A Game of Gods: A Multiversal Challenge

-Eddie blocks the blow, the impact causing him to slide backwards-

"This is starting to drag..."

-he stomps the ground and jams his guitar, causing a fountain of lava to erupt beneath Saren's feet-

Kirby had fallen asleep... Again.

"Boyo boy boy boyo boy boy!?!" <Wha?!>

Grabbing his hammer, he looked and saw everyone fighting things that looked remarkably similar to Saren. Kirby felt extremely out of the loop on this one...

END SIMULATION

Immediately after that deafening voice echoed through everyone's heads, the battle came to an end; the Longsword fighters and the remaining Seekers folded in on themselves and collapsed into nothingness, as did Scorponok, the marines and the statuesque corpses of the turians. Saren's pillars swiftly retracted into the floor as the room shrank and took on a simple, grey hue; the door leading into the hall disassembled itself as a shimmering portal unfolded into existence with a distinctive sound at the center of the chamber.

Ravage tensed at the odd noise—not out of surprise or apprehension, but because of how alarmingly familiar it was. He knew that sound like he knew the back of his own hand, and it could only mean one thing...

The jaguar padded into the portal, vanishing from sight as the sound played in reverse.

Hahli hung back for a while, before taking a deep breath, steeling herself, and disappearing into the portal.

-Saren trots over to the portal, glancing over his shoulder at the three humans before walking through-

Good work.

"Sigh, another challenge." Narumi said as he walked into the portal.

Kirby looked extremely confused. First there were things blowing up everywhere than there was another portal. "Boyo boy boyo boyyyy boyo..." <Alright then...>

The Star Warrior waddled into the portal, keeping his hammer close at hand.

Travis stared at the portal that appeared after the fight abruptly ended.

"Well, here we go again."

He hooked the Blood Berry back onto his belt, before walking through the portal.

Jorge was panting, his hands curled up into fists. The Spartan was understandably wired after that firefight.

"Great...Saren? Do us all a favor, and give us a bloody break after this."

Unfortunately, the turian had already entered the portal. Jorge sighed and stepped through after him.

edited 7th Nov '10 6:31:26 PM by Nimitz

Gordon looked up at the portal, and felt the the gravity gun stop twitching as the power in it faded.

The throbbing pain from his cracked rib vanished entirely. Gordon assumed that was for the purposes of the challenge.

He headed through the portal.

The rumble of thunder and the drizzle of rain were the first things to greet Ravage's audio receptors as he stepped through the portal. The jaguar felt cool metal under his feet, recognizing the familiar feel of minute crackles and shifts as the very floor transformed, and he could smell the familiar tang of the various compounds and elements which made up Cybertron's protective atmosphere.

He was home.

Yet it was immediately clear, as the darkness faded away and his optics swept his immediate surroundings, that something was profoundly, horribly wrong.

He stood in the hold of what appeared to be a dropship of some sort, shoulder to shoulder with generic Cybertronians whose arms were bound by energy bands and stasis cuffs. Ravage noted, with some shock, that he too was bound—and that the other prisoners bore the red piping and dull, staring insignia that was the symbol of the Autobots.

Confused, Ravage looked down at himself—and stifled a gasp of dismay. His body had been reformatted yet again; now it was purely mechanical, but he was still in his panther form...and the wheels which were just barely visible within his forelegs suggested that this feline configuration was his robot mode.

Worst of all, though, was the realization that, where there should have been Decepticon purple, there was instead Autobot red.

"What madness is this?!" he screamed.

Hahli found herself not far away from Ravage, similarily cuffed. She was now far larger than she had been- and she noted with confusion that she now had wheels on her arms and legs, in addition to her entire body being larger and bulkier than it had been before. She looked at the red sigils on her chest and fins, noting that Ravage seemed to be extremely distraught about these markings.

Gordon stared.

He recalled, not too long ago, how he had been battling the soldiers of the Combine. He recalled how one of the highest-ranking soldiers, clad in white, had been torn apart by a grenade blast. He recalled seeing how the soldier was barely human anymore, a mass of cybernetic replacements and various other robotic components taking up almost the entire body.

He recalled how much it had disturbed him. Gordon hated the thought of having one's body converted to robotics, it gave off a feeling of sheer wrongness.

And now, Gordon looked down at the body he'd be given for the duration of this challenge, and stared it pure, disturbed, horrified shock.

-Not that far from the other two, Saren awakens in another cell; the resultant groan sounds more flanged than usual, and as the Turian opens his eyes, he notes a series of whirrs, clicks, and a steady electronic whine; everything feels cold, much more so than usual; he looks down at himself, and notes that what was his armour is no longer just clothing: It's his skin now; both of his claws are now Gethed, cuffed as they are; his mandibles flare, and he hears(and feels) a loud series of clicks-

Wonderful.

edited 8th Nov '10 7:39:09 AM by Colonial1.1

Roach came round, and took stock of his surroundings. He noticed the robots all around, as well as the fact his hands were bound.

Bloody hell.

"This is not happening," Ravage muttered, his voice rising in hysteria. "This is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening this is not happening this is not happening this is not happening this is not happening!!!! "

A Decepticon guard—a hulking figure whose face consisted of little more than a triangular visor—stormed over to Ravage. "QUIET!!!" he bellowed, smashing the jaguar across the back with a crackling nightstick. Ravage cried out in pain and dropped to his knees, smoke wheezing from his open mouth.

The guard loomed over the prone, whimpering Ravage, brandishing his club in a threatening manner. "You want more, you little scrap heap?"

"Leave him alone," came a deep, dignified voice.

The guard glanced over his shoulder as a tall, powerfully-built Autobot gently pushed his way through the crowd of prisoners. Ravage glanced over, his relief rapidly transmuting to shock and dismay; though the figure's body was different in proportions, design and other details, there was no mistaking that mouthplate and blue helmet, no failure to recognize the Autobot's red-and-blue chassis.

Much as he might fervently wish otherwise, there was no denying that Ravage's saviour was also his most hated enemy—Optimus Prime.

edited 8th Nov '10 7:58:40 AM by SullenFrog

Hahli looked expectantly at Prime. "Who is that?" she whispered to Ravage.

"Optimus Prime," the jaguar hissed under his breath. "In my reality, he is the leader of the Autobots, sworn enemy of the Decepticons."

Any further words Ravage might have uttered were cut off as the guard gave him a swift kick in the ribs. "I said be quiet, Autobot!"

"And I said leave him alone," Optimus Prime cut in, interposing himself between Ravage and the guard.

"Or else what?" the brute sneered, rearing up to his full height in an effort to intimidate Optimus.

Prime, for his part, was completely undaunted; his blue optics met the guard's gaze in firm resolution. "Or else you'll have to go through all of us. Even bound as we are, I don't think that's a risk you want to take."

Two other Autobots—one primarily yellow and the other brown with white racing stripes—edged through the press of prisoners to stand at either side of Optimus. The guard's visored face darted from one Autobot to the next, then growled as he sheathed his nightstick. "Eh, you aren't worth my time."

As the Decepticon left, Optimus turned to face Hahli and Ravage while the two newcomers helped Ravage to his feet. "Are you two alright?"

Gordon hadn't really noticed what had happened. His thoughts were, indeed, a complete mess.

This is wrong this is wrong this is wrong THIS IS WRONG.

He hadn't even moved since he realized what had happened. The pure percieved wrongness of his situation had rooted him to the spot. It was justified. Gordon had just been dropped into one of his worst nightmares, or so he thought.

As much as Roach wanted to punch the guard, there wasn't a lot he could do. Not with his hands bound like this. He sighed with relief as the guard left.

"Why do I get the feeling this is the precursor to something much, much worse?"

-Saren barely suppressed a violent shudder, turning to Roach-

It always does.

Ravage shrugged away from the two Autobots who had helped him up, then turned to glare at Optimus. "I don't need your help, Optimus Prime!"

Optimus tilted his head to one side in confusion. "Prime? What—ah, I see. You must be the reinforcements from Polyhex, so you must have misheard. I am called Optimus, but I am not Prime; I have only assumed temporary command of the Autobots until we can rescue Zeta Prime."

The powerfully-built Autobot leaned forward, concern writ clear on his face. "That blow must have scrambled your memory cores. Tell me, do any of you remember the plan?"

edited 8th Nov '10 9:37:12 AM by SullenFrog

"Plan?" asked Hahli.

The brown Autobot shook his head in annoyance. "Well, that's just prime; we've got a team of 'bots who can't even remember the plan. Where'd you pick these guys up, Optimus?"

The Autobot leader's only response was to give him a stern look. "Now is not the time for recriminations, Sideswipe. We need to brief them as quickly as possible; we can't be far from the prison now..."

As soon as these words had left his mouthplate, flashing red lights and klaxons lit up the bay of the dropship. A growling voice blasted from speakers set into the walls. "We're making our final approach to the Kaon Prison Complex. All prisoners, stand clear of the bay doors."

The crowd of Autobot prisoners shied away from the walls as they opened with a loud groaning of metal on metal, exposing a dark and nightmarish landscape for all to see. Ravage was dumbstruck at how familiar, yet completely and utterly different, the city of Kaon looked; in his reality, Kaon was no different from any other city-state on Cybertron, save perhaps for the generally-sombre atmosphere. Here, however, the skyline was dominated by sharp angles and spheres, all made of jagged purple-hued metal and festooned with spikes. Sickly bolts of green and yellow lighting arced across a smog-filled sky, snaking down to strike at the tallest structures and gamboling across their spiky lightning rods.

It finally sank in that Ravage was a stranger in a familiar land, and he did not enjoy this knowledge.

edited 8th Nov '10 9:55:46 AM by SullenFrog

Travis awoke with everyone else. He tried moving his hands and noticed that they were bound. When he looked down to see what was around his hands, what he saw came as a bit of a shock.

"...The hell? I've been turned into the Glastonbury?...Well, this is actually pretty cool. Better then being a zombie."

edited 8th Nov '10 10:04:12 AM by Liirian