Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Two of the Starmen? get struck by Stormbringer and are destroyed.

Giegue's attack was inexplicable!

Giegue manages to pump out some psychic power and blasts three of the Starmen? to bits. 3 remain.

Ninten, still afflicted with Strange, now attacks... himself, knocking himself on the ground and looking dazed.

"... every time I think he can't surprise me anymore...", Giegue groans.

Starman? 1 fires PK Beam at Thor.

Starman? 2 scatters some spores.

Starman? 3 uses PSI Brainshock on Giegue... but it didn't do anything.

—

The Sovereign would make it to the room with the ladder and hear the commotion up above her.

Running like his life depends on it (because it does), Pepsiman narrowly avoids being eye-beamed into fucking oblivion with the sacred technique of running in a straight line and praying to every god you know. The effects of his Pepsi Holiday Spice wear off just moments after- a truly close call if you've ever seen one. Unable to carry his own momentum with his feet, Pepsiman leaps into the air to bleed air speed before hitting the ground and skidding to a halt.

Taking a moment to think of his options, he pulls out a Pepsi Pineapple, chugging the whole thing before posing dramatically. His aura turns electric, and he chucks a few lightning bolts at the Devil Gundam Zeus-style!

Raising Stormbringer to block the beam, Thor unleashes a blast of lightning from Mjolnir at the remaining Starmen before moving to help Ninten to his feet.

"I mean no offense, but your realm has produced some truly strange techniques."

After a few seconds, there's another explosion like the one that the Sovereign made when she first entered the ship, and she comes rocket jumping up the ladder before creating another explosion to launch herself shoulder-first into one of the Starmen?, aiming to just plow it into the ground.

Only two of the Starmen get hit by Thor's lightning. Ninten is helped back up though.

"Don't blame me, Giegue's people invented it."

"We didn't invent it, we weaponized it. And then humans did too.", Giegue says as he casts a psychic barrier to block the spores. As he is about to try to strike, the Sovereign appears and completely wrecks the final Starman?.

"... wait what?", Giegue asks, completely confused.

"That was awesome!", Ninten grins. "Who are you?"

With the Starmen dispatched, Thor wheels around to face the Sovereign.

"Whoever you might be, you wouldn't happen to know anything about who's behind all of this, would you?" be inquires, gesturing to the vines and the now-vanquished infected Starmen.

She looks at Ninten. "That is a long and complicated question. Just call me 'the Sovereign' and I'll explain more when we're done here."

Then she turns her head to the ceiling. "What is happening here... reminds me too much of what I used to do. And I hate it."

That... semi-acknowledges Thor's question. Without actually explaining anything.

Samus unleashes so many Storm Missiles in a single volley it could probably decimate a spaceship.

Domon gets decked to the side, but he skids to a stop in midair and rushes at the Devil Gundam's face with a Shining Finger, aiming to grab it by the face and drag it onto land!

The Devil Gundam makes a mechanical screeching sound as EVA-01 steps forth to meet it. It attempts to grab the Evangelion unit, but runs afoul of the AT Field, so it opts to fire a shitton of lasers at it to try and overpower Shinji.

The Devil Gundam reels back as Megan and Pandora pressure it, before returning fire with MOAR LASERS.

It also seems to just emit an aura of heat that disperses the water jets, adapting to the Waveguard's torrents.

It gets zapped by Pepsiman and turns towards him slowly, gratingly, raising a fist to strike...

But then the Storm Missiles bombard it, blasting the entire front of its body open and leaving it vulnerable for Domon's Shining Finger grab to pull it out of the water with sheer momentum!

It falls into the forest below with a mighty crash, crushing many delicate interior parts in the process, leaving it too stunned to attack again.

(for the record it is still fully visible, it towers over the trees)

Edited by KiriK on Oct 28th 2021 at 4:24:42 AM

Vs. Devil Gundam

Super Love emerges at the coast, near the forest. She notices the stunned Gundam, and stands near it. She raises her microphone at the sky, charging an attack to fire if the mecha stands up the next turn.

...

Meanwhile, over the bridge, Super Pamp ends his summoning song! A huge creature, as a stone golem, emerges from underwater, and its head breakes the bridge!

Can you see the "crown" over its head? It's an actual freaking soccer stadium!... Altough the image is not shown at scale, and probably the Arena scaled it down to the height of the Gundam or the EVA-01.

The golem carries Super Pamp over its head, and slowly they walk towards the forest.

"A malevolent presence has taken over my old mothership and infected my former soldiers.", Giegue says to the Sovereign as he begins to float, his concentration back to normal now. "I'm-"

"We're."

"... we're here to dispose of him and, hopefully, reclaim my ship."

Giegue then looks at the door on the far left of the room.

"And we're close to the control room now.", he says as he starts to float towards it.

"Ah, wait up!", Ninten says as he quickly hurries after Giegue.

Going through that door would reveal a hallway with two paths to take. Going straight would lead them to another door, and turning right would lead them to a long hallway.

Pandora now creates a holographic field around herself that catches the lasers headed towards her. With a grin, she then sends those lasers back towards the Devil Gundam the moment it crashes into the forest.

Meta Knight sees a chance to deal a major blow to the Devil Gundam. He flies up high into the air, charging up energy as he begins to spin. Winds kick up and spiral around him as a tornado of energy takes form. He then divebombs towards the Devil Gundam while still spinning, basically launching himself and the tornado towards it, aiming to strike it in the chest area.

"God Slash Typhoon!"

—

Omagi◊, currently vibing in their female form, witnesses the Devil Gundam crashing into the forest.

Now, 99% of the time when there's an intruder near their territory, they are going to hunt them down, wear them down with illusions and murder them. ... and probably eat them too.

But this thing? Hell no. Omagi chooses the smarter option and starts retreating towards the mountains for now. They'll be back once things calm down around here.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Oct 28th 2021 at 11:53:22 AM

Some of the lasers pierce the AT field, as Shinji Yells out in pain, possibly due to loss of focus or synchronization. However, instead of breaking down, Shinji, with newfound confidence, and with some growth, doesn't panic, as he grits his teeth, Glaring ahead... As EVA 01 begins to act on its own as its blood spills.

EVA 01 tosses away its hybrid knife, possibly to Devil gundam's confusion if that is at all possible, Before, suddenly, the mouthguard on the EVA's mouth opens up, revealing its pearly whites... Before it lets out something between a yell and a howl, moving in to attempt to pummel and tear at Devil gundam with its hands and mouth...

EVA 01 has entered a berserk state.

But this time, It appears Shinji is joining in, as the normally blue components of his plugsuit, and his hair turning red briefly, as he yells into the mic, Joining in the frenzy.

Domon may recognize what this is over any camera feeds of shinji's seat.

(Shinji has actually , if i'm not stupid, had some training with domon off screen, and EVA 01 has has their mechanical components upgraded with gundam tech, so... get ready for some stacking)

Pepsi-man knows an opportunity when he sees it- one has to be clever when delivering Pepsi to the world- and takes it. He downs an entire Diet Pepsi Cherry Vanilla. A large ball of energy forms in each of his hands, and he tosses them into the air above the Devil Gundam. The energy balls then fracture apart into dozens of smaller balls, falling upon the downed Devil Gundam before exploding in carpet-bomb fashion.

Out of all his attacks so far, this one carries the most overall destruction, but it isn't particularly dense.

Thor raises an eyebrow at the Sovereign's response.

"A more elaborate explanation wouldn't have gone amiss, you know."

He then hurries after Giegue and Ninten. Once he's caught up with them, his gaze flickers from one path to the other.

Shifting her head to follow Thor as he careens toward the locked door, Filia's face turns sour upon hearing Nicole's nickname. Beyond that, she doesn't react to it, and looks around as the group splits up to investigate the unlocked doors. Briefly glueing her eyes to each of them to watch them walk around, she lets out a deep sigh.

   "I see the thunder god hasn't gained any extra intelligence."   

She mutters quietly, giving SI!Omega a quick look before her gaze scans his shifting feet. The cup she had gotten rid of re-materializes into her hand, liquid still intact. Sticking a finger into the liquid and stirring it, the demoness pulls herself from the wall and stands up straight.

   "If you care for my advice Omega then I highly suggest you distance yourself from Gravitas, especially the incompetent mooks that seem to gather against Narktus. You are lucky my orders aren't to kill on sight, though if you weren't here I may have twisted my orders. I am quite bored down here."   

With a sigh she removes her finger and takes a sip of the crimson liquid, chuckling at Thranix's comment.

   "And what exactly do you mean by that? Had you hoped to meet me before all this?"   

Watching the reptile move down the hall and knock on the locked door, as well as the others heading deeper into the unlocked doors, she shouts out mockingly,

   "My orders are to preserve the base, so do yourselves a favor and be gentle with the fragile electronics would you?"   

Edited by KrampusTheTherapist on Oct 28th 2021 at 4:38:11 AM

Unlocked Door 1

Inside the room, Maxi will find a mess of paperwork and some disassembled machinery.

More intriguingly is a device of unknown origin.

—

Unlocked Door 2

Xoeur finds a similar-looking room, though there is also a board with a number of faces on it. And names.

GANONDORF - DECEASED

ULTRON - LIABILITY, DECEASED

GENERAL ZOD - RECRUITED

GENERAL GRIEVOUS - DECEASED

BABY VEGETA - RECRUITED

JERGINGHA - RECRUITED

RIDLEY - EASY TO MANIPULATE AS LONG AS SAMUS IS THE ENEMY, CONSIDER RECRUITING

VISSER THREE - LIMITLESS SHAPESHIFTER, CONSIDER RECRUITING

STAR DREAM - REALITY WARPER, CONSIDER RECRUITING

FREELANCER CORPORATION - EMPLOYED

X - CORDIAL ALLY, DANGEROUS ENEMY, CONSIDER RECRUITING

Holy shit this must be ancient. Not that Xoeur could tell.

That aside, with a bit more combing, she will be able to find a device just like the one Maxi finds, though she will have an easier time figuring out what it is - a hologram projector.

—

Locked Door

Thranix knocks on the door...

and it fucking opens.

Standing on the other side is a dude in Halo Marine-style armor, who sees a dragon-man, a thunder god and Nicole, and immediately dives for cover behind a table.

As for the actual contents of the room, there's a big console with a bunch of buttons in front of a massive computer monitor. This looks important.

The Sovereign passively follows the others, not saying any more.

Edited by KiriK on Oct 28th 2021 at 5:16:19 AM

Ninten walks on ahead a little to explore, being careful to look around the corner first just in case there's another ambush.

"No Starmen here! But there's some roots around so we gotta be careful not to trip.", he then says. Giegue floats forward as he looks around.

"Given that there are no changes at all, we should go right to get to the control room."

"Wait, right?", Ninten asks, turning to look back as he's opening the door at the end of the hallway. Giegue gives him a 'you've got to be kidding me' expression.

"If there's Starmen behind that door and you get infected then that's on you, do you understand!?", Giegue snarls. Ninten takes his hand off of the handle, the door opening on its own.

"Gee, sorry.", he says, about to walk back to the others, though he does look behind him just in case he's about to get attacked. He knows his horror cliches.

He sees no enemies behind him, only a somewhat dark room. There's some dried blood on the ground in that room though, which freaks Ninten out a little.

But what he notices right after that full-on makes him pause, turn pale, turn around and enter the room, where he crouches as he seems to grab something off of the floor.

"Now what are you doing!? That's the wrong way!", Giegue says. When Ninten doesn't answer, he grows irritated and approaches. He's about to chide him when he reaches him, but then also pauses when he sees what Ninten is holding.

"... oh...", he mutters, sounding like he now completely understands Ninten's reaction. Now what could Ninten have found to give Giegue pause?

A MOST FOOLISH DISTRACTION! I SHALL EASILY DESTROY THIS! When Thranix step into the way and open it with naught but a knock, Thor looks very disappointed.

He's so annoyed in fact that he doesn't heed the console at all and instead head for the Halo-guy. He slaps the table away and attempt to grab and hoist him up with his enomous hands, holding him from the leg like a child curiously checking out a toy.

LITTLE LITTLE MAN!

Well that was a waste...

Gwain leaps into the air, and shines with resplendent light. A orb of swirling light magic forms above her before she points down, transmorphing into into a torrent of light to try and wash over the Devil Gundam.

Oh, Ganondorf. She knows a little about him. ... Oca will be happy to learn about that DECEASED label.

Zod too? Though he was more mentioned offhand.

Baby Vegeta... they have a Vegeta. That's a baby? What?

Of course, none of these thoughts matter, given that she's not a regular to Gravitas events.

She searches the area, and finds the thing.

"Oh, a projector..."

Not particularly riveting.

Edited by Rbade on Oct 28th 2021 at 3:35:59 AM

Underground facilities

Maxi calls Lulú with a hand signal, and she enters afterwards.

What a mess!

While she is checking the papers, Maxi checks the machine. He puts on his goggles to improve his vision.

What could it be that machine?

Edited by BombonBombin on Oct 28th 2021 at 8:47:45 AM

Nicole does a double-take when Thranix knocking on the door actually gets it to open.

"...Really? Just knocking'll get you in? You'd think they'd at least have a secret knock to keep the non-Gravitas folks out."

She strolls into the room and shakes her head at Myth!Thor.

"Alright, put him down, big man. Unless he's actually your world's colossal douchebag of a Loki in disguise or something, he ain't a threat."

Then she goes over to the console and activates it, sitting down on a nearby chair.

"Now let's see what we've got here..."

As he follows Giegue, Thor fixes him with an annoyed glare.

"Aren't you being a little harsh with him? Ninten is merely trying to help us reach the one responsible for this predicament. He can't do that with you screaming at him, just as pushing him to the point of exhaustion and losing sleep did nothing to resolve the dream realm issue."

Upon noticing Giegue's reaction to whatever it was Ninten found, he shifts his gaze to the latter.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Oct 28th 2021 at 3:43:19 AM

The Sovereign is just vibing. Whatever it is, she's unlikely to be surprised - she might have sensed it already with her... weird and vague powers.

Ninten turns slightly around to reveal what he's holding. It's Greyface's mask, but it's tattered, torn and cut in various places... and there'd dried blood on it.

"It was him. He was here. A-and it looks like he...", Ninten mutters.

"..."

"Oh god, oh crap, now what? This is bad.", Ninten mutters again, grabbing for his puffer.

"Why this reaction? I understand you're shaken by finding proof of someone's death, but since when do you care so much for Greyface that you're on the verge of getting asthma attack?"

"I do-don't, but... Nesley.", he says as he begins to puff air into his lungs.

Giegue seems to look more understanding.

"Right, he wanted to try to help Porky become a better person. I remember him saying that.", he says as Ninten stands up, his breathing calming more. He looks sad though.

"How am I supposed to tell him that Porky's dead? I-I mean, he has to be, right? If he's been here since that fight Thor mentioned, that long between these creepy spore Starmen... does this place even have food and water?"

"When I left this ship before coming to the Arena, there weren't many provisions for biological beings. They could in theory be preserved for years, but there would be enough for maybe a few months at most if only one person ate and drank from them. Depending on how long ago this fight was, it's highly unlikely that he's still alive."

He then tilts his head.

"Do you just want me to burn the mask and remove the evidence?"

"Wh-NO! Removing the evidence isn't gonna make me feel any less guilty if I keep this from him."

"Then you should find a way to tell him."

Ninten now fully turns around.

"He's gonna feel awful. ... and I'm kinda scared for his reaction. Everyone who knows him knows that he can get really violent when he's angry. He and I tend to argue a lot already, so I hope he doesn't think to..."

"No fighting in the base, remember? Pseudo wouldn't allow it. Now let us continue. Maybe the freak in charge of my ship knows more about Greyface than he's letting on. No body, no 100% proof."

As he turns around and looks at Thor, he then answers.

"I already apologized for the way I went about the dream issue. As for the rest, I'm just... bad with kids, alright? I don't have much patience for their antics."

And then he starts to float towards the hallway they need to go through. It's a long one, but there's nothing in their way.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Oct 28th 2021 at 12:59:51 PM

Omega

Omega just kind of awkwardly scratched the back of his head with his staff — god that was nice — and said, "I'm... not exactly associated with the guys against Gravitas — not officially. I just keep ending up fighting them off now and then. Honestly, I don't even know what the whole conflict is about, I just know that they hired Ghiaccio and I've got a weird history of fighting him by now. I didn't actually realize that you worked for 'em tho. Makes things a little awkward."

Thranix answered, "Well... no, not exactly... well... actually, yes. I get the sense that this is terribly awkward for my skeletal friend there. He mentioned that you helped him reforge that fancy armor of his, so I was kinda curious about meeting—"

And then it turned out his stupid trick worked.

"... You... huh."

KiriK

The Sovereign looks at the mask sadly. Then again, she uses the same sad expression for everything, so it's hard to tell what, if anything, that means.

"We should press on, of course."

Edited by KiriK on Oct 28th 2021 at 6:05:45 AM

Filia watches as the door swings open from just a single knock, and she snaps. She drops the gold wine cup and is about to thoroughly make sure the guard suffers until Thor grabs the guard by his leg and lifts him into the air. The sight calms her down enough that she instead looks down at the ground with the fallen cup.

With its liquid having spilled onto the ground she lets out a frustrated grunt,

   "Waste of good wine."   

Still looking at the ground, she speaks

   "'Not officially' is hardly enough to keep you off of his lists. Narktus loves his damn lists. If I were you I would steer far clear of anyone so much as mentioning the name Gravitas."   

Pausing for a moment, she kneels down and grabs the cup, making it disappear a moment later.

   "Giaccio is a complete psycopath and I'm not sure why Narktus bothers with him, if it were up to me he'd be strung up by his own frozen guts by now."   

She quickly lifts her head back up to look at SI!Omega having replayed what he had said earlier in her head.

   "Wait did you say Gundam? Is that why you're here? You thought it was coming to us?"   

A quizzical expression carrying a hint of shock dawned on the demoness's face, looking down at her gravitas bracer again. She quietly muttered to herself, her expression shifting to one of anger. Looking back up to SI!Omega,

Though with the door now open she moves from her current position in an instant to stand right in front of the console, arms crossed just after Nicole had tried to activate it. She isn't necessarily ignoring the other two groups in the unlocked rooms either, the biting cold of the previous room following them into their respective areas.

They're definitely being watched, whether they're aware of it or not. Perhaps past the freezing cold were eyes that could not be seen, but they should continue to focus on their investigating. Giving Thor a sideways glance as she stands guard at the console, she starts speaking to the guard hoisted up by his grip.

   "You deserve this you fucking idiot, have you no idea what it means to guard? I was just about to tell these people that hitting the door was useless and that if they valued their lives they should leave. But then you had to open the door, and now I have to worry about collateral."   

Letting out an elongated groan, she shouts out to a nearby door.

   "HEY! Get out here you useless buffoons."   

Doing yet another facepalm, the demoness mutters to herself,

   "Narktus is going to kill me."   

Turning her attention to Thranix, she lets out another quieted chuckle.

   "Ah yes, my father's armor. The foundation was already there, it was quite easy. However my own was from scratch, far more impressive."   

The hapless Marine yelps and drops his gun, trying desperately to grab Thor's wrist as he dangles helplessly.

The console only shows a blinking _ when turned on. It seems that something needs to be typed in to make things happen.

Before Nicole can do that, though, guards - both numerous additional Marines and a few yautja - storm into the room from deeper in the base, weapons drawn.

"Let him go," says a voice. Suddenly, if Thor looks down, he'll see the weirdest fucking ninja he's ever laid eyes on◊ with a hand on Thor's wrist.

"You will get nothing out of someone this cowardly with fear and torture."

Schwarz Appears (憂い)

Whether or not Thor obliges, Schwarz turns to the door the investigators entered through, shouting into the hallway. "Xoeur! Maxi! Bring the devices you found here!" he calls. "It's time for us all to witness history."

He then turns to Filia. "You have your duty to protect this base and its secrets... but Narktus isn't telling you you can't watch whatever is on those projectors. Why not humor us for now?"

Thor listens to the others and casually toss him over his shoulder, caring little for his fate. He immediately point at Filia though.

HAHA YOU ARE VERY BAD AT YOUR JOB!

Thor stares at the soldiers and Yautjas and smiles at them, silently sitting down on the ground, as if daring them to make a move.

Edited by Bolded1 on Oct 28th 2021 at 1:20:09 PM