Rex reacted like a child that was repeatedly told not to put his fingers on an electrical socket even though he knew better. Hiding his fear was second nature by now and it was really hard not to do it by accident. At least it was hard to do worse after being humiliated in public. There was nowhere to go but up.
"...I know"
With the fake Caboose being voted out, the first part of the challenge was over. The actual soldier, along with all the other people that had been replaced, got transported to the arena proper and the lights turned off. It was hard to remember that it was actually getting late, given how well lit the place had been up until now.
And that wasn't everything. A man in a black armor took out a glowing sword from between the shadows, Rex had expected all this time to fight against some kind of army, so this certainly made things a lot more straightforward. Of course, that also made the possibility of a kill-steal all the more likely, but that was a problem future him would have to worry about. Kelsey, Caboose, and Genji decided to test their luck. In an uncharacteristic move, Rex decided not to follow their example and join the fight just yet. It was wise to check what the guy could do before charging in with a plan. And not actually having access to his powers at the moment probably had something to do with that too.
Besides, Makoto was here. In fact, she drove all the way to where Rex was. She looked... well, not happy. Then again that fire in her eyes was the norm when she was Queen so it was hard to tell if she was actually pissed off or not. It wouldn't be surprising for her to be a bit frustrated with the situation. If anything, she was at least trying to protect him. That was a sign not everything was lost.
"H-hey. I missed you" Rex internally facepalmed after saying that. Even if the recent events had shaken him up a bit, that wasn't justification enough to come across as too needy. She had been gone for a couple of hours at the most, after all. "She was a horrible kisser by the way. Even worse than Tairee" Reminding Makoto of the kiss—along with the challenge that made Cole a kid—was sure to make things less awkward for her, yes sir.
Edited by DeisTheAlcano on Nov 11th 2018 at 1:40:34 PM
Sarah smirked and folded her arms. "I'm sure people won't be much threat, since everyone has to face the same challenge together." She said, standing up. At this point, she was teleported into the center of the arena with the others, along with those that were voted out (minus Eight-Four, of course).
Looking down, she found that her armour had returned to normal, along with her guns. Content with being back to normal, she slid her helmet onto her head, happy to once again see the familiar HUD lighting up the inside visor. Pulling out her pistols, she loaded a magazine into each, then came her DMR. She wanted all her guns to be ready for when this challenge starts. Everyone around her popped up as bright yellow blips, signifying all were currently classified as friendly.
As soon as the lights dimmed, she saw a large red blip on her radar, identifying an enemy nearby. "Looks like we got company." She said, raising her pistols and lowering into a combat-ready stance. The light returned, revealing the challenge to be Darth Vader. "Who is that!?" She asked, confused. "Do we know what his abilities..." At that point she saw someone rush in without pre-planning. "WAIT! We should learn his abilities first, study his weaknesses! We don't know what he's capable of!" She sighed and shook her head in disappointment.
Lizard Metabolism
Two, Now We're Fighting!, Arena
As it turned out, Fakeboose was the last of the changelings. Two breathed out a sigh of relief, seeing that they were to move into something she was better at. Eight Four decided to switch places with a newcomer - apparently someone from the same military unit, but of a higher rank? The bluenette recognized the person in question as one of those that left Makoto feeling antsy earlier.
The lights went out, though their opponent at least illuminated their nearest surroundings with their red blade. The blackout didn't last long, letting Two examine the man in black armor more thoroughly. The radiomen apparently recognized this Darth Vader, but before she could dwell on it, Kelsey was already off. Soon after others followed with their own ideas. Two felt her body get tougher, somehow; Makoto's doing. "Thank you!" She called out to her Phantom Thief friend, drawing her blade and sizing up the enemy in front of them.
If he was the only obstacle left, he must have been considered formidable enough to oppose all of them. Genji joined in the rush. Though the itch to join them was there, Two decided to hang back for the time being. Caboose was taking a safer route, taking shots from the flank. The bluenette shuffled over to where Rex, Silanea and Makoto were. The latter was taking a couple of shots from a distance herself.
"Do you recognize him?" Two asked, a little unsurely. One of the people from earlier called out a lack of weapon. The bluenette looked at her blade. "Do you think you could make do with this?" She gestured to her huge sword.
How do lizards fly?
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
Actually, I probably should've expected someone else to put in that last vote anyway, oh well. "...Yes. Yes they did." Eh, sooner or later he'd remember Fake Him saying it. In the meantime some new person pulled rank on 8-4? And somehow, this flew. O...kay? Surely this wouldn't be harder now.
Well, in any case it was done. The lights went out for I guess dramatic effect, and that Trent guy just now revealed he was unarmed. I stood preemptively. "...Why would you come to a thing like this and not bring a weapon?" Why did he not have a weapon period, I didn't even mean to be here and I brought a weapon because this place is fucking terrifying, jesus christ.
In any case, the outage didn't last long. Soon enough we were fighting...
"Vader?"
Considering the Death Star on the space day that was such a joy to remember, and the nature of the mafia thing that just happened, the idea for all this was...day fights we didn't get to? Kinda wild that it was only two things to deal with...what did I have to work with here? A barely lethal revolver, and the normie-level Star Wars knowledge to know it probably didn't mean much...well, actually, I guess one of those was in high demand, considering how this was starting.
"You're gonna get Force thrown into someone!" I called in Kelsey's general direction. She probably wasn't listening but I dunno, someone else could use the incoming telekinesis warning. He apparently had day effects, and at least for the moment had rolled medieval fantasy...would wrecking his current armor kill him like it were his normal equipment? Was a little disappointing that any of our resident tech fryers couldn't oneshot him...but if he rotated like everyone else had been today, that could change. I sidled warily in the opposite direction Caboose had started run 'n gunning, having an excuse to not die two seconds in, trying to dig through my phone messages and not get maimed at the same time. Telling everyone the trick was likely to paint targets on people, so here was to hoping Rex somehow hadn't rightfully blocked me ages ago.
He usually depends on cybernetics to live, capitalize if he changes themes
Idk if his armor rn does the same thing while he has it
He couldn't block every direction at once, right, and this was 22 guys to one Anakin, so if we circled him maybe it'd make an opening. "That thing can deflect shots too, try coming in from multiple directions."
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
"Oh my god, Rick, I-i-i-i-i-it's Darth Vader!" shrieked Morty, backing away from the ominous figure and bumping into his grandfather in the process. "I think!"
"I mean, y'know, Morty," observed Rick, staring at the black-cloaked sword-wielding warlord, who just different enough from the space villain to raise immediate suspicion. "you could be jumping to conclusions here. We could be dealing with Kylo Ren. Or Darth Revan. Or Baron Karza."
"Okay, well, whatever he is, Rick, he looks mad, okay?"
"Good. I have a lot of issues from that last challenge I need to work through." snarled Rick, defiantly taking a chug from his flask and jamming it into his pocket as he braced himself for what came next.
"Okay, listen up folks," announced Rick as the confused babble spread through the crowd of individuals who happened to come from a universe without George Lucas; "we got a telepath and telekinetic here;" he paused to fire a blast from his laser pistol as he spoke, "so whatever you do not think about what you're gonna do. Ben, you got an alien that doesn't need to breathe? And doesn't mind amputations? Because, y'know, watch out for the sword."
Snowy
Eventually, the Fake Caboose finally left the field, and the next phase of the challenge began. The lights went out, and someone (Trent?) asked if they could borrow a weapon. ”Wait, what?” Why was he here without a weapon if they were likely to fight something?! Lewis pointed out the absurdity of that, and Rean agreed. Before he could verbally second that statement though, he heard someone breathing heavily behind him. Rean turned around, and could sense a figure out in the darkness, who then illuminated himself with a glowing sword.
The lights came on fully, revealing a man with a similar aesthetic to that of Crow while disguised as the leader of the ILF. Rean sighed. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the Writer is messing with me again. It was definitely a style of outfit meant for hiding one’s identity, so who knew what this guy’s story was.
...Except, Apparently Lewis, Caboose, Rick and Morty knew, calling out the guy’s abilities.
"Got it!" Rean said, moving to an angle that wasn’t covered by someone else yet. Once there, he crouched slightly, and then quickly drew his sword, sending a shockwave towards the helmeted man.
THE SLORG!
Trent glanced over at Two, then at her sword, then back to her face. "Uh, no" Trent said simply, just a bit awkward/confused at the suggestion. "If that's Vader, I know about him; well, a little bit" the man added, glancing back towards the situation with Darth Vader.
Silanea glanced aside at Rex, still letting him lean on her for support. "Rex, don't you think you should focus more on the- yigh!" Silanea suddenly let out a yelp of sorts, as a faint buzz came from her person. She reached a hand down into her shirt, then came back up with Rex's phone. "Uh, your phone... Sorry I forgot to give it back" the lamia muttered, face flushing with embarrassment.
Meanwhile, Kelsey continued to charge forward without any heed to the warning calls of those behind her, though Genji overtook her with the speed of his cybernetic body. Makoto's shot passed by, pinging against Vader's armor and making him flinch a bit, but not seeming to do any serious damage. Genji's shuriken went in next, but with swift movements, Vader deflected them aside with his sword, even cutting one in half. Genji got close enough, and went in for the swift strike-
Genji's sword passed within inches of Vader's own, as the ninja's strike suddenly had all its momentum halt in mid air, with Vader holding his free arm up slightly, fingers curled. The sith lord waved his arm around, and Genji moved through the air in the same direction, clearly driven by the sith's telekinetic powers. As such, Genji was moved around to stay between Darth Vader and Caboose, taking most of the red team soldier's fire to his back. Vader thrust his free arm out then, launching Genji right towards Caboose.
Next was Kelsey's turn, as she still didn't falter in her charge, and lunged at the sith lord with one chainaxe coming down for a strike. Vader's sword met the chainaxe's handle, going through it with seemingly no resistance, then further on through Kelsey's arm just above the elbow, and part of her torso too. This, understandably, stopped her charge and negated her attack. Though her expression wasn't visible, it was pretty clear she was very surprised. With another move of Vader's free arm, Kelsey was telekinetically flung into Rick's shot, then she hit the ground like a limp ragdoll. Rean's shockwave then hit Vader, though aside from dramatically blowing the sith's cape and making him crouch slightly to avoid getting staggered, it didn't seem to do a lot of damage.
"That sword just cut through ceramite with ease..." Brother Marcus thought aloud, holding his ground while having his bolt pistol aimed right at Darth Vader, but had not yet fired.
"Now it's our turn!" John yelled, his jetpack taking him up in the air as he opened fire with his assault carbine. Blue followed suit with a flap of his ice wings, taking aim at Vader with his bow before getting telekinetically flung into John, sending both men careening off to one side of the arena.
"Dat hain't gud" Hartwig muttered as he watched the other two Home Sweet Home members fall into the ground.
"I dare say this looks like it's going to be a good show!" Sir Redring yelled out, drawing both of his swords and holding at the ready.
"Stupefy!" Thomas called out, the bolt of magic shooting from his wand at Vader. Vader thrust his free hand forward and essentially 'caught' the bolt with his hand, though from the way his arm seemed to stiffen somewhat, he hadn't fully negated the effects of it.
"Ace, Pecha, come back just in case!" Louie said as he recalled his two pokemon. "We got a plan, Ben?" the trainer asked, keeping his eyes on Vader while readying his other pokeballs.
"Looks like they're all just throwing whatever they've got at Vader" Jeff's voice commented over the news channel.
"And they're getting whooped on in return, as I'd expect; I don't think a brute force approach at Vader would work well" Adam's voice commented.
"Well what would? I do- wait, was that a pun?" Jeff's voice asked in return.
"I think he can sense with his powers, so blinding won't work!" Connor as Bill Clinton hollared from the sidelines. "Can you get his saber away from him?!" the Fanboy then asked/suggested.
Edited by FirockFinion on Nov 11th 2018 at 11:46:51 AM
You are reading this.
Challenge Arena- Well This Is Gonna Suck
Her serious expression cracked slightly as Rex spoke to her, though the comment about Miss Tairee kind of made her want to gag. She forgot that was a thing that happened.
"I missed you too, but let's all try to focus on not dying, okay?" Anat revved her engine, but stayed put for the moment. Two joined them, asking if she knew who it was. "No, I don't recognize him at all..." Caboose called him Darth Vader though, so maybe that was his name? Morty also called him Darth Vader, so it was probably true. A few more people tried to charge at or fire on the lone warrior too, though a chunk of the group was also holding back to watch. Silanea pulled out Rex's phone from her cleavage to give it back to him, since it had apparently just buzzed. Who was texting him at a time like this?
The bullet hit, but the armor completely negated her revolver's damage, which didn't surprise her. It wasn't exactly a high caliber round compared to a bigger gun. What she didn't expect was this Darth Vader to be able to block lasers and throw people with his mind. Just how far could his psychic abilities reach? He sliced shuriken out of thin air and could use bodies as meat shields for anything he didn't feel like simply catching. How were they supposed to out think a telepath and a telekinetic? Genji was tossed aside after catching Caboose's bullet spray. Kelsey got the business end of his laser sword and was thrown against the floor like a sack of rice, and Makoto paled at the sight of how fast he'd dealt with four people's attacks. He pretty much ignored Rean's strike entirely too. Shit, was that a detached arm? Makoto swallowed what might have been puke and tried not to look directly at it.
"Okay, I'm kind of worried now..." she mumbled as Vader knocked down John and Blue in a single telekinesis attack. She holstered her gun, not wanting to waste bullets or accidentally shoot someone else. Thomas just barely made an impact with his spell, slowing his arm slightly. Someone wanted to get the sword away from him, though that seemed like a hell of a task at this point. "Just... don't go in close unless you think you can deal with that sword of his!" she said, before actually getting off of Anat. Maybe if they split their thoughts up, it'd be harder to counter them. The motorcycle revved up and drove towards the challenge boss on its own. Makoto sent a Mediarama spell at Genji and Kelsey as the bike passed to try to get them stable again, though she wasn't sure if it would even effect Kelsey if she was dying already. Heat cauterized wounds, right? That sounded correct. Anat glowed an even more intense blue as it fired off a spark of magic at Vader. As soon as it got somewhat close, it would explode into the Freidyne spell, hopefully engulfing the man in the blast.
Edited by ScorpioRat on Nov 11th 2018 at 1:31:34 PM
Happy Box Hater
Colosseum
So Vader had blocked his bullets with a cyborg ninja. Well played. And then the iconic villain threw the cyborg ninja directly at Caboose. The soldier simply spread out his arms and caught Genji. Not like he hadn't taken far worse impacts and walked out OK. Without even a moment's hesitation Caboose unceremoniously dropped the cyborg on the ground.
He was fine, it was just bullets! "OK Freckles, be more careful next time!" he told his gun. It wasn't his fault, it was his gun's fault for not halting its fire when a friendly was put in the way!
"Affirmative."
On second thought, he had a better idea once he saw how the hand seemed to not be moving so well. "Actually, try to help me hit the hand," he whispered to the gun. And with that he began running back towards the main group again, all while shooting another salvo. A lot of what came out was simply confetti, though, as Freckles was keeping any shots that would be certain misses from firing in the first place. This time around, the weapon would stop completely if someone even looked like they were about to be used as a human shield.
"Hey, so um... does anyone have a lot of lightning? He doesn't like that stuff a lot."
Why is a yam attacking me?
Genji shakily got up. That hurt like fucking hell, but Anat's spell managed to close most of the bullet holes, who luckily didn't hit anything vital except maybe his only remaining good lung and some parts of his mechanic side.
'Ok, the charge at him strategy was dumb. So let's not try that again, this guy has telekinesis and a clash with his sword would be suicidal by what he did to Kelsey. So this leaves me one option' He trough as he sheathed his sword.
Genji would then start running around the arena at a very fast speed, maneuvering in a zig-zag all while throwing his shurikens at Vader, taking care of maintaining a comfortable distance away from him. If he doesn't stand still and keeps up some pressure Vader will inevitably slip up and get hit by someone.
Edited by Pandemonius_Panda on Nov 12th 2018 at 5:51:49 AM
Herc chuckled at Ben when he gave him a thumbs up upon answering his question correctly he had to admit for all of Ben's faults he really did like his enthusiasm at times. As soon as Caboose was revealed to be the last fake, the arena grew dark, Hercules then readied himself for action as he then heard breathing coming from the other side of the arena. Then a laser sword ignited as the place was then awash with red as he saw a black armoured man standing before him.
It wasn't just any armoured man: it was Darth Vader. Herc stood in awe at this imposing figure and it seemed quite a few people like Rick n Morty as well as Lewis knew who he was. They were warning people by telling them what abilities Vader had. Of course Herc didn't know what they meant by telepath or telekinesis but he knew that they weren't a good thing and rushing headfirst would be a reckless move.
He hung back watching the battle go on, he then turned to Ben, Louie was already asking him what his course of action was: "Yeah we need something to catch him off guard, something he's not expecting from us." Herc agreed with Louie pretty much weighing out their options.
Lizard Metabolism
Two, Vs. Vader, Arena
Trent, predictably, didn't find her weapon very appropriate. "S-sorry. Thought I'd ask." She muttered sheepishly, watching the proceedings. Darth Vader was proving to be a formidable opponent. Two watched with both horror and amazement how effortlessly he dealt with the initial onslaught. Genji's thrown stars were deflected without trouble before stopping the metal man himself with some sort of magic trick before he threw him at Caboose - and at the bullets he fired, arresting two attacks at once.
Kelsey fared even worse. Vader's sword cut through her chainaxe and through her arm and body like a hot knife through butter. He then pushed her away with another display of magic - telekinesis, Rick called it - and blocked another shot from the scientist himself. Rean's attack worked, but it only slowed the black knight down. Two found herself growing nervous, particularly when even Brother Marcus seemed surprised at how sharp the sword was. Two more people tried their luck and ended up tossed away without second thought.
"Thomas! Keep these coming, they seem to be working!" Perhaps, if enough of these Stupefies were cast, Vader's arms would be numb enough to restrict his powers somewhat. Makoto threw her own attack, together with a couple more - Genji was back up trying to attack with his stars. She heard Hercules suggest doing something surprising. Two kicked at the ground anxiously. She couldn't even make use of the soil to throw something at him... but maybe she could throw someone, or... be thrown herself.
That was a risky move, naturally, but if they were looking for surprising, a high speed projectile made of a heavy enough person could do. "Rex, do you think you could throw me at him?" She asked the Evo quietly, watching the situation. "If you do it strong enough, I might be able to knock him down and give you guys more time to approach." Being Two, she did omit the fact that she would likely be meeting Vader sword-first, but she had to trust her own natural toughness for it. She might not have been able to regenerate like she used to as the spawn of The Flower, but the bluenette believed she could, at the very least, try to cave his chest in with a punch or two.
Edited by FergardStratoavis on Nov 12th 2018 at 4:56:33 PM
How do lizards fly?
Staying back had done Sarah well so far. This had meant she was allowed to study his abilities and weaponry and think up an attack strategy. It seems like he can throw people around without even touching them. She thought to herself as she placed her pistols on her hip and switched to higher-powered DMR. Racking the bolt once, she chambered a round, ready to fire. His sword also seems to be able to slice through anything, no matter the material. However, considering I've studied those things, I think this might be the best course of action to take against him.
Looking around the arena, Sarah tried searching for a place where she would likely to be hidden from view. That way, she could fire rounds at him, while using those up close to him as a distraction. She also took this time to study his armour, trying to find any weak spots and openings in the armour plating that she could exploit.
For the Horde!
Ben winced and stepped back further as he saw the carnage unfold in front of him, people being sliced at in a sickening fashion.
Ben turned a little pale, but tried to compose himself as the other knights asked for a plan of attack.
"We need to hang back," Ben said. "He can't hurt us if we stay far away. We also can't use anything he can reflect back at us. Ugh, if my stupid watch was working I'd know what to do right now!" he murmured angrily, trying to activate the Omnitrix only to have it reject his attempts with a few beeps.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
"Ohmigod! Kelsey!" sait Morty, unsure of whether or not to rush over to her side and probably die in the process and deciding against it. Rick belched and fired a surreptitious portal behind the Sith lord, fired a shot through it, and immediately winked it back out of existence.
A moment like this wasn't particularly suited for heartfelt reunions and as much as Makoto seemed genuinely happy to see Rex again, she was also more worried about them possibly dying and failing the challenge if they didn't do anything to take down Darth Vader fast.
"Ok" he simply answered.
Silanea was worried about him too but whatever she was going to say next was interrupted by a loud buzzing coming from... her chest of all places. Before a small parasitic alien bursted out of her, she took out Rex's phone out of her shirt. Right, he had basically thrown it at her. She wanted to give it back since he had just received a message but Rex just stared at the phone like if it were an alien device. With how much awkwardness he had to deal with lately, the situation wasn't welcome. Specially since Makoto was there.
"...thanks" he didn't even look at her in the eye while retrieving it and tried to ignore where it had been. It turned out the message was worthless anyway, so Rex could have pretended to not care and it would have been the smartest move. Hearing from Lewis in the middle of a battle was the last thing he wanted. And he wasn't even that helpful anyway.
"How do I do that without powers, genius?"
Two came up with a plan but it required Rex being able to lift and throw her. It was a little suicidal if Kelsey's brutal amputation was anything to go by, but that was a moot point anyway. Rex wasn't feeling particularly up to the task after having his heart played with like a bagpipe. There really was nothing right now he could do to help, and that feeling of uselessness wasn't helping stabilize his mental state, much less his nanites. And given how powerful this guy seemed, they really needed every bit of help they could get.
"I'm sorry. I'm having a hard time building something that lasts for more than five seconds" He tried to focus all his energy on his hand and got the same result as usual: Bits of machinery grew on his hand and just as quickly fell apart since nothing was actually holding them together.
"Come on, why do you always stop working when it's important... and embarrassing"
Edited by DeisTheAlcano on Nov 12th 2018 at 1:05:44 PM
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
I pulled my gun closer to myself, as if it would somehow ease the mortal terror, watching exactly the Force tossing I'd called out two seconds ago. It was one thing knowing I needed to exist to call out the boss's weaknesses, but why did I still fear for my life like there was any other reason? ...Well if I stopped to think about it I'd die, so in an odd moment of almost-clarity, I opted to save it for later.
I looked in Goggles's general corner of the arena as though to confirm he hadn't fucking died since I hit send. A mistake. A hand went to hide the embarrassed, slightly interested blush. Wait what Well screw that idea I guess...well, I supposed that one Ben form could do it, but why have him pick that over something that could do damage now. Or Thomas, but we had no idea what he was planning to ask for, I didn't think. I tried to give Rex an appropriate unpleasantly surprised expression before realizing that was not at all the one I had on, and then looked away even more awkwardly. Focus. Focus.
Someone was yelling, go figure, to try and disarm the Sith lord, which probably wasn't so bad an idea provided someone could figure out how to actually do it. There were Freckles bullets going to his hand, which...was something, I guessed, and cries from that general direction of hey what about lightning. Alas, though, I couldn't think of anyone who specialized in that...although, huh, that'd be a little hard to block with a sword wouldn't it. What else would lol at the almighty deflect..."Beams?" I thought out loud. Those tended to just go through things, after all. "Guys, what about beams and aoe stuff?" Wait, half of these guys didn't have video games. "Uh, area of effect, sorry." Like the big explosion just now. "Yeah like that."
I had the morbid thought, while trying to find a good unoccupied angle to claim for surrounding purposes, of trying to take that chainaxe Kelsey wouldn't exactly be able to use past this point but, no. It was too close, there was no way that was getting safely grabbed.
Edited by Oceanstuck on Nov 12th 2018 at 9:47:16 AM
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
Snowy
...Well, that didn’t work. In fact, pretty much no one's attacks worked, save for some attack Thomas used, which was only an improvement in that it just made the guy's hand flinch. Kelsey, unfortunately got her arm cut off, as well as getting thrown across the arena. Makoto seemed to have helping her and Genji handled, though.
A flying duo crashlanded some ways off, and Rean ran towards them, focusing on helping them instead of things slowly going to crap.
THE SLORG!
The arena was just flat and featureless, with even lighting throughout the whole thing, so aside from using someone else as cover, Sarah wouldn't see any such options for places to hide or take cover that existed.
Kelsey shuddered a bit on the ground when the healing spell hit her, but otherwise didn't seem to be reacting much yet. A bullet from Freckles hit Vader in the hand with an audible pinging of metal, along with the sudden shot in the back from Rick, which both seemed to distract him long enough for the magic blast to engulf him, kicking up a cloud of dirt and obscuring anyone from seeing what was happening with Genji's shuriken being thrown in there.
The charging motorcycle that was Anat was then launched upwards while still retaining the forward momentum, launching her across to the far side of the arena like a boulder flung from a catapult. Vader stepped forth from the dissipating cloud, deflecting a few of Genji's shuriken as if an idle afterthought; there were a couple lodged in the armor though.
"Stupefy!" Thomas yelled again, flinging another magic bolt at Vader, which hit the sith lord in the chest after he tried unsuccessfully to block it with his sword. "Stupefy! Stupefy!" the young wizard continued, launching more magic bolts, and seemed intent to keep going indefinitely, "Stupe- Ah!"
Instead he had to let out a yelp of surprise as Vader aimed his free hand towards Thomas, and the wizard's wand was yanked right out of his hand. It zipped through the air towards Vader, where he cut it in two just before it could reach him, sending the two halves off behind him to the ground. Thomas just looked on with a look of shock.
"Something unexpected? That he can't deflect?" Louie thought out loud in the meantime, then something seemed to come to him. "I've got it!" the trainer exclaimed, readying three of the pokeballs and bringing forth Pecha, Lil' Sunny, and Swishee.
"Pecha, hit him with sand tomb!" Louie instructed the trapinch, then turned his attention to the other two pokemon. "Swishee, Sunny, I've got a plan, so listen carefully" the trainer told them, huddling with the two pokemon.
Pecha turned towards Vader, and started to focus. The cloud that had been dissipating behind Vader suddenly seemed to kick up renewed again, along with more of the dirt around him rising. Then it started to swirl around the sith lord rapidly, like a miniature tornado that got tighter and thicker, practically immobilizing Darth Vader as he held up his free arm to try to block his face somewhat.
Taking that as cue, Kelsey suddenly jumped to her feet and lunged at Vader from behind, swinging the remaining chainsword in a horizontal arc. Though he started to turn, the chainaxe met the sith lord's neck before he could stop or dodge it; his armor provided some resistance, but not enough. A couple moments and a lot of spurting blood later, the sith lord was decapitated, and Kelsey nearly collapsed to her knees, having to use the chainaxe as support. "Okay, so... Who needed that wish?" Kelsey wheezed out between heavy breathing, as Vader's body vanished from the ground. "One of the, girl's over there wa-"
There was a roar of some kind of loud turbines as something new materialized with another blur, and a high speed, yellow object slammed into Kelsey, sending her rolling across the ground. The vehicle,
◊ which looked like what would happen if one took the idea of a chariot and replaced the horses with floating jet engines, slowed for a turn before it would hit one edge of the arena. "Now this is podracing!" the young Anakin exclaimed in an excited tone, before gunning the acceleration again, piloting the podracer around the edges of the arena at high speed.
"I get it!" Chuck hollered from the sidelines. "He's gonna go through the day changes one at a time! Hey! Hogwarts kid! You'll mess him up in most of those forms! He needs tech to live, and your- magic will shut it off even without your wand!" the Fanboy exclaimed, not letting his own sudden transformation back into a parrot interrupt his instructions.
"Then protect the young psyker!" Brother Marcus boomed out as an instruction after overhearing this, his jump pack flaring to life as he flew over to where Kelsey had ended up this time.
After overhearing the Fanboy and then the space marine, Trent responded with, "got it!" and started to run over to where Thomas was.
During all of this, Silanea looked to Rex with a concerned expression. "... Your emotional instability..." Silanea muttered, probably recalling as it was termed from his sheet in the mindscape. "Rex, everything will be okay" the lamia then said in a determined tone, placing a hand on Rex's shoulder and continuing, "you just need to calm- shit!" her encouraging speech was put on hold as she suddenly and forcibly wrapped her tail around Rex's legs and threw both of them to the ground in a roll to avoid the incoming podracer.
Hartwig had followed Rean, to where John and Blue were untangling from each other. "He can throw us around with magic? No fair" Blue complained, then John pushed him aside.
"Don't you have your own magic? Why don't you use that against him?" John asked, wincing and taking a moment to roll his shoulder.
"... If I can hit him with it" Blue responded, staring over at the speeding podracer.
"Oh man! And the crazy mad lady with the chainsaw to the neck ends it!" Jeff's voice said with some surprise. "Kinda disappointing; I thought it was gonna go longer- Oh what the heck?" the announcer then continued.
"Well correct me if I'm wrong Jeff, but that would be the young version of Vader with his podracer from episode one. It looks like this is a multi-part battle" Adam's voice added in, sounding a bit excited. "So it's not over just yet, and this is gonna be good!" the announcer continued.
"So if he was first all old knight armor style, then young, so he's like... Doing the same stuff us in the city have today so far" Jeff's voice added in, as he reasoned what was going on. "So that's gonna be, what... Ten forms? Do we have a list of what everyone's been going through?" the announcer then continued to think out loud.
You are reading this.
Challenge Arena—- High Speed Pursuit
Two had the crazy idea of tossing herself at the knight with the laser sword, which would probably not end well, but Rex was.... unable to make his builds? Wait, had his nanites completely failed on him? Dammit, that doppelganger challenge was really messing with his head, but she didn't think they'd have much time to work things out nicely. A few attacks were finally getting through Darth Vader's defenses, including her spell that kicked up enough of a dust cloud for Genji to hit him with a shuriken. Anat was redirected into the air with little effort, and the feeling of being hit with that telekinesis thing was enough for Makoto to let her persona disappear in a flash of blue flames before it collided with anything. Thomas blasted him with enough magic to get his wand snapped for his efforts, but Louie's pokemon pinned Darth Vader down with a vortex of sand. Kelsey was apparently playing dead just long enough to get a good strike on the boss with her chainsaw, taking his head clean off. Well that was... a short fight. Before she could even feel bad about losing, a new opponent appeared in a weird space ship that hovered over the dirt. Or...the same opponent? The challenge was shifting through day themes too, then.
Silanea's attempts at getting Rex back on his feet were interrupted by the ship nearly running them over, and Makoto bit back a growl at how close they'd come to being hit.
"I know you can do this," Makoto said to Rex. "You just have to... focus on the big picture. But don't worry, I've got this guy for now." Chasing the ship might prevent it from trying to ram anyone else, at least, and keep the heat off of Thomas. She tore her mask off again and rode Anat after the pod racer, trying to intercept his path around the arena. "Hey, I'm not done with you!" she yelled, before firing off another Freidyne as she drove. If she could just maneuver in front of him, she could use Flash Bomb to blind him, maybe.
Lizard Metabolism
Two, Hitting Kids Is No Bueno, Arena
"O-oh." Well, that cut the plan in half. It seemed that emotional distress affected Rex's powers. To be fair, he was given quite an ordeal during the hunt for changelings - particularly when one of them impersonated his girlfriend of all people. "That's okay. We'll figure something else out." She offered him an awkward pat on the shoulder before letting Makoto deal with it. She was certainly way better equipped for that than the bluenette was.
Despite all odds however, the combined effort of everyone present managed to defeat Darth Vader... only for a strange vehicle to ram the killer - Kelsey - and send her careening through the arena. The pilot was a young child, excitedly driving the "podracer" around the edges of the are-
The pilot was a young child. Two froze, for long enough to meet the business end of the machine. The bluenette flipped through the air before crashing down with a pained cry, scrambling to stand up again. "W-wait... w-we can't..." She stammered weakly, supporting herself on her blade. It seemed one of her legs was broken. It was a miracle that she came out of the car - well, podracer - crash with only a single injury; and a general sense of shakiness.
"H-he's a child..."
How do lizards fly?
Happy Box Hater
Colosseum- I am Michael J. Caboose! AND I. LOVE. PREQUELS.
It turned out that the trick to defeating Darth Vader was to entomb him in his least favorite thing, sand! After Kelsey used the opportunity to murder him dead, it looked like things had finally ended. "Well that was fun..." Caboose said... before Anakin Skywalker came out of nowhere and pod raced right into the khornate cultist. "Oooh it's still fun!"
The prequels were, in Caboose's opinion, one of the greatest cinematic creations in history. It was only a shame Jar Jar wasn't here! Still, he could make do with beating Anakin in a pod race with bullets.
Except Two was hurt! The soldier ran to her side as fast as he could, hoping that he'd be able to help her if she needed it. There was no way he'd let her die again! "Oh yeah, I really liked him when I watched the movies, even if he did grow up to be Darth Vader. But he's also trying to kill us so... I think it's alright?"
The fact of the matter was that his friend wouldn't be able to move fast and this enemy would kill anyone who was too slow. Which meant that Michael J. Caboose couldn't afford to pull any punches, for the sake of his friend! "Freckles! Aim for Anakin, not the machine!" he told his gun resolutely. At certain angles the boy's body was visible, and it wasn't exactly shielded well. "I'll try leading the shot, you make me fire good ones."
"Understood."
And with that the soldier began aiming. Beneath the dopey exterior lay a soldier with impressive aim, and his weapon was doing what it could to only make promising shots fire. If anyone was in a good position to attempt firing at the child in the fast moving vehicle, it was him. A spray of bullets and confetti would fire. Hopefully one of them would hit.
Edited by pillowmantis on Nov 13th 2018 at 9:46:47 AM
Why is a yam attacking me?
For the Horde!
Ben gasped as Kelsey cleaved Vader's head off. He was about to ask what Kelsey was going to do with it, when she was nearly barreled over by the sudden arrival of Anakin in a podracer.
Ben hit the deck to try and avoid the high-speed vehicle, watching in disbelief as people started to try and kill the kid.
It was a kid, just some random kid in a fancy car.
Ben shook a little, stunned and not sure how to react. He felt a little sick that the Writer was forcing them to do this. It was just his style, wasn't it? He should've figured, it was never easy, the Writer always needed drama and suffering, that was always the way he rolled.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
"Aw, shit." grumbled Rick as he reached for the portal gun. "Shoulda-shoulda known. Can't be that easy, right?" Rick pulled out his pistol and fired... not at the vehicle, but at the wall, blasting off a hefty chunk of baseball-sized rubble.
Moments later, a green portal opened up directly in front of the podracer - and then a familiar lump of debris went flying out, directly in front of the left engine's air intake so that it would be sucked in.
Morph indeed was correct in that Caboose (and Miss Tairee) were the last obstacles in the path of the fighters before the next round started. The area was darkened, and Morph took a few steps back and pressed the button on his watch, flooding the arena in red light to transform back into his human form. He had no idea what he would be up against, so it would be smart to start the recharge process now.
Soon, a man in black armor and a glowing red sword stood before the group. One of the Fanboys seemed to recognize him, and Ben saw Kelsey and Genji charge in in Ben's stead. Eh, it was probably smarter anyway to hang back and see what this guy could do before he got himself killed again.
"Anyone know what this guy can do?" Ben asked. "Any weaknesses?" He hung back, watching the fight go on. He hated not being able to fight himself, but they were a team and they had to watch each other's backs.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.