Ben looked at his watch as Rex pointed out the fact that they could dig. "I don't have any forms that dig. I mean, Four Arms and Cannonbolt probably could, but I'm not sure how well that'd go. And besides, where would we even dig? The city keeps moving around. And I don't even know where Rick's lab is. So I don't know how we'd be able to get there." When Plague Knight pointed out that Rick and Morty probably weren't dead, he sighed with relief, and stood up, breathing heavily as he had gotten worked up from the outburst he let out.

He glanced at Rex. "Any other ideas?" he inquired to the nanite-infused teenager.

edited 8th Jan '16 9:49:11 PM by AllHailThrall

The library

"What if you turn into that green crystal golem? He looked pretty durable to me"

Twilight was aware of the danger, but also not one to abandon allies.

"If our friends are in danger, we can't just stand here and leave them alone! We have to do something to help them! There has to be a way to protect ourselves from the hail!"

Ben crossed his arms, in thought for a moment.

"You mean Diamondhead? I mean, yeah, I guess I could go Diamondhead and try to dig my way through, but again, I don't know where his lab is, and even if I did the city keeps changing. So I don't think digging would be a good idea," he sighed. He continued to try and think of a way to reach Rick and Morty safely.

Rick's Lab

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Gon shouted at Rick after Brother Marcus got him in his clutches. "You're not doing us a favor!"

Asgore just watched the ensuing panic, trying to get a better understanding of the situation. Apparently some of their friends got left behind and could be exposed to the cold and freezing to death, the whole situation was looking very dire, but he had to try to help somehow.

"If we need to leave, I could use my fire magic to keep us from freezing to death." he offered "However, considering the sheer size of this city, finding a couple of people in it in such a harsh weather will likely take very long and I won't be able to keep using my magic forever."

Darth Marr couldn't help but sigh internally at some of the groups need to go outside to their own deaths just to help other who will revive later if they do die from cold...so much naive idealism in one place.

"If what is said is true, then people truly do not die on this place, so why even bother helping? The drunk man, who went with Kieri said that they had some kind of heater in some kind of Laboratory, so they must be protected, just like us...and I'd rather not hurt my Life supporting Armor in such a reckless travel."

edited 9th Jan '16 5:00:02 AM by Darkomega245

The Library and the Needs of the Many

Adam sighed "I'm inclined to agree with Marr. It's reckless suicide to just go run out after them at this point. Sometimes you have to make a choice, and sometimes there is no third option."

He took a deep inhale and breathed out, the smoke from his cigarette hung in the air, "I think we are stuck here. And my Titan Nanoshield isn't going to help."

Asgore then turned to Marr with a look of curiosity "People cannot die in this place? What do you mean?"

Library

With a hint of annoyance in his voice, Specter Knight explained "death" to Asgore.

"Although you can 'die' here, it merely results in being transported to another part of the city. A great disappointment, in my opinion."

Kieri walked behind Brother Marcus as he dragged Rick outside, only pausing to glance at Lune as she ran down the stairs to inquire what was going on. The Angel mentally bit her lip. Here was the perfect opportunity to cement some temporary trust in Brother Marcus, but Lune had been very kind to her in the short time they'd known each other. They were almost still making first impressions on each other. She wanted to tell her of her plan, she really did, but within the space marine's ear shot...

"R-Return upstairs, L-Lune," she said, trying to keep her voice cold as she knew she should "We w-will discuss t-this after we've disposed of t-this heretic..." Keeping her eyes to the ground, she continued out, wincing at the cold. The Angel was used to the cold, certainly, but this...This was something else. It had to be the coldest weather she had experienced in her life. Still, it also gave her possibilities for her powers.

Kieri had been well versed in ice magic, that was not up for debate. However, she knew two things-that Brother Marcus could tank an extremely powerful blast she herself had created, and that he could likely overpower her if she opposed him directly. However, if they were heading into the cold, that meant she had real, hard, heavy ice to work with. And if he hadn't killed her yet, that meant he trusted her to a degree.

A sneak attack was in order.

Kieri stopped short, a few feet behind Brother Marcus, trying to keep herself from shivering in the harsh weather, as she started to channel her powers. She had to be subtle, so while Brother Marcus had his attention trained on Rick, Kieri kept her focus mostly on the snow at the space marines' feet. She conjured up exactly what she wanted-a simple clap trap that could spring shut, entombing the space marine in ice. Maybe throw in a few spikes for good measure to try and pierce his armor. The amount of magic she'd have to use for such a feat, on top of the cold and every other feat she had done today would leave her drained, hardly in the position to fight, but if it worked...She prayed to Gaia that it would work.

Kieri also knew she'd need time to make something as powerful as that. A minute or so, perhaps a minute and a half. She had been banking on Brother Marcus, a religious executioner at the moment, saying a prayer to whoever this Emperor was to forgive Rick before he sent him to the great beyond, though she had intended to but in with one of her own to get just a little bit of extra time. Still, she had not expected Rick to start stalling for time himself. Was he a mind reader? No, he had just sent Morty to get help...

'He sent Morty out in this?!' She thought incredulously, nearly breaking her concentration of the charging of the spell. The spell itself was starting to take shape, Kieri having plotted out exactly how much ice she'd need to to encase the entirety of Brother Marcus' body. Still, the thought plagued her and slowed her down. Morty was out in this? How did Rick expect him to not freeze to death out here, or worse yet be bludgeoned by hail? She wanted desperately to abandon this plan and go after him, bring him back here, and just try and hole up with the psychotic Space Marine.

Still, she knew she couldn't. One wrong move, and not only would any semblance of respect or trust with Brother Marcus be gone, her chance to end him at least temporarily would be gone too. And then there were the deaths that would be on her head. No, she had to stay. And if Rick was stalling for time, perhaps she could help. Though maybe not in the way he intended, considering the words that came out of his mouth next.

"P-Pathetic," Kieri said, narrowing her eyes partially due to the cold, partially due to how legitimately angry at Rick she was if this was really his plan, and partly to hide how her eyes began to glow as she charged more and more of her magic "the h-heathan attempts to use his own g-grandson in an attempt to s-save his own l-life. L-Let us f-finish here first, w-we can catch up with the b-boy easily if h-he is not killed b-by this weather."

Twilight opted to throw Marr's words back in his face.

"If we can't truly die, doesn't that mean we have nothing to lose by going out there to help?"

Library

"When I was... terminated, I returned to functionality at the same balcony I had 'woken up' on when I was pulled here. Given current weather conditions, the implications are unpleasant."

edited 9th Jan '16 3:14:01 PM by SpartyMcFly

"How strange..." said Asgore as he processed all that information in his head "Still, dying must not be a very pleasant experience, especially freezing to death. Even if they returned, they would freeze again outside and repeat the cycle." He shivered at the thought of something like that happening to him, although he was better prepared for that kind of weather.

edited 9th Jan '16 3:27:03 PM by FullMoon

Rescue party in the library

Rex still didn't have a plan to get to the lab. Twilight told the others that they didn't have anything to lose. He was starting to like that horse.

"That's the kind of positive attitude we need" he continued thinking of a solution until he remebered the pony's shield.

"I think I've got something. Ben uses Heatblast to keep us warm, Twilight uses her shield to protect us from the hail, and I drive"

When Rex suggested the way that he, Twilight and Rex would be travelling, Ben nodded fervently, a grin coming back to his face.

"Of course!" Ben exclaimed. "I totally agree with that!" Ben then frowned, however, and thought a moment. "But wait, hold on a moment," he told Rex. "Wouldn't I burn you if I tried to sit in your bike form while I was Heatblast? I mean, I think your idea is awesome and all, but I don't wanna hurt you and make our trip harder and all that," he explained, crossing his arms.

The library

"Well, I figure the heat of your butt and the cold outside will even out"

edited 9th Jan '16 4:49:49 PM by DeisTheAlcano

The Library

"Good luck then. I'm going to stay here," Adam stated, "I'd be excess weight at that point."

All Darth Marr simply did upon having Twilight turn his words around was simply to glare at her for a long while at her, holding back the urge to choke her with the Force for speaking to him that way.

You should know your place, wretch..

Marr then turned to Rex and Ben.

"If you wish to leave, then I shall not stop you...though I say...be careful I guess."

edited 9th Jan '16 5:10:27 PM by Darkomega245

Ben shrugged and smirked a bit at Adam and Darth Marr. "Your loss," he told them. He crossed his arms and smiled at Rex, then looked over at Twilight. Apparently that was her name. He guessed it was an Equestria thing. "Makes sense to me. All right! Rex! Twilight! You guys ready? If you are, it's hero time!"

With that exclamation, he immediately reached for his wrist, turning the dial over towards Heatblast's image on the dial and slamming the face of the Omnitrix. There was a bright flash of green light, as Ben's skin crystallized, turned red-hot, and cracked open to reveal Heatblast.

When the light faded a fraction of a second later, Heatblast struck a heroic pose. "Finally, some more action!" Heatblast exclaimed. "But before I go... time to turn up the heat!" With a grandiose gesture, he sent a small jet of flame towards the paltry kindling that the others had put together to make their tiny fire. His little extra spark would hopefully turn it from a matchlight into a bonfire. He waved to the group. "Stay warm and toasty. The three of us have some friends to save."

He then turned towards Rex and Twilight, then grinned. "C'mon, let's go."

As Rex, Ben, and Twilight got going after the people inside the library thanked Ben for the help with the fire, it was still difficult going at first. The hail and temperature weren't an issue with Twilight's shield and Heatblast's fire, but the snow was built up thick, and it was hard to drive through. The bigger issue was how they would even find Rick's lab, but at least they weren't exposed to the elements, unlike the poor sap who suddenly appeared down the street ahead of them.

...

Ah yes, a man suddenly appeared down the street ahead of them with a quick blur in the air, wearing just a plain shirt and pants. He had a very blank expression, looking as if he was emotionally dead inside. Not a moment later he was pelted and impaled several times by the onslaught of deadly hail, succumbing to the weather nearly instantly and disappearing in another blur just as soon as he'd popped into view; all that was left behind was a spattering of blood on the snow that got blown over with fresh snow even faster than the man had gone down. Before the trio could continue, it happened again with another person somewhere behind them. Who knew how many people were trapped in this cycle of dying and respawning over and over, unable to do anything about it or even be helped at this point.

Rick's heater might've kept Morty safe from the cold, but it could do nothing about the other environmental conditions. Morty couldn't go very fast in the snow since it was well over a foot deep, and even if he could the volume of deadly hail coming down was too much to effectively dodge. The wind shifted direction again with the city shifting, and a gust came down on Morty with a barrage of hail accompanying it. Within a moment Morty resembled some kind of ice pin-cushion, and a moment later he disappeared, the heater and warm clothes and anything else he had gotten since coming to the city falling into the snow drift where he died. He hadn't even made it all the way down the street.

Back in front of the lab, Kieri wasn't going to get a minute and a half. Far from it. Brother Marcus was done messing around, and wasn't going to put up with Rick's attempts to stall; in no way was this made more apparent than when Marcus chose not to respond with words, but with his chainsword being stabbed through Rick's gut. "I said, BE SILENT!" Brother Marcus yelled, then spun the chainsword's links with a screaming rev of its engine. Then Brother Marcus swung his arm upwards, the chainsword tearing through flesh and bone with seemingly no effort. Blood sprayed everywhere as an almost-bisected Rick was flung up through the air away from Marcus, disappearing in a blur before he came down; all the little tools and other things Rick had on him that he'd made since coming to the city did not disappear, and got carried away into the distant snow by the wind and hail.

Inside the lab, anything that Morty and Rick had had on them when they appeared in the city on the first day, such as Rick's portal gun, disappeared in the same kind of blur, to be on them once again as they respawned.

"Good riddance, plebians" Brother Marcus muttered angrily as he turned back towards the lab, pausing as his boot crunched on ice. He glanced down at the formation of ice shaping beneath him, still less than half finished, then looked up at Kieri and her glowing eyes. Brother Marcus did not need an enhanced brain to see what was happening here. The time for words was over, and Brother Marcus had finally run out of patience. His jump pack roared to life, and Brother Marcus rocketed towards Kieri, screaming out a war cry as loud as his chainsword, which he was swinging down on the angel.

And then everything stopped, and turned into a blur.

Miss Tairee suddenly became animated again, her self inflicted stasis wearing off. There was a few moments of silence before she spoke. "... So, how bad was it?" Miss Tairee asked the darkness. There was that familiar sound of a pen on paper.

"Pretty bad. About seventy eight percent of the city inhabitants had died at least once by the end of the day; about forty four percent were stuck in a cycle of dying and respawning over and over for the last hour."

Miss Tairee slowly looked down. "Including children?" Miss Tairee muttered. The sound of pen on paper returned.

"Yes." There was a longer pause, as Miss Tairee didn't look up or say anything; the sound resumed again. "Take your time, Tairee." It started slowly at first, but picked up as Miss Tairee sank to her knees, and began sobbing in earnest. Time passed as she continued sobbing, though time passing here had no relation to time passing in the city; Miss Tairee didn't keep track of how long she kept at it. Had it been two minutes, or two hours? It eventually tapered off, and a minute or so after she'd gone fully silent, Miss Tairee picked herself back off the floor and wiped her face.

"Thank you sir. I am ready to return to my duties" Miss Tairee said eventually, still looking fairly dour. The sound of a pen writing on paper came back as always.

"Very good. Now, since you took the previous day off, I've decided that you'll make up for it by taking a prominent role in this next day." A piece of paper floated over to Miss Tairee, who took it curiously to read. Curiosity turned to a slight dismay as read it.

"W-what? No, sir you can't be serious" Miss Tairee started, her southern belle accent slipping in as she put on a nervous, fake smile; there was no response. "Anything but this, I mean, they ain't even gonna go for this; most of the folk in the city hate me by now" she continued. There was no response.

"Why don't you make me play as like, a witch instead? Pointy hat, broom, green skin; that would work a lot better, I reckon" Miss Tairee suggested in desperation. There was no response. She finally gave a sigh of resignation and muttered a quiet, "alright sir." Finally there was the response of the pen writing on paper.

"Very good. Now, it is time for the fourth day to begin."

As everyone's vision came back to normal, the first thing apparent was that it was much warmer. Still cold, since it was literally just after midnight, but compared to before this was completely tolerable. There was also light outside; a dark light like that of moonlight, but better than the complete pitch blackness there was before. There seemed to be a forest outside.

"Oh thank God" the woman from the ice tunneling group sighed with relief, unconcerned with the way her outfit had changed. "I think it's high time we got some sleep, now that everything's fine. We might as well just stay here" she said to the other members of her group, who agreed and prepared to settle in for the rest of the night.

As everything became un-blurry, there was silence. Brother Marcus was gone, taken somewhere else as the city shifted for its new conditions. Now there was only four other buildings nearby along with Rick's lab, and they were surrounded by trees. Hesitantly, the fellow with the wolf face peered out the open door behind Kieri. "... Is he gone?" the wolf man asked nervously, as if convinced that Brother Marcus could come popping back out again at any moment. But the silence reigned supreme, as Brother Marcus was truly gone, at least for now.

Day four, A tale for fairies

edited 9th Jan '16 11:10:15 PM by FirockFinion

Third Day, Rick's Lab

Lune just nodded in response to Kieri before rushing back upstairs. Fortunately, this spared Lune from seeing Rick get killed by Brother Marcus in a rather gruesome manner. When she was about to hide in the corner of the second-floor room, everything faded to black.

Fourth Day, Rick's Medieval Lab

Lune snapped out of the daze. Everything seemed normal for now. She looked around the room and noticed something was off. Why was everything bigger than usual? Suddenly, she noticed a copy of her armored body, but its head was missing. Then, she looked at the reflection in the window and freaked out. She had become a head. Boy, this was going to be a real long day.

edited 9th Jan '16 11:55:00 PM by josh6243

"Oh, my God!" Morty rematerialized clutching madly at his arms and legs, before collapsing into a heap against one of the trees. Morty didn't even notice that his customary yellow shirt and blue jeans had changed into a simple medieval peasant's garb. "What the hell was that?"

"Calm down, Morty, it's just-" Rick popped back into existence a few yards away; his usual tattered labcoat had morphed into a heavy leather waistcoat and a blacksmith's apron in the interim.

"Holy crap! You're dead! We're dead! We're both dead, Rick!"

"Morty! Calm down, it's fine!"

"I-I-I-I-I-that, that space marine guy, he, he, he, he, we're dead, Rick! We died! Both of us died!"

"Morty-"

"I'm freaking out over here, Rick! We, we, I'm freakin' out!"

"Calm down, Morty!" Rick grabbed his grandson by the shoulders and shook him lightly. "Calm down, it's fine! Everything's fine, okay?"

"We're dead! I felt myself die, Rick! What the hell kind of, of, of"

Rick rolled his eyes and smacked his grandson on the check with one gloved hand. "Shut up and get a grip, Morty!" Morty stared up and his grandfather, his eyes were wide and his lower lip was still trembling as if he was about to cry, but he'd managed to stop screaming for the time being.

"Okay, look. It's fine. Ev-it-evrything's fine. We can't die in this city, remember?" Rick was speaking slowly and deliberately, doing his best to reign in his grandson. "And, it's stopped snowing too, huh?"

"Oh geez, uh, yeah, how about that, huh?" Morty slumped back down against one of the trees and did his best to stop trembling. It was then that he realized just what he was wearing... and his eyes started to widen again. "Rick? Wh-where, uh, where are my normal clothes? What the, what the hell is this?"

Rick examined one of the black leather gloves he was currently wearing and rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Oh, cute. *urp* Re- *urp* reeAEURGHAL fucking cute." he muttered to himself as he flipped off the sky.

"Okay, Morty," said Rick as he fumbled for his flask - now a small, whimsically forged glass phial - and took a swig. "You, uh, you get some sleep, okay? I'll, I'll keep watch."

Morty didn't say anything, the shell-shocked adolescent was still mostly just staring into space. Rick waved his hand into his grandson's face. "Hello? Morty? Buddy? Go to sleep. Uh.. sleep, Morty, you should get some."

Morty didn't say anything.

"Alright, alright, fine, be a rebel. Do *urp* - *urp* do whatever you want." Rick grabbed a sharp branch off a nearby tree as a makeshift spear and stared out into the darkness. After a while, Morty had finally nodded off.

edited 10th Jan '16 8:56:32 AM by Locoman

Day Four

Everything changed.

Legion felt weird. It felt... distinctly less robotic. Almost like it had ascended another level into individuality. It took a look at itself.

It was made of rock.◊ It had seemed to become a golem as the shift happened. Its Widow and pulse rifle had disappeared; in their stead, it felt the weight of what was undeniably a sword on its back, and its right arm had been replaced with a crossbow, loaded with... some type of crystal, the geth guessed.

As was usually the case with these sorts of things, the geth wordlessly retreated (far more silently than before) to another level of the library, to think on the events of the day.

The Library Day 4.

Adam felt a wave of... difference, he felt like he was going to throw up.

The cop felt himself... his clothing felt different, hell he couldn't feel as much anymore. Adam looked at his hands.

"Okay that's new," he muttered.