Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Deep Forest Expedition—The Once-Invisible Dome
Robots... Mahvash sent a wave of essence over the nearest before imploded into black slag. Not her concern. The residents of the dome had fired a cannon at their guests without a declaration...maybe with provocation though. Class 1 had surrounded it with sentries and readied weapons. In exchange for that epic failure of hospitality...
The daeva sidestepped the robots. Her class could handle it, they'd done it before. She had a siege to start. Wither. Ruin. Fade... And one invocation later, she'd sent her (concentrated) essence into the earth and foundations of the dome, letting the dome slowly list into the nothing where the earth had been. No sheer drop, fun as that would be. But I did make a funhouse.
"Got a Titanic song, Remix?" Mahvash looked at the man over her shoulder, eyes sparkling. "And there were probably traps at the gate and throughout the place. Now they have to do some housecleaning. Sam could probably snowblind the entrance before we storm it, but I don't expect them to not just rush in."
Breath of the Sun
Deep Forest
The turret was destroyed, fortunately. Mikael held out his hand, and his knife returned to his grip in a flash of light. A feature he'd added upon realizing how easy it would be to lose the thing.
Then the robots starting pouring out, and Mikael dove into the thick of them, swinging his lightblade about and slashing through a robot in one stroke. He still couldn't teleport, but his wings made him agile, and he jumped from robot to robot, slashing about.
Then he noted the door was open, and flew towards it even as Matten began to sink it into the ground. I'm one of the toughest in our class, so even if there is a trap... plus, what could they have on top of the cannon and these damn robots?
"I'm going in!" Mikael called to his classmates, pulling his coat tighter around his body for protection, "Cover me!" He charged threw the sinking door, knife raised in a defensive stance.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
Nazi Bots
Hei cracked a slightly eager grin at the sight of the robots. “Perfect. Free scrap.” He quipped, before turning into a mass of shadow and launching himself at the robots like a cannonball and crushing a small group upon landing. Half-reforming into a humanoid shadow, Hei turned his arms into a pair of bladed claws and began tearing through any robot in his way. Any robot that got too close to Hei was either impaled, bisected or swatted away.
Hei paused briefly as Lucy landed next to him, and the silver lights seemed to shine brighter at her words. “Hai, now’s as good a time as any.” He agreed.
The Dome — Bigger on the Inside
Mikael entered the door. He didn't know what he was expecting, but he knew what he could handle. Lizardmen? Oversized reptiles. Yeti's? A few tranqs would have them sleeping like a baby. Adolf Hitler's reanimated corpse? Pssh.
What he actually found was a different story altogether.
When he stepped inside, he found that the inside of the dome appeared to be completely right side up in spite of what Matten did to it. In fact, it was very much in tiptop shape. It was also very large.
He was standing in a massive hanger, the ceiling stretching to the heavens and the walls doing the same, though if he squinted, he could see a large hallway leading to more rooms in what he presumed to be an impossibly large facility. Somehow they had crammed an entire military complex inside one small dome. Either that or the dome was simply a portal to another a pocket dimension. Either way, the laws of spacetime had been thoroughly broken and bent to the 9th degree, so much so that even Mikael was starting to feel it. His body snapped back into a girl, the compression or alteration of spacetime and the brutalizing of quantum mechanics even messing with the effects of the Genderun. If only temporarily.
Still, what truly caught her eye was what the hanger was holding. It was mostly filled with large tanks and jeeps, but right at the end stood a massive mech that would make Gundam's RX-79 look like a child's plaything. It resembled a Nazi soldier with a gasmask, bayonet in hand, only ridiculously more massive in scale. Almost as if it were ready to crush the lesser races under its' heel. Still, at least for now, it didn't seem to be a threat. Not that that was at all comforting.
Suddenly, Mikael heard something rolling towards her at high speed from the hallway. She had to squint, but she if she focused, she could just barely make them out. They were large and padded, almost like soft boulders, and their tails—
Wait, tails? That couldn't be right.
But it was. She could scarcely believe it, but facts were facts. Those weren't a couple of boulders coming her way. They were armadillos. Giant armadillos. And unless she moved swiftly, she was going to be flattened into a pancake.
AKA Nixer
Deep Forest
Lucy nodded in response, taking a deep breath before collapsing into her ink form. Hei followed suit in his own shadowy self, the pair beginning to rapidly swirl around one another and creating a large tornado of twisting ink and shadow. There was an eerie, high-pitched whistle, a flicker of a pair of lights visible within the mass.
“We-We-We have borrowed the bodies of these warriors...” boomed a loud, ethereal pair of overlapping voices, their words occasionally stammering, although the supernatural distortion made it seem more as if it was a purposeful audio glitch or broken record effect. The tornado began to clear, and a colossal, shadowy form was visible, having the appearance of a demon with large horns, eight massive insectoid legs sprouting out of its back whilst its otherwise featureless face bore wide orbs of unnatural light, presumably its eyes. It was easily over 12 metres in height, despite it being hunched, standing and presumably walking on its oversized fists.
It leaned its head down towards the robots, peering at them through unblinking eyes.
“Th-Th-Th-There is no 'Lucy' anymore. Nor 'Hei'. There is only Chernobog. Thou shalt fall before our wrath!” it proclaimed, before rearing back onto its hind legs, raising a colossal arm above its head before slamming it down onto the ground, tearing up the earth and creating a massive burst of shadow. Ink was also mixed into the shockwave, sprouting in tendrils out from the impacted fist and attempting to ensnare some the robots outside of its range and draw them into the demonic construct's limb at high speed.
edited 24th May '18 7:24:19 PM by Enirboreh
bork
Deep Fores
Victoria didn't break her stride as the robots rushed out to attack, still walking with the same confident, powerful steps towards them. As their shots cane towards her, they were flung off path and even right back at them as the air suddenly turned extremely volatile and went off like miniature bomblets.
"You want me to use these powers? Well here it is!"
With a wild downward swing of her left hand, Victoria brought down a gigantic shockwave on top of the robots, the sound of metal groaning and buckling under the force filling the air. But she wasn't done yet. Her right arm rose sharply into the air, a similarly large shockwave as the first bursting from the ground underneath the robots, sending them into the air. With a clap, she held her hands together, a barrage of explosions sending them all flying into one gigantic ball of dented and torn metal. The moment they all impacted with each other, her hands sove sharply to the sides, palms facing down, a thunderous rumbling, followed by an ear-piercing CRACK as another explosion broke forth from the center. To say she'd scrapped them was an understatement. As the mighty end to the combined assault sent the bots flying, bolts, screws, internal components and pieces of body went flying in all directions.
"How's that then?!"
As she felt the bubbling, broiling anger insider her reach fever pitch, she couldn't stop herself from unleashing a a howl of fury, as the earthen elemental aura sprang out into full force, enveloping her like a transparent cloak.
This definitely may have gone a bit too far.
Deeper Forest
Caleb and Harmony just tried to keep their collective cool as they hung around the werewolf. There were far too many Nazis around this place, although to be fair that number was 'any'. When the grabby arms came out he flew up to avoid them but everyone else took out the turret before he could even act. When the robots appeared, Harmony perked up.
Can we use the thing now?
Makes sense
Caleb shifted as Harmony took over. She dug a small silver object out of a pocket and hesitated for a moment as she remembered the instructions. She half-pulled off his hoodie and rolled up the left sleeve before placing the object high on his left arm. As it touched, a strap automatically deployed and secured it in place. There was a raised translucent oval in the center, which lit up as Harmony pressed on it.
"Stabilize!"
Ooze exuded from the left arm but it looked a little different to normal; it formed a shape almost immediately and looked a lot more costume-like than organic. In a split-second everything below the stabilizer was covered in purple, leading down to a gauntlet with a circle set in the palm.
The air dimmed around them as Harmony prepared a shot, then a powerful blast of force shot out of the gauntlet and struck a robot right in the center of mass.
"...Yes!"
Harmony swooped down towards the dome, firing blasts at every robot she went past. They were a lot less powerful than the normal force blast, siphoning off part of the energy rather than just emptying her tank, but this let her use it without worrying.
She shot her way through to the dome, making it to the door a little after Mikael. She didn't have time to look around but saw the rampaging armadillos and took a shot at one of them.
edited 25th May '18 4:20:55 AM by FerrousMaelstom
Outside the Dome
"Titanic? But we're not even on a boat! Oh... you probably mean the other titanic... hmmm... maybe...." Remix replied to Mahvash, putting one hand on his chin for a moment. His head tilted around slightly in short, controlled, extremely high-speed movements as he flicked and scrolled scrolled around on his helmet's interface to get the right station started. After second he nodded his head once, and his LEDs flared purple as the beat
started to bang out of his speakers at high volume. "Yes, yes, now this is something you can fight robot bears to!"
He took a running leap at an incoming pseudo-killtron, accelerating himself in the air to flip over its back, and then dancing on its back through the laserfire as he twisted and turned all over to find an electrical panel that he could turbopunch his way through. "You know, Chronodog doesn't roll much off the tongue, and seems like is better name for dog-based hero, no?!" he commented to Lucy as he flitted around.
As the lasers got closer and closer, he backflipped off of the robot as it bucked like a bronco, throwing him in the direction of the dome's entrance.
"Grab on and let's crash this partydome!" he called, momentarily slowing himself down to hold out his hand for someone to grab on before maxing out his speed and rocketing towards the dome.
Deep Forest
With everyone's efforts, every single bot in the area had been reduced to nothing but piles of scrap metal, littering the forest floor beneath them. Flora picked up a small gear and pondered it before tossing it aside like so much junk. "Well. That was interesting." She looked down at the dome. It had sunk into the Earth thanks to Matten's efforts, but cannon inside, it was still very much intact. She turned to the class. "Normally I would order you all to stay put, but desperate times call for desperate measures. That said, a couple of you should stay behind in case anything happens. And I have a hunch that it just might at that. Any volunteers?"
As Flora gave her orders, the werewolf wondered if Vickie's recent burst of power was a good thing. He had wanted her to use the gifts given to her, certainly. To stop whimpering like a sick pup and stand up and fight. But even for a wolf, this might have been taking it too far. Nevermind that she didn't seem to be doing this because she had suddenly regained confidence in herself. Instead, she just seemed pissed. Still, if they were going to defeat the intruders, they would need all the power they could muster. He would let her be for now. He just hoped he wasn't making a mistake.
The Dome
Harmony blasted the armadillo, hoping to stop it cold. The blast hit just under where the armadillo was rolling, knocking it off the ground and sending it flying. It landed on the backside of its' shell, struggling in vain to right itself. For now, it was defenseless. Though if someone didn't act now, there was every chance it wouldn't stay that way for long.
edited 25th May '18 9:52:57 AM by kkhohoho
Breath of the Sun
Dimensional Dome
So the Nazis had somehow built an entire base in the middle of the forest. Fantastisch. Even as Mikael snapped back into a female form, she took to the air, flying over the rolling armadillo-men. Then someone fired a shot at one, and she registered that Caleb had followed her. At least she had backup, then.
Drawing her knife back, she flung it again at the downed armadillo's stomach, the blade shooting forward like a bolt of light. Then she sucked in a breath, and spat a gout of hellfire on the floor in front of the other charging armadillos, creating a trap of searing flame for them to roll into.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
The Dome
As the blade fatally struck the helpless armadillo, the others managed to stop themselves just in front of the wall of hellfire. They may have been large, hulking beasts, but they weren't stupid. They then crouched on all fours as armored plates slid back on each of their shells. Large cannons rose from their backs, firing off crackling blasts of energy. None of them were as powerful or devasting as the cannon on top of the dome, but they were still a force to be reckoned with.
Breath of the Sun
The Dome
She recalled her knife and spun, slashing one energy blast in half and letting the halves pass around her, while one struck her coat, splashing against it and singeing it slightly, but she was able to roll with the momentum of the impact.
She spat another fireblast, this time directly at the armadillos, before tossing her knife again, aiming precisely at the barrel of one of the armadillo's cannons, hoping to lodge the energy blade inside. Perhaps the knife's energy would block the cannon's, and cause the cannon to blow back on the beast? Worth a shot, anyway.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
AKA Nixer
Deep Forest
Meanwhile, inside the combined consciousness of the so-called 'Chernobog', Lucy's sudden uncertainty and concern for those over in the dome could be felt across the mental link by Hei. Another thing the fused umbrakinetic would note is a faint, suppressed something emanating from Lucy's side; an abnormal, wildly potent essence that seemed to be locked behind what could only be described as an incredibly thick wall or door - a mental block. It felt almost as if it was cracked though, the essence trickling through steadily across the link...
Hei, should we... what should we do? Should we go in, or stay out here? Should we unfuse? I don't know if we can both... well, fit in there, that's all...
She seemed rather unsettled, projecting feelings of embarrassment, which was understandable, seeing how even though the telepathic link was fairly weak it wouldn't take much for one to forcefully prise in for a quick peek of the other's inner thoughts. It wasn't something she would attempt, to be very clear, but it was still a possibility, a looming presence.
bork
The Dome
As Mikael tried to take care of the armadillos, Harmony took the opportunity to fly further into the dome and get a bit more height.
Is that a giant robot?!
Focus, Harmony. How about we give them a taste of their own medicine?
More ooze came out of Caleb's right arm and formed something between a dish and a net. As a cannon shot came by, he purposefully caught it and absorbed the energy. In other arm, energy seemed to charge up and gather before firing a larger blast, aiming for the feet of one of the armadillo.
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Deep Forest Expedition—The Once-Invisible Dome (Yard)
"Or just go right in..." Mahvash watched Mikael just charge into the thing, caught between curiosity at his reception and mild concern. Then Remix just charged in after him—and did not think a sinking dome made a good Titanic analogue. So, they stormed the building through the front door, but there's massive no discharge of concentrated weaponry or splattering sounds, so...
Sighing, the daeva did not tend to any of the robo-mooks. They whined a little when they fell apart, but no erroneous hopes and dreams going poof, no spiritual renovations made. Besides, Lucy and Lin had it covered. "You're doing couples' sport already. So much squee!" She shouted over her shoulder. Then again, they chose the name 'Chernobog.' They trying to tell her something? Were they fooling around with some other god?! She did not answer Victoria. Besides, steaming at the implications of the Lucy-Lin name pick, her question 'How was that,' hardly deserved one. She was finally doing her job. It is only expected.
Mahvash kept her attention on her warp ring—and Lucy and Lin cavorting—while feeling out for potential threats around her. Of course the demons were grounded. Still. Or else Mikael would not have charged through the front door. Maybe. She slowly drew a ring of spacetime around herself, only to feel the distorted fabric twist and curve randomly, and become very complex around the dome. ''Huh. Well, not a singularity but...'' The whole area worked like an ergosphere--except no black hole or spinning matter and energy. This would be great for practice had I the time and the space, but warp-ringing inside one of my classmates bodies, being flung into interstellar space, or having to piece myself together from 13 dimensions of space would be counterproductive right now.
Still... Remix, via his command of the the time dimension, rode straight into the dome without a hitch. Experimentally, she warp skipped in a circle. I can work with that, and I can build off of that.
When Flora's question came, the daeva suggested Andrew. "This is exactly his environment," she added. "He can detect threats better and has potential countermeasures all around." Though Ever Green does much better. She could do it alone, but...hm. The others were wild cards. In any case, she would not stay. Again. Mikael and Remix had charged right into someone's domain, right down to the quantum foam. Through the front door.
"Oh, the wise thing to do would be to leave you to your fates..." Mahvash grumbled the thing that she wouldn't do anyway in the direction of Mikael and Remix even while blowing a swarm of moths to precede her own entrance. Carefully checking on her anchors, she followed after them.
Deep Forest Expedition—The Domain the Dome
"You have not 'changed'? You are well, Remix?" Mahvash regarded Remix curiously. She had expected to be tracking and chasing a version of Remix domain-twisted into a heer mook. Mikael..either way. He had the Abyss clinging to him, but said realm explicitly allied to the Deep (where he did not succumb) and the Unseelie Fey Realm. And Dr. Rienbach only ever mentioned these Nazis attacking one of those realms.
"I'm glad that you seem well, right now," She embraced the man, and ran her hands, briefly checking for signs of change. Preemptive aura-marking? No, he'd hardly be able to concentrate, and I'd have split attention too.
"You two, Big Red One." She added to Mikael without looking at him; though she did give him a thumbs up for his with the Blastoise-Sandshrew hybrid things. That still left the Giant Gas Mask Mook. And well, given that they stood in an apparent advance post, a military unit of unknown (but not small) size that did not shrink back from challenging them.
"This is so a trap though," the daeva said evenly to the group, going aloft. "They opened the door and failed to close it when all the robots emerged. And between the spacetime antics and the whack-a-arms from earlier, that hallway there probably only matters for getting large things through quickly." She put her finger to her chin. Long-winded? "In short, we should cover every direction, including the 3rd dimension—up and down. And some of our classmates are staying outside. Flora's instincts sensed that someone needed to keep watch out there." So, I'm missing something, and even she only has it subconsciously.'' "I recommended Andrew for his attunement with the environment out there. And we really have to exchange numbers and make a link." Poor Communication Kills and all that.
edited 25th May '18 1:39:38 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
Forest
As Class 1 trickled into the Dome, Hei was curiously inspecting mental block, ignoring the energy seeping into his mind. While he had no current interest in invading Lucy’s mind, the odd familiarity of the essence roused his curiousity, especially since it was hidden behind this block. Hei (metaphorically) placed his hands on the block and prepared to widen the crack.
He wanted to know what it was. He wanted to find the answer...
Hei...should we...what should we do?
Through the mental link, Lucy would feel the rising tide of curiosity settle and recede slightly, along with a hint of regret. ”...Let’s unfuse. Don’t think we can fit inside like this.” Hei replied, putting the task at hand above his desire. ”I saw something curious over the link. Can we talk about it later tonight?”
Back in the real world, the figure of Chernobog dissolved into a vortex of ink and shadow, which reformed into Hei and Lucy. Already, Hei could hear the sounds of gunfire inside the dome, and hurried inside.
Dome Interior
Ignoring the violation of space for now, Hei leapt into action as a laser blast missed him. Slamming his hands onto the ground, The armadillos foind themselves skewered by dark spikes that shot out of their own shadows.
edited 25th May '18 1:34:04 PM by svenorzokarkoff
AKA Nixer
Deep Forest
The ethereal, almost otherworldly essence had somewhat flared as Hei prepared to open the 'door', pouring more of itself into him, and Lucy could have sworn she heard a soft whimper on her end. Like someone was terrified.
Something locked down deep in her subconscious shifted and gave way slightly, but she was too distracted by the earlier phenomenon.
Who could have made that noise? It certainly wasn't her. Was it Inkwell?
If it was, what on this conceivable earth could manage to scare her?!
Deciding to file this away for later, Lucy sent a feeling of agreement across the link at Hei's decision, before it was rapidly overtaken by embarrassment at his latter note, which increased even as they cut the link and unfused from their construct.
“U-Um... o-okay...?”
She stayed stationary for a moment, her face burning a bright scarlet before she forced herself to rush after him.
Oh god... what did he see...? she mentally panicked. Please don't be anything... anything... oh god why's the world spinning- AH!
She nearly lost her balance from a short-lived blackout even at the implied direction her thoughts were beginning to go, her blush practically purple now from the blood rushing up into her head as she managed to right herself, determinedly continuing to follow Hei into the dome.
Don'tthinkaboutitdon'tthinkaboutitdon'tthinkaboutit...
The Dome
By the time she had caught up with Hei, the colour of her face had reduced to a much less unhealthy looking light pink, and she practically threw herself into battle, congealing ink around her ankles and launching herself up above Hei as he performed a spike attack, launching a few globules of ink at any armadillos that he had missed in an effort to restrain them. Funny, she should have started to come down by now-
Realising something, more specifically a weight on her back, she froze, slowly turning around only to nearly pass out from shock at the sight that greeted her.
There was a pair of batlike wings extending out from her shoulder blades, dripping ink onto the floor below with each instinctive flap she made. It kind of seemed unnecessary, especially since the only way it was keeping her aloft was by her psychically levitating it instead of any actual air displacement (there was no way it would be aerodynamic enough to get her off the ground anyway without external help), but all of this was overshadowed by the gleeful realisation that she had fulfilled a dream she had always had but had never seemed to have realised she could innately do.
HOLY CRAP I CAN FLY!
An ecstatic grin threatening to tear apart her cheeks, she suddenly burst forward, her arms extending into large claws of black ink as she attempted to snatch up one of the armadillos to take off again with.
edited 25th May '18 5:01:13 PM by Enirboreh
bork
Surrounded by weirdoes
Sam simply nodded to Flora as he walked into the enemy base. The place inside was... quite impressive. How the hell did they make this without anyone noticing?! What else are these guys packing?
"Well" He said, conversationally "No one hit the self-destruction when we got in, so we can check it out" Looking at the armadillos, he went to freeze a few and forcing them to shatter, tossing their remains into their allies. Once he got a chance, he'll try to freeze the insides of that giant robot. Let's see how mean it is when it can't even move the arms. Right now, there were questions.
Teleportation doesn't work here, god knows whether they entered another dimension by accident and he had to check if he had service here. The place was probably full of traps and enemies, but getting this done quickly seemed like the best choice. What to do?
Wake me up at your own risk.
Deep Forest
With the robots taken care of, Victoria charged into the dome, a droning hum around her.
The Dome
As soon as she dashed into the dome, Victoria noticed the armadillos all positioned neatly in front of Mikael's hellfire. With a wave of her hand, she send a wave of force at them to give the little push they needed to go into the flames. When her eyes fell on the giant robot inside the Dome, her eyes narrowed, the surge of energy and feral instinct flowing through her numbing her mind.
"Mine. I'm gonna turn that into nothing more than a junk heap."
With a flick of her wrists, her claws shot out, a deep growl rumbling from her throat.
"And then this entire place!"
Just a guy with a sword made of depression
Jack had been lost. He had been wandering the forest for quite some time, looking for the rest of his class, walking for quite some time when he came across an apparent battlefield with a dome in the background.
It seemed mostly empty with a couple classmates left behind and some robot parts. He saw one of his classmates on the ground and ran up to him. "Sorry I'm late, I don't know if we've met; name's Jack." He said to the surrounding people. He reached down to the unconscious kid and slapped him across the face as hard as he could. "Hey, dude. You should probably wake up. People are in trouble...I think!" Jack slapped him another time for good measure.
edited 25th May '18 4:21:26 PM by TulpaSwordsman
The Dome — Roasted Armadillo
Thanks to the efforts of Class 1, the angry assault of avigrated armadillos had been dealt with. Some had been crushed, others speared, others still exploded, and some even roasted on fire, but either way, there were nothing but dead armadillos as far as the eye could see. All that remained was an inactive robot and a large corridor. And the only way to know where it led was to throw caution to the wind and head straight on through.
With the beasties dealt with, Flora and the others rushed on in. Only to see that Class 1 had done just fine without them.
"Killgore has not had roasted armadillo since time he slaughtered twelve dozen of them in Hall of Reckoning. Smell brings back memories."
Ellie rushed over to Mikael, making sure she wasn't hurt. "Hey, you okay? Man, this place looks like Hell. Seriously, a shit ton of dead burnt carcasses was Tuesday down there."
"Language, Ellie," said Flora. "In any case, it appears that the Reich has established much more of a foothold than we thought." She glanced at the giant robot. "In any case, we can't simply let them do as they please. Class, let us move on through, shall we?"
Meanwhile, the werewolf had been watching Vickie's little temper tantrum with interest as he took down his own share of beasties. And he wasn't impressed. "Are you now? And are you also going to take everyone else with it. You may be a werewolf, but that doesn't make you a beast. But if you continue the way you are, then that is what you may as well be! Is that something you truly wish to risk?"
edited 25th May '18 4:42:43 PM by kkhohoho
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
Deep Forest Expedition—The Domain of the Dome—Doesn't Look that Familiar Yet
The daeva sweatdropped, not glancing at but certainly feeling much of the class stampede through the door. "...You all just ran in? ...I suppose that is heroic instinct, what of it that I know." The others did not have to charge into the enemy's home field. Hell, Samuel would have been perfect for blockading the place from the outside. And he ran in here. How does he know they don't have dogs?
She gave the place another brief once-over. "Well," she thought aloud. "whatever our counterparts have waiting here, they're inevitably going to teach us a great deal provided we live through the exploration. Dr. Rienbach and Armada will certainly be interested in this." And what they have stockpiled lets us infer as to their plans.
I suppose Flora is going for the big prize, storm and capture the entire base, instead of trickling samples out and degrading the thing, bit by bit. They know that we're here though, so how to neutralize that advantage...? Well, foremost, if we can deal with whatever is keeping the demons grounded, then we can force and refuse encounters on our terms. Or stay clear of any devices.
After giving Remix another once-over—entirely to look after his health—she felt out the others rather than looked at them. At first to inspect their status, but then...
"My what a form for you, Lucy," Mahvash cooed over the girl. "Good on going with bat wings. That mammalian design is more aerodynamic than that of the bird's." Beat. "Er, you'll fly better and use less energy too." Sure, she probably was just levitating, but it seemed nice to notice the design choice. 'Nazis' killed Livingston in that future vision too. Or said they did. I never told her about that did I?
"And the giant must have been the perfect bonding opportunity for you two." She tilted her head, looking the girl in the ye in a token effort at social grace. First thing's first. "I'm mildly curious. Why do you call it Chernobog?"
edited 26th May '18 5:45:04 AM 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
The Dome
Lucy went a little red at the praise, lowering herself down from the air slowly before absorbing the ink wings back through her clothing into her skin, wincing slightly and absently rolling her shoulders.
I should probably make a harness next time...
“Um... I didn't really think about it...” she admitted hesitantly to Matten's question. “I knew it meant 'black god' or something like that, so it was the first thing that came to mind... a-and the design itself wasn't much either. I modelled it after something in a game I saw my brother play a few years back,” she added a little sheepishly.
To be honest, she could count the alterations made on one hand. Or specifically, two fingers. One was the size; she had made 'Chernobog' a little larger than the design she had seen, and she had added a couple more limbs to its back.
That was it, really. So she felt a little guilty about basically ripping off a design she had seen, and was inwardly already planning alterations.
She wondered what it'd look like with bat wings...
She shook that train of thought away. She could work all that out later on.
Speaking of her inner ponderings, she had noticed that it was rather quiet in her mind for once. No headaches, no irritating random hallucinations. There was a vague, gradual increase of... something that she felt now, though. It made her feel... more capable, for lack of a better term. A little bolder, perhaps. But at the same time, there was a bit of the something that was missing. It was like... it was like somebody had cut the cap off of the top of a water bottle, along with some of the liquid inside it, and had taken it away from her, never to be replaced. Lost potential, perhaps.
What was really strange, though, and continuing her previous metaphor, was that whenever she looked over at Hei, it felt as if he was the one to have taken that cap, and was somehow holding it instead of her.
And the more she thought about it, the more she realised how this had only occurred to her after they had separated from their 'Chernobog' form.
edited 26th May '18 6:36:14 AM by Enirboreh
bork
The Dome
Caleb hovered back and forth a little, the flying equivalent of pacing, as everyone gathered. As he did so he sucked up small amounts of energy, charging up for the inevitable next fight. As he did so, he overheard the others' discussion.
"Chernobog. Old Slavic god, not a lot of concrete folklore though."
Not waiting for any response, he formed a tower shield from his right hand and started down the hallway.
Deep Forest
Lucy stood stock still as one of the robots approached, warping and bending around its shots by turning her body into ink. Once it was only a couple dozen metres away, she shot out a tendril of ink from her abdomen, which morphed into a clawed hand almost resembling that of a human, tightly gripping the robot's body and dragging it at high speed towards her. Rearing back her ink covered fist, adding a little more mass (and a few spikes for good measure) to it, she punched it full force, effectively clotheslining the machine and causing it to perform a clumsy half-flip before crashing flat on its back onto the ground, the spikes from her fists having detached inside its mechanical face and slowly seeping into its innards.
Already turning around and moving on, she apparently didn't notice it getting back up, intent on firing at her from behind. At least, until she flicked her wrist up behind her, causing it to shoot up a good distance into the sky via the ink now spread across its interior form. She made a twisting motion with her hand, warping the ink and causing the poor mechanoid to crinkle out of shape like a tin can, before letting it crash to the ground in a mangled heap.
That done, and pumped full of adrenaline, she burst into a mass of ink, weaving through the throng of robots and up to wherever Hei had positioned himself. Reforming (and promptly backhanding another robot behind her in the face with an ink-reinforced slap) she looked to him with a questioning expression, albeit one mixed with both eagerness and a hint of trepidation.
“Sh-should we do it? I'm kind of nervous, but... it might be cool...” she asked him tentatively, her surge of confidence briefly receding somewhat by her unsureness before it quickly reignited, all indicated by the dimming and brightening of the glow in her eyes. She was clearly trying to hide her excitement at the thought of performing the technique with him, plus the reaction of the others.
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