Breath of the Sun
Emptied Forgetful Plain
They stepped out into a forlorn field. A battleground that looked like it had once been prosperous. There was something strangely fitting about it, but Mikael couldn't place what. She shook her head to clear it, and followed Liam to a clearing. She looked at him, once again wondering what ran through his head.
Then he threw the first attack.
The moment she saw him charge up Regalia, she was in the air. There was no pistol shot, no indication of a fight beginning other than the Liam's glow and the flash of blackness in the sky, as Mikael warped as high as she dared to avoid the branches. Swiftly she drew a dummy bolt, took a sharp breath, and spat a gout of fire on it. The flame swirled around it as it caught on fire, and before the wind could blow it out she slipped it back in her quiver.
The quiver, as it was wont to do, duplicated the bolt.
Drawing two bolts of hellfire, she nocked, aimed, and loosed rapidly. However, they didn't hone in on Liam - rather, they struck the ground around him, and where they hit, a small blast of fire erupted. As she continued shooting her fire bolts
, her strategy was rapidly being made clear: Mikael could take the heat, but Liam couldn't. Surround him with fire, and eventually he'd pass out from heatstroke, Regalia be damned.
All the while she flew in a circle, playing keep-away with the lances, occasionally teleporting if a Regalia blast got too close. If Liam kept this up, maybe he'd wear himself out.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
That Friend Nobody Likes
Tunnel
Damn. Andrew had thought maybe destroying the monitor would kill the stupid robot mole thing. The plants and fungi he'd called upon to stop the robot were doing surprisingly well, but wouldn't hold. He called upon the smaller stuff - molds, mosses, smaller brambles and vines - to grow into the cracks. Weaken the thing from the inside, maybe just cause it to stop functioning entirely. While doing this with his magic, he used his all of considerable muscle power to slam his axe into the fucker's neck, hopefully severing its head and killing it...
edited 4th May '18 6:13:30 PM by SomethingRandom113
Umm... so, I was here, I guess. If I wasn't, someone hacked my account. So, yeah.
Junkyard
“I’d like to keep what I have left of my mind, thanks.” Hei joked as he pooled a mass of shadows into his arms, forming a pair of massive clawed hands. Using his new appedages, Hei grabbed a lump of scrap from a nearby pile and flung it at Matten.
Arena
Victoria dove out of the way of the first snowball, but the second and third managed to catch up before she could get back to her feet or dive out of the way, burying her under the snow.
"I forfeit, I forfeit!"
She couldn't push the pile of snow off. Not without using her powers, and if she used them, what was the point?
"You win..."
Her voice trailed off as she tried to stave off the crushing despair inside her.
edited 4th May '18 2:28:15 PM by UndyingPhoenix
Surrounded by weirdoes
The snow started disappearing, freeing the knocked down girl, and showing the sky once again. Sam landed safely, uncovering his eyes. Looking at Victoria, he took a deep breath, not believing what he was about to do.
Walking up to her, he went to help her up, even if he didn't dare to look at her face. There is a lot he had to push forward to do this.
"You know" Sam started "Most of us got our powers because of circumstances beyond our control, whether for birth, or for some event that changed things. It'd be hard to say by ourselves whether we deserve them. It's through our actions that we prove that, and are those that prove who we are. So what you must ask is who do you want to be? I hope the answer helps you recover your drive"
Wake me up at your own risk.
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Arena—Junkyard
"Oh, our cinnamon roll will have to pry the fun out of you won't she?" Lin chose to use a lifeless object against her. His error. Or his gift? She liked making things go no more. She kept her gaze and her grin on Hei Lin, while sending tendrils toward the car junk sent her way. Matten's tentacles gripped nothing, the foggy, lightless things merely unmaking whatever they touched. Au naturale I said.
And error number two... The luna moth did not kiss the boy on the cheek, merely settling and marking, despite its delivery. Despite her instincts screaming Corrupt the Cutie...cuties now. Sighing, the daeva tilted her head and managed to fix the boy with a renewed smile. "For now, we're connected."
She held out her hand, theatrically, letting sludge-like aura drip onto her circle. Legions of moths bubbled into shape in mid-air before sailing at Hei Lin, now marked by an anchor on his cheek. "Surrender or flee and tire then surrender when you find that you cannot escape nor resist. Or struggle, so we can show off. Anyway you choose, this will but scratch and pinch ...repeatedly. Take heart though, Hei Lin. I'll tell you this bit, since I am not unkind. Give any moth that approaches you a good whack. It shall disperse. You'll know when you've had enough..."
And take your eyes off me even once...
edited 4th May '18 3:20:25 PM by CenturyEye
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
Rescue Door — Fork in the Road
The axe struck true, slicing into what could charitably be called a neck and fraying it's wires just enough to cause a small electric explosion. The bot toppled over on its side, waving it's arms and legs up and down like a helpless toddler. In any case, it was currently incapacitated. At least for the time being. Just then, another tremor rumbled through the tunnel. One thing was clear. If Andrew was going to get this miner to safety, it had to be now.
That Friend Nobody Likes
Tunnel
Andrew heaved the miner over his shoulder, taking one hand off his axe to do so. He called upon the plants he'd summoned to paralyze the robot mole to form supports and try to keep the shaft up, then ran at considerable speeds back towards the exit. Any robot moles that got in his way were basically already scrap metal...
Umm... so, I was here, I guess. If I wasn't, someone hacked my account. So, yeah.
Arena
As Sam helped her to her feet, there was no smile, just a disappointed, crestfallen look at the ground. His words didn't inspire much in her either, her voice ringing with hollow bitterness.
"What I want to be is famous, to get there by my own merit. Not just cribbing from the power of someone else, like I realize I've been doing this whole time now. I could have never gotten here without that, and I hate it."
She dusted herself off, heading for the exit, instinctively reaching to put her hands in her jacket pockets, but naturally finding nothing. Her last few words were as cold as Sam's onslaught had been.
"I don't think I belong here."
Surrounded by weirdoes
Sam just looked sadly her way. Victoria looked destroyed, and there wasn't much he, or probably the others, could do.
"It's up to you, but don't do anything you might regret the rest of your life" He said, softly after she left. Leaving himself, he thought about something his dad said once. Someone else could be better at this than him.
Taking a moment to see what's up with the others, Lin was fighting Matten (may God and Elvis save his soul), Andrew was going at it with a mechanical mole (too bad there are no giant mallets), Lucy... was doing pretty well all things considered. Rebecca... wait a minute. The symbol of its chest already had him running, his shoes getting covered in ice as he went up to the commentary booth.
edited 5th May '18 8:58:08 PM by Blueace
Wake me up at your own risk.
Liam lashed out with Regalia several times to deal with the firebolts, acknowledging as he did that Mikael was doing this most likely to get him to either drop his guard or exhaust him. Using his / her own superior agility to get around it. And he had no real hard counter for the agility Mikael had displayed, with his teleportation and wings.
No counter except...
Yeah, it looked like the most dire of the alternate him's applications of his power needed to be used.
"Mikael, I think its only fair that I warn you - going forward, we're in fresh territory. This...is going to be the Holy Forest of Helena."
From what I remember, the other me used this to defeat Myrkaan on his end. Hopefully I have the same luck.
Liam promptly leaped back and punched the ground once, grunting with the effort of using his power this way, and in such a tremendous amount. Training that last week however had made an impact and he at least could do this now.
At first, nothing seemed to happen...and then from a central point in the ground, a tremendous amount of branches and veins spread through the ground outward, innumerable, thin and spreading long.
This was phase 1 of the Holy Forest - laying the seeds for the thorny vines that would defeat a demon.
Breath of the Sun
Emptied Forgetful Plain
So that's his game. Mikael mused, practically feeling the energy of Regalia. She tensed herself, hand gripping another bolt.
Then, the moment Liam raised his arm to punch the ground, she teleported behind him. He'd barely finished the punching motion when she raised a tranq bolt and swung it downward in a hammering motion, intending to plunge it into his back.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
Rescue Door
As Andrew ran through the tunnels, he didn't notice any random molebots popping out or anything like that. What he did see was Ellie popping in and out like nobody's business. One moment he'd see her for a fraction of a second with another miner in toe, then the next she wasn't carrying anyone at all. She was porting miners out and going back in for new ones left and right to the point where if this were a contest, she would have beaten everyone else by a mile. But this wasn't a contest. It was a group effort. So in that sense, Ellie's porting mayhem was a hell of a boon.
However, as Andrew got closer to the door, he noticed something rather... perculiar. Namely a molebot with a swastika on it's chest grabbing Rebecca by the ankle. If he didn't know any better, he'd say this wasn't exactly part of the program.
Further down the tunnel, another molebot with a swastika on its chest popped out before making it's way towards Rebecca and Andrew. And Lucy just so happened to find herself right over it.
Surrounded by weirdoes
Sam entered the booth as smoothly as possible. Looking at both the people there, letters started appearing in the air.
"It seems one of the moles on the Rescue Event got messed with'" It started.
"Now, I have two questions" It continued "Number one: Any idea of who could do something like this"
"And number two: How would they get that mole here, if they didn't hijack one of the normal ones"
edited 6th May '18 12:15:59 PM by Blueace
Wake me up at your own risk.
AKA Nixer
Arena - Tunnels
As the mole leapt out of the ground below, Lucy sped up to overtake it, stretching down from the ceiling in tendrils of ink and reforming into her regular form.
As soon as she had regained her footing, she detached a small globule of ink from the overhead tendril she had arrived on, deftly flicking it so it splattered against the molebot and seeped into its interior electronics.
“Eat this,” she simply stated, any semblance of a stutter having vanished, before flicking her arm up.
The mole flung up into the ceiling at ridiculous speed.
She flicked her arm down.
It would find itself rocketing back to the floor at an even more ridiculous speed.
Left, right, up, down was the process she continued with, gradually increasing her speed and eventually lowering her arm as the mole was slammed into every surface of the tunnel around it at ludicrous velocities, culminating into a final slam into the ceiling that would leave only its legs sticking out.
Assuming that her spontaneous attack would be enough, Lucy quickly shot her tendrils up back onto the roof, hauling herself up and melding once more with the ink stationed there. With a ripple, she continued her trek down the tunnel, her mind abuzz both from excitement of what she just did and the psychic stimulation it had taken.
Ohmygodthatwassocool! she squeed internally, one of the rare times she was actually pleased with herself. MaybeIcandoitagainstsomemore...
edited 6th May '18 12:14:22 PM by Enirboreh
bork
Commentary Booth
"Hm?" At Sam's words (after a fashion,) Reinbach promptly took a look at the viewing screen. At first, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Just a few molebots causing havoc. Same as every year.
And then he saw the Swasitka's. And he went pale as a sheet.
"Mein Got." Actually behaving like a responsible adult for once in his life, the good Doctor flipped open a small compartment underneath the microphone to reveal a not so small Big Red Button (TM). And he pressed it like pounding on a gavel.
Arena
All at once, every single pocket dimension ceased to be. However, rather than also ceasing to be within, everyone within reappeared a good few dozen feet off the ground back in the arena, plummeting to the ground like rocks.
"We are incredibly sorry about this everyone, but due to technical difficulties and a possible other-dimensional intrusion, the tournament is being put on an emergency hiatus. We will let you know shortly when and if it resumes. In the meantime, feel free to have some souvenirs at the shop! Auf Wiedersehen!"
He then pressed a smaller button, alerting all the other staff to come to the Arena at once. He turned to Sam. "Sam, isn't it? Thank you. If it wasn't for you, things might have gone to the crapper. That said, you will probably want to head down to the Arena on the double. If I am right, this has suddenly become a much graver matter entirely. "
That much was true. Most of the mole bots have been deactivated, and the one holding Rebecca had lost it's grip. But it wasn't down for long. It and a few others started to get up after their not so long fall. And their sights were firmly on Rebecca.
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Arena—Junkyard
Matten had been enjoying watching Lin be covered in chaotic insect-shaped, essence of destruction, but then...
"Spatial collapse? Really?" The wavering everything and the rapid spaghettification of all the matter around them made clear she and Lin were in the midst of a spatial collapse. Well, technically a vacuum decay and collapse could be it too, but that happened at c. The latter would be difficult to see coming.
The wavering edged at her circle, her aura pulsing in reaction—and making the place around her implode faster. Seems about right... Taking advantage of crumbling matter around her, the daeva set a warp ring, plucking Hei Lin while distracted and returning to the arena.
Main Arena
"Oh hear, the dimensional collapse wasn't an accident," Matten dropped Hei Lin abruptly from her ring when she reappeared. "A possible other-dimensional intrusion?" She tilted her head before shrugging. "Well, go check on Lucy. You know you want to. Just don't forget that you can move the wounded."
The daeva briefly watched the mole-things get their bearings. "And get her one of those. They're terribly cute."
edited 6th May '18 1:15:39 PM by CenturyEye
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
AKA Nixer
Arena
It took Lucy approximately half a second to realise that the tunnel had disappeared. She would have shrieked if she wasn't currently still a glob of ink, but the very fact she was ended up saving her from a painful landing, instead splatting against the ground harmlessly.
Slowly reforming, she had a brief moment to regain her balance, initially confused by the sudden vanishing of the tunnel until she registered the fact that the molebots hadn't vanished with it.
And were all looking very interested in Rebecca.
Unable to suppress a yelp of alarm, she instinctively launched a tendril towards the one closest to her from her right arm, which when impacted would proceed to stretch out to another of the molebots and swiftly pull tight, aiming to slam them into each other.
bork
Surrounded by weirdoes
Sam just nodded and, with a jump, his ice boots propelled him downwards to the arena. Wasting no time, a giant mallet started spinning, intent on smashing the robot. A few hands went out to get Rebecca out of its reach, no matter its state.
"Are you OK?" He asked Rebecca. Looking at everyone, his voice suddenly started sounding more forceful than usual.
"Sorry, guys, but this just got real" He started. "Let's try to get the civilian evacuation right this time and then we can smash everything in peace before anything else goes wrong!"
edited 6th May '18 1:26:08 PM by Blueace
Wake me up at your own risk.
Arena
Luckily for Sam, the other students and audience members were already leaving the arena, if only because there wasn't much of a point in being there. Not that there was much need for an evacuation in the first place. In seconds, Lucy and Sam had destroyed the remaining hostile molebots, (as far as she knew anyway,) freeing Rebecca as she dropped to the ground. Though her ankle was still a mess.
Reinbach and Killgore soon arrived in the arena, with Killdozer rushing out of wherever he'd been sitting. And as soon as they did, Saint was there in short order. Superspeed sure came in handy.
"Is everyone okay?" He then noticed the thrashed molebots. "Reinbach! Just what happened here?"
"Yes," said Reinbach, "about that. Apparently, one of the molebots was attempting to capture Rebecca. Mind you, I'm not entirely sure why. But I do believe I might have an idea of who sent them. Although I'm not sure that's something that should be spoken about in public. Especially if they are listening."
That Friend Nobody Likes
Arena - From Bad to Worse
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! Andrew had been conflicted on what to do as soon as he'd seen the nazi molebots, but it had gotten even worse faster than he'd thought possible. He'd been conflicted on what to do when suddenly, the miner disappeared from his hands, the tunnel disappeared. He was falling at alarming speeds onto the arena floor. Without the effects of the virus to turn his panic into Unstoppable Rage, which could actually be useful, if a bit dangerous, in the current situation, he... well, he panicked. And his powers, still not completely under his control, yet with the knowledge of spellcasting, actually did something that could potentially make things worse: they cast a spell that summoned something.
The thing that Andrew, in his panic, had accidentally summoned looked sort of human, although he couldn't tell its gender. Well, technically it was human, but technicalities didn't really matter. It was dirty, scrawny, and feral looking, with long, ragged hair, tattered and muddy clothes that were barely recognizable as such, and a look of feral, animalistic rage in its bloodshot brown eyes. It was a rage Andrew knew all too well, having felt it himself on many occasions. The blackened veins and his infected sense only confirmed it. It was an infected. Great job, Andrew! You just made an already bad situation even worse! one part of his brain told him. The other part was just screaming "Fuck" over and over again.
Andrew did the only thing he could think of. He told the plants to form a barrier between the infected and everyone else, and reached out with his wild empathy, even though Catherine had told him it didn't work on infected any more than it did on normal humans.
He made the connection. Touched the infected's consciousness. Holy fuck, how the hell did I do that? It was made of pure flaming rage and very little else. However, the rage wasn't his, so he wasn't bothered by it, although he supposed that if he hadn't felt anything like it before, he would've had an instinctive reaction to it or something.
He began soothing away the rage, although he knew he couldn't do enough to make the infected sentient again (well, not with his wild empathy. His ability to summon and use his wild empathy on the infected brought up interesting implications on what he might be able to do with the right spell) he could make it receptive to commands and give it a target for its rage. Namely the moles... if he could actually subdue the rage.
He ignored everything around him, focusing only on him, the barrier, and the infected. It was hard. The unstoppable force of his (ironically disease-increased) willpower against the immovable object of the infected's single-minded and utterly insane rage. His willpower was weaker, but he more than made up for it with the fact that he was still sane, and was crafty. Eventually, the metaphorical wall broke, and he began pressing down hard on the rage and insanity. Memories began to surface in it, though he caught only glimpses of glimpses.
It had been German before. Had been infected at about the same age as he had, about five years ago. It had survived three years longer than it should have due to an amount of toughness unusual even for infected. But the most important fact of these glimpses was that it had been German. It had been taught from a young age about Nazism and had the evils of it hammered into its head in school so that the gruesome events of the past would never be repeated.
He did not need to direct its rage. It directed itself as soon as it saw the swastika insignia on one of the moles. It jumped on said mole's back with surprising dexterity and unsurprising fervor, and began slamming the mole with its fists and biting it, completely ignoring the pain caused by doing so.
Now to make sure its rage was kept concentrated on the molebot...
edited 6th May '18 2:17:03 PM by SomethingRandom113
Umm... so, I was here, I guess. If I wasn't, someone hacked my account. So, yeah.
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Main Arena—Grounds
"What's this about someone after Captain Raleigh?" Matten appeared next to Reinbach, hands folded behind her back and leaning well into his personal space. "Our enemy appeared with their symbol emblazoned on top of otherwise stealthy, infiltrating devices. Sure, myriad organizations use that sign, but these people are showing off, not hiding."
The daeva gazed at Reinbach flatly, although her senses were mostly trained on Rebecca and the apparently fallen bots. "What harm is it if you just tell us who we might have to deal with for this, excellency?" Because, holding back information better suits an Uriah Gambit than a strategy, though that gambit is a strategy, I suppose.
Hm.... This tournament had scarcely begun and the commentator seemed to be enjoying himself; though that was a demon. Reinbach spoke alongside him though. Yet he rarely sounded elated... Nah! If they wanted Class 1 to kill each other, they'd have an easier time just running a tournament with loose rules. In most situations. Besides, Rebecca is the one who was snatched up there, and she's Saint's favorite. If my class had outlived our usefulness, well he could include her to be prudent, but I don't think he has it in him...
Surrounded by weirdoes
Sam sighed a bit.
"In all honesty, I kinda expected some kind of giant robot mole to try and bring the building down on us, or something like that" He commented. "Must be getting paranoid"
"Still, nazi groups aren't that unusual, but they did manage to get their hands on this kind of tech puts them above most, if not by much" Sam started thinking out loud. "Not much to think about them beyond how hard must we punch them when we find them"
Looking around, he continued, speaking at no one in particular. "I'd guess her powers could get the wrong kind of attention. There are probably eyes on several other people, but let's focus on her for now"
Wake me up at your own risk.
Junkyard
Hei just gave a low chuckle. “Man, I really drew the short straw with this fight.” He drawled, reaching into the portal he created under his coat. “Still, I’m not done...huh?”
Hei looked around in confusion as the junkyard scenery fell apart, and they were transported back into the stands. Apparently, something went wrong with some robots and the tournament was put on hold.
“Hai.” Hei nodded to Matten before dissolving into shadow. This time however, the shadows formed into a swarm of small bats that flew into the tunnels, looking for Lucy or any rescuees...whichever he found first.
Arena - Tunnels
Lucy warily looked down the tunnel again as a distant commotion could be faintly heard. She could no longer feel the presence of her ink doll, although she wasn't sure if it was because it was destroyed or she had simply lost concentration without noticing.
Agitated, she tapped her foot, indecisive on what she should do, before giving up and morphing into ink, stretching up towards the main support tendril on the ceiling and melding into it, her position only visible as a slight swelling. In the form of a ripple, she shot off down the tendril towards the cacophony in an attempt to find anyone in need.
bork