Mai, Beetle Burrow

"Uh, I feel it, too," Mai frowned as if extremely worried about what might be about to happen with the earth shaking. "Can this beetle move any faster?"

She knew they needed to get Galo, Lio, and Nia to where Livewire and her allies were.

Wizard Needs Food Badly

Galo and Lio, Quakes That Probably Aren't Normal

"Yeah, I sure can feel that." Galo confirmed.

"Me as well." Lio agreed. "I don't like the sound of that rumbling..." Then Buzz pointed out that something might be coming towards them, and Lio shuddered. "And I like the sound of that even less."

If whatever was making that noise really was homing in on them, then that was going to be a serious problem, because if a creature was the source of it...then that creature would have to be really, really big. Lio just hoped it wasn't fire-resistant.

Something's Fishy Here...

Brigitte Lindholm - Grön armor - Donnie's lair - Get that payload moving.

Brigitte hopped up quickly onto the beetle, since she was already right there, and looked over towards Donnie. "Come on, hurry!" she called out, and would give him a moment to get over to the beetle before she looked down towards its head. "To the star building! Not too quickly, don't leave Tron behind!" the engineer told the beetle hastily, then held on tight as it started to move...

You are reading this.

Nia, Beetle Burrow: Where's an Earth Blade when You Need One?

Just as soon as the beetles moved out, the earth around them started trembling. Feeling the vibrations all over her, Nia shouted out, "You're bloody joking!"

When the possibility that it was from something approaching them, she got angry, well angrier than usual. She was not gonna let this opportunity be taken away from some beast! She tried to prod the beetle to move with her feet, "Come on! Get your chitinous arse moving!"

"I treasure every day with you, darling." "No need to be so sappy, love." "You know that's how she is, Nia." - AU!Pyra, Nia, Mythra

Shantae the half-genie hero - the Star Station

Shantae jumped when Dabi walked right back up to her to... try and give her advice on the fight? Shantae furrowed her brow, nodding and running back in towards the building. Luckily, the fire seemed to be mostly eaten up by the... ice girl?

Confusing battle aside, Shantae ran in the direction of Killer Frost and tried to whip her hair in the direction of the girl. She noticed at once that the ground was beginning to shake— she hoped that the building was going to be stable after being ripped apart by flames.

I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.

Baro Is Not The Worst Driver In This Game

Baro didn't really have the best start in the race either, mostly because he assumed pushing on the steering wheel would cause acceleration and it took him a bit to figure out that no it was one of the pedals that did that. Once he figured that out he took off at a respectable pace for someone who'd never done this kind of land-locked racing before (he did at one point try to pull back on the wheel as though that would allow the kart to take off, to no effect).

"Oh don't worry, I'm not exactly versed in this either."

And then his gaming companion just kind of stopped playing for a few moments after hitting one of the mobile obstacle... People? Baro assumed they were some manner of creature at least, given how it was mobile and had eyes but for the life of him he could not identify what manner of thing it truly was. But still, the loss of composure in Daisy was something he noticed and he slowed down a little to shift a little attention off of the game.

"We can call this one a draw if you'd like, maybe find a game that suits our sensibilities better?"

It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.

Daisy Buchanan - Arcade - I'm Alright (lie) but Thanks for Your Concern (gen)

Daisy looked over her shoulder to hear Baro suggesting to call a draw. She could tell that Baro was concerned for her from his tone of voice.

"That's fine by me, but let's finish this round before we go find a different game."

Daisy kept driving, this time intentionally slower to minimize the risk of hitting another NPC. She drove until she barely reached the finish line in the final round, settled in dead last. She wasn't bothered by it as she wasn't that good at the game to begin with.

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on May 19th 2023 at 6:19:41 AM

Victor of HGS S320 | "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember."

Zan, Star Station

The horned woman glanced down at Dabi as he spoke, her nose wrinkling just faintly at the familiar smell. Just from a look, she could tell this young human was a mess. And in a way that felt ritualistic and deliberate, with the way his injuries looked. So likely crazy or cultish.

"Horns?" She snorted faintly, before looking back towards the fighting. "Creative. I'm deciding on that still. It's not really my fight, but I could use the stress relief..."

"So what's with the face and arms?" Zan asked, watching as the building looked ready to collapse at any moment. There wasn't any reason to throw herself into it just yet, in that case. "Some kind of cult shit?"

Teemo just in.

The task of climbing the big branch was monumental but nothing a bandle scout cant handle, now to search the star building.

The noises of the strife and trading of attacks indicated clearly where to go, sneakily Teemo goes inside the building trough the entrance until he saw frosthmoth with a bit of fire on his wings, silently he points a finger at him a green ligth enveloping the zone of the wound and the fire, healing the zone. If frostmoth cared to look who did it he would find Teemo putting a finger to his lips like he is shushing so his position wouldnt be given away to the elemental trio.

Back to the sneaking Teemo hides on a corner since he is barely moving he becomes invisible, loading a blinding dart (which looked like a big bee instead of a dart.) into his blowgun aim it at Volcana and shoot if the dart lands, her vision would be gone for a moment.

Star Station

Well, don't get overconfident, Stocking, because this was a woman who could turn into electricity with a thought. With a squeal, she dissolved her form just barely in time to not be bisected, though for what it was worth Stocking did manage to get the shot on her hand before that.

She shot to a counter, and rematerialized gripping her hand in pain. It was kinda hard to tell, since apparently she didn't bleed, but it looked pretty damn gnarled and not likely to see much use. "Son of a—! Alright, dollie, I was having some fun with—"

She paused her angry shouting as a burning piece of ceiling dropped down from above her, forcing her to zap to the side. "I was having some fun with you at first, but now you've really pissed me off. The gloves are off, gurl!" With a loud cry, she raised her good hand, sending a massive bolt Stocking's way, before taking off in a run, launching more bolts whilst trying to stay ahead of Stocking's likely counterattacks. Additionally, one might notice she was getting closer to the entrance...

As for Volcana, well, a mere guy approaching with a gun wasn't so bad...or, it wouldn't have been if Teemo's dart hadn't struck true. Unaware of his presence, she had been, shall we say, blindsided by his move, stumbling as it pierced her skin.

"What—?" She yanked it out roughly, though it wasn't enough to prevent the toxin from doing its work, and this all left an opening for Hunk to close the distance...

Killer Frost, who regained her bearings just as he was raising the gun to Volcana's form, didn't look too alarmed, but from the look in her face her teammate dying was enough of an inconvenience that it demanded her intervention. She conjured a large ice block, managing to block Shantae's hair whip, and swung it violently at Hunk's side.

Frosmoth paused momentarily in his escape from the surprise of having his burn healed, sparing a glance at Teemo and then going on his way a little more calmly. That is to say, he relaxed enough to settle a bit of distance away from where all the rando newcomers were gathering outside. "Whew..." He perched at the base of a branch, near where the Crow guy was apparently failing to spot something beneath them. That fire was looking kinda bad...maybe he should...he lifted up into the air and used Snowscape, a light snow accordingly falling over the building. It didn't stop the growing fire, but did seem to slow it down to a degree.

Ground level

The rumbling continued for a while, constant but not gaining strength. Eventually, it quieted down slowly and ultimately stopped like nothing had happened...for the Beetle Group.

For the lab it was a different story. By contrast, the rumbling on their end grew gradually louder, louder, like it was just within the walls. And sure enough, it...abruptly stopped? What the?

Did it lose interest? Get tired and fall asleep? Or was it still just outside, keeping them in suspense, waiting for just the right moment when they all let down their guard...?

A few moments passed in total silence, waiting for the pin to drop, before a bug-eyed behemoth of a creature burst through the wall of the lab, letting out a great cry, launching its tongue to scoop up any unlucky sap who couldn't get out of the way in time.

Emperor Bulblax Bug-eyed King of the Burrows

Following its attempt to feed, it rushed forward, crushing the contents of the room underfoot.

Edited by Oceanstuck on May 20th 2023 at 4:02:57 AM

i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess

Sayaka

Beetle (Not the Volkswagen)

Sayaka braced herself as heard a loud noise, like a truck speeding by. She summoned her swords, in preparation for an attack. Luckily, the shaking subsided.

As the beetle kept moving in Shantae's direction, Sayaka could see a column of smoke, with a dark cloud above a building.
"Shantae-san is that way! Let's go!" she shouted, pointing to the Star building with her sword.

"Enshittification truly is how platforms die"-Cory Doctorow

Brigitte Lindholm - Grön armor - Donnie's lair - Curse you, Miyamoto!

As the rumbling got more intense, Brigitte held onto the seat on the back of the beetle's back tightly. When it abruptly stopped, she narrowed her eyes and glanced around. It didn't leave, did it? If it had, they should have heard the rumbling get gradually quieter and more distant. Sure, whatever it was had stopped, but seemingly stopped right on top of them. She drew her mace and shield in anticipation...

Then suddenly, there it was! The creature was odd to Brigitte, looking like basically just the head of something with two relatively stubby legs underneath it, but was still massive in comparison to them. If she had to guess, this thing had to be... Probably like the size of a dog, actually, but in their present circumstances that was a very big problem. It made her think of the massive Null Sector Omnic she'd fought not long ago, but this time she didn't have Reinhardt and the others backing her up. At least this thing didn't have missiles and a huge laser beam... Well, she hoped it didn't, at least.

"Go! Go!" Brigitte said, the beetle underneath hastily scrambling forward and narrowly avoiding the large tongue. She worried that the massive beast might still be able to catch up to them though. Regardless, there was one other order of business first. "Everyone okay?!" the engineer called out, prepared to throw a repair pack at Tron, Donnie, or both, if either of them seemed hurt.

You are reading this.

Hunk's well honed instincts kicked in as he heard the ice chunk flying his way. Like the Lickers of advanced T-Virus degradation, he managed to dodge to the side before chucking a frag grenade right at Killer Frost.

His attention turned back to Volcana, no hesitation, W-870 raised right up, barrel near point blank. He pulled the trigger and racked the empty shotgun shell out.

Donnie, Please Don't Break My Stuff

The rumbling had stopped.

...

This was not any less concerning.

"Yeah, I'm in favor of getting out of here now before—"

Too late! Something burst through the walls and what the heck is that— Donnie instinctively leapt backward, pulling out his bo staff and catching the whatever-it-was's tongue on it. The force of the blow nearly knocked his staff out of his hands, but he held tight, spinning it around a bit to wrap the tongue around it just enough—

—then activating its thrusters and moving to slam the whatever-it-was to the ground.

Or at least knock it off its feet, for a bit.

That done (assuming it, y'know, worked) Donnie grabbed onto the beetle with one hand, the other tightly clutching the bo. "Yeah, I'm good! Just focus on getting out of here!"

I swear, if this place gets destroyed within a day of finding it I'm gonna...

"Kept me waiting, haven’t you? Tch. No matter. Dawdle all you’d like. In the end, your defeat remains inevitable."

Shantae the half-genie hero - the Star Station

Shantae whipped her hair forward, which was blocked by a huge block of ice conjured by Killer Frost, before Shantae flipped backwards to dodge the swing. She moved to try and make another whip at Killer Frost, before the ground shook again and threw her off balance. Managing to keep her footing, she looked towards the others.

"What was that?!" she shouted, catching her breath, again trying to hair whip at Killer Frost.

I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.

Stocking, Star Building

If Stocking was annoyed at the electro-bitch getting away, she didn't show it. She just bared her teeth in a savage grin.

"Big talk for a one-handed skank!" She fired back.

Twin swords came up to intercept the lightning bolt. Thankfully, her blades did not conduct electricity very well, being divine cloth rather than metal, and as a result the shock dissipated, leaving only a pleasant tingle in Stocking's hands.

Even as the lightning villain fled, Stocking pursued, glowing blades swinging to deflect the incoming lightning blasts. One slipped past her guard, and pain coursed through her, but she didn't drop her blades. Instead, Stocking actually moaned, the white-hot sting of being shocked only serving to excite her nerves and heat her up.

"If you're gonna do that, at least buy me dinner first!" Her face now flushed, Stocking continued to chase the villain towards the exit, flying over rubble and retaliating against the lightning bolts with her own sword beams.

What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?

Teemo being a little shit.

Nobody knew of his presence yet thats perfect, and it looks this trio cares about each other enough to where the ice lady will use her constructs to defend others of her team.

Teemo thougth for a next course of action. Its clear that ice woman wont let any attacks slide towards he teamates her abilities over ice wont let it, but she is also the only one who can create solid matter, fire and ligtning dont create solid walls to defend from the explosives the soldier guy is using so to make his job easier Teemo points his finger at Killer frost using exhaust to slow her down and generaly making her feel exhausted.

Moving quickly and using the chaos of battle to hide his existence and repositioning himself away from the electric lady and Stocking he doesnt want any stray ligthing bolts at his direction. In the middle of repositioning he shoots a normal poison dart at Volcana using the fact she is still blind she shouldnt see it coming, but you cant be so sure.

As the beetle approached the Star Building, Narancia summoned Aerosmith once again, intending to use his Stand for reconnaissance. However, that plan quickly went out the window when Narancia saw the building engulfed in flames. Oh, great. Not only it would make the battle more risky, but it rendered Aerosmith's carbon dioxide detector useless. Narancia gritted his teeth, realizing they'll have to go in blind.

"Guys?," he said, turning to Galo and Lio. "Do you have... I don't know, some way to put that fire out?"

As the beetle emerged from the tunnel, Narancia leapt off its back and surveyed the surroundings. The building was on fire, it was snowing for some reason, and sounds of combat were coming from inside. All in all, it seemed like they'd missed most of the fun. "Hold on!," he said to Sayaka. "We shouldn't just rush in without a plan, right?!"

Narancia approached the people who were loitering in front of the building, hoping they could provide some preliminary information. "Hey, you! What's going on inside?"

Galo and Lio, the Burning Star Station

Galo frowned as he saw the Star Station going up in smoke and fire.

"What the hell?" he groaned. "Someone set a building on fire? In a city made of wood? Dammit, I've gotta stop this ASAP, before it spreads!"

He reached for his staff, only to remember that, oh right, he was currently missing his Matoi Tech due to the fact that it was being fixed. He let out another groan, this one much more dejected and sad.

"Oh, this isn't good..."

He heard Narancia bring up putting out the fire, and quickly responded. "Yeah, I would, but my Matoi Tech's not really here at the moment! Dammit, what are we gonna do?"

He put his fingers to his temples as he scrunched his face up in concentration.

"Think, Galo, think..." he muttered to himself. "How do we put this out? Cumon, we don't have much time..."

Lio frowned as he watched his partner try to think of the solution. Then, an idea came to him. Galo's abilities may not have been available at the moment, but perhaps there was another way...

"I have a suggestion." he said, and Galo immediately perked up. "We might not be able to stop the fire, but we can still prevent it from spreading to the other buildings by walling it off until it runs out of fuel. One building will burn to the ground, but it'll save the others from meeting a similar fate."

"Wait...that's...that's GENIUS!" Galo declared, leaping to his feet. "Lio, you're a legend!" He turned to the others. "Hey guys, what do you think about this?"

Something's Fishy Here...

Sayaka

Star Station

Sayaka listened to what Galo and Nio suggested. "But what about the people inside? Don't we have to go get them?" Sayaka said, getting ready to barge in.

Edited by minseok42 on May 28th 2023 at 10:18:48 AM

"Enshittification truly is how platforms die"-Cory Doctorow

Nia, Star Station: A Blazing Star

Nia looked behind to see that whatever made the rumbling has made its presence known quite a bit away from them. A part of her wants to go back and at least fend the beast off, but she knows that means throwing her chance away. A few moments after thinking, she decided to stay the course, hoping that whoever's dealing with it now would make it.

Shortly after, she spots the building in its current state, but the star's still there. "Talk about a trial by fire," Nia said to herself as she sees the currently burning building.

Hearing the suggestion from the duo, Nia looked at her chest, more specifically, the center of it. Her mind went to whipping that out, but that fear came again and with it, the questions in her mind. She shakes her head and looks at the two as well as Sakuya, "Yeah, we'll work with that. Can't rush in without a game plan, unless you wanna take a risk with a burning building."

She glanced over at Zan and a guy with some grisly-as-hell burns over him before she looked for any openings to see which one among their group is fighting and when would it be a good idea to jump in. Her grip on the sword remained tight; the idea of taking a life didn't sit well with her, but death had no permanence. If anyone bites it, they'll be back before long, and the same applies to her and anyone that she has to kill. With a deep breath, she scanned the building for any openings.

"I treasure every day with you, darling." "No need to be so sappy, love." "You know that's how she is, Nia." - AU!Pyra, Nia, Mythra

Beetle Burrow to Star Building

Thankfully for Buzz, the rumbling stopped but somehow he was not relieved but rather worried about whoever had to deal with the monstrosity elsewhere. That was the impression he got but he focused on that thought because he along with the others had arrived at their destination.

All around the Space Ranger, fire was present, burning the very building they were trying to find in the first place to the ground. "Great Scott..." Buzz managed to gasp out as he looked on at the carnage before him.

Lio then suggested the idea of walling up the Star building to stop the flames from spreading to the others in the City. "Yes your right. There's not much we can do about the fires now. But that doesn't mean we can't do something about it,especially when we consider the fact the very City itself is now a forest, there's a lot of wood about and letting it spread is not an option." Buzz then summarised to Galo and Lio in particular.

"Only the question now is: what can we use to fortify the other buildings with?"

Mai, Finally At The Star Building

Mai was relieved when the rumbling stopped, but she also realized that whatever it was was probably somewhere else, and it seemed very big from the rumbling. In any case, the group had stopped in front of the Star Building, which was currently on fire. Well, that was a problem.

When Sayaka asked her question about the people inside, Mai chose that moment to dismount from the Beetle and answer. "Go help Lio get the fire under control... I'll see about saving the people inside."

And then Mai ran towards the entrance, cloaking her body in flames as she entered the building. While she couldn't control mundane fire, she could completely control her own flames, and hopefully, her being cloaked in her own flames would prevent her from being burned by the mundane fire.

Wizard Needs Food Badly

Tron - Donnie's Lab

"Is that it...?" Tron said from the Gustaf's speaker, it's robotic head turning this way and that in search of damage or signs of danger. She didn't think earthquakes stopped so suddenly, but she was more used to airship turbulence than tremors.

Just as she was ready to turn the machine back toward the tunnel one of the walls exploded, causing her to jump in her seat "What the heck?!" Donnie seemed to be the nearest and attempted to block it's tongue with his staff while the ladybug-ish Gustaf raised it's canon arm and fired some not so ladybug like laser blasts at the beast's face while taking a couple steps backwards toward the stag-beetle tunnel, still carrying the Matoi Tech armor its shoulder and ready to try and slow it down while the others got moving. Tron was rather glad the cannon seemed to be working as usual, since she hadn't really gotten a chance to test it after today's makeover.

"Donnie, get out of there!"

Dabi; Or, Fireplace Gathering - Star Building

Unfortunately, his moveset was limited - and most of potential enemies looked to be fireproof or fire absorbers. Of course, with the latter, there was usually a limit as to how much they could absorb before they popped, but Dabi didn't feel like testing that theory down. Best case scenario, Killer Frost would just melt down like a nuclear reactor and take everything here with her; worst case, he'd just get his face punched in.

Stormtrooper looked to be doing alright for a normal, and the lady with a striped sword was keeping the pace too. Hey, at least he didn't have to stick his neck out after starting the problem in the first place. But then again, Dabi was just helping move it all along; Stocking's combative personality would have caused a fight either way... speaking of a fight, something was en route here, judging by the tremors in the ground.

When his grafts were compared to "some cult shit", he craned his neck at Zan with a crooked smile. Not the first comparison he would have used. "My doctor was a hack." Dabi mused, idly wiping some red spot leaking out from the graft under his eye. "But, to be fair, it's hard to walk off being at point zero of a 2000 C forest fire."

Cue new arrivals. A whole gaggle of them to go together with the rumbling subsiding. Guess the beast responsible decided to go after someone else. A few of the newcomers seemed smart, talking about putting out the flames or boxing them in (wonder who started them? Dabi couldn't say). Others... less so, jumping into the burning pile of wood and leaves. One lady even wreathed herself in her own flames, how cute.

"Some asshole set fire to the place. Couldn't tell you who." Said the man who still had the smoke coming off his grafts back to Narancia. "Anyway, there's a trio of Spice Girls inside; one eats heat, one is electricity. They're a mean type, fighting Stormtrooper and Goth Moth inside."

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Jun 3rd 2023 at 1:08:32 PM

grah