Order of the Broken Arrow

"Well, I'm pretty sure you're not Violet either," Roland snarked, watching carefully for the man's response, "but perhaps she might know where our man is."

edited 4th Jun '12 1:28:44 AM by Pyrite

The kobold tugged on the monk's sleeve.

"What is it now, Rime?" Roland hissed, caught off-balance by the sudden distraction.

"Sorry. I've been testing my invisibility spell. Just wanted to how it was working."

"...Clearly, not very well at all."

"Have you seen me since I passed out after the potatoes?"

"...You passed out?" Roland wondered, keeping an eye on the man - ostensibly the dentist - who was still closing the door.

"Look buddy, I hadn't had a hot meal since three months prior, and I'd never had those delicious... I forget what they're called again already... in my life! I needed a nap!"

With the kobold causing a distraction, the man closed the door. At that same instant, a man's voice could be heard roaring, followed by the sound of glass breaking. Just above them and to the right, a man with black hair who was chained*

edited 7th Jun '12 7:57:55 PM by nman

"Unholy-!" Rime exclaimed. "What the heck? Are you alright? What happened?" he was spouting questions rapid-fire at the chained human.

"Me is surprised.", Mak´karath exclaimed.

Oh, this looks like trouble... Thought Karin, startled by the sudden appearance of the chained man. She dropped a hand towards her magic blade and stood back, scanning their whole surroundings for signs of trouble.

"Some dental procedure," Roland remarked, and leapt up to catch the man in mid-air, chair and all. "And who are you?"

edited 8th Jun '12 11:48:59 PM by Pyrite

Flashback Thyme

That night, Dyspepsi Arena was sold out. Twenty thousand screaming fans had come out to watch two spectacular battles of rising stars in the Slamball League's ranks. The first match turned into a crowd-pleasing brawl where the winner's blazing speed was all that prevented him from sustaining a career-threatening Swordkick from his opponent. Now, the second match, between two young guns from the west The crowd was mostly behind the Ambiguously Brown Dark Skinned Blond in the blue armor. He was a hometown hero who rose to prominence as only one of two famed Slamball players to hail from Mount Nugget. Opposing him was a tan man in purple armor about eight inches taller than the guy in blue. The announcer, a dark-skinned man with a mane of dreadlocks in black and red attire, walked up to the center of the arena.

"Lllllladiiiiiiies aaaaaaand ggggggentlemen!" he announced. "We've got a grrrrrreat matchup for this second game between 'Studly' Sonny Marotto and Antonio Mellow! The rules arrrrre as follows! This is a best two out of three match! First one to eleven points wins the round! Each round lasts two minutes! If either contestant has hired a fan to perform crowd interference duties, that fan may only attack once before returning to the sideline! Failure to observe this gives the opponent free rein to attack as he sees fit! Goaltending is forbidden in this match, but if the other guy is in midair, by all means do anything else to stop him! Mount Nugget, arrrrrrre youuuuuuuu READAAAAAAAAAAY?!"

The crowd erupted into cheers. "Thennnnnnnn let's get ready for some SLAMBAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL!" The two participants walked out onto the half-court where all of the action was about to unfold. Antonio held the silver metal ball in his right hand, ready to start the first round.

The first two rounds passed by rather uneventfully in comparison to the violent match that preceded it. Where the first match had four versions of round two because it kept ending in a tie score, this one was a fairly low-key, basic match with little opportunity for the hard hits that made Slamball so popular. Before the crowd knew it, it was round three and both players had won one round. The crowd wasn't quite ready to turn on the players yet because the third round was almost always the most interesting- and by interesting, I mean violent. The players usually pulled out all the stops to take away the ball and score the next two or three points.

Sure enough, when Antonio began the third round with his possession of the ball, he took a jab to the face after only two steps, knocking the ball loose and Mellow on his back. Antonio struggled to his feet, but by the time he was up again, Sonny had drained a short-range shot for two points. Antonio had possession again, and this time he juked out of the jab's way only to realize too late that Marotto had sent his hired fan out to attack. He found himself clotheslined, and he dropped the ball. Sonny grabbed the ball and went for a crowd-pleasing dunk. Antonio was mouthing profanities at his not thinking to hire a fan of his own. Antonio would manage to get a few shots off, but they all missed, giving Sonny the chance to sink two three-point shots. The score was now 10-0 in the desert man's favor. The crowd was getting agitated that their hometown boy was making such a mockery of himself. Antonio knew that if he messed up even once more, he could be sent off with arena-wide chants of "You Suck!"

Once again, he had possession of the ball. He went two steps, juked out of Sonny's waiting left hook, and prepared for the interfering hired fan. When he charged out, Antonio threw the ball straight up, took his hit, and waited for the ball to drop back down. It hit the fan's head and bounced into Mellow's waiting hands. The fan shook his head and went for another attack, but in doing so he forfeited his right to not get the crap beaten out of him. Mellow gave the fan a nice hard uppercut, and the fan went flying back across the sideline, clearly too dazed to continue. Mellow knew Sonny was approaching, so he turned and gave the purple-clad foe a swift jab in the face before charging past and dunking to get on the board.

Sonny opened with possession, but Antonio was more than willing to grab and throw his opponent aside to jar the ball away, get to his sweet spot, and drain the three-pointer. The next few seconds went very much the same. Soon after, Mellow slam-dunked the score to 10-10. The crowd was going wild. Chants of "Bring down the house! Bring down the house!" started and refused to stop. The not-so-studly man in the purple armor took the ball to the far end of the half-court and prepared for what was surely the last moments of the game.

"You know," said Antonio before his opponent started to dribble the ball, "I think you'd better step aside and let a real stud handle this."

This threw Studly off his game. He forgot the ball entirely and charged in with a shoulder to the chest. The blow connected, and Antonio tumbled back. Soon he was back on his feet, and he charged to retaliate, only to find himself countered with a shove to the chest. Antonio returned the favor with a roundhouse to the face. From then on, it was all-out brawling, as the two slamballers traded blows, matching hit for hit until the announcer finally intervened.

"You have fifteen seconds left in the round!" he yelled. "Shoot! The damn! BALL!"

Boh players dived for the ball, with Sonny barely grabbing it. He dashed for the hoop, Antonio right behind him. They both jumped up, Sonny to end the game, Antonio to hit Sonny. Antonio's flying kick slammed into Sonny at just the right moment, knocking the other man into the hoop, where he crashed headfirst into the backboard and fell to the ground. Antonio reached up, grabbed the ball, and slammed it down through the net for the victory.

He realized he was too sprawled out. He had to grab hold of something, anything. He grabbed the rim and held on for dear life, pulling the entire basket down to the floor and crashing, sprawled out on his stomach. The crowd was going absolutely nuts and chanting "Human Rocket!" The announcer came forward.

"We have a special announcement for you," said the announcer. "Your winner today, in three rounds, Annnnntoooonioooooo Mmmmmmelloooooowwwwww, has just been accepted into the Order of the Broken Arrow!" Everyone other than the announcer gasped, and all was silent for a moment before the crowd burst into the loudest cheers yet. Studly Sonny was off to the side, looking stunned and pissed off that he had lost like this. People were running to congratulate Antonio, but he didn't notice because he had passed out from sheer exhaustion.

One Week Later

Antonio woke up in his bed at the Order's headquarters. He knew what this meant. He was still alive. If he was still alive, then he would have to go on his first mission. Well, this would be interesting. He got up from his bed, put on the suit of Slamball armor, and walked out, wondering what assignment he'd get.

edited 13th Jun '12 7:35:09 PM by TestYourMight

In response to the kobold and monk's questions, the man simply yelled "I'M GONNA RIP THAT LEPRECHAUN'S ARMS OFF." With that, he started to pull at the chains while still in Roland's grasp, and added "Violet's still up there! And the little bastard's got an anti-magic orb."

edited 9th Jun '12 9:26:37 AM by nman

"Son of pit-fiend, I hate those things... You've got to do something creative to get around them..."

Jian Yu was not entirely sure what a leprechaun was; she had heard a few tales of them, but had never actually encountered one.

Unfortunately, she was not sure she would be of much use, especially if an anti-magic orb was present. Sighing, she reached over and helped untangle the man from the chair. For now, that was all she could do.

"The first step should be to destroy the anti-magic orb," she said, "But we cannot use magic to do it." She looked over at Roland, knowing that the orb would be deadly to him or Mak'karath. "We need a plan."

"You could get Violet out there, then me tear house down.", Mak´karath suggested as he aplied the chains to himself.

The man groaned as Jian Yu and Mak´karath helped him out of the chair and chains. "It doesn't stop all magic, he can still use his own. I'll just beat... into pulp... " he passed out. A line of blood dripped down from his hair, where a piece of glass had wedged itself in.

"I like that option." Rime smiled at the golem.

Ten Days Ago

"Mellow? So you've finally decided to wake up for us, hmm?" said the old doctor in the hall. "Kid, you were out a lot longer than we expected, and the Swordmaster's already got my nuts in a vicegrip - he had to send out the rest of your group to Engate's Keep without you, half a week ago - it's been quite the shitstorm."

edited 9th Jun '12 4:06:49 PM by nman

Ten Days Ago

"Really?" said Antonio. "Wow. I didn't think I took that hard of a beating back when I played 'Studly' Sonny." He made air quotes as he said "Studly." "People said I was a Glass Cannon before, but damn! I didn't know how true that was until now. I figure some of that has to do with getting the gem inserted right afterwards. So, Doc, what can I do now that I've got the gem sewed in me somewhere?"

Ten Days Ago

"Hells, it'll be my ass if the Swordmaster sees you... Oh, that's it. Follow me." He walked back to Antonio's bed, and pulled a few parchments off of a table, thumbing through them. "Your orders are still here - even if you weren't awake at the time, you still got them, and luckily they were never cancelled." He looked around to make sure no one was listening in. "Look, I'm not telling you to go off on your own and try to get to the keep using this map of the area, but because your assignment hasn't been changed, it certainly wouldn't be against any rules for you to simply go there yourself. If anyone asks, you never saw me, got it?"

Ten Days Ago

"Got it," said Antonio. "Thanks, Doc. But, uh...where do I get my weapons and stuff? Don't I get a sword or something?"

Ten Days Ago

"Right, right." The old man looked around again. He led Antonio to the armory door, as well as giving him directions to the kitchen. "Just grab what you need. There should be some swords and axes and shields in there."*