End Game? IC

[DMBlackhart]

The darkness lifts, a soothing light washes over you. Your hearing returns, then your feeling, smell, then sight. You see yourself on a large glassy platform admist a plane of darkness. The glass plateu is marked with two specific symbols.

One is a tainted heart, twisted by darkness and vile.
http://primarii.munkki.org/art/heartat.jpg
The other a Crossed heart, the symbol of a souless organization.
http://images.coolchaser.com/themes/t/494489-i143.photobucket.com-albums-r146-anime333-nobody.png

A soft silver mist fills the void amongst the darkness and the shining figures in the horizon. Far off, almost out of your vision, you see shimmering structures, at first, you wouldent recognise them. However they drift closer and further randomly. As one of them comes closer, you see it is a magical "portal" shaped like a doorway. You dont know where they lead, and none get close enough for you to try.

Instead, three other objects appear on the plateu with you. The spotlight fades, and in its place sit 3 silvery mirrors.

Within each you are reflected, but in a different light.

The left mirror shows yourself, however reflected in a monochrome color-scheme, your eyes dull, and your cloths softer. The greyed symbol is bared on your chest.

The Middle mirror perfectly reflects yourself, no changes, nothing new.
You hold a magnificant looking blade of gold, it seems key-esque.

The right mirror reflects a darker version. Showing your cloths or body blackened, eyes glowing a vibrant color, teeth and nails elongated. The "heartless" symbol lies on your garmets in this one.

A voice vibrants from the horizon, intruding on your very thought. It is soft, and genderless. It seems to be a reflection of your own voice, however "changed" somehow.

Who are you... Really?

The figures in the mirrors move independantly as the voice speaks in turn with each.

Have you lost your soul? forever a wanderer in this waste?

Or have you kept your heart? a true hero wishing to be freed?

Or has the taint of the "dark ones" grasped you? Your mind no longer inhibited.

The voice dissapears as you look around, makingyour decision to this question.

( chose an faction. Obviously this up for change at any time, but this is a rough guide and wil grant additional powers/ abilities)

[Creed]

Tallahassee shoulders his banjo and mutters
Which one of these f***ers is gonna give me a Twinkie. I guess... well... Tallahassee walks up to the right mirror.
Time to nut up or shut up. he hits this mirror with his banjo and walks to the middle mirror.
I'm me. Now give me a godamn Twinkie!

[Randel]

Cano Echidna

"The hell..." Cano rises to his feet, his Dark Legion Trooper robes cover his body completely, protecting him and letting him blend in slightly with this shadowy realm.

"Where am I... last thing I remember is that teleporter... and SONIC!" The trooper clenches his fists at the memory. That annoying blue 'hero' had smashed their teleporter... they were just trying to leave that stinking world! Heck... they were going to leave it behind and the other Mobians could have used it to evacuate but nooo... like ignorant yokels they had to destroy the Dark Legions wonderful technology.

Cano looks around at the are... bits of rock floating in the infinite void... this must be the Twilight Cage (http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Twilight_Cage)... or Zone. His ancestors had been imprisoned in this horrible dimension for generations, and now he's stuck here as well.

Cano looks around at the symbols on the floating island before hearing the voice and the mirrors appearing.

"What the? Who is that?" Cano had never heard about things like this before... though he had woefully never paid much attention to the stories his elders told about the Twilight Cage. They had mentioned a godlike being called Argus... but the details were vague and nobody elaborated on what he or it did.

Cano looks at the three mirrors. "Listen, I'm not really... um..." he looks at them again. "That dark onw over there is a Heartless, I hate the Heartless and never want to become one. That dull gray one over there is creepy... I'm going with the normal me. The one with the big key."

Cano touches the mirror image of himself holding the key. Nothing like this had been mentioned in the few stories he had listened to, hopefully whatever fell being was in control of this rock would let him go once he answered this question.

[Gunther]

Rasputin is slightly mad

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, the Warlock of Russia, did not arrive in this twilight zone with much appeasement. His arms folded together, he touched his beard as he looked at the little island he now stood upon. He remembered quite vividly the moments before he passed out: The opium den, the reek of unwashed bodies and cheap incense. Faux-Chinese baubles having been strung up along the central hallway, the rooms with walls made from blankets suspended via clotheslines. It had been a seedy place, a den of seduction and sin such that all sense of vanity was erased amidst the cheap makeup and the mattress of overstuffed pillows inside each fabric-walled room.

And now here he was, the holy man seemingly whisked away in the midst of a rather enjoyable session of opium-smoking and the company of a smattering of men and women. It was possible that the opium had been laced with something- it would not be the first den to ever do such a thing. Were that the case, then Rasputin and the other vanity-bereft revelers were doubtlessly dead, and he would soon return to the land of the living.

Were it not the case, then... Rasputin little idea of how he could arrive here. His impressive abilities had detected no threat, his mind- the mind that had almost revitalized Russia into a place of true faith to God- unable to figure a way of making a mortal move so abruptly from one place to another. As such, he believed that he was indeed dead- and this was merely a strange dream. Deliciously strange, and an experience in lucid dreaming.

He listened to the voices in turn, and slowly his disgust began to grow as he stared at each in turn before continuing to the bland view of the next.

"No man may lose his soul!" Rasputin barked to the silvery image of himself, its blankness and monochrome nature perhaps the most bedeviling thing, "It is an unbreakable thing, a gift from the Holy Spirit! It may be captivated, it can be twisted, but it cannot be destroyed or lost beyond death! This I know for a fact!"

To the middle, he shook his head, his beard wild and his eyes crazed as he saw himself wielding the golden blade. "And there is no living hero! Only through humiliation in sin are our flaws brought forth, and in repentance are we saved!" He pointed to the sword, "War is a sin of necessity, and its flaws are only revealed in embracing it! To use it with pride is as damning as any other vice."

To the right, he could only stare in disbelief, "Inhibition is a sin in itself- it is denial of what one's underlying flaws are! A lack of inhibition, with understanding of why one's impulses are sinful, can be the greatest tool a mind may wield! It is no more the influence of dark ones than what the Vatican claimed of new-age science!"

The thought to destroy each mirror occurred to him, to show whatever twisted subconscious demon in his mind his resolve. Yet after several hours of simply standing there, his mind reeling with invocations that might shatter this dreamscape, he eventually shook his head in disgust.

Though the weapon of war was wielded by the middle mirror, he was no fool- his heart was pure, cleansed in the brothels and the whorehouses of Petersburg, his body washed clean by the river he died a second time within, and his mind was a burning beacon of righteously wielded power. He was with purpose of intent and unclaimed by anything but his own sinful impulses- impulses he repented in every time he humiliated himself with them.

Striding forward, he passed through the middle mirror, burning with the desire to consume whatever entity had thought fit to test his morals, and to take their power for his own.

[DMBlackhart]

The voice continues once more as you show to whom your allegiance truly lies.

It is true. I knew you all along. But they, did not.

At this the mirror you DID choose shatters, the shards dissapating, and joining the other bits of silver mist floating through the realm.

The other two mirrors fade away, the mimics of you in all their glory still existant in this plane, eyeing at you. Both are indifferent in attitude, but both are DEADLY serious.

To Gunther- As the mirror shatters you feel a new sense of power. A new sense of courage, you feel more capable, more intense. These odd feelings well up inside you, threatning to burst forth in a shower of climatic fury and awsome epic flair...

However the other two figures, your dopplegangers, seem to have remained behind, eyeing you eagerly, hungry for a good challenge.

To Creed- Tallahasee' banjo diden't seem to make a dent. Giving up on that fruitless effort, you advance towards the middle mirror. Your reflection is so magnificant, so brave, so heroic! As the mirror shatters, and the other two fade to nothingness, you are left standing admist the platform. Alone, with two monstrous doppleganers, each armed as you are, both looking ready to strike!

However a sort of power wells up inside you. Courage, power, defiance, all the cliche` heroic qualities from old movies. You feel invinsible, and you feel as if you should act on this new found power...

To Randel- The mirrors fade, and the middle one shatters. Immediately you are sent awash with an odd sense of power. A feeling of great ability and courage. You feel as if these new feelings will continue to build, until finally they overload inside you!

However the perfect opprotunity to test this theory presents itself. The remaining two mirrors fade, leaving you with two dopplegangers to fight. And both do look very eager to fight.

Your once previous- self dopplganger and your "dark hearted" dopplganger sizes you up, both with weapons drawn, their abilities/ equipment mirroring yours.

The fight has begun. The future of the multiverse lies in the hands of you, and your brethren.

[Creed]

Time to nut up or shut up. Tallahasse repears firing his Winchester at the Heartless several times, all the while taking a pair of razor sharp hedgeclippers from his back.
((And this is why Zombieland got an R rating. Garden tools make a big mess when you kill a zombie.))

[Randel]

Cano Echidna

"What is this power? Is this Chaos?" Cano feel himself full of energy and... is it heroic resolve?

Seeing the two evil counterparts appear from their mirrors, Cano smirks. "And it looks like I get my own palette swapped dopplegangers to fight? I'll call you two Silver and Shadow until you deign to name yourselves."

Quickly, he rushes at the Heartless version of himself and punches it with full force from his cybernetic limb to knock it back and throw it off of the edge of this tiny floating island.

"I don't want to waste any more time with you two Jokers than I have to. You two are obviously cheap knockoffs of me because if you weren't mindless copies then you would realize that we have bigger fish to fry."

After knocking back the Heartless one, he turns to the two. "Now, if you two guys have a braincell between you then say something and lets all get off this island to regroup with the Legion. If you're mindless copies than do us all a favor and die already so I can get to the parts of this story that actually matter. Lets not waste any more time than we need to."

[Gunther]

Rasputin fears no man! Not Duke, nor Prince, nor even himself!

Grigori could not help but bark his laughter as he saw the images all begin to fade away. He was no idiot, and whatever entity that had put him here- expecting a misguided fool looking for purpose or power- had made a grave miscalculation. He was Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, and no ungodly entity could lay a claw or finger upon him! He was the divine dealer of God's truth, a man for whom death was but a transition.

He couldn't help but laugh as he paced around the two false copies of himself, staring at the vicious predators. This realm had not been made by one demon, but two. A curious variation that he would have to investigate further. Even as power welled up within him, false power, he kept himself restrained. The Warlock had not come thus far just by blindly wielding whatever power seethed to him. Even as the urge to launch himself forward became nearly overwhelming, he kept himself at a respectful distance, knowing that if he played his hand too soon he would be playing into the hands of these abominations.

"I have fought your ilk before." He remarked with a smile, sashaying slightly with each movement, his hands moving gaily as he felt living energies boil up within him. "Predictable to the finish! Your avarice, your greed, your lust! That is what rules your kind! So come, come and try to sate your desires upon my flesh!"

Swinging his left hand out in a wide arc, his palm parallel to the glassy floor. The shining material came to life as a portion of his immense reserves of internal energy came forth, the warlock willing the floor about the feet of his dopplegangers to shift into massive, impaling barbs to skewer his foes.

[DMBlackhart]

To Creed- The problem with fighting with guns, is that more often then not, however shoos first wins. However this is not the case. Your bullets strike their targets square in their vitals, or what you'd assume to be vital. However both only seem partially fazed by the damage.

Each in turn return fire, one bullet misses you, barely, the other strikes you dead in the chest, a shot that should have killed you.... It should have, shoulden't it? Then why are you still standing, your chest only partially bruised? Who the hell cares? You run draw your hedge clippers, and the clones senslessly follow suit. Even out matched your proving more then a challenge for yourself... selves... whatever.

To Randel- Cano launches himself at the heartless echidna. Your fist screaming with stess at that one punch. Whatever these guys were made of, it wasen't cheap. However the punch lands, forcing the mimic backwards, and off the ledge.

Before you can contemplate your victory however, the grey-copy of yourself decides to rush in with a one-two punch of his own, forcing you to fall backwards. However, quick on your feet, the monster does not get the advantage over you, and only leaves a few bruises.

The battle takes a turn for the worse as the shadowy form of yourself reappears on the ledge, turning into a small black circle on the ground.

Both mimics return the assault, the grey one vanishes in a shower of what you'd only describe as computer code, binary. The black one, in it's shadow-on-the-ground form rushes over to you, little black hands reaching up trying to pull you downward. Finally the grey-formed echidna re-materialises, trying to get you in a choke hold from behind, and thus far succeeding.

To Gunther- Your foes seem to mimic most of your every movements. The grey-paletted clone moves in a much more fluid motion, his limbs swaying without joints or bone. The shadowy mimi seems to move more akin to a predator, back arched, fangs barred.

However both are increadibly agile, more so then yourself. The spike are blocked with a return of their own, falsified magical ability. Walls of similar material strike into the air, originating from both dopplegangers, and blocking most of your spikes. However one rather large shaft pierces through the barrier of the blackened clone, creating an open gash in it's stomach.

This does not slow either foe however. Each move their hands, manipulating the silver-ish glass that floats in the air. A shower of sharp magical energized glass begins raining at you, threatning to pierce each pore.

[Randel]

Cano Echidna

"Alright, now you guys are really started to piss me off!" Cano yells as he extends the metal claws in hie cybernetic hand and punches behind himself, nailing his Silver dobbleganger in the face and possibly taking out an eye or two.

His two legs are both mechanical, as opposed to his arms of which only his left is made of metal. If his dopplegangers are the same as him, then the Shadow copy is going to get a nasty surprise.

Cano falls back and easily wrests his leg free of the Shadow copies fleshy hand and repeatedly starts kicking it straight in the face with his metal legs and steel toed boots.

"You may know everything I'm going to do, but that's not going to help you because I know everything you're going to do, while you two can't know what the other you is doing!" With one final kick he bashes the Shadow copy right in the face, jamming his heel right into the shadow copies mechanical eye.

He then twists around and bashes the pale clone in the face again before getting free.

"Strange, isn't it? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiEwmiPSmto)" Cano then reaches into his robes and pulls out his lasgun and starts blasting at his pale copy while circling around to keep the pale copy between him and the shadowy one.

Actually, do we an OOC thread? I'm just thinking that it would be nice if all our characters could meet up soon and start saving the multiverse instead of fighting our evil opposites in limbo.

[Creed]

Tallahasse charges the Nobody version of himself.
Just gonna take a little off the top!
Then he attempts to decapitate his Nobody.

[Gunther]

Rasputin fears no glass!

Such feral and inglorious creatures! Rasputin could not help but feel scorn at how these godless monstrosities looked to slay him. They were more agile, but what use was agility if there was no driving mind behind it? The wall trick had been clever, yes, but even now Rasputin knew that a ranged duel would not last forever.

Giving a dismissive gesture to the glass shards, he leeched the living energies keeping them animated, using the resulting power to fuel an increased healing rate. Raising a forearm to protect his face and neck, he let the remaining glass shards rip into him- his body healing from a steady flow of stolen life force.

When the barrage ended, he- The chosen of God's children!- sprinted forward towards the more lithe version of himself. Without guidance, without direction! That was what it had tried to lure him to! It was disgusting, reviling. With slick hands coated in his own blood, he attempted to grab onto this alternate version of himself. What it had in speed, it lacked in power.

He would drain it of its life force, of its energy! For though it had his powers, it did not have his soul.

[DMBlackhart]

Oh Shi- I dun fergit ta post fer ya'll! :p

Randel- Cano goe's overboard on the copies, keeping one step ahead, and landing all the right blows. All too quickly your dopple gangers are pinned in, one injure just enough to make manuevering difficult, while the other is right in range to get a face full of gunfire!

The battle ended so quickly... it was almost surprising, almost.

A voice rings out from the void and into your mind. Well done. But you may not yet rest warrior. Please, continue, for soon the fate of the multiverse will lie in your hands.

Cano is forced unconscious. Somehow, your wounds still exist, but they do not harm you. You see the plateu under you crack, sharp lines appearing throughout the surface. Slowly, the plateu shatters, causing you to plummet back into the darkness.

You re-awaken, on yet another glass plateu. However this one has a new symbol on it's motif. It shows a sword shaped like a key, and is painted gold. It lies in the center of a black keyhole sillouhette.

Apon the plateu lie 3 pedastals. On each lies an artifact.

The voice from the void calls out once more as you look to each artifact in turn.

I know who you are. Now WHAT are?

A blue/gold branch of wood, sparkling with a strange power.

Are you a mage? One who has found the wills of the multiverse to bend at his lightest thought?

A Golden framed, deep blue inlay, tower shield.

Or are you the gaurdian? He who values virtue and friends enough to give his heart and soul.

A strong, sturdy gilded blade, with a deep blue, glistening handled sword.

Or is it the Warrior? You live for combat, and it is by your hands that the war will be won.


Creed- Tallahasse charges, the clippers tearing INTO the dark copy. That was almost TOO easy. The body turns to a black cloudy mist which quickly dissapates, leaving you to confront the grey version of yourself, which finds this opprotunity fitting to unload a barrel of led into your stomach. The wound is massive, and yet you feel considerably unphased. Even with blood dripping down your legs and torso, you still manage to hold your footing, and turn on the gun-toting nobody

Gunther- You charge at the lithe copy of yourself, it's greyish flesh feeling like soft claw between your fingers. You begin draining your target of it's energy, quickly causing the creature to wither, and shatter like a weak window pane!

However the other copy takes advantage of this moment, turning into a blackish blot on the ground, a small circular shadow, and quickly floating over to you. The creature jumps out of it's own shadow, digging intos claws into your back, and trying the same trick you used on it's brethren.

You can feel your vital forces weakening, slowly, but surely.

[Creed]

Tallashasse roars: Don't kill me with my own gun! and shoots he nobody with his UZI!

[Randel]

Cano Echidna

Cano looks up at the empty are, tapping his foot with semi-impatience. Whoever or whatever is doing this is obviously powerful and willing to toy with him for its own purposes. As much as he hates this situation, he's going to have to play along with it until he gets a chance to escape.

Looking at the tools shown to him, Cano steps towards the shield. He's not so sure what this 'guardian' thing is all about... but he's already got a gun and cybernetic implants. That stupid wand would be useless to him and a sword would be even less useful than what he has already. If this thing pulls another mirror trick and makes him fight the twins again then he can use the shield to protect himself from sword or stick and get close enough to clobber them without getting mauled.

Cano picks up the shield and holds onto it with his left arm... for the best really since its still the only squishy limb he's got left and now its got some protection in case he runs into trouble.

"Okay, I guess I'm answering your questions. But I have some questions of my own, like where am I and how can I get to my fellow Legionnaires?"

((OOC: I think I'll take the shield since Tallahasse looks like he'd go for sword and Rasputin might make use of the staff.))

[Gunther]

Rasputin could only laugh as he felt the piercing claws digging into his back, the energy slowly trickling out of him. It was a clever creature, capable of imitation and implementation. On its own, it could probably drain him dry and leave him a soulless, empty husk. But, with his innate mastery of his own powers, Grigori could not help but feel content that victory was at hand.

With the excess life force of the first imitator, he reached backwards, stretching his arm unnaturally with the surge of strength as he attempted to drive his hand through the breast of the attacker above him, approximating where the monster's breast would be so that he could rip out its cold, devilish heart.