Lucha Libre goddess
Starfire-Death star-Heavy damage
The princess barely had some moments to look up. She was able to fly away from the orb and avoid being insta-killed.
But as she flew away the shock wave of the explosion caught her pushing her from the back Starfire fell to her knees.
She tried to get up, but she was barely able to stand on her two feet. The titan was panting heavily and she had one eye closed. The princess touched her hurt left arm in pain as she panted heavily.
With what remained of her strength, Starfire shoot a beam of green energy from her eyes towards the emperor. As soon as her attempted attack ended she knelt in the floor againtrying to regain her breath.
Make your hearth shine through the darkest night; let it transform hate into kindness, evil into justice, and loneliness into love.
The Jet Trooper fighting Arachne turned as the web slinger flipped upward, seeing the incredibly odd rope like thing and taking a guess as to her intent. He was not fact enough to turn around to counter, but his movement would make mounting him difficult for the moment. Flying back some feet from the impact, he would twist to bring himself to a halt. Then he raised his weapon and fired, not at the woman herself, but her web, figuring that sending her into the pit below worked just as well as a kill.
The Jet Trooper near Celty had no chance at all to properly react, and as the tendrils went into his backpack, he dropped his rifle as his jetpack was disabled and he went careening backwards. Apparently not giving up, he started reaching for a secondary blaster pistol to continue the attack.
The Dark Trooper stood his ground as the blast hit, pushing him back but not dislodging him as his feet scraped against the metal floor. However, the blast did cause him to lose hold of the blade, and he had been pushed back a considerable distance.
"Get down!"
Suddenly a missile impacted the back of the Dark Trooper. Ramna's position and distance would shield her from the main blast and the worst of the shockwave it caused. The hit, however, caused it to turn to face its attacker, Lady. It raised its wrist again, and another rocket fired out, forcing her to dive behind cover with a curse. However, Ramna now had a clear opening to make a move.
Nyarly raised his staff to meet the blast, negating a portion of its power. Yet, it was still doing damage, although Nyarly was apparently not threatened enough to evade as he likely could have, given the warning he had of the attack due to the speech.
How amusing. What is a promise but empty words on the wind, so often forgotten and broken by the humans who utter them? As for the girl, I wonder. Have you never once stopped to ask yourself why you are so drawn to her and her alone, machine? A girl who you had yet to even meet? Do you think it a bond, friendship, love?
He took a moment to shake his head even as he continued to be impacted by the blast. The truth of it is that it is a simple matter, machine. Deep in that pitiful excuse of a thing that mimics a human heart, you know why it is you are drawn to her. A failure of your own creation. What will she say, I wonder, when she finds out the truth of what happened 10 years ago?
Meanwhile, the Emperor focused on the charging witch, only to suddenly be shot. The shot impacted in the chest, but it seemed this was not enough to fell the Emperor yet. He had enough time to let loose a short blast of lightning at Sypha before he was again hit by an eye blast, this time impacting the window above his throne before he fell out of sight behind the throne.
Once the demons he'd been chatting with had left, Dante turned his attention to another group of newcomers who'd just finished chatting with The Cure. Thus, the group of assorted adventures would find Dante approching them, waving.
"Hey, new people, what's up? Name's Dante, demon hunter. I take it big, red, and ugly already explained everything to you all?"
Nero stopped to take a look at the newcomer when the word "vampire" was mentioned. He didn't look quite like what he'd have imagined Dracula looking like, so maybe it wasn't the big guy himself. Before he could ask about it, however, Nora suddenly went off on a tangent before pulling out-
Holy shit, was was a grenade launcher that was also a fucking warhammer?
Nero's jaw dropped for several seconds as he halfway processed what the girl was saying before he picked it back up.
"Er, I don't think that's how it works, usually things die when you shoot or crush them enough. No need to exploit weaknesses if you got enough firepower. But, erm, I gotta ask, where the hell do I get me a gun like that? Cause holy shit, that's insane. Warhammers aren't really my thing, but for that, I'll comprise."
Slave 1's windows, being speced for operation in space and tough enough to survive reentry force, naturally were insanely strong. Even the powerful bullets of Ruby's gun did little more then put a small, almost unnoticeable crack in the window. Behind the window, the driver chuckled a little, happy to see someone in this city ready to put up a fight. It meant he got to charge more on the check. He reached for a red button.
Suddenly, from both sides of the ship, a single rocket fired at the girl, homing in on her. Perhaps a little overkill, but Fett was working on a tight timetable and he did not have time to waste screwing around.
The plan, more or less worked as planned. On the comms, frantic communication was audible.
"What's going on? We've been betrayed?"
"Someone get the commander on the line!"
"I can't get through!"
"That's because his office just blew up, you idiot! He's probably dead!"
"Someone get a hold of Command!"
"What about Fett? He's a tratior!"
"Then why is he still fighting that rebel outside?"
Suffice it to say, not much was going to be accomplished by them for a while.
Meanwhile, the commander picked himself off the ground slowly. He had enough warning of an incoming attack with the death of his door guards and the second before the grenade exploded to leap out of the window, but he had not escaped without damage, having damaged a leg. He reached for his comms to dispute the claim "he" had just made, only to find the landing had broken it.
Cursing, he tossed it away and limped to the nearest first floor window. Walking away from the building was just asking to be picked of by his assassin if they checked the body. He needed to get back inside, find one of his men, and regain control of the situation. Breaking the window with a fist, he cleared away the class with his blaster before climbing inside.
"WHAT." Blinking her eyes and gyrating through the air like a rampant buzzsaw as the momentum blasted her away from the trooper while hearing that she had to be involved with magic, the girl calculated the overall trajectory of the bottle of thrown holy water before catching the container before timing the resultant skidding motion even further back on the bridge while spinning end over end, painting the walkway literally red with blood.
"Aw man, that ain't nothing." Despite her overall bravado, losing that much blood wasn't something that helped at all in this situation. Gritting her teeth and lowering the temperature enough to congeal the wound while staggering slightly from both pain and wastage of precious bodily fluids, the girl crouched and got ready to act once more in case the action didn't pan out as hoped, ready to throw the container at the shadow bridge once there were enough attacks to push the Trooper onto the solid dark construct in question.
"Hey, who's the cool guy with the cool duds?" Remarking in a semi-narcissistic tone as he saw Dante come nearby, the tall gunslinger Capensis gave a whistle of appreciation at the fine duds and cool style being sported by the demonslayer before being smacked upside the head by Ryunmei as the martial artist gave a sigh of exasperation. Though even she was beginning to wonder if white haired people in leathers is some kind of fashion statement or something.
"Well met, Dante. I am Baron and these are my good comrades of the Arad Explorers party." Giving a slight nod to the fighter of the fell, the swordsman gave his affirmation. "Yes, the Cure here has been ever so kind-" The last word in particularly was said with an intonation that indicated distaste, "to show us the ropes so to speak. Though at the very least he is fair enough to give us carrot along with stick for our efforts. Also, demon slaying is a good profession. Me and the good brother over there in particular specialize in destroying them." Indicating Jeda's presence with his blighted arm, Baron looked like he was rather at ease with discussing the trade with a fellow hellspawn killer.
edited 4th Apr '17 7:30:33 PM by Makaioh
Lucha Libre goddess
Starfire-Imperial Room
Starfire used her power of flight to move towards the emperor, until she was high enough to see the imperial throne room just below her. But due to her wounds, it was closer to levitating in speed.
Her body was arched as if she was hunched , and her feet were directed at the ground and her clothing was already torn in some parts showing battle damage.
Floating from above the imperial room, Starfire closed her eyes for a second resisting the pain coming from her left arm. With an an eye half closed, Starfire concentrated a big sphere of green energy with her two hands at her right side. She shoot at the emperor' last known location with a big continuous blast of her Starbolts.
◊
"This is for my friends !" She screamed.
Her breathing returned to become heavy after her attempted attack.
edited 4th Apr '17 7:07:16 AM by FallenLegend
Make your hearth shine through the darkest night; let it transform hate into kindness, evil into justice, and loneliness into love.
The Grand Re-Vizier
Batman had been watching the fight and analyzing it, trying to figure out which of his methods might prove most useful in decisively finishing off the combination of Palpatine and Nyarlathotep. Unfortunately, the hit he'd taken from Vader's last saber throw had struck deeper than he'd initially thought it had, and it was taking every ounce of training and willpower at his disposal not to pass out from having a good portion of his side seared through.
As such he didn't even register Jaune's request for rope for a minute or so, then looked at the boy (as best he could with an armored mask on) as if the suggestion that he might not have rope was vaguely insulting.
He handed Jaune a length of the same sort of line used in the grappling hooks that came standard to most Batfamily members.
Then, he took just about the only action he could manage with half of his body screaming in pain, taking a pellet launcher up in one hand and firing all six rounds at Nyarlatothep. The rounds were freezing pellets meant to slow him if they hit and deal their own sort of damage, setting him up for attacks from others without risking their safety if he missed or timed it poorly like an explosive charge would.
Eternal Princess
Sylvia chuckled at the misunderstanding.
"Pizza Batt is a pizza corporation. The CEO is a philanthropist however, and reinvests much his profits to be used in humanitarian efforts and other such causes. Why in Santa Destroy alone he is responsible for donating the necessary funding that allowed the building of the new university..."
and setting up specifc extra curicular activties like the National Student Assassin Championship.
"Financing the building and maintainace of orpahnages around the city."
Which makes it easy for him to sell off kids to be used as slave labor in third world countries or harvesting them for organs, all under the radar.
"The revitalization and renovation of down trodden districts around the city."
Which is a fancy way of saying kicking poor people out of their crummy homes so you can pave over it with a fancy new shopping district.
"Creating a community run neighborhood watch program that has severely helped drop the crime rate."
The fact that this watch is completely made up of violent thugs with the express purpose of taking out anyone trying to work the mafia's turf while turning a blind eye to their organizations own crimes is mere details.
"And that is just the tip of the iceburg. Mr. Jasper Batt Jr is a man of character and respect. I am sure he will do wonders for Mitakahara as well."
She said that with a wink and a smile. A testament to abilities as an actress that she didn't break character and just start laughing. That bald midget a man of respect? Not even if he wielded the Cure's powers could that little shit garner anything but pity and contempt.
But as the girl had mentioned, while she was someone of importance, she wasn't the one the french woman needed to be talking to in order to get the planed projects going. Still, it was important Sylvia started making a good impression in order to avoid receiving resistance down the line. Still, the girl could be useful in other ways.
"Oh yes, Your friends, Megumi-chan and that blonde girl. I was so surprised to see ones so young be the first sent to meet something so frighting as the Cure all by them selves. Do you know what organization they represent? I can't imagine they are elected officials at their age. But since the Cure saw fit to invite them into the common room, I am sure they are ones who proper respect should be shown. I wish to mentally prepare the our representative before hand so they don't appear shocked when confronted with a girl your age in a position of authority."
Over at tea party, the small blonde child smiled when the pirate gave her a nod. She knows its bad to listen in on other people, but she couldn't help but hear the pirate was a king. That means he is the pirate king! She looked at him with new awe. Little Jeane quickly edited her work, drawing a little crown on top of the man's already wide captain hat to denote his royalty among swashbucklers. Only to also over hear the man make the correction that it was his name. The girl looked up, then back down, not sure what to do before deciding to simply sign off the drawing with King King, King of the Pirates.
Noticing something moving in the cornor of her eye, the child turned to see a goat like child smiling at her. He looked so fluffy. She really wanted to touch those big floppy ears, but momma taught her enough manner not to.
For Asreil himself, he would see a blonde little girl in a simple white dress staring at him with big blue eyes. Beside her were two gentlemen, her care takers apparently. One was stoic faced, but barely stood five feet. The other was just over seven, but despite his large size he spent his time staring intently into his cup as if deliberately avoiding eye contact with everyone, especially the big scary red guy in the center. If the prince watched long enough, he may even noticed that both the girl and the short man had to give the big lug comforting pats on the back in order to keep the large man's courage up.
Little Jeane wasn't quite sure what the goat looking child wanted, but she smiled back. She showed him that there were extra drawing supplies and an empty seat if he wanted to join them.
How do you kill that which has no life?
Vampire Hunter
Grant & Alucard, Common Room
"That is not how vampires work," Alucard almost dropped his stoicness when Nora mention about how she would handle a vampire.
"Wow, remind me not to get you mad," Grant stuttered a bit in reaction to Nora before turning to Alucard. "This guy in the arm cast told me Sypha's been here... She's probably found some way to get to the artificial moon thing."
"We'll need to tell her what we've learned and try to find Trevor as well," Alucard simply nodded to Grant, before Grant frowned at Alucard and looked over at the Huntresses before trying to get the attention of everyone there.
"Okay, okay... We've been in Outworld, and it's a pretty nasty place with these large creatures with like a mouth full of teeth called Tartarkans, and they've been oppressing the human population there," Grant explained to the group assembled. "However, there's this one guy with a strange accent actually from Earth whose been helping Outworld manufacture weapons like the ones Santa Destroy has."
"Outworld's preparin' itself for war," Grant concluded to the others assembled there.
Sypha, Emperor's Throne Room
Sypha was blasted away with the Emperor's short blast of lightning. Unfortunately for the Emperor, Sypha was more resistant to being electrocuted than most people by the mere fact of having channeled fire, ice, and lightning magic through her body on a regular basis. However, a couple of more direct hits like that or a more prolonged blast and Sypha would be down for the count. Soon enough, Sypha got herself up off of the ground, using the staff to stand herself up.
Trevor, Death Star Fire Control
Seeing Celty in trouble and the Jet Trooper about to pull another weapon out, Trevor attempted to shoot the hand that was about to pull out another one of the Jet Trooper's guns before ducking down after Lady fired her rocket launcher to distract the Dark Trooper from fighting Ranma. Trevor assessed the weapon Lady had given to him as being similar to a crossbow but easier to use. It only really required aiming skill. He did wish he was more knowledgeable about the weapon if he was going to use it.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
huzzaaaaaaaah
"Ah. I didn't know that there was a name for people like me. Chunkless. It has a nice ring to it."
Bradley shook Mitsuru's hand, replying with a smile just as gentle as hers (his mustache more often than not did the job of making him seem like a 'kind old man'). "A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Kirijo. I would inquire as to what a SEES is, but I feel like that would just be troubling you with the job of delivering too much information. And besides... I am getting rather old. My memory is not as good as it used to be, and I haven't been able to stay up to date with you younger folk for years."
Play the old man card. A safe bet, all things considered. Bradley looked at the other newcomers, a collection of haircuts of the unusual variety, all of them placed neatly on top of men who seemed to be the opposite ends of a 'tall, handsome and brooding' scale. Bradley wasn't made for this kind of field work.
"This Outworld situation is quite troubling. However, I fail to see why it should trouble us. Please make no mistake, I prefer peace to war... but our home is in this room. And by all accounts, this room is not in that map. So why would any harm come to us?" Could he use the room as a way to hide in case their identities came out? With their regeneration abilities cut down, he needed to consider every possible alternative.
Death Star Fire Control
If there was one thing Sayaka had learned in her month or so of being a Magical Girl, it was how to become adaptable to a situation in combat; repeated scolding from the other three had its effect eventually. The difficulty her sword had in penetrating the armor made her think twice about proceeding with her plan - well, that and he was about to open fire on her face. Sayaka had to scramble to get back behind the column she was using as cover. She needed a new plan, one that could get her to close that last distance so that she could avoid that big-ass gun and get into melee range.
Sayaka placed her hand on her hip in brief frustration over trying to work something out fast, stopping when she felt something in the pocket her hand just tapped. She reached in and took out the keychain, the one Homura had given her before she had been warped here, staring at it for a moment before the whir of the Jet Trooper reminded her of her situation. The keychain didn’t look all that big, but maybe if she could lure him around close enough for her to set off from the column wall that could be enough of a distraction! She shuffled backwards from the approaching Trooper a couple steps to buy herself a little time while she quickly scanned the column she was hiding behind for a place to lodge or hang, hoping he’ll take the bait of a clearly out-of-her-depth noob teen. It was the best plan she had - not really like she could think of anything else right then.
Sayaka may not get along all that well with the transfer student, but she did trust her when she said whistling was how to trigger the explosion. The only thing she’d have to do was time it right so that the Trooper was as close as possible...and get over the fact that she’d have to whistle a freaking Britney Spears song.
Industrial Area - Shuttle
It turned out to be sooner rather than later that one of the hit switches did something. The whole ship rumbled for a couple moments as a couple of the engines roared to life, sending the girls off balance. And for those couple of moments, it seemed as though this Hail Mary of a plan might actually pay off...until a rather loud explosion from outside preceded a dying whine from the engines and a splash of flashing red lighting from the cockpit consoles.
Mami got back up to the controls once the movement stopped. “Sakura-san, which ones did you hit?”
“Hell if I know - it was something on this panel, I think.”
Mami would try to flip some of the switches to no avail, looking at the left edge of the windshield at the pouring smoke. “Tsk. I don't know if we overloaded the engines or if they were already damaged, but we'll have to try another one.”
Homura quickly stepped towards the middle of the cockpit. “No time.” She silenced the other with a hand, letting a very faint but distinctly American accent echo in from the open doors, “Noise came from here!”
“Shit, they found us.” Kyoko immediately made for the back exit even quicker than Homura. <I don't see anyone yet,> she announced to the others when she peeked out the door. That probably wouldn't be true for much longer.
Common Room
However bald-faced the lies were, they at least seemed to garner sympathy and good feeling from the pink-haired girl. “Wow...Mr. Batt sounds like a good man to do all that for you. I hope it can work out,” Madoka said finally, just as Sylvia asked her next questions. It took her a couple moments to realize who “Megumi-chan” was supposed to be - the mention of “the blonde girl” was apparently Mami, so then Homura was the other one. “Maruko” quickly tried to hide her confusion by trying to come up with an answer, scratching her head to buy a moment or two: “Uh...um, well...I...don’t know, really…” It's pretty hard to make up with something out of whole cloth like what exactly her group of friends are. “They’re...uh...not really...official…” Madoka didn't want to outright say that they were basically superpowered civilians, but Homura hadn't given her any particular cover story and inside she knew that lies tended to just require more lies to explain, especially if they find out.
More and more, it was looking like Homura’s plan to treat the Common Room as a safe space was becoming undone, in terms of information.
In love with an Uptown Girl
Castlevania - Death and the Shaman
Death thought the new information over before getting back on his steed. His companions gave one last look at the Reaper, before joining him on the journey back. They would be going back to New Shanghai, and the Premier.
Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste. Nice to meet you, hope you can guess my name.
Dreams of Revenge
Death Star Fire Control — Ion and his Purifier pal
Ion was in some respects envious of the Battle Armournote in front of them. Though it wasn't dissimilar to the Heavy and Assault class BA used in the Inner Sphere, the absence of a Heavy or Assault BA in the Capellan ranks was doubtless going to make itself felt at some point. He squirrelled away the idea of trying to salvage the suit after they had achieved their mission.
For now, though, his immediate objective was the destruction of the target. Synthetic sinew twitched as he shouldered his Mauser 1200 and pulled the trigger, aiming at the behemoth's head. A shaft of sapphire light blossomed near-silently from the pulse laser's barrel, the only sound a soft hum as the heat pump dumped the heat built up during firing.
The Purifier Adaptive was a spectral presence in the room, its boxy frame twisting and shifting under the stark artificial lighting thanks to its Mimetic Armour. The Blakist manoeuvred his powered armour as carefully and as slowly as time allowed, but he couldn't completely hide the frankly unnatural way that light bent as it shone on his suit. It was soon to be rendered irrelevant, however, as he raised the Purifier's machine gun. Compared to the high tech of the suit wielding it, it was an ugly, utilitarian thing: a thick rectangle slab with a long barrel shrouded with cooling holes. The machine gun thundered its displeasure in a long burst, the sound reverberating in Ion's chest. If the Capellan listened closely, he thought he could hear a soft clatter as spent casings were funnelled back into the suit for collection. There was a pause and then the machine gun opened up again, a fiery whip of tracers uncoiling itself as it reached toward the Dark Trooper.
Ion ignored the sight. The important thing was whether the Mimetic Armour could frustrate attempts by the Dark Trooper to detect it on sensors, or failing that prevent a lock...
Locking you up on radar since '09
Death Star, Fire Control: Switching Targets
Mystique took the SMG and clips with a nod, and leaped from the black bridge to a metal one. Unlike most of the mismatched assault team, the Mutant had been focusing her attention on the Jet trooper trailing Arachne. Mystique could swat that pesky fly, now that she had a weapon.
Arachne's webbing broke with ease, and the woman it supported could only gasp before gravity took over. She flung a hand toward the Jet Trooper as if to beg for rescue, but before the Imperial could laugh another rope of webbing flung out toward his boot. If it latched, the Jet Trooper would suddenly find himself 150 pounds heavier, as Arachne bound herself more and more to the trooper in a flurry of web sprays. The strikes would focus away from the jetpack, and towards his knees, groin, navel, chest, and most importantly his arms. If she could rip that damn blaster away, her job would get that much easier.
If she failed, Arachne could look forward to a long fall to the bottom.
Fortunately, it seemed the cavalry had arrived. The Jet trooper would find that Arachne wasn't his only problem: a concentrated burst of SMG fire flew down on him, aiming for the same targets as Arachne with the same emphasis on the blaster. Mystique couldn't reach her comrade from this distance, but she could at least keep the trooper occupied from her perch on an adjacent walkway.
Finding her simple blaster ineffective against the Dark Trooper, Misaki resigned herself to serving as a distraction, alongside Rogue and Bond. The Mutant added her final thermal detonator to the slew of attacks on the droid, while the Section Chief took a moment to check in on the others.
Most of the battle was out of sight and reach, but a burning flash of white along the support columns caught Misaki's eye like a hawk spots its prey. Wary of the Dark Trooper's fire, Misaki crouched away from her cover, then darted towards the columns to assist the Magical Girl weaving between them. She opened fire on the Jet Trooper as she charged, possibly distracting the Imperial enough to make Sayaka's keychain trap harmless. Even if the explosion worked as planned, Misaki might have unintentionally thrown herself into harm's way.
Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Toad had all but disappeared. Those quick enough to circle around the tower would find the Mutants at its base, on the side opposite of the Dark Trooper. It seemed they were searching for a way inside the tower, since there didn't seem to be any platforms or walkways on its exterior. If their search for an entry point was fruitless, Wolverine would simply unsheathe his claws, and attempt to make one.
Ikebukuro Hospital, Fourth Floor: Insert Fan Pun Here?
Hei's buzzing phone did little to help him focus on the shoes, and the Director's rhetoric helped even less. For a brief and vital moment, the Chinese man flashed his eyes to the phone, so he missed the subtle tug that freed the lengthy wire.
When the Code Blue alarm rang, Lee followed Hoshigawa without a word. It took the Contractor half a second to spot what raised the alarm: a disconnection in the heart monitor, not cardiopulmatory arrest. If Hoshigawa was as observant as he was dutiful, he wouldn't be too far behind.
"You want to help the people here?" the young man grabbed the Director's hand to press a cell phone into it. "Answer this."
Before Hoshigawa could even read Kida's text, an open palm would land on his chest and shove him hard to the wall. The shriek of pain that followed might've turned half the heads on the floor, as hundreds of unhindered volts coursed through the Chinese student's body. Hei fell to his knees, two trembling hands supporting himself in the soapy water. For five whole seconds, the Contractor had time to prepare for death.
...only to find that it never came. Nothing came. No pain, no injury, nothing but the fear that he'd drawn his last breath and wasted it on a scream.
Suddenly aware of his safety, Hei's cry died off. His eyes, wide with mortal terror, managed to spot a suited sleeve flick off the ceiling fan.
There you are...
Hei didn't wait for Hoshigawa; the Director would be safer once this assassin was dead. Grabbing the patient's clipboard that hung off the bed, Hei side-hopped around the spilt water and dashed for the door.
If he watched the lad closely, Hoshigawa might spot a faint blue glow surrounding the Yellow Scarf, and the metal clipboard in his hand.
Maybe the stress was finally wearing him down...
Genosha Palace, Medical Ward: Last Call for Visiting Hours!
The Mutant Asgore approached would (begrudgingly) point him to an almost empty hospital bed. On it, a black cat slept on its side, with a white-haired young lady sitting on the mattress' far end.
Yin sat there in silence, oblivious to everything around her expect for her fingers, which were calmly scratching behind the sleeping cat's ears. Whether she was doing that to comfort Mao or herself, who could say.
The girl lifted her chin when she heard Asgore's furry footsteps, but her purple eyes never moved. She just continued scratching Mao's head, half-expecting the Monster King to say something, and half-expecting him to leave.
Did you know this section has a character limit?
Jaune - Getting Over There, Death Star Throne Room
Jaune's head snapped to the side as he heard the telltale thump of a body hitting a surface, just catching the Emperor's fall behind the throne.
He was grounded, it seemed. Jaune actually had a chance to contribute.
Taking the cable with a rushed "Thanks!", he began tying the cable around both the hilt of his sword and his right wrist as he sprinted across the room, towards the throne. He threw himself across the bridge, ducked under Nyarly, took the stairs two at a time, all the while thanking his parents for sending him to a summer camp with knot-tying classes.
He arrived well after Starfire's attack has begun impacting whatever it impacted, his shield raised and a prayer on his lips that asked whatever deity existed to not let his only contribution to this fight be triggering a trap of Palpatine's
Bond - Fuck It, Might As Well; Death Star Bridge Battle
So, back to trying to deal with the Dark Trooper. Bullets, laser guns and rocket launchers weren't effective. At all. Getting into melee range would be suicide. Seeing as it was a robot, his remaining flashbang wasn't going to work.
Apart from that, he had... gyrojet bullets likely wouldn't so much, poison would be useless.
Only one thing left in his arsenal, then.
Bond popped up out out of cover once more, neither gun in his hands. Instead, he was holding his forearm out in front of him, like he was checking the time.
And with a push of a button, the watch on his wrist fired a continuous laser beam at the Dark Trooper, one designed to shear metal.
It was probably not going to work, but Bond had to give it a try.
Teenagers with Multiple Conversations - Common Room
"Of course that's how vampires work, silly. Why would they say that only those things could kill a vampire when smashing them works too?" Nora told Alucard.
"Those might just be specific weaknesses, in addition to a normal level of durability." Ren offered.
"Oh. That would suck." She laughed a little at her accidental pun, before turning to Nero. "Oh, Magnhild? Built her myself! All of us build our own weapons."
Nora motioned at Ren, but also at the recognizable figures of Yang and Blake, who Nero had met earlier today.
"We're here to fight." Blake pointed out to Bradley. "Hiding in here might anger the Cure."
"Yeah, he's only offered us carrots so far, but there's gotta be a stick somewhere."
Ruby - Snipers Vs Spacers, Raira Academy Playing Field
"Gonna need a minute!" She answered Sloan back. She'd try and head in that direction, if she didn't die in the next few seconds.
Because one of those missiles would wipe out her aura and probably kill her. Two would leave so little they could bury her in a matchbox. At least it would be more than what they got for her mother.
But they might be big, and fast, but they weren't maneuverable. She might never outrun them, but she definitely could dodge them.
Ruby burst into a streak of rose petals once more, flying past the two missiles coming in the opposite directions. She came out of petal-space a few meters in front of Slave 1, and with a shot from her rifle, brought the blade down towards the center of the ship.
The aim was to at least anchor her scythe into the metal, giving her an anchor point to do something from. And if the missiles decided to follow her, well, she could dislodge herself easily and let the spaceship take the hit. They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!
So far so good, the girl seemed interested in talking. The guards were a little intimidating at first, but from the way they were comforting the biggest one, the two were probably decent guys, who'd be all right with the girl fraternising with another kid. "Hey," said Asriel as he headed over, and hopped on the offered seat. "What'cha drawing?"
"Hello Yin," said Asgore, stepping closer while trying not to startle the supposedly blind girl. "I just wanted to check in, and make sure everything was all right. How is he now?"
Undyne dodged the lightning storm raining down, conscious of how conductive her metal armour was, and took notice when Starfire got knocked back. But the tamaranean wasn't out of the fight just yet, and the Emperor just dropped screaming from the air like the pathetic old man that he was. Aigis seemed to be having trouble with Nyarly, though. Undyne didn't want to intrude on a battle between two bitter arch foes, if only from courtesy for a fellow warrior. But things had gone on long enough, and new friends need a hand now and then as much as anyone.
"Time to finish this!" she cried, summoning up one more volley of spears. Part of them came down behind the throne along with the energy sphere attack, while the rest were aimed at Nyarly's sides, in the hopes of whittling him down or at least distracting him while Aigis laid the smackdown. After all that, Undyne saw Starfire gasping for breath. She hurried over to the girl, and offered her shoulder to literally lean upon. "Take it easy, kid. You did your friends proud today."
Vampire Hunter
Death, Castlevania Portal
Once the Horseman had left, hopefully back to wherever they came from via Santa Destroy, Death reverted to being his full Grim Reaper form. Soon enough, the mighty Death who served Dracula flew back into Dracula's Castle.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
One Brunch Man
Ikebukuro General Hospital—Fourth Floor Hallways—>Fourth Floor Break Room
Hoshigawa grunted in surprise and fell back against the wall at Lee's palm strike, and opened his mouth to retort before freezing at the sight of the student seizing up like a Greek statue. Lee's internal assertion had been right; everyone in the immediate vicinity, even the patient who had been supposedly having the cardiac arrest in the first place, stopped and watched with open mouths as light trails of steam rose up from the puddle, even while the offending wire wound around the overhead ceiling fan like an over-tuned guitar string. Though some had jerked forward instinctively to help him, none could help but stand and stare as the man rose as though exiting an impact crater—least of all Hoshigawa, who, upon gathering his senses, stared down at the phone in his hand. Shaking off a fellow doctor attempting to help him to his feet, he tried to reconcile what he'd just seen, and the only sane conclusion was that the man before him had just saved his life—for the second time.
With a heavy heart and a sturdier thumb, he began tapping out a message.
After speeding through the doorway, Lee would find himself in a long, narrow break room, barely wider than a hallway itself. Were Lee paying close attention, he might note the very moment the suited man noticed the student's presence in the glass of the room's vending machine, grey eye widening a fraction in a muted yet very real show of surprise.
Almost immediately, the man would "trip" on one of his layered leather shoes, reaching up to clutch his hat with one hand while the other steadied his frame against the room's notice board. Lee's trained eye would be able to see a brief flurry of motion on the board itself, and by the time Egor's hand came off of the board, the assorted pinned papers would come along with it, fluttering around the man as a partial smokescreen while the man's pace proceeded to double what it had been before. But the real threat lay in the man's closed, hanging fist, twitching subtly to avoid drawing the attention of the room's other occupants even as it distributed the thumbtacks that had previously been holding up said papers onto the ground behind him. Unfailingly landing with glinting points straight up, they would form a trail of non-lethal but painful breadcrumbs meant to impede the pursuing assassin long enough to allow him to escape.
The man's objective was clear—the gurney-wheeling, people-shuffling bustle of the surgical suite visible beyond the room's far door, in which the man would more easily be able to disappear again.
Ikebukuro General Hospital—Third Floor Radiology
Running aimlessly through the hospital's halls, Saki was beginning to feel like Icarus—with the caveat that upon flying too close to the sun, he then fell in the maze his dad had built for the minotaur. Her desire to make things easier for Kida and her unwillingness (she wanted to put the blame on her ability, but it was about time to be honest with herself) to shoot anyone meant that she was all dressed up with her finest grenade belt and nowhere to go. Wherever she went she saw crying children, despondent families, a building and lives in ruins, and no way to do anything about it without damaging the things keeping them alive. Now I know why they took over this place, Saki thought, running through the middle of the pediatric ward, it's like clawing at a parasite attached to your neck. There's no way to get it loose, without hitting a vein...
Until, paydirt. Every single Imperial she had seen up until that point, up to and including the one who had vomited his brains all over the floor in front of her, had had a matching uniform with no frills or personality. This one was... different. Not only was he walking around without any armor, he carried himself like a Dune noble. Saki peered at Thrax's brisk facade from around a corner, before hastily moving to the next, shadowing him to the best of her ability and waiting for him to show her... something.
Take me to your leader, alien, she thought, hand tightening around the belt she had hidden under her normal clothes, so I can blow up something important already.
Ikebukuro General Hospital—First Floor Hallways
Yoshi Yoshi threw both hands into the air in celebration, lips pursing together happily. "Whoo-hoo! My idea got picked over the teacher's! This is the best day of my life!"
Amidst his peers muttering something about low bars, Yoshi Yoshi took both Harley and a protesting Nasujima into a nearby conference room, empty save for a long table with chairs and a blank screen on the wall for power point presentations, and led them to the front. Rallying his crew, Nasujima and Harley were eventually buffered by three separate boys holding phone cameras, sideways, upright, and what must have been upside-down.
"Alright," Yoshi said, flashing a thumbs-up with one hand while holding the upside-down phone with the other, "action!"
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~
Eternal Princess
"Ah, I see your call is relating to association business. Just a sec~."
There was a sound of shuffling papers, as if the only difference between renting a video and ordering an assassination was the forms that had to be filled out. After a small pause, the chipper voice came back on.
"Hello and thank you for calling the UAA hotline. I understand that this is your first time calling in, is this correct? That's no problem, the UAA is an easy to use service that provides quick and efficient results. I can handle most of the paperwork for you, just need you to answer a few questions.
First and foremost, we need the details on the job you are placing with us. A name and description on the target and what you need done to them. Please provide as much details as possible to help ensure that the correct target is acquired and the contract is fulfilled in a satisfactory and timely manner.
When you say found, am I right to assume this is a retrieval job and not an assassination? Just so you are aware there is an extra surcharge for bringing in someone alive. Doubly so if you need them unharmed with all their limbs attached. I am legally required to inform you that due to the chaotic nature of this line of work, a targets survival is not always guaranteed. Should such an event occur, the UAA can not be held responsible, but you are entitled to a full refund and a discount to place an order on the head of the assassin who botched the job.
Have you browsed our catalog? If not I highly suggest you do so in order explore all options available to you while using our services. After reviewing the details of your order, we will forward you an invoice with our going rate. May I ask how you will be paying this evening?"
The sudden command for silence startled the teenager. She did as told, keeping quiet. Her question about whether he or Frankenstein would win in a fight would have to wait. Much of what followed seemed to go unnoticed by the girl, too busy squeeing as she was over her arm.
Upon hearing the count's claim of ownership, the gothic lolita wry smile did not change.
"In the grand sceme of things, all stand on equal footing upon the world stage. Both slaves and kings, bound by strings, pulled by causality and fate. Free will an illusion dreamed up by those who have none. Concern yourself not of possession, for that too is an illusion. The script is already written, the past set in stone, so to then is the future. It is all we can do to deliver our lines with gusto. I know my place upon the stage, you need not worry."
Margaret kept her curtsy as she watched the interaction between the family. The facade provided for the benefit of the woman. Neither father nor son wishing to wake her form the pleasant fantasy of a happy family. Perhaps for that reason, the Oedipus conflict was postponed. The son retreating to realm of the mad god as father remained lord of the castle, bride by his side.
They would have to fight eventually. Preferably one on one as mother dearest watches on, her heart breaking with every clash of the sword. They both have shown a sense of style, but the conniving nature each displayed here may suggest that they would rather play their pieces to their advantage before attempting the checkmate. Victory secured before the first move is made. Intellect barricading romantic ideals.
She will just have to keep an eye on them. When the time is right, remove all other pieces on the board and thrust the two upon center stage. Force the drama play out as it is intended to play out. For all her talk of fate, the truth was, it was the responsibility of those on the stage to make sure the production is a memorable one.
edited 8th Apr '17 12:49:10 AM by ImmortalNeet
How do you kill that which has no life?
Vampire Hunter
Dracula & Carmilla, Throne Room
"Dear Lisa, wait for me back in our room," Dracula smiled at his wife. "This will only take a moment."
Lisa nodded and left back into the Master Bedroom while Dracula slouched on his throne and remained in thought about how to use the two new pawns he had to his favor. Without the familial bonds to tie him to be more affable to humans, Dracula detailed his own plan.
"The recent invasion of the Empire has shown me that, if we are to survive on this planet, we will need to please the Cure with battles which means attacking one of my neighbors," Dracula began before quickly amending his comment. "No, not your homeland of Santa Destroy... The weakest of my neighbors is, ironically enough, Outworld."
"Shao Kahn and I were eventually going to come to blows at some point, but it seems the timeline has moved up," Dracula noted to the others. "I have no doubt that if Iacon were not isolationist and Santa Destroy were not interested in... business, either chunk would be able to take Outworld down quickly."
"However, more than that is the fact that I had an unexpected visitor who had attacked both my own forces and Shao Kahn's who had kidnapped the Outworldian Princess Kitana," Dracula explained. "Through my limited knowledge of the other chunks, I suspect this princess to currently be in the land known as Genosha."
"I believe Genosha is planning something against Outworld, and I wish to join in their plan to take down Outworld," Dracula smirked at Carmilla. "I want Death on the front lines of Outworld and I do not trust my son enough to allow him to be Lord of the Castle in my absence yet, so I want you here as Lady of the Castle."
Carmilla seemed amazed to be offered the opportunity to basically rule Castlevania in Dracula's absense, before she asked him the question that needed to be asked, "What about you and your wife, Master?"
"Why, my wife and I plan to visit Genosha and its king," Dracula smirked at Carmilla before turning to Margaret. "If you have anything to add to my plan, then feel free to suggest it... If not, then you and Carmilla may leave to rest for the night while I take care of your loose ends."
Wizard Needs Food Badly
One Brunch Man
Ikebukuro Electronics Store
"Um, well, it's kind of a chicken-or-the-egg situation." The Dollars Admin stammered, watching the cinderblock dust settle before looking to The Fool unbolting the window with all of the ease of flipping a pancake. "Is it unlooted because the Dollars looked after it, or did the Dollars look after it because it was unlooted? It's hard to tell, sometimes, and there's confirmation bias, and everything..."
Hesitantly tucking his hand into his sleeve at Minako's advice, Mikado then jolted the window open with one, two, three good jerks, before resting his forearms on the sill. "Um, right, cameras... It's pretty dark in here, so I think we can just walk up and unplug those. And—yes, I see a little, keypad, here. Let me see if I can get the alarm codes from the guy..." Craning his neck forward to peek at the name on the store's sign, Mikado then gathered himself into a seated position below the sill itself before letting off a brief burst of typing, tongue tucked between his teeth.
"Mr, Fushiba...Yeah, him being part of the Dollars is how I found this place in the first—place. I just, you know, I couldn't get in. I thought there might be a key under the cinderblock, but it was just a cinderblock, and it was really heavy, so then I grabbed a crowbar, and—" Getting cut of by a response ding! from his phone, the Admin got to his feet, and began reaching around the side of the window. "It's kinda crazy, how much they trust me just because I'm the leader of the Dollars, especially after—2, 6, 7—after what happened two days ago, but you know what? That was, that was you. You did that. You gave me back, what I have here." After a three-toned affirmatory beep filled the air, Mikado pitched forward into the darkened space. There was a series of grunting, shuffling, and the snap of something getting unplugged, before the other side of the locked door began making jostling noises and slid open. Mikado stood in the open doorway, smiling gently as he held the door open. "I'm really going to need to start paying you back, one of these days."
Ikebukuro Raira Academy—Principal's Office
"Cows... are a herd. Fish... *giggle* are a school. And crows, are a flock." Her pencil scribbled busily, so much so she didn't hear the lanky man come up behind her.
"Incorrect," he said in passing, startling her so bad that she dropped her pencil on her homework; it was the first time he'd said two words to her in over a week. He fixed her momentarily with those tired, violet eyes, and she marveled once again at how God could simply forget to give a face the spark of emotion. "A gathering of crows..."
...is a murder. Vorona's booted, armored feet crunched up the shattered tile and pieces of loose armor littering the hallway floor, before picking around the scorched, twitching remnants of the door's guards. The door itself opened with a simple push, creaking loudly before snapping off its hinges like a dry twig. Vorona reached up, fingertips curling around the edges of her helmet, even as she savored the confusion spilling into her ears. Chaos she had sown. "Do not worry," she said aloud, letting her hair spill out to frame her manic, exhilarated grin. "It will never leave this room." With the corpse's face as disfigured as it was, it was easy to imagine the cheeks a bit more sunk in, skin a tad more pale, eyes a smidge more deep-set. With a schlerk of gathering fluid, she lobbed a wad of spit directly onto the man's face, and watched with no small amount of satisfaction as it slid down to pool on the breast of the man's armor.
The man's... armor...
Vorona's violet eyes widened, then flicked to the nearby window. Speeding over the body of the inside door guard, she popped her head out just in time to see the Commander's ankle disappear over the lip of the inside window.
"Scheiss!"
Vorona sped out of the man's office, nearly tripping over the bodies she had already, pointlessly killed. He was already on the first floor, which meant... Vorona tapped her earpiece three times before sliding the helmet back on. "Veiss, come in. I need you to break ranks with childrens and make for west side of the school. Target is Imperial Officer, in dress uniform. After he is killed, I will be able to lead children off school grounds in disguise—but only if he does not get word out. Do you copy?"
Vorona would make a beeline for the closest stairwell, and upon reaching it, begin taking the steps two at a time.
Ikebukuro Raira Academy—Class 1B
"Um..." Ryo watched as Seiji stalked past him, the Storm Trooper's blaster and helmet in either of the boy's hands like a lion carting around a gazelle. He promptly dropped both trophies as Mika rushed up to embrace him, nuzzling her face into his neck as the boy took her into his arms, a rare smile gracing his features.
Then, all eyes in the room turned to him, and Ryo gulped. He found himself doing his best to rise to the mantle the other girl had given him, even as he found it really difficult to figure out where to put his hands. "So. Um. Yeah. You guys, get away from the window there, and uh... hey! Don't poke the ice thing! Let's just, huddle in the center, and, um, jeez, does anyone have a jacket I could borrow? It's getting really cold, in here..."
edited 8th Apr '17 9:57:44 PM by Uncandescent
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~
Calamity is a housewife
Sin Kiske, Mitakihara Industrial Area, Shuttle - Let's play METAL GEAR for real
Hey, the ship started up!
Sin grinned, looking forward to actually getting somewhere.
BOOM
Oh, the engine's busted.
Sin's previously ecstatic face now fell, seeing that they were no closer to their goal.
He was about to join the Magical Girls in messing with the console when Homura alerted them to an outside presence. The clear American voice set off alarm bells in Sin's mind. He then recalled his earlier proposed plan that he had made in case of such a situation. With this in mind, he projected his thoughts to the rest of the party.
<"You guys still okay with me luring them away?">
"Shake the dust." - Anis Mojgani
Did you know this section has a character limit?
Weiss - Metal Gear Weissing: Rubengeance, Raira Academy
Weiss had to admit: Vorona had done her job well.
The heiress encountered absolutely no resistance between her and contraband locker. That honestly surprised her, she expected at least one or two guard milling around. Vorona was beginning to earn some begrudging respect.
Weiss quickly found her rapier, and made the necessary checks to ensure it was still working. She spun the cylinder, checked the balance, returned the Ice Dust vial to it's proper place, and finally returned her spare vials to her fanny-pack.
As fancy and designer as it was, it was still a fanny-pack.
Weiss was about to leave the Contraband Wardrobe, when her scroll lit up and Vorona's voice crackled from it.
She paused for a moment, staring at the screen in her hand. Ruby was in danger, she didn't have time for Vorona's requests. But the student's safety was the entire meaning of the mission. If ignoring Vorona meant putting them in danger, causing their deaths...
Ruby can take care of herself. She thought.
"Copy. I've already disabled the classroom's guard and acquired my weapon." She said.
Please be okay, Ruby. She prayed.
And with that, she stepped out of the room and sped to the West, white glyphs lighting up beneath her feet to speed her progress.
edited 9th Apr '17 3:15:49 PM by GeekCodeRed
They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
Throne Room, Aigis — Robot of Mass Destruction
Against her better judgement, the thing's words caused Aigis to hesitate once again, though she retained enough presence of mind to begin strafing to and fro in an effort to avoid any of its counterattacks. Ten years ago...
Ten years ago, her databanks had been badly damaged during the incident that had resulted in the creation of the so-called 'Dark Hour'. The robot girl's memories of that time were lost, perhaps forever. She didn't know what fragment of data in her being had triggered her to track the signature of the girl she would later learn was Minako Arisato upon her rebooting, nor the reason why she was constantly compelled to stay close by, nor why her first action upon spotting the brunette had been to wrap her arms around her. Perhaps the gynoid had done something terrible in the past, and perhaps the person most important to her would despise her for it in the future...
But whatever the reason was, all Aigis knew was that being near and protecting the SEES Leader was her prime directive. And for now, that was enough.
"I do not know," she conceded, "but if we don't defeat you here, I may never know at all! Orgia, on!"
The blonde's mechanical joints began to glow a bright orange as she continued to weave, and with a sudden leap, she sprang up and kicked off the wall behind her—
"Heat Wave!"
—and coupled the force of a resummoned Palladion's attack as it spread outward like a violent, fiery ripple with her own overclocked speed in an attempt to catch the false Beelzebub in a flying tackle, even as she loosed another shot from her weapon at the same.
edited 9th Apr '17 5:45:29 PM by darksidevoid
GM of AGOG S4: Frontiers RP; Sub-GM of TABA, SOTR, & UUA RPs
Genosha Palace, Various Locations: Move Along, Nothing to See Here! Yes, That Means You Too!
Amber frowned at the monitor. One of the dots she'd seen just a blink ago had vanished, snuffed out like candle light. She checked another monitor, one that displayed the vitals of her Dolls. When that told her nothing was amiss, she wandered from tube to tube, staring at the naked sleeping figures inside them. Still, nothing.
Specters don't just vanish; they're either cut, or called back. If one of her more paranoid Contractors had disturbed it, one of the Dolls would've reacted in some way. The other option was impossible—these Dolls were too larval to listen to anyone but her, or more precisely, the orders projected through the wired helmets strapped to their skulls.
Looking back through the monitor's feed, Amber jotted down the vanishing Specter's last location, and snatched her "borrowed" map of Genosha Palace. She knew that a rare form of Contractor could steal Specters; she also knew that no one in the EPR had that gift.
With luck, this was nothing more than a computer glitch, or some sort of freak accident. If not...
—
The map led Amber into one of Genosha's massive ivory towers, to a drawing room with a frighteningly high view over the capital. Amber called it a drawing room based on its shape and size, but without a single piece of furniture the place might as well have been used for storage. Even the anteroom Magnus converted into a med. ward hadn't looked this bare.
At first, Amber figured rooms this high up were seldom used, so the servants wouldn't bother with much upkeep. Then she noticed how clean the windows, carpets, and draperies were. Then there was the room's size compared to the tower: at this point an entire suite could fit inside the walls, so why just one little room? A tidy little room that served no purpose?
A child's cry made Amber jolt. "Mommy! Moooooommyyyyy! Tommy tried to trip me again!"
The patter of light footsteps echoed through the spiral staircase, though somehow Amber spotted the boy while the sound of feet still rang.
"You're not mommy!" frowned a pudgy-faced boy. The child wore a white short-sleeved button down and grey shorts, with shin high socks and a small black necktie. A private school uniform, perhaps. He was neither fat nor thin, but the dark brown bowl cut that was his hair only made his face look even rounder. Judging by his height, Amber figured he was no older than five or six, but then again she was terrible at figuring out the age of children.
He stomped a foot and pointed accusingly at Amber. "You're not allowed up here! Go away!"
The ascending footsteps were soon joined by the splitting image of the angry boy in front of her, angry pout and all.
Twins. concluded Amber, But who's?
"I'm sorry to bother you boys." Amber smiled and bowed.
"It's no bother at all."
The voice came from behind her, heralded by the almost silent shift of moving stones. Amber whirled around to see a beautiful woman with long brown hair, wearing a red silk gown accented with designs of soft gold.
The twins rushed past Amber (one of them was barely even a blur) to hug the woman's legs, shouting accusations about who tripped who and why in the migraine-breeding manner little children do. To her credit, this mother only smiled.
"We'll talk about this in a minute. Right now, it's time to get ready for bed."
After a few more protests and another bout of sibling roughhousing, the twins ran to the passageway behind their mother. Without going inside, Amber could see nothing but that there was much more to this drawing room than she first thought. Part of her liked the fact her suspicions were confirmed, even while another part dreaded it.
"I had no idea someone lived here." tittered Amber, "I can leave if—"
"Like I said, it’s no bother at all." The woman’s smile seemed to brighten the room more than the electric lights ever could. "Most people don’t search for my home this high up, so I don’t get many visitors."
The woman turned to the passageway and motioned for Amber follow. Compared to the humble drawing room, the apartment inside felt like a palace all its own. The rooms were large, Indian fashioned, with open spaces filled with lavish, colorful curtains, pillows and carpets. The candles lit across the rooms burned a soft orange glow, one that seemed to melt into the pinks and purples it illuminated. In the corner, a pile of building blocks spanned the floor like ruins of a mighty castle.
It’s a pretty place, Amber had to admit, but why hide it?
The woman seemed to read her thoughts, since she gestured for Amber to sit on the floor pillows beside her. "I’m sure you have some questions. Sonya thought you should hear the answers from me."
Amber sat, puzzled. "Sonya?"
"The little friend you sent here, the one who spoke through a…thing, on the wall."
"A…Specter?"
The woman gave a light shrug. "Sonya didn’t say what it was called. She just thought you’d like to meet me."
Amber’s questions multiplied, but before she could utter a word the woman’s smile soured with a parental leer. "You’re a resourceful child, Amber, but you’re terribly cruel to the people who help you. Sonya said you keep her locked up in a bottle all day to channel her gift; her, and a dozen others just like her. I refuse to allow this sort of behavior. Before you leave this room, I need you to promise that you will let those poor people free as soon as we’re done talking. That’s the price for my answers."
Amber opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. What could she say? Where should she start? Who was this woman, and why was she hiding all the way up here? How could she see Specters, let alone talk to them the way Dolls could? And perhaps most importantly, why should Amber believe anything this stranger had to say? Her brain darted at such a frantic pace it made the girl dizzy.
"I…I promise." Amber sighed.
The words were harder to say than she expected. Without those machines, the Dolls couldn’t coordinate with each other like they should; the "flawless surveillance system" Amber promised Magnus would become little more than a dozen extra pairs of (very perceptive) eyes. She wanted to argue that loss would hinder Genosha, but the fact it hindered her usefulness seemed closer to the truth. No matter what Magnus claimed, the EPR was composed of resources as much as refugees; if Amber and her comrades didn’t make themselves useful, they’d be exiled by day’s end. That was just the reality of war, and Battleworld was nothing but war.
"Thank you." the woman’s smile returned. "I know it’s hard to give up the things that make you strong, but this really is for the greater good. Everyone deserves a chance to be happy, including Sonya."
Amber turned to her first question. "If you don’t mind me asking…who are you?"
The woman chuckled as she realized just now that she never offered her name.
"Wanda Magnus." she replied, "Second daughter of King Erik Magnus, and twin sister of Prince Pietro."
"Why is a Genoshan Princess hiding in her father’s palace?" Amber almost groaned at the thought that someone was actually performing this Damsel cliché.
Wanda pursed her lips. "That question’s a little harder. Daddy spread this rumor that I’m Sapien to help keep the humans happy, as a way to show just how much we’re all alike. I choose to live up here to keep that lie alive."
"For the greater good?" asked Amber.
"Exactly!" Wanda laughed. "You’re a fast learner, Amber. You’ll grow up to be a brilliant young lady someday."
Amber restrained her knowing smile, and moved onto her next question. "If you’re Homo Superior, what’s your gift?"
Judging by the princess’ reaction, it was the wrong question to ask. Wanda’s lip quivered as her cheeks paled in the candle light. She rose from her pillow seat and brushed a hand toward a wall. The scarlet glow emitted from the bricks matched the eerie light coming from her hand. Brick by brick, the wall moved aside to create a hole three feet wide, peering out over Genosha.
"I…manipulate things; things that other Mutants can’t sense or understand. It’s not a good explanation, I know, but it’s helped me build a better world for everyone."
"Build a better world?" echoed Amber. The phrase was familiar enough—she’d even used it herself to explain all the sacrifices she’d made—but hearing it from a (literal) princess in a tower felt strange.
She leapt to the next question before she fully understood it. "If your power helped build this world you’re from, how could people believe you’re human? How could you hide that?"
Wanda didn’t seem to hear her. The princess just stared out her makeshift window, down at the right-angled crests and valleys that were Genosha.
"Do you understand people, Amber?" she asked.
Part of Amber wanted to boast that she understood people more than they understood themselves. Her journeys through time had revealed many actions one person in one moment could take, and all Amber had to do was nudge them in the direction she liked best. However, she knew better than to mention that; better to play the innocent little girl Wanda assumed she was.
"I…I think so." the girl guessed after a pause.
Behind her long brown hair, Amber could almost see Wanda’s smile. "Well, I don’t understand people. I really don’t. The purpose of all this was that there would be no more fighting. But no matter what I do, there’s always fighting. I gave Daddy the world he always wanted. I gave all my friends happy lives. I did everything imaginable to make this place exactly what he said, and there’s still fighting!"
Amber rose to her feet, but didn’t dare step closer. She couldn’t see Wanda’s clenched fists trembling in the dark, or see the water in her eyes, but Amber knew they were there all the same. The girl had felt the same way a thousand times before, and if Battleworld had stirred any emotion in Amber’s chest, it had to be helplessness. The Cure had forced her to watch as all her carefully laid plans burned to ashes, then raised her to Tokyo’s delegate as if he expected her to make everything right again. Impossible. No mortal can recover from having the power to shape the world ripped away. You can only stare at your work as failure rots it from inside and out.
At that moment, Amber realized just who and what Wanda Magnus was.
"I do hope I’m not bothering you."
The familiar baritone made Amber jump. Wanda turned with a smile, wiping water from her eyes.
"It’s no bother at all, Daddy. How are you?"
The glance King Magnus gave Amber felt like a knife at her throat. She wasn’t supposed to be here. She wasn’t supposed to know about Wanda. She wasn’t supposed to reach this far. Now His Majesty had caught her red-handed, saying something to his precious "Sapien" daughter that upset her so much she started to cry!
"I was sweeping the palace for Imperials." Amber reported, perhaps more forcefully than she intended. "Some of the Agent’s troops might’ve infiltrated after Your Majesty sent that shuttle to the Death Star."
"I see," the Mutant King nodded as his steel grey eyes scanned the room. "Seems to me that these chambers hide no Imperials, Miss Amber. And yet here you still stand."
"Oh don’t tease her, Daddy." Wanda chided. "If you must know, I actually wanted to talk with her. She’s agreed to release those poor people from their prisons."
The king dropped his eyebrows and looked to Amber. "What people?"
This was the end. Amber had gone so far without baring the ugly truth to Magnus, but now he wanted to know. Under better circumstances, perhaps she could’ve drummed up a convincing lie. Under her world’s rules, she could’ve stopped time altogether and prevented this encounter from happening. But there was no believable lie, and there was no turning back. Amber took a deep breath, and confessed.
"Her Highness is talking about the Dolls brought to Genosha. In order to make an effective surveillance system, they need to be channeled through the same medium. To do that, they need to be…immersed in isolation capsules for long periods of time."
The king didn’t even blink. "I presume that these Dolls give you their consent?"
"They…they can’t. Most Dolls don’t have the free will to act on their own."
"Do they lose their sense of consciousness as well?"
"…No. They know what’s happening."
To her credit, Wanda rushed to Amber’s side. "The important thing is that Amber now understands that’s wrong. There’s no point in blaming her, Daddy. She’s just a child."
No, Amber thought, I’m the leader. I’m exactly who to blame.
Though in that brief moment, with the king’s cold grey eyes staring through her, she felt just like a little girl again. All that’s left was to wait for the parent’s punishment.
"You’re quite right, my dear." Magnus lied. "Miss Amber, would you please wait for me outside? I came to give my grandchildren a kiss goodnight."
Amber didn’t need to wait long; in a minute, the Mutant King was softly closing the drawing room door and storming down the spiral steps. Amber followed, even though she struggled to keep close behind.
"I was only trying to give you the best tools we have to offer." she pleaded.
"Yes, wrapped in the worst living conditions you have to offer." he replied. Even without his sharp eyes on her, the king’s venomous voice was enough to make Amber flinch.
"Miss Amber, I fear you still fail to understand my position. I must present Genosha as a just and enlightened city, where Sapes and Mutants live together without fearing an attack from one another. That boy in the medical ward threatened to undo my work in front of a damn king, and God only knows what the other states would think if they found your monstrous ‘surveillance system!’ Homo Superior or not, I’m starting to understand why you Contractors may be more trouble than you’re worth!"
"Your Majesty, I—"
"Also placed my daughter’s location in jeopardy. Do you think the Galactic Empire is the only threat to my city? The Human Resistance has been dwelling among the Sapien slums for years now; how much do you think they would sacrifice to capture Wanda, or her two boys? How many lives would they throw away just to kill my children?!"
"I didn’t know they were there!"
"No?! Then what use is your goddamn surveillance system?!"
Magnus whirled around on the steps, face flushed with rage. The higher step put Amber eye-to-eye with the Mutant King, silver pupils to gold.
Amber felt too old to cry, and too wise to raise her voice; wise, and terrified. How easily could Magnus kill her right now, she wondered. A little girl against one of the most powerful Mutants in history? She'd be lucky if she lasted more than a blink; or unlucky.
After what felt like an eternity of locked eyes, the frightened girl broke off her gaze.
"…What will Your Majesty do?"
"Fix this." Magnus hissed. "Before your ‘Evening Primrose’ becomes a thorn in Genosha’s side. That boy of yours will be sent to join the Hellions—I will not allow his careless tongue to reach the ears of diplomats. Your other Contractors will be monitored by Genoshan troops at all times, and escorted whenever they leave the palace grounds. You will surrender all of these ‘Dolls’ to Director Shaw, and I shall destroy those despicable contraptions myself."
That left one problem remaining, though Amber dreaded to ask about it.
“…and what about me?” she heard herself shudder.
A firm hand clamped down on Amber’s shoulder, clutching her so hard it almost hurt.
"It's high time we revisited this morning’s discussion, Miss Amber. I have a small project that requires your help."
Dante nodded in approval as they spoke. "Nice, nice, always cool to meet people in the same business. You look like you can handle yourselves for sure. Looking forward to seeing you in action. Anyway, you guys hungry? I got some pizza back in my office if you want any, maybe I can get you guys a little up to speed on what you missed."
Nero paused for a second as he took in the fact that thing was custom made. Then he responded.
"Yo, you gotta show me how you built that. I mean, shit, you attached a grenade launcher to a warhammer, that's.....that's fucking amazing!
Starfire's bolts would impact without doing any apparent damage to the still out of sight emperor.
Meanwhile, Nyarly continued to chuckle even as the various attacks hit. The ice shots froze a good part of his left half, His right half was riddled with Undyne's spears. Yet his focus remained on Aigis even as she leaped off the wall to prepare for her finisher.
Foolish machine. You know not what you contend with.
The attack impacted at this point, obliterating Nyarly's physical form and reducing him to ash as whatever remained vanished as suddenly as it appeared. Then, they would hear his voice a final time.
I will return, no matter how many times you may attempt to slay me. So close this planet came today to destruction, all because of the ambitions of a single human. So prepared to consume everything in his quest for power. He is hardly alone in this regard. Struggle as you will, you cannot save yourselves from your fate.
Suddenly, the oppressive presence within the room vanished as well.
Then, a bony hand grabbed the back of the throne as the Emperor forced himself to his feet.
I.....I cannot die! He raised his hand to point at the incoming Jaune, firing a burst of lightning. It matters not if you slay that entity, my men already have the order to fire! Even if you slay me here, your planet will be reduced to rubble!
The shot from Trevor disarmed the Jet Trooper caught by Celty, and left without further weapons, he was reduced to just dangling in place.
Ram's attack against her attacker hit dead on, and the jetpack was disabled as the trooper when falling into the depths. Red Hood would be well advised to get clear at this point.
Sakura's ploy would work, and while the explosion itself did not do much more then knock the trooper off course, he ended up flying right into a wall before he could get his bearings. The crunch of bones would be audible before he was also sent flying into the depths.
The Jet Trooper attacking Arachne indeed lost his blaster. On reflex, he blasted his jetpack, trying to gain distance, and in doing so dragged them both above the walkway. The SMG fire was mostly bouncing off the armor, but a couple found their way into his joints. Most imporantly, one stuck the jetpack, blowing up an engine. The trooper was clearly about to fall, only remaining in the air long enough for Arachne to leap off and return to the walkway before he too fell to the depths.
Meanwhile, Wolverine would find no ready point of entry other then a locked door. Attempts to claw through the wall would make it clear that the wall was built with super strong metal and very thick. He might be able to claw though it....if he had a couple of hours to spare.
This left the Dark Trooper, who was taking damage from the sudden heavy assault (But not Bond's laser, which at such distance and at such small size was having about the effect one would expect). Once again shifting targets, he lifted the large blaster and returned rapid blaster fire at the armor as it walked onto the shadow bridge. Once Ramna threw her holy water, it would fall into the depths, clearing the room.
Over at the tower, Fixer had moved in front of the only door to the inside of the tower and started hacking the control panel.
"Ok, good work!" Boss yelled to everyone. "Enemy down! Regroup in front of the door, and we will end this!"
Ruby's plan would end up working, as she attached herself to the side of the ship.
Inside the ship, Boba Fett grinned behind his helmet as he pictured the payment he was gonna charge for the kill of what appeared to be some sort of Jedi. A bit of a weird one, mind, still hadn't drawn a lightsaber, but maybe she just lost it or something. Right now, he needed to scrape the bugs off of his ship, and a building directly in front of him would work for this.
Thus, Boba Fett would dive toward the ground before puling up and approaching the building Sloan was on at a slight angle. Flying past it, he would hit the building with the side of the ship he'd seen Ruby go to, attempting to scrape her off and trusting his ship's armor to absorb the impact.
The door to the classroom the commander had ended up entering opened, and he staggered out of it and started going down the hall as quickly as his limp would allow, attempting to find any of his troops, while keeping an eye out in case the rebel assassin tried again to take his life.
Thrax would suddenly come to a halt in front of two of his men, who saluted.
"Sir!"
"You have new orders. This planet will be destroyed in approximately 30 minutes. We need to be off of this rock by then. However, they have sniper support covering the shuttle. Gather every civilian you can find on this floor. I have given them 15 minutes to stand down. If they do not stand down, you are to begin systematically killing every one of them. Begin with the weakest, the elderly and children, and work your way from there. They have access to our comms, so no mission critical info over them. However, you are to transmit their dying screams over them. Make them understand the consequences of their actions. Do I make myself clear?"
Another salute. "Yes, sir!"
Harley snapped into action on being told to do so.
"Alright, Slasher, this message is for you. We're getting really tired of you....er, slashing people. And stabbing them. And, er, killing them. Anyway, point is, we're really annoyed with you. So we wanna meet with you. If you don't agree to this, then I'm gonna have some fun here with your friend."
She then turned to the teacher, poking him with her mallet, which still had some brain residue and blood on it. "Ok, say something, bub."
edited 9th Apr '17 8:19:34 PM by Meanken
Bond - Tankbusting Cancelled On Account of Melee Fighter, Death Star Room of Falling to Your Death
Bond ducked back into cover as the laser fire came his direction, the other side of the terminal beginning the process of melting.
Well, it seemed like neither bullets nor lasers did anything to the Dark Trooper. Seems he was right, it was armoured to all hell. Boss and Scorch were quick to inform everyone that there wasn't even a man in that suit: it was an android.
So, that nixed the flashbang in the bud. Bond would try something with the C4, if it wasn't for the fact that some idiot girl had entered into melee combat with the damn thing.
"I don't care if she has the best chance at punching that thing to death," Bond shouted at Trevor. "We'd all have better chances at living if we blew it to hell, and I'd rather not see a teenage girl die in the process. From it's hands, or ours."
Bond popped up out of cover once more, and this time sent gunfire and gunfire alone at any Jet Trooper he could spot. If he couldn't help the redhead, might as well help someone else.
Jaune Arc - Prelude to a Deathstalker, Death Star Room of- why are there so many bottomless pits in this spaceship?
The massive explosion didn't actually reach Jaune, as he was behind the front lines of the group. Honestly, he was nearly inside the turbolift.
Which really helped when the Emperor decided to rain lightning down. He saw it coming, and rolled out of the way of one of the strike, and then another.
But this just wouldn't do. Apart from the fact that robot was still fighting the monster, he couldn't just sit back and shout orders to a group that barely knew him. He needed to get in on the fight.
Problem Number 1: Both the Emperor and the Monster (Nyarlothep, he thought they called it) were flying.
Problem Number 2: Jaune did not have a ranged option outside of "throw sword".
Problem Number 3: Jaune could not fly, nor jump good like his Teammates. And most of his year at Beacon.
Problem Number 4: Bottomless pits that he could lose his sword down.
Think, Jaune, Think! Who else throws their sword? Besides Pyrrha.
Well, Blake. Technically, she turns it into the knife-thingy that Ruby calls a kusari-something, but she gets it back with-
Okay, situational awareness time. He didn't have any. Aigis, Sypha, Undyne, doesn't look like it. He couldn't see the wizard anymore, and he doubted the girl with the octopus-backpack and the asshole had any either. Which left-
The guy who kept pulling gadgets out of nowhere.
Jaune rolled again, dodging another lighting strike, and ran towards Batman, who stood in a corner. He could tell the guy was watching, just like he had been. Searching for the right time.
"Rope!" Jaune blurted at Batman, skidding to a halt. "I need rope! Do you have any?"
Teenagers With Exposition - Suddenly A Crowd, Common Room
"Oh, not cool in the way that they kill people, yeah." Nora explained to Alucard. "But cool in the 'I've never fought a vampire' way. I mean, you can only kill them with garlic and sunlight and a stake through the heart, right?"
Nora reached to the small of her back, pulled out a grenade launcher
"That means I can smash them forever and they'll never break!"
Meanwhile, Yang and Blake paid rapt attention to Mitsuru's exposition, noting the disappearance of Kaon from the map. Seemed they couldn't deal with the Empire.
As Mitsuru continued, Yang leaned in to Blake, and spoke softly.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That Weiss and Pyrrha had a daughter and nobody told us?"
Yang could only grin in response.
Weiss - Metal Gear Weiss-ing, Raira Classroom
After pummeling the poor Stormtrooper into unconsciousness, with the help of Seiji and a few well-placed kicks to the crotch and head, Weiss dragged the man into the classroom and liberated him of the key to her handcuffs. It took a moment to position it right, but she finally managed to unlock her cuffs and free her hands.
Almost immediately, she snatched up her ice dust and formed a replica of her rapier.
"Everyone calm down!" Weiss shouted, trying to have herself over the panic of the students. "That spaceship won't fire into here. You're still valuable to them."
The screech of the intercom and the following speech interrupted her, but Weiss smiled at it anyway. That had to be the signal.
"But that spaceship will fire on us if we try to escape. It needs dealing with. My partner can distract it for now, but she'll need my help eventually. I need to get my weapon and go help her. You'll be safe here."
She pointed at Ryo with her ice-rapier, singling him out from the rest of the group.
"Until I come back, he's in charge. Stay away from the windows and the door, keep your heads down, and stay in this room until I tell you it's safe to come out."
With that, Weiss marched her way out in to the hallway, but not before pausing at the doorway and spreading a little ice dust on the ground. As soon as she made it into the hallway, a glyph appeared in the doorway, and the ice dust grew into actual ice, filling the doorway with a thick sheet of ice.
And from there, Weiss would attempt to sneak her way towards the janitor's closet she'd seen been turned into a contraband storage. They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!