Crystal Mayhem, Yosuke

Yosuke wasn't naive enough to feel relieved when Yee seemingly dispersed that monster's corpse and he guessed whatever caused it. Even if he was crap at gauging the atmosphere when it came to people, in combat situations - crap, this was pretty awful, he's in goddamn high school and he's more familiar with how to act in the heat of a life-and-death fight than he is with girls or taking a test - he knew never to assume you were safe just because a current threat's been expelled. He kept a firm grip on his weapons, eyes darting around the area suspiciously, just in case-

A startled gasp escaped from him as his vision began fading dark- was he blacking out? No, he was still awake, aware, aware of that itching, itchy like wool, like the wool yarn Kanji would sometimes use in his knitting or something. Had something gotten in his eyes? He blinked - or tried to? He couldn't really tell at this point, and it was beginning to make him panic a bit internally. He rubbed at his eyes carefully, being sure not to cut himself with one of his knives, but to no avail; there was only blackness. It was then it dawned on him.

He couldn't hear his music either.

He had been muted by silencing spells before, the crap Omega pulled before with the mouths didn't shake him all that much. But this - blindness, deafness - it was an all new terror to him. If he screamed - he's certain he probably did - he couldn't hear it. Were the others going through this too? He could feel his heart beating at a rabbit-pace and his breathing quicken as fear started taking hold... And then, before it overtook him, it was over with; his vision slowly began clearing, as did his hearing. He was gasping for air, trying to steady his breathing, slowly, keep it together, man... He could feel - no, hear - his heartbeat begin to slow...

And then, another spike of alertness as one of those clothed... whatevers caught his eye. They reminded him of Shadows, but creepier, a hell of a lot creepier. He attempted to ready himself for combat, but quickly noticed the tendrils that were beginning to attempt to claim him.

And then, he noticed the ones literally blanketing Owain and Sabrina and swallowing the old man.

And the two former... They didn't appear to be breathing.

Shit.

No more dicking around, he was going to act now. People were in trouble, and like hell was he going to let someone else get hurt or killed like Tron earlier. He summoned Jiraiya, and what appeared to be a twister of razor-sharp wind encircled him, leaving him unharmed but no doubt severing the tendrils that began to bind him in one go. He shifted immediately to a combat stance, with a slight twirl and flourish of the gleaming-sharp knives in hand to get them into a better grip. It looked like Dusknoir had Sabrina covered, and most of the others hadn't been so entangled as to not be able to escape.

Owain was closest to him; if he could free and help him, the two of them could easily free Yee...

He jumped right in, slashing at the tendrils he saw binding Owain with precise, powerful slashes meant to sever his bonds.

To Owain, however, it would just be very clear that as scrawny and effeminate as the teenager looked, the knives weren't for show and he was actually pretty damn good with them, the bastard was fast and pretty damn agile despite his klutziness in other situations, and he'd maintained his habit of sharpening those pointy implements every night even though there was no real need to.

edited 13th Jul '14 5:59:45 AM by Motree

[OOPS WRONG THREAD FORGIVE ME I HATH INFRINGED.]

edited 12th Jul '14 1:19:30 AM by Motree

—Samus and Kyoko—

Samus stopped in the chamber they had come in from, pausing to let the slower members of the squad catch up

Sayaka wanted to go ahead further, but Samus put her hand out, golden eyebrows creasing inside her helmet. The com line was still open, making it very obvious that they were struggling against a multitude of foes as they listened, but that made it all the more important not to go rushing in, if they were having difficulty.

What did they know? The sounds coming back to her were chittery, similar to warwasps...

She glanced over at the just arriving Kyoko, bearing the same hypothesis.

She closed her eyes and put her hand to the side of her helmet, her mind racing to find a solution while knowing that every second counted. Squad tactics, squad tactics...not something she had used in a long time, but she had gone back through the basics when she had realized she would be fighting with others. An aggressive enemy was currently suppressing their allies, and they would most likely too if they ran straight in. She supposed she could simply run and gun, so to speak, but there was a better way to do this.

"Chokepoint", she said laconically and jerked her attention to the redhead. If I got them to follow me down that hallway, could you trap these things in a barrier? Preferably with small holes to lay fire into?"

Kyoko smirked. "What, like this?" She spread her fingers, and like a little cat's cradle, the red diamonds wove themselves into existence. "Sure."

Samus motioned at the hallway. "Large enough to cover the circumfrence of the tunnel?" She was speaking quickly, obviously in a hurry but not wanting to leave holes in this plan

"Were you not there when we fought that Lyla bitch?" Kyoko seemed amused. "Maybe you were too engrossed in taking my Pockies. A tunnel that size ain't nothing."

"Sarcasm is taken for yes." She sounded dry despite the situation. "For the firing holes and for the size"

She took a couple steps that way then glanced back. "I'll draw them", she had the shields after all, "you stay in the —back— to create another if necessary." One hole to provide fire was an advantage, trying to create an opening for a spear was riskier and unneeded. "Once you see how large an individual is, create the shield so as to leave a hole slightly less larger than they are at the front for firing through."

"You", she bruskly turned her attention to Sayaka, "will direct your summoned weapons", she had no idea what to call them off the top of her head and wasn't stopping to think of the correct term for them, "through smaller holes provided for the width of the blades. And in the event the shield fails, stay near Kyoko and support one another."

She paused, glancing between the two for any objections. "Understood?", obviously wanting to get it out of the way quickly.

Kyoko grinned. "Sure. Whatever. Just make sure you don't fall in."

"Vertical hole, please", she intoned dryly again. She looked to see if anyone else had arrived into the antechamber before putting the chokepoint ploy into action.

edited 13th Jul '14 2:43:36 AM by tvtropesnoob

Sayaka: Temple Run

Samus had come to a stop in the chamber they had first entered. Eager as she was to proceed, Sayaka had reservations rushing in front of Samus. The urge was strong but her fear of being scolded for being stupid held her at bay this time. She fidgeted as Samus mulled over what to do- they were wasting time and with every passing second, whatever was in that room had more time to take out their friends.

It also gave Kyouko enough time to catch up.

Sayaka gave Kyouko a glare but cringed when Kyouko made the enemy analysis. Kyouko was still the veteran here and Sayaka didn't have much of a choice but to take some of the things the older Magical girl said at face value. Indeed, there was quite a din coming from the other chamber and now that the thought of wasps was introduced, Sayaka's skin crawled at the thought.

She wasn't so eager anymore.

Samus had by now come up with a plan and thankfully, she wasn't given a very important role. For once, Sayaka really didn't mind. In fact, she wished that "stay and heal" were the only things Samus had ever said to her. Fighting swarms of scary stinging poisonous insects was not what she signed up for. And she'd always disliked bugs anyway.

On the other hand, Sayaka wasn't really sure what Samus wanted. She really didn't catch what the huntress had said, something about flinging her swords through gaps in Kyouko's barrier, or something like that. But she was time a-wasting. She doubted Samus had time for a lengthy explanation and she doubted Kyouko would let her live a normal life if she did stop to ask; so Sayaka kept quiet and nodded. She knew what she was doing.

Yeah right.

First thing she would do when she got there was to stay behind Kyouko (she liked that part of the orders and understood perfectly). Then she'd heal the other team. They couldn't chew her for saving people right?

edited 13th Jul '14 4:22:20 AM by biomechtraveler

With their allies suddenly being turned against them, Owain understood that time was of the essence here. Who would be up next to launch an attack? How hard would they throw it? Would he be able to stand again? Keeping this in mind, he turned to Yee and tightened his grip on his sword.

“Understood!” As he turned to face Yee, he briefly entertained the thought of uttering words of heroic valor against the strings binding him. Though, its brevity wasn’t out of there being the time to properly say them, more out of Yosuke suddenly getting the jump on him.

In spite of reminding himself of attackers coming from nowhere, he was caught off guard by the wiry teenager and his right shoulder and upper arm were slashed through by the knives, loosening his right hand’s grip on his blade and causing some blood to spill out onto the floor.

Owain yelped out in pain and jumped to the side, away from Yosuke to give himself some space. As he moved himself into position to defend himself, he thought out loud, “Yosuke is attacking us as well!? How many more will turn against us!?”

edited 14th Jul '14 4:05:50 PM by Rivux

???

Pride managed to gleam a lot of information from that dusty old tome. How much of it was actually useful, it was hard to tell. The people here worshipped a pantheon of gods- what a surprise- but at the same time even those who chose to put their faith in science had to admit something was lying just outside their plane of existence- that was an actual surprise. The fact this world had actual gods was useful information- after years of inspecting humanity, he came to the conclusion that whenever they made something good, someone made something bad with the same tools. It wasn't hard to conclude that there could be a church dedicated to an amoral god, and he could use that.

The rest was a bunch of junk about divine magic. Pride had no need for that neither here or anywhere. He even ignored the section that went on and on about gods dying. Their gods could die, but the homunculus was certain that the god he was working towards creating back at his humble abode would never die. All that needed to happen was for the plan to work.

He got to an interesting part, one where he saw a familiar name, or at least a name he thought he had heard before. Tracing back to the origin of this name, he found something interesting. Now this part, he could just not ignore. In fact, it was so interesting, Pride ripped that page out of the book, neatly folding it into a square and sliding it into his pocket. He could use that later.

Following his shadows to the odd door, Pride calmly raised his hands, and, as if conducting an orchestra, waved them around gently, closing his eyes to the listen to the lovely sounds of his shadows ripping into the door, attemptint to destroy it with all their might so they could open a way for their master. And once the deed was done, if it was done, the boy would walk forward, whistling to himself.

Western Passage

"My brother is a doctor." Luigi commented, before suddenly stopping and tapping his finger against his cheek. "And a kart a-driver. And a tennis a-player. And a golf a-player. And a professional a-dancer. Carpenter, a-umpire, baseball a-player, basketball a-player, soccer a-player, artist..." He rubbed his hair, before shaking his head. "Waah, what am I a-talking about? Those are just his a-hobbies! He is a plumber, that's what he will always a-be."

Yee; Common Corridor

The White surged Black. Yee gritted his teeth as the darkness sewed his senses shut. He reached out to the White, only to be repulsed by a sickening jolt that sent him reeling blindly.

It was no good, he realised as he sank to one knee, nausea churning his gut. He was too tired, and the enemy was too strong. He could not hope to wrest the Tesseract back by force of will alone.

Around him rang the screams of his charges, garbled by static. He couldn't hear a thing. He couldn't see a thing. He had to do something.

Yee was just about to raise his cane when Owain knocked it aside. The Remnant turned in alarm, pommel scraping across the swordsman's back. Someone was there. Who?

edited 14th Jul '14 9:43:15 PM by troydenite

"That's....certainly a lot of hobbies Mr. Luigi," Fluttershy said, impressed by Mario's multiple talents. She could also see why the green clad man had such a cowardly disposition. Clearly a symptom of living under the shadow of a truly talented sibling.

The pony could relate, though it was with her five friends with the talents all spread out.

With the morgh dead, Edward stopped almost immediately, a look of anger as Envy's arm-blade poked gently against his stomach, forcing him to take a few steps before falling flat on his ass. Clenching his fists, he stood up, glaring daggers at the homunculus. "You made your point, bastard." He grumbled as he wiped the sweat off his brow, adjusting his gloves. "Wipe that grin off your face, you—"

The newest round of the swear game was stopped by the sound of the laughter, which prompted a surprised gasp from the alchemist. He turned around, blonde hair sticking to his sweat-covered skin, and then ran towards the source of the noise- or at least where he taught the source of the noise was. "Who's there?!" He bellowed at the air. "Show yourself!"

Crystal Mayhem

- Pain and the perception thereof is a funny thing. It is entirely reliant on the input received by the senses, and the relaying of the input by the nerves. One's senses could be deceived. All of them.

So it was that Dusknoir and Yosuke saw their targets take the blows, felt their limbs and weapons impact with the unnervingly giving and empty khaki uniform◊. The thing Dusknoir struck rippled and recoiled in response, its threads bending around his claws to yank Sabrina away, as its wide-brimmed helmet moved to half-cover those endless double voids. With an unliving flexibility the core of its body sunk backward and toward the ground, even while its legs stood straight. At the exact same time, though, black threads whipped out of the entity and struck both limbs with a loud *SNAP*. From the long streaks of impact came a sharp agony like that of a scourge. The thing drew its right arm (sleeve?) back, the appendage twisting and remaking its gloved hand into a dark and gleaming blade readied to plunge forward.

For Yosuke, though, something else happened. The entity in front of him, dressed as it was in navy blue and white with an odd neck-covering cap, appeared to be checking the security of Yee's bonds with its amorphous 'head' turned round at a impossible angle. It almost casually moved Owain's insensate body away and toward the wall with its tendrils. It was almost as if...

Yosuke's knife cleaved into the thing's right shoulder and sawed deep through its arm, the hat it wore reconfigured itself in a splitsecond thread by thread until the wearer's pitch black gaze focused on the teenager. Somehow, despite the thing lacking the barest glimmer of life within that look, Yosuke could tell that it was staring directly into his own eyes. Even as it moved back, the twin darknesses seemed to suck him in...enough that he didn't notice his hand had gone completely numb. Were he to look upon his hand, he would see that it had been engulfed in the roiling static which made up the thing's head, now extending from the cut he had made like a ghastly combination of blood spray and pseudopod. That ad hoc appendage withdrew into the entity's open arm, which began to knit itself back together. Yosuke's hand remained as numb as if it had not even been there, though there it was, grey and covered with hundreds of miniscule abrasions. Shooting pains went up his wrist from that area of emptiness all the way up to his shoulder.

But whether or not the young investigator had been distracted by such matters of the flesh, the thing had not been idle. It opened its left hand and from the twisting threads a small whirlwind of metal chips and sawdust arose, forming itself into a long and old-fashioned rifle with a bayonet plugged in. The weapon shone like it had been freshly polished and maintained, with little tallies on the side. A moment later, and the thing brought its weapon to the ready—and its blade aimed precisely at Yosuke's sternum, about to jab.

To both fellows (and increasingly poor Yee), the ambient noise surrounding the things had grown louder by an exponent when they had been struck. Words in languages neither of them could understand barked, snapped, and snarled, blurred together into an unending stream. Their tone was the same, however, that of challenge and a bizarrely enthusiastic contempt. It was getting louder.

But solely to Yee came other sounds: the sounds of his charges, choked as though the life was being drained from them bit by bit... -

edited 19th Jul '14 11:38:41 PM by Colonial1.1

Riverrock—City Center

By the time Johnny finished his verse, he and the watchwoman had reached the great plaza serving as the hub for Riverrock’s nine districts. The source of the screaming was close at hand, and plain to see; some distance away, people were frantically scrambling away from a hunched figure standing in the shadow of a grocer’s awning.

It was a man, if it could still be called such; bare-chested, white as chalk and sporting a vicious wound in his throat, there could be no doubt that this was the man who’d been murdered the night before. His face was drawn tight, his features sharp and feral like a wild beast’s, teeth bared in a savage grin that exposed a pair of inch-long fangs jutting from his upper jaw.

He cradled a woman in his arms, her skin deathly pale and her blouse stained dark red by the blood weeping from the two puncture wounds in her neck. She hung limp in the monster’s grasp, and it was impossible to tell whether she was dead or still clung to life.

The watchwoman drew her sword. “Enjoy that meal, beast, for it will be your last!”

The vampire spawn looked up at the sound of her voice, its red eyes boring into Johnny with animalistic bloodlust. Then it dropped its victim to the ground, tore a long strip from the awning which it quickly wrapped around itself like a cloak, and ran—straight at the young bard and his minder.

Again that reedy laugh rang out, louder this time, echoing off the musty walls of the crypt from everywhere and nowhere.

It is so amusing to watch you little ones struggle for your lives, a voice whispered in Chun-Li’s ear, seemingly from just over her shoulder. Were she to turn around, however, the Interpol agent would find nothing standing there. Despite this, a greasy pall seemed to settle over her, as if something unspeakably foul had just been in her presence.

Others have come before you… the voice went on, breathing into Envy’s ear this time.

But they were such bores, it sighed to Garland next.

They did not last a third as long as you did, the foul presence murmured to Edward.

I made such fine puppets of them, before you cut their strings, it hissed to Leo.

Perhaps I’ll do the same to you as well, it said, speaking to the entire group this time. Will you dance for my entertainment, little mortals?

Off to the side, Nana Karas scowled and clutched at her staff with both hands. “It’s the Tzitzimitl,” she sneered. “Ignore it; the foul beast is just trying to rattle us.”

Am I, crone? A low, rasping chuckle filled the air. You’re a stubborn one, I see; I think I will especially enjoy making you dance!

And with a final peal of ghastly laughter, the invisible presence of the Tzitzimitl withdrew. As it did so, the remaining three braziers suddenly burst to fiery life, shedding their strange violet light across the walls; and at the same moment there came a din of stone scraping against stone as a section of the far wall suddenly sank inward and slid aside. Beyond was a rough-hewn spiral staircase which led further down into the depths of the catacombs, the shadows at the base of this staircase so deep that nothing could be seen of what lay below.

Western Passage

To say that the hellwasp swarm was caught off-guard by this sudden onslaught of magic would have been a bit of an understatement.

Caught in the grip of the numerous gravity wells conjured up by Xigbar’s improvised spell, the insects let out an ungodly, earsplitting sound as they were slammed down to the floor with great force, yanked into the air and then slammed down again. Nearly a third of the total swarm was dead by the time the Nobody cast his final Zero Gravity spell, pulped and burst carapaces tumbling and drifting several feet above the ground in an invisible field of nullified gravitic force. The rest were still alive, dazed and groaning, and they slowly began to reorder themselves, ambling about in midair as they broke free of the magic.

Those hornets biting at Saren and Grey were likewise dead, killed by the sudden flash-freeze and subsequent shattering. They tumbled to the ground and curled up, as dead insects are wont to do, though some had left stingers embedded within flesh and metal.

   “You little shitsszzz…”    The words were dazed, slurred, as if the hive mentality was rattled by the loss of so many insects at once.    “Make you pay for ARRGH!!!”   

The rest of the swarm’s words were obliterated by a bellow of pain and rage as the Doctor unleashed the two-pronged assault of his ultrasonic blast and his mental attack on the hive mind. Reeling from these twin blows, the hellwasps whirled and gyred in agitation, providing just enough time for the group to start slipping away.

Scant seconds later the swarm had recovered—and it was livid.

   “DIIIIIIEEEE!!!”    they howled, tearing down the corridor in hot pursuit of the fleeing Champions.

Running back the way they came, Saren, Xigbar, Grey and the Doctor would find their progress slowed; the very same traps that had tried to smash them into the spike-encrusted ceiling before were still there, fully-extended and stuck that way thanks to Saren’s earlier biotic sabotage of their mechanisms. They now formed an obstacle course that the four Champions were forced to navigate, though mercifully spikes were no longer dropping from the roof.

Chokepoint

Even as Kyouko and Samus discussed their strategies, a distant voice intruded upon their preparations. It was that woman’s voice they’d heard earlier in the day; having fallen silent since they first reached the ziggurat, she was singing once more, somewhat louder than when they’d still been out in the jungle. It seemed as if her words were coming from somewhere above, through the very stone of the chamber’s roof.

“Rivers of blood,
Oceans of sorrow,
Ripples of madness,
I die tomorrow.

Eastern passage

Sazh heard the singing too, though to his ears it sounded as if it was coming from further down the passage. He paused in the middle of running after the others as they went back the way they came, and turned to face the sound. “That voice again…”

She was whispering now, and she sounded so profoundly tired and weary.

“What raised me, shall rest me.
What brought me forth, will take me back.
In the high country, I will come home, to sleep…”

Several moments passed. The pilot weighed his options, frowning, and sighed.

“We’ll figure this out later,” he said to himself. “We gotta help the others first.”

And so he turned and took off, following the rest of the group with pistols drawn. Behind him, the woman’s voice swelled into song once more, her mournful wailing almost like an accusation.

“Rivers of blood,
Oceans of sorrow!
Temples of madness,
No hope tomorrow!
I gave you,
Hope for tomorrow!
Tomorrow, tomorrow!”

Silence fell. Then, a final whisper:

“Use it well…”

The instant that Ranmaru fell to the ground, Vyraiah silently made her way to his side and lowered herself to her knees. With quiet dignity and grace, the glowing goddess touched two fingers to the unconscious young ronin’s temple. “Rest, Mori Ranmaru,” she said, her tone gentle and soothing in an almost motherly fashion. “You will not perish here; our world still has need of you.”

Positive energy flowed into his body as she spoke, subtly mending the many injuries he had sustained; it would take some time for Ranmaru to recuperate fully, but—for now, at least—he was not at death’s door. Nevertheless, he was still unconscious.

Seeing that the group had for all intents and purposes surrendered, Tethrasur nodded to himself and made a sweeping gesture with his staff. An opening formed in the wall of thorns in response to this, wide enough for two men to walk abreast without fear of cutting themselves on the wicked spines; and no sooner was the way clear than a number of stern-faced lizardmen armed with spears and shields stepped through, hauling the Champions to their feet and marching them out none-too-gently.

The heavy iron door of the cell swung shut with a clang, echoing down the earthen corridor with a note of finality. Shinuaq’tan stood just beyond the bars, accompanied by Tethrasur and two guards; the ancient chieftain had slipped Ranmaru’s sword through a sash at his hip, and stared at the imprisoned Champions with folded hands and hooded eyelids.

“Here you will remain, until a suitable verdict for your crimes can be reached,” Shinuaq’tan said gravely. “You have done the Scaled Nations a great injustice this day, my friends, and rest assured your punishment will be most severe. Innocent blood is on your hands; reflect on that as you await your sentence.”

With those words he turned and left, the two guards following along in his wake. Tethrasur remained, however, his expression inscrutable as he fixed the Champions—Jack in particular—with a probing gaze. A long moment passed in silence, broken by the sound of a door closing at the end of the hall as Shinuaq’tan took his leave; only then did the First Shaman speak.

“How could you do this?” The words were tightly controlled, brimming with checked emotion. “How could you have truck with such a monster as that… abomination?” Tethrasur’s piercing gaze bored into Jack. “I heard whispers of what you did in the moot hall while I was away, Jack—how you laid hands upon your stricken opponent, and saved him from the poison. You seem genuine in your honour and your desire for peace; I cannot believe you would willingly or knowingly bring such a vile demon into our midst.”

The rotten wood of the unmarked door resisted for a moment, groaning from the considerable stress as Pride’s shadows tore at it. All too soon, however, the timbers broke, coming apart in a cloud of splinters to reveal what lay beyond.

Past the threshold lay a vast cavernous chamber, its vaulted roof soaring so high that clouds gathered beneath the eaves. It seemed like the nave of some great cathedral, but one not dedicated to anything that could be called good and holy; strange iconography filled shallow alcoves and adorned the walls, images of shattered moons, bleeding eyes and inverted ankhs. Gibbets and cruciform racks hung from the rafters, on which hung emaciated humanoid figures that seemed quite dead, and everywhere Pride looked he would be able to see small shrines bearing ominous black candelabra and incense burners, filling the air with clouds of smoke that smelled faintly of burning human fat. At the back of the chapel an enormous reptilian skull, longer and wider than a grown man was tall, was mounted on the wall above an altar of black basalt; this grinning effigy seemed to look down upon the slab, a silent observer to whatever grim and unspeakable rites might have been enacted upon its surface.

Pews stood facing that altar and that skull in six rows, stretching from one end of the cavernous space to the other. Tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people could have sat here in relative comfort, but at the moment the pews were largely empty; there was only a small knot of figures huddling some distance away from the doorway in which Pride stood, three beings dressed in identical robes of black with silver trimming, speaking to one another in the sort of dry, hollow voice one gets when one has spent weeks baking under the hot desert sun.

“Processing of batch three-two-seven is almost complete,” said one. “The last colossus will be completed on schedule.”

“Good,” said another. “The Urizen will be pleased, I’m sure."

“He’d better be,” the third one said irritably. “We’ve been slaving over them for what, three hundred years now?”

“Mind your tongue, fool,” the first one snapped. “You’ll draw the Watchers down on us. Have you forgotten what happened to Gygax?”

“I’m simply saying, when the Urizen came to us all those centuries ago to recruit us into His little scheme, being reduced to a glorified assembly line overseer wasn’t on the job description. I was ruling a kingdom behind the throne for generations, for Gezthirith’s sake!” the third one hissed. “Now we’re all just cogs in His damnable machine.”

A faint sound like sheets fluttering in a strong breeze wafted through the air. The second figure cast an apprehensive glance towards the ceiling, and stepped away from the third speaker; the first one did likewise.

Too caught up in his ranting to notice, the third man continued on. “Where would He be without us, I ask you? Nowhere! Without us, he wouldn’t have even half as many colossi as he does now. He should give us some damn respect; we’re not zombies or skeletons! We aren’t disposable pawns—”

“Yes, you are.”

Something big, silvery and black dove out of the clouds like a vast predatory bird, and before the third man could react talons like inky tendrils of mist snatched him up. A single flap, and whatever it was—Pride might have a brief glimpse of feathers, and scales, and glittering compound eyes like orbs of mercury—quickly returned to the rafters, carrying the fool with him. He began to scream in terror as they vanished into the clouds, but then suddenly fell silent; seconds later, something rapped in a shredded black robe dropped to the floor with a dull thump.

His two companions stared at the lifeless corpse, traded a glance, and looked down at him again.

“Couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you?” sneered the first man. “Miserable wretch.”

The second spat on the body. “Tempt not His Watchers, for it will be the last thing you do.”

And with those words the two turned and left, venturing down a transept at the opposite end of the chapel from where Selim stood.

Village of Threshold — cell

Ranmaru came to slowly. He sat up quickly, expecting to find himself falling back toward the floor. He didn't. Surprised, he gently felt his ribs. Not broken? he thought. Impossible...
He knew that the ancient shaman beat him to a pulp, and wondered what happened. He'd have mulled over that, but he saw Shinuaq’tan with his sword in his sash. His nostrils widened, the only visible sign of his anger. To him, it seemed like the shaman was mocking him. First he captured him, denied him a warrior's death, and now he stole his sword!
The young Samurai froze. He was dishonoured beyond belief. He was sure that if lord Nobunaga or Master Sun Ce would have seen him, they would both deride him as a weak fool, unable even to die as a warrior, allowing himself to be captured like some common criminal. No doubt the barbarous lizard-men would torture him and crucify him like a common criminal.
He looked at Jack. The other Samurai was in many ways the page's better, his superior even. That made Ranmaru all the more angrier; he was shamed in front of Jack, too.
“I would not beg,” he said quietly. “I would only ask for a warrior's death to cleanse the shame from my name.”

edited 29th Jul '14 1:57:43 PM by desdendelle

'Riverrock - City Center
"Oh, fuck."
The scene ahead of him sickened him to his stomach. That poor man, a good samaritan, turned into nothing more than a bloodthirsty beast. The woman in his arms, bleeding heavily.
Then the vampire charged them.
Johnny jumped to the side, aiming a wild swipe of his rapier at the lunging beast. His balance suffered in the attempt, and he fell somewhat, pulling himself up quickly.
He shouted at his accompanying Watchwoman, having already broken into a run.
"Distract it, I'm gonna check the girl!"

He wasn't a fighter. He hoped Stalgrim had told the woman that. But he could at least keep the woman alive, or try to.

-As the initial panic recedes, Donkey Kong adjusts to the senses of his new body. A momentary self-examination confirms that he is now a reptile, kin to the banana thieves he usually fights and the treacherous shapeshifters responsible for his sorry state. Furious, he runs outside... only to realize the lizards are now the size of trees, and liable to squash him by accident. Then he sees/tastes his companions being taken away and darts after the group, resolving to stay around them until this curse can be lifted and vengeance wreaked.-

Jack set aside Ranmaru's despair with difficulty. It sat ill with him not to aid the other samurai, but Tethrasur had asked the very question Jack himself had wondered. Now that he had the time to consider what had happened, the weight of his mistake, his failure, bore him down. He lowered his head with a deep sigh.

"Deception is evil's most powerful ally. More than once, some cunning trick has led me to misfortune and allowed evil to work its will in the world through some agent, whether mortal or otherwise. For that reason, what has happened is as much my fault as anyone's, perhaps more so, for I should have been more vigilant and acted on what I did see."

He stood up and took two steps forward, up to the bars of the cell, his eyes still downcast.

"I have felt the touch of evil more than most. I felt...uneasy around Selim, if I may call him that. There was something not right, but it was not enough to terrify a child with questions or subject him to an examination. Then, just before we met with the chieftains, one of my comrades told me that he was not human, not quite. He was asleep, or so it seemed at the time, and I could not keep the chieftain waiting. That is where I failed. I should have confronted him then, or at least taken greater precautions. But having known only the boy, I could hardly believe he carried such great evil within him."

At last, Jack raised his head and met the gaze of the shaman squarely, resolve reappearing on his features.

"That was why I stopped you from slaying the demon. I was determined to atone for my lapse in some small way. I wanted to bind the creature and to question it, to find out if Selim was only a shell, or if what we faced was an innocent child possessed by darkness. Also, I wanted to find out who had set him upon your people, for this demon's masters can only be those who wish this war to happen. He was the means to prove my suspicions correct. Then, if there was indeed only the demon, I would have killed him, or yielded that duty to you, had you wished. But your chieftain's grief, or seeming grief, drove him to demand death at once. You saw me fail to persuade him from that course. And now we come to the most terrible secret of this attack, one that I do not think you will believe."

He took a deep breath.

"Chieftain Shinuq'tan is in league with the demon's masters. You saw me defend him against my comrade here as I tried to stop more bloodshed. He struck me from behind as I fought, a crippling blow. I understood then why he so desperately wanted the demon destroyed, why he refused my surrender. And he knew that I knew, that was plain to see upon his face as we fought. I do not know how he came to betray your people to evil, but I know why. He too wishes this war, to see your people's empire of old restored. But he will not see his dream achieved, not this way. Evil is ever treacherous. However worthy you think his goal, he has made a grave mistake in his methods. I cannot prove my accusation. I have only my own word of honor on the matter. I had thought perhaps my sword, being empowered by the gods of my people, would reveal his true nature, but I failed in that as well. Even if we are given a chance to defend ourselves at this trial, we will not be believed. All we can do is ask for your help, First Shaman. You are free, and you wield powerful magic. You might be able to discover the chieftain's true nature, and the answer to all the riddles and questions. Without you, we are almost certainly lost."

Kyoko; River Ziggurat - Chokepoint

Kyoko cocked her head as the song floated past.

"Cheery tune," she quipped. She wasn't grinning.

It wasn't about reverence or any of that. She couldn't care less about the actual song. Stupid people, dead people, dying people, people who were going to die of stupidity - those were fair game. She'd mock them to kingdom come if she wanted to.

She just didn't feel like laughing at this one. Maybe she was going soft.

Nah.

Kyoko stretched, like an aggressive and particularly wily cat.

"Ya think she's haunting this place?" she asked, all casual-like.

Peering down the passageway, the Magical Girl cracked her knuckles. Her grin flickered back.

"There's an awful din coming. Maybe it woke her up."

Link; Lizardfolk Cell

It wasn't the first time he had been in a cell. But he'd wanted to escape, last time.

Link sat shuddering in a corner, staring blankly at the door. Fever was eating at his brow. His shield arm was twisted. His hands lay useless by his side, swollen masses of yellowing meat. The Triforce mark palpitated beneath a blanket of welts. It hurt to move. Every second, another wave of agony rolled up his arms. He had screamed when they tore off the gloves.

Tattered, the Hero's Clothes choked his broken body. The threads of forest-green danced about his hazy vision and laughed at him.

You've lost the gloves

You've lost the sword

You've lost the shield

You've lost the boy

What else Hero

What next Hero

-Midna help me-

She wasn't there.

They were saying words. Jack and Tethrasur were saying words. He couldn't make them out. He didn't know if they really were talking. He felt scared. Helpless. Alone in his little womb of blood and pain. Selim, Selim, Selim. He was supposed to have Courage, wasn't he? Was he?

A boy's scream rang out in the cell, loud and clear.

The Hero clenched his left hand, eyes wide. The pain hit him in the base of the spine, wrung a strangled cry from his lips and reminded him that he was still alive.

Yee; Unnatural Darkness

Mindgames. They were playing games with him. Yee gasped, and the sweat on his brow turned ice-cold.

"Stay away. Stay away from them," he choked. The screams reached into his ears and wrung out his soul.

The White flared up, then sputtered. He forced it up again, gritting his teeth against the cramps that wracked his whole body.

"Get away from them."

The White writhed, twisted by the corridors of countless years. It coiled to shield Yee from the darkness, straining at the Black around it like a laboring serpent. And it flowed in, and slipped through his hands like sinking sand -

The things would sense it. Their grip was wavering, being pushed against. If they did not stop the Remnant, it would slip entirely.

Something was coming.

The song rang out again. Fluttershy heard it, louder and more desparate this time, seemingly against the group going backwards. She stopped in mid-flight, biting her lip and her ears flattening in worry. Her companions were rushing in to save Saren, but the question in the pegasus' mind was it really worth it? The turian could certainly take care of himself, and he had three others with him.....and if they did need help, they certainly did not need her, right? Not to mention the city....an entire city suffering from a terrible that would still linger even after she and the others left.....

Fluttershy made her decision.

"I'm sorry," she said to anyone still left with her, and then she travelled deeper into the ziggaraut.....

Crystal Mayhem, Yosuke

At first there was confusion, both in Yosuke’s mind and apparent on his face; the static things were faster than he’d anticipated, it seems, as it seemed to have moved Owain’s body away before he could hit, before he could free his ally, and instead took the blow itself. Not what he’d intended, but seeing as this little tv static bastard seemed to be the one responsible for the binds (at least on Owain), taking it down and saving the swordsman would be one and the same.

And at any rate, now that he’d started something, he had to finish it; he seemed to have captured its interest, if its… Glaring? He couldn’t tell, not with those eyes it had. All he knew is that it seemed to be looking him dead in the eyes, and for a brief moment it seemed his awareness dulled slightly. There was something… Invasive about its hollow stare, like something was boring into his mind. For a brief second, something didn’t feel quite right about this…

Yosuke let out a sharp gasp, snapped out of these musings by the sudden pain shooting up his left arm, pulling it away as he moved back from his opponent. It was then he noticed the numbness - and loosened grip - in his hand, and the greyish hue it had taken. Another chill ran up his spine as he attempted to tighten his grip on the knife in his left hand, to no real avail. A partial paralysis - he could still grip, move, although the grip was weak, and its movements labored.

Guess he wouldn’t be blocking with that anytime soon. Just what the hell were these things, and what in the fuck did it do to his arm? The seeds of panic began to to sprout again as he strafed to the right to avoid the static soldier’s bayonet.

He had to stay long range, he didn’t want to find out what would happen if that thing touched him again.

But shit, it had a gun. As fast as he was, Yosuke wasn’t convinced he could outrun a bullet, even if he had Jiraiya give him a boost.

And frankly, at present, with all of the stimuli assaulting his mind and the panic rising, creeping, weakening his mental strength and defenses, he wouldn’t have been able to focus enough to bring his Persona out.

But he could still fight at range.

He backstepped a few times, creating a bit of distance between himself and his foe as he fixed his primary weapons to his belt. He then quickly reached into his jacket, pulling out three or four varied kinds of knives and kunai seemingly out of nowhere, before leaping up into the air and throwing them down in a rain of blades - fast, but still escapable or parryable to those who were quick and skilled enough to do so.

I embellished a bit, and I'm not sure if he'd perceive what Yee's doing in some way; if so, I can edit.

edited 22nd Jul '14 3:39:47 PM by Motree

"You know, for someone with phenomenal cosmic powers," Edward said, clapping his hands and transforming his automail back to normal. "She sure likes to taunt instead of jumping right into action." He walked towards the stairs, leaning over to investigate them. "No other way but down. Nana Karas, stay in the middle, so you don't get ambushed." He told the group before heading into the stairs.

???

Pride waited until there was a considerable distance between him and the beings, moving forward by sticking to the walls, hiding in the shadows as much as possible. He moved towards the body of the being who could not hold his tongue, taking his shredded black robe and wrapping himself in it. As he had no heartbeat due to the lack of a certain organ known as 'the heart', Pride could easily pass off as a dead being in case someone came his way- and the robe would certainly help.

Using his shadows as scouts, Pride followed the beings, looking out of the robes through some of the holes in the robe that had been created by whatever had taken that being's life. And as he continued forward, he used his shadows to take one last look and see what this 'Watcher' had done to said being.

Eastern Passage

The woman's chanting was enough to send the hairs on Luigi's arm all the way up, and he complimented that by freezing, his face melting in complete fear as he followed Sazh, sticking as close to him as possible, to the point that when Fluttershy ran away, all Luigi did was raise one finger, say the word 'a' before going back to staying under Sazh's shadow.

Owain quickly rolled his left shoulder and adjusted his grip on Missiletainn, he didn't want to let using his sword with one hand hamper his performance after all. He stole a brief moment to glance over at Yee and the White surrounding him. Well, he thought, Here I was worrying that I'd goofed up when that thing scraped against my back. Good to know he can still fight back despite those strings all around him.

Worries somewhat alleviated, he turned to face Yosuke with his utmost attention. Defense and battle were Owain's main priority now, and he couldn't let his focus falter again should something other than his arm be the next target. As Owain saw it, if whatever Yee was doing over there failed, he'd have to fend Yosuke off of him first if he wanted to make an attempt to cut away the strings holding him.

He's backing up, Owain thought as he watched Yosuke, And more knives? Where does he even... he's going to throw them! Thankfully for Owain, he's had plenty of experience escaping out of an arrow's or a spell's line of fire, even though this was more than just a single knife, to him it could be equated to a particularly large fire or lightning spell. When Yosuke let the knives rain down he deftly leaped back, just out of their range.

Dusknoir held onto Sabrina, refusing to let her be taken. Why did he try to save her first? The thought stirred up some things and Dusknoir set it aside. He had no time to reconsider his own thoughts. Her Pokemon, Alakazam's Pokeball must be on her somewhere, him trapped and unable to assist. But as he considered finding the Pokeball, the enemy in some kind of human form.. though it was neither human or pokemon.. made a move and attacked with a weapon. "Dusknoir.." It would be dangerous to let him get close with that weapon while trying to protect someone. So his stomach mouth opened up, and he formed a Shadow Ball, his most powerful move, and launched it to meet the dagger.

Gogol Plains, Burial Complex

"No kidding."

Leo's blades folded back into his limbs. No point in standing around pondering what Tzitzimitl's words all meant.

Grabbing whatever might have been left of their old torches, or looking for new sticks of wood to burn; Leo grabbed whatever lone wooden object would work as a torch and dipped it in one of the brazier's odd purple flames.

"No point in going in without a light." Leo muttered as he followed Ed to the staircase.

"They don't look too happy." Xigbar muttered as he winced at their torment wrought by the hands of his group, knowing that they did what they had to do to survive against the onslaught of the monstrous swarm. Seeing them rearing to attack with their slurred battle cry, he exclaimed, "Aaaaand I think we overstayed our welcome boys. We better get a move on before we become their next meal."

He retreated ahead of the group to where the lethal spikes had remained in place, looking less likely to simply move around them to reach the other side. "Ohhhh, I don't have time for this!" he cried in annoyance, throwing up a Corridor of Darkness that connected to the other end of the dangerous hall to safely guide them through. He skidded to a stop and made sure to let the others go past him so he could close the portal behind himself. "Alright, everyone goes in before me. I'll close it behind me once you're all through, in the mean time..." he trailed off as he stood to face the terrible foe once more.

"I'll hold them off." He finished, throwing a Magnera into the heart of the swarm for a full grab of all of the insects before dropping a Gravity spell on them. He was still weakened from taxing himself earlier and if he could buy enough time for them to escape, then he'd use everything he had to ensure their escape. It was funny, really. Him, trying to assist his allies to cover their escape while fighting what appeared to be a lost cause. And no matter how hard they struck, their enemy was far more relentless to ensure their deaths.

But, if he had to sacrifice his own existence to deny the pleasure of them taking it from all of theirs...

"Then what better way to end it on my terms!" he shouted out loud. And so, once his allies got past him, he pulled on what little he had left in his pool of magical reserves and pushed. Suddenly, a new wall came up into existence, barring his allies from himself and the swarm before him. He then erected a new wall behind the swarm to ensure they wouldn't escape from him, whether they wanted to or not. "You know, this was probably the absolute worst idea I've ever come up with." he spoke to the swarm evenly, his cocky attitude all but vanished.

"And I've had some pretty bad ones too, so hopefully this will be my last bad idea." he added as he took a step forward, unflinchingly in the face of his enemy. His gaze steeled with determination as he spoke, "This will be the end of both us and even though I die now, I'm making sure you get squashed like the disgusting bugs you are!"

His form glowed as he took another step forward, his hands clenching tightly as he forced everything magical (even himself as well) into this last spell. This spell was largely untested, having both the properties of his Gravity and Magnet spells, being used in unison like this. What he was about to unleash would bring down the remaining hall around them into a collapsed dense ball before releasing its destructive energies, most likely to end the both of them in the process. This explosion would most likely to be felt throughout the entire stony complex through various levels of magnitude. This was his final act of desperation...and hope.

edited 27th Jul '14 6:33:03 PM by VoidsEmpathy

The Doctor glares at Saren. "Can you break the traps the other way next time? So there isn't spikes for us to dodge! We've got wasps on one end and a spiked game of limbo on the other! You had to block off Samus, didn't you?" He laughs and chuckles a bit revealing he's not truly mad at Saren. "Our hero. Great tactical planning from the SPECTRE."

He sighs. "Let's go..."

As he prepares to move through the spikes, he hears Xigbar's speech. He sighs sadly. There's nothing I can do to stop this. Ughhh. "I'll see you in the Crystal City, Xigbar. It's been an honor to fight with you. Relax in the city, please."

edited 28th Jul '14 10:47:27 PM by Fusionman