AKA Nixer
Amadea's Room
Lucy's psychic presence was silent for a while after Ellie's explanation, before the ink doll slowly began to melt into a liquid, its features warping until it was little more than a puddle on the floor. Evidently not stopping there, the puddle spread out as far as it could across the available ground, before shifting pigmentation to match it. Not exactly perfectly, but fairly convincing to one without habit of admiring the floor.
“Revising old tactics. Catch them off-guard, freak 'em out. Hopefully. Imagination, don't fail me now...” she clarified to the others standing amidst the thin layer of ink, the latter part sounding more like a morbid mutter than anything directed at them.
bork
Abyss
”So all we can do right now is wait f-for them to come to us and not die...” Hei muttered. ”Yay...”
Edited by svenorzokarkoff on Sep 2nd 2018 at 4:38:05 AM
Surrounded by weirdoes
Sam had just let a pained moan when they checked he was alive, but even then, his mind was far away.
In his dream, his fight was turning around, his creations turning more and more alive to attack more fiercely.
"Never again" He whispered, determined, as several ice tigers attacked "Never again will you stop me" A rhino charged for a head to head crash.
"I will live" This time, it was an Elephant. "And I won't give up"
Ending the beating, a dragon grabbed the beast and raised it up to the sky. Spinning and driving the dog head first into the ground, leaving a sizable crater. The dog was still, but still alive.
"No one dies, not even you" Sam said, grimly, walking away. Suddenly, the surroundings changed, and he was with his grandfather, throwing a piece of ice to the head, which Gabriel barely blocked.
"What's that for?" The old man said, glaring.
"If you expected me taking the whole tossing a giant dog at me lying down, you must be going senile" Sam glared right back.
"Not much for discipline, are you?"
"Not particularly"
"Well, you managed to beat your fear surprisingly well, and those creations of yours are amazing" With that, the environment changed, and found himself in a battlefield.
"Now, you have a few fights to deal with, and I am going to teach you a few things" With that, several things flashed on Sam's eyes, and everything went black.
Opening his eyes in the real world, Sam's head spun and he felt surprisingly weak.
Old man, I am gonna get ya next time He tried to sit up, but he didn't have strength, and his left arm felt like it was on fire, making him wince. Making a pile of snow to lie on, he tried again, but his throat burned and needed something.
Making a glass and some snow, he looked at the teachers and gave a look.
"Mind giving some heat?" He asked with a raspy voice. Finally, he realized Amadea was in there and turned to her.
"Hello, you must be Mikael's mother" He said as politely as possible "I need a second to get up, but it's a pleasure to meet you" He coughed near the end.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Abyss - Below Amadea's Chamber
"...I do not bark." Mahvash pressed her fingers into her chest, staring open mouthed at Remix. "I know you were thinking it! I did not know how far below the next floor was though, and you could have been all that was between them and going splat. And I'm quite done with grabbing myself thank you. I have a fancy bed in my room and a robot head that can fit at least 4."
"Lin!" The daeva barked at the unnerved boy, not missing a beat. "If not your class, is that really the face you want to show to Lucy?" She opened her fan, waving energetically, if only because she was too far to slap him at the moment. "Stand with resolve, come up with your own sharp implements if you can think of nothing else, get a look at the terrain, and start working on what you can do. The last time we dealt with this, you still had usable shadow gates."
The daeva ran her finger through the 'jelly' with no intention of breaking through it. Ellie's (late) explanation meant that the D-Team could pop in and leave bombs or take hit&run potshots at the class at their convenience. Heh. This is an excellent surprise.
"If the next thing through is an explosive, the line up is the same, Lucy, Mikael, Lin, Harmony. If its eager meat though..." She looked from Mikael to Caleb, "we should have them stay. I don't suppose one of you can fix this barrier of theirs? If we're stuck for a bit, its only fair if any guests cannot leave either."
Edited by CenturyEye on Sep 3rd 2018 at 10:49:23 AM
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
Abyss - Containment Field
Caleb watched as the containment field solidified and Ellie explained their predicament. No running away this time then. The obvious explanation was another of the hell-wives, occam's razor dictating the one they'd run into. That or hell-Nazis, which seemed unlikely even by their histories. Caleb set Remix down, figuring there was no point if they couldn't escape.
"Scream if you start falling."
Caleb reached down and extended several tendrils to the barrier in different spots.
"We haven't seen a lot of magic, dunno if we can deal with it!"
Harmony reached to the barrier and tried to absorb the energy; they had no idea if it would work on a magical barrier but it was worth a go.
Edited by FerrousMaelstom on Sep 3rd 2018 at 6:21:53 PM
Deranged X-Mas Figure
The Abyss
"If whatever Caleb's doing doesn't work, " said Ellie, "there might be another way. Short of waiting a couple hours for it to wear off, the only way to get rid of that forcefield is to kill the one who made it. You kill her, you kill the forcefield. Problem is we probably won't be able to tell who it is whenever they try to murder us. So if we're going that route, the only thing we can do is kill them first. Least until it drops or if Caleb shuts it down. 'Less anyone's got any better ideas. "
Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around
Breath of the Sun
The Abyss
Mikael cursed her own foolishness - she'd just wasted power on her coat, when it wasn't a bomb at all.
She quickly moved to grasp the barrier, pressing her hand to it and focusing her energy. She'd grown strong since discovering her demonic heritage, and gained more mastery over her demonic energy. Surely she, (presumably) of the same blood at the barrier-maker, could do something about this.
Mikael pushed more energy into the barrier, drawing on as much of the dark half of her soul as she dared. For comfort, she reached up to grab her locket with her free hand, only to realize it wasn't there when her hand closed on nothing. She growled, eyes still closed in concentration, one fang protruding from her scowling mouth.
"No good. Whoever made this is too powerful - I can't do anything to it." She grumbled, cutting the connection just as Ellie mentioned the alternative way out. "Assuming whoever fights us isn't willing to surrender... that may be the only choice. If it comes to that, I'll kill whoever raised the barrier. Might as well teach them not to mess with me or my mother."
She drew her crossbows and prepared to fight. No doubt whoever made the barrier would be attacking soon.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
"Thanks for the save, spaceman," Remix said to Caleb, nodding his head in the universally-understood brocode sign of acknowledgment.
"You know," Remix added. "We are still able to be breathing, so either we are using up what little air we have left, or this bubble is not as all-around as we think." He rasped his knuckles against his helmet as if trying to indicate a 'knock on wood'.
"And the floor does not look destroyed, no? Whoever uses this sort of bomb wouldn't want to have to pay for repairs - can you imagine how much a Goddamned contractor would cost here? Literally, this is pretty much Hell, no?"
He rollerbladed on over towards the green energy barrier, and then looked at the floors and walls.
"So that is two ideas. There are many more than two of us here. So some of us can work on going through the walls and floors to see if this thing is all the way around, and if one of you can turn into a cloud or... ink, perhaps... you can probe the air vents or outlets."
Deranged X-Mas Figure
The Abyss
Unfortunately for Remix and the others, it was too little too late. A puff of pitch black smoke appeared in the middle of Amadea's room, and a pack of vicious hellhounds leaped out of it. They were red as fire and black as obsidian, and nearly as tall as Mikael. There eyes were like brimstone, and they belched fire from their gaping maws. There was one for everyone in the room, and they lunged at anyone they could see.
Saint Academy
"The pleasure is mine," said Amadea. "Though I'm afraid I can't chat. I still need to retrieve my son and the others. Unless there's anything else you need?"
Edited by kkhohoho on Sep 4th 2018 at 7:00:57 AM
Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around
AKA Nixer
Amadeus' Room
A couple of the hellhounds would soon feel the very floor underneath them rippling, bowing beneath them as it dragged itself out from underneath their feet like a rug from below a coffee table. It reared up in tall waves that surrounded them – before collapsing over the top of them and coating them in its liquid-like form, the pattern of the floor slowly warping away the more the disguised ink shifted its shape.
All around the interior of the barrier sprang up weaving tendrils, swaying eerily to and fro as if caught in a nonexistent breeze. Feelers split away from them, then split again, and so on – causing them to be reminiscent of fractals and thus very uncomfortable to look upon for an extended period of time. If hellhounds were to come into their reach, they would lash out to entangle them and squeeze them to the point of splitting them in half.
And still a black cloaked figure formed into view, a little ways away from the others yet still within the confines of the bubble-like field. It was nigh seven foot tall and spindly in build, and its clothing was in tatters yet somehow still its face was engulfed entirely in shadow. It did not move the barest of millimeters, yet a hideous, grating rasp was audible from it – rising and falling in a rhythm perhaps mimicking a twisted interpretation of breathing.
Edited by Enirboreh on Sep 4th 2018 at 1:13:11 PM
bork
Abyss, Palace, Containment Field
Caleb watched as the hellhounds appeared. These were probably going to be trouble.
The tendrils extended, staying attached to the floor but giving Caleb some room to move. He picked the closest hellhound as he charged up a shot and fired it off, trying to aim for the central mass.
Abyss
Hei jumped into action, forming shadow spikes from the ground and impaling some of the Hounds in mid-lunge. At the same time, he formed a mass of darkness around his fists and began smashing the makeshift hammers against any demon that got close to him.
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Abyss - Bubble
"We don't need to slay them." Mahvash had more desire to end Ellie at that point. This was her second late delivery of important information. "Besides our guidelines, this thing fades unless Ellie has something new to add in ten minutes. And we'll only be bloodying demons for a time. We shall make their boss pay for the time and the impudence, but trust me, the time it will take to to bisect her, treat her skin and stretch it over your chamber doors, and find the right design for stretching her intestines along the walls... that's a weekend hobby sort of time commitment. For now, your enemy just needs to bend the knee and be made to do it in front of her followers if they're the submissive type. Although, we never confirmed that it was Z."
...
The hounds kind of remind me of Z though. The hellhounds appeared in the middle in everyone's field of vision. And that was their last mistake. (Challenging them at all being the first.) There was but one for each of them, but between Lucy overdoing it as usual and Lin with his ground spikes, they dealt with several each.
So, the daeva focused on the 'jelly,' rubbing her thumb nail into her palm and drawing blood before pressing it into the barrier, and trying to force her own blood into the mixture. She wasn't that interested in speeding their escape from the trap. Rather, she hoped to use it trap in turn whoever entered. Their enemy could still port out if Class 1 caught them outside the trap. But if I can make this bubble my own, we won't get out any faster, but our visitors don't have to get out at all.
Abyss
Okay, looks like it was time for a fight. Everyone was busting out flashy moves and cool shit.Remix was going to have to contribute with a signature move of his own.
He threw a really hard kick into the face of the nearest hellhound.
Surrounded by weirdoes
"Thank you for the offer, but..." Finally noticing the locket he didn't remember having, and it clicked who it belonged to "Actually, could you please hand this to Mikael? I hav-" His voice gave out as he drank some water. Writing using his ice and extending a hand holding the locket.
SORRY, GOTTA GET CHECKED, THE ABYSS DIDN'T AGREE WITH ME.
With that, he tried to get up, creating crutches to help himself.
Starting to walk away, leaving side a momentary black out and how dizzy he felt, the cold air around him offering some comfort.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Breath of the Sun
Abyss
"Of course they wouldn't come in person." Mikael muttered, resolving to find whoever was behind this and skin them. Perhaps it was her demon side talking, but this was just annoying.
With practiced ease she raised both her crossbows and fired. Corrosive bolts, copies from her quiver of the one given by Matten, shot out at two of the dogs. Mikael swiftly reloaded, sending out more killing shots at a pace comparable to a semi-automatic.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
Deranged X-Mas Figure
Saint Academy
Amadea took the locket. As she held it, memories started flooding back. Memories that she both treasured and would rather forget. "Hm. If it were me, I would have tossed it ages ago. But if my daughter wants it..."
She ported away in a puff of black smoke. Regardless of the locket, she still had to help Mikael and the others. What kind of mother would she be if she didn't?
The Abyss
"And what if they just toss in another bomb before the barrier falls down?" said Ellie to Matten. "Ever thought about that? Not so smart after all, huh?"
Right after Ellie gave Matten her scathing critique, the hellhounds came knocking on their doorstep. Thankfully, everyone was able to make quick work of them. Even Vickie mauled one with her claws.
Meanwhile, Ellie favored a more direct approach. She ported right atop it, forced open it's jaws ("Nice doggie!"), and tore them clean apart. To anyone who seemed disturbed by this gross display of violence, Ellie simply shrugged. "Hey, it's the Abyss. Down here, you can't always play by the rules. Take it from someone who knows."
All of the hellhounds soon lay dead on the floor, quickly disintegrating into black smoke. As they did, another black vortex appeared outside the forcefield, and Amadea appeared in the center. "Hello everyone, I—" She soon noticed the forcefield and seemed to know exactly what it was. "Oh. Well, this is not good. Probably Zenestria's work. Either her or the Furies."
She held up Mikael's locket. "I was going to give you this, dear, but I suppose that's not really an option at the moment. Though I'm still not sure why you've held onto it all this time. Anyway, I suppose we'd better work on getting you all out of this. I could try tracking down Zenestria or whoever made this, but I doubt it would end well for either of us. Assuming they don't come to you first. If I were to guess, I'd say sending in those hounds was just the opening act."
Edited by kkhohoho on Sep 6th 2018 at 9:21:22 AM
Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Abyss - Bubble
"You mean the scenario I just mentioned 17 seconds ago and forewarned our bomb squad for? Yes." Mahvash lightly dismissed Ellie's ranting without really looking at her. "I appreciate that you're trying to think, but do not worry about me. You have a station. At the very least, try and mention what these demonic constructs can do sooner than 'after they go off'." Eh, she tried and seemed so happy about that 'gotcha.' I won't mention listening.
...
Playing around randomly is a good way to kill all of them. The jelly field did not respond easily to probing. There were more things to try, but playing around with Magitek had consequences. Usually fun, but not while she was responsible for a group.
Amadea appeared after the Class and Ellie dealt with the hellhounds and said nothing of substance really. "Do you not have experience with these devices, Amadea? Or a more concrete idea of what may come next? This must have happened before. Unless you're out of the loop?" Though, if Amadea is not privy to things like this, she's much less of a threat to Z's or anyone's status than number 4 realizes.
Edited by CenturyEye on Sep 6th 2018 at 10:53:02 AM
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
Breath of the Sun
Abyss - Bubble
"That's enough Mahvash, Ellie. This is no time to argue. Ellie, babe, I know Mahvash can get on people's nerve, but we have to focus, here." Mikael intruded, grabbing her girlfriend's arm (she'd sheathed one of her crossbows) to try and calm her.
"We'll deal with any bombs as they come. For now-"
And then her mother showed up, holding her locket. "Oh, Mom. So this probably is Zenestria's doing. Great." She moved towards Amadea and tried to reach through the barrier to grasp her locket, but she could not pass. She sighed.
"I know you and Opa don't see eye-to-eye, but it's not just for his sake I keep my locket. It's one of my last mementos from Oma, before she died." Mikael actually smiled a moment, glancing down towards her feet as she remembered her Grandmother Claudia. In the locket was her picture, an old black-and-white photo of her and Josef. "But we can talk about Oma and Opa later. Now, we have to stand and fight."
Mikael drew her knife from within her coat, and turned towards the center of the barrier. "So come on, then!" She roared in challenge. "Zenestria, Furies, whoever you are - I, Mikael, will strike you down!"
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
Deranged X-Mas Figure
The Abyss
"Well—"
Before Amadea could answer, someone else did. A whirlwind appeared behind Amadea like a gale. Before she had a chance to react, someone or something grabbed her from behind. And then they were gone.
As soon as she was, several black vortexes poofed into existence within the forcefield, bringing with them a slew of lovely
demonesses. Standing in the center was their ringleader, adorned with technological armanaents that seemed to be a part of her. "Well, well. She was right. A entire pack of mongrels. Though I did think that one of Zamael's offspring would have better taste in companions. Still, seeing you now, I suppose slaughtering you all before you had another chance to blink wouldn't be fair. Tell you what. I'm willing to give you an offer that you can't refuse. Lest you want to be blown apart into a million pieces."
Edited by kkhohoho on Sep 8th 2018 at 9:50:14 AM
Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around
AKA Nixer
Abyss – Bubble
At the arrival of the Furies, the layers of ink surrounding the interior of the bubble peeled away and crawled towards the cloaked figure, who had been stoically standing for the entire end of the fight, letting the rest of the ink do most of the work. Now, though, it stepped back in line with the others, reabsorbing its mass back into itself and simply staring back at the demonesses with its distinct lack of visible face – the rhythmic, low-pitched rattle being the only sound emanating from it.
Still, Lucy seemed to be not entirely invested in her old scare tactics like how she used to be before, as several tendrils stretched out from beneath the imitation of a tattered cloak and briefly made contact with the others, planting a simple “Are you alright?” message to those present.
But Lucy didn't bother to acknowledge the statement of an offer – both out of common sense and also a growing fatigue. She was starting to feel like she was drifting away from her ink and back towards her real body – inch by inch. She wasn't sure how long she could keep up this loophole-achieved dimensional projection. Plus in a distant way she could feel the toll it was taking on her body. It was technically dead at the moment, after all. Or at least, mentally speaking.
She wondered if she was drooling.
On perfect cue with this thought, back at the school the surrounding mass of makeshift satellite arrays and signal boosters seemed to tighten around Lucy's body just a little.
bork
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Abyss - Bubble
Mahvash had been waiting for Amadea's response while Mikael controlled his... Ellie. And then his mother vanished, getting herself yanked away without much ado. So, the haremettes aren't inviolate, then? Good to know, and poor on me ignoring my instincts again. We'd be tying Saint to a hospital bed by now and making commemorative keychains out of Number 4's eyes if I'd done the deed then. Although, I did not quite see what they did with her. At the very least she could have screamed, 'oh no, not the x', before disappearing.
And then more demons, bipedal this time. Although the daeva questioned whether any of them could actually speak by now. They all say the same thing. Koku had 1000+ signs, even if that 'knowledge' was operant conditioning or the 'Clever Hans' thing.
"Willing to to name yourselves?" Mahvash idly opened and closed her fan. Too many of these and even my curiosity would wear off. In truth it has. But...
Lucy, I don't suppose you have the ability to reform that construct elsewhere and let this one go? I suppose we'll need to retrieve Mikael's mother after this, and find out where she is while they think we're occupied. Somewhere between her observations, she'd remembered that the health of Mikael's mother might actually be important to him. I remember your objection earlier, but this is a different endeavor. Perhaps you can infiltrate this place undetected and find out where she was taken? It would do our red guy's spirit well to know something about his mother's fate. We will manage.
Abyss
Hei grimaced at Ellie's words about the Abyss and the Furies' threat, though the others wouldn't be able to tell since he was in his shadow form. Great. Violence and impending death. Exactly what I was hoping to move on from. He gave a mental sigh, nodding towards Lucy in response to her question. On the other hand, Hei drew comfort from this in a warped sense. He was used to this, knew how to deal with people wanting him dead.
Perhaps that was was why Hei fell on older habits and decided to trash talk the furies.
"Says the lady who hangs around with a group of fetish fuel" Hei mocked as he crossed his arms. "Fine, let's hear what you gotta say first"
AKA Nixer
Abyss – Bubble
Lucy's doll didn't visibly react – after all, it actually would've taken effort to make a mistake like that – but Mahvash's request seemed to re-energize her a bit, and she sent a note of confirmation across their link; albeit not before sending a mildly abridged explanation as to her plan to the others.
Here's hoping they're decent actors...
Playing up the dramatics of her ink doll's imminent demise, she caused it to waver in imbalance and ripple around the edges, ink fraying and peeling from its form as it let out an inhuman screech of pain before ripping apart like it had been eaten from the inside out. Barely perceivable ripples of an ethereal description floated in the air for a moment, sourcing from the place where the doll was and splitting off down the corridors – before steadily fading away out of perception.
Lucy could feel her connection fading at a faster rate, hence her decision not to attempt recreating another full-sized replicant of herself – but she persisted, tearing tiny strips of pigment from the surroundings as she went and molding it into a small blotch of ink to act as a better anchor point. The globule split off in quarters, which proceeded to zip down multiple directions.
The hunt for Amadea was on. Lucy didn't have a personal supply of ink to perform a psychic pulse, so she'd have to find her the old-fashioned way.
Hopefully before anything happened to her.
Edited by Enirboreh on Sep 8th 2018 at 11:20:03 AM
bork
The Abyss
The bomb continued to tick and tick, becoming ever louder and more shrill as it sped through its countdown. The room grew ever more tense, the atmosphere ever more strained until it finally reached its' end. Though it wasn't what anyone was expecting.
The bomb went off, releasing a green wave that passed through Lucy and everyone in the room. It stayed in place once it was far enough before solidifying, forming a solid green barrier of energy around the surrounding hallways.
"Crap," said Ellie. She walked up to the forcefield, poking it before punching it straight through. Not that that it worked. Instead it rebounded like a slab of jello, sending Ellie bouncing back flat on her arse. "Damn it. I know what this is. It's a containment bomb. Special elite crack squads use this whenever they wanna keep an area contained. First it sends a wave through you. Turns off your ability to port, at least for a while. Makes sense too. Because if it was some old explosive, anyone could just port away easy-peasy."
She sighed. "Then it sets up a forcefield all around you. No-one can port in or out. Except for whoever made the bomb and anyone they want to let in. So as long as this is up, Amadea can't get the rest of us out. But whoever made this can get in. Long story short? They're gonna try and slaughter us. And they don't want any witnesses."
Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around