The Good, The Bad and The Spandex II

Axel District

The CEO grinned, nonchalantly crushing the empty can in satisfaction and tossing it off the roof behind him. Despite him not actively trying to hit another living thing, there was still a squawk as it rather viciously clonked a pigeon. How unfortunate.

“Excellent. Truly excellent. If you'll tail me for a moment, I'll take you to my humble...” he began, only to trail off in an almost sheepish manner as he craned his neck up to the dark monolith of a building looming ominously over their heads. Turning back towards her, he gave a little half-shrug. “Well, it's still certainly an abode. In the support strut on our farthest right is the entrance,” he informed, pointing to one of the structure's many legs holding its main mass up and away from the rest of the abandoned portion of the city below. “It's the only strut with the Axel Corp logo. Can't miss it. Tell Betty you're here by my request, and I'll meet you in my office. Get something to eat as well, if you're peckish. Up to you,” he shrugged again, shooting her an anticipatory grin. “What do you say?”

He pointedly ignored the faint screaming of every profane combination of vowels known to history in the background, as well as the accompanying muted cacophony of gun-based combat. Or slaughter, most likely. He knew purely by that vulgar tongue who exactly the culprit was. Probably of no matter. For now.

Koda nodded wearily, and said, "Something to eat would be nice..."

And she stuck her hand out to the side. What looked like a USB port opened in mid-air, with an ornate tangle of neon blue circuits surrounding it. It ejected the BunnyHaxxor Cartridge out into Koda's waiting hand.

As soon as the Cartridge was out of the Reality Port, Koda's skin became covered in the same neon blue circuits. Her Avatar and her Equipment dissolved off of her in a shower of pixels, and Koda looked significantly smaller without it. There were bags under her eyes, and her clothes looked worn. After a while, the circuits on Koda's skin faded and the Reality Port closed.

Straightening her cap and putting the Cartridge into her jacket, Koda said "Lead the way, Mr. Adams."

Zugzwang Encounter

Most others - Ryan included - did not even see Kyle move after his big transformation.

Black King was not most others. He grappled Kyle's hands during his attempt to go for the eyes, even though King and his ilk no longer had eyes. "Seems you immediately and constantly go for the eyes...could this perchance be telling of some deeply held fetish of yours...?"

He however threw Kyle backward and opened a door behind him, "And I'm afraid this is all the time I can manage. I'll leave you to fight the underlings. Pawns, assemble. Chop chop!"

Around sixteen doors opened and black armored, pawn themed "people" walked out - these were still mostly organic, but had crucial parts, the brain included, replaced with cybernetics.

Black King vanished into a seventeenth door, trailing laughter behind him.

Star Girl looked down, realizing Ebony had a point - even with all the immediate enemies defeated, she had indeed gone running into a lot of trouble. She spared a look at Hans, noting his own concerned look.

"...those men are brutes! They do mean, horrible things on a regular basis, and because of the orange...creature...in office, they get away with it!"

Hans nodded, and stated, "Which I'm not disagreeing with, and I don't think Ebony means we shouldn't go after em. Just that we gotta do it together if at all."

That made Star Girl look down. She really had not been doing this long, had she?

Kyle could recover his footing in a second, and started spinning like a drill, claws outstretched as his arm went back to normal, as if it was never injured.

In a fraction, the beast was out to rip the heads of whatever pawn he could reach with his fangs and claws, which were getting longer by the second.

Magpie reloaded her pistol and fired at the Pawns, ducking and weaving around the battle to act as supporting fire.

Makquer'el charged forward with his harpoon in one hand and keeping some kind of package stuffed into his jacket steady with the other. That was Shelly, who was sleeping in his jacket. It didn't work. The ruckus woke him up.

"Uuuuuuunnnnnnhhhhhh..." groaned a deep voice from inside Makquer'el's jacket. "Why is it so loud outside? What's going on?"

"N-nothing! Go back to sleep, Shelly, it's nothing!" Makquer'el said, blocking strikes with his harpoon. Loudly.

"It's too noisy to be nothing..." And Shelly poked his torso out of the jacket, peeking out curiously. Makquer'el retreated a bit so his friend could see what was going on.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Nov 5th 2018 at 11:23:20 AM

Obsidian City Streets

Ebony bit her lip and sighed. She didn't want the girl to feel bad, but she needed to be taught. Hans had hit the nail right on the head, and she nodded to him appreciatively before she clasped a hand on Star Girl's shoulder in a comforting manner.

“Look, I've no doubt you could've handled a few mercenaries. I've no doubt that any of us could've if we went in solo. But just because we can doesn't mean it's the best way to go about it. We're assigned as a team here; if we act like one, it'll be much easier for all of us plus we won't have to worry about where we all are all the time. You understand, right?”

She gave the girl's shoulder a final squeeze before patting it. “Just don't rush in, okay? But don't idle, either. Just keep control of what you're doing—and let it leak out only when it's necessary.”

That latter parts of this seemed directed more towards Hans, while the former parts were obviously still regarding Star Girl. Though there was a noticeable hesitance and overall uncertainty in Ebony's pronunciation. It sounded as if she was just coming up with it on the fly and being all too aware of it.

Axel District

The demonic businessman grinned again. “Lead the way? Can't very well meet you at the top then, can I? No—do as I say and go down to the strut. But be careful. You might still be being pursued...”

With that, he gave her a two-fingered salute and hopped off the edge of the building. There was no crunch. Nor was there a sound of breaking concrete either, for that matter. He simply fell. And if Koda looked to see where he'd gone, he wouldn't be in the alley below. He'd just vanished like that.

Odd bit of graffiti, though. Just on the ground. An occult, crisscrossing symbol of an insane complexity and detail to it. Strange how it seemed to be a bit too red... must've been freshly painted.

Or glowing.

"Watch out—oh..." was Koda's only response to Axel damn near pitching himself off the building. Deciding that her HUD could tell her more about the strange design below, she transformed again.

Another ping came from her Quest Log as she parkoured her way down the building, and she read its newly added contents on the way to the strut. Thankfully, no enemies were there to hamper her travel.

Apparently, this guy had some demonic magic thing going on about him. Koda needed to be careful. What else was new? If all else failed, she could jump off the roof and only take one Heart of damage. She was also uneasy about accepting food from Axel, but she was pretty hungry...

He didn't operate on fairy rules, did he? Koda racked her brain for any further scraps of information, but couldn't remember anything useful.

Checking in with Betty, she rode up the elevator, garnering several questioning glances on the way up. Finally, she stepped out, into the unknown of a demon's domain.

NJI vs. Pawns

Ryan grappled with one of the pawns, and after seeing it brandish a knife with the same cold energy he saw used on Magpie in the Miracle Pharma building, he pinned its arm down and started punching its head in...and then stopped when he saw these ones still bled like humans.

He gulped and fought down some vomit. First Azi Dahaka and his mimics, and then these things.

While Kyle did rip through one of the pawns, another of them readied a strange looking grenade and threw it at him - it contained viscous acid derived from organometallic chemistry - one of the metallic pieces involved being silver.

The pawns seemed to continuously spawn out of those doors, and Ryan shouted, "Anyone...who's got a good idea for handling King-man's doors should say something!"

Star Girl nodded in silent resignation - she supposed going off on her own wouldn't be easy here. She was used to it, and it'd be required for her mission, but she guessed it wouldn't be helping NJI or...or Ryan.

"I am sorry, friends. I won't let that happen again."

She showed a bit of that insecurity from earlier, and then banished it again and smiled, "Let us continue! We need to liberate this city from the fascist control of the corporation Aquavect!"

???

Black King spoke into his wrist-mounted communicator, "It is as you mentioned - they're advancing in two or three groups...three most likely. I am astounded you so easily cast aside someone with so much to offer your group."

The person on the other side said something.

Black King nodded, "Of course. A boy like him is a dime a dozen, and even being born into such an auspicious program like that, he has too much of...shall we say...a need to be virtuous."

The man on the other side evidently said something coarse.

Black King lightly chided him, "Now now I would prefer that we don't say such dreadful, maladroit words. But your point stands, old friend. We've supplied everything you and your boys need. Now we just need the mess picked up."

Makquer'el put Shelly on his head once he was sure they were safe from being stabbed. Shelly pulled out a scroll from his shell's opening and read several verses.

Water coalesced out of thin air and began to rain down on the portals, melting them and slowly beginning to wash them away. They'd close soon, but they were still operational for the moment.

Axel Tower

Well, she made it at least. Oddball without a doubt. Yet a fascinating system she possesses. Perhaps it'd be adaptable to our usage... though it does seem remarkably abstract. Nonetheless, compelling... Axel thought to himself, legs crossed on his swivel-chair as he gazed out of the window of his office in thought. The proximity seal in the doorway alerted him to Koda's presence, and he kicked his seat back around to face her—flashing her a lazy grin.

“Ah, there you are! Your reception was okay, I suppose? Didn't give you any trouble down there, did they? Won't have to crack a few skulls, hopefully...” he questioned good-naturedly, though his voice did steel at that last part. Regardless of her answer, he performed a quick hand-sign underneath his desk, causing the velvet red floor to partially brighten into the searing, more saturated crimson of a demonic seal—which prompted a dining table to materialize directly above it, lavished in quite an extravagant banquet.

“Tuck in. And don't fret. I know you've caught on that something's awry, but I don't mean harm yet. I'll answer any questions you have, but for now; eat to your heart's content.”

While I pray to god Beatrix doesn't pull another bicycle-based dynamic entry through those windows again...

Obsidian City Streets

“Right you are,” Ebony muttered with a small smile, before nodding and lifting off the ground with a slight gust of wind. “I'll do you a favour and scout from above. See if there are any concentrated groups around. Sit tight for a moment, alright?”

She did just that; shooting off up and away into the air and only stopping at quite the respectable height. She began to scan the area both by sight and by telekinesis—feeling out as far as she could for any human-shaped lumps with guns.

Edited by Enirboreh on Nov 11th 2018 at 11:49:42 AM

Koda's eyes widened at the food, and then she stumbled to a seat and stared some more at the food in front of her. A bar appeared over her head, labeled "DISBELIEF" and it quickly filled with white. The bar broke in two after being filled, turning red, and emitting some steam.

"T-thank you..." Koda choked out. "What do you mean by yet?"

Despite her reservations, she reached out with a shaky hand and put some steak on her plate, along with some salad. After hesitating (the options were really too much), she got some fried eggs and bacon as well.

She did indeed tuck in, but still ate with a fork and knife. However, she devoured several platefuls—and would probably have polished off the entire banquet if not for the steadily increasing volume of a thumping, crazed electronic tune to signal that something was approaching.

A quick look outside the windows would reveal the issue. Several attack helicopters were closing in on the building, with the OtherWorld Corp. logo stamped plainly on their exteriors.

Koda, wiping her mouth, darkly stated "Well, there's my problem..."

"What's the fastest way to the roof?" she turned to Axel and asked, a cocktail of annoyance, determination, and apology in her eyes.

Kyle's expression had completely changed. It was feral now, as he struggled to keep some level of control.

OK, you giant pack He said to the others Let's see what I got'

As a strong clap sent a powerful shock wave, intent on blowing the grenade off course and to strike another pawn.

His eyes started changing from the normal blue before turning yellow.

Other World - Hozuki Summoner

"And you are certain these...creatures...are capable of putting an end to her?"

"If they're not, at least she won't exit this in one piece. From what I heard, the Devs want this thing to figure into their latest games. Something about a dream they had of it."

The Other World group was not coming to fight Koda without some new hardware...or so they thought. As usual they were preparing to summon out things from their games or properties to fight her.

But what was due to come forth was not purely from a game.

The first hint something had gone deadly wrong was the singing. Usually whenever they summoned something, its effects would be observed after it was summoned.

One of the scientists gripped his head as the discordant singing started to get louder as the "portal" used to conjure their "images" appeared. But it was more severe this time - the portal dark red and swirling.

The singing became clearer...

...And that was when the head scientist's head exploded.

He was looking in at the thing that emerged and just the merest second of exposure for such a mind was enough to kill him.

The other scientists barely had the time to react when they too gripped at their heads, veins standing out pulsing and their screams going louder until they too had their heads explode.

Four creatures emerged from the portal - skin resembling a dress, half of a human skull dangling on the neck, emaciated skin hanging off of bones, their greatest mass contained in what emerged from the head. Half resembling a lantern half resembling a brain. Long claws composed of bright red matter extending down from these overexposed grotesque mockeries of a human brain.

They moved - not even doing anything but singing and occasionally feeling the world around them with those long claws, as if curious to a new environment.

The Hozuki before long made it to the pilot seats, and thus before long there was a splatter of bright red on the front windows and the Other World aircraft collided and outright exploded on the top of Axel's building.

But those four things that emerged yet lived, barely a scratch on them.

Ebony would see a man, clad in black and white powered armor, just getting off of the phone with someone, too much of a presence to ever be concealed. His armor gave off the impression of a bulked up version of standard Nazi SS gear, but with a specialized logo indicating this Far Right goon's personal preferences - an "A" stylized and with numerous prongs at various points. His face was covered in a helmet, a visor over his eyes.

He was flanked on all sides by a large number of very obviously fascistic thugs - some wore Schutzstaffel Double Bolts, others had numerous swastika tattoos, and all carried some form of highly advanced looking weapons.

The armored man looked up, seeming to scan the surroundings and the sky, and smirked under his helmet.

The grenade detonated and disabled one of the pawns, but now others tried to close the distance on him with silver swords.

The portals disabled meant the number of pawns currently in the field was stabilized - Ryan burnt one of the pawns who came in at him with an energy disruptor and he cursed under his breath, "...Suicidal fucker..."

Who knew what would happen hitting a nuclear guy with an energy disruptor?

He looked around and wondered if this was all Zugzwang was bringing this time - bunch'a mooks...?

Zugzwang Confrontation

Magpie flitted around the battlefield taking potshots at the remaining Pawns, palming an Energy Disruptor knife out of one's hands quickly but carefully.

Makquer'el charged forward again with his harpoon at the ready to skewer any fool who came close, with Shelly summoning discs of water that orbited around Makquer'el like shields.

Axel Adam's Building

Koda rushed up to the roof and immediately spotted a Shop booth to the side. It always showed up before major confrontations.

This...this was going to hurt, wasn't it?

Running up to it, she handed over a pile of Coinz to the Shopkeeper, who forked over a bundle of vials. Healing potions. He also rummaged a bit under the counter and came up with a glowing, holographic version of the BunnyHaxxor logo.

Koda grabbed the Extra Life and waved over her shoulder as she went to face the OtherWorld goons. Except there wasn't goons.

No, it was much, much worse.

She saw a strange red splatter on the windshield of one of the helicopters...and then the whole aircraft faltered and hit the others. Then, the whole aerial clusterbomb just had to collide with Axel Adam's skyscraper.

The silhouettes of some tall...people(?) could be seen through the smoke. Koda's Quest Log chose that time to ping her. She opened it up irritably, the world (seemingly) slowing down around her as she did so. It was only one picture (of the silhouettes) and one sentence. Her blood chilled.

What could be so powerful and horrible—

Oh.

Oh.

OH.

First of all, were these things singing!? Second of all, what the fuck? Third of all, what the fuck?

OtherWorld made these...these things? Koda thought that their depravity had no end before, but now...they were monsters. There were truly no words to describe them.

Noticing the ticking timer above her head (which had started counting down from 35 seconds and was now at 30), Koda ran forward, swapping the Over-Clock Trinket for the Critical Die Trinket.

Damage was going to be key. She had to take these things down and soon!

Koda drew her Weapon and separated it into two blades. Then she charged at the leftmost Hozuki, her blades becoming a furious flurry as she put her all into the attack.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Nov 16th 2018 at 6:10:31 AM

Hozuki

The horrifying things seemed to amble out of the fire and start looking around as if the world was entirely fresh to them. These were creatures that did not leave the world they came from very often. They would come off as horrifying indeed to Koda but in a word as if their minds were in another place and time.

On things that remained unseen.

The countless eyes on their odd craniums started to glow bright blue.

Already it would become clear these things had an effect on any world they set foot on. Black and dark purple spears skewered into certain areas on the floor, as if forming wholesale in the moment.

Their singing was cloying - it was like something a mother would sing to her child desperate not to go to bed - it was at once just as well too alien to hear - it was shredding the minds of those who heard it.

"Lalalalala...la la la...lalalalala...lala la...la la la..." The sound was distorted as it went on - as if the mind was filtering it and distorting it so as not to go completely insane.

Three of them were heading in toward the inner areas of the building, and one was sidetracked by Koda's attacks. The distracted one halted its disturbing singing and its eyes glowed even brighter, those spears suddenly starting to blink into existence now aimed at Koda.

And the clock ticked down like a madman chewing on his own teeth.

Rooftop Rumble

Koda, in her unrelenting forward charge, saw red points on the ground and brought her blades to bear just in time to slice the spears coming at her in half.

The timer's ticking was grating...and also completely terrifying.

"HYAAAH!"

Koda leaped at the Hozuki she chose to target, aiming to skewer the thing with both of her blades.

Hozuki

The creature emitted a low moaning noise as its song cut out, and even though the creature promptly collapsed into what looked like a briefly existent singularity the effect on Koda persisted a few seconds.

And now there were three of them, moving down into Axel's building...

Rooftop Rumble

The timer above Koda's head continued to count down, and after a few seconds, it began to count up. But Koda had no time to spare in order to recover. There was still three Hozuki and they were heading into Axel's building!

She laid eyes on the brain monsters and the timer started ticking down again in protest. Fortunately, her X-Charger Trinket had only just accumulated enough charge for the first bar—just in time for an EX-Move.

Within seconds she'd zipped by the three Hozuki and was now standing in front of them. She'd gotten cut on a spear that had grown out of the ground in her carelessness, bringing her down to four Hearts.

A cool voice narrated, "Bunny Buster!"

Koda leapt into the air, doing several flips, and slammed her blades' hilts onto the ground, creating a powerful shockwave.

Axel Tower

“Rude. Invariably rude. You should know your place, cretins,” Axel stated in a decidedly unamused tone as he finally peeled himself from the floor—completely unharmed from the explosion. Of course, being the type of person he was, the top of the building was his office. The roof had been completely vaporized—save for a few security seals still fizzling like static in the air from where the ceiling used to be.

“You're no Blüdkin, are you? Thought so. Your forms are... unbecoming. How do you live? Presuming you do. Unless you're about as living as a virus. Namely not at all,” he mused, staring the oncoming three down complexly nonplussed. While he began to lift off of the ground towards them.

“Bow to me, get it over with. Grow a vertebrae if you have to—it'll make it easier, trust me. Also gives me something to crunch on when we're done. You'd do that for a demon lord, wouldn't you? Of course you would.”

Seals began to make themselves apparent on his form; sizzling and hissing in a searing crimson. His skin began to fall off in clumps, charred and shrivelled into black charcoal from the hellfire now erupting from him. His facial features melted away as tough, chitinous plates sprouted out from his muscular layers—a notable pair of mandibles and insectoid eyes sprouting from the empty sockets, that eerie red light now ever-present within them. His clothes were piles of ash on the floor as the thing screeched; the wings that were causing Axel to levitate now visible to the eyes and flapping furiously. Flesh on his taloned arm peeled away and formed itself into a large blade of red meat—an all-too-human eye situated on its hilt and glancing about sporadically. Crimson flame suddenly burst from it in a torrent, spreading all the way across the blade as the demonic creature swung it furiously towards the invaders—all-consuming fire leaping from the weapon in an angled arc.

Kyle's mind might be somewhat off now, as he struggled to keep some control when his beast side under control, but he could still fight competently and somewhat tactically.

And so, he dove head first into the ground and dug a tunnel beneath them as he went on the people attacking Ryan like a land shark.

"Trade ya!" He called to him as he pointed at the silver bladed ones. While his voice was rougher and deeper, he still remained with his humanity.

How long will he able to keep it?

Hozuki

The Hozuki almost seemed to trade looks at one another as Axel made his long-winded declaration that they should bow before him. They almost seemed confused in a certain way - and indeed, even for the likes of Axel, a Demon Lord, looking at these creatures would hurt the eyes.

The Hellfire outright halted as a strange white blue and red semi-liquid seeming aura shield was deployed by each creature raising its hands, this having the additional effect of rippling Koda's attack off and causing it to shatter a portion of the floor.

The Hozuki then suddenly shifted in a certain way - each of their eyes on those monstrous, huge brains opening and producing an ominous, horrid orange glow...

...and then each eye emitted a primordial thunder not seen since the time before the universe's first dawn. All of these snaking, sure thunder bursts aimed right at Axel's center of mass.

The timer above Koda's head let out an alarm...and now she had three hearts.

C'mon, c'mon...faster! she thought to herself. Why aren't our attacks working?

She had just skated in front of Axel when the Hozuki unleashed their ultimate lightning attack. Unfortunately, she was not faster than lightning (however much she liked to believe), and some of the blows split off from the main mass and hit Koda. The good news was that some of the lightning was diverted from Axel. The bad news was that it was diverted onto Koda.

Zapzapzapzapzapzapzapzapzapzap

Koda lost multiple lives from this. Two to be exact. She was on her last Life and Heart. If she had not bought the Extra Life from the Shopkeeper, she would be dead meat by now.

She downed four healing potions to bring herself back up to full health and leapt forward to stab the rightmost Hozuki in the brain.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Nov 26th 2018 at 9:14:42 AM

Clear the Water

Ryan grimaced as he punched down another of the pawns, and by the time he looked back up he saw that the rest were firmly defeated. He examined the Pawn he just defeated and grimaced when he saw the rough area the implants started and the biology ended.

"...gross. These guys were turned by Zugzwang into mechanical killing machines."

He looked at the water god, at the state Kyle was in, and then down at his own hands, "...What've we been dealing with?"

Makquer'el de-summoned his harpoon, letting the resultant water trickle through his fingers and onto the ground.

"That thing I threw my net over back there was a Drowned Soul. They're created when someone dies of water-related issues. I'm charged with releasing them from their torment before they turn into Leviathans, or sea monsters. There's been a recent uptick in their numbers," he said, beginning to pace irritably.

"My name is Makquer'el. This fine fellow is named Shelly. He's a Magical Sea Snail and the last of his kind," he explained. "His kind are charged with cleaning up the seas, but some souvenir company decided to catch them for their shells. I flooded their headquarters before coming here. No one died, that'd just be more work for me."

"Those are the events that transpired before we met you all. Is it helpful?" Makquer'el tilted his head at the group.

As soon as all was over, Kyle let out a savage roar before falling to his knees, as several wolf souls left him.

"Man, remember to not do that lightly again" He commented.

"Sounds like there is a lot more trouble than we imagine" He cracked his neck, as he tried to adjust to everything he did to his body. "I really wanted a crack at that king"