Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Thor can only stare in shock at the Starmen before him.

"...What the bloody Hel have you done with them? Who are you?"

"I told you, I'll tell you when you find me, haha! Now how about you have some fun?"

Two of the Starmen? fire PK Beam attacks at Thor and Ninten. Ninten's caught off guard and gets hit... but the Franklin Badge on his neckerchief reflects it back.

"... oh, right, I have that. ... phew."

The third Starman? begins to shake a little before spewing out spores. Giegue flies back immediately and tries to use telekinesis to pull Thor and Ninten back as well to ensure that they'll avoid them.

"If those plants are parasitic we can not allow ourselves to breathe in those spores!"

Thor raises Mjolnir just in time to deflect the beam heading for him. He throws his hammer right at the Starman who fired on him before Giegue telekinetically pulls him back.

"Whoever did this... do either of you think they might be someone from your realm?"

Regardless of whether or not Mjolnir finds its mark, it soars right back into Thor's waiting grasp afterwards.

The Starman? that Thor throws Mjolnir against ends up with a huge dent in it. After some electrical sputtering, it collapses backwards and seemingly goes offline.

"The ship looks like it's been taken over for a very long time. It must be someone from my world. But I don't personally know anyone who can use parasitic plants to this extent.", Giegue says. He then narrows his eyes when he sees how effective Thor's attack was.

"The Starmen don't seem to be any stronger than usual though. I doubt they'll be a threat aside from the spores. As long as we don't breathe them in we should be able to force our way through them. ... well, I worry for Ninten-"

Cue Ninten bashing the other two down with his baseball bat, beating them. Giegue pauses.

"... never mind, he's fine."

Ninten smirks confidently.

"Gimme me some credit, uncle. I've dealt with stronger minions of yours before, and I'm stronger than I used to be."

"Right. Just don't breathe in the spores. I don't know if you'd get taken over, die from asthma, or both.", Giegue says as he now starts moving forward again.

"Hey, I have my puffer with me, I'll be fine.", Ninten says, then smiles at Thor.

"Let's keep going."

Edited by DevilPsyco on Oct 28th 2021 at 6:52:15 PM

"Right."

Thor walks alongside Giegue, his hammer at the ready in case more enemies attempt to impede their progress.

Ninten follows as well, and Giegue opens a door at the end of the room. Peering into the room on the other side, he looks back at Thor and Ninten.

"It seems the room order is at least the same. But be wary, there are Starmen in this next room. We must try to sneak past them."

Once in the room, they'll find that there's a lot of stuff on the ground. Large capsules that have fallen over mostly, but also some big boxes. There's also a huge hole in the part of the floor that leads to the door, making going through that one potentially not an option anymore. There is however, a hole in the wall big enough for them to go through, but the Starmen? are nearby.

They haven't spotted the group yet though, so maybe Giegue's idea of sneaking through can work.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Oct 28th 2021 at 7:07:44 PM

"Sneaking past them would be far easier if Loki were here with us," Thor muses. "Nonetheless, I suppose your plan could bring us closer to the one behind all of this."

He attempts to sneak past the Starmen and through the hole in the wall, using the boxes for cover.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Oct 28th 2021 at 10:27:50 AM

It's a somewhat slow process, but they eventually get past the Starmen?.

They end up in a long hallway that has multiple holes in the walls. Well, one in the middle and one right at the end. There are no Starmen? anywhere in the hall though, so they can go through on their own leisure. They just have to be careful not to trip over any roots.

"Going by what should be the correct layout, the one at the end should lead to a room with an exit. The middle one will just lead to a supply chamber that's useless to us. It just contains sprays and equipment for Starmen.", Giegue says.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Oct 28th 2021 at 7:36:12 PM

"We can only hope the ship's layout hasn't been changed to lure us straight into a trap."

Thor makes his way down the hallway in question, heading through the door upon reaching it.

VS. DEVIL GUNDAM

Omega knew that Dr. McNinja was kinda maybe batshit insane, but he also knew that the Doc was really good at what he did, and was also wearing the badge of the guys organizing the mission, so he was probably the safest option to follow. Diving into the entrance, he ran up close behind the good doctor and brought his staff to bear.

Thranix followed suit, brushing some foliage out of his horns. "Hey, big guy, why don't you save the enemies for us, too?" he said to Thor with a chuckle.

—

The Wyvern Esper couldn't dodge the missiles coming for it, and by virtue of being right next to the Devil Gundam, EVA-01's AT Field couldn't protect it, either. It was wracked by explosions, but that didn't stop Megan.

"Let's see which devil is stronger!"

She attempted to shove the Devil Gundam aside to put it off-balance, then the Wyvern Esper's arms folded upwards and combined with its head as it morphed into a Deviljho-esque bestial shape which proceeded to try and completely topple the Devil Gundam with a full-force headfirst tackle!

Rho raised his staff, muttering an invocation to himself. Circular runic shapes appeared around himself and the Waveguard as they both erupted with enhanced power.

Rho saw the world through the Waveguard's eyes as it raised two arms on one side of itself over its head, drawing forth an Olympic swimming pool's worth of water from the sea below into its upper hand. Then, with a light push, it sent all the water hurtling into the clouds, before finally swinging its arms down and bringing the water crashing down on the Devil Gundam like a Kill Sat!

Though he wasn't necessarily in direct control as some other conjurors were wont to do, the rush of power from feeling like he was the one doing such a thing never got old.

"It's possible, but I doubt it. Changing doors is one thing, but changing rooms without altering the shape of my mothership doesn't sound logical to me."

When they reach the door, they'll come to a room with a computer in the middle and glass tubes in the wall. There's infected Starmen? in some of the tubes, but they are non-responsive.

Going out of the door leads into another hallway, and once they do so the intercom goes off again.

"Your attention please. This is your new commander speaking. Would our visitors please proceed to the bridge up front of the ship and receive their reserved upgrades?"

"Huh?"

"And would any friend or crewman present and listening please proceed to... um... anywhere near there or the science wing?"

"Are you mocking us!?", Giegue asks, annoyed.

"No, that was just my ship's captain imitation. How did you like it? Was it okay?"

"... I mean-"

"NO!", Giegue angrily growls.

"Oh, sorry."

And then the intercom cuts out.

"... I think you made him feel bad.", Ninten says.

"GOOD!"

"... let's keep going."

Going through the door near them would lead them to another large room where large chunks of the ground are missing. There's Starmen? moving around slowly in various parts, but if they're fast enough, they can avoid them all even if they're spotted.

Bottom of the Pit

Resting her head in her hand, Filia is in a seated position as if she were on a chair, but is levitating in the air. She's only been here a few hours, but playing guard duty was quite boring. When Thor had used his ability, Filia's gaze shot up toward the region above. She couldn't shake the strange feeling but determined it could be due to a multitude of things and elected to ignore it.

With an exasperated expression, she reaches out into the air, the molecules freezing together to form a small wine cup. Leaving it floating in the air, the ice further condenses, its molecular structure shifting into one of solid gold.

With a frustrated sigh, she gently blows at the rim of the glass, and it fills with a crimson liquid of some sort. She cracks a slight grin and her eyes light up, grasping and raising the glass to her lips before the group arrives. Once they had all dropped in, she immediately slouched and her happy expression sunk into one of annoyance.

Crushing the cup and the liquid inside to literally nothing, she lowers to the ground and turns to face the intruders. She crosses her arms, the temperature dropping drastically to a level that even GW!Thor could acknowledge as far more than chilly. Her gaze scans the group, her eyes eventually landing on the gaze of SI!Omega. She recognizes both him and GW!Thor but chooses not to acknowledge the thunder god and his booming challenge.

Gesturing to him briefly, she begins to speak, her tone matching the expression on her face.

   "I see your taste in companions has changed drastically Omega. You're lucky he's here or I would not give you the courtesy of an explanation, as my patience is already wearing thin."   

Burying her face in her hand and pausing for a moment, she yawns, leaning up against the wall of the pit. Looking up at the group from her facepalm state, she lowers her hand back down to her side.

   "Narktus has this place run by a skeleton crew, only a handful of guards for the most part. But for some reason, he got an uneasy feeling and sent me here to wait for... something. Quite peculiar though, as he rarely calls for my presence. I assume it isn't you he was waiting for, or he'd be chiming in about now."   

Her expression changes to a quizzical one, before looking down at a bracer on her arm bearing the gravitas symbol.

   "Or maybe it just broke again."   

Dr. McNinja leaps back when he realizes Filia is there, drawing his sword.

When she doesn't attack, he promptly sheathes it again. "Uh... Right, then. So... what, exactly?"

There's nobody in here except the investigators and a seemingly-on-standby Filia. It's almost... eerie, how quiet it is down here. Not even the hum of active machinery. Didn't Samus say this type of outpost was meant to precede a full-scale invasion?

Inside the Empty Base (命が帰る場所 - The Place where Life Returns)

Down the hall are a few open doors, some unlocked and one locked.

—

Samus, back in her Power Suit, takes aim at the Devil Gundam with the Storm Missiles, locking on to as many different points as she can.

Burning Gundam draws its beam saber and rushes for a slash.

The Devil Gundam is unfazed by the headshots, responding by shooting eye lasers at Pepsiman and EVA-01.

It raises an arm to block Pandora's missiles and the slashes from Meta Knight and Domon, though the forearm explodes outright from the attacks. However, it immediately regenerates and tries to just smash all three of them with a single punch.

It then looks at Super Love as she batters it with her star projectiles.

Its mouth opens. Machine-gun barrels emerge from the back of its mouth and unleash More Dakka on her.

Finally, the Wyvern Esper manages to move it, but it goes skidding back when tackled instead of toppling over entirely. The Waveguard's attack crumples its head so thoroughly that it creates more explosions, but unlike any legal Gundam, the Devil Gundam can keep functioning without that (and its torso is another head), so it just regenerates again before lifting one of its humongous feet to try and kick the Wyvern Esper.

Giegue's Mother Ship

A streak of purple light hurtles from the sky, smashing through the Mother Ship's entrance and creating an explosion audible to the group already inside (as well as whoever took over the place).

The smoke clears and the light fades to reveal the Sovereign of Sorrow, who promptly rushes on in.

Edited by KiriK on Oct 28th 2021 at 1:52:08 PM

HAVE NO FEAR CHILD OF DRAGONS! THEIR BLOOD SHALL BE SPILLED FORTH BY ALL OF OUR WEAPONS! He turns to Thranix and grins, holding up his hammer. Then they get to the current resident of the place.

Thor doesn't recognize her, not having the senses to tell that she's tied to a most foul fiend he defeated with another group. Or he simply doesn't remember the likes of Boyero, having doubtlessly killed a lot of foes ever since that battle. While he acknowledge her temperature, he's so used to the cold that it doesn't faze him too much.

He prepares to cut her off to say something but then he hears the words SKELETONS?! and literally flies off deeper into the base.

IF FOUL NARKTUS WOULD STAFF HIS BASE WITH THE FORCES OF THE UNDEAD, THEN IT WILL BE MY PLEASURE TO SEND THEM BACK TO THE VERY GRAVES HE SO CALLOUSLY TORE THEM FROM! HAVE AT THEE!

Actually though, Thor's figured out that the "something" means that the base could be under another kind of assault soon. Oh sure, it could be them, but he knows that it's never that simple with the Arena, and fully expect a horrible metasandzyne of absolute death fucking hell to be horribly shambling its way to the base in like one minute, two minutes.

And since they revealed the door to it, it might be sooner than that. But he trust that someone else will figure that out, and is content frustrating everyone else. Worse come to worse, he'll ditch the group to fight that devil beast!

But for now he heads for one of the doors, one that seems locked.

Edited by Bolded1 on Oct 28th 2021 at 8:24:53 PM

Versus Devil Gundam

Shinji, looking at the threat ahead of him, takes some deep breaths, trying to calm himself down... before saying over comms, once again, without prompting, "I'm going in for hand to hand combat, but don't worry about friendly fire." He then says to himself "Well, too late to turn back, again. Time to go through with that... I know i'm going to be yelled at, or ignored, or scolded, I know it won't get my fathers attention, but... I'm doing it anyways."

EVA 01 rushes in, a pylon on their back opening up to reveal a prototype Energy blade/prog knife hybrid, which EVA 01 moves in with , taking on a Krav Maga Style knife stance, moving in to hand to hand range as Shinji Hotmics a yell over comms.

Retracting her wings upon reaching the ground, Nicole flashes a smile at Xoeur.

"Trust me, kid, you'd friggin' love her."

She instinctively grabs the hilt of Olympus' Wrath when confronted by Filia, only to realize that something was off about this whole scenario.

"Wait a minute... this outpost ain't an invasion bunker, is it, Elsa? No, it's gotta be something like a comm station."

She heads off towards the locked door.

"If I'm being honest, it wasn't that bad of an impression..."

Upon entering the next room, Thor attempts to sneak past the Starmen as quickly as possible. He then glances back upon hearing the explosion.

"What in the Nine Realms...?"

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Oct 28th 2021 at 11:49:21 AM

"Maybe not, but I am not in the mood to amuse some thieving freak.", Giegue says.

The intercom goes off again.

"Oh, a new friend entered the ship. Boy, does she seem hasty. What's the rush, new friend?"

"Well, great.", Giegue snarks. "We may have trouble both in front and behind us depending on who entered my ship."

"Maybe we should keep moving just in case...", Ninten says, unsure.

The gravity in this hallway would be a bit stronger. Thor wouldn't have much trouble due to his strength and can easily get past the obstacles in their way, but Giegue and Ninten are forced to stick closer to the ground. Luckily most of the gaps aren't too wide, so they manage to get across the room with little issue, at one point having to climb down a vine but not much else out of the ordinary. Most of the Starmen? don't even notice them.

At the other end of the room is a large doorway, though it lacks an actual door. It's the only way forward, so they'll have to go through.

-

The Sovereign would quickly arrive at the first broken floor room, the one that leads to the door leading into the room with the hole in the wall. There's no Starmen? in her way save for the ones in the room with the hole in the wall, since Thor and co avoided that one.

Both Pandora and Meta Knight get punched back. Pandora's barrier takes a lot of the impact though, allowing her to quickly recover, though the barrier does shatter.

"Fine, have it your way."

She puts her arms together, the threads now forming a single cannon. She takes aim at the Devil Gundam, charges up an attack, then launches a massive explosive blast towards the Devil Gundam.

Meta Knight, meanwhile, lands on the ground and momentarily shakes his head to shake off the impact.

"Strong... very strong. My regular attacks won't do much to it."

His eyes glow slightly red.

"I'll have to use more potent techniques..."

VS. DEVIL GUNDAM

Omega shifted his feet uncomfortably.

"Y'know, I've kinda been out of the loop in regards to this whole Gravitas thing, I just know that I keep ending up in uncomfortable positions. All I really know about right now is, there is a very big, and very angry, sentient gundam not far from here that could be disastrous for everyone if it stays active."

He decided not to shift into his skeletal form — he was terrified, yes, but he did already owe Filia as it was, and he hadn't forgotten that.

"... Basically what he said, yeah. Um... sorry about meeting like this?"

Upon seeing the locked doors, Thranix decided to go down and just... knock. The fuck is going through that reptile brain of his?

Meanwhile, Omega shot Nicole a disappointed look, but said nothing.

—

The Wyvern Esper recoiled back, as Megan fought with the systems to get it back under control. She had lost a degree of piloting agility when she had lost her tail, and so this proved to be a harder task than it at first appeared — but this form was well-suited to the up-close and personal brawl that Devil Gundam was engaging her in. Granted, that didn't stop the kick from doing some pretty hefty concussive damage, but still.

She tumbled before managing to transform back, as she whipped out her mech-scale version of The Storm, and began firing its titanic bolts at the Devil Gundam!

Rho, meanwhile, stayed focused in with his Summon. After some rapid-fire mental conversing, they decided to try and lock-down the Devil Gundam with two toruses of high-pressure water — one to close in vertically, and one horizontally. They brought the water up from the sea, and began to shape it...

[1/2]

Edited by OmegaShadowcry on Oct 28th 2021 at 3:05:28 PM

The Sovereign surrounds herself in an aura of purple energy and charges into the room with a hole in the wall. She can open the door with no floor in front of it because she can fly, but she also knows that Giegue went through the hole.

... Ah, screw it. She'll have more time to consider her options when there isn't anything about to attack her. She spreads her arms and unleashes a storm of energy blasts, intent on incapacitating or destroying all of the Starmen? in the room with her.

Thor makes his way across the room, leaping over the gaps in the floor until he reaches the other side. Once there, he wastes no time heading through the doorway.

On the other side of the doorway is a small bit of ground that doesn't really go anywhere. However, on the left of where they came out of there's a long ladder leaving upwards. Going up there would lead them to an area with more containers...

and no less than 8 Starmen?. And unlike the ones from the previous rooms, these ones turn to look once they see everyone get up there.

The intercom goes off.

"Surprise! Ha ha ha, hee hee hee!"

Ninten went up the ladder as the last one, and by the time he gets up there the Starmen? already attack. It's an ambush!

Starman? 1 throws a Wicked Seed on Giegue. He gets hit and finds it harder to concentrate on using his PSI.

Starman? 2 uses PSI Brainshock on Ninten. He begins to feel strange, then attacks Thor with his bat.

Starman? 3 flings some debris at Thor.

Starman? 4 scatters some spores.

Starman? 5 scatters some spores.

Starman? 6 fires PK Beam at Giegue and hits him, dealing some actual significant damage.

Starman? 7 uses PSI Magnet to drain mental energy from Giegue, Thor and Ninten.

Starman? 8 throws a Wicked Seed towards Thor, trying to sabotage his concentration to prevent him from casting thunder.

-

RIP to the two Starmen? that were in that room. They get exploded and so does the door. This will lead the Sovereign straight to the room with the destroyed floor parts that Thor and co just got through.

The intercom goes off.

"Would the newest friend please take care not to destroy my ship too much? I put a lot of effort into remodeling the area. Thank you~"

Underground facilities

The 4 explorers found themselves in a dark and cold place, shivering by the cold.

Luckily, it wasn't a trap.

Pili mumbles to herself: He doesn't shut his mouth...

They notice the doors. Maxi says: I will enter one of the open doors. Everybody else, stay outside for anything.

Vs. Devil Gundam

Super Love got hit by the Gundam's dakka, and fell in the water. But she is better than it looks, because she faked her injuries to prepare a surprise attack.

Meanwhile, Super Pamp emerges at a safe distance from the group. He climbs into the bridge, and he starts to play his guitar, preparing a summon too!

Edited by BombonBombin on Oct 28th 2021 at 3:44:15 AM

Acting fast, Thor raises Mjolnir in time to block Ninten's sudden attack. Unfortunately, the momentary distraction allows the oncoming debris to connect and send him stumbling back.

"I'm beginning to grow weary of this!"

Making sure not to breathe in any spores, he brings out Stormbringer and hurls it at the Starmen before moving to knock the Wicked Seed away with a swing of his hammer. He then catches his returning axe with his free hand.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Oct 28th 2021 at 1:24:43 AM

Xoeur nervously averts her eyes from Filia, shivering twofold from the chill and fear. A small giggle comes out when Thor completely misunderstands the meaning of 'skeleton crew'.

"Okay..."

She goes down a little ways and checks one of the unlocked doors.

"H-hello?"

Landing with a skid on the bridge, Gwain flares with light for a second before casting Empower on Rho, trying to buff his magical power temporarily.

"Fine," groans the Sovereign. She proceeds to fly through that room without stopping for anything, intending to arrive at the others' position right away.