Ashes of Nohr
Link looks up at the Silencing Orb and smirks. The plan is simple.
He pulls out an Ancient Bow and nocks an Ancient Arrow. A headless arrow with a dagger strapped to it instead of the usual point, its Magitek tip possesses the power to consign lesser entities to oblivion upon impact.
He gets down on one knee, aims up at the cage, focuses between the bars, and fires.
The Drought
Overhearing Luna and Lumina, Lupin clears his throat.
"I do have a gun you might be able to enhance," he notes.
Chihiro holds up his sword. "And this."
"That would be the restaurant's magic!" Aletta informs as she comes around to give Takane her carbonara. "We're not actually speaking the same language, but the magic allows us all to understand each other as if we are!"
She also makes a pass to Lumina, giving her her order of corn pottage and shaved ice.
"Western Restaurant Nekoya is a restaurant on Earth, but its door can appear in specific places on other worlds, usually to people who need it in some way. What I needed was a private, confidential place to discuss my plans."
Lupin makes a sweeping motion with one hand. "As you can see, Nekoya provided. None of the staff or other patrons will say a peep about what we discuss here!"
Edited by KiriK on May 23rd 2024 at 2:52:40 PM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Ashes of Nohr - Prison Break
Rumia opts to push away thoughts of trying to eat the nurses to see what they taste like, instead she spots the children's toy item (the clackers) and picks them up. Weird, maybe she can play with them later.
The rather bloody way of disposing of the nurses doesn't really faze her at all. Instead, like any good murderhobo in a dungeon she starts looting the corpses, snagging the funny looking book and inspecting it (Screw you Vladek I prewrote this!!!!). She gives Shadowheart a weird look when the half elf looks at the book but doesn't say anything and instead pockets it away for later.
The Silencing Orb is actually rather uncomfortable to be around for a being made of mostly magic like herself. So she backtracks out of its range until Link blasts it. Assuming that's done she's now free to start helping break some jails by using her brute strength to bend the bars open on any spare cells.
Groudon's ability that isn't Desolate Land
"Huh." is all Takane has to say about that explanation. She's from a weird place so this isn't TOO weird for her. Really she was mostly surprised that Luna is apparently sentient since she didn't get that impression from it- ahem, her behavior.
Also damn this carbonara stuff is pretty good.
Edited by shroobot3000 on May 23rd 2024 at 11:02:17 AM
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."DM Post: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=14315151240A21923900&page=15485#comment-387125
Previous Post: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=14315151240A21923900&page=15485#comment-387120
Ashes of Nohr
Moonrise Crypt, Hallway
Upon feeling the sting of an imminent psychic attack, Jeridan immediately activated the mental blessings of his Alfar Woodland EGO, protecting his mind from it. Even though it is a fairly shallow probe as opposed to a full on invasion of his mind, the psionic presence is still very intrusive for the Summoner, whose furs stood on end moments after he felt the sting as he looked around for who could be doing this to him.
After receiving the message from the old man, he can't help but let out something akin to a mix of a huff and a growl. "I don't know what this Demented Spirit is, but I am fairly certain that I'm not one of them, though I am sent by Kenjaku. I have nothing to hide, but you'll have to forgive me for raising my guard against an intrusive mental probe." By the time he finished his sentence, Jeridan started drawling, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Despite that, Jeridan actually let his mental guard drop a bit so the stranger can view some of his latest memories, but nothing more. The main reason is that he actually managed to recognize the voice of the old warrior. This is almost certainly the Nohrian veteran Gunter, whose voice he recognized from his last big mission in Nohr. If that is truly his identity, then it's most likely he's on Corrin's side and is perhaps the "old man" Kenjaku referred to.
After his memories are read, the Summoner gave Gunter a mental nod and disabled his transformation now that the latter is guiding him along. Taking out the Staff of Loss, he allowed himself to indulge in a brief moment of nostalgia
before casting the sorcery Unseen Form
to obscure his visibility before following Gunter's lead.
Moonrise Crypt, New HQ - GUARD DUTY
"That's not what I meant, come on!" Charlian replied in an exasperated manner and let his arms drop to his sides. He agree that being too high-strung is counterproductive and that it's best to reach a solid middle ground, but how is not chatting and playing games remotely similar to that?
Instead of pestering Mark, however, the young man dropped the conversation and simply moved to the nearest wall in order to survey the room in its entirety. There's more important things to do, so he can't afford to spend any more time on lecturing others, but he did have to concentrate a bit to look away from Kaa's rather incomplete head despite his morbid curiosity telling him to get a closer look, because the sight is just that unnerving to see
Now, he finally understands why the girl is so hesitant in taking off her hood, and he can't help but feel bad about wanting her to tell everyone why she hid her appearance. What was she supposed to say? 'Mom, dad, my body isn't finished loading yet, so you can only see my organs!' Fucking hell... Charlian can't even imagine how it feels to live without most of your body, much less your emotions, which is why he silently swore that he would do everything in his power to make sure she's not left behind.
Any thought of that is immediately put on hold the moment he noticed Azura's silhouette in the pool as well as everybody pretty much freezing. Despite taking on most of Soulgain's aspects, a good bit of his body are still flesh, blood, and bones, and that means he can still feel his own heart pound in his chest, which is exactly what's happening right now. Taking a single, careful step away from the wall, his fists clenched as he felt he deliberately breathed slower than before, ready to strike the moment Azura gets out of the water.
Charlian
Buff(s):
Soulgain (Aspect Replication)
- Height: 4.57 meters
- Weight: 14.27 metric tons
- Weapons: Seiryurin, Byakko-Ko, Genbu Kongou-dan, Mai Suzaku, Kirin
Acquired Weapon(s):
- Leviathan Axe
Jeridan
Activated E.G.O:
- Cerulean Moon - The Volition to Choose Your Own Path
- Alfar Woodland - The Rationality to Differentiate Blessing and Curse: Nature's Blessing
ignore this i accidentally doubleposted
Edited by TheTropingAlliancer on May 23rd 2024 at 9:19:15 AM
Du-Du-Wa-Do-It, Arena KatsudouIS THAT ZUKO
Save
- > Ashes of Nohr - Prison Break
- Band Practise
The Shadowheart lady mentions something called a "Silencing Orb" that prevents usage of magic, with Ravenos giving "Pyra" a "Oh, I see..." glare. So THAT's why Ravenos's FOV got reduced on the second floor.
Ui also signals "Pyra" about Locktouch and how it only has one use. "Pyra" basically locks on to the big cell on the second floor, freeing the most people for the only use of Locktouch they get.
|You|
(Thanks, Ui. I gues it's time for me to get going then...)
Riding on the Typhoon with the Squad running besides them, they whizz past the group attacking the Nurses and shouts out to them.
|You|
"IfyouneedmyhelpI'llbedownstairs! I'vegottogodosomething!"
All 6 and Ravenos carefully yet quickly carrying the Typhoon downstairs, arriving just as Link is shooting his dagger at what's probably the Orb on the ceiling.
With that out of the way, "Pyra" reaches the big cell with the Typhoon, the Squad sticking to walls near the stairs as lookouts for enemies.
Through the bars, one specific person catches their eye - the man with the large burn on the left side of his face. "Pyra" has burns across their entire right side.
With Ui turning up the brightness to help "Pyra" see the lock clearly, they immediately get to work on the lock, quietly humming Hirari/Hitori/Kirari
to themselves as a work song of sorts.
[Locktouch]
Stop! Hammer Time!
Actually, "Pyra" just uses the spike at the end of their combat umbrella as a lockpick, and immediately unlocked the door, now able to swing the door open.
Speaking of, they can probably repurpose the door into something new. Let's simply keep that in mind for now.
Du-Du-Wa-Do-It, Arena KatsudouRed Hood curses under his breath when the Nurses get back up from being shot in the head. How was he supposed to know these things couldn't be killed by regular bullets? Fortunately, though, Shadowheart and Joseph manage to finish the undead monsters off before they can sound the alarm.
"Note to self: take the All-Blades to these things until I can find whatever magic bullets work on them."
He walks over to Pyre's cell, preparing to shoot the lock out before Dracus beats him to the punch.
"Congratulations, kid. They're letting everyone out early for good behavior," he snarks.
Vi, meanwhile, decides to approach Joseph's cell. Wrapping her gauntleted fingers around the bars, she wrenches the door wide open and flashes a smirk at the room's sole occupant. She didn't have to ask if he wanted in; the way he leapt at the chance to kill that Nurse was all the confirmation she needed that he was itching to strike back at his captors.
"And I thought my time in jail sucked. Lucky for you, that thing won't be the last asshole you'll be getting payback on," she says, moving to haul him to his feet. "Once we bring Kethric's bullshit kingdom down on his head, we're gonna make sure the smug piece of crap behind all this won't get to just crawl away."
Gunter then telepathically informs the group about Azura.
"Of course she's nearby. Sarge, you and the others better make sure this'll be the last time she screws us over."
"Fuck, really? I swear, if they already know we're here...."
With that, the two begin making their way up to the second floor. While Vi was admittedly curious as to what Vladek might have picked up about Gunter, she figured now wasn't exactly the best time to ask him about it.
Bucky is about to ask Milin if she might be a cyborg like himself, only for Gunter to warn everyone that Azura was close by. Sighing, he brings out his rifle and prepares for the inevitable battle to come.
"And back into the trenches we go," he remarks. "On the off-chance you're packing something that can actually kill her, Milin, now might be a really good time to bring it out."
Maintaining her telekinetic stranglehold on Strange Supreme, Wanda continuously pelts the sorcerer with one sizable blood-red bolt after the other as she stalks towards him in a manner akin to a lioness preparing to pounce upon her prey.
"I warned you, Strange. In spite of the false bile you've spat about my children not being real, I gave you the chance to turn around and leave safely. But you didn't listen," she hisses, not letting up in her unrelenting assault. "Instead, you insisted on murdering my sons - innocent boys - in cold blood. You forced my hand, and now that you've seen just how powerful the Scarlet Witch truly is, you're afraid... because you know that I will destroy you."
With that, she fires off a few more bolts before unleashing a truly gargantuan Chaos Magic-enhanced crimson beam aimed directly at Strange Supreme.
Pietro immediately dashes after Billy, not bothering to question the fact that his nephew's plan involved him and them running around the barrier. Tommy had proven that it was a sound strategy earlier, after all. With any luck, they should be able to pull that same gambit off on a noticeably larger scale.
Dr. Strange Supreme
As Pietro and Billy start running around, Ken finishes boosting Tommy up too.
"Now be sure to actually run where you're supposed to.", Ken snarks. Tommy chooses to ignore that since he's helping them and runs off too. Ken then runs to Wanda as she's pelting Strange Supreme, who responds to the bolts by creating arcane barriers in their path to block them before they can reach him.
But when Wanda fires that enormous beam at him, it breaks straight through those barriers and hits him dead-on, eliciting a sharp and painful-sounding grunt from him as he gets blasted back against the edge of his barrier. In another world entirely, during an enormous battle, this beam would be above the level of power that an alternate Wanda exerted on an alternate Thanos, and it would have proven to be enough to beat him had the attack not been interrupted.
Strange Supreme, at this point, is above that level. But so is that beam, and even with his protective spell it still hurts like hell. And if Wanda keeps that beam going, he'll be stuck there and continuously take damage until he manages to gather enough energy to break free.
There is one downside with this plan though, and that's that him being there suddenly puts him in the path of Tommy and Billy, who are too close to him to stop-
Strange Supreme is suddenly raised up a bit, courtesy of Ken, seemingly using a form of telekinesis. It's not very high, just enough to let Tommy, Billy and Pietro pass underneath him, and not high enough that he's freed from Wanda's beam.
"Angle that attack up a bit, this is difficult to keep going!", Ken says to Wanda, looking strained. To think that this kid, who's been nothing but antagonistic (though not villainous) to the Maximoffs, is currently doing his genuine best to help them.
""The enemy's preparing for something. Be ready."", the whispers speak to Wanda. It sounds a little more detailed than what the whispers from the Darkhold usually say, but it's valuable information either way. Can't be anything other than the Darkhold either, can it?
Ken pauses for a moment, then glances at Wanda.
"Stop whispering in my head, it's creepy. Just focus!"
...
Wait. Wait, did Ken just hear the Darkhold's whispers?
As for the runners, they'll have to make sure they reach their maximum speed, and once they do, they have to keep going. If they stop at any point for anything, this process will likely be interrupted. And if Strange Supreme realizes what's happening, there's no way he'll let them try again.
Forest of Spirits, Great Plateau (Hyrule)
Ten minutes ago
"Okay, wow.", Tails
◊ says as he looks at some contraption in his hands, probably built by himself. "The energy waves in this place are off the scales! I can't even make sense of all of this."
He puts one hand on his chin and hums.
"One thing's for sure though; this isn't my world. I figured that from when I fell into this place, but now I know for sure. Hm..."
He starts walking as he looks back down at the contraption in his hands.
"Needless to say, I should probably try to find a city somewhere. If I can borrow a lab, I'll be able to build a machine that'll let me get back home. ... though I guess it depends on if there are any labs in this place. So far I haven't seen anything advanced anywhere. It's a miracle I even got this working in the first-"
Tails' ears perk up in alarm when he hears a sound near him. He quickly looks around.
"Hello? ... anyone there?"
... no response. Tails stays alert even as he's about to look back at his contraption, but then he pauses again. Something smells... off.
"Huh... something smells like it's... burning? But there's no fire around anywhere.", he says, looking around again.
He hears a sound again. Metal clanking. Tails hops around and looks surprised to see some kind of Sonic-like robot
◊.
"Whoa... I don't think I've ever seen this Eggman robot model before.", Tails says, looking the robot over. He's not at all surprised that Eggman's robots are somehow in this world too, albeit disappointed. Is nowhere safe from that guy?
"POTENTIAL TARGET SPOTTED. SCANNING... SCANNING..."
Tails raises an eyebrow. Kinda primitive-sounding.
"TARGET IDENTIFIED: MILES PROWER. CLASSIFIED AS HIGH PRIORITY TARGET. ENGAGING IN HUNT."
"Hunt?", Tails asks, though he yelps and jumps when the robot leaps for him. Tails starts spinning his tails to fly and stays above him.
"I guess I should be honored Eggman considers me high priority.", he jokes, not too worried. Metal Sonic's a threat, but this thing doesn't look nearly as advanced. He can probably take it on his own.
The robot turns its head 180 degrees and looks up.
"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. NO PREY CAN ESCAPE THEIR FATE."
"That old egghead's gotta get up pretty early if he wants to catch and roboticise me.", Tails says as he dives in for a kick... only for the robot to suddenly catch his foot and... not attack back?
"THE DOCTOR HAS NO SUCH NEED FOR INFERIOR BIOLOGICAL CREATURES. HE HAS DIFFERENT TASTES NOW."
"Yeah? Like wh-", Tails begins to say, but then pauses when the robot's chest opens up, revealing flames within. Tails can't help but stare as he's trying to realize what this robot's trying to imply here. Surely he's not claiming-
"A TWO-TAILED FOX WILL MAKE FOR A UNIQUE DISH."
"... d-d-DISH!?"
The robot moves the captured fox towards his chest-
—
Present
Tails flies through some foliage, not letting it slow him down. Parts of his fur look singed. And he looks scared out of his mind.
"This is a bad dream, a nightmare, this can't be really happening-", he says with panicked breaths as he grows more and more tired. He had just barely been able to free himself in time, having thrown that doohickey he made into the robot's chest to briefly make it sputter. It had bough him enough time to free himself from its grip. But before he'd been able to run, the robot has assaulted him with smoke and fire.
"YOU CAN'T RUN, MILES PROWER.", the robot says as he bursts through the same foliage, leaving embers in its wake that slowly start setting the forest aflame. If anyone else were to be near or in the forest, the rising flames may catch their attention.
Edited by DevilPsyco on May 23rd 2024 at 12:41:49 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Forest of Spirits
"TAILS!"
Sonic comes hurtling foot-first at Furnace, looking all-business with grit teeth and wild eyes. If it dodges the initial kick, he'll stick out his other leg to try and catch its head between his feet, then do a Drop Dash to swing it around before slamming it into the ground.
Solitude
"I finally found you! She who dares call herself the child of destiny, heroine of the stars!"
"Oh? Has a challenger come for my throne?" Rearmed Ophelia
◊ dramatically swishes her wing-cape as she turns to face AoU!Megumin. "Pray tell, who thinks she has the mettle to take on Ophelia of the Glittering Stars?"
"None other than Megumin, the Crimson Princess of Kaboom! Demon of Demolition! Archwizard of Explosions!"
Ophelia cracks a grin. "You sound like a worthy foe. Very well, let's settle this right here and now!"
Ophelia brandishes her Arcane Eclipse tome, and Megumin points her modified staff.
The streets of Solitude are ravaged by explosions and meteors, the two chuunis throwing around all their destructive power and weapons with no regard for collateral damage. The city is a playground to their game now.
...So says Vergil (taking place before the Sword Tournament), as he and Darkness stand atop a wall of Castle Dour, overlooking the fight.
"Remain focused on the objective. Let the two wear each other down, then go in and grab Megumin."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.""!!!"
Furnace does indeed dodge the initial kick, but not Sonic's plan B assault, resulting in it being slammed into the ground. Tails, completely exhausted from flying, descends near Sonic.
"Sonic! Boy, am I glad to see you. Even more than usual!", he says as he tries to catch his breath, though is startled when Furnace immediately jumps back up to his feet.
"TARGET SPOTTED. SONIC THE HEDGE-"
It pauses, some sparks flying off of it.
"ERROR. ILLOGICAL FALLACY DETECTED. SONIC THE HEDGEHOG CANNOT BE PRESENT. DEDUCTION: YOU ARE A FAKER_"
"Sonic's no faker!", Tails responds, though he hops back a bit when Furnace briefly looks at him.
"RESORTING TO PARENT PROTOCOL. PRIME DIRECTIVE: CAPTURE HEDGEHOG. LETHAL FORCE IS AUTHORIZED. TERMINATE BY ALL MEANS NECESSARY. WHETHER YOU ARE THE REAL SONIC OR NOT IS IRRELEVANT."
"Sonic, watch out, this one's messed up!", Tails says to Sonic. "He tried to-"
Furnace's thrusters shoot out flames as he suddenly charges for Sonic, aiming to ram into him.
Solitude
Darkness
◊ looks at Vergil.
"I don't think we'll be able to find them under the rubble if we wait until they're done. There won't be anything of the town left."
She ponders.
"Maybe we should sneak up on them instead. The risk would be getting hit by all those... powerful, explosive attacks~"
Oh boy she's starting to slip into her usual self again.
Edited by DevilPsyco on May 23rd 2024 at 1:19:36 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Vanilla - Drought
Vanilla smiles, "That's neat... I wish this magic were available in Liminalia."
Ecclesia - Guard Duty
Standing at duty at the pool with her hammer, Ecclesia keeps an eye out for anything suspicious. And Azura certainly does count.
Ecclesia demands, "What do you want?"
Edited by josh6243 on May 23rd 2024 at 4:12:26 AM
Ashes of Nohr
Prison Break
"Oh, hey! Took you long enough."
Pyre smirks a bit before looking over the bars and sighing. She can't cast any magic- she feels... empty. It's as Shadowheart described- there's a silencing orb somewhere.
"-fuck it we're doing this."
Pyre slams her whole body into the bars- the loud clatter echoing down the hall. Hopefully that gets her free.
Guard Duty
Milin activates her energy shielding as a mention of Azura appearing is made. She can also sense someone else below- and the signs of Gunter already reaching out to them. She notes the unusually strong mental aura- it's almost like a Netherium beast... A physical version of some sort of mental image. But this one is intermixed with what she usually senses from a human... odd. She projects her voice mentally out to her allies.
I'd expect an attack from the sides or back as well, everyone.
With that, Milin gets into her defensive 'nook', keeping her eyes on the place opposite of the pool and her senses looking out everywhere else. She shifts the nanites of her gauntlets onto one arm, forming it into a more robust cannon.
I've got our six.
aeiou: the secondForest of Spirits
"Oh, I know what this one does! No thanks to a different creepy evil faker!"
Sonic's eyes light up blue as he initiates Ultra Boost, then charges to meet Furnace head-on, clashing with it like with Hyper Metal Sonic in the OVA. "And you're not gonna flambé me or my friends!"
Solitude
"GLORIOUS STELLA NOVA!"
The moon appears in the sky, then turns blood-red before Ophelia sends down a storm of meteors.
"CE-12! COUNTER EXPLOSIONS!" Megumin fires a barrage of energy beads that intercept the meteors and make them explode in midair.
Vergil almost reflexively moves to slap Darkness back to her senses, but stops himself, knowing it will have the opposite intended effect.
You have no idea how much she lusted after him when she first joined the Defense Federation and found out he was a sick edgy demon willing to crush others underfoot. What happened when he dropped a "scum" in earshot of her cannot be put to word for mental health reasons...but he's learned better by now.
"Well, there's more risk of them killing each other than killing you. But you're not built for stealth."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."The two clash, though to Furnace's credit, he's not backing down.
"DETECTING STATEMENTS OF DEFIANCE. PROTOCOL: SEEK AND DESTROY."
Its eyes start to glow ominously.
"NOW BLEED."
Sonic may have been anticipating a fire-based attack, but right after Furnace says that, it suddenly slashes at Sonic with its claws instead while they're still in mid-clash. Apparently this guy has no respect for the ancient art of an attack struggle.
"True... but Megumin doesn't know why we're here, so she's not going to get suspicious if she sees me, right?", Darkness ponders. It's true that they're in opposing organizations, but even then their relationship hadn't been antagonistic, at least not from Darkness' point of view.
"I think it's worth a shot, don't you?"
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Sonic is indeed caught off-guard, slashed across the chest. He reels back in surprise, checking his body, then goes back in at Furnace with a jumping spin kick.
Ophelia calls forth magical energy from the Arcane Eclipse and does an underhand swing, sending three waves of scorching red power raking along the ground.
With a cocky smirk, Megumin holds her staff close and dives between them, rolling up onto one knee to fire an explosive eruption at Ophelia. The other girl yelps as she is engulfed.
"Be my guest," Vergil sighs, already exasperated.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Maintaining her beam, Wanda angles it upwards in order to keep Strange Supreme out of the boys' path. She does notice that the whisper in her head just now sounded a little more detailed than what the Darkhold usually told her, but she could dwell on that particular matter later.
Pietro simply continues dashing after Tommy and Billy, hoping they were reaching the speed necessary to shatter the barrier.
"It's futile, Wanda! This won't keep me trapped here forever." , Strange Supreme says, though his voice does betray that he's struggling right now.
Pietro, Billy and Tommy'll be able to go faster and faster, and Billy's starting to lose his focus. He's not used to this at all.
Thankfully Tommy supports him, grabbing his wrist to keep him from accidentally deviating from his path or slowing down. With the more experienced runner as his guide, Billy's able to keep going.
However, the energy that they're starting to generate doesn't go unnoticed. Strange Supreme sees them when they're a few laps in and full-on growls as he glares.
"I will not let that happen!"
Normally Ken would get annoyed at Wanda for not responding to him, but even he knows that this isn't the time and place to be petty. Strange Supreme begins to glow more and more, and there's not really anything Ken can do now to help the Maximoffs. He has to count on them to get this done.
Strange Supreme then lets out a monstrous roar as he unleashes an immense burst of power of his own, pushing back the beam enough to free himself. But as that happens, the barrier suddenly shatters from the applied pressure from Pietro, Tommy and Billy.
"Let's go!", Tommy says, immediately turning to run to Ken to try to grab him. Now that the barrier's gone, they can all run away and-
The Eye of Agamotto opens, and time begins to reverse
. Tommy, Billy and Pietro will be pulled back towards where they were when the barrier broke, while Strange Supreme himself warps over to Wanda. He'd 'played fair' for long enough, he figures as he reaches out to her with his hand. Now he'd use this opportunity to take her Chaos Magic while she'd be unable to-
"Mͥeͭanͥi̾nᶠgͧlͭeͥᶫsͤs."
Strange Supreme doesn't have any time to react to the strange, terrifying, simultaneously-worded whispers as, for but a second of a second, a powerful force emanates from Wanda, making Strange Supreme scream as it runs through him.
Time goes back to normal. The barrier is still gone. However, Tommy, Billy and Ken pause and look as they hear Strange Supreme make very pained sounds. He's clutching his wrist, and it shocks the three kids to see that he's missing his hand. It wasn't destroyed by the beam, because if it was his wrist would have been bleeding. No, it's more like his hand was just removed from his body in every sense of the word.
Strange Supreme immediately shows an almost monstrous glare.
"You..."
Before they can even think of warping/running away, Strange Supreme moves his intact arm around. And all of a sudden it starts to look like reality around them is shattering as if made of glass. Everything around them, from the trees, to the ground underneath their feet, to the buildings outside the forest (including the Maximoffs' house), to the lake, to even the faraway mountains start to twist and bend.
They would be excused for thinking reality itself is just fully breaking apart, despite the fact that the Arena would never allow that.
No, what's actually happening is that Strange Supreme has brought them all to the Mirror Dimension. And in this strange, abstract environment, they won't be able to focus enough to warp or teleport.
The ground starts to split underneath everyone, parts of the land bursting upward while others move down or to the sides. Because of this, all five of Strange Supreme's opponents will end up separated from one another before they can try to save each other. Ken, Billy, Tommy and Pietro will be lost somewhere in the environment, while Wanda will be the only one still somewhat close to Strange Supreme.
"I don't know how you did that. It should be impossible for you to do that." , Strange Supreme says, though Wanda can't know what he's talking about since it happened while time was reversing. Strange Supreme merges multiple of his extra arms together and uses them to recreate his lost hand. The fact that he needed to sacrifice multiple arms just to get back a single hand... whatever caused him to lose it must have been powerful.
And then... he starts to change more and more, becoming some monstrous amalgamation of himself and all his stolen magic
◊.
"But I'm putting an end to this. You're in my world now, Wanda. In the Mirror Dimension, I am supreme!"
He launches searing flames towards Wanda, as well as spiritual shackle-rings that aim to bind her in the hopes of preventing her from using her more powerful spells.
... wait a second, where did his cloak go?
-
When the shifting landscape finally calms down a bit, Billy wastes no time in ascending a bit, looking around to try to find the rest of his family. He wants to shout for them, but a part of him is afraid that Strange Supreme will hear him and come for him instead.
Turns out he wasn't quite paranoid enough, as all of a sudden Strange Supreme's cloak shows up. After a momentary pause from both sides, Billy starts flying away as fast as he can, with the cloak immediately giving chase.
"Eep!"
-
Tommy ended up on a piece of land surrounded by water. He can see Strange Supreme in the far distance (but not Wanda, she's just a bit too far away), but he doesn't know what to do. He lost hold of the Rooster Talisman, it ended up on a smaller piece of land across the water.
"I can't believe I'm stuck here. I can't just be a sitting duck, I gotta do something to help!"
He paces around a bit as he tries to think of a solution, eventually looking at the water.
...
Wait, he wonders. Could he maybe...
Nah, he can't be that fast. ...
Right?
-
Ken lets out a 'PWAH' sound as he pops up out of some mud. He ended up on a piece of land that, prior to being Mirror Dimension'd, was once the shore of the lake, and he'd fallen into it face-first.
"Is this some sort of karma or something?", he grumbles to himself. Though he's not quite sure what he'd deserve to get karma for-
"You'll get what you deserve."
Holy shit!
Ken jumps up on his feet, looking around rapidly. He could swear he just heard the Stalker's voice. But that creepy SOB's stuck in Jumanji. He can't be here, right?
...
"Y'know, considering all this magic crap... I'm not gonna take any risks with that.", he says as he starts to walk fast, wanting to find one of the Maximoffs at least to feel safer.
Man, he never imagined there'd be a time where he'd want to be near any of them.
Tails looks nervous. If he had his gadgets with him, he could've tried to hack Furnace. It doesn't look super advanced, it shouldn't be that hard for him to pull off if he has the tools to do it.
Which he does not right now.
Furnace looks up at Sonic and catches his foot.
"SPEED OF TARGET CALCULATED."
It opens his chest again, but Tails suddenly spin-dashes against it. It clearly didn't expect him to retaliate since it lets go of Sonic due to the impact.
"INTERFERENCE IS NOT ALLOWED.", Furnace says to Tails before literally spewing flames from his 'furnace'. Tails yelps and jumps to the side, resulting in most of him being fine.
Most of him, because the tips of his tails got hit, resulting in Tails immediately getting back up and trying to put them out fast.
Predicting that Sonic is going to get angry and try to intervene before it can attack Tails again, Furnace suddenly looks at Sonic and shoots heat-vision lasers from its eyes at him. Huh, has it always been able to do that?
-
Unbeknownst to all of them, there's yet another person nearby, now entering the part of the forest that's on fire.
"What the... what happened here?" , Nine
◊ wonders. He came through this exact pathway less than half an hour ago and there was nothing wrong with the forest then. He looks around, quickly figuring out which direction the culprit went in.
"Hrm... should I even get involved with this?"
...
He decides that yes, he should. Not out of any moral reasons, but because he'd been hiding out in this area, and it seems like something dangerous had made its home around here too, potentially threatening Nine's peace, tranquility, and research.
And he wasn't going to let that happen.
Darkness wastes no time in jumping down, landing on the ground with enough force to shatter parts of the ground underneath her. Naturally, Darkness herself is fine.
She then begins to run towards the two girls. She doesn't shout - not because she's trying to be stealthy, but because that means there's a higher chance of a stray attack hitting her.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Sonic falls for it and gets blasted. Damn, this thing is smart.
"Alright...Tails, let's split up!"
He dashes away in one direction, hoping Tails will go in the other.
If you chase two rabbits, they'll both escape.
Vergil groans in agitation.
"I've got you on the ropes! The time has come for my greatest technique!"
Though visibly sweating, Rearmed Ophelia smirks, excited to see what Megumin has in store.
Magic circles form around Megumin, a larger one appearing around the previous with each new phrase. "Through falling night and ascendant light! Through dim hell and shining heaven! From the beginning of the universe to its end! One force governs all! One force is the catalyst of everything! That force yields to my command!"
She grips her staff in both hands and points it at Ophelia, magic circles now appearing around its tip like focusing lenses. "Come to me!"
But literally the moment before she says the thing and the spell actually fires, she sees Darkness approaching and pauses for a moment. The magic circles linger in the air and on the ground.
Ophelia holds her breath, feeling really blue-balled right now.
Hub Centralis
Katie walks out of the apartment complex where Melia and Nia offered to let her stay, stretching her mechanical joints. She's on the hunt for fuel, which for her, as a reminder, means food. Sleep similarly serves a mechanical purpose for her, sorting her recent activity logs and deleting what isn't necessary, basically reducing how much is actively being processed.
Edited by KiriK on May 23rd 2024 at 8:24:59 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Tails is on the same wavelength as Sonic here, as he often is, and as such he starts running in the opposite direction less than a second after Sonic starts running too. The perks of having been best friends for years.
Furnace moves its head to look at both of them for a moment, probably calculating the best course of action.
And once he does, he suddenly rockets off towards Tails. Because it knows that chasing Sonic is a wasted effort when Sonic will clearly come back for Tails if he's in danger.
-
Nine continues to follow the path of flames. The mere formation of the path, even though it's spreading out to the sides a bit already at this point, tells Nine that this isn't a naturally-formed fire.
He then hears noises in the far distance.
"So something is going on." , he says, narrowing his eyes as he continues to approach. Whatever was encroaching on his hideaway area, he'd deal with swiftly.
"Megumin, hi!", she says as she approaches. "No need to stop fighting just 'cause I'm here, you can carry on~"
Yeah, we all know why she'd want that.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Hub Centralis
Meanwhile, a rugged-looking woman with red-and-black hair, a leather jacket and pants is strolling through this fancy new setting known as the Arena. Adjusting her shades, which seems to have a tiny computer UI on it, she looks around for a place to eat, drink, maybe have some fun.
It's not her native setting, so the possibilities are even more endless.
Drought
Lumina nods to Lupin and Chihiro. "Nice. When I drop down an large icy-looking circle, just stand in it, and your attacks will be infused with cryo- ice damage. Gunshots, sword strikes, even fisticuffs, what have you."
As for the language thing? "Woah, that's convenient." She doesn't really know how to answer Luna's question, so she just reaches down to pat the not-rabbit, before digging into her own food. By picking up her pottage and drinking directly from the bowl. The shaved ice will come later.
She doesn't really care about privacy or secrecy. If the plot mandated they be overheard, it would happen no matter what. If such a thing was not part of the plot, it wouldn't happen anyway. Actually, she doesn't even know why this has to be private, only that Lupin's keeping it secret for some plot-important reason she probably forgot about, and that was enough reason to follow his lead.
Edited by Hotpizza on May 24th 2024 at 1:24:44 AM
Drought
The Ant-Men just cheers at the words of Lupin and Lumina, and their "master plan" too.
Migafor glances at the other customers. I wonder if they would help us in our mission... They look strong, specially the lion over there.
Ashes of Nohr
Guard Duty
After seeing Kaa's actual "face", Loinball just fainted. Rosita and Bombuccia go to reanimate him with a ball of chipa.
After Gunther and Charlian scolds them, Nina rebukes:
Ufaaa, why don't you let us enjoy? I just made a new friend!
Sawdust says: Actually, that's a good advice. The enemy can hit on us in any moment, and we should be ready to fight.
For the record, Nina and Sawdust were playing hand games (rock-paper and scissors and such), but the message stays.
After hearing about Azura watching from the pool, the group walks away from the pool, and stays in guard.
Prison Break
Yazy got startled with the nurse of the door, and almost falls from the hoverboard, but thanks to the others, the mission was saved.
Cardboard and co. take the weapons the others didn't take. Specially, she decides to keep the bombs.
I wonder who are the owners of those peculiar weapons...
Zamba and Yazy go to the second floor, while Cardboard stays at the first floor. They volunteer to help guide the prisoners to safety.
Three freaking ghosts!Hub Centralis
Conveniently for both of the weird ladies there's a nearby bar! The Baritone Bar to be specific. Judging by the name and fanciful logos and decorations it's a music themed place. They can hear some smooth jazz being played inside which further reinforces this. They also advertise that they have a "mechanoid friendly menu". Whatever that means.
Curiously from the outside they can see there's not many people visiting at the moment. Must be a slow business hour.
"That was a pointless encounter with a pointless person."AoN
Mark was going to continue on his rambling but he notices the immediate shift in atmosphere and the silhouette in the water makes him shut up and go on alert. He quietly reaches for the weapons on his sides to prepare for combat. He positions himself where he can immediately raise his arms to block with the Blades of Chaos, if he can even react on time to Azura making the first move.
realBy the look of things, with Godzilla in melee range and actively pressing the attack on Desghidorah, as well as Albaz there adding on the pressure with those ice swords, the raven-haired lady gets the sense she doesn't need to intervene for much longer. Good - she's quite worn out as is, given accumulated battle damage and activity.
"That has to be enough, right? *huff*..."
She slumps a little, moving to rest on her staff so she doesn't fall over, then summoning her cloak back over to her and redonning it. After that, she pulls a generic brand energy drink out from a pocket hidden in the fabric, cracking the lid off via the crystal on her staff and taking a swig. As she does so, that crystal begins glowing softly, and the cybernetics of her body and burnt strands of flesh begin fixing themselves back into proper placement.
She could still probably contribute to the battle, but from her perspective, it's mostly wrapped up anyway. She'd likely intervene if Desghidorah suddenly got an obvious advantage over Godzilla and Albaz, or if attacked directly by the three-headed beast. In the meantime, she's got something to check up on. She shifts to lean her staff against her back, pulling out that tablet from earlier and peering closely at it.
"...Hmm, that could be bad... Okay, the signal's cleared up a bit now that one of them got bumped off. Either that, or he's gotten close to another resurgence. And it looks like he's settled in..."
"!"
A strange man with closed eyes suddenly flinched. He doesn't need his eyes open to see, thus didn't bother opening them as he took some time to ground himself again. Even with a corrosive presence tampering with his mental faculties, he at least remembered where he was. Some time ago, he'd entered this dimension and blindly teleported as far away from civilization as he thought possible, only to be brought to a nearby town and dumped in a spare room of the local tavern. Perhaps they presumed him an unfortunate lost traveler, not knowing that getting lost was his intention.
He briefly glanced down to check what form he was in. Humanoid, at least. A blue hoodie obscured underneath a dark purple cloak, but none of what he saw of that form was real anyway. He never quite understood how his body knew the intricacies of simulating touch, but he somewhat wished he could turn that off, as the bedroll beneath him proved annoyingly scratchy against his pale skin. Brushing his auburn hair with one hand, he stood up and did a few stretches to refamiliarize himself with how human bodies move, then left the room.
The tavern was mostly unoccupied at this hour, though the innkeeper still stood behind the bar, silently watching the stranger with a gaze somewhere between confusion and distrust. It was not the stranger's fault that he's innately disturbing to be around, but it'll make his time here a bit more difficult, he internally mused.
"You sleepwalking?" asked the tavernkeep. He shook his head in response, though figured that wouldn't be enough of an answer. "nah. i just dont want to open my eyes right now." he replied. The tavernkeep found that a bit odd, but shrugged off his concerns. A paying customer was a paying customer... Maybe an overpaying one, this stranger probably didn't know the local prices and sure didn't look ready to haggle for decent rates. "Alright. Well, rent's 20 gold coins a night."
Internally, the stranger felt a sense of indignation rise up from within. The townsfolk pitied him enough to drag him here, but not enough to let him off easy on the economic front? Thankfully, he knew better than to start a scene right now, and he'd brought a decent amount of spare cash with him. He just needed a moment to run the conversion... "bit much for an itchy sheet, but fine. here." he responded, sliding over and depositing exactly 20 gold coins on the countertop in the middle of his remark. A jackpot for the tavernkeep, a trivial amount for the stranger... Though, the stranger did notice a faint shift in tone and expression.
"Pleasure doing business. Say, what brought you here?" asked the tavernkeep, trying to establish at least some rapport. The stranger didn't feel too interested. "you mean besides whoever found me? looking for a place to be alone and work on a cure for my condition." he stated, hoping the tavernkeep wouldn't press for further information. Of course he couldn't be that lucky - the tavernkeep raised an eyebrow, almost universally a sign to keep elaborating.
So the stranger cracked open one eye. A pinprick of purple stared directly into the tavernkeep's soul as corrosive black "blood" leaked out from the sea of void where his sclera should be. He closed that eye before the "blood" could get anywhere and cause actual damage, but he still had to hide a smirk when he saw the tavernkeep flinch at the sight.
"...Fair enough." That was all the tavernkeep had to say to that. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, he continued talking with a different subject in mind. "So... For business reasons, I do need to know who I'm renting that room out to. You got a name, stranger?"
"..."
Now this posed quite the dilemma for the stranger. Should he use his actual name, or cover it up under another pseudonym like he usually did? He thought about it for a bit. Nobody from his world would be on his trail for this long, surely. Plus the pseudonym could make things a little difficult if he forgot what he was going by this time, and he knew the corrosive presence stuck to his soul could interfere with his ability to remember. Ironically, it'd be safer to use his real name for once, and just hope the people here forgot about him once he sorted out that cure.
He would sort out that cure in time, right?
"yeah, i do. quite a few, really. but this time around, call me Calibri."
The fact that only 140 characters are allowed here is honestly so disappointing to me.

Dr. Strange Supreme
Strange Supreme gets caught by Wanda's magic hold, and he looks genuinely shocked at the fact that Wanda's boosted power is actually hurting him right now. To be fair, he doesn't know she has the Darkhold, but even then such a powerful burst of Chaos Magic isn't something he can shrug off.
Realizing he's been underestimating her, he starts to gather power as he tries to slowly force the boosted magic hold off of himself. Though that's gonna take even him a bit to accomplish. He is going to break out, but Wanda'll be able to deliver some well-earned pain on him first.
Pietro, meanwhile, deals with the arcane lasso, allowing for Tommy to stop running.
"Thanks, Uncle P.", he says, relieved. He did not want to know what would've happened if he got caught.
Suddenly Billy speeds up to them, glowing gray and holding onto Ken's arm, the blond kid looking slightly dazed.
"Whoa, why are you glowing?"
"Ken boosted my speed, and he's gonna boost yours too.", Billy says to Tommy. "Uncle P's probably fast enough on his own to pull this off."
"To pull what-oh!"
The twins look up at Pietro.
"Uncle P, while Mom keeps that guy busy, we gotta start speeding around the edges of the barrier. The more energy we build up, the more pressure there'll be on it."
"And once we have enough, it should be destroyed! Alright Ken, speed me up!"
"Ugh... in a moment.", Ken says, looking a little woozy. He shakes his head a bit to snap back to it, then focuses his power on Tommy too.
"You two, Billy and uncle guy, you should already start running 'cause I dunno how long she'll be able to hold that guy down. If he notices you he's probably gonna try to stop you.", Ken says to Billy and Pietro, the former of which nods.
"Let's go, Uncle P. Tommy'll join in really soon!", Billy says as he activates the power of the Rabbit Talisman and starts running near the edges of the barrier.
Ashes of Nohr
PRISON
Karzon and Dracus want to help... but the Nurses are disposed of before they can do anything that's effective. Welp.
If the book is still available, Vladek will take it and take a peek at its contents. He immediately understands that this is a professional book just by the text and accompanying diagrams. Yes, he has a feeling he struck gold with this one. As much as he'd like to though, he knows there's no time to read through the full thing, so he simply reads what's on the opened page before closing it again and simply stashing it in his armor. No need for fancy orb shenanigans for something this light and easy to carry. He notices Shadowheart's interest in it, and figures he may have to let her take a peek at it later too as to not look suspicious. But not just yet.
Once back at the prison cells, Karzon tries to put his trap skills to use and see if he can't get the cell doors open without the need to make noise. Alas, those skills don't translate to lockpicking.
"Move aside, I will open it."
"That's going to make a lot of noise."
"We only have one key. So it's either noise or abandon all but one of the prisoners down here. And with that thing still on the prowl, I'd prefer to have as many bo-allies as possible."
Vladek nods to give his approval of this action. As such, unless someone else opens the cell door first, Dracus will slash the lock off with his now empowered blade. Shouldn't make as much noise as destroying the door, but the lock falling down will probably still make noise regardless.
The trio turns to Shadowheart when they hear what she says. A magic-blocking orb? Vladek looks at his hands for a moment. Is that going to affect him too? If so, he won't be able to rely on his dark magic while in here, which could spell trouble.
When the group gets ready to move on to the second floor, they hear Gunter's message about Azura. Vladek curses inwardly - now he won't have ANY form of warping available to him.
"We have to complete our mission as fast as possible. Keep moving." , he says to his allies, after which he and his knights start moving, headed for the second floor now.
Edited by DevilPsyco on May 23rd 2024 at 9:26:55 PM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.