A Game of Gods: A Multiversal Challenge

Gordon stood a bit tensely. Maybe, just maybe, he'd be lucky with the crossbow and tag the soldier in the head... but it was risky... too risky. Could he even switch that fast?

But this had to end... Doctor Langley wasn't looking to good, if what Rey was saying was any indication. Maybe, maybe one of his medical packs would help, if he still had them.

edited 30th May '11 8:47:34 PM by AnnoR

from the dark there came a harsh metallic rasp:

"Fools, Idiots, Slaves, let go of the boy, disobey and you will not live long enough to regret it"

The shape of Icarax could barely be seen in the darkness, two red points marked where his eyes should be.

Ravage honestly would not have cared at this point if Spriggan met his end; thus far, the operative had been little more than dead weight on this particular challenge, and unlike some of the other humans amongst the Champions Ravage had never grown to respect this particular one. Primus willing, had it been at all possible to line up a shot that would have struck both hostage and hostagetaker through their heads, he would have taken it without a nanoklik's hesitation; he doubted that any of the others would object to the use of such pragmatic methods in a situation like this—excepting, of course, those with particularly strong and inflexible moral and ethical codes, but he could live with their scorn.

Alas, no such shot presented itself, and he was in full view of the soldier; if he cloaked himself now, the armoured warrior would know that something was up and kill Spriggan anyway—and while the boy's painful, bloody death would bring the Predacon no small amount of satisfaction, such an outcome was to be avoided if it were at all possible to do so.

The soldier twitched and quavered slightly as Link spoke, but his grip on Spriggan did not loosen—and nor did his grip on the trigger. "Don't know what kinda...trick you're tryin' to pull, kid...but we're conditioned against...that sorta crap. But don't take...my word for it—keep trying, if you want the boy's brains splattered all over the walls."

As he spoke, the other challengers might become aware of faint footsteps echoing from down an adjacent hallway, and the sound of laboured breathing from the same...

Gordon did indeed have a medpack on his person.

edited 30th May '11 9:00:06 PM by SullenFrog

Alright, he had the medpack... now all Gordon had to do was take the shot...

But there wasn't a shot. He wouldn't be able to draw his crossbow quickly enough without the soldier killing Spriggan. While he knew Spriggan would reappear in the Common Room... he wanted to avoid that if he could. He tried to see if there was any way to make the soldier waver just a little bit, or take aim and take him out before he could shoot. There had to be something...

Rey gestured frantically for Gordon to come help the doctor, glancing back at the soldier holding Spriggan as he did. "Take her...helping...helping..." He got to his feet, facing the soldier. "Let him down...kill you both!"

"Ack..."

Spriggan groaned as the armored soldier held him up by the throat, nearly forcing him to drop the flashbang grenade he had in his gloved hand.

Should I drop it?

Kimimaro drew a long breath. Inside his sleeve, a tiny bone-spike formed and tripped a mechanism; a small sphere rolled down his sleeve and landed in his hand.

"Spriggan-san..." he said. "If this doesn't work as planned... I am truly, truly sorry..."

Then, with a flick of a wrist, the smoke bomb impacted the ground at the soldier's feet and detonated, shrouding the area around him with purplish-grey smoke. Kimimaro Flash-Stepped into the cloud, and thrusted out with two palm bone-spikes - one at the wrist of the hand holding the gun, and the other straight at the soldier's visor, aiming for the spot between the eyes.

edited 30th May '11 9:10:58 PM by DKN117

"Soldier, drop the boy now"

Icarax waited a moment before continuing:

"Why? because I am your worst nightmare, because I can splatter you over the wall if I wanted to and lastly because I am your superior".

Flandre looked to the man pointing a metal danmaku shooter at that one guy's head. She knew he was a bad guy and he seemed to be angry with them. Without giving it a second thought Faldnre held out her hands and sent a massive blast of destructive energy and Spriggan and the man holding him.

Link sagged backwards.

It...didn't work....

What now.. what now..

Then he saw Flandre's danmaku, and instinctively, with the last bit of energy he had, he ran at him- grabbing Spriggan and forcing him out of the way of the blast, using his body to protect him.

He could die, heck, it might not do anything at all and kill them both - but he wasn't going to let a team-mate die while just standing there.

edited 30th May '11 9:52:14 PM by troydenite

Sensing Flandre's blast coming, Kimimaro immediately withdraws, too distracted to notice if his impalement strikes successfully killed his target or not. After all, he knew that his status as Key Carrier made him more vital to the mission than Spriggan at the moment.

edited 30th May '11 9:44:24 PM by DKN117

Icarax heard whatever was in the corridor and seemingly vanished in a swirl of shadow.

Tau suddenly remembers the damn point of the ampitheatre. Pure and primal panic made him forget basic info like this.

He teleports in. My brothers and sisters. Lambda has told me to call you about the Chaosbringer.

edited 30th May '11 9:45:58 PM by Fusionman

The soldier had indeed been temporarily blinded by the smoke bomb—and had Kimimaro pressed the advantage, it was entirely likely that he could have disarmed and killed the armoured warrior before his opponent could switch to infrared and react. Be that as it may, his decision to pull back at the last moment was wise; he barely managed to avoid the devastating form of Flandre's blast, which streaked rapidly towards Spriggan and his captor.

Link's teleport came just an instant too late, and neither the TGS operative nor the soldier currently pointing a gun to his head had any time at all to react; the large bolt of deadly energy struck Spriggan square in the chest and utterly annihilated everything from his hips to his shoulders, with the soldier succumbing to an identical fate less than a nanosecond later. Hostage and hostage taker fell to the floor in four mismatched, asymmetrical parts, and though they might have wanted to scream—assuming, of course, that they still retained enough of their nervous systems to actually feel anything at all at this point—they could not, for they had no lungs. About the only positive side-effect of this nightmarish death was the fact that the blast had cauterized the edges of these perfectly circular holes, so what remained of their innards did not slop out and their blood did not pool around them on the floor.

Ravage walked over to the two corpses, staring at them with disinterest. He had heard that, in circumstances such as these, enough blood was trapped within the human skull to allow for two minutes of consciousness before death set in; interesting, if it were true.

The sound of footsteps and laboured breathing approaching from the adjacent passageway grew louder and more distinct as their source drew closer—a man, from the sound of things...

edited 30th May '11 10:00:44 PM by SullenFrog

Kimimaro sighed and averted his eyes. He then turned to Flandre, shooting a Death Glare at her that was known to make hardass grown men step back in fear, and that was without the Killing Intent he focused into this particular one.

He then heard the labored panting.

"Who is there?" he called out into the hallway. "...Doctor Ikari? Or one of his team?"

edited 30th May '11 10:02:36 PM by DKN117

"Nice shootin' Tex." Bowser said sarcasticly to Flandre, whom he was just behind.

Link got up from his position over Spriggan's destroyed body.

His lips were pursed, and he was trembling with rage.

"I... couldn't save...him..." He whispered.

Regaining his composure, he picked up the Master Sword and the Fairy Bow, both undamaged by the blast.

Turning around, his eyes were determined and grim.

"We cannot let his death go in vain. It was a good move, and almost necessary - but how I wish that the outcome could have been different...."

"But let us put that aside for now - and let us complete our mission."

He sheathed his sword. "I just hope no one else was alerted by that."

He turned around at the noise. "Who's there?...."

edited 30th May '11 10:08:42 PM by troydenite

Rey...seemed to twitch his head slightly, then turned his attention back to Langley, wincing some and almost grinding his teeth, managing to get out something sensical. "Gordon...is she...be okay...?"

Gordon slowly lowered his crossbow. Well, Spriggan was back in the common room now, and the soldier was dead. It wasn't like he could really blame Flandre for what she had done at this point. The girl was naive, and didn't seem to have much of a grip on reality. And when it came down to it, Spriggan wasn't dead.

Pulling out the medpack without losing a bit, Gordon rushed over to the person who could possibly die.

"Doctor Langley," he said quickly. "I'm going to apply this to your wounds. It's a medical pack, it can heal pretty severe damange. I should know."

He popped the green cylinder of liquid out, and opened the casign to reveal several strange, bandage-like, metallic objects.

Gordon started to try and apply them to Doctor Langley's broken arm, first pouring the liquid on and then setting to apply the metallic bandaging.

Rey watched to be sure things were covered, then turned away, making a strange sound and bringing his hands to his face in a sort of clawing motion, giggling as he did so. It was as though he were able to make an effort to do something sane, but unable to keep it up long, and he was already back over the edge and out of touch.

Flandre seemed completely unaware of Kimimaro's glare as she turned to look to where the heavy breathing was coming from. She seemed completely unaffected by the very gorey deaths she just caused.

"She'd...better be okay," a pained voice ground out from the hallway, its owner stepping out into the light a moment later. A slim, somewhat muscular Japanese man who looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties and whose facial features were slightly androgynous, he could have easily been mistaken for the mournful young poet all grown up—though his stern expression and the blood covering his simple white shirt, only some of it his own, put the lie to that assumption. The entire right half of his face was caked in blood, and his right eye was closed as though it were badly irritated and he did not wish to open it for any longer than was necessary. He held one of those boxy bolters in one hand, though it dangled awkwardly in his grip, and he walked with a noticeable limp; evidently, he had fought his way through hell and high water to get here.

"A pity...we couldn't meet under different circumstances," he said, reaching up to brush some of his blood-drenched brown hair out of his face. "Doctor Shin Ikari, Valhallan University's department of xenoarchaeology."

Dr. Langley hissed in pain as Gordon applied the medkit to her injury, but at the sound of her husband's voice she cracked one eye open and gave him a weak smile. "Shin," she breathed, her words heavy with relief. "Thank God..."

Spotting his wife, the blood-stained archaeologist came over and knelt down at her side, wincing faintly as he put weight on his bad leg. "Hey, beautiful."

"Hey, yourself. Do you have any idea how worried I was, you idiot?"

"I can imagine," he said wryly, taking her artificial hand in his own. "I'm sorry for making you upset, Aska—"

"There you go...appologizing again," she said, though the venom in her words rang false, and the relieved smile she bore put the lie to her tone.

edited 30th May '11 10:28:27 PM by SullenFrog

Spriggan's eyes immediately shot open.

Am I dead?

The teenage agent noted that he was back in the Common Room.

"Dammit."

The Doctor is just madly looking for anything to make a converter with.

"A shame we could not meet in better circumstances, sir" Kimimaro said. "My name is Kimimaro, last survivor of the Kaguya Clan, and I am one of your wife's bodyguards."

"Hey, kiddo!" Kisame greeted Spriggan. "Pull up a seat; watch the rest of the show."

edited 30th May '11 10:28:35 PM by DKN117