Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Rhea cannot process what is going on in the Hollow Knight's barely-a-mind. She stands equally silent, studying the vessel.

Fortunately, Addison is an expert with computers.

Input your answers in the Terminal. You're inside my personal laboratory-grade computer that I use for research and stuff._

The form can be seen looking around for a few moments, judging by the movements of its head and eyes. Then it raises its hand a little and mimics typing.

Does this work?_

It seems to be briefly surprised at its own action, then it continues.

I should have figured this would still be as easy as ever. I guess this place just caught me off guard. You said this is laboratory-grade, correct? I can work with that._

... it does not elaborate on what it means with that last bit and that may be worrying.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Oct 26th 2022 at 1:53:39 PM

Onyxis

And, once again, Rhea and The Hollow Knight are at a standstill, neither understanding what the other wants.

For their part, The Hollow Knight recognizes as they vacantly stare, that the sun is, in fact, entirely harmless. It is nothing like Her, something abundantly clear in the very basic nature of the light the sun casts. Certainly, The Hollow Knight would be more comfortable under paler, artificial lights, and the association sunlight brings does not make The Hollow Knight want to stay within it, but they are beginning to realize that sunlight is, at the very least, not harmful.

If given no further indication of what to do next, The Hollow Knight will, simple as they can, teleport away, still searching for the faint impression that they had sensed.

Tom's Diner

Sundown glares at the charging bear, before yelling "Everyone, get down!"

A sudden gust of wind eminates from The sundown kid, as he takes aim at the bear. Tumbleweeds, newspapers, everything cycles around him... And suddenly this force is propelled as he begins to pull the trigger.

Instead of functioning like a revolver however, The sundown kids rate of fire could be more easily compared to a machine gun, or at least a SMG. As the winds spin the revolvers cylinder wildly, and the gale forces somehow increasing the velocity of the bullets, albeit compromising accuracy to some extent.

The bullets however have a big target. The gun fires once, twice,three times, four times, five times, six times... S... Seven times? Eight... nine, ten, eleven, TWEL-

The Sundown kid fires off 12 wind elemental shots, each of rather high velocity, with any missed shots letting off a spark of flame from their sheer velocity of impact.

He then yells out "Just as the founding fathers intended!"

Edited by ReynTheLord on Oct 26th 2022 at 6:29:08 AM

Cataclysm

Ungthar could at first see some Skinks run at him with their polearms lowered, before a skink with paler scales lifted its hand, barking out something in its quick tongue as a few other skinks came in to grab him, lifting him up and away from the wall as he heard bashing on the barrier. Flying into his view of vision was a strange air craft that resembled a manta ray more then an transport, and as it landed many more skinks rushed in with spears in hand, all the while Saurus Warriors gathered around it, ready for something to come out. Instead, all that came out was a industrial style workbench, as the skinks with a raised brow rushed to the temple. One looked to Ungthar and tried to speak to him, its voice croaking.

"Do you need medical attention?"

The stomping of Bastiladons could be heard as he saw their armored, plated selves march forward, skinks handling some weapon platforms as they arced it over so that they may fire into the gathering enemy forces, as suddenly the sound of a great detonation filled his eardrums, as the lizardmen artillery fired into the surrounding brush, sending whole host of mutated flesh into incinerated sparks.

As soon as Azura got close to the creature, it snarled and seemed less then enthused about her trespassing. It sliced it's claws against the vehicle as she circled it. The creature smirked, as it suddenly lit up like a wicker burning man, before speaking back to her in that same metalhead tongue.

   "Such a good lap dog. No thoughts other then appeasing master? But your emotions betray you, Azura."   

It suddenly breathed out a plume of flame, as it's imposing figure became more akin to a carpet of flame, as it whirled towards Azura, hoping to enrapture her in its ghastly visage. Simon meanwhile was mortified by what he saw the survivors doing, the Silent Ones also taken back by the frenzy, as the spearmen stood at the gate entrance waiting for more intruders to impale upon their biologically forged polearm's blades. The controlled hordes continued to try and move through the streets as one unified swarm, as more of those strange men who appeared to be bats stretched over a wireframe could be seen perched atop the buildings, commanding their own swarms. Simon continued to fire at the swelling masses as he looked around only to see some even more absurdly dressed people rush into the fray.

"OK SO NEON PINK! ALRIGHT PERFECT COLOR PALETTE FOR THE APOCALYPSE!"

These strange bat men didn't seem bothered by the furies that detonated besides them, as the sky became a chain reaction of detonations and falling warp remains, that soon became just ephemeral dust. The Gheist that had originally been attacking Nia and Melia still slammed against the barrier, though now they struggled to get to the two to slice them apart. All around the two they saw the warp beast grow fainter and fainter, as their patch of streets seemed almost barren. That was, until they heard the rolling again. Heading their direction was a similar monstrosity that had tried rolling over them, but this time it stopped half a mile away from the couple and revealed its wolf skull face to them, snapping its jaws together as it seemed to have its whole body rattling. It howled as its armor lifted itself from its back, revealing two inward facing arcs. The two had a freedom of movement, which seemed like it would come in handy. Soon they heard a snap in the air, briefly illuminated by several jagged lines intersecting towards them. Then as the lines faded away, the air before the creature erupted, as unreality started to consume the reality the lines touched, as they headed towards them with a deafening clicking.

Adam was able to down the first worm beast, along with the others in the sky, as Tiktaq'to was able to assist Adam by grabbing his feet with Zwuup's talons, sending him towards more of the pursuing monstrosities, as they fell into many halves before him, dissolving on their way down to the earth. Yet there was an odd sight in a building he passed. A strange figure on the glass window panels, several times his size watching the chaos with an interested expression. Its body was gaunt, hunched like a man or some great apes yet covered in thick leathery skin and scales. It's face was similar to a Jackal's skull, its ears being replaced with upward curving horns of a Markhor, yet curling inwards like a cape buffalo. It looked to Adam's reflection and stroked its head, as he felt a large claw gently brush his bands away, before disappearing, just as Adam would fall atop another sky beast, which was foolish enough to curve in and try to devour him.

Phillips owm forces along with Gabriel's sended to fare decently against the furies in the air. Gabriel's radiance warranted him warded protection againzt their infernal magics, and though Phillip's forces weren't particular special, the volume of the opponents made it to where blindly striking warranted some results. Yet still Phillip's entourage was still facing a rate of hell fire akin to heavy precipitation, and it seemed like they were now just beginning to weather the storm.

The Colorful nature of the sky however started to dim, as the colors became sickly and devoid of life. The faces soon warped in on themselves, and many of the combatants would note how, sickly the warp creatures would look before being slain, and how the hordes they were fighting now seemed far more, desperate in their assault, now just bodies rushing several points., hoping for one to break.

Edited by ArbiterOfTheBog on Oct 26th 2022 at 8:00:05 AM

Vs. Lilligant

Ulala tries to avoid the shockwaves by jumping, trying to time her jumps with Lilligant's ones... But she tires before the opponent, being sent flying with a shockwave.

Ulala! Are you OK?

Blippi, who was trying to teach Zenitsu to use a camcorder, rushes to help his friend.

Imperial base

"Yeah! They've goth nothing on us!"

The scientists do a Hi-5.

...

After entering the room, they look at the monitors... And they see Laxin and the Metroid.

"Wait a minute... Tbis is Laxin!"

And that thing looks as his new pet!

Hub Centralis

Gabriel

Gabriel notices something. Finally. He's Not dead. Without gods divine light, he would have been dead within hours of entering the arena. It's been over a week. And as the council isn't around to give him his divine light back... that can only mean one of two things. One, They could bever take it away to begin with, or two, god was with him and had restored it.

Either way, this emboldens gabriel. He yells out to the warp, "You vile monstrosities, who seek to harm the innocents of this land! The Lands of this arena are not for your kind! You stand against an Archangel of God! I shall rend you all apart!"

Gabriel gets MUCH More aggressive, teleporting into the swarms of daemons and warp corrupted, swords flashing wildly, with a righteous zeal.

Coomer?

Doctor Coomer stands atop a tower, looking out into the warpstorm. He says "Look, Gordon, Its the warp! I read about this on W i k i p e d i a."

...

Coomer, no. Don't do it. DON'T YOU FUCKING DAR-

"Unfortunately,I can't remember it. Maybe something else will jog my memory of an article though!"

We're safe. For now.

SMASHING Hotel Battle - Epilogue

Agarthan Guild HQ [Portal Room]

   "Friends, how did you botch that so horrifically? I'm not mad, oh no, just... just..."   

"Mad?"

   "Quite. I apologize for putting you in that position, Ms. Kelly. There was little you could do to curb the chaotic tendencies of those ingrates. I'm afraid you may never be able to show your face around there again."   

"Meh, I wasn't planning on going back anyways so long as that cunt's there."

   "LANGUAGE, Mell."   

"ok"

   "Heh heh..."   

   "In any case. I suppose we can excuse your actions as being properly Guild related - I don't suppose anyone has any delusions of bounty hunters being truly ethical professionals, after all. That wretch the Courier, however. I don't believe his chaotic, self-sabotaging personality is a good fit for our organization. I'm revoking his presence from our registration and have him branded a rogue."   

   "What does this mean for ME, lemon."   

   "It means you two WILL curb any of your more collateral tendencies, or you will be DEALT WITH more conclusively than an Outer member such as the Courier. I c a n t h a v e p o t e n t i a l l e a k s , after all."   

   "Who the FUCK are you to tell me what to do, 'boss'?"   

"Uh."

   "... Oh, silly me!" :p   

   "GHGGHHHG*GH*KHHH"   

   "I'm just the Lemon Demon who just punched a hole through your chassis in the space of a 15 miliseconds. Mell, friend, take him to the infirmary. Or finish him off, I'm impartial at this point."   

"A-aight, boss man."

   "Splendid. Oh, and Mr. Smasher? Please don't make me exert myself in such a way again. It pains me so to see a friend in peril. But if you're improper, Hypno is here..."   

Vs. Bear in the Big Blue House Ursaluna

Nitori's startled again by Ursaluna going rage mode, hitting the jump jets a bit too hard and ending up crashing back first into the side of a nearby building. This does damage her mech (though mostly the building) but at least it's probably less than a heavy duty attack like that. She pulls herself out of the rubble by the time Sundown does his thing and the monoeye sensor flashes as she glares at her opponent.

"Why you..." she growls, firing her Aerial Blaster Barrage again but rather than just standing still while the missiles fly, she uses it as a cover to hit the jets again. This time she's flying towards Ursaluna instead, planning on slashing at it with her mech's BIG METAL CLAWS right after the missiles hit.

The crowd continue their vicious efforts, swarming the streets with desperation to match the Warp. Those that do fall, for there certainly are, are taken by Loki, who grows roots from the soil to draw them in amongst the chaos. And Evelyn continue to fill the ranks, noticing that Philip is turning up with a crowd of his own: her PR needing a boost, she leaves the crowd and tap into a demographic that Phillip isn't exploiting so far, being the conscious.

Fleeing citizen turn around, enraged to the core, eager to pursue those who blasted their loved ones to dust. Men and women once seized by fear join the enraged crowd, getting similar "blessings" each. Some, whose legs have been blown off and in need of a carry, begin to crawl... angrily. All for Evelyn's benefits, of course.

The Eves who are still up contribute to the aerial fights, but at least one blast down at the group with healing magic, curing fleeing civilians and keeping the buffs going. You're doing great, you guys! Keep going! She encourages them with, smiling at their success. I think we're pushing them back! Keep going, but don't let your guard down!

The other Eve clone, however, is less pleased by what she sees. Wait! What are you doing?! This is not safe! One Eve clone says, beginning to cast powerful enchantments to try to cure their minds. However, before she can do so, the rage take over, and she goes off screaming, blasting at skybound beasts and going off on her own. And as she does, the main Eve finally comes out of the portal, staff at the ready, having put her talk with Piovre on II for now. She glances about, not needing to be familiar because she's already aware of what her clones saw.

Including that one just ran off.

Wait! Stop it! Get a hold of myself! She yells to her, though unfortunately, physical buffs don't matter more for a Glass Cannon who never card much for her fists: the Eve clone is eaten by a passing beast, which the saner one attempts to blast apart. Looking up, and preparing to head off, she's surprised to look up and see Adam in troubles. Because he is, surprising as that might be. While he enjoyed Tiktaq'to's aid tremendously ("A valiant throw my friend!")), the sight of the building "beast", so to say, proves considerably rattling to him, for some reason.

Stunned by what he experienced, and already not a fan of being touched, Adam doesn't even notice that the creatura is about to consume him, until Eve attempts to blast its head off with a quick sling of Blast Magic (what else), doing a quick swiping gesture with her index and middle finger to fling a white projectile its way. If it succeed, then Adam is at least "woken up" and attempts to cut his way free, although the creature noms his right leg first, not ripping it off nor mangling it but drawing blood, and getting a brief scream out of the unflappable elf.

Regardless, without an ugly aerial footing present, Eve has to catch Adam by herself, she does it by pointing at him and wrapping him in Space Magic, stopping his fall and covering him in a white aura, coming off her beam. She smiles, and so does he, but much more embarrassed. However, they abstain on the Held Gaze, because holy fuck there's a warpening going on

Please put me down as soon as you can.

With that leg wound?

I'll limp faster than these evil beasts can run! Eve smiles coyly at that, raising a blue eyebrow.

Their respective two lanterns glow, and Gor's eyes snap to attention towards them. Although worriyingly, it did glare at Gabriel, perhaps without the angel knowing. Well, it didn't glare so much as it looked, smile still present, but it looked at him.

   at long laaaaaaaast   

Elsewhere, Azura is wrapped up in flames, with Meteorika not caring much: she keeps pace with the crowd, "eyeing" Philip without eyeing him. Like an used car salesman spotting another moving over his territory. But she ignores him, seeing that they have the same goal for now. And her big build-up move could be wasted if she just uses it, only for that mysterious knight to negate it.

So nice of you to join us, Philip! Let us chat after this!

She then shrugs at the bot, since Gor is floating over the battlefield, not even glancing at it. Thus, diplomacy is left to Meteorika. I think we're doing fine, thank you very much. This land shall not be claimed!

She doesn't know everything, and assuming herself to always be the strongest won't bode well. So she keeps building up Cursed Energy within herself, waiting for her big moment. She does, however, dedicate a modicum of it to touching some of her flock.

IDLE TRANSFIGURATION/無む為い転てん変ぺん

Those blessed by her touch receive extra muscular arms and bulks, or see their arms become sharp blade, heal their existing wounds, grow more legs, grow chitin-like armor over their bodies and limbs. All the better to slaughter them all with.

Meanwhile, Azura screams briefly as she's engulfed in the flames, the words rattling her more than she'd care to admit. She closes her eyes and grit her teeth, her weapons dispelling before her failing will. C-cease! I shall address Meteorika's actions later! I have nothing to heed from a distorted creature such as you!

Clapping her hands together, Azura then digs into her pauldrons and pulls out two curved purple swords, imbuing them with a dark shell. Thanks to that dark shell, the two swords will be able to lacerate the flames as if they were actual flesh, hitting the man even in his spectral flame form. Of course though, this probably doesn't do much to deter the flames, so Azura grits her teeth and carry on, accepting that these burns she's getting are part of it.

Even as her sleeves begin to burn off, and even as her face begins to exhibit scars that no conventional healing would make go away, her blue hair burning up into the furnace.

I fear no flames! For those of Hul, where I shall be cast off if I fail, are far worse!

...

rgngnrjjg

Malenia is too taken into her sado-madochistic game with Grimgor. It's not her style, but she can't back off now. So as he bites her face, she attempts to shank him up good in the torso, attempting to skewer through him again and again.

...

With Time Magic and an available dimension or two... Eve says, half-jokingly. Half.

It seems that the creatures are growing weaker and more desperate. She then says, touching the side of her head, blushing for some odd reason, even with her face neutral. But let's not scream victory early, hm?

Edited by Bolded1 on Oct 27th 2022 at 10:58:55 AM

Hub Centralis

Mar's Forces

The New enemies which Mar's troops are faced against are starting to become a bit too much. However, Mar stands firm. "Clerics, medics, get the wounded healed! Artillery, bombard freely outside the city boundry, any civillian out there is fucked anyways! Men, Watch your ammunition! Get ready to prepare for hand to hand combat if you are trainted to do so! Anti air guns, keep firing! Aircraft, intercept any large hostiles you can! Vehicle crews, Try to evacuate civilians and secure areas within the city!"

Mar himself has run out of bullets, having finally taken the falchion off of his rifle to use as a proper sword.

"This is a force we cannot surrender to, cannot reason with, and CANNOT allow to win! The Rules of Warfare are out the window, Use everything you have to defend this city!"

The Library

Angela looks out of the library into the warpstorm, looking over the insanity. Perhaps the one true book can be found in this mess.

Onyxis

Just before the Hollow Knight would leave, Rhea holds up a finger. "Stay here for a bit, I'll be right back."

With that, she pulls out her Arc Phone and teleports away to go retrieve a Psychic-Type Pokémon.

Anti-Skullgirl Labs

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're a digitized human. This computer contains data on supernatural forces and the means to simulate them to a high degree of realism. Allow me to handle this and I can ensure your safety without risk of anything going wrong._

Just in case this mysterious contact does not oblige, Addison inputs a command that prevents the computer's microphone from picking up outside audio, then turns to face Fallen Sunny, who never left. "A fight might be on its way."

   "Noted."   

They pull out a phone (not connected to the computer) and call Hotel Del Rey.

Someone picks up on the other end. "This is Charlie."

"It's Addison. Repairs on Freddy and Friends are done, but I'm letting you know in advance, we may or may not have a situation on our hands by the time you get here."

"... Go figure."

—

Hotel Del Rey

Over at the hotel, Charlie covers the phone's receiver with one hand. "Uh, hey, Addie says there 'may or may not' be problems at the lab. Who's willing to head over and pick up the Glamrocks?"

Edited by KiriK on Oct 27th 2022 at 2:32:23 PM

EV Office

"You'll get used to it. Maybe we can improve it one day once we figure out neural interfacing or whatever it was called..."

Bugface detaches the electrodes and hands Aki the entire prosthetic, as well as a charging cable.

"Here's your carbon fiber prosthetic. Its battery can last for about five days before it needs a recharge, but I'd still recommend leaving it to charge on every night. Besides that, do tell us if there's any problems or extra requests with it, will you?"

"Guess we wait it out. Exotic Ventures has deployed some spacecraft to help with combat. And if this does somehow get worse... well, there's an extra funny piece of functionality in this building, but it's mostly been done as a joke, so I doubt it'll work. No spoilers though."

Lattice gets poked by Lorentz again.

"Apparently there's a task on our noticeboards - is this you?"

He summons a picture of Eve and Trickery, both mid-flight and blasting away at each other. The shot is taken from a very far distance.

"'Ask Eve - opening bracket, question mark, closing bracket - about other party and its whereabouts. If the records of -1/08/20 are to be trusted, the other party is a major threat to the multiverse and needs to be eliminated ASAP. Maybe ask Uirst.'"

He looks up at Eve again.

Church of Gor

The robot looks at Balloonman and Topboy, then up at the sky.

"I don't think there's anything you can do to help out. Unless you can help clear out the sky of... whatever the hell is going on up there."

A probe vessel forms underneath the warp clouds, loaded with lab-grown cell tissue samples, and tries to pierce upwards.

Anti-Skullgirl Labs

I see no reason to put my fate in your hands, especially when I don't need your help. All I need to do is expand this network's reach to the world wide web, and then I'll be able to go into any network I want._

Considering that this happening would probably alert people to the lab's presence, this is definitely not a good thing. There are plenty of villainous types who would definitely want to make use of the technology Addison has.

The figure turns around and starts moving his hands around.

Once I've familiarized myself completely with this network, I'll be able to expand my reach on my own. Now, just in case you get the bright idea to try to turn the system off, I'll have to hold your data hostage. Nothing personal of course. You'll get it all back once I've done my thing, granted that you don't try to erase me._

Data starts to shift and form around the figure. The process is already starting.

A black-ish liquid starts to drip off of the figure's back. Once on the ground behind the figure, eyes form in it and the screen will start to show static.

—

Hotel Del Rey

Cassidy, who's sitting on a chair nearby being bored (as Evan and Gregory are off to play a video game she's not really into), turns to look at Charlie as she speaks up.

"Huh? Problems?", she asks while getting off of her chair. "As in regular problems or as in 'danger' problems? Because if it's the latter it's not smart to bring Gregory with us. But I don't think he'll be okay with staying here."

She smirks confidently (and slightly creepily).

"How about I go tell Ev to keep him busy for a while, and then I'll come with you?"

Onyxis

The Hollow Knight, immediately obeying Rhea's order, freezes in place, remaining perfectly still for the foreseeable future.

Indeed, were Rhea not to return, they would remain this way until the pain of it toppled them to the ground.

Hub Centralis

Melia and Nia continue their fighting, defeating warp beasts and saving bystanders in turn, until that unreality begin to creep through jagged lines.

Nia, never one to let an attack hit her if she can help it, wisely avoids these regions of foul nonexistence. Melia, who much more prefers to block attacks, does not recognize in time the inherent danger of an attack like that.

Not until it is far too late.

Taking her focus away from the orb still lingering in the sky, Melia puts up a powerful barrier of ether that burns with orange and red fury- but it does little to stop the attack by its very most base nature.

When the unreality collides with her, it is only the shining light of her heart that saves her from being truly torn apart. So bright is her Monado that it, apposed to all others, can manifest itself in this way, a particular application only two others could ever dream of.

So, Melia falls to the floor, leg torn clean off and skin horrifically torched as if burnt rather than... whatever would have happened to it otherwise. The sound she makes is indeed horrific, as Nia rushes to her side entirely disregarding anything else happening around them.

"Melia!" she shouts, dematerializing her Anima Sword just to focus both of her hands on healing Melia.

Despite being mangled, down to the bone in some particular places, Melia is still trying to stand, unable to only by virtue of that being physically impossible, and even that fact is only just about stopping her.

Nia arrives at her side to find the poor woman's face is half-torn-off. It nearly makes her flinch as Melia turns to face her.

"It would have been wiser of me to dodge..."

"YOU FUCKING THINK!? Don't you dare die here, or I'll kick your sorry arse!"

"The conclusion is already absolute."

Nia shakes her head, her water ether sweeping over Melia and visibly patching even her most horrific wounds at an incredible rate.

"Don't you say that shite, I'll have you walking in just a couple more-"

Unfortunately, as she speaks, Nia is struck from behind and swept away by a spare Warp Beast, leaving the partly healed Melia all by herself.

Melia chuckles weakly.

"That isn't what I meant, Nia"

She leans from her position prone on the ground, and gives that poor warp beast and just about everything downwind of it a single look, before thrusting her hand forward, and unleashing the energy built within her.

"MIND BLAST!"

In this state, with such an unbelievable amount of ether lingering in the air, combined with the buffs received courtesy of Eve, Melia's usually cone-shaped Mind Blast is more of a beam of glowing golden ether, sweeping down the long street and obliterating every single warp beast it touches along the way, including the one right next to her. Its primary, target, though, is the beast that gave her the wounds she has right now in the first place.

These are not the fruits of power, though power is certainly a requirement- but instead the result of their combined efforts of evacuation, a silently conveyed plan to remove every single innocent person in a single direction, to make certain that Melia's powerful but destructive ether could be used to its fullest potential without collateral damage inflicted upon innocent people.

Nia, slightly flabbergasted and just done with a short little fight of her own, runs back over to Melia as the injured queen stands up, all despite still technically being covered in imminently lethal wounds. Wounds that, by now, are beginning to close as Nia's approach intensifies the rate of healing- but still, quite awful damage to be nursing.

Someone watching would have been astonished to see at the onset of Nia's healing, Melia's intestines magically retreat back into the cavity of her stomach region. Gross.

Rather than immediately say anything to her, Nia embraces Melia for a short moment, and then says something snappy.

"This place's bloody stupid."

"Watcha mean? These fogbeasts make pleasant company."

Nia backs off. "Shut it, you," she says teasingly, "And just where'd you get fog beast from anyways?"

Melia tilts her gaze further up, at the warp afflicting the sky.

"It is rather similar, isn't it?"

Nia follows her gaze, and sees in the sky, the warp's violence, spreading across the arena. Like a wound in reality, casting its affliction...

...Or, if you will, a rift?

"You might just be right, thinking about it."

Thinking for a moment, then, Melia places a hand against her chin.

"But if these are indeed fogbeasts..."

And, both realizing at once, they say to eachother:

"Then where's the Fog King?!"

Also Hub Centralis

Philip's forces are numerous and strong, but against these numbers, their primary weakness becomes a massive setback, his weak-willed warriors mostly breaking at the slightest sign of a danger they cannot by themselves overcome. Philip, for his part, has to continuously rally his numbers to keep them fighting.

But when they do fight, they fight. There is very little an individual warp beast can actually do to someone with his "blessing". Even whole hosts of them can easily fall to his "soldiers" under the right circumstances.

Philip himself, though, does not take much care to make sure his soldiers stay safe, only giving them directions from the back and never directly intervening. A few with his blessing begin to drop, and he does nothing to assist as the forces responsible are barely repelled.

Of course, it is easy to see this as simple, logical tactics. There's nothing wrong with a commander staying back to make sure he can keep his troops cohesive... but just knowing who Philip is puts a sinister tone to his actions. He isn't being efficient, he's so devoid of compassion that even people this valuable to him only register as entirely disposable.

   "I will look forward to our discussion!"    he shouts as a response to Meteorika, before turning his attention to his own Silver Knight.

   "Armor."   

And the Knight takes his order... without question.

Raising her sword into the sky, The Silver Knight sweeps an amber field of ether across the battlefield, granting everyone that isn't a warp beast or related incursion a massive degree of all-around protection from damage in the form of another body-covering barrier like the ones granted by Eve earlier.

And for his part, Philip seems pleased with his Knight.

He is certain, if he were to order her to remain perfectly still right now, she might do so until the pain of it toppled her to the ground.

Edited by Whoma on Oct 27th 2022 at 1:51:53 AM

After a minute, Rhea returns with her personal Wyrdeer, Unmei, and uses his psychic abilities to connect to the Hollow Knight and get a read on it.

As she does so, her face falls, becoming downcast. This is not what she expected to feel. She did not expect to feel much of anything.

I'm not going to try and delete you, but I'm giving you an honest warning._

This lab is built for researching superweapons and creating machines for combat. You're putting a target on all our heads, not to mention tampering with manmade horrors beyond your comprehension._

Addison rolls out a long, long extension cable, all the way from their workshop to the Kingdom Hearts-esque section of the labs.

—

"Hang on, lemme ask." Charlie takes her hand off the receiver.

"What kind of situation?"

"Looking more and more like a violent kind."

She looks up at Cassidy. "Yeah, it's the danger kind."

Edited by KiriK on Oct 27th 2022 at 3:52:15 AM

"Then I'll go tell Evan.", Cassidy says before sinking into the ground.

—

It's funny that you think anything is beyond my compre_

The static on the screen is becoming too strong at this point, covering up whatever else the form is telling Addison.

—

Cassidy fades in right in front of Charlie again, probably attempting to spook her judging by the fact that she's showing a ghostly stare for a moment before grinning and speaking up.

"Okay, Gregory thinks we're about to do a 'silly girl thing', so it's time to go."

Exotic Ventures, Aki.

Aki nods, readying his arm. He replies by saying "This is much better than anything I could get back at home. Now, If you don't need anything else, I might head out. Unless you won't let me out of the lockdown."

Aki resumes moving his arm, trying to calibrate its movements, testing it.

"We're on our way over," says Charlie before hanging up.

Addison plugs the cord into something, and a portal opens up in the back of the room. It is a swirling, chaotic vortex.

Reformatting... Running datascape program..._

"Alright, let's see who you are."

The portal stabilizes, revealing a circular platform within a vast expanse of cyberspace. Images scroll by and various audio files echo faintly in the distance.

   "What is that?"    asks Fallen Sunny, looking through the portal.

"A physical manifestation of my computer's contents. Our culprit should be inside."

   "Shouldn't we wait for the kids first?"   

"Well, yes, but now I can actually see what's happening. This also sequesters the computer from the Internet, so he can't escape."

The static starts clearing up, but there's no more sign of whatever caused it. The form looks around for a moment, then settles his blue eyes onto the screen again.

Your attempts are futile, Addison. You can't keep me trapped._

Static flashes over the screen for another second, and when the screen's back to normal, the figure is gone. Though more text appears on the screen.

It's only a matter of time before I'm free again._

Addison shakes their head. "If you cooperated, you'd probably already be free."

—

After a little while, Charlie and Cassidy arrive at the lab door, greeted by Addison.

"So what's the situation?"

"The Glamrocks are all okay, but I plugged something into my computer that I shouldn't have and now there's a person inside of it." Addison leads them down the elevator and into the Ansem Lab sector.

Charlie's face scrunches up as she recalls fighting Glitchtrap inside of an arcade machine. "Do you know who it is?"

"I was waiting until you got here to find out. Behold, the datascape."

Fallen Sunny has been sitting outside of the portal, and the moment he sees the others, he shrugs and goes in.

"Someone in a machine? So it's another ghost?", Cassidy asks, after which she grins.

"I'm a super powerful ghost, and Charlie's here too, so we'll be able to overpower-"

Then Fallen Sunny goes in before they can. Her awesome bragging moment ruined, Cassidy just pouts childishly and stomps her way into the machine.

Hub Centralis, Makima

Makima calls anna once more. "Business devil, I have orders. You are to recruit members the mercenary group known as "Freelancer Corporation" which operates within the arena, and assign them to work with me. From what information my sources have gathered, they have several members quite capable of aiding in combatting this threat. Just in case you fail to comply, I know your sources for your little stock market manipulation, your distribution of illegal goods, I know your "Dimensional Ties" in your market and the names of your coleagues. Your market is not beyond my influence, and nor are your customers. Now, Be a good dog and follow my orders."

She then hangs up, looking out the window. Her treatment of allies as tools may be something she's having doubt over... But some things still bring her a sick joy.

Freelancer Base, Fax Machine

The fax machine comes to life, and a message is printed out.

[[red:Greetings, Freelancer corporation. I, Anna Ford, wish to make a contract. Beside the fax machine in which this message will arrive, you will find several suitcases full of funds from various markets across history and realities. You will also Be allowed full access to Anna Ford's Multiverse Imports. Weapons, technology, everything can be found here.

If you accept the funds and seek to use these services, this will be considered accepting the contract.

In return, as part of the contract, Members of the Freelancer corp, for the sake of defending against forces of what I know as "The Warp", Are to work under the employment of the Control devil, known as Makima. Additionally, Freelancer corp employees are not allowed to harm her, or Anna Ford save for in self defence.

Mimi impersonating other entities still counts as Mimi, instead of the identities of other entities, for the sake of this contract. Failure to Comply if the contract is accepted may potentially result in death, as a failsafe.

This Contract is for the sake of the arena as a whole. It is in everyone's best interests to assist in defence, wether this contract is taken or not.

The briefcases manifest next to the fax machine, all taking up as little important space as possible, while still being large enough to contain significant funds.

"Yeah, I guess I'm here too," Charlie comments bitterly.

As she heads in after Sunny and Cassidy, Addison stays behind and activates a comms button to speak to the rest of Anti-Skullgirl Labs.

"If any of you lazy fucks are awake, I could use a little help with a datascape purge."

Freelancer Corp. HQ

Mimi receives the fax.

"Boss, we have a contract!"

Hit walks over and inspects it.

"... We will not take this contract. It's a Devil contract. We do not accept such tight restrictions."

"So then what? We just let the Warp run roughshod?"

"We will fight first, then request payment after. Simple as that. We don't need any more supplies, anyway."

"Gotcha! I'll write up a response."

Edited by KiriK on Oct 27th 2022 at 4:56:02 AM

Anti-Skullgirl Labs

In an adjacent room, Kokonoe jolts awake, having been very clearly asleep in her chair.

Kokonoe: "Me? I wasn't... Shit. Tager, mind going down there and helping out?"

Tager: "Of course."

Within a moment, Tager is also by the datascape portal, nodding to Addison before entering.

Edited by DefRevenge24601 on Oct 27th 2022 at 3:01:08 AM