Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Mark takes a good look at Denji's head whilst being pelted by blood, which sends him back from the Noseman. He takes this as an opportunity to free himself by suddenly pulling himself towards Denji, his slash loosens up enough flesh to let him go but the abrupt momentum dislocates his shoulder.

"Fuck me this'll take a minute. Gonna need her to patch me up-"

As Mark stumbles back and relocates his shoulder, the Noseman targets Denji as tiny fragments of its hardened snot becomes bullets. It points its arms and sneezes once, moving itself back and sending a shotgun blast of stone fucking hard boogers at the chainsaw man.

The Grand Fuckening

Idk how to fit it in, but every engineer has the EV logo printed on their back

The warp's getting worse. And the local engineers are picking up the pace - within a matter of minutes, there's a fleet of at least twenty floating buses in the streets, hovering just out of reach from the civilians. Every single one is piloted by an engineer each, who'll make sure that only sane civilians will board, and they all periodically swing by railguns pointed into the sky and loaded with rocket ships.

"Get in losers, we're going to outer space!"

The sky gets filled with even more aircraft. Some position themselves around the already existing spacecraft and broadcast a message:

"Exotic Ventures is planning to evacuate the local population to a different planet. Do you consent to being towed by a warp drive rig for this purpose?"

Others don't look like conventional spacecraft at all - more like crystalline birds. They rapidly circle the skies, and fire more voiding rays at any aerial entity that seems to be interested in harming humans. This time, Exotic Ventures has accounted for the suddenly dropping air pressure, and sends in air from another universe in order to mitigate turbulences.

Something else happens, too. All across the hub, monsters within viewing range of any Exotic Ventures-provided equipment will be aimed at to have chunks of lead fusing into their bodies, sent in from another universe and placed with an astronomer's precision. Unless they're moving fast enough, in which case the chunks might simply be a millimeter or two off their mark.

EV Office Bunker

Aki

"That's good to know... We'll try to secure as much of the gun devil as we can, then. Me, I've had enough chaos for a day, and I don't want a repeat of this."

Bugface retrieves the prosthetic and connects it to a set of electrodes on Aki's skin..

"Now, about this prosthetic - it won't be perfect, and seeing as you haven't been using your arm a lot, you'll have to train using it. And since we aren't really that familiar with your biology, we might not be able to restore your sense of touch, but we can still try, eh? Now, can you try to make the arm move?"

Lobby

"Well, the building plan has a low-capacity emergency entrance and exit, just like any decent bunker. And sure, feel free to take a look, but please don't expect us to build it now." The avatar laughs.

Under the screen with the cubic lattice, a tablet slides out, running a CAD viewer program which allows to explore the blueprint in its full capacity.

The cubic lattice points at Daiakuma. "Oh, we've worked with you before? I didn't know that, nice to hear that Exotic is finally getting some traction here!"

EBGO

Stefan keeps on running down the spiral. Very much aware of the chaos that he's willingly put himself into, but oblivious to the chaos unfolding across Centralis. As he runs, he feels something tugging at the back of his neck.

"Not now, after the match maybe?"

Tug tug.

"We've nearly won - oh, am I getting cornered badly or something? I swear I saw Flandre drop dead on the way here."

Something fills him with discomfort.

"I have no idea what you're on about. Maybe if you spoke words."

Round timer: 1:10

Church of Gor

"Yeah, I don't think that this building can hold against whatever the hell is going on over h-"

The robot gets interrupted by Evelyn's rage spell, and has his brain simulation be reloaded from a backup twice before it can run smoothly again.

"Yeah, I don't think that this building can hold against whatever the hell is going on over here - someone's trying to corrupt me, it seems. Anyways, we're planning to evacuate to the closest planet, do you guys mind if we place a railgun nearby?"

He looks behind himself to see a ghoulish figure.

"Oh, CenterBrain!"

From his supplies, he places waist-high walls everywhere for people to take cover behind. Then he queues up a craft for a weapon.

"So, anyways, evac plan. How's it sound?"

Edited by StepexNo2 on Oct 26th 2022 at 8:51:33 PM

Pantheon

"what"

megaman, seeing flying object and immediately thinking 'ball', tries to smack it, only for the mini-nuke to blow up right on him, blasting him apart. Bits and bobs of him go everywhere, surprisingly intact.

"ow" he exclaims as his head bangs into the side of a building before ricocheting back onto the street face-down.

it's the girl. the girl dies. her throat is ripped out. i would be pissed if a horror-themed event didn't have some innocent horrible deaths so i'm offing my own character

Maybe the Predator will be weirded out that the spurting blood tastes and looks like. Well, apple seasonal coffee. Idk. In a final act of defiance, that which spurts from her throat's veins is scalding hot. And very fragant, maybe it can wake Caulimón up...

The Warpening

Our sky guys (People's Barrier, Bely and Beto) are doing their best to attack the giant sky worms, while the ground guys (Explora Colores, Insect Ladies) are dealing with the brainwashed masses.

The Gor-ening

As the rage spell and boons fell on them, the three guys felt an unstoppable urge to help the people of Gor and kick some asses!

Also, each one of them got some special gifts:

• Simón gained a new, shiny pair of rollerskates, and also his guitar can change modes at will, from an acustic one to an electric one!
• Nina, again as FelicityForNow, gained some... New powers.
• And Luna's rollerskates became crystalline, as if made of diamond. Her speed grew, and her pendant glows brighter...

As what new powers gained, I didn't thought anything yet. New details soon.

The trio goes out from the church to fight the warp forces.

Meanwhile, Balloonman and Topboy◊ approach the robot.

Can we help you with your evacuation plans?

Edited by BombonBombin on Oct 26th 2022 at 2:26:28 PM

Over Hub Centralis, Gabriel

Gabriel stares down at the hordes of chaos, and makes a decision.

God or no god present, his righteousness shall shine out.

Gabriel holds out his hand, a javelin of light forming in it, which he tosses down at the horde of Daemons and warp corrupted creatures.

He yells out "Vile Creatures! You have tresspassed into domains under the protection of gabriel! I would warn you to turn back, but I am certain none of you would be open to listen!"

His wings gleam brilliantly as he draws his swords. "BEHOLD, THE POWER OF AN ANGEL!"

He begins to hunt down various flying warp-spawned entities

Denji is nailed head on by the blast of shotgun shell like stone boogers, but some of them deflect of his head and chainsaws. Others land true, injuring denji. But this isnt the worst he's ben through. "And now my shirt has holes in it!"

Denji, not really having time to think again, charges again while pondering a strategy.

Aki looks down to his new arm, trying to stimulate his nerves like he would previously. Similar to having his other arm reattached.

"Let's see if this works..."

DICE ROLL: 1D6. RESULT, 4

The arm moves, albeit a bit more suddently and with more momentum than Aki was going for.

"It works, but you're right. I'm not going to be used to this for a bit."

Yeah, but not now! It'd be too easy, Beet says, smugly rubbing her knuckles. She demonstrates by smoothly sliding out of the way of Zelerie's revenge kick, the aura of Ultra Instinct appearing so very slightly around her body as she performs the dodge. You're one of the old Saiyans I loathe, the genocidal maniacs that could never raise above a power level of like 20k! she points down. How does it feels knowing one of the dancing maniacs from that commando could've beaten down the whole planet worth of you?

Zelerie snarls and goes for another punch, smoothly dodged again. Let's make it an event! I'm going to take you down by myself in a fair duel! Saiyan to Saiyan! My skill against your golden haired forms! No god forms, those don't count as Super Saiyan forms. She completes that by spinning and hitting Zelerie in the left cheek with a backhand. The impact is minimal, mostly meant to humiliate rather than hurt.

Tsk! Zelerie shakes her head, in annoyance. No true Saiyan would dare their enemy to fight at anything less than full power! She laughs, standing up as if she didn't just get punked around.

I'm fine not being a "true" Saiyan, because you losers were wiped out decades ago. What I am is a Saiyan from Earth. Beet replies, folding her arms. Zelerie briefly hesitates, glaring fiercely at Beet for a moment...

Group 1 - IM/Krampus/Bombon

   "You seem to believe I have some omniscient knowledge of why Zeloai and his goons wanted to take down this facility, I do not know. The question of what the plan was beyond destruction is better saved for them after we're out of here, preferably alive."   

Wrustoiz responds under a hail of blaster fire, channeling his annoyance at Ben to push himself from the wall and toward one of the last Imperial infantry. Quickly closing the gap between the two, Wrustoiz deflects a blaster bolt back into the soldier's blaster, disabling it for long enough that the Sith lord could slash the weapon in half.

Wrustoiz quickly moved his blade from the cut-in-half blaster to the Imperial's head, decapitating the soldier in one fluid motion. His back was wide open, but Crisol and Pepeta's combined blaster fire killed the second to last soldier. The last soldier was dispatched by a parry from Ben, the blaster bolt singing through the Imperial's helmet and their brain.

The Sith lord lets out an annoyed grunt, taking a deep breath. Wrustoiz walks into the next room, continuing his speech.

   "Ben, his apprentices have not made an appearance. If Laxin's apprentices were present, he would have made sure we knew."   

He kicked the corpse of a dead Imperial, looking down on the corpse with disgust.

   "These peons can't hope to stand against us. They're not elite military, they are fodder."   

He looks up at the pair of scientists.

   "They don't seem to be military trained, yet they have the skills necessary to delay and assist us in defeating the Imperials."   

Wrustoiz said, pausing for a moment.

   "As for this supposed Mandalorian ally, I can't speak to it as I have seen nothing. Regardless, this is a research facility, not a military installation, and your constant complaining is annoying. Though I expect nothing less from a Jedi."   

He chuckles, stepping into the next room.

Beat

Once everyone is inside, Wrustoiz starts to look around.

The next room is small and appears to be a security hub. Attached to the left wall is a large screen controlled by a console connected to a small desk. Wrustoiz walks up to the wall, inspecting the large screen to see rotating camera feeds of the other groups as they progress.

   "Probably not the only place in the facility these feeds are being displayed to."   

He says, just as the camera feed changes to display the room the group is in. It doesn't take long until the camera feed changes to Group 3's current position in the cafeteria, Wrustoiz's eyes widening upon seeing the Metroid.

   "That. That is what I saw in my vision."   

Group 2 - Bolded/Krampus/Irish

The pain of the electricity continues to surge through Laxin, the dark lord using the pain to intensify the back end of his Force scream. When Frank injected the syringe of red liquid, Laxin moved his gaze to the man. He felt the sudden increase in hate, smiling beneath his helmet. Eyeing the crackling red lightning, he chuckles.

   "Come on then!"   

When Frank leaped forward, the sith lord managed to move just fast enough through the intense pain to dodge most of Frank's blows. Toward the end of Frank's devastating combo, two punches landed back to back on Laxin's head. Dazed, the sith lord briefly falls to one knee. Once Frank had finished, Laxin used the Force to pull the device off of him, letting out a large gasp of relief. Assuming the device would resume its functionality when reattached, Laxin rises to his feet and attempts to kick Frank in the gut.

If successful, he'll attempt to use the Force to attach the device again to his back. Either way, Zeloai finally breaks free from Laxin's Force hold, dropping to one knee on the floor. The Jedi Master takes a moment to breathe, picking up his saber staff from the ground and igniting the twin emerald blades. Zeloai rushes forward, raising his double-bladed lightsaber to stab Laxin through the back.

Laxin sees this coming, quickly turning to parry the blow. Doing so leaves him wide open to the gray ball of condensed Force Scream, and the ball slams into Laxin's back. Laxin is sent careening down to the opposite end of the hallway when it explodes, bouncing off the walls several times. Loud metal clangs echo down the hall when Laxin finally faceplants at the opposing end.

Laxin feels his chest, three ribs broken. Laxin gets back on his feet, letting out an annoyed, loud grunt of pain. He turns back to the group, Zeloai grinning.

"I will offer you the opportunity to surrender if you so wish."

He says, glancing behind him at TMWFIV with a smile.

Laxin flourishes his blade, standing idle at the end of the hall for a moment in response. A device attached to his wrist begins to flash, a voice echoing in his helmet.

"My Lord, the Metroid has intercepted the group in the cafeteria. The others have breached the security desk and the tram system."

Narrowing his eyes for a moment, Laxin takes a step back. He retreats into the next room, clenching a hand to force the door shut. With no power in the hallway, the group will be forced to burn through it.

"My lightsaber won't be able to eat through all that durasteel fast enough."

He says, looking back at TMWFIV.

"You still got enough juice to burn through?"

Group 3 - Small/Krampus/Bonini/Irish

Sovereign looks at the Metroid, exclaiming

"What in the blazes?!"

Just as Angel!Pyra and Emma attack the Metroid is surrounded by a thick black fog. This cloud of black mist quickly moves out of the all-consuming bubble just in time to avoid being destroyed. What is assumed to be the Metroid gets pelted by Emma's energy shots. It slams into a wall with a loud thud, and when the black fog fades, Laxin is planted on his ass.

The dark lord coughs for a moment, Sovereign's eyes widening.

"LAXIN!"

He shouts, raising his blaster to the dark lord. He starts to fire rapidly, but all the blaster bolts stop mid-air halfway to Laxin. Laxin breathes heavily, panting like a dog. It was clear that Angel!Pyra's and Emma's attacks had landed on him rather than the Metroid.

Laxin stammers to his feet, struggling to stand. With wobbly feet, the dark lord inspects the group. Part of him recognizes Angel!Pyra, as if she is splintered from a greater consciousness. Laxin wafts away the thought, taking one nearly-failed step forward.

   "You will not kill my work."   

He says, barely able to speak. Before anyone can attack Laxin, he disappears into the black fog once more, but his presence lingers. Izawano's happy eyes take a solemn turn, his mood dampened by the sudden disappearance of Laxin.

The frozen blaster bolts are suddenly unfrozen, slamming into the wall.

"How'd he.. do that?"

Sovereign looks back to the console, a datapad shooting out just enough to be grabbed from the bottom. Grabbing the datapad, he walks over to Angel!Pyra and hands her it.

"Here's your map."

He says. If Angel!Pyra inspected the datapad, one of the two doors leads to a dead-end, indicating it's crew quarters of some sort. However, the walls of this room are connected to a smaller hallway leading to the facility's secondary power generator.

The other door leads to a security checkpoint, leading to two branching paths that lead to what's labeled as the primary research center, or specimen containment.

Group 4 - Rbade/Krampus

Bogey briefly turns back to Azula,

   "Yeah, you could. Not doubting your ability to control the fire and all but can you guarantee you won't bring down the facility on us?"   

Silver turns to the open railway, walking toward it but not going inside yet.

Bogey grunts,

   "It wants fingerprint to open the doors, damn it."   

He curses. Upon taking a closer look, Bogey can still pull up a facility map. He gestures to one of the ray-shielded doors on the west side of the room,

   "That one looks like the best option. According to the map, that hallway leads us to the primary power generator."   

Silver turns to the ray-shielded railway in question, inspecting the non-ray-shielded frame around it.

"You could probably burn out the inner electrics and short out the ray shield."

He says to Azula,

"What's down that one?"

He says, shrugging his shoulder at the already open railway.

   "An elevator leading to the upper level. Not much up there beyond a hangar, a small barracks, and the communications room. We'd probably meet up with Zeloai that way."   

Silver looks to Azula,

"Your choice. I think we stay split up for now."

Air Battle - Bonini

The troop transport continues evasive maneuvers and lowering itself closer to the ground until Erika got much closer. The pilot decides to rush by her in a blaze of glory, turning engines to maximum power and rocketing past her. She wouldn't have much time until the Imperial troops touched down, but it was still possible to stop them.

The main batteries of the destroyer continue to pelt her.

Air Battle - Kiri K

The main batteries continue firing down at the Fighter+. From the hangar, six peculiar◊ fighters emerge, an elite unit of veteran pilots.

The fighters split off, three quickly making their way toward the Fighter+.

Air Battle - Both

An officer stands at the bridge, barking out orders and yelling into a comm unit.

"It's one ship! What do you mean it's too powerful?"

Pausing, the female officer's confusion swells

"What in the blazes do you mean flying woman?!"

To Beet

"Wait how does that not count-"

To Zel

"Didn't you just attack me in base? That wasn't full power," he says, shaking his head. "What a hypocrite..."

She raises a finger, before putting it back down.

"... No, this is your wheelhouse. I'd prefer to hear your suggestions."

Approaching the doorway which leads to the generator, she touches a finger to the frame, sparks crackling.

"Though while we're here, I may as well sabotage what I can."

Hub Centralis

The buff, courtesy of Eve, is certainly exceptionally helpful to Melia. The bolts of ether she unleashes turn a bit more intense, the aura around her just a little stronger. Nia, acting as her guard, dashes from place to place, unleashing mighty waves of water possessing intense concussive force, wielding it to push groups of warp beasts away from innocent people.

And in addition to that, she heals. In the chaos, she cannot dedicate herself to bringing someone back to life, but anyone injured in her immediate vicinity will find themselves rapidly back in fighting (or running) condition. She does this with only one arm, the other dedicated to swinging her Anima Sword. Water ether swirls around her body, intensifying her movements as she goes from place to place- movements further quickened by Eve's assistance.

She is much like Azura, her movements almost like a dance, the razor edge of her weapon cleaving through all that oppose her, while the apparitions of Pyra and Mythra's swords back her up, slicing through anything that tries to flank her and bearing down on beasts with the fury of a second and third swordfighter at Nia's back.

And then, she finds herself locked into place.

She tries with furious attacks to repel the foes that bear down upon her then, but her weapons are just that- weapons, not shields. The shield natural to her as a blade can only do so much.

The result, is exactly as said: Wounds, many of them, most superficial but some cutting deep. Nia hisses and growls as she is cut open, struggling to cut away the near-mindless monsters that have made themselves her enemy today.

...And yet...

Nia's wounds close just as rapidly as they are cut! Having not just woken from millennia of sleep, her cellular regeneration abilities are at their peak performance, allowing her patch her own wounds with as much as ease as she does other people's!

It still hurts like a biiiitch though.

With so many people in danger, the two of them begin to work far harder still to keep as many people safe as they can- Melia directing her eradicating ether shots towards beasts most threatening the people who have not escaped, while Nia puts herself on the line to cut down beasts that Melia cannot defeat, taking hits where others could not take- and with Eve's assistance, she can do this without harm to her either.

...

And then, out of the blue...

A "savior" arrives.

Philip◊, along with his Silver Knight, appear with elegantly arranged glyphs at their feet.

And they aren't alone.

Teleporting in with them are a host of individuals possessing Philip's blessing- for a total of thirteen people, all weak and powerless save for the power of the sigil on their arm.

   "I ask all of you brave enough to accompany me, use the power I have granted to you to destroy this evil, to beat back the chaos we so despise!"   

The fighters he has taken with him rally to this cry, and begin to fan out, taking the fight to the warp beasts with terrible fury! Each individual empowered by Philip's blessing is a mighty but careless warrior, most possessing little skill and lacking the courage required to fight with all of their might.

But, in trade, each of them is in possession of a ridiculous amount of physical strength, durability, and speed. Not enough to make them completely untouchable, but enough to make them nearly so.

Almost like the exact inverse of the mad civilians working under Evelyn's rage spell.

As for Philip and his Silver Knight?

Well, what else would they do, with an instrument so potent available to them?

To those fallen and defeated, Philip has his Silver Knight apply his blessing. The effect, to those who have not already died, is instantaneous- strength enough not only to flee, but to fight, slowly increasing the number of individuals with his blessing both on the battlefield and in general, in the process.

And it isn't as if they can say no: He's not doing it to anyone awake to protest.

...A "life-saving procedure", so to speak.

Ben shoots an annoyed glare at Wrustoiz as he deactivates his lightsaber, clearly restraining the urge to Force Push him into the nearest wall.

"Your overconfidence proves you've clearly learned nothing about the dangers of underestimating Laxin," he retorts. "Not that I'd expect anything less than unbridled - and in your case, unearned - arrogance from a Sith."

He heads into the next room as well, studying the security feed until he notices the Metroid as well.

"What in blazes is that monster? It doesn't look a thing like any Sithspawn I know of."

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Oct 26th 2022 at 2:30:46 AM

Marlington

   "So be it, then. Let us end this."   

The Fall Reincarnation and Fall Vessel thrust their hands forward, and in unison, the twin Fall Dragons unleash a mighty combined torrent of soul-flame!

Onyxis

"..." Rhea sighs. "That's the sun. You can't fight the sun."

Winterhold

"Ummm... okay, bye!" Cirno waves goodbye to William.

Imperial Base

The Alpha Metroid begins to screech, only to be whisked away, taking Laxin's place in the room with Group 2.

It's pissed. Tossed around left and right, unable to feed, merely annoyed by the attempts to harm it so far.

It just fucking leaves. Tears a hole in the ceiling, flies out of the base and into the sky...

—

The Fighter+ continues to put its all into evasion, actually taking a few direct hits but enduring them courtesy of an energy shield.

"Alright, bitches. Let's see how you handle this!"

A laser fires from the side of the Fighter+. Then another one, and another, and another. They stack up, all firing from different points in different directions, then start sweeping around to create what is essentially a giant disco ball of death.

The Alpha Metroid sees this. So much energy... so much food! It charges through the laser storm, its carapace shrugging off the beams as they sweep across it, and lunges to bite down on the ship and start draining its energy.

Anti-Skullgirl Labs, Tropique

When last we left off, the Glamrock Animatronics were undergoing repairs, and Freddy in particular was receiving upgrades.

At some point during that time, Tager brought a delivery to Addison - some kind of computer chip - and they've plugged it into their personal computer to decompile and examine its contents.

Those are a god's power. Most Saiyans won't ever reach that kind of might by themselves! Might as well be competing in a marathon with a jetplane. No, no. I want to stomp her at the full available power of a Super Saiyan, the ones they can reach on their own. So she has no excuses for when she loses! Beet says, slamming her hand into her open palm.

As for Zelerie, she visibly hesitates for a moment, as if curious, then smiles.

You're on.

Good, but we'll need some semblance of order. Like someone to put you down when you start losing and go... God or something, hurgh, what a tacky name.

Tom's Diner

Not wanting to be mauled by a bear thrice in a lifetime, the woman formed the exact same pattern, this time larger than before and in between her and the bear. It’s not enough to stop it’s jump, but it takes it just long enough to break through that she has time to move out of the way to relative safety.

"Ice? Alright…” The woman sheathed her sword, in favor of a two foot weapon with a bayonet on the end.◊

The barrel was more akin to a grenade launcher than an actual gun’s, and she slid in close to the bear, attempting to stab the weapon into it's hide and firing an ice-grenade at point blank that, upon exploding, would leave a small and lingering cloud of frost to deal slow but steady damage to the bear.

——

The Terrarian swung his sword, cutting open a tear in the very fabric of reality.

Only a moment before the shockwave reached him, he leapt into the rip, as it closed behind him. He was gone, separated entirely from this world, until another tear opened just above the Lilligant, and from within he fell. The man, with a war howl, attempted to land on top of the Pokemon and to try and cut his weapon into her shoulder.

EV Bunker

   "Yes, I should thank you again for it. It's nice having a roof over our heads in this weird place."    Daiakuma says, smiling.

EBGO

Seeing as how Thor actually got stunned, Rumia starts spamming the laser blasts to try and keep him stunlocked for the rest of the round hopefully. Flandre, still too tired out and regenerating to do anything, watches this transpire with some amusement. The medic drones help with her physical injuries but her energy levels are still pretty damn low.

Winterhold

"Yeah, bye!" Luna Child says, waving him off. She then turns to Cirno. "So uh, wanna go find some training dummies?" If Cirno agrees she'll fly off with her to wherever it is they end up next.

Oca looks like he desperately wants to argue with Beet over multiple points of this, but.

"Okaaay," he grombles. "Zel, I love you, but if you cheat you're getting telefragged, m'kay?" he says, waving a finger. "Brain go bye bye."

"Also Beet after this we are having a serious talk."

Anti-Skullgirl Labs, Tropique

—

—

—

—

KC (C) 1991

Network: Unknown

CPU: Unknown, running at 1 exaFLOP

Unable to identify further computer data

Auto-detecting Mass Storage Device

Device #02: Back-up Disk for File: NHKB Emergency Restoration

Mass Storage Device Found and Configured

Transferring Data into Main System

...

...

...

Transfer Successful

—

—

—

Cyberspace

As all data is gathered within the system, something begins to stir. A soft yet electrifying feeling travels through him.

00101110 00101110 00101110

00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01100101 01110101 01100111 01101000 00101110 00101110 00101110

... wait, but how can he feel? The realization of that question makes him want to wake up.

Wake up? Wake up from what?

01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101111 01101110 00111111

01100001 01101101 00100000 01001001 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101001 01110110 01100101 00111111

He slowly opens his eyes, seeing a sight that is both familiar and unfamiliar to him at the same time. He's in cyberspace, he can recognize that, but...

Oh god. Is he trapped again? Is this what Hell is like?

... no. No, this feels different from how it did before. And not necessarily in a bad way. This is definitely a different network than the one he used to be in.

As he fully comes into consciousness, he tries to get a feel for the flow of data and energy. It's a little weaker than what he's used to, but somehow it feels much less limiting. Maybe he's not as trapped as he thinks he is.

Still, that does leave him even more confused as to his whereabouts.

01010111 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01001001 00111111

Beat

He wouldn't get any answers by just floating there in a sea of data. He would have to test out his reach, his control. Can he make this place his own? If so, he might be able to access data that will enlighten him on his current situation. And if not... perhaps he'd be able to find a way to communicate with whoever is running this network.

No, not 'perhaps'. He's a genius, he knows he can pull this off.

Time to fully synch himself to this place and get to work. He does not want to keep talking in binary for much longer.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Oct 26th 2022 at 12:07:00 PM

Winterhold

"Yeah, let's go!"

And off they go.

ASL

"Aaaand that's done." Addison sits down in a swiveling office chair. "The corrupted programming is fixed."

They turn around to check their PC and see something starting to take shape on the screen. "Oh god damn it."

Yuji decides to prioritize the Lilligant, since the Terrarian didn't attack him. Leaping above the attack, with inhuman speed and strength, he comes down at it with a downwards punch to the head!

Wup! he lets out, as a battle cry.

Vs. Ursaluna

Worldbreaker's Wrath... is resisted, because it was an attack with the debris rather than the punch itself (the attack in-game is Earth element). Oh well, at least it looks cool.

Ursaluna is just that tanky that, even when battered by Nitori's water and the unnamed woman's ice, he stays standing.

STRONG STYLE

He bulks back up and charges forward, plowing through everything in his path with Headlong Rush! It deals severe damage to anyone it hits, but afterwards, the bear Pokémon's defenses are weakened from tiring himself out.

Masaru jumps in Ursaluna's path to stop his Headlong Rush from reaching Sundown. He gets blown down, but manages to hold Ursaluna back so he can't trample the gunmen.

Speaking of which, the ranger loads a shimmering green bullet and fires it, creating a directed eruption of impaling tree branches on impact.

Vs. Lilligant

Zenitsu shakes his head. "I don't know how to operate that thing."

Lady Lilligant smashes the ice axe with a high kick, though this allows Ulala's blaster shots to hit her and make her flinch. She is forced into a bow by the impact of the two plummeting attacks from the Terrarian and Yuji, which she swiftly converts into a roll out from under them.

She twirls in place and leaps up, slamming down to create another shockwave. Then she jumps again, making another shockwave, and again and again, each time performing an elegant pirouette on landing. After a while, she finally stops jumping, having tired herself out.

Sub-Zero jumps over the first shockwave again, but he doesn't see the second coming, leading to a wipeout.

The form takes on a humanoid shape, though it's too blurry to really make anything out other than a silhouette. Maybe it's not a virus? Most viruses don't take on a humanoid shape.

A silhouette is the only real way to describe it, as it's fully black in color right now. As it seems to turn around though, a pair of shining blue eyes can be found staring back at the screen. Those staring just a bit too long, almost as if they're actually staring back at Addison-

Numbers then suddenly appears on the screen.

01010111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00111111

Binary code. It's sentient, and it seems to want to talk to them.

Onyxis

The Hollow Knight hears what Rhea has to say, and immediately, promptly, and against their own better judgement, turns around to face her, its body language suddenly knightly and straightened instead of battle-ready and hunched-over.

It accepts her statement not as "You can't fight the sun" (because it's impossible), but instead as "You can't fight the sun" (because I said so).

Why it feels Rhea has the authority to say so is beyond their understanding, but with all the dissociating they're doing right now, that understanding will not be coming.

Instead, it faces Rhea and waits- desperately beneath all of its well-trained poise- for Rhea to give it orders.

Group 3, Inside the Base

As Angel!Pyra sees Laxin appear, she tries, as she sees him begin to leave, to get in a word-

"Wait, Laxin!"

But he's already gone.

Disappointed, her face forms a little frown, and she huffs a sigh.

"That guy..."

Pyra accepts the datapad from Sovereign. It takes her a half-second to realize what kind of datapad it is, among all the quintillions of models of datapad she's seen in her lifetime.

The map of the installation does little to help. The dead-end isn't worth traversing, so she comes up with a short plan.

It takes her about, 3 seconds or so.

"Alright, I think I've got an idea of what we should do next."

Angel!Pyra hops over to the door leading to the dead end, and faces the little group now under her command.

"Somewhere behind this door is the facility's backup power generator. Behind the other door is a security checkpoint, followed by a split path that will take you right to the primary research lab. By now, one of the other groups should be approaching the main power generator, which means if I'm quick, I can either shut down the whole facility or, even better, take control of it all at once."

She elaborates.

"So, we'll split up. I'll go ahead and take the power generator, while the rest of you go on ahead without me to..."

She pauses, putting a hand against her face for a moment, shutting her eyes beneath her hand to shake off a strange feeling brought on by a bad memory.

She takes a breath, lowers her hand, shakes her head, and smiles again.

"...do whatever it is you'll do in the primary research lab. Does anyone have a way we can stay in contact?"

Edited by Whoma on Oct 26th 2022 at 4:09:56 AM

Addison takes a deep breath, slicks their hair back, and opens up a control terminal window.

This is Addison Cipher._

Who are you_

The Man Who's Face is Veiled does a huff. My boss is God, I wouldn't do well to leave now, right? Offer's still on the table for-and he's gone. The man nods to Zeloai and the Skull Squad, clapping his hands together. Did ya see how we sent him flying? We did great! Let's oh, you're suffering, hold on.

His hand glows green, and he hold it up, using tentative Healing Magic from Azura to try to heal their wounds. He's bad at it despite his status as a powerful magical being, and so will they will at least be cured of the damage and suffering, not all of it goes away. Worse, Veilman has to endure part of the damage, his mass increasing as he appears to power up.

Yeah, I've got a lot of juice. Infinite juice outright. He says, holding his flaming hands up. But that's 'cuz I took damage, I'm nearing my limits with what Laxin did to me. Lucky for you, I can get rid of some of it by blasting it into a highly-focused blast of pure energy aimed at a nearby Durasteel door, which is right here! he says, blasting at the door with a focused, thin beam. He's carefully controlling his incinerating power to try to blast through, but not in a way that would melt through quite, since the subsequent heat could otherwise hurt his allies.

He's basically trying to punch a hole through the door, yet also limit his heat to not snap synapses in half. A complicated process.

How do you reckon the others are doing? he says, as a way to pass the time, his fingers shot outwards to beam pure destruction forward. Anyone behind the door might get chopped in half by the beam, which can easily blast through cubic meters of steel unimpeded: it's like being sniped by a star.

01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00101110

01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110100 01110010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110

01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110011 01111001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01101101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00111111

01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100011 01101111 01100111 01101110 01101001 01111010 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100011 01111001 01100010 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110000 01100001 01100011 01100101 00101110

That is... a lot of binary code to work with.

Greentide

BAD JUJU!

Corva is left helpless by the voodoo curse on her body! She somehow tunes out a huge portion of the rant by the ork because the pain from the sympathetic magic is a rather unique experience to her.

"Maybe your Gork and Mork should meet my god someday," jokes the fiery martial-arts witch as her free hand charges up a point-blank icicle spell, hoping to pierce the spot in the ork priest's abdomen she punched earlier with the Repuu Seikenzuki. She has to think quickly, or else she will die.

Fear, in the form of tiny goblins, overwhelms the poor cosplay warrior. Mahke tries her hardest to slice and blast her way past the horde, but she inevitably fails. As the goblins try to finish her off, Mahke just lets out the highest-pitched scream she could muster. Essentially, she's trying to break free from the goblin mosh pit by creating a powerful shockwave to send them all scattering.

Edited by josh6243 on Oct 26th 2022 at 7:35:34 AM