A Game of Gods: A Multiversal Challenge

Raz shot Spriggan a glare. "Really!? I hadn't noticed."

"You have more than enough potential. So tell me what is the one wish that would make your soul gem shine." -Mitt Romney, probably

"Excuse me..." Bowser muttered as he brushed past Flandre to get to Dr. Langley, whom he then began to adress.

"The longer we sit around, the more likely we're going to be vapourized. And that's not including whatever else may find us first, like that big manta thing that was chasing you earlier. So I shall speak for all of us when I say 'Go Faster.'"

To be seen, stand up To be heard, speak up To be appreciated, shut up

"I agree," Dr. Langley said, slamming her foot down on the pedal with more force than was strictly necessary. The spinnerbus surged forward, rocketing into maximum speed with so little acceleration that everyone not already seated was flung violently backwards. Ravage staggered several feet before he managed to magnetize his soles, keeping him firmly rooted to the floor.

Overhead, the darkness was suddenly cast aside as an intense light flared into existence far above, rapidly building in intensity for several seconds until it seemed like a star on the verge of going nova. Then the air was suddenly dry and extremely hot, and a devastatingly intense hyphen of blue-white light half a kilometre thick streaked down from the heavens to blow a large portion of the forest into so many free-floating atoms. A tremendous pressure wave rippled outward from the beam's point of impact, slamming into and over Bolas' shield and causing it to buckle dangerously, and then the entire forest burst into a veritable inferno for miles in all directions.

"Slag!" Ravage swore. "Bolas, can your shield take another hit like that?"

The Danse Macabre Codex

Kimimaro had grabbed onto the seat, and for a few seconds that grip was the only contact with a solid surface he had before he could bring his feet back down. The orbital strike left him awestruck.

"They're seriously committing overkill here. Even Deidara of the Akatsuki would probably be a little awestruck at that amount of power in a single blast."

edited 28th May '11 9:35:33 PM by DKN117

Bendy Slendy in Upendi. Also, check out my fic

Rey grunted, glancing out at the sudden bright light, eyes going wide, then he pulled Link closer, pushing him down somewhat and more or less huddling over him, gasping softly as he tried to keep Link's head pushed down, as though to shield him from what was happening. "Oh Dios mio..."

Easing back into life one step at a time

Wonder what's Raz's deal anyway?

Spriggan ignored Raz's sarcasm as he began to check on the K3 LMG.

Better use this in case of trouble... The worst kind.

The Doctor tries to turn on the TARDIS. "Come on darling! Speak to me!"

To Be Updated when I'm not Lazy

"Depends on how much time between blasts, golem. The shield can make a full and complete recovery fairly quickly, but I do not know how often they can sling about such powerful attacks. Bolas had now taken up a position underneath the bus. The bus could better shield him than he could shield it, and if everyone in it had died but he remained alive he could always regenerate certain key members of the crew.

edited 28th May '11 9:43:18 PM by SOCR

How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?

The sudden lurch sent Bowser backwards, hitting one of the seats and sending him and the resulting bone fragment explosion flying to the back of the bus.

Miraculously, no one was hit, but there might have been a few grazes here and there.

Once Bowser and the rest of him had finished hitting the back of the bus, he started to voice his opinion...

"Son of a-WHAT THE HECK?!?"

Then he saw the beam and the result.

To be seen, stand up To be heard, speak up To be appreciated, shut up

Beyond the red star, beyond the glowing jewel of a prison planet which orbited it, was nothing save for the dust and particle inhabited depths of space. To the unassisted human ear, space is filled with an unnerving silence, but with the right equipment one can hear the roar of the solar static, the squealing beeps of pulsars, the garbled syllables of radio and x-ray transmissions sent ages ago... Except that on this hour, the noise of the spectrum is growing quiet, some transmissions being cut off abruptly, a geiger counter-like rattle replacing them for but a second before even that dies. Soon, with the exception of the area within the planet's orbital radius, space truly is silent.

Two light-days distance below the star, the rays and heat of space have begun to redirect and cool, the stars visible in that direction dimming their glow at an alarming rate. At a level beyond the electromagnetic spectrum, the Field blazes on, as it has done for uncounted years, undeterred by this bizarre presence. It had kept the justicars and hunters of the multiverse away from its divine creators without failure for the duration of its functioning. Oh, there had been a few cleverer ones who actually managed to discover the Field, and tried to get in, but they had always given up in the end, unless the masters let them in; this had happened so seldomly that the Nomads had largely ceased paying attention to it. Which would soon prove to be a disastrous mistake.

Outside the great Field, down into the now silent and cold void of deep space, something glimmered dully in the darkness, catching the red light of the star. In the cosmic scale of things, a star was still supreme, but any planet short of a gas giant would be diminished in comparison to the strange body moving with steady and determined speed for the Field. Anyone possibly watching right now, divine or otherwise, would see little more than a dislocated, overlarge, unremarkable planet, even at second glance. But anyone with the instruments, power, and interest to look at it properly would see no ordinary terrestrial body. In fact, they wouldn't see a planet at all. They would see a darkened circle, itself at the centre of a larger glimmering one set in segments, a series of lines converging like a many-pointed star going across it ( the heat registered sufficient to burn steel), the great points of impossibly tall curving towers emanating from its sides. The rest of it was cloaked in darkness save for the odd dual outlines.

As it reached the Field's edge, the ring around the body came into view, softly phosphorescing in a way which, were anyone at watch, would induce the desire to look at anything else in the universe but it. The thought of endless piles of corpses from every species in the multiverse would soon follow that brief glimpse. The entity, for such a thing would now be impossible to call a planet, continued onward, coming to a halt as the very tips of the towers were a mere centimetre away from the edge of the Field, the surface of it rippling like water disturbed by a quake. For a moment in time, the entity is completely still, and then the circle at the centre of it opens. For a second, those conceivably watching would see harsh, blasting light, a poisonously yellow dwarf star, and their minds would writhe, their hearts would sicken, and they would be forced to avert their eyes, gasping in unknown terror. And then all which could be seen was a white-grey cloud, lit red by the star, blotting out the view of every corner of the cosmos.

Now the eyes of the Nomads would be drawn downward, the younger amongst them putting their faith in the Field, asking for assurance. The older and wiser, or at those who cared, hesitantly assured them that they would be perfectly safe. And then came a grinding which was not bound by the mere limitations of sound and atmosphere, entering the minds and hearts of every single inhabitant of the system, a "voice" which started low and guttural, and rose in pitch and volume to a scream. Finally, a horrific, terrible CRACK is felt and heard, and the Field stops humming in favour of wailing, before that stops as well. Space itself rends and shreds before the great towering horns as they stab their way through the cloud, the slick segmented plating speckled with rapidly vaporising white spots. As the red-lit fullness of these horns is revealed, the clouds in the area between them are dispelled before the several smaller prongs in position like a monstrous opened flower around the baleful light of what is now distinctly a maw, the dust of the system whirling into it as a vortex.

Reality begins to burn within the maw as the first of the golden spines and lifeless, grey plated superstructure come rumbling into view. Any seeing this monstrosity as the horrible ring finally cleared the cloud felt unspeakable dread, for its phosphorescence had turned into a pulsating, nerve-wracking corpse glow, the red light of the star giving the circle of gold plating a tint not unlike human blood. The Entity increased its speed, looming larger and larger as the distance between the predator of all things and His prey began to close.

A voice, terrible in its malevolence and power, deeper than the abyss at the heart of a devil, ancient as the dawn of the multiverse, spoke into the minds of all present.

I... am Unicron. Your time of safety is Ended.

"My deal is thay you keep saying either blindingly obvious or irellevant bullshit and it's starting to annoy me." Said Raz as he clung to one of the seats, hanging on for dear life.

"You have more than enough potential. So tell me what is the one wish that would make your soul gem shine." -Mitt Romney, probably

"I don't remember annoying you..."

Spriggan told Raz, hanging onto his seat like what Raz was doing.

I hate this.

He... he killed him....

And how will your whining help?

But...he...he...

Where did the Hero go, Link? The one who took everything without flinching, instead of lying down and crying like a girl? Where is your Courage?

I...I...

After a long while, Link slowly stood up, keeping his balance. There were no more tears in his eyes.

"You were right, Raz. I was whining. Throughout this whole time, I've been whining. And whining... will solve nothing."

"Who am I? I am not a whiny bitch."

"Who am I?"

"Well let me tell you. I am Link of Hyrule. I saved four races from destruction at the age of ten. I have fought monsters beyond imagining. I have faced dragons and other abominations in single combat, and they could not stand against me. I have fought one with the Power of the Gods, and I have triumphed."

"I am Courage Incarnate. I am the Child of Destiny. I am the Saviour of Hyrule. I am the Servant of Farore, Goddess of Wind."

"I'm the Hero of Time, dammit, and I do not whine."

edited 29th May '11 1:36:23 AM by troydenite

'Being around you guys makes me go "wtf" instead of pondering the ever increasing dread of time' - EchoingSilence, 2023

"You sure sounded like you were!"

To be seen, stand up To be heard, speak up To be appreciated, shut up

"That was...before...my epiphany, let's call it."

"I totally agree with you, though."

'Being around you guys makes me go "wtf" instead of pondering the ever increasing dread of time' - EchoingSilence, 2023

Raz grinned and nodded at Link. A brofist was offered.

"You have more than enough potential. So tell me what is the one wish that would make your soul gem shine." -Mitt Romney, probably

Link took the brofist.

He smiled. "You were right. Thank you for that."

'Being around you guys makes me go "wtf" instead of pondering the ever increasing dread of time' - EchoingSilence, 2023

Flandre saw the laser and let out a sound of awe. She got ready to jump out of the bus should the need arise though. That looked a lot stronger then a Master Spark.

Rey sighed softly, watching Link and Raz, glancing around out the windows. "Bad. Bad, bad. Bad."

Easing back into life one step at a time

"You're welcome. A little bitching and moaning once in awhile's healthy, though. Can't keep stuff bottled up. Seen the effects firsthand."

"You have more than enough potential. So tell me what is the one wish that would make your soul gem shine." -Mitt Romney, probably

"Who's the kid with the rainbow crystals for wings?"

To be seen, stand up To be heard, speak up To be appreciated, shut up

The Doctor is still trying to turn the TARDIS on. "Come on sweetie speak to me."

He tries to get to the Eye Of Harmony.

To Be Updated when I'm not Lazy

Raz glanced at Rey. "You're not helping." He turned to Bowser and gave an exaggerated shrug.

edited 28th May '11 10:12:40 PM by Bindlestick

"You have more than enough potential. So tell me what is the one wish that would make your soul gem shine." -Mitt Romney, probably

Dr. Langley flipped a switch on the bus' control console, causing all the remaining windows on the bus to become polarized in order to protect the eyes of its passengers—and just in time, too, for even as the blinding expanse of the orbital laser blast vanished and its intense afterimage began to fade from sight, a second beam lanced down from the heavens, striking less than thirty meters to the left of the spinnerbus; evidently the gunners of the Damocles were correcting their aim.

The shield rippled and warped as the shockwave of the blast washed over them, sending the hovercraft and the dragon flying beneath it into a brief tumble; it held, but just barely, and if one directed their attention skyward, they would see that the ship's batteries were already charging up for yet another shot...

Throughout this chaos, Dr. Langley did not let go of the accelerator pedal; in the last few minutes, she had flown the bus across more than fifty miles, and in the distance the treeline had begun to recede as they approached the coast. In a matter of moments, they would be over the sea, and then after that they would reach the next continent and be one step closer to the ruins; now if only they could survive long enough in order to do so...

---

Elsewhere, eyes the colour of molten silver cracked slowly open as their owner came out of his private meditations, and they swept upwards to glance at the ceiling. The silver-robed man could feel the presence drawing near, and his face twisted into a faint scowl; though the Chaosbringer's presence was unexpected, it was not unanticipated, and he had contingency measures in place that, once activated, would soon make Unicron the least of his comrades' worries.

That said, the Dark God's arrival had come earlier than he had planned, and he had been flat-footed; though his plans were close to fruition at last, he lacked the one final, crucial element that would set them all in motion. The irony of his situation, and how closely it mirrored one which had occurred so very, very long ago, was both agonizing and delicious, and the man could not help but crack a wry grin.

"The sins of the fathers," Lambda muttered to no one in particular, rising to his feet from the floor of his private meditation chamber. So, it had begun in earnest; the board was set, and the pieces were moving—some of their own volition, others completely unaware of their status, believing themselves knights or kings when in truth they were little more than pawns. No matter the outcome of this coming struggle, little would be the same; he had no doubt that, before the day was done, their champions would be free and more than a few of his fellow Nomads would be dead.

An exemplary accomplishment, to say the least—though if he had his way, far greater and far more satisfying results would soon be achieved...

The Danse Macabre Codex

Rey looked at Raz, then pointed out the windows, tone apparently implying that Raz was missing something important. "BAD."

Easing back into life one step at a time