A Game of Gods: Infinities

Grey followed the others in a slow, measured fashion, his mind completely dominated by his failure. What had happened to the others? Were they alive? Were they dead? He didn't know, to be honest. He had a look at those around him, his green eyes unfocused. He couldn't remember who had been sucked into the portal with him, so there was no spark of recognition to tell him that yes, they had survived.

" Grey, snap out of it! Stop being such a cry-baby!" said Model A almost directly into one of the reploid's ears, making him jump in surprise. " Oh, uh... sorry. Anyway, it's not your fault that portal opened. I'm sure we could've pulverised all of 'em if that stupid portal didn't stop us."

"But Model A, we shouldn't have been sucked into it - we should have been more alert," replied Grey.

" All I'm hearing is excuses, excuses, excuses! Now stop moping and cheer up!" The lack of response from Grey was a bit discouraging, but the Biometal wouldn't let that get in the way of his current objective. Floating to-and-fro in a frustrated manner, it seemed unable to decide what to do. " C'mon, c'mon... think! What can I do? Urgh... "

edited 30th Sep '11 1:25:09 PM by Flanker66

Shotaro was silenced. In nearly all the cases he did, it ended bittersweet. Nothing was completely happy. Someone would be dead. Someone he really liked would be evil. Something would be completely wrong. Shotaro just accepted these outcomes as normally as possible. With Fluttershy, he could sense that she came from a more optimistic world. He then wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..." Shotaro said.

The Crystalline City—switching point of view...

Sergeant Damballah Hekatonkyres of the Salamanders' Third Company advanced into the narrow boulevards of the alien city, auto-senses scanning the surrounding environs at full-power as he panned his gaze from side to side. To say that this situation was deeply troubling to the Space Marine would be an understatement; to have somehow been transported from the war-torn streets and catacombs of Pandora IV to this gleaming metropolis of gleaming crystal spires and xeno architecture, in his eyes, could only have been the work of the Warp and the foul degenerates who made use of its unclean energies.

The others who ventured with him into the city were likewise scrutinized; from their apparel, the places they had spoken of and their curious reactions to him, it seemed clear—impossible as such a notion may have seemed—that they knew little if anything of the Imperium of Man. How this was possible, he could not even venture to guess, but if their talk of alternate dimensions was true then it did not bode well; still, at the very least they were human—except, of course, for the strange batlike machine; was it some manner of cataphract, like those employed by the Legio Cybernetica?—and seemed untouched by the depredations of Chaos, so for the time-being he would do his best to safeguard them.

Of course, it was entirely possible that their confusion at this strange situation was merely a ruse, and that they were agents of Ruinous Powers attempting to lure him down the path of corruption and damnation; it was simply too early to tell. Nevertheless, the Space Marine Sergeant would remain vigilant and bide his time for now; if their situations were indeed the same, he would help them...and if they were thralls to Chaos, then he would not hesitate to bring the Emperor's Wrath upon them all.

A soft click came from somewhere above and to the left, and before the sound had died in his ears Sergeant Damballah whirled to face its source, raising his bolter to a ready position and aiming down its iron sights. What he saw there made his blood run cold for a brief instant, for while the being perched atop that pile of crystal a short distance away did not share the same physiology and gait as the abominations with which he was familiar, there was no mistaking that mechanical nature, no denying the skeletal morphology of the vile alien automaton.

Necrons! his mind bellowed in alarm.

"Take cover!" he roared to the others, his words drowned out a second later as he pulled the trigger and sent a bolt streaking towards Grievous with a deafening BANG!!! of igniting rocket propellant.

edited 30th Sep '11 1:52:32 PM by SullenFrog

Kaede took cover. She took cover very, very quickly. Of course, Delta wasn't as durable as, say, a building, but he was easier to get behind and more likely to buy time against an enemy. It's not as if he's going to turn around and attack me in the middle of a battle, is it?

And then things went to hell in a handbasket.

Grievous back flipped, using his powerful legs to propel him in a rearwards somersault and his cloak billowed in the wind as he avoiding the incoming shot.

“A slug thrower? How...quaint.” He growled as he landed and instantly drew two of the lightsabers he carried. He was hidden behind the massive pile of crystal he had stood on.

He was confident that his speed and agility could carry him into close combat, but he had no idea who this was. And they had fired first.

So he tried a different approach.

“Who Dares to fire on General Grievous?!” He roared, his voice carrying easily within distance of the green armored warrior. And then he started coughing as his lungs protested.

Gunner simply aimed both of her autoguns at Grievous after diving to find cover behind some rubble, her sights aimed at his metal frame. If the Space Marine was acting like this, something might've been wrong with the mechanical creature with the swords of light. I hope he's not a Blademaster...

Fluttershy returned Shotaro's hug, nuzzling the detective's neck as well. Time stood still as the two comforted each other.......

*BANG*

A massive sound brought her back to reality, piercing the silence and becoming loud enough for all the people near her to hear. "What was that?" she whispered in fright.

Cletus fired his pistol into the air in order to draw attention.

"Everyone calm the hell down! Grievous, stop trying to kill everyone. Gunner, put your weapons down, he won't kill you unless you fire first. I think."

He looked at the Space Marine, his face under the mask of his armor twisted in nervousness at the prospect of angering the giant.

"This is General Grievous, a cyborg. He uses the skeleton motif for an intimidation tactic, I suppose."

Grievous whirled around,

“Kill everyone? I did no so such thing! They-” he pointed at the group over the hill with a mechanical arm,

“-tried to shoot me!”

Shotaro snapped back to reality as well when he heard the sound. His instinct shot up first. "I don't know... let's check it out. Come." Shotaro said as he released Fluttershy from his arms. he then went off to look for the source of the sound.

edited 30th Sep '11 3:40:27 PM by Psyga315

Before I could react, the big galoot started firin' at somethin' I didn't see much of it, but what I did see looked like a skeleton done up in shards of porcelain. Probably get along with with Scant Floss. Nyu started hidin' behind me, poor little thing. I didn't take cover. Guy like me usually doesn't need to. The skeleton-man hid behind a pile'a crystals.

Cletus said somethin' about how this guy's name was Greave-ass. Sounded pretty stupid. But then again, I can't judge. I flexed my left hand, blue sparks fallin' off'a my fingertips. I was just about ready to fry the bastard if he came out guns-blazin'. Or swords-swingin', as the case may be.

Rory puts up his battle stance yet again. "General. Armored guy. Calm down. We can not and will not succeed under these conditions. Stop fighting now."

Gunner relaxed her stance and stopped aiming at Grievous, though she didn't reholster her guns.

Rory nods at the Gunner. "See her General? She understands we seek peace. But if you attack... we will retaliate in full force."

edited 30th Sep '11 3:53:28 PM by Fusionman

Antroz stood in the background, amused at the new arrival's confusion.

Attacking anything strange on sight, such mindless deestruction: there will be nothing except fire power to get out of him.

Meanwhile questions still lingered in the air and answers must still be found; since some seem to have been here before him there was no harm in asking.

Sergeant Damballah cursed under his breath as the Necron vaulted into the air, casually evading his shot as it dropped out of sight behind the mound of crystal shards. Based on its strange appearance, the unholy machine must have been some manner of Kroot Pariah; there was no telling what capabilities it might have at its disposal, and the Salamander began reciting the Litanies of Hate as his bolter ejected the spent shell of his wasted shot, ready to go around the mound and engage the foul xeno directly.

The shout which came from around the mound did not give him pause, but the cough did; Necrons, as far as he knew, did not need to breathe. Nevertheless, Damballah was not about to let his guard down for the idle heresy of contemplating such a mild curiosity, and he began to advance around the mound when Guardsman Moore spoke up.

"You know this thing?" he demanded of Cletus, glancing in the Courier's direction for a brief moment; the Space Marine had not lowered his bolter, but he had come to a halt. He paid little heed to Rory's words, preocuppied as he was with the current situation.

"Sort of. He's also displaced from his home dimension. That's a life support rig. If you get in close enough, he's got skin around yellow eyes. He's not a machine. But he's not human, either."

So the green warrior could speak.

Obviously hidden behind a voice communicator of some kind. Interesting...

Grievous almost casually came around the cover he had been using to get a better look at his adversary. Big, imposing, and it seemed well armed. It didn't seem to move like a droid, more like an organic.

So battle armor then. Powered battle armor was Grievous' guess.

While the being did hold its rifle easily in its hand, Grievous was willing and able to employ his agility to stay out of the way of its projectiles. Slugthrowers were considered hopelessly outdated in his universe, with the galaxy having almost completely gone to energy weapons for their personal means.

But this one fired projectiles that were much larger than normal side arm rounds.

“Not as well as he would think.” Grievous said, referring to Cletus, before coughing again. His yellow eyes didn't leave the armored warrior for a microsecond.

She was gone. She had gone, and left him. She was gone, and he would never see her face again...

She was -

A loud bang shook the Hero out of his sleep, and he sat up with a start, looking around with alarm written all over his face.

Very soon, however, as he realized that there appeared to be no imminent danger of anything exploding anywhere near him (or jumping out of a bush that wasn’t there before, for that matter), the look in his eyes changed to one of quiet, contemplative sadness as the events of the previous day came back to his mind. He slumped back down. So, the Maximals, the Vehicons… their entire world… were all gone, swallowed up and removed from living memory by the monstrous maw of the void that had pursued them. And the only thing that had saved them from a similar fate was the fact that their captors had snatched them away at the last second.

He couldn’t have saved them. That he knew for sure, if nothing else. And yet he couldn’t shake the whispering voice in his head, telling he could have done something if he had simply tried… if he had not just run like a coward with no wits left…

He was supposed to be a Hero. So why hadn't he acted like one just now? Because he had had no choice? Or because he did not have enough courage? Part of him kept saying that there was nothing else he could have done. That he had survived, and that had been enough.

But he had abandoned their world to die. He had left the rest of the Maximals standing there to suffer the same fate, the same horror that he himself had been running from. He had jumped through that portal with scarcely a second thought as to the rest...

Had he been justified in doing so by his own instinct for self-preservation? Or had it been a cowardly, selfish act unworthy of one who was called a Hero?

What had he done? Standing up slowly and heavily, he began to walk to the site of the disturbance, following Fluttershy and Shotaro, the turmoil still raging in his mind.

For the first time, he had begun to doubt himself.

edited 30th Sep '11 8:39:04 PM by troydenite

Scorpion was barely aware of what was going on until he found himself standing next to Fluttershy and Shotaro. He saw that he was no longer a cyborg.

"Where are we now?" asked the hellspawn.

"I think we're back in the crystal city somewhere," Fluttershy said to Scorpion. "There was an explosion somewhere, I think, and we're going to investigate." A beat. "Um, my name is Fluttershy, by the way," she introduced herself to the undead ninja. Despite the fact that the specter was making the pegasus pony nervous just by being near her, after what she went through she doubted anything would scare her anymore.

Shotaro explored the area until he saw a group of people. One of them being Cletus. "Uh, guys, I think we found our source of the noise." Shotaro said as he noticed a few of them holding a gun.

Antroz looked around once more, this was a waste of time....

Unfolding his wings, the Makuta took to the skies and glided away in hopes of finding something more helpful than a paranoid crowd of rag-tag misfits.

The objective now I guess is to find an Omalak or its equivilant.

Scorpion turned to see Cletus.

"Crap," he whispered under his breath. "Courier?" he called to Cletus. "Sorry about what happened. I meant to knock you down, not backwards."

edited 30th Sep '11 9:31:51 PM by TestYourMight

Tyrell paniced when he say the giant wall of rock loom ahead of him. It looked like this was the end of them then.

I wonder if that old saying is true, you can sleep when you're dead. guess we're going to find out.

And that was then the holes in reality open up and started to suck them in.

"PRAISE LOKI! OUR PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Leaping through the portal...

...He was reminded why you really should look before you leap.

"Oof!" He said as he hit his head on the way through, and then hit his head AGAIN on the ground near Fluttershy. Tyrell stumbled up in a daze, unaware of his surroundings. He had a thin layer of blood trickling down his face as he groaned and reached towards a vague yellow shape to steady himself.