At Intervals: the MMFRPG Reboot

Looks like this wasn't the time to use the bomb. The giant was way more active now—well, compared to its previous slack-jawed mouth-drooling dormancy—and now was not the time to figure out clever ways to blow it up. Caleb would have to deal with this the more direct way.

He pulled out his flare gun. He'd normally shy from using this weapon, seeing as they were in a forest full of flammable trees, but the giant was such a sluggish and colossal target that Caleb didn't feel he could miss.

He moved around the giant, and fired a flare into the top of its cranium, hoping that its explosion would damage the thing's brain (what little there was) enough for it to become more docile or even dead.

Our cover - what was left of it, at least - had been completely blown open.

The crack of multiple layers of bone and tissue buckling from the impact of Sveta's punch was almost immediately drowned out by the sudden sonic boom produced as a result. Birds burst from the trees in a squawking, panicking cloud. Still tearing at the thing's truck-sized heel, I felt the giant stand still, swaying stunned for a few seconds.

Then, I felt it begin to topple over.

I jumped hard as it keeled over, tripping on my paws I scrabbled to safety. Time seemed to slow down as the giant fell. I could see every pore on the thing's head as it came screaming out of the sky toward me, it's swimming-pool eyes almost glaring at me as I scrambled to safety.

The giant was down, at least; it flailed around impotently like a gigantic, horrible baby, struggling to try and get back onto its feet as it tried to grab the first thing it could bring its massive fist down on. Some of my teammates were already piling onto it in an attempt to finish it off. The problem was that, in doing so, we had made enough noise to alert all of Extremus that we were on our way to stage another raid. We probably only had a few minutes to get ready before backup arrived. And, if this giant was only some kind of border sentry, I had no idea what kinds of weapons and soldiers the Bloodhounds might be keeping in reserve.

I took a step forward and winced in pain. With the adrenaline ebbing out of my system, I realized that I had broken my right hindleg in the scramble to escape. A lance of bone poked out from the tattered remnants of my leg. Just as well. A wolf wasn't going to cut it here.

<Get ready for the next round, guys.> Hair receded into my pink skin, my tail and paws disappeared. <They've probably heard us by now, and->

"they'll probably be sending some kind of recon force to see what's happened up here." I instinctively dropped my voice to a whisper as my human vocal chords snapped back into place. If we're lucky, I added mentally. For all I knew, somebody could be powering up the Bloodhound equivalent to the orbital Dracon cannon and getting ready to atomize us from a million miles away. Tobias, Ax, I need you to-" I stopped suddenly. Memory was suddenly getting the better of me.

Focus on the mission.

"JAKE, STOP HER!"

I shook myself mentally and continued, hoping that nobody paid attention to the slip up. I missed having Tobias keeping watch overhead, especially in this kind of situation. "If we can get as many people as we can into the treetops quickly, we might be able to keep the element of surprise." I was already morphing as I spoke, looking at the amount of people we still had on the ground. "How many of you can climb trees, and can any of you help the people who can't into the treetops?"

My skin turned green and tough, cracking like old leather left out in the sun. Soft human nails hardened into wickedly hooked claws. Then came the blades: one, two, three, popping out of my wrist and elbow bones like switchblades locking into place. My bare feet splayed apart into curving, bird-like talons. My entire body grew taller and taller - six feet, seven feet, now seven and a half feet of pure muscle and hyper-dense bone marrow.

I had become a Hork-Bajir, a member of an alien race genetically engineered to live in trees. Normally, they're peaceful, gentle, simple creatures. Their razor-sharp blades harvest tree bark to eat. But with a Yeerk - or a human - in control of their body, they became formidable hand-to-hand combatants. I was already moving toward the nearest tree as the last of the morph finished. I crouched, coiled my spring-like muscles, and jumped - my stomach momentarily sinking with the inertia as I bounded several feet straight up onto the nearest tree trunk- before grappling myself onto the rough bark of the big pine. I hooked my blades into the bark like climbing pitons and started to shimmy up as high as I could, keeping alert for any signs of the inevitable Bloodhound reinforcements that could pour in at any moment.

edited 20th Jul '14 11:44:30 AM by Locoman

"I was trying to freeze it enough so it would stop moving!" Sypha glared at Sveta as the Giant began to get angry, so she continued freezing the creature since that did seem to be working better than everyone else's attacks besides Sveta's. "We should flee and find another spot quickly."

edited 19th Jul '14 9:42:45 PM by GameGuruGG

"Got that!" Soul yelled to Sveta, grabbing Maka's hand and throwing himself into the air, spinning and transforming into a scythe mid-spin, landing neatly on his Meister's hand. "Let's go, Maka! Show that guy who he's dealing with!"

"How do you know, huh? Do you speak giant?!" Aang yelled, spinning his staff as he attempted to create another gust of air, this one stronger so it would blow the sword out of the air. "If you injure him, you could ruin any chances of trying to talk to him! He could help us complete our task!"

Tenten growled under her breath and moved one of her fingers. The now off target sword was suddenly yanked back to her on a near invisible wire. She caught the weapon and stabbed it into the ground, relieved that it wasn't lost like the kunai from before. Good swords were hard to come by.

"That friendly giant of yours almost killed some of us! If it wanted to help, why didn't it back off when we attacked?" Tenten said to Aang, losing her patience. "Look, I'm not an ambassador or a pacifist, I'm a soldier!" And a trained assassin, but that wasn't important right at the moment. "My job is to take down whatever is trying to hurt the team, and right now, it's that thing. If you have a solution that won't kill it or us in the process, I'd love to hear it!"

With the Giant sonic boom rattling the area, Medicballs ignored the stealth of the mission, it was broken anyway, and launched himself towards his teammates. He came upon the most recent speaking as he approached, that the Giant might still be good. But from the way communications earlier the Giant had attacked. But from the way it sounded, the thing was too dumb to talk to and probably innocent.

Still, there was time to salvage, it was time he tried to take charge and roll some dice. "Listen up!" Medicball regretfully took his plush doll and figure and dropped them on the ground, running them over and blasting them with his Booster. "The mission was stealth. Now all of you. Get out of here fast and don't get seen." Medicball's turned to Aang. "You aren't with us, they don't know who you are and they might not have data on me, but I'm a mass produced model anyway. You and I are going to save his life from these fatal injuries. You saw this guy attacked and fought off the one attacker." Medicball boosted into the air and blasted himself to the giant's head, shouting to the others. "We will be your distraction to complete the mission. Now move!" Medicball's Medigun lit up with pink energy as she charged and shot pink hearts into the giant's wounds.

edited 31st Jul '14 1:54:22 AM by StephanReiken

"Maybe it doesn't understand you! Maybe it's scared! How would you feel like if a bunch of small scary-looking creatures making funny noises started attacking you when you accidentally hurt one of them?!" Aang yelled back, and when Medicball started actually helping the creature, the boy nodded and smiled at him. "Thank you! But... I don't know how to heal! What do you want me to do, do you want me to lead it off somewhere else?"

Sveta rammed her beast form fist into the hand of whatever the giant trying to trap her, attempting to hold it off from her. She gave a small growl that would hopefully communicate her message of "Please help."