At Intervals: the MMFRPG Reboot

Tenten nodded, agreeing with Marc's plan. It was good that they had a dedicated tactician, it made things a little simpler on missions. Tenten had only led a team a few short times in her career, and even if that mission was far easier than this one, it was still a hard task telling people what to do. She respected someone who could do that all the time.

But she still found herself amused as she watch Marc struggle to climb a simple tree- for a ninja, at least. Temporarily sheathing her swords, Tenten hopped onto the branch Marc had been reaching for. "At your service, Captain," she said jokingly, holding out a hand to grab.

"Got it, boss!" Oswald saluted to Marc. The rabbit leaped off Soul's back - *CRRRRUNCH* - he landed on some leaves with a look as if he accidentally landed and presumably broke something extreme fragile. He then made an angry look before pulling out his ears and legs and swapping their placements. Surprisingly, the toon's ears were able to support him. Just as surprisingly, his steps were now almost completely silent as he traverse through the forest floor.

edited 2nd Jul '14 9:47:45 AM by UdtheImp

Sveta nodded in response to the plan. "I understand." She proceeded to leap up, grab onto a branch and flip herself up, over and onto it before proceeding through the trees after Oswald.

<Are you sure about this?> I asked Rall as I heard him relay Marc's orders telepathically. <I don't even think it knows that I even exist. It's just kind of squatting in a clearing, staring up at the sky and ignoring everything around it.> I explained. <It hasn't moved since I first saw it. If I couldn't hear it breathing I wouldn't have even thought it was alive.> Still, Marc wanted me to try and communicate with it, so it looked like I'd need to be an inter-species diplomat once again. I slowly walked toward the giant, adopting the flat-eared and hunchbacked profile of a low-ranking wolf to make myself appear as unthreatening as possible. Marc seemed to be enthusiastic (and perhaps overly-optimistic) about trying to peacefully negotiate with it, but then again she was safe on the other side of the hill, far away from any potential retaliation. I wasn't quite as enthusiastic about being our liason; frankly, it seemed like it would be a lot easier to simply go around the creature, who still had shown no sign of any conscious activity.

<Marc said that I should try and communicate with it before we do anything else,> I explained to the motley group of human girls and monsters behind me; hopefully they had also heard Marc's idea to try and open a dialogue between our two sides. <If... something happens to me, then you need to alert the others before anything else. It's more important that you finish the mission.> If nothing else, I told myself, I could at least give him a sore finger before I died.

I took a deep breath before taking a few more steps toward it. I had negotiated with more than a few alien species during the war; all of them were completely inhuman in their appearance and attitude and more than a few of them were not overly fond of humanity. Somehow, looking back, none of them unnerved me so much as this titanic and misshapen thing. As I drew closer, I saw the frozen, unmoving leer on its face, somewhere between predatory leer and painted clown grin, and twice as unnerving for it. I was just about level with the giant's enormous feet now, practically gagging on every breath I took as that unnatural smell almost overwhelmed my sensitive nose.

Now was as good as any to make some kind of first contact.

<Hello?> I called up to it, trying to keep my voice steady while making sure that my allies back in the woods could also hear what I was broadcasting to the giant. <Do you speak English? Can you understand the words I am using?> Now I just needed to hope that his reply didn't come in the form of a fist crashing into the ground.

edited 3rd Jul '14 8:22:25 AM by Locoman

Medicball listened to the plan, whicch did not include him at all. Well, he was medical personnel, he was normally expected to figure things out for himself and to be in the right place at the right time to resolve medical emergencies. So he took off away from the others so as to not arouse suspicion from the unknown target. He couldn't be absolutely quiet, so he chose to stay away from the potential battlefield and hovered along the edge, watching his radar to keep track of his allies.

Dobermaxx, hearing what Marc mentioned, drew out his Garapata pistol and pulled the slide to do a brass check.

It's loaded. Time to move out.

The OCB agent took cover behind the nearest tree, using it to shield himself from the giant's view in case it may view him as a hostile. He peeked out and darted to another tree, taking care to hide his body completely from behind the tree trunk.

The giant dows respond to the voice, but there's nothing coherent in the reaction. Its movements are unfocused and confused, like a like a dog listening to a radio - there's a twitch around the muscles of the neck, a certain tilting of the head and focussing of the eyes, but nothing more conclusive. Its gaze doesn't move, and the connection with the wolf sniffing around its feet goes entirely unmade. Whatever passes for thought in that head, the sky seems to be attracting every bit of it.

But then, ponderously, quietly, it looks down and to the right, dropping eyes level with the trees covering the hill to its west. It doesn't sniff the air, not exactly, but there's an obvious moment of consideration happening somewhere behind those eyes, something being calculated and checked against prior knowledge.

Then a foot leaves the ground and it starts shuffling, pace relatively slow but magnified by the sheer length of its legs. As the trees ripple with its passing and the slow beat of its footsteps becomes more purposeful, the direction becomes obvious; May's tree.

edited 7th Jul '14 6:07:46 PM by TheMalignancy

For a few seconds, I wondered if my attempt to communicate via thought-speak had worked; the giant sat with its feet stubbornly planted in the ground, still stupidly gazing up at the sky like some kind of fifty-foot lobotomy victim. It was probably a stupid gamble expecting the thing to speak English or even speak an intelligible language at all, considering its apparently mindless demeanor.

Then, after a few more seconds, it moved. That big, malformed head on its meaty neck slowly swivelled, first down at the ground and then, more ominously, to the trees beyond- the stand of trees that Lucina and May were using as cover. For one moment, I swore that I could see that malevolent, greedy glint of a predator on the hunt, putting together two and two for the first time. I leaped backwards a second before a gigantic, warty foot nearly took my head off, then wheeled around and started running. The monster wasn't moving particularly fast. It didn't need to. Even moving at its current, ambling gait, it would reach Beryl and the others at the portal in only a few gigantic footsteps.

If nobody tried to head it off first.

I was already drawing level with the giant's foosteps, hoping to buy time. Even just a few seconds might prove crucial as our allies made their way up through the woods. I was barking and howling like a rabid animal, trying to trip him up with every step he took while simultaneously trying not to get crushed myself.

<Lucina! May!> I shouted with every ounce of mental fortitude I could muster. <Get out of the way, NOW!> Hopefully they had already seen what was coming for them. If not... a million horrible scenarios were already running through my head as the giant drew closer toward the edge of the clearing. <We need to-> I dodged another boulder-sized footstep. <We need to slow him down before the others arrive, find some way to trip him or impede him from moving. I'm going to try and hamstring him.> Try being the operative word, here.

As the giant's foot swung back into view over my head, I bounded up onto the back of its tree-sized left leg and began ripping into it with every ounce of ferocity I could muster, the way a wolf might try and bring a big animal down. Blood splashed across my face and fur as I struggled to tear through its tough skin.

<We need reinforcements!> I mentally broadcasted to Rall and the others while I struggled to hamstring the beast, <Something set off the giant, and he's headed your way.> At the rate things were going, I had no idea how much firepower it would take to bring down something of this size - and whether or not we had brought enough to do it.

edited 7th Jul '14 6:16:00 PM by Locoman

Keeping largely quiet but infinitely amused by the seemingly serious situation suffering silliness as the group's inability to remain coherent or professional, Gene has stuck himself to rear guard duty and had kept himself in the back of the group when they had finally moved out. It would allow him to react to anything that close. Unfortunately someone managed to get the drop on them anyway, but considering that they weren't hostile they didn't have anything to worry about at the moment. Even if they did, the brawler would be happy to squash the bald teenager if he wasn't on the level.

As he kept up, the God Hand seemed somewhat amused yet unsurprised when jake gave a report of running into a giant. Sure, the idea of a giant seemed odd in his world, but the martial artist knew that nothing was out of reach of this wasteland. It currently wasn't doing anything, but it was unlikely something that was known in myths to be hostile toward people was just going to sit there, and the God Hand was already spoiling for a fight . He was debating whether to wait for the orders or just attack it regardless when Jake was shouting via brainwave that the giant was going straight for them. The shapeshifter may have been frantic and fearful, but Gene was excited. As he saw the movement of a large object through the dense foliage, he bounded over the others who stayed behind, super strength sending him into a tree, and he looked upon his enemy and-

"Whoa, that's a big guy" Gene stated the obvious, but the size of the giant was not what he expected. He's fought big things before, Angra came immediately to mind, but this was BIG and it wasn't a god demon like Angra was. Just a really big, and ugly as all get out, humanoid. At least 'giant' wasn't a misnomer. He was now questioning if he could beat this creature with just his fist. Either way, if it was going to attack them, then they had not choice but to use what they got.

"Just say the words, and I'll knock it's block off" He announced to those near to the tree, and the deistic brace was already glowing with radiant energy. It was largely just a formality, thought. Whether they wanted him to fight it or not, he would be throwing his attack if the giant kept going for them.

Oswald stopped when he heard something big incoming.

With his ears closer to the ground, heard something huge lift off the ground.......

He heard the wind moving as a massive leg went through the air.......

The rabbit then saw the giant itself. It was utterly hideous. The toon was comparing it to someone trying and failing to correctly make a bootleg Ken doll and only succeeded in salvaging whatever resulted to save on resources.

".......I really hope that thing ain't bullet proof," he said.

edited 9th Jul '14 11:47:14 PM by UdtheImp

"First customer. About time," Caleb snarled, leaving the clearing and making his way through the trees towards the giant, though carefully so as not to get crushed. He felt for his trusty sawed-off under his coat, as well as a time-bomb he still had with him. "Paging doctor Caleb. One patient ready for operation...", he muttered. When he got fairly close—some fifty feet away or so, though shielded by the trees—he tried to assess the situation, thinking about how might he harm the ugly bastard, preferrably as painfully as possible, and hopefully without harming any of his allies (otherwise he'd never hear the end of their complaining.)

The bomb might come in handy in hamstringing the giant, if he could somehow make it stay on its leg for the couple of seconds necessary for its detonation.

edited 8th Jul '14 12:43:51 AM by Korodzik

"Oh, giant..." Sypha frowned, but used an ice spell on its feet to try to stop it from moving more towards May's tree. She figured that if it couldn't move, it would be easy enough to just leave there. The others had seemingly picked up some young monk in training, but otherwise there were no one else here other than them.

edited 9th Jul '14 3:13:47 PM by GameGuruGG

Kyle had remained in the trees, as still as a statue. Though he would have preferred Tenten to be less rough with the newcomer - particularly as he seemed more scared than aggressive - it seemed that everyone else had managed to help the boy adjust relatively quickly.

But now there was a bigger problem than just a confused stranger. A much, much bigger problem, if Jake's telepathic communication was any indication. Sithspit, things never turn out easy, the Jedi Master thought sourly.

Though he had no idea whether the thing was even friendly or not, Kyle prepared for a fight just in case. Hopefully he wouldn't be reduced to beating on it with his bare fists... it was bad enough the first time he had to do it. Thumbing his lightsaber's activation stud, the Jedi leapt through the canopy, his azure blade trailing a scintillating path as it thrummed with energy.

With considerable help from Tenten, Marc manages to haul herself up into her tree. From her vantage point in the tree, she can just about make out May's form. A few of the others have run off ahead - from where they are, they can probably see the giant.

The sound of giant footsteps begins to reverberate through the forest, and Jake's panicked thought-speak follows. Marc sighs, leaning carefully against the tree trunk. By all accounts, the giant isn't intelligent enough to negotiate with properly, but she's still curious about just how intelligent it is.

Still, it'd be bad for morale if she ignored Jake's warning. People tend to dislike things they don't understand, particularly if those things are likely to be dangerous. She's putting her troops at risk, too, sending them to negotiate with a completely unknown element, and they know that. It's not worth leaving the giant alive. Better to kill it, and ride the subsequent morale boost all the way to #812's camp.

"Looks like we're attacking, then," she concedes. "Rall, go find May. If it's going after her, we'll want her on the ground as long as possible, so everyone else can get close. Once it's near enough, teleport her up into the trees. Do what you need to do to keep her safe, but don't move her away too early."

There's a flicker of worry in the air, but the Gardevoir nods.

"Understood."

He disappears in a flash of light, reappearing halfway between Marc's tree and May. Another flash of light, and Marc sees him floating beside his Trainer, one hand on her shoulder.

May stands stock-still as the giant approaches, quietly loading her pistol.

"Are we attacking, then?"

"Looks like it."

"And the others are coming?"

"They're right behind us."

It's true. Jake is already tearing at the giant's heels, while Lee and Yena watch, waiting for the order that would send them to join him. It comes in the form of a hesitant nod from May, and they rush towards the giant's ankles, teeth bared as they join the shapeshifted wolf. An ice blast from Sypha accompanies them, sending crystals curling around the giant's foot. The giant is closer now, his mouth gaping in a listless smile. His teeth are enormous and blocky - no canine teeth.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? May wonders, raising her pistol with a surprisingly steady hand. She can't quite manage to find herself feeling bad about the prospect of killing the giant. On some level, she knows there might be something behind that vacant stare, some form of life that she and her group are about to snuff out, but when she looks at that gaping mouth, those hollow eyes...

She can't quite help but feel that the giant is only alive in the most generous sense of the word.

Damnit... Looks like this thing is hostile... Well then. I'd say it is time I took action.

There quite frankly, was only one way to deal with a being of this size.

Beast Form.

Next thing the giant would know he would have a humanoid wolf flying through the air to deliver a mach speed punch to the back of its head.

Dobermaxx, still darting from tree trunk to tree trunk, kept a close eye on the giant being. Even though he was considering the option of shooting it with his Garapata pistol, he needed to see the thing can take a bullet full of tick sweat in the eye.

The others should have an easy time observing thing while I move in a bit closer.

Oswald ran around the giant, trying to find somewhere for him to attack it and trying to figure out how to do so without causing noise that could be heard over the racket it was making. Unfortunately, his most damaging weapons was his shotgun, and not only it was ineffective at long range but loud as Heck as well.

When Sypha hit the creature's foot with ice magic, the rabbit had an idea. He pulled out his remote and aimed for the ice crystals, pushing the button and zapping them. The toon figured that since water conducts electricity, why can't ice, basically solid water, do the same thing?

After helping Marc up, Tenten ascended higher in the tree to see what Jake was talking about.

"Woah, what is that thing?" She was both awed and disgusted by the Titan when she got a full view of it. It was almost the size of a Tailed Beast, but far more creepy because it looked like a deformed person. And it was definitely making its way over to the portal despite the human turned wolf gnawing on its heel and having a foot covered in ice. Taking careful aim, Tenten drew a set of kunai knives from her holster and threw them at the giant's eyes, trying to blind it before moving closer into sword range.

Aang let out a quiet 'ooh' at Medicball's reply to his inquiry as to what he was made of, but when the information about the giant came to him, it got his full attention- although he wasn't exactly sure how it did get to him. "I can battle all sorts of things, trust me, but I think it's best if we see that this giant is friendly, right?" He said to Tenten and to the others. "It's always good to avoid an unnecessary fight."

He stepped forward to help Marc get up the tree, but when Tenten did the job for him, he just watched until his eyes wandered towards the giant. The boy's mouth hung open as he looked up and down, up and down, before finally making a carefully thought out assessment about the situation. "... did anyone notice this giant's naked?" Seeing that the team was making an attack, he airbended himself to the trees, landing a few branches behind Tenten. "Wait! He's not trying to hurt you, why are you attacking him?!" He chided her, trying his best to send an air blast towards the knives, hoping to knock them out of the air before they got to the giant.

Soul could barely hold his jaw as it fell to the floor, looking up and down the giant's looming body. When Aang made the comment about the giant's lack of clothes, Soul's eyes darted towards that area, and when he noticed what wasn't there, he immediately closed his mouth and covered it with his hands, trying to hold back laughter at how incredulous the giant looked.

By the gods, it covers ground fast.

Lucina couldn't say she was pleased with the decision to attack the giant, especially since, for now, all it had done was walk towards them. Unnerving, yes, but not overtly hostile. But swords had been drawn and blows had been exchanged, and there was no taking them back.

What can I even do from down here? The princess thought with consternation. Her sword forms were somewhat inadequate against a foe whose vital regions were presumably many feet above her head. Her eyes fell on Jake's wolf form clawing at the thing's ankle - the shapeshifter had the right idea, perhaps.

"Rall, tell Marc and the others I'm going to loop around and hamstring it." She said quietly, giving May a reassuring nod as she ran past. Keeping as many trees between herself and the enemy as possible, she circled around the clearing, looking for an opening to break cover and strike at its heels. She winced, her blood chilling, as she heard the whoosh-crack of one of her allies attacks - that was far too loud. We may have just lost the element of surprise...

At first the giant completely ignores the magic working its way from its ankle up its shin, either not noticing or not caring about the ice forming faster than the heat of its skin can melt it, and carries on for a few more shuffled steps in absent-minded ignorance. But then it stumbles to a half mid stride and almost falls, face contorted in confusion at the foot suddenly unable to leave the ground.

And then, before it can recover, the follow-ups hit. Its eyes dart up at the sudden motion of of Kyle falling towards it, alerted by the sudden flare of green light, and it opens its mouth to catch him at the exact moment Tenten's knives are blown harmlessly off-course by Aang's air-bending, embedding themselves in a pine tree and a particularly unlucky squirrel. Oswald's electrocution succeeds, but aside from a low moan of discomfort and the involuntary flexing of a few toes, it barely seems to even register the singed flesh. Already the ice is melting, running into rivulets against the overwhelming heat of the giant's skin.

But just as it raises a hand to try and snatch the Jedi out of the air, Sveta comes flying in from behind, and just before she connects-

About seven hundred metres away, there is indeed a military base, carefully interwoven with the flora. It's a small affair, mostly serving as a much-needed logistical midway between the two much larger installations to the east and west, and within the concrete walls surrounding it there's not much more than a couple of modest barracks and a small network of administrative buildings pulled in from somewhere overwhelmingly grey. Were it not for the position and the timing, this place would be worthless.

As things are, the Bloodhounds have been pushing down from the north, sometimes making expansions and sometimes probing for weakness, and the entities most closely resembling the top brass want this obvious weak spot locked down tight in preparation for the shit hitting the proverbial fan. Hence the deployment of #812.

Currently on break is Captain Girth Hardpec, hard fighter, harder lover, and general paragon of the United States of Asskicking. He's a military man, he's an ass man, and he's a gambling man, currently on a winning streak of four to zero. The table in front of him is covered in tobacco-based winnings, but also the obligatory spilled peanuts and coffee rings - his opponents need a lot of caffeine to dull the pain of defeat, and there are two of them, an elf with a spectacularly shitty poker face and some kind of lizard alien that doesn't quite grasp the concept. The air isn't thick with smoke, because his CO disapproves, but it clearly wishes it was.

And as he's about to seal the deal on game number five, something out in the forest explodes. The window doesn't shatter, but it rattles dangerously in the air pressure and the sheer noise of it. The lizard falls out of its chair on reflex, teeth bared as his cards raid down on him, tail knocking his coffee all over the floor as he goes. The elf raises an eyebrow and shrugs, because he thinks it makes him look suave. There's a moment of silence and ringing ears in the aftermath, and then the birds of an entire forest lose their collective shit.

Slowly and carefully, Girth puts his cards on the table and pockets his winnings, because there's no point in wasting a flush. Then he starts shouting.

"What the fuck was that!?"

-the air breaks apart in a sonic boom. Sveta hits a home run, driving her knuckle into the giant's head like a hammer coming down on a peach. She can clearly hear the thing's skull crack, feel the fracture giving way underneath her knuckle, and a cascade of almost-boiling blood wells around her forearm where she punctured the skin. Its expression goes completely blank.

As the birds panic and give flight, the giant overbalances and falls, dragging the trees down around it as it stumbles to the ground. The impact is enormous, the weight of it digging a small trench, uprooting the rocks around its frozen foot, and for a single second the ground seems to tremble under the force of the blow.

Suddenly, there's stillness. The giant's wound steams, and the blood coating Sveta's forearm quickly evaporates. Slowly, cautiously, the birds resettle and the panic signals die down. The dust settles. In his tree, Max finally lets himself exhale.

And then, without warning, it lashes out. A hand flies to the back of its head with a wet thwack, trying to trap whatever landed there before it can escape, and in lumbering motions the giant starts trying to pull itself to its feet, face slightly saddened and head trailing steam all the way.

edited 15th Jul '14 1:09:04 PM by TheMalignancy

"I don't think it's stomping over here to ask for directions!" Tenten said to Aang when he knocked away her kunai. She hated missing, especially missing because of the wind.

She almost fell out of her tree when the giant hit the ground, but steadied herself by the time it got up again. "Ugh, this thing heals really fast..." Tenten lept down from the branch and threw one of her swords at the giant's face as it struggled to stand.

"TIM-BERRRRRRRRRRRR!!!" Oswald yelled out as the giant fell. He was incredibly impressed by Sveta's strength. If that thing was not killed outright, it sure as Hell not getting for a long -

The giant's hand suddenly shot out to grab the wolf girl. "Sure, cuz it be too easy," the rabbit said in annoyance. Seeing the ice still there on the giant's foot and was quickly melting, Oswald sent a second blast of electricity on it, hoping to at least distract it from Sveta at least.

Dobermaxx decided that he waited long enough to be in the sidelines.

Can't wait here all day.

The canine agent took aim with his Garapata pistol before he aligned the iron sights of his sidearm at the attacking Titan.

Eat this.

Dobermaxx pulled the trigger and fired two rounds at the Titan. He hoped that the bullets can inflict some hurt on the thing by using the tick sweat to make it itch.