CoLC crossover RP, main thread

"I have already obtained what I need here. You may wish to take some items as well, I can show you how to operate them if need be. But, please, hurry, I am very worried about Cole-San now." She said, and indeed if he looked he would now notice Aigis appeared to be very depressed and sad at this recent news.

edited 26th Apr '16 8:44:51 PM by Meanken

The lead pig orc sniffed, and contemplated Plague Knight's words for a few moments. Finally, he stood up straight and holstered his weapon. "Any funny business, and you won't get out of this room alive, understand? You wait quietly, and you can have whatever's left once we're finished" the lead pig orc said to Plague knight, then turned and motioned to two of his squad. "You two keep an eye on him" he ordered, then went with the other two of the five to continue looting the store.

"This whole city is too quiet now" the lead pig orc muttered as he grabbed some bomb components and placed them in a bag.

Cole's appearance and speech was disturbing, but the gunshots from Emperor were sending things over the edge. "Guys, get out of here!" Rachel yelled to her group, who quickly ran to do just that. "Ben, I think you should get out of here too-" she said, but had to take a sudden step to the side as Ben transformed with a flash of green light. She glanced to look at him, but didn't see him.

"Where did Ben go?" Rachel asked, not seeing the tiny Grey Matter on the ground.

"A geth, is here?" the quarian asked rhetorically, sounding worried as he glanced to one side and thought. "... Yes, I know where, to get you a weapon" he added, and started heading down the stairs, motioning for Rex to follow.

"If all goes right, he could end up being our friend after all; maybe that's why he was thanking you" Old Feather Beak said confidently. He waved a hand for Kelsey to step forward, offering Mary the container of food back.

"I wanted to see him bleed!" Kelsey said, pouting. "Well, next time I'll show you how to offer the kill to Khorne" she added, grinning widely as the thought came to her.

"You did a great job, Mary" Old Feather Beak told the painted girl, patting her shoulder briefly. "There's some things I have to do now, but Kelsey can help you with more of your list, whenever you feel like it" the daemon offered to her.

"We could find a pastry shop to try some confection; or we could go find some jello" Kelsey mentioned, giving a nod, "some of our friends spotted some good places for that while they were out."

For a robot she sure was very emotional, all things considered she probably barely knew Cole and yet she already seemed to be incredibly concerned about him. It was almost funny that a robot was worrying about things more than he was.

"you shouldn't worry too much, all right?" asked Sans in an attempt to get her to calm down a little "i've died today too and i'm fine, i'm sure cole is fine too. anyway..."

Sans then began taking a quick look at the store and grabbed one of the tasers if only because Aigis had picked one up herself. He then walked back to her, keeping himself relaxed

"ok, let's go back to caro and the others now."

Middle Layer - Ain't Nobody Happy

Cole...or Despair, whatever he was, seemed to turn his head to look at Hol Horse as soon as the man had aimed his strange weapon. A more savage tint came to the grin on his face, and he was moving even as the first shot seemed to shatter some sort of greenish barrier in front of him, Cole throwing himself with a clearly inhuman speed towards the wall of the building next to him. Two of the shots vanished, seemingly having hit their mark, but if they had, the demon showed no immediate signs of acknowledging them, hunching over against the wall like a puppet with broken strings.

"Ssss-s-s-save me...?" His voice twitched and shuddered, as one hand moved to hold a side, where now they could see a thick redness beginning to spread. "You d-don't want to save me. Want me dead, want me gone...

His gaze turned back to Ben, eyes glinting slightly as the young man transformed, and he laughed as he stared down at the ground at the tiny Grey Matter. "Y-you see what you...work with? You can't even work that...th-that-that thing...cannot be...be a hero, not while they...while they would slay a-anyone they c-cannot help...ahHHHH!"

He shifted a glare towards Bill, all but snarling at him, before lowering his head again. "You don't frighten me anymore. An-and you..." He stared down Nightwitch only for a moment before looking back at Rick.

"You...won't have...a chance..."

Suddenly the mist spun around him again, evaporating his appearance near instantly, and the faintest sound of running feet leading away could be heard for just a split second, leaving nothing but a trail of spots of darkened, nearly black blood behind as the demon tried to flee their numbers.

Middle Layer-Never challenge a cat to a staring contest

Nightwitch stared back, with all the customary pride of her species. What? Wrong-bad. Different-bad. Hurt-shapeshift-friend. Hurt-soul.How. Dare. You? She pulled herself up and hissed at Despair, attempting to chase him as he ran away.

Grey Matter looked up at the others, still glaring at the demon-possessed Cole. He noticed he had turned into this form, and the irritation led to more of his rage seeping through. "I have HAD IT with this stupid watch changing me into Grey Matter!!" he shouted. This also had the side effect of letting him see more clearly through his haze of rage and he realized he would be no physical match for the demon. Luckily for him, it seemed that was already being taken care of.

Grey Matter was also in no position to stop Hol Horse and Rick from attacking the now-demonic Cole. "Hey!" he exclaimed. He tried to chase the demon, but he seemed to vanish before Grey Matter could reach. It seemed that Nightwitch also had the right idea though. He had bad experiences with cats as Grey Matter in the past, but hopefully Nightwitch wouldn't eat him.

Hopefully.

At his best speed (which wasn't very fast), Grey Matter took off after the cat. "Hey, w-wait for me!" Grey Matter shouted.

Rex felt a bit guilty about lying to the armored Ruckus' member. The poor guy just wanted to get some revenge for what the geth had done to his people (though the issue was probably more grey than that since Legion didn't seem to hate his creators) and here he was manipulating him so he could destroy their arsenal.

"Yes, and as far as I know there could dozens of them on this layer alone"

The guy gestured Rex to walk downstairs. Rex did so and he saw a strange scene when he finally entered the middle layer.

It was Cole. Sort of, he looked different: He was more hunched than usual and his hands seemed affected by frostbite. The spirit ranted and insulted everyone there;^note Rex couldn't see Grey Matter a guy he recognized from the grocery store, two women Rex didn't recognize, Shiara's cat, Rick, and even the triangle! Cole left the place by turning himself invisible but left a clear trail of blood behind.

"Cole?"

Rex ran off without in Cole's direction without thinking he was blowing his cover or even saying a word and turned his legs into a floating motorbike, probably confusing the hell out of the guy that had promised to give him weapons.

"Cole? Where are you?"

edited 26th Apr '16 9:20:31 PM by DeisTheAlcano

At this point, Grey Matter saw Rex approaching, and he waved his arms frantically in the EVO's direction, trying to get his attention. "Heeeeeyyy!" Grey Matter shouted, as loud as he could, jumping up and down as he ran (which wasn't exactly helping him keep up with the cat). "It's me, Ben! I need some help!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. He hoped someone would hear him.

"..." Wincing slightly as firearms went off and damaged the demon, Ranma's hard heart softened for a moment. At this rate, the others would kill him... and probably keep killing him if he came back as he was... or do stuff like try to seal him away. Though the man did annoy her, that was still a bit too much in her book. Maybe... Since he said he was Despair and had a trick that made other people feel negative... and he could read minds... An almost evil smile etched itself upon her face, an upturned crescent full of predatory mischief as she watched the being run away.

This was an opportunity, with the boy being so fast and invisible- thus the chances of him being killed were much less hopefully. Chasing after the runaway with her own superhuman speed, the redhead held her hands together and charged a small ball of light within her hands.

Confidence- the belief in oneself that they could overcome anything no matter how hard it was.

Courage- to fear and yet still try to face it head on.

Determination- to continue to ever stand up once fallen.

Freedom- be as a bird flying underneath the infinite sky, bereft of chains.

Ranma focused on her positive qualities, grabbing hold and shaping them into a solidified shining ball of external ki between her fingers. The thing grew as gossamer threads fed the orb, spinning and weaving together to form a steadily ever bigger object while its creator continued to track those bloodied footsteps before thrusting out her hands to launch the now basketball sized globe with impunity. "MOKO TAKABISHA!!!" Unlike Hol Horse and Rick, the attack Ranma shot off was way less lethal due to the girl being able to adjust all aspects of the technique such as power and speed, though if hit it'd still hurt since it was a particularly fast moving sphere of kinetic hard-light. Packed with all sorts of positive feelings.

edited 26th Apr '16 9:30:10 PM by Makaioh

Aigis seemed to accept this information, and looked a little less upset, although still clearly down.

"A reasonable course of action. Very well, lead on."

Rick squeezed the trigger just as Cole flashed invisible... a blast that still resulted in a chunk of crumbling masonry getting blown to smithereens. "Goddammit!" Rick cursed, hefted the weapon over his shoulder, and started following the drip-drip-drip of black bloodstains splattering agasint the pavement, moving at a leisurely stroll.

"Jeez, Rick! W-w-why, I mean, how, how are we gonna, track him down, huh?"

"I dunno, Morty," Rick took a contemplative swig, "*urp* I'd say we got him right where we want him."

"What? And that's..."

"Scared? Confused? Injured and running away? He's gonna start to *urp* panic now, Morty, panic like a little girl without her blanket, and then he's gonna start fucking up. And that's when we catch him." Rick grabbed a pile of spare parts out of Morty's backpack, focussing on building something.

"Whasshisname..." he mumbled to himself, "... he, like, he... *urp* feels emotions, right? So we need bait. You know, a worm on a hook to draw him out" Rick announced to the group. "We need a gigantic spike of positive emotions. He'll try to, I dunno, snuff 'em out." Rick tinkered with his gun, rearranging a coil there, a glowing plasma sphere there.

"You bait him... then I shoot that son of a *urp* son of a bitch, right in the legs. It'll buy me time to, you know, actually figure out a way to keep him outta our hair for the next 28 days or whatever."

"Aw man, Rick, I-I-I dunno, if I've got the... the... strength to fight that guy. He's pretty scary, you know?"

"It's down to him or us, Morty; he's gone so far off the *urp* metaphorical deep end that he's clawing his fingernails to nubs against the ceramic tiling. Him or us, 'sall I'm saying."

Sans began heading back to the food court and noticing that Aigis still looked a bit down, he tried to think of a way to make her cheer up a little. He then remembered the Ruckus people she interacted with that went out of her way to make her upset and indeed, they had succeeded from what he could see.

"by the way, i saw that you looked kinda upset after dealing with those three earlier," said Sans, looking at Aigis with a grin that wasn't all that different but looked more genuine, "and while i might not know much about you, i think you're pretty cool. you're definitely not human, but that's ok, it's not like i am either." He let out a chuckle "so... don't pay attention to what those jerks said, you get it? if they don't want help just because you're a robot, then it's their loss. i myself am kinda curious to see what you can do later when we're not busy looking for people."

edited 26th Apr '16 9:59:44 PM by FullMoon

Sans words appeared to do the job, as this caused Aigis to smile as she turned to nod at Sans.

"Thank you for your kind words. I admit, I am also curious what you can do, and what kind of a world you come from. In my world, tales of beings such as yourself are only fiction, and they are almost always unintelligent, only able to attack humans. Are there more beings like yourself in your world, or are you unique?"

Top Layer - Shopping Center - Reigning in Worriness-Induced Stupidity

Unfortunately, Sadness had other ideas. She just dismissed Zelda's and Caro's reasons before running off on her own anyway.

"Sadness! Wait!" Zelda called out after her, before sighing and giving chase. Although she was hardly the most athletic of people, her longer legs compared to Sadness's were enough to let her easily keep pace with the emotion. She briefly considered moving herself in front of Sadness to try and stop her, but she still remembered what happened to Sans when Sadness touched him. Instead, she just kept up with Sadness the best she could.

"If you keep acting like this, you're going to get yourself lost. Don't you remember how this city works?" she explained in an attempt to reason with Sadness, "Or possibly even worse. And if you get lost, then your chances of finding Mary are going to start dropping really fast. So please, try to keep a hold of yourself!"

"wow, the skeletons in your world have a pretty barebones personality then." Sans chuckled. "as for myself... i'm unique. i'll give you some more details later," he answered, giving Aigis a little wink

They then arrived back at the Food Court where Sans figured the girls would be eating by then, turned out that was not quite the case.

"hey girls, we're back. did you already eat something?" he asked, blissfully unaware of what had been going on since he left with Aigis.

Caro and Zelda curiously asked what was in the bag. Zelda wanted Lune to answer soon. Lune calmly smiled and quickly pulled out a cellphone.

“…It’s a cellphone. Since we’re a group and stuff, Sans thought we need a quick way to communicate across long distances.”

Sadness suddenly dashed off and Zelda followed her in order to calm her down. As soon as they left, Sans and Aigis showed up. Sans asked what’s going on. He also wondered if the girls got a bite to eat. Lune just shook her head and replied, “Um, Sadness dashed off and Zelda tried to stop her. Should we follow them or not?”

After asking that, Lune surveyed the food court in search of a hot dog stand or kebab stand. Those things can be eaten on the go, right?

Following Rex down, the quarian just watched the tail end of the situation with Cole silently, not even responding when Rex took off and transformed into a half motorbike. Once there was nothing going on immediately around him, he simply walked off.

Meanwhile, Rachel followed only far enough to see Ranma and Rex going off into the streets. "I don't know what that was, but I don't want to be running towards it" Rachel thought out loud, turning the other way and heading off to look for her group.

Somewhere in the distance Rex, Ranma, and those near them could hear some kind of thumping in the distance, getting closer.

Hol Horse was entirely happy that he didn't miss critically for once in his lifetime. It seems that bullets do have a place in this bizarre world of ridiculous abilities!

Partly to keep up with the rest, and partly to confirm the kill, he took off with the rest, not taking potshots that he knew would miss this time.

Middle layer — Sawyer's group

Garrett became a little confused as his phone began making an unfamiliar sound, but after a little fumbling he managed to display the text message. "Hey, I think it's something from the skeleton. Didn't know you could send written messages with these things. Take a look."

"...I don't like this at all."

Just then, the sounds of several gunshots ringed out in the air... there was shooting taking place somewhere fairly nearby... as well as several other sounds, though quieter and less identifiable. "Okay, I don't like that either. What was that?" He quietly slipped into the shadows once again, just in case they came upon something nasty.

edited 27th Apr '16 1:04:19 AM by Korodzik

Despair-Cole didn't get far enough before getting struck by Ranma's energy ball, knocking him out of his invisibility and against a nearby building, clutching at his wounded side again. A snarl escaped him, and he glared at the group, eyes flaring a glowing green. "Want to catch me, kill me, destroy me...want to put me away somewhere, can't ever touch anyone again...you prove over and over your own foul minds..."

Cole reached back for one of the daggers that had returned with his last death, but rather than seeming like he might attack them, he drew the blade towards his own throat, grinning again. "None of you seek to help...vengeance, only vengeance in your minds. You won't ever hurt me again."

Without an immediate intervention, the demon wouldn't hesitate to cut his own throat to get away from his pursuers.

"Hey!" called a distant voice from above, "Hey, hold the elevator!"

Looking up to the sound of the noise, the witch queen and octopus night were faced with the sight of a six foot six inch blue man, with an impressive array of muscles and a chin to match, being airlifted down by a pudgy man in a white suit with bunny ears antennae, who was operating mothlike wings with his arms and gripping the blue man's head with his legs.

Tick and Arthur presently alighted, and Arthur promptly flopped to the ground like a scarecrow. Tick turned around, said "Arthur?", then looked down and said "Arthur! Come on, chum, no time like the present."

"Can't..." wheezed the sidekick, "...arms...legs...like noodles..."

Tick chuckled, and hoisted Arthur up by the wing-pack strap. "Well, all right. You rest up and I'll take my turn with the carrying."

Middle Layer - Sawyer and Friends

The cleaner looked over Garrett's cellphone and frowned. "...if he has turned... they will try to... kill him." She droned. "Might even goad them... into trying that."

Stepping away from the thief she gestured for the others to follow. "I guess we... might have a fight... after all. Just not with... who we wanted." Without further ado she made her way towards where the shots came from, and what a curious scene she had found: Cole, but a different one; pushing a dagger close to his throat, threatening the others with his suicide.

It seems the Old Feather Beak had got what he wanted. "Stand down, Cole." She said, plainly and simply, eyes briefly searching for people who would dare and hurt him.

Rex continued following Cole and, ubeknownst to him, Grey Matter was calling for his help. He couldn't hear him over the sound of his motorbike and the fact that, with Cole getting turned into a weird monster, Rex wasn't paying much attention to what was going on around him.

Unfortunately, one of the girls of the group had successfully attacked Cole. He had slowed down, sure, but now he was threatening to cut his own throat with a kniwfe.

"Whoa, man! That's a little too extreme. I don't know what happened but it's not worth killing yourself"

edited 27th Apr '16 6:25:22 AM by DeisTheAlcano

Middle Layer- Cole's a Demon

Specter Knight followed Sawyer, until they came to a most peculiar scene. A twisted and demonic being (was this Cole?) was pushing a knife against his own throat, threatening to kill himself. Frankly, Specter Knight didn't see the point in doing such a thing. Death was almost trivial in this city, so why was Cole making such a meaningless threat?

He simply could not understand.

He didn't bother asking why this trivial threat meant so much to the others, though, mostly to save his pride.

edited 27th Apr '16 10:51:26 AM by astrokitty

"Does it matter if I get lost?" Sadness said, frustration making the edges of her voice quiver. "I mean—she's lost too, so—!"

That's all it came down to, really. She was worried about a friend. A psychopathic friend who may have done Sadness' mental state more harm than good, but someone she cared about nonetheless.

Truthfully, if Sadness had been in a better state of self-reflection, she might have seen a pattern emerging when she compared herself to her peers. They all had friends they cared about, but they cared about themselves too. Sadness—well, she was an emotion. One of five, even. She didn't control her life or do things for herself. She wouldn't even say she had a life. She was one-dimensional. Flat. Being here at the City made it all the more obvious.

Sadness was still crying, but Zelda probably wouldn't know why.

"I just want to help," Sadness said miserably. "I—okay."