earth wave would be about waist height - low enough to make attempting to smash it apart problematic, and tall enough to be difficult to jump over. Without some quick reflexes, Guan Yu would find himself thrown to the ground.

As his wave travelled towards its target, the earthbender would begin attempting to wrench his hands apart. The chains began to creak ominously as he struggled, hell-bent on freeing his hands, and seemingly well on his way to success...

Meanwhile, the waterbender pulled his hands around in yet another graceful arc, his leg moving backwards and out of the way as Zidane attempted to sweep it out from under him. The stream followed the waterbender's movement, swinging back around and down to make an attempt at crashing into Zidane's leg, taking advantage of the thief's own momentum to turn his exact attack back on him.

Anything the waterbender might have done to follow up, however, suddenly became much less of a priority with the appearance of a new threat in the form of Freyja. As the water swept across and upwards*

whether it carried Zidane's leg with it or not would depend very much on the young thief's agility

, the spear smashed into its side, freezing it and sending the ice scattering across the ground. Thrown off by the unexpected loss of his weapon, the waterbender pulled his hands around and in, causing the fog directly around the group to thin a little as he pulled water from the air, letting it condense into a pillowy liquid cushion just as the buckler smashed into it.

The water shield crashed straight backwards into the very one who had created it, splashing to the ground as he stumbled backwards, a muffled wince emanating from under his mask as his hands quickly shot up, retrieving the water he had lost just in time to block Beryl's fireballs, freezing in midair as the second one crashed into it, once again shattering his weapon. Now well and truly on the defensive, the waterbender took a few steps back as his hands began to glide through the air more rapidly, leeching more and more water from the quickly-thinning fog

OOC: the fog thinning would be restricted to the area just around the group fighting the benders, for clarity's sake; people going near the group would now be able to see them a lot better, but the fog over the rest of the town would still be there

and letting it pool at his feet. Guided by his hands, a number of thin, tentacle-like streams snaked up from the puddle, beginning to bob from side to side.

The waterbender may have found himself on the defensive, but that was where his style of battle thrived.

I'll post for May later, when it isn't half past one in the morning.

It took some hops, skips, and a large number of jumps, but the heroes clambered and climbed up through the towering wreckage. The Nui Rama met a swift end from the bullets of the mysterious man below, and the electrical sparks were simple enough to avoid. Finally they reached the rooftops. They were immediately greeted by a couple more giant bugs, a giant scorpion, and an almighty towering tornado of darkness.

The thing seemed to stretch up to the skies above, a whirl of blackest smog with crimson eyes looking out over the world. Around it, dwarfed by comparison, a quintet of twelve foot spires fed a constant stream of electrical energy into the maelstrom. Then all of a sudden, a tremendous hand of shadow came out of the tornado, grabbed the biomechanical scorpion, and pulled it inside. Bursts of low light flickered throughout the monstrosity, and to the trained eye, there were glimpses of the beast being torn apart, and reconstructed. The shadow hand snatched up both remaining insects in turn, building upon the power within.

There seemed to be nothing to do, but to confront the cimmerian cyclone in the circle of spires.

Oswald ducked as the ceiling came down, looking up at the incoming thug on Nui Rama. The thugs were then cut down by bursts of machine gun fire. Turning around the rabbit saw it was the valet dude providing the fire. "Thanks!" the toon said, saluting the big guy.

After a quick yet harrowing climb up to the top of the tower, the groups came face to face with the usual menegerie of giant monsters and.........

.......the black cyclone............the rabbit started having flashbacks......

The Phantom Blot bearing down on him, on all of Forgottenland, sucking up ink and turning it into the Wasteland.......a black vortex sucking up -

• SLAP*

Oswald slapped himself straight. "Focus Oswald! This is not the same thing!" he told himself. He held his shotgun tightly, waiting for whatever monstrocity that lay behind the veil of black wind to reveal itself......

Having quickly ascended through the ceiling with the others, albeit at a slighlty quicker pace, Jenny had landed atop the roof, looking up at the spires. She had faced all kinds of creatures and monsters in both her home universe- wherever that was from here- and Extremus, and yet, compared to all those, the cyclone scared her, on some deep level. It was vast, utterly malefic, and all consuming; even the toughest robot would not survive long in there before being stripped down to its component molecules. In there was the person- the creature- the being, who had manipulated everyone's trust, enslaved hundreds, probably made thousands more suffer.

"So, " she yelled to the howling, swilring mass of shadowy energy, "you want us to fight you?" She was trying to sound brave, of course, but when confronted with something of this magnitude she had no idea how courageous anyone could be.

As if in response, the Makuta laughed once more. There came a great suction of wind, pulling the heroes into the ring.

   "Yesss...At long last...I feel like myself once more..."   

The electricity stopped flowing, and the spires suddenly extended strange prongs. A field of energy formed between two spires, then another, then another, until the energy barrier encircled them all.

   "Not a child, nor a king, nor even a great spirit..."   

The tornado ebbed away, revealing something high above within it. Something ten feet tall, in dark armour, with a reptilian mask, long staff and billowing cape.

   "My name is Teridax, the Makuta of Metru Nui..."    He hissed,    "AND I AM OBLIVION!"   

Master of Shadows Makuta

The Makuta touched down, in all his terrible glory.◊ The forcefield flared a sandy brown colour.

edited 12th Jun '12 11:52:21 AM by LizardOfAus