[Nexus] AMEN XLVI: Divided We Fall

[The Alexandrian]

[Over the Valcano]

Clarissa doesn't appear to be in a very talkative mood right now. She does not reply to DC's jest with an incisive verbal riposte as she may very well have on any other day.

Her incisive riposte today is purely physical.

Clarissa springs several feet backwards, putting some distances between herself and DC as she lowers Eternity to her side.

Double teaming DC! What a deliciously diabolical idea if I do say so myself!

Suddenly, it may appear, to DC, that Clarissa has vanished into thin air. Not a second later, not one Clarissa returns but two...four...eight. Each one circles him, each one virtually indistinguishable from the next. It might be more than challenging to deduce which is the real Clarissa and which are mere ruses as they stalk him.

I will give you a hint as to which is the real Clarissa. She's not the one in plane sight.

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

"And...mate," DC cryptically states. Why?

Well.

[Mysterious Facility]

Of course it's a short term problem, to it. To an entity like that, any setback is short term, for they measure time not in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years...but in much longer increments. Even centuries are but blinks of the eyes, really.

But to those who fight such things, any setback that can be inflicted is worth inflicting. DC, for example, has come to view this entity as an infection, thanks to its attempts at taking over Watchtower and the nature of its presence in AMEN. These infections are its bastions in reality, and if they can be removed, eventually, so will it...if the individual infections can be hunted down.

Or forced out to act in place of a lost one, as the case may be here.

If the avatar bothers to do as instructed, it will find a very interesting viewport in there. The viewport shows something it will find extremely familiar.

It is a rift very similar to the one used against it in the last attack on AMEN, except it is in its own containment room, silvery crystalline energy collectors surrounding it. This is DC's planned Class 4 plant...

And those silvery structures are glowing with a white-hot intensity, as they begin overloading and destabilizing the rift...

It doesn't take long. The power put out by that rift is enormous, which is why this facility was so isolated in the first place. And in this, DC's plan reveals itself.

The power collectors explode in a massive, catastrophic chain reaction, various elemental, magical, and who knows what other energies spilling out of them and the rift in a massive blast of absurdity that could easily be described as an equivalent to a technomagical nuclear bomb, and probably then some.

Anyone who sees it from outside...well, the facility is underground, beneath a concealed hatch. But that cannot contain the magnitude of this event. The ground itself is torn open in a massive rainbowy technicolor explosion of power that's enough to cause a noticeable earthquake, such is its destructive power.

Then it gets worse.

A much bigger version of the original rift and the one formed temporarily at AMEN appears, and everything in the area starts getting sucked into the unstable tear in reality, pieces of it getting scattered across space and time, shredded by the unstable, shifting rift.

Then the rift will subside, blissfully destabilizing. The area is probably going to be incredibly irradiated with gods know what for a long time thanks to this stunt. Such is why DC had it made in such an isolated location.

This, thanks to its techno-magical nature and scale, is rather more significant than the one that temporarily incapacitated AMEN's avatar before. If anything's going to annihilate part of this thing completely besides the sun...well.

That would be it.

No doubt the event will be visible through various observation methods like the Altaran Irregulars' observation array, as well.

((OOC: No, he can't do that again, but I had to get rid of it somehow. That thing would've allowed giant ****off superweapon beams. And no, I didn't create that rift originally either. People keep giving me horribly OP things and I don't understand why. ._.))

That.

"One more step in a long purge of that infection, no doubt." For DC's part, he summons up a forcefield bubble around himself, continuing to...not actually attack.

How dull.

[Fan]

[Saga Episode 1: Rushing back through the river of time, a fearless hero emerges!]

An explosion the likes of which AMEN had never seen, a rift between dimensions used as a weapon against an eldritch evil to turn it's own power upon itself! From the wreckage appears a figure that steps through the fire, unscathed by the chaos. A cyborg that has voyaged through time and span itself to reach this destination, the energies of being hurtled back still sloughing from his form as he examines the fight happening above him.

Truly, this bleak past of eternal battle had been what he had been sent back to stop! Even appearing at this random location he could see the devastation that lead to the bleakest future, and he as a hero could not allow this to continue! Though he knew not which side was just, he thrusts himself into combat, attempting to come to the aide of the man out numbered many times. Taking to the air towards the two battling individuals with a yell of courage!

Yet.. he stops short, adopting what can only be the most ridiculous of poses between the two, his arms crossed to form an X, the blonde cyborg performing what had to be some kind of dance between the two as he began to speak, his voice booming unnaturally loud as he declared his intention! All the while changing poses from sentence to sentence, his arms shooting out to the side as he said, his knee bent to give it a more dramatic angle.

"I HAVE ARRIVED! A legendary hero from the bleak future created by this conflict. Powered by the hopes of tomorrow, and gifted with the strength of a thousand men to prevent the darkness of the future from becoming a reality! The strongest cyborg in history! The man who carries the dreams of all who have fallen, and fights for a world without evil! "


The figure in clear view for the first time now though at this distance. Blackened soot, and electricity burning off his form to reveal what looks more like someone you'd find on a magazine cover, the cyborg's hair a startlingly bright blonde in contrast with the dark scelera of his eyes, but otherwise.. seemingly completely normal, not even in any kind of armor currently wearing a band t-shirt that proudly displayed 4 faces that no one had ever seen in a language that didn't exist here, though his joints did seem a bit bendy when he adopted those strange poses. Though, his ridiculous boasting aside, it could be he's just escaped from a mental hospital.

[GrandDM]

[Over the Valcano]

Floating a little distance off is a fourteen-foot vampire Space Marine. He watches the events unfold with a grin on his face.

"This should be fun."

[happyturtle]

Around the Front Entrance

MoffT is out here with his Weird Gun spraying some sort of vile smelling liquid on the approaches to AMEN.


Main Room

Decker never made it as far as her own room. She's curled up in a ball under a table, fast asleep.

[Arkhosia]

Around the Front Entrance

MoffT is out here with his Weird Gun spraying some sort of vile smelling liquid on the approaches to AMEN.


Main Room

Decker never made it as far as her own room. She's curled up in a ball under a table, fast asleep.

Celica is approaching AMEN in a billowing black cloak, carrying a very large bag that clinks and clanks as she walks.

[happyturtle]

Front Entrance

Moff turns off the spray and aims the gun at Celica instead. It doesn't look like a gun that was manufactured. It looks unsettlingly organic.

"Friend or foe?" Moff asks.

Did Celica step onto the part of the ground that's been sprayed? Whether or not she has, the smell is terrible. Like so awful it makes you nauseous just trying to breathe in the general area. :smallyuk:

[Arkhosia]

Front Entrance

Moff turns off the spray and aims the gun at Celica instead. It doesn't look like a gun that was manufactured. It looks unsettlingly organic.

"Friend or foe?" Moff asks.

Did Celica step onto the part of the ground that's been sprayed? Whether or not she has, the smell is terrible. Like so awful it makes you nauseous just trying to breathe in the general area. :smallyuk:

Nope!
whoa, no need to point guns at people!
Celica says, looking a bit sick.
She sets the bag in front of her, not on the spray.
Weapons for AMEN. Tell Clarissa a friend of her daughter's sent them.

[happyturtle]

Front Entrance

"Yo, ClarissAAAAAA!" Moff yells.

Whether or not Clarissa can hear him is up to Alexandrian, but considering she's way up in the air above an active valcano, my guess is no.

"I'll tell her. You might want to get lost before someone shoots your bunny ears off." :smallsmile:

[Hattish Thing]

Dead Men Tell No Tales:

The last time Clegg had visited AMEN, he was met with resistance in the form of a strange entity stronger than any he'd ever met. Needless to say after an incredibly short battle, Clegg retreated. He didn't forget the fight, and Clarissa's presence was the only reason The Captain never came back. However, he'd heard about the battle brewing against AMEN. DC, Jezzebelle, and a few others. All very strong individuals. This was the perfect time then for an attack of his own. It couldn't be an all out siege on AMEN, for that'd attract the attention of Clarissa to The Crone's Claw. Clegg didn't want that monster anywhere near his ship. He'd spent the last 24 hours planning an attack, and now it was time to go through with it.

The Crone's Claw manifests about fifteen miles away, invisible. This will put the Claw just far enough to avoid any attacks, but close enough to allow teleportation. On the deck, a terrible pentacle of blood and seawater is painted on, the body of a young woman in the middle. The woman is the last survivor of the attack on the Dust Merchants a month ago. Her blood and death offering to whichever foul god Clegg worshiped now presented him with a boon. A perfect teleportation circle. The circle would stay ready for a period of two hours, after which it would close. More than enough time to end the life of AMEN's leader. Captain Clegg is armed now with his full gear set, his belt equipped with several rusty looking pistols and a few grenades, a large silver and black rifle on his back, and The Crone's Fang in it's sheathe. Chuckles, Byrebreak the Necromancer, and three of Clegg's strongest men are to accompany him on the mission. Each of them have been supplied with a small silver ring. The ring holds one single charge of invisibility, and after the first use the ring disintegrates. A cheap enchantment, but useful. The goal would be to distract the doorman into opening the entrance, then teleporting behind him invisibly. It'd allow the party to begin their hunt....

But what to do for a suitable distraction? Clegg had thought long and hard about his options here. He'd spoken with Byrebreak regarding any possibilities, and the pair had formulated a perfect distraction. Using some spare corpses of the bandits gathered a week earlier, Byrebreak had constructed a mighty monstrosity.... A Flesh Golem. The large and thoroughly disgusting amalgamation of meat, bone, and tooth would be teleported right outside the door. It would then attempt to simply rip the door off it's hinges.

---

Sure enough, upon watching DC and Clarissa have at it for a bit, Clegg orders the mission to proceed. The party of five ought to don their rings and wait. Below them, right outside AMEN, it appears... The beast is huge and frightening, barely looking human at all. Warts and pustules of green liquid cover it's body, giving it the appearance of some poor giant plague victim... It's arms are thick as trees, it's hands wide enough to squash a human beings head. On it's fingers, large splintered bones act as rending claws, and it's teeth drip grime and half-dried blood... On it's ugly head, many eyeballs are built into it, at least 16 pairs, ever looking about hungrily. It follows only basic orders, and currently... It wants to get through the door. So, Moff might suddenly find the doorway bombarded with the massive golem, the beast desperately trying to claw itself inside. It doesn't react to Celica's presence just yet, and won't unless she attacks.

[Arkhosia]

The beast is attacked by Lyrina swiftly as the goddess, radiating divine energy, flies over and arcs her scythe at it, Burning Darkness glowing with radiant energy.


Front Entrance

"Yo, ClarissAAAAAA!" Moff yells.

Whether or not Clarissa can hear him is up to Alexandrian, but considering she's way up in the air next to a bunch of world ripping explosions, my guess is no.

"I'll tell her. You might want to get lost before someone shoots your bunny ears off." :smallsmile:

Tell no one else I was here, okay?
Celica then darts off.
The bag contains a multitude of ammo, rifles and pistols, ranging from a hunting rifle to a gauss rifle, a Desert Eagle to a 9mm, and a gunblade to a scythle.

An Anti-Materiel Rifle, a Gauss Rifle, a 2 barreled shotgun, a Scythle (it's a scythe, that's also a gun), a Desert Eagle, a 9mm, a gunblade, a DMR, a hunting rifle, and a crapload of ammo.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Outskirts of AMEN]

KR appears a reasonable distance off, directly on the main path towards AMEN. She begins walking casually towards the front door, hands in her coat pockets.

[happyturtle]

Entrance

Moff is standing in front of the door for now, so invisible sneaky people aren't likely to get through. The flesh golem will likely be occupied by Lyrina for a while. So Moff aims his gun at KR.

"You've got to be kidding me."

The guns are left where they were dropped. Moff suspects a trap, and he'd rather just let Clarissa handle it.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Entrance]

KR shrugs.
"Does this seem like a joke?"
She pulls her hands out of her pockets, holding up empty hands.
"Can I come in?"

[happyturtle]

Entrance

"Only if I get to frisk and immobilize you first," Moff says. You can't just let The Goddamn KR into your base without taking precautions! :smalleek:

[Aric Kale]

Dead Men Tell No Tales - Front Door

Chuckles is armed with two magic water pistols, each capable of damaging power armor of Iron Man quality, a rusty dagger and an iron cutlass. The half-skelton half-zombie wears the ring and leads his men, each armed with old-fashioned pistols, cutlasses, and some enchanted leather armor of minor blunt, pierce, and slash protection. All of them will follow their captain and await his orders.

[Hattish Thing]

The beast is attacked by Lyrina swiftly as the goddess, radiating divine energy, flies over and arcs her scythe at it, Burning Darkness glowing with radiant energy.



Tell no one else I was here, okay?
Celica then darts off.
The bag contains a multitude of ammo, rifles and pistols, ranging from a hunting rifle to a gauss rifle, a Desert Eagle to a 9mm, and a gunblade to a scythle.

An Anti-Materiel Rifle, a Gauss Rifle, a 2 barreled shotgun, a Scythle (it's a scythe, that's also a gun), a Desert Eagle, a 9mm, a gunblade, a DMR, a hunting rifle, and a crapload of ammo.


I'm just a tad confused as to why a literal goddess flies over Celica and attacks the golem. Where'd she come from...? Who is she? Maybe I just missed something. Nevertheless, Byrebreak relays the information to Clegg.

Byrebreak was a vampiric individual turned at the age of eighty three during an adventure into a crypt to uncover a staff of necromantic power. This had made the old man quite bitter, for despite being an utterly villainous individual, he'd have much rather died and lived on in tales... The worst part was that he was forced to live the rest of his life in undeath looking like an old frail man. However, the illusion of weakness has certainly worked for him in the past. He'd joined the crew only recently as a healer of sorts. Captain.... There's an entity by the doorway. I'm sensing chaotic energy instead of positive energy. This is good, for my creation is weak to positive energy. It will buy us time... If only the grey individual would move out of the way... Clegg nods and pulls out an old rusty spyglass, and watches the battle.

As for the golem, the sudden goddess attack comes as a surprise. Luckily, she appears to utilize chaotic weapons, and not holy ones. This puts the monster at a slightly better defensive point. Seeing as the monster is not expecting an attack from above, the scythe slices. The blade will go right through the monster's head, from the back and forward. This will unfortunately shower the poor Moff in front of the golem in undead guts. The beasts head is now firmly sliced in half, but it doesn't stop for a second. It's meaty clawed right hand moves up to quickly grab at the passing scythe. Using it's incredible strength, it'll simply attempt to use her momentum to slam her right into very solid wall of AMEN.. Puny god! The monster roars as it attacks. :smalltongue:

[Arkhosia]

I'm just a tad confused as to why a literal goddess flies over Celica and attacks the golem. Where'd she come from...? Who is she? Maybe I just missed something. Nevertheless, Byrebreak relays the information to Clegg.

Byrebreak was a vampiric individual turned at the age of eighty three during an adventure into a crypt to uncover a staff of necromantic power. This had made the old man quite bitter, for despite being an utterly villainous individual, he'd have much rather died and lived on in tales... The worst part was that he was forced to live the rest of his life in undeath looking like an old frail man. However, the illusion of weakness has certainly worked for him in the past. He'd joined the crew only recently as a healer of sorts. Captain.... There's an entity by the doorway. I'm sensing chaotic energy instead of positive energy. This is good, for my creation is weak to positive energy. It will buy us time... If only the grey individual would move out of the way... Clegg nods and pulls out an old rusty spyglass, and watches the battle.

As for the golem, the sudden goddess attack comes as a surprise. Luckily, she appears to utilize chaotic weapons, and not holy ones. This puts the monster at a slightly better defensive point. Seeing as the monster is not expecting an attack from above, the scythe slices. The blade will go right through the monster's head, from the back and forward. This will unfortunately shower the poor Moff in front of the golem in undead guts. The beasts head is now firmly sliced in half, but it doesn't stop for a second. It's meaty clawed right hand moves up to quickly grab at the passing scythe. Using it's incredible strength, it'll simply attempt to use her momentum to slam her right into very solid wall of AMEN.. Puny god! The monster roars as it attacks. :smalltongue:

He succeeds!
The sun sets on your existence!
Lyrina yells a retort as she makes a punching motion at the golem, sending a beam of twilight, a laser of radiant, chilling energy, at it's head and ripping through it if successful.

[Zefir]

[Some Place] Near the Science Labs

To be honest, an Exploding Witch does both. Explodes and makes things explode. They mostly just explode, though.

A magical sense she does not have, but Harley can definitely feel magic-void zones. They cause her a mild headache and, if she remains in one long enough, unfortunate things may happen as she loses all control over shapeshifting mutations. Like, for example, some of her hair starts to change color from brown to reddish, a couple of grey spots begin appearing on her upper right arm and the cells there start dying, a bone starts growing in an odd direction and pressing against pain sensors which means Harley starts massaging that wrist, and...
...well, luckily, things became normal again, so she can quickly fix everything that she noticed. What was that? she thinks.

"Oh." Thinking. "Now I understand. In that case, that changes the story. It seems simple enough."

[Some Place] Near the Science Labs

The field stays just around Zefir so Harley might not effected.

"Sounds simple." Then something happens with a min message, but Zefir's natural instinct blocks it. "Urg. Seems like Watchtowers Messenger is On Air again. Not sure what he sends, but beeing Watchtower it likly contains an attack."

[Hattish Thing]

He succeeds!
The sun sets on your existence!
Lyrina yells a retort as she makes a punching motion at the golem, sending a beam of twilight, a laser of radiant, chilling energy, at it's head and ripping through it if successful.

Well, that didn't do as much as the golem wanted to. Oh well, it's buying time at least. Cold damage doesn't do much to undead, due to not really being able to feel cold. So, the chilling energy doesn't really do much, but the physical force of the beam certainly does. With the blast of energy, the monstrosities head is forcibly removed from it's chest. Now at the top of a very thick neck, there's nothing but a smoking stump. Yet, even beheading the thing doesn't seem to work much. Undead don't really need heads that much. Not really a requirement. The monster makes this apparent by moving towards her and attempting to smack the scythe out of her hand and simply grapple her arms. Simultaneously, what looks to be a terrible maw like a lamprey's opens in it's chest, bone teeth waiting hungrily... It'll then attempt to pull her into it's horrible second maw...

[Arkhosia]

Well, that didn't do as much as the golem wanted to. Oh well, it's buying time at least. Cold damage doesn't do much to undead, due to not really being able to feel cold. So, the chilling energy doesn't really do much, but the physical force of the beam certainly does. With the blast of energy, the monstrosities head is forcibly removed from it's chest. Now at the top of a very thick neck, there's nothing but a smoking stump. Yet, even beheading the thing doesn't seem to work much. Undead don't really need heads that much. Not really a requirement. The monster makes this apparent by moving towards her and attempting to smack the scythe out of her hand and simply grapple her arms. Simultaneously, what looks to be a terrible maw like a lamprey's opens in it's chest, bone teeth waiting hungrily... It'll then attempt to pull her into it's horrible second maw...

Lyrina slashes her scythe at the arms of the zombie golem viciously and repeatedly, emitting copious amounts of divine energy from herself and the blade.

[5a Violista]

[Some Place] Near the Science Labs

Since Harley was right next to him, I'd say she got a little affected.

"Yeah," she agrees. "Says he wants Mr. Thing in the Walls."

"I suppose I'd better help out with the defense," she says. "I'll catch up with you later. If you would like any help, I'll be willing."

She goes off...somewhere...so that she can be in whichever place necessary for the plot when everything catches up.
Shoot, she thinks. I didn't even have enough time to start making my armor. After this battle's over, armor will be my first priority.

[Hattish Thing]

Lyrina slashes her scythe at the arms of the zombie golem viciously and repeatedly, emitting copious amounts of divine energy from herself and the blade.

Soo.... I'm guessing that means the swatting and grappling failed? Okay.

Well, it kinda stumbles a bit, certainly bewildered as to why it managed to miss every single swing that round. His enemy was a Goddess though, so failures should be expected. Unfortunately for it, she starts swinging quite hard. Copious amounts of divine energy are produced, apparently! This show of power has an interesting effect. The waves of force send the beast backwards, burning at it's skin and popping several of the nasty pustules. Seeing as it was thrown back, the scythe attacks miss. The monster will spend it's turn rising onto it's feet, before glaring at Lyrina now. Well, it's head glares from over there. It assumes some sort of battle position.

[Zefir]

[Some Place] Near the Science Labs

"A suicid attemp? Not very clever"

And then Harly wants to go herself, well not like Zefir won't go to defend, but there is none he can beat without a little power-up.

"Well, let's see if you survive this."

With that he let's her go.

[Arkhosia]

Soo.... I'm guessing that means the swatting and grappling failed? Okay.

Well, it kinda stumbles a bit, certainly bewildered as to why it managed to miss every single swing that round. His enemy was a Goddess though, so failures should be expected. Unfortunately for it, she starts swinging quite hard. Copious amounts of divine energy are produced, apparently! This show of power has an interesting effect. The waves of force send the beast backwards, burning at it's skin and popping several of the nasty pustules. Seeing as it was thrown back, the scythe attacks miss. The monster will spend it's turn rising onto it's feet, before glaring at Lyrina now. Well, it's head glares from over there. It assumes some sort of battle position.

Lyrina flies swiftly at the golem, eyes full of determination, swinging her scythe at the chest of the abomination. It glows with divine energy as she swings it.

[Hattish Thing]

Lyrina flies swiftly at the golem, eyes full of determination, swinging her scythe at the chest of the abomination. It glows with divine energy as she swings it.

Flight. Hm. Well as for that, he simply runs at her. The golem is easily much stronger than she is, and bigger. Byrebreak knows there's no possible chance of the golem killing the goddess. However, Clegg had been watching intently... His soul had been trapped in a certain gemstone for a period of three days. However, in the gem timespace... it was fifteen years of madness. A spark of a plan formulates in his mind... This plan hatches about thirty seconds before Lyrina starts flying. In that time he pulls out a small black gemstone he keeps on him at almost all times. After all, the gem had helped him out of many tight spots against overpowered opponents. He quickly drops the gemstone in the teleportation circle, which causes the gemstone to materialize in the golem's thick fist. He quickly barks an order at Byrebreak. Break the gem on her!

Sure enough, as soon as Lyrina connects with the monsters hand, it squeezes the gemstone hard. The pressure activates the enchantment on the gem. Now, these type of magic items are used to immobilize powerful entities and even gods.... And Lyrina might suddenly find herself, body and soul, absorbed into the powerful magical gemstone where Clegg himself spent fifteen years trapped inside.

[Arkhosia]

Flight. Hm. Well as for that, he simply runs at her. The golem is easily much stronger than she is, and bigger. Byrebreak knows there's no possible chance of the golem killing the goddess. However, Clegg had been watching intently... His soul had been trapped in a certain gemstone for a period of three days. However, in the gem timespace... it was fifteen years of madness. A spark of a plan formulates in his mind... This plan hatches about thirty seconds before Lyrina starts flying. In that time he pulls out a small black gemstone he keeps on him at almost all times. After all, the gem had helped him out of many tight spots against overpowered opponents. He quickly drops the gemstone in the teleportation circle, which causes the gemstone to materialize in the golem's thick fist. He quickly barks an order at Byrebreak. Break the gem on her!

Sure enough, as soon as Lyrina connects with the monsters hand, it squeezes the gemstone hard. The pressure activates the enchantment on the gem. Now, these type of magic items are used to immobilize powerful entities and even gods.... And Lyrina might suddenly find herself, body and soul, absorbed into the powerful magical gemstone where Clegg himself spent fifteen years trapped inside.

Lyrina's eyes widen as the gem materializes, and she appears to split into two of herself, one flying backwards and another flying towards the golem, arcing her scythe at it's hand an possibly being trapped.. Both radiate divine energy.
The one flying at the golem is a clone made of solid twilight

[Hattish Thing]

Lyrina's eyes widen as the gem materializes, and she appears to split into two of herself, one flying backwards and another flying towards the golem, arcing her scythe at it's hand an possibly being trapped.. Both radiate divine energy.
The one flying at the golem is a clone made of solid twilight

Um.... wat. Could you explain what just happened? The gem was hidden in it's fist, and activated when she became about five inches away. How did she escape the spell? How did she see the small gem wrapped in its hand? How did she recognize the gem was even magical if she DID somehow see it? I don't understand.

[Arkhosia]

Um.... wat. Could you explain what just happened? The gem was hidden in it's fist, and activated when she became about five inches away. How did she escape the spell? How did she see the small gem wrapped in its hand? How did she recognize the gem was even magical if she DID somehow see it? I don't understand.

Oh, I didn't realize it was hidden! :smallredface:
Instead, Lyrina is trapped into the gem! :smalleek:
Myselfdamnit!

[Ashen Lilies]

Entrance

"Only if I get to frisk and immobilize you first," Moff says. You can't just let The Goddamn KR into your base without taking precautions! :smalleek:

[Entrance]

KR rolls her eyes. "Hammerspace inventory. If you frisked me, you'd find nothing, and I'd still be fully armed."
KR takes off her coat, attempting to hand it to Moff. Underneath, her clothes are well fitted, with no obvious bulges for concealed weaponry, and no visible holsters either. "Best you're going to get, buddy. Don't lose it."

[Hattish Thing]

Aboard the Claw

Well, with the surprise of a sudden Goddess attack resolved, Clegg breathes a sigh of relief. Well, he would if his lungs weren't full of maggots and seaweed. He activates the pentacle teleportation circle and has the small gem teleported back into his grasp. The small gem that used to be black is now a vibrant purple and orange color. It's quite beautiful. However, Clegg was never one to care much for that sort of thing. Physical beauty ceased being important to him a while ago. He has the gem placed back in his pocket and waits for the golem again.

The soul gem, once an entity has been collected, can be used for storing and for powering spells. Lyrina's life force can now be used by Clegg to power magical devices, spells, and items. Each time he uses the gem to power something, Lyrina will feel some brief pain and then just feel weaker temporarily. As for the inside of the gem, this specific stone had been made so that anyone inside would find themselves locked in an endless desert of heat and sunlight. The trapped person doesn't require water or food, but constantly feels like she's starving and dying of thirst, though no physical damage will be dealt. It's absolutely torturous, and one can see how easily Clegg's mind was further warped during his time inside. A trapped figure can be freed when someone speaks the magic word, or if the gem is broken.

Clegg now turns to speak to Chuckles. Ahhh, I knew this would assist me one day. It's so thrilling to know that even gods can be trapped. Maybe you and I aren't so different from the immortals... He chuckles darkly...

---

Below, the golem now turns to the doorway into AMEN.

(In order to let Moff and KR have their scene, I'll freeze the golem's actions until that's resolved. :smallsmile:)

[Aric Kale]

Aboard the Claw

Chuckles listens to the captain, nodding agreement. Aye, that be true. Funny piece o' work...So'l Gems arrre. O' course, bein' Undead, might as well consider ourselves immortals...hahaharr! He plucks the dagger from his zombified left arm and holds in bony fingers, examining the blade.

[Arkhosia]

Outside AMEN

Those outside may notice Lyrina's scythe lying on the ground.

[ThePhantom]

Teleporter Room

Yes, AMEN has one of these. They don't use it much, but they have one. Mr E stands next to the controls, having set up a number of monitors tapping into the cameras of AMEN.

"Well, looks like Clegg is coming back for more trouble. Sweetums, are your ogres ready?"

The ogre nods at the other top henchman of AMEN, the ogres under his leadership armed with flamethrowers and large machine-guns. It won't be long before AMEN can send out this strike force.

[D_Lord]

[Over the Valcano]

"And...mate," DC cryptically states. Why?

Well.

[Mysterious Facility]

Of course it's a short term problem, to it. To an entity like that, any setback is short term, for they measure time not in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years...but in much longer increments. Even centuries are but blinks of the eyes, really.

But to those who fight such things, any setback that can be inflicted is worth inflicting. DC, for example, has come to view this entity as an infection, thanks to its attempts at taking over Watchtower and the nature of its presence in AMEN. These infections are its bastions in reality, and if they can be removed, eventually, so will it...if the individual infections can be hunted down.

Or forced out to act in place of a lost one, as the case may be here.

If the avatar bothers to do as instructed, it will find a very interesting viewport in there. The viewport shows something it will find extremely familiar.

It is a rift very similar to the one used against it in the last attack on AMEN, except it is in its own containment room, silvery crystalline energy collectors surrounding it. This is DC's planned Class 4 plant...

And those silvery structures are glowing with a white-hot intensity, as they begin overloading and destabilizing the rift...

It doesn't take long. The power put out by that rift is enormous, which is why this facility was so isolated in the first place. And in this, DC's plan reveals itself.

The power collectors explode in a massive, catastrophic chain reaction, various elemental, magical, and who knows what other energies spilling out of them and the rift in a massive blast of absurdity that could easily be described as an equivalent to a technomagical nuclear bomb, and probably then some.

Anyone who sees it from outside...well, the facility is underground, beneath a concealed hatch. But that cannot contain the magnitude of this event. The ground itself is torn open in a massive rainbowy technicolor explosion of power that's enough to cause a noticeable earthquake, such is its destructive power.

Then it gets worse.

A much bigger version of the original rift and the one formed temporarily at AMEN appears, and everything in the area starts getting sucked into the unstable tear in reality, pieces of it getting scattered across space and time, shredded by the unstable, shifting rift.

Then the rift will subside, blissfully destabilizing. The area is probably going to be incredibly irradiated with gods know what for a long time thanks to this stunt. Such is why DC had it made in such an isolated location.

This, thanks to its techno-magical nature and scale, is rather more significant than the one that temporarily incapacitated AMEN's avatar before. If anything's going to annihilate part of this thing completely besides the sun...well.

That would be it.

No doubt the event will be visible through various observation methods like the Altaran Irregulars' observation array, as well.

((OOC: No, he can't do that again, but I had to get rid of it somehow. That thing would've allowed giant ****off superweapon beams. And no, I didn't create that rift originally either. People keep giving me horribly OP things and I don't understand why. ._.))

That.

"One more step in a long purge of that infection, no doubt." For DC's part, he summons up a forcefield bubble around himself, continuing to...not actually attack.

How dull.

[Outside]

An this avatar of Dark Lord isn't attacking also. In fact it looks like it's smiling. It's really creepy.

Well, that proves it. Your a bit like me.


Que sparkles, and rainbows. What?

Cookie?

And now it's holding out a plate of cookies to DC.

[UncleWolf]

DC's Mind

DC will feel the equivalent of a psychic "Knock Knock" before Jezebel tries to establish contact with his mind. If he allows the contact, he'll be able to sense that the chaos taint that was there before is completely absent.

Hello DC, have a moment? You wouldn't happen to have anything useful against Clarissa, would you? I know we have little in the way of a friendship or even an alliance, but I believe it's in your best interests to help me.

[Hattish Thing]

Aboard the Claw

Chuckles listens to the captain, nodding agreement. Aye, that be true. Funny piece o' work...So'l Gems arrre. O' course, bein' Undead, might as well consider ourselves immortals...hahaharr! He plucks the dagger from his zombified left arm and holds in bony fingers, examining the blade.

The Captain doesn't bother smiling anymore, despite Chuckle's attempts at humor. That was a very dangerous occurrence that he hadn't planned for, and jeopardizing his mission so soon wouldn't be tolerated. The battle between the golem and the appearance of his signature soul gem made it quite clear Clegg was nearby, and as such Clegg might as well make the battlegrounds comfortable for him. He raises his sword into the air from it's sheath, the black and red blade glowing faintly... radiating a powerful energy. He spoke a few words and it begain to rain.... Immortality has long since been deemed fairly torturous by humanity. It weakens your mind... stretches your soul until you want for nothing but to end it all. Immortality is a weakness, and a curse, yessir. But there's no need to lecture you on immortality. The both of us know plenty of curses and torture and rot...

He seems bitter and angry here, and his cold eyes blaze temporarily with the seething hate he was cursed with. The rain landing on his skin seems to calm him a bit though, and he quickly speaks normally again.

Tell me, sir, were you a religious man in your life? He gazes sternly at AMEN, gripping the railing and proceeding to speak a few more magical words... At his command, stormclouds of dark black as pitch will move in over the base. No lightning this round, but the sky is now quite dreary looking... Grey and dull and lifeless.... Can you feel the rain, sir? Is it cold? Clegg cannot feel cold... Or heat... or anything. In life he was a misguided sociopath fighting for what he believed was right. In his death... he's become a lifeless, breathless, emotionless monster... Incapable of emotion.


(It's now precipitating icy cold rain, which other than simply being uncomfortable, won't deal any sort of damage. The black clouds are obviously stormy though.)

[Aric Kale]

Aboard the Claw

Chuckles is unfazed, knowing his captain lost a sense of humor a long time ago. Oh Captain, my Captain, yo'r a bit young to be lecturing Ol' Mate Chuckles on th' pains of age and living forever. He listens to Clegg as the undead captain performs his magic. No' that I can say, Cap'n Clegg. S'been a long time since I was alive or felt cold... How is he so irrepressibly cheerful? He literally has nothing to live for. Hubert "Chuckles" O'Reilly finishes checking his weapons, assuring himself that he was ready for the ordeal to come...then he espies something laying on the path to AMEN. Tha's enuff 'bout Chuckles, Cap'n...do ye see tha' sickle? Weren't it th' goddess'? That could be useful.

[happyturtle]

Entrance


[Entrance]

KR rolls her eyes. "Hammerspace inventory. If you frisked me, you'd find nothing, and I'd still be fully armed."
KR takes off her coat, attempting to hand it to Moff. Underneath, her clothes are well fitted, with no obvious bulges for concealed weaponry, and no visible holsters either. "Best you're going to get, buddy. Don't lose it."

Moff flings the coat over one shoulder, changes a setting on the gun, and hits KR's arms and torso with the glue setting. She'll have a few minutes of stickiness before it sets into a hard coating. "Come on then." He'll lead her inside.

Another Moff arrives to do door guard duty. Convenient!

[Ashen Lilies]

KR is led inside! She looks around, getting the urge to comment on the destruction still left over from WATCH's initial attack, but eventually deciding against it.

[happyturtle]

Main Room

Hey! The rubble has mostly been cleared up! And the furniture was replaced - including a big screen TV playing Turducken Dynasty. There is a big bowl of chips on a side table, and Decker is curled up underneath it, asleep.

"Okay. You're in. Go ahead and set off your bomb or whatever." Moff says.

[Hattish Thing]

Aboard the Claw

Chuckles is unfazed, knowing his captain lost a sense of humor a long time ago. Oh Captain, my Captain, yo'r a bit young to be lecturing Ol' Mate Chuckles on th' pains of age and living forever. He listens to Clegg as the undead captain performs his magic. No' that I can say, Cap'n Clegg. S'been a long time since I was alive or felt cold... How is he so irrepressibly cheerful? He literally has nothing to live for. Hubert "Chuckles" O'Reilly finishes checking his weapons, assuring himself that he was ready for the ordeal to come...then he espies something laying on the path to AMEN. Tha's enuff 'bout Chuckles, Cap'n...do ye see tha' sickle? Weren't it th' goddess'? That could be useful.

The Captain listens to his first mate speak. He had a point. Chuckles was much older than Clegg, having been undead for centuries now... While Clegg's only been dead for about five years. Clegg wondered why Hubert was constantly cheerful. It did get a tad annoying, but he supposed it helped him cope. Everyone needed a coping mechanism to survive the agony of undeath. Clegg shakes the useful thoughts from his mind as he concentrates. ...Aye, that it is. We must bring it. Afterwards, we can see if perhaps Byrebreak can do some work on it... Warp it's magic into necromantic energy. Good spot. A crew member activates the portal and has it collect the scythe. In a few seconds, the scythe should be aboard The Crone's Claw, but there's about a turn in between the activation of the Teleportation Pentacle.

Clegg then looks down at the door of AMEN through his looking glass. Now's it's chance. The golem's attacking, prepare yourselves. We need to get inside. A few more minutes. Rings are activated, and the plan will soon begin.


Entrance



Moff flings the coat over one shoulder, changes a setting on the gun, and hits KR's arms and torso with the glue setting. She'll have a few minutes of stickiness before it sets into a hard coating. "Come on then." He'll lead her inside.

Another Moff arrives to do door guard duty. Convenient!


As the other Moff moves to guard duty, he might suddenly find a giant headless mountain of flesh and rotting bone rushing towards him. Clegg knows about the strange portal powers possessed by at least a few Moff's, and as such has had the monster wearing some sort of belt. This is to keep it barred to this plane of existence, preventing unwilling teleportation. The magic item would be wasted in the golem's destruction, but Clegg had made quite a lot of money off of the dust shipments, and the bandit raid. The monster lunges towards Moff, and attempts to bull rush him inside AMEN, not really caring about killing him, but more wanting the door open.

[Arkhosia]

The scythe radiates tons of divine energy.
((Just to ask... Lyrina can create hardlight "clones" of herself. Would she be able to create them in the Nexus still, or not?))

[ThirdEmperor]

Out the Front Door

Do you know what sucks about not being able to teleport?

Everything. But especially the part where, between the Burglar and the door, there's an angry KR who's probably about to whip out a gun and shoot the place up any second now, an angry golem charging in, and probably some other stuff waiting to murder him.

Very sensibly, the Cat Burglar decides to leap through the nearest window.


...

Less sensibly, after a few feet he doubles back to make a run for that sickle. The aura pouring off it is too much resist. And leaving it around here would be asking for it to fall into the wrong hands. Just a quick detour, grab the artifact and continue on his way to getting the hell out of here.

Either that or get teleported onto the Crone along with his new prize.
One of those two.

[The Alexandrian]

[Somewhere Over The Valcano!]

Clarissa...doesn't appear to do much this round either. She deviously spritzes a manifestly sinister unidentified fluid into the atmosphere above AMEN (sans laughing manically) before gracefully gliding back down to DC's level, her deceitful duplicates fading away into nothingness. She has no intention of tactlessly spoiling whatever eeeeeevil trick is Dark Lord building-up to with those "Come to the dark side!" cookies of his.

She'd check in on Lyrina, but she can't get a fix on her location... Weird.

She might have reacted to Celica's presence, but by the time she scans the area Celica previously occupied, she spots only a bag, which someone else, cloaked in concealing black robes from head to toe, teleports in and swiftly snatches before instantly teleporting out again.

Clarissa will not abandon her battle-station to pursue the monster into the interior of AMEN, so someone else will have to deal with that problem, she reckons.

That being the case, there isn't all that much for her to do right now save bide her time and pre-cast a two spells, none of which have a visible effect (courtesy of Clegg's obscuring shroud of clouds)...

[Aric Kale]

Aboard the Claw

Well, what's the point in being mopey all the time? Chuckles is dead, time to live life to the fullest! Or at least don't wallow in misery if you don't have to. I do wha' I can. Tha' Byr'beak sure dos know his stuff, eh Cap'n? Hahaharr! Well, I'd be'er put Ol' Fishhook on th' wheel while I'm gone. The half-decomposed zombie whistles...kinda, and another, slightly less dilapidated undead being takes the helm, keeping the ship still and steady in the air. Hey, it's harder than it sounds...
The rings are worn, and the landing crew wait for Clegg's word.

)(Personally, I feel like at most, one, weak manifestation might appear, but it'd be C- at best, and easy to break, as well as bound to the Scythe, since the actual goddess is plane-locked)(

[Hattish Thing]

Out the Front Door

Do you know what sucks about not being able to teleport?

Everything. But especially the part where, between the Burglar and the door, there's an angry KR who's probably about to whip out a gun and shoot the place up any second now, an angry golem charging in, and probably some other stuff waiting to murder him.

Very sensibly, the Cat Burglar decides to leap through the nearest window.


...

Less sensibly, after a few feet he doubles back to make a run for that sickle. The aura pouring off it is too much resist. And leaving it around here would be asking for it to fall into the wrong hands. Just a quick detour, grab the artifact and continue on his way to getting the hell out of here.

Either that or get teleported onto the Crone along with his new prize.
One of those two.


Aboard the Claw

Well, what's the point in being mopey all the time? Chuckles is dead, time to live life to the fullest! Or at least don't wallow in misery if you don't have to. I do wha' I can. Tha' Byr'beak sure dos know his stuff, eh Cap'n? Hahaharr! Well, I'd be'er put Ol' Fishhook on th' wheel while I'm gone. The half-decomposed zombie whistles...kinda, and another, slightly less dilapidated undead being takes the helm, keeping the ship still and steady in the air. Hey, it's harder than it sounds...
The rings are worn, and the landing crew wait for Clegg's word.

)(Personally, I feel like at most, one, weak manifestation might appear, but it'd be C- at best, and easy to break, as well as bound to the Scythe, since the actual goddess is plane-locked)(

Clegg simply nods at Chuckles, his mind not quite wrapped around his conversation. The ring is donned, and activated, his body disappearing from any sort of view. He watches the golem attack, enjoying the scene. However, as he's watching, a figure clad in black rushes out towards the sickle lying on the ground. Unfortunate timing leads to the result of an unwanted individual being teleported onto The Crone's Claw, along with said sickle. The Cat Burglar will be dropped onto the soggy, seaweed covered, bloody deck roughly by the spell, with the scythe landing beside him. Very quickly, he might find quite a few skeletons standing around him, fully armed with rusty blades and pistols. Seeing as Clegg has just gone invisible, he's not going to take the ring off. However, his voice can be heard quite clearly. You there! What are you doing here?! Be you friend or foe! The weaker undead don't bother with grabbing the scythe, for the divine energy would burn them. Clegg has unsheathed The Crone's Fang, and points it at The Cat Burglar. He won't be able to see it, but he'll most likely feel the end of the blade pressed at his throat... Not enough to open a wound though.

[ThePhantom]

Teleporter Room

"Alright, then go teach Clegg a lesson in manners. Sending them over.... now."

Mr E hits the switchs, and the ogre team, which is armed with flamethrowers and machine-guns are perhaps teleported to the The Crone's Claw, ready to wreck havoc among Clegg's crew.

[Arkhosia]

Crone's Claw

A voice comes from the scythe to the ogres and The Cat Burglar.
Destroy the orange gem!

[Hattish Thing]

Teleporter Room

"Alright, then go teach Clegg a lesson in manners. Sending them over.... now."

Mr E hits the switchs, and the ogre team, which is armed with flamethrowers and machine-guns are perhaps teleported to the The Crone's Claw, ready to wreck havoc among Clegg's crew.

Unfortunately, the group might find that they end up somewhere far away, on a tiny little island in Seaside. Byrebreak was ordered to prepare a counterspell in case anyone attempted to teleport on the ship. Not only would any enemy teleportation spell targeting the ship fail, it would shunt the caster onto a prepared location. Clegg had been sure to prepare. Its possible Mr. E would avoid the shunting if his spell was that strong, but he'll certainly not end up aboard. Luckily, Byrebreak is too distracted by The Cat Burglar to notice an attempted teleport, so the try is undetected.

As for any sort of voice... The only way a trapped individual can communicate with anyone else is through the mind of someone holding the gem. Clegg could have escaped from the gem much easier if he was able to communicate with others. Plus, having a voice shout out randomly during a stealthy mission wouldn't do at all.

Clegg had prepared extensively.

[ThePhantom]

Teleporter Room

Its techology, not magic. However its likely that shifts like will work. Mr E notices that the teleported didn't work in the manner he wanted.

"Rrrr. Looks like he has a barrier up. Looks like we are going to have to do this the other way. Sweetums, go to the front and keep that golem out."

Sweetums nods and heads off, while Mr E gets to a mic to tell the henchmen to fire the Cowapulets at the forces attacking AMEN's main entrance. Its better to leave DC alone for now.

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

You? ...Not off the top of my head, but I have bigger concerns right now. If you can get over the mountain and lend support, I won't even care it's you, I would rather not deal with all of these things alone. That is what Jezebel's reply is.

The other new guy gets a telepathic message of his own. Please either aid me in destroying this creature or keep its 'friend' off me. I have only one goal here.

As for the fight.

DC mostly turns his attention to the Dark Lord avatar trying to give him cookies, as destroying that thing, or coming as close to it as possible, is his entire goal here.

He might or might not have actually done something remotely meaningful already, but he's never been known to settle.

"...If you want to be nice, here, hold this," DC says, as the portal caster from before floats down to the abomination and is roughly shoved at what I assume to be the same black-knight-lookin' avatar thing as last time, in appearance.

Then the psychic flares with that red aura again, and the avatar may find itself reliving a very familiar memory as a powerful psychokinetic blast comes at it from above, aiming to send it spiraling down into the lava...again.

During this descent, the caster will stay with it, even if it didn't get picked up. Telekinesis is terrible like that.

And then the portal caster explodes, in a blast of chaotic energies of many mundane and magical types. It's not anywhere near the level of the superweapon blast used to destroy the last avatar (being more like getting hit with a rocket launcher in pure power), but it retains one important quality of the rift:

The chaotic emissions and radiation it puts out interfere with teleportation and the like, meaning that assuming the thing got hit with the blast, it probably won't be able to teleport until it purges the radiation it just got smashed with.

Even as it goes flying towards lava (again, assumptions here, as I'm trying to do this combo thingy 'cause I think it would be cool). The explosion won't be conveniently stopping the fall, either.

All this (possibly) occurs as DC's daggers float out of his hands inside his little force bubble of security, as he draws twin pistols from their holsters. Their standard power cells float out, being replaced by new ones marked with an odd cyan stripe. These weapons, too, link with his armor's power systems, even as the forcefield blades of the daggers fade.

The bottom of the force bubble shifts, detaching from the main part (so the bottom isn't so protective anymore) and warping until it resembles some kind of...lens? A refractory lens, to be specific.

"Scatter mode, maximum firepower, divert all possible armor charge. Time for you to STAY DOWN!"

Then, assuming it all got this far (this is kind of a combo attack attempt because I think it'll be really cool), DC opens fire with both of the overcharged beam pistols. To start, they're firing scattered beams, with an effect not dissimilar to a shotgun. Secondly, they're going through a refractor, scattering them further over a larger area.

Finally, those power cells seem to be firing elemental cold, and over an area like that, a pretty good portion of the lava in that pit probably just froze, perhaps with the avatar inside it. Obviously DC won't be doing that if it doesn't get blasted down there. But it worked before, so it can probably work now.

The freezing blasts are probably made worse by the current doom going on, as well: The influence of Llymic likely amplifies the darkness created by Clegg's clouds, and intensifies the cold. It also occurs to me that it's probably really cold up here to start with anyway aside from the lava part, since they're kinda up over a mountain. Altitude and all.

So it's possible DC just sent that avatar into a freezing prison while disabling its teleporty escape route! :smalleek: It's probably best if D_Lord posts next here, at least as far as the combatants go.

[D_Lord]

[Over the Valcano]

Well that was a lot of actions, so many points that Dark Lord could do something to block. However it doesn't. On the other hand it punches through the solidified Lava like a zombie rising from the grave. Yes while it is human sized and shaped it's a lot stronger.

You burned the Cookies.

Squirrel.

And Dark Lord has just tried to polymorph DC into a Squirrel. Also it's hair is on fire but not the cloak it's wearing.

[Ashen Lilies]

Main Room

Hey! The rubble has mostly been cleared up! And the furniture was replaced - including a big screen TV playing Turducken Dynasty. There is a big bowl of chips on a side table, and Decker is curled up underneath it, asleep.

"Okay. You're in. Go ahead and set off your bomb or whatever." Moff says.

[Main Room]

KR walks over to the table and sits on the floor next to it, arms glued together in front of her.
"Decker?"

[happyturtle]

Front Entrance

Moff sees the flesh golem running towards him. :smalleek:

He fires his Weird Gun, and this time, it's a flamethrower. Maybe it will catch the golem on fire, and maybe not. But earlier, when Moff was spraying liquid all around the entrance? That was oil. And that definitely catches on fire. The area all around the entrance to the base is a field of fire - about the size of a basketball court. And since Moffs are not fireproof, Moff disappears through a portal, leaving it behind to cover the door. He doesn't know that it won't work for the golem, but the OOC text notes that the people who are to follow the golem will still have a portal to deal with.


Main Room

Decker blinks awake. "KR?"


Cowapult

Another Moff fires a couple of cows (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FavUpD_IjVY) at The Crone's Claw. They act like the ones in the video, so it's worth watching.

[Fan]

[Over the Valcano]

Well that was a lot of actions, so many points that Dark Lord could do something to block. However it doesn't. On the other hand it punches through the solidified Lava like a zombie rising from the grave. Yes while it is human sized and shaped it's a lot stronger.

You burned the Cookies.

Squirrel.

And Dark Lord has just tried to polymorph DC into a Squirrel. Also it's hair is on fire but not the cloak it's wearing.

Hayden grins, a wild expression on his face as he says.

So it's time to get fired up already? ALRIGHT! The legendary hero gets to prove himself. Get ready abominations, a fist that has traveled throughout time and space has come to end your evil! "

Adopting a runners pose, after burners appear at the back of his legs, cloth tearing to expose the metal skeletal framework underneath the cyborgs "Casual" attire, exposing what looked like small scale jet afterburners, yet the heat and intensity that came off them turned the rock beneath him an angry red! Those turbines propelling the cyborg forward with an explosion that DC, and any other science oriented types, would recognize as the sound barrier being broken! Curtails of flame following the cyborg as he propels himself towards the target, white blue fire burning hotter with every moment! Truly this was the speed and strength of a hero of the future! A flying lariat coming at D_Lord with mach speed intensity, steel servos preparing a special salvo as his arms opened, displaying a circular row of gas canisters as he spun, attempting to line up the blow as one of the canisters would explode, launching the explosive payload at the same time as an uppercut would connect, attempting to send that villain flying with force that would explode the rock around him even if he were to dodge! If it connects, he'll launch himself up into the sky, raining explosive blow after blow that would send the creature ever higher until he reaches the limit of his jumping ability, however, at mach speeds this is likely to be quite a few blows, and also likely to exhaust one arm's rocket payload completely.

"TAAAKE THIS! A PUNCH THAT ECHOES THROUGHOUT THE COSMOS, PROPELLED BY THE FIRES OF COURAGE. ROCKET PUNCH BARRAGE!"

[ThePhantom]

(Hi Fan. Nice to see you. I should point out a bit of a problem with your post. The avatar of D_Lord is currently standing on a bit of harden lava inside the crater of the volcano. Going at it while breaking the sound barrier sounds like a good way to go straight into the lava. Sorry. Also, nice post DC.)

Mr E continues to monitor the situation as best as he can from his makeshift command center.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Main Room]

"Hi Decker." :smallsmile: Says KR, feeling slightly foolish.

[happyturtle]

Main Room

Decker sits up, bumps her head on the table, and scoots out. "What are you doing here?" She glances at the glue restraint, then at Moff, and scoots a little closer. "Don't worry. I'll get you out of here."

[The Alexandrian]

[Over the Valcano]

Oh? It would appear that the warrior Magtok-fanboy cyborg who certainly looks as though he should be strapped up nice and tight in a radiant white jacket that forces him hug himself is joining the fray! What fun will she have crushing the life out of this one!

This evens up the odds a tad, doesn't it? Now nobody has to feel guilty about absolutely pulverizing anyone else, right?

As Clarissa watches DC jury-rig a divergent lens out of a forcefield, she can't help but be entertained! He stole her idea! Haha!

Having rejected Dark Lord's dark side cookies and hence probably its clearly (clearly) nefarious and perhaps overly elaborate cookie trap-

Oi! Clarissa, what are you... Woah!

So much for not interfering further in Dark Lord-DC relations.

All combatants outside of AMEN may be slightly (slightly) somewhat terrified when much of the light ceases to shine from above the "heavens" above. In the next moment or so, DC may become the target of a hyper-intense solar beam of polychromatic light. Yes, Clarissa was indeed setting up a massive array of convergent lenses by exploiting the various indexes of the assortment of fluids she dispensed into the atmosphere and the rather potent spell she just now finished casting (though it is not as complete as it could be), but the big reveal obviously wouldn't have worked since someone beat her to the implementation of the tactic.

Good *cough, a pox upon your house, cough* show! :smalltongue:

Nevertheless, as the black storm clouds in the sky part for probably no more than a minute, DC might be faced with two major problems. DC may be blinded and/or scorched somewhat when the Nexus's most extreme tanning booth attempts to work its magic on his pasty mortal flesh. Aside from that, he may be diagnosed with skin cancer in several decades due to this incident (Mwahahahahaha!).

Clarissa will, as any self-respecting villain should, take advantage of DC's plight (if her hyper-solar beam, assuming DC is weakened by the hyper-solar beam. Clarissa will attempt to blur in a streak of violet tinted light to a location directly beneath DC before absorbing the light energy (maybe?) flooding the area as well as as much of the power of the rift as is possible in order to "charge up" her next attack.

Caveat: Clarissa will only attack DC-the-human. She will not attack DC-the-squirrel because, *snrk*, DC as a squirrel! Oh gods, if that happens she'd hope with all of her corrupted, satanic heart that the transformation lasts until she can get her demonic/angelic hands on a camera! :smalltongue:

[Arkhosia]

A Reasonable distance away from over the volcano

Hey look, on that convenient cliff, Ark's watching the fight while eating from a Bag of Endless Popcorn! :smalltongue:

[5a Violista]

[Around AMEN] is Harley, running around, activating and finishing off some of the recently-repaired defenses, and also double-checking the weaker points of the walls to make sure they're protected enough.

((For my sake, so I don't contradict myself later, this is what she looks like/has: She's not wearing a mask, leaving the large scar on the left side of her face glaring. She, once again, looks like she did earlier, in late forties. Her hair is mostly blue, tied back (she still hasn't noticed it), but with a bit of grey here and there. She has a perfectly normal sword in a "blessed" scabbard. She has the Shapeshifter's Bane dagger she got in the Thanksmas Auction, and is wearing a magical necklace with a ruby on it. She's wearing a skirt and blouse with a belt (not armor, unfortunately) due to Ark making her last good top that matched her pants wet. When her skirt doesn't cover her ankles, her socks do, of course. (Can't have any of these henchmen distracted by her ankles...) Also, she has a pocket mirror. Not exactly sure what's that for.))

So...yeah. That's what she's doing; at least until she has a run-in with the enemy.

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

The attempted squirrel curse does not have any visible effect, probably thanks to the part where DC's personal tech is made to be magic-resistant, as demonstrated after Magtok's attack on Evolution Industries' headquarters in Westside. This protects him mostly because he is, as established before, wearing armor now. Plus I think the avatar has a bigger concern right now.

As for Clarissa.

Did...

Did she just basically try to hit DC with a kill-sat, without the sat?

Fortunately for him, two factors act in his favor. One, obviously, is the forcefield still set up for defense above him, which does not act as a lens like that.

Secondly, and by far the more important part, is that a solar-beam based attack is not going to be as effective as it could be right now, thanks to the dimming of the sun and the part where it has to go through those dark stormclouds thanks to Clegg.

That's not to say it's not something that shouldn't be worried about, but it probably does mean the upper forcefield holds just long enough for DC to fly the hell away from the attempted effectively-a-kill-sat strike.

"...No."

One of DC's guns' regular power cells flies towards Clarissa as she tries to charge up, to overload and detonate in much the same manner as the portal caster did. While the blast itself won't do too much most likely, the emissions remain the same, and are likely to cause issues with teleportation, especially given that she's busy trying to charge (so hopefully this is a rather opportune moment to strike).

What's more important, though, are the two small spheres that unclip from the psychic's belt (two of four) and fly towards her in much the same time, because those are two custom-made magitech'd up ion grenades that release a chaotic magic-infused ionic pulse (said 'ion' being based on the SW-type tech). While normally this would not be very effective against something that is not either technology or, uh, the Thing In The Walls, there is a single terrible factor that will make things very unpleasant for Clarissa.

DC is pointing upward and flying the hell away at this point for some reason here sure as hell isn't sharing. "I don't think so."

As it turns out, there's a very good reason for the pointing up, because if those ion grenades hit their opportunistic mark, they'll prove to have a very nasty secondary effect due to the weather situation brought on by Clegg. Namely, the ionic effects will provoke a huge amount of lightning to come striking down at where they hit, and that happens to be right where they went off. (Lightning confirmed with Noodlehat).

Which is to say, on Clarissa, if all goes well.

Then it will get worse.

Should all this happen, including that overload blast, the grenades, the lightning, the whole thing, there will be one final, even more horrific result for Clarissa.

A result that this place has seen before (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16145888&postcount=168). The energy of the solar beam, grenades, and massive lightning serve to provoke much the same effect, likely ripping open a massive, unstable, swirling multicolored rift of chaotic power putting off all sorts of incredibly unhealthy emissions and violently trying to suck everything near into the rift. Again.

Given that if this has happened, the overload went off right on her?

That rift may well form in the space she's supposed to be occupying and cause her to implode, and have her constituent molecules scattered across all the vast planes and dimensions that are and shall be.

[Darkcomet]

((Psst, Hatter, posting this here since my OOC post is the last one as I type this: The rift's sucking-in effect doesn't extend down the mountain that far. It's pretty far up there.))

[Hattish Thing]

((Psst, Hatter, posting this here since my OOC post is the last one as I type this: The rift's sucking-in effect doesn't extend down the mountain that far. It's pretty far up there.))

((I'm aware, but the broken anti-teleport belt thing drew the golem to the rift. I think I said that somewhere. It's just a better looking death for the thing too.))

[ThirdEmperor]

Clegg simply nods at Chuckles, his mind not quite wrapped around his conversation. The ring is donned, and activated, his body disappearing from any sort of view. He watches the golem attack, enjoying the scene. However, as he's watching, a figure clad in black rushes out towards the sickle lying on the ground. Unfortunate timing leads to the result of an unwanted individual being teleported onto The Crone's Claw, along with said sickle. The Cat Burglar will be dropped onto the soggy, seaweed covered, bloody deck roughly by the spell, with the scythe landing beside him. Very quickly, he might find quite a few skeletons standing around him, fully armed with rusty blades and pistols. Seeing as Clegg has just gone invisible, he's not going to take the ring off. However, his voice can be heard quite clearly. You there! What are you doing here?! Be you friend or foe! The weaker undead don't bother with grabbing the scythe, for the divine energy would burn them. Clegg has unsheathed The Crone's Fang, and points it at The Cat Burglar. He won't be able to see it, but he'll most likely feel the end of the blade pressed at his throat... Not enough to open a wound though.

Oh, the Cat sees the sword alright. Not to mention the ugly zombie holding it. One of the many benefits of those silly cat-eyed goggles he wears is seeing exactly what's trying to kill him.

The thief scrambles away as the point gets uncomfortably close to his neck, pushing himself back along the slimy deck. On reflex, he grabs the sickle, and the aura might convince the skeletons to give him some distance. "I, uh... friend? Friend. Uhm, I just, well, quit AMEN." Along with every other organization the undead might have a problem with. Funny now that works out.

[Arkhosia]

Crone's Claw

Let me out of the soul gem, you rotter!
The scythe yells angrily at Clegg.

[Hattish Thing]

Front Entrance

Moff sees the flesh golem running towards him. :smalleek:

He fires his Weird Gun, and this time, it's a flamethrower. Maybe it will catch the golem on fire, and maybe not. But earlier, when Moff was spraying liquid all around the entrance? That was oil. And that definitely catches on fire. The area all around the entrance to the base is a field of fire - about the size of a basketball court. And since Moffs are not fireproof, Moff disappears through a portal, leaving it behind to cover the door. He doesn't know that it won't work for the golem, but the OOC text notes that the people who are to follow the golem will still have a portal to deal with.

Cowapult

Another Moff fires a couple of cows (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FavUpD_IjVY) at The Crone's Claw. They act like the ones in the video, so it's worth watching.

The monstrous flesh golem at the door of AMEN is suddenly confronted with it's most lethal weapon. Fire. Sure enough, the golem is suddenly stopped as a blanket of painful, burning, scorching fire comes roaring at it. The fire utterly destroys the magical belt at it's waste preventing enemy teleportation. However, that's the least of the golem's problems. Not only is he on fire, but suddenly the ground around him is flaming as well. It's just too much for the thing. The monster roars and howls and screams horribly, the terrible sound probably causing Moff to recoil or shudder. The thick legs of the huge creature melt, flesh bubbling and bone crumbling among the torturous pain of being immolated.


Oh, the Cat sees the sword alright. Not to mention the ugly zombie holding it. One of the many benefits of those silly cat-eyed goggles he wears is seeing exactly what's trying to kill him.

The thief scrambles away as the point gets uncomfortably close to his neck, pushing himself back along the slimy deck. On reflex, he grabs the sickle, and the aura might convince the skeletons to give him some distance. "I, uh... friend? Friend. Uhm, I just, well, quit AMEN." Along with every other organization the undead might have a problem with. Funny now that works out.

Captain Clegg pulls the sword back and removes the silver ring. There was no point anymore in wearing them seeing as any sort of stealth operation was a failure as soon as a goddess had come to battle. Clegg is revealed in all his nastiness to The Cat Burglar. Not that he wasn't before, but it's a lot clearer now. (:smalltongue:) He pulls the blade back and sheathes it, deciding just by the look of the prisoner and his speech that he wasn't much of a threat. He speaks with an exasperated tone. Ahh... You're an ex-member too then? I'm going to presume you had personal reasons to leave, and not that you're simply a deserter. Were this any other time, I'd have your body crucified upside down on the mast, however, you seem to have caught me at a bad time. You may live provided you cause no trouble. After my business is concluded, I will personally assure that you are dropped off. The skeletons around The Cat Burglar do indeed back away from him. Clegg barks one more command at O'Reilly before turning away. Keep your eyes on him, and assure that he knows that he's a guest aboard this vessel. Have Byrebreak and Seerwied escort him to my cabin, and keep watch over him. He is to be provided reading material to pass the time as well. With that, he turns away.

The Captain watches grimly as events around him proceed. This wasn't going right at all. Not bad, really, but not the way it was supposed to go. Despite the ship being invisible, it appears another Moff has decided to fire upon The Crone's Claw. Due to the Claw not having made it's exact positioning clear, and still being invisible, the cows miss. However, several crewmen including Byrebreak stare down in horror over the rotting railings as the bizarre cows mutate below them and crash into the ground. That... was flippin' weird.

However, the strangeness doesn't even stop there. Clegg watches in awe as the figure he recognized as Clarissa did battle with another mysterious male. Clarissa seemed to have the upper hand the entire battle, her strength completely dominating the field. However... It appears that this mystery individual pulls an ace out of his sleeve. Now the ground is wet and soggy from the cold rain, but then power cells of elemental cold are activated, thier influence stretching wide. Sure enough, now around the area where DC, Clarissa, and the mysterry cyborg are battling, the already chilling precipitation begins to turn into snow...

The golem continues to move forward to Moff, however it's having some issues walking seeing as it's feet have melted into slabs, and it's fleshy skin is bubbling and popping. It even manages to get a few feet away from Moff before... All hell breaks loose. DC performs one of the most frightening and awe inspiring attacks Clegg had ever seen loosed in combat. The male figure must be a genious, for he seemed to know exactly what to do. The cheeky unknown gunman had somehow harnessed the powerful lightning Clegg had summoned to do his bedding. The Captain watches through his wet spyglass as a huge column of lightning comes crashing down on Clarissa, producing an incredibly amount of electromagnetic pulses. The electricity from the incredible strike can literally be felt in the air... it's incredible. Not only that, but somehow another effect was created. Clegg watches, his curiosity turned to an incredible sense of respect for the mysterious individual, as a horrible rift opens up around Clarissa, hungering for anything around it...

This is the hell broken loose that the flaming golem had the misfortune of experiencing, for at the exact moment it lunges forward, the rift appears. The broken anti-teleportation belt seems to be not only... well... not working, but it seems to be doing the opposite of what it's supposed to do. It's drawing the golem towards the rift... So, yes, in front of the Moff at the door, the flaming flesh golem is lifted into the air and quickly sucked into the horrible rift up ahead, the flesh golem disappearing inside the mysterious void... BlackByre grimaces and relinquishes a mental connection as the golem vanishes. He wanted nothing to do with what his creation was about to experience...

It is however at this exact moment that Harley will be rushing down the hall. (Godmod permission granted by Mahroni.) The leader of AMEN was looking about for any sort of attacker to spot and defeat, defending her base like a leader should. She moves by the Moff at the door as Clegg is watching the golem vanish. He catches a glance at her, recalling the images of Harley he'd seen before. Yes... it was her. His prey had walked right into his rotting claws... However, Clegg was hardly going to underestimate the leader of AMEN. Clarissa must listen to her for a reason. He barks an order at Chuckles and the crew around him. Change of plans! O'Reilly, stay here and maneuver the ship. Do NOT let that rift affect us. Crowler, pay attention to the teleportation circle. If it looks like the rift is beginning to affect me, or I am to be defeated, bring me back aboard. NOW GET TO IT.

The Rotting Captain (Or so he's titled in horror stories village people of Outside speak of around campfires) limps over to the blodoy teleportation circle, stepping inside and reappearing below.

The lightning is flashing and thunder rocks the sky, chilled rain pours down from black clouds, making the muddy ground wet and soggy under the boot of Captain Clegg. The dark glooming clouds cover up the sky, plunging the area into darkness... Snow buffets the volcano of AMEN and it seems at that moment that even Hell has frozen over... Clegg can now be seen on the ground ten feet behind the fire square. The fire produces a fair amount of illumination, lighting up Clegg's horrifying face, the fire reflected in his cold dead eyes... Rainwater dripped through his scraggly yet combed hair, drips off his sopping wet coat, and slides down into his boot... He feels his metal leg digging into the ground, his boot sliding into the wet ground as well... Lightning flashes behind him, further paying homage to just how frightening Clegg is with it's brief flash of light.

His grey skin is rotting and crumbling away, maggots and barnacles growing across his face and skin... small holes in his cheek where worms and insects have burrowed in to feast upon his corpse shell... His eyes are fearsome dead things, glowing red in the dim light, his face twisted in a stern scowl. His claws were sharp and terrible, the sinew and ligaments of his hands visible in the little light provided... He radiates terrible necromantic energy, his power having grown due to various blood pacts with unholy abominations beyond any mortals comprehension... With each blood sacrifice he makes, he gains a little stronger... a little darker... a little crueler. And The Captain was never one to shy away from the spilling of blood. He unsheathes The Crone's Fang slowly, the massive red blade glowing malignantly, any rainwater connecting with it instantly evaporating... It's a blade of evil forged in a dark area, imbued with the blood of twisted sea devils. It radiates incredible necromantic energy, strengthening Clegg with it's negative energy. He was a leader, a general, a force to be reckoned with. He was The Captain.

His voice calls out loud and clear to Harley, crispy and enunciated words forming despite Clegg's lack of lips... His voice seems to echo faintly and inspires fear in those of weak spirit.... Harley, Leader of AMEN. I have met you on the field of battle this day to settle a score made between us long ago... Call you men off, and I shall call mine. I seek a fair battle. I respect you as a leader, and I expect you to grant me an honorable duel. He holds the Fang with one clawed hand, hunching over just a tad as he assumes position.

http://i1051.photobucket.com/albums/s440/Singingnoodle/NewCleggLeg.png

[Zefir]

[Somewhere]someone migth find him or at least pass by.

Zefir prepares himself to join the fight. At least he isn't hiding, but on the other hand he can't go out fighting whatever happens up their at the lava. He will go and preapre some traps in the hallway so he stands a good chance against anyone silly enougth to enter.

[5a Violista]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

The battlefield was very precarious: Because the lack of sunlight down here, the various colored lights cast eerie shadows across the field. The fire caused dancing shadows, the maddening yellow portal light and the far-off rift's lights only gave off enough light to glimpse the field. Rocks and rubble, falling from the mountain and the base, made it very hazardous to stand out here in the courtyard. The occasional lightning makes the large scar on Harley's face brilliant.

Harley Zorzo, Leader of AMEN, looked over the battlefield and then stared at Captain Clegg. Though the battle far above their heads was a little too much for her to handle, here was something she could do. She drew her sword in her left hand, and held her scabbard in her right. She called back to Moff and any other AMENite nearby. "Let nobody interfere in this duel," she commands. "No matter what happens, it's mine."

There was no guarantee she would win. But, to be honest, this is the kind of thing she's always dreamed about since she was a little girl: to be like her father, facing off against captains of great power and wickedness.

Harley's sword has yet to be used in battle, so it was still unscratched and unnamed. But her scabbard - it is essentially the polar opposite of The Crone's Fang. It is a turquoise blue, inlaid with silver, and blessed to be extremely effective against ones such as demons, angels, faeries...and undead - it was her father's.

Holding her sword at ready, she advanced through the mud and rocks towards Clegg. She takes a deep breath. "On my honor as a knight, I accept your challenge," she declares.

[Hattish Thing]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

The battlefield was very precarious: Because the lack of sunlight down here, the various colored lights cast eerie shadows across the field. The fire caused dancing shadows, the maddening yellow portal light and the far-off rift's lights only gave off enough light to glimpse the field. Rocks and rubble, falling from the mountain and the base, made it very hazardous to stand out here in the courtyard.

Harley Zorzo, Leader of AMEN, looked over the battlefield and then stared at Captain Clegg. Though the battle far above their heads was a little too much for her to handle, here was something she could do. She drew her sword in her left hand, and held her scabbard in her right. She called back to Moff and any other AMENite nearby. "Let nobody interfere in this duel," she commands. "No matter what happens, it's mine."

There was no guarantee she would win. But, to be honest, this is the kind of thing she's always dreamed about since she was a little girl: to be like her father, facing off against captains of great power and evil.

Harley's sword has yet to be used in battle, so it was still unscratched and unnamed. But her scabbard - it is essentially the polar opposite of The Crone's Fang. It is a turquoise blue, inlaid with silver, and blessed to be extremely effective against ones such as demons, angels, faeries...and undead - it was her father's.

Holding her sword at ready, she advanced through the mud and rocks towards Clegg. She takes a deep breath. "On my honor as a knight, I accept your challenge," she declares.


The Captain watches his foe intensely, never averting his gaze from her. He didn't bother reply with any witty dialogue, nor did he smirk gloatingly. This was an individual he knew to be honorable and respected by many. He does look a tad perplexed as she calls herself a knight, but that curiosity fades away into caution as he gazes upon her scabbard. That sort of weapon felt familiar. Clegg had been confronted with a weapon of that kind when Tobias Vulpan battled him at The Temple of Dalachrech. He remembered how it burned at his skin.... This looked to be a weapon of the same type. He didn't fear it, for Clegg couldn't really feel fear much. But he did respect it. This Harley Zorzo would indeed be a worthy opponent. Clegg doesn't use a second weapon at the moment. He'd wield The Crone's Fang with both of his clawed hands. While The Fang could be wielded by one of Clegg's abnormally strong limbs, he preferred a two-handed approach to this specific opponent. Overpower her blocks and break her...

As she draws nearer to him, a rather curious little gray crab crawls out of one of the slits of The Captain's cheeks. As it attempts to crawl about, Clegg expertly sucks the poor thing in and crunches down upon it's shell.... the crab's blood bursting lightly about. Clegg swallows and licks his lips, turning his head to the side... The rainwater now mixed with the blood and smeared it across his lower jaw. He speaks slowly but surely. Pardon, but you address yourself as a knight. It's curious that a self-called "knight" would be commander of an organization famed for it's death and destruction... Clegg would begin to circle around her slowly, maneuvering quite well in the mud. He was already at an advantage over her. This was home to him. The rainwater invigorated him, the darkness comforted him, and the lightning and thunder inspired him... He was accustomed to battling in the severe weather. Harley was certainly not.

[5a Violista]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Clegg was right; Harley wasn't as used to battling in bad weather. On bad footing, yes, but not usually in mud or rain. She also wasn't used to battling without armor, either - and her ankle-length skirt didn't help either, as it picked up mud every step she took.

As Captain Clegg circled, Harley glanced down at the ground. She had to quickly pick out the solid rocks from the mud, so she could use them. The lighting made it difficult, but she was fairly confident that she found enough. Blast this pouring rain, too. With it pouring like this, she won't be able to keep a steady flame in her hand.

She stands steady on one of such stones. "I believe one should be whom she wants, and not what others say of her." Lightning flashes and thunder erupts, which she takes as her signal to attack.

She quickly advances - well, as quickly as she can in the mud - keeping her sword hand (her left hand) front. When she's close enough to be in attacking distance, she tries to place herself on the two solid footholds she spotted earlier. The front one was solid enough - but the back one collapsed under her weight, leaving her back foot in the mud.

Even so, she still swings her sword towards Clegg's underarm. Her scabbard remains back and lifted up for the inevitable counterattack.

[Hattish Thing]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Clegg was right; Harley wasn't as used to battling in bad weather. On bad footing, yes, but not usually in mud or rain. She also wasn't used to battling without armor, either - and her ankle-length skirt didn't help either, as it picked up mud every step she took.

As Captain Clegg circled, Harley glanced down at the ground. She had to quickly pick out the solid rocks from the mud, so she could use them. The lighting made it difficult, but she was fairly confident that she found enough. Blast this pouring rain, too. With it pouring like this, she won't be able to keep a steady flame in her hand.

She stands steady on one of such stones. "I believe one should be whom she wants, and not what others say of her." Lightning flashes and thunder erupts, which she takes as her signal to attack.

She quickly advances - well, as quickly as she can in the mud - keeping her sword hand (her left hand) front. When she's close enough to be in attacking distance, she tries to place herself on the two solid footholds she spotted earlier. The front one was solid enough - but the back one collapsed under her weight, leaving her back foot in the mud.

Even so, she still swings her sword towards Clegg's underarm. Her scabbard remains back and lifted up for the inevitable counterattack.

Clegg waits for her attack, assuming a good defensive position. His boot is dug into the mud along with his leg, giving him a bit of a fortification to his stance. He holds the blade straight in front of him as she draws about, careful to keep his eyes on her. Always on her. She might have difficult seeing in the rain, or the advantage of darkvision. But he did due to training and his unholy nature. As soon as Harley's well-thought out attack draws near and her blade begins to swing, Clegg bursts into action. He's defending aggressively, but not attacking just yet. He needs to get a feel for his opponent's style first. So, as her blade moves at an upward motion to slice at his underarm, Clegg brings The Fang straight down quickly and brutally, his inhuman strength adding to the force behind the defensive move. As soon as he feels a connection (which he may or may not) he'll throw himself backwards to escape the reach of that burning scabbard.

Should the defensive move succeed, however, Harley might feel the large falchion's full force. The strike itself is strong enough to disarm most opponents with it's sheer ferocity, but beyond that, the instant The Fang connects with non-magical metal, the struck object begins to rust at an extremely high rate. This ability was perfect at taking down soldiers clad in heavy, but non-magical armor.

Should the move fail, Clegg at least manages to scoot backwards a tad. He'll look to be a tad off-balance, but he knows the area fairly well and's in his favored terrain.

Regardless of the outcome of his strike, Clegg continues to speak. I take it you're not the kind to believe in fate then. Your chosen name is still highly *Ungh!* unusual... seeing as your title and your profession seem to directly oppose one another! His normally fairly bitter sounding voice is interrupted with a bit of a grunt as he makes his move.

[5a Violista]

[AMEM's Courtyard]

Her sword is non-magical, and is made with steel.

Harley struggles to keep the sword in her hand after it's hit, but she does. She's unaware of The Fang's ability, and has no reason to suspect it yet, so her sword begins rusting through without her noticing.

Thankfully, to sort-of even the odds, her scabbard has a secret special ability as well, which I (conveniently?) forgot to mention earlier. If the scabbard hits Clegg, it will cut as if it were a sword, and it will also cause a miniature explosion where it contacts undead flesh. Thankfully, Clegg wasn't hit by it yet.

Harley needs to pull her right leg up and step forwards towards Clegg, before she can do anything.

"On the contrary," she says, making her move. "My past life's actions," she continues, professing her core belief, "control the fate of mine."

As she says this, she brings her right arm (now closer) up so her scabbard can bind his sword - she uses her scabbard's forte to try to control The Crone's Fang's foible, in order to force an opening on the apparently off-balance pirate.

Then, thinking she has an opening (or, alternatively, if he reacted before the bind could take effect, trying to force him on the defense because she can't recover in time), she attempts a thrust with her sword at his chest.

....

Whether the blade hits Captain Clegg or something else, it's at this moment that the now-rusted unnamed sword will break and the most the blade will fall to the mud, leaving her with just the hilt in her left hand. :smalleek:

[happyturtle]

The Duel

Moff has no fear of the screams of the flesh golem. First, because he was spawned on the Yellow Road and somewhat of an abomination himself. Secondly because he ducked into the Yellow Road the moment he set the place on fire and so he wasn't there. :smalltongue:

However, he re-emerges when Harley heads out. He'll need to retroactively drop the portal that's blocking the door and spray a fire extinguisher to make a path through the fire so she can get to the duel. Yes. That totally is what happened. *nodnod*

Moff doesn't respect much, but he does respect drama. So he won't interfere with the fight. In fact, he'll make sure no one else does either. He begins pacing around them, alternately spraying oil and fire, to surround the arena with flame. Since it's burning oil, the rain or snow won't put it out. And let's face it. This fight deserves a wall of fire around it. :smallcool:

Cow-a-Pult

At the Cow-a-Pult, the other Moff swears at his miss. But the invisible ship isn't entirely undetectable. It'd be difficult to find in dry weather, but with all this precipitation, all he has to do is look for the spot where the rain and snow are interrupted by a large flying object. Snow, especially, will make an invisible flying ship hard to hide.

Two more cows away! If they hit the ship, they might crash through the hull. Wikipedia tells me the average cow is 725 kg (1598 lbs), so that's a lot of mass. Or they might land on the deck, skittering around like the creepy eldritch spider-cows that they are! :smalleek:

[Arkhosia]

The Duel

Moff has no fear of the screams of the flesh golem. First, because he was spawned on the Yellow Road and somewhat of an abomination himself. Secondly because he ducked into the Yellow Road the moment he set the place on fire and so he wasn't there. :smalltongue:

However, he re-emerges when Harley heads out. He'll need to retroactively drop the portal that's blocking the door and spray a fire extinguisher to make a path through the fire so she can get to the duel. Yes. That totally is what happened. *nodnod*

Moff doesn't respect much, but he does respect drama. So he won't interfere with the fight. In fact, he'll make sure no one else does either. He begins pacing around them, alternately spraying oil and fire, to surround the arena with flame. Since it's burning oil, the rain or snow won't put it out. And let's face it. This fight deserves a wall of fire around it. :smallcool:

Cow-a-Pult

At the Cow-a-Pult, the other Moff swears at his miss. But the invisible ship isn't entirely undetectable. It'd be difficult to find in dry weather, but with all this precipitation, all he has to do is look for the spot where the rain and snow are interrupted by a large flying object. Snow, especially, will make an invisible flying ship hard to hide.

Two more cows away! If they hit the ship, they might crash through the hull. Wikipedia tells me the average cow is 725 kg (1598 lbs), so that's a lot of mass. Or they might land on the deck, skittering around like the creepy eldritch spider-cows that they are! :smalleek:

When Moff is finished, he'll notice ark sitting in a lawn chair with a two Bags of Endless Popcorn and two Soda Cups of Endless Soda of Drinker's Choice!
Hey Moff! Popcorn?
She asks, offering a bag of popcorn.

[Aric Kale]

Crone's Claw

Chuckles raises an eyebrow at The Captain's naivety, believing this thief was nothing more than a simple deserter. Once Chuckles is given command of the ship, he places two crewman to watch the Cat Burglar at all times.
As for the cows, after the first launch misses, Chuckles steers the ship forwards, hoping to throw off Moff's aim. If Clegg hadn't told them to stand down, the ship's crew would be raining more than just water on AMEN...cannons would be heard across the land. Sadly, this dream won't become a reality. Still, a couple of Skeletons take some shots at the Moff with their muskets, so accuracy is low at best.

)(Sorry for the delay.)(

[Hattish Thing]

The Duel

Moff has no fear of the screams of the flesh golem. First, because he was spawned on the Yellow Road and somewhat of an abomination himself. Secondly because he ducked into the Yellow Road the moment he set the place on fire and so he wasn't there. :smalltongue:

However, he re-emerges when Harley heads out. He'll need to retroactively drop the portal that's blocking the door and spray a fire extinguisher to make a path through the fire so she can get to the duel. Yes. That totally is what happened. *nodnod*

Moff doesn't respect much, but he does respect drama. So he won't interfere with the fight. In fact, he'll make sure no one else does either. He begins pacing around them, alternately spraying oil and fire, to surround the arena with flame. Since it's burning oil, the rain or snow won't put it out. And let's face it. This fight deserves a wall of fire around it. :smallcool:


As Moff circles the battle arena, Clegg gets a little bit uneasy. The oil and fire was quite unnerving... As an undead, he learned to fear and respect the raw primal power of flames. After all, only a few months ago Clegg had perished on a hunt to capture Zane in the fiery maw of Fearblaze. He regenerated as he always did, however that death was particularly painful... As such, he makes a mental note to keep at least a five foot gap between him and the walls of fire. However, maybe there was some way he could use the blaze to earn an advantage...


[AMEM's Courtyard]

Her sword is non-magical, and is made with steel.

Harley struggles to keep the sword in her hand after it's hit, but she does. She's unaware of The Fang's ability, and has no reason to suspect it yet, so her sword begins rusting through without her noticing.

Thankfully, to sort-of even the odds, her scabbard has a secret special ability as well, which I (conveniently?) forgot to mention earlier. If the scabbard hits Clegg, it will cut as if it were a sword, and it will also cause a miniature explosion where it contacts undead flesh. Thankfully, Clegg wasn't hit by it yet.

Harley needs to pull her right leg up and step forwards towards Clegg, before she can do anything.

"On the contrary," she says, making her move. "My past life's actions," she continues, professing her core belief, "control the fate of mine."

As she says this, she brings her right arm (now closer) up so her scabbard can bind his sword - she uses her scabbard's forte to try to control The Crone's Fang's foible, in order to force an opening on the apparently off-balance pirate.

Then, thinking she has an opening (or, alternatively, if he reacted before the bind could take effect, trying to force him on the defense because she can't recover in time), she attempts a thrust with her sword at his chest.

....

Whether the blade hits Captain Clegg or something else, it's at this moment that the now-rusted unnamed sword will break and the most the blade will fall to the mud, leaving her with just the hilt in her left hand. :smalleek:

The Captain doesn't bother with some sort of villainous laugh or taunting remark as The Fang connects with Harley's blade. He doesn't even allow himself a grin of satisfaction... He respected his opponent's intelligence, and as such didn't want any sort of gloating behavior possibly giving away the small advantages he keeps. After the connection of steel against Fang, Clegg moves backwards a little more. He digs his steel leg into the ground, giving himself a much more defensive positioning. He tries to move his blade back to in front of his chest in his comfortable position, however he's simply not dexterous enough to pull the Fang back in time. Harley steps forward and brings her scabbard to bind and strike at The Crone's Fang, successfully connecting her holy weapon against the unholy blade in Clegg's clawed hands.

Clegg keeps the scabbard at bay, not wanting to get anywhere near the thing. The scabbard radiated positive energy, which would have quite the painful effect on Clegg's undead flesh... As the weapons connect and grind against eachother, The Fang starts to give off black sparks. Clegg looks down at his sword, puzzled by the strange reaction. He'd never seen The Fang produce sparks like that. The blades connect for about two seconds before Clegg's other hand grabs at the hilt of The Fang. This will now place his unnatural strength and feral ferocity in combat against her scabbard... Most likely, Harley might find her scabbard pulled from her hands just due to the sheer might of The Captain. Unfortunately for Clegg, as he contends his strength against her attack, he leaves his chest open.

At that moment, a huge flash of lightning followed by rolling thunder crashes into the senses of the combatants. During this time, Harley might find her steel blade ripping directly through Clegg's chest. The end of the blade can be seen coming out of Clegg's back during the lightning flash... However, this doesn't appear to stop Clegg, though he does react with a grunt and a briefly pained face. Unfortunately, the steel blade finally rots away into nothing as it's inside Clegg, the rust effect having now eaten away at the blade! Clegg's quite a bit upset at having just been stabbed, and in calculated anger raises The Fang up with two hands and attempts to bring the large blade down brutally, aiming to shatter Harley's scabbard should she still be carrying it.

[Taet]

[On the Way There that is More Unsafe than Not]

Ykysa (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16939006&postcount=950) the sapphire glass golem tells the rickshaw to stop far away and walk in on foot. The runners are just hired and human.

It is a good guess. Cold air is rolling down the sides of the Valcano and pushing the lava hot air in front of it. There is every kind of rainfall that is possible in the ring of storm that is spreading out. Rain and hail and snow and ashes and lots of lightning from all of that. Ykysa cannot see through it to the battle over the lava. There is one wall of fire around the base bending sideways from the wind from the weather. And another wall of fire standing straight and tall and she can just see a sword battle with just two people through it. And in front of the door is a hole in the world.

And then a cow falls not far away and sort of melts when it lands. There are cow juices all over her now. "It is just as bad to stand still and give them time to aim" she says to nobody at all. And starts walking toward the door. Maybe she will get there before the storm.

[happyturtle]

Cow-a-Pult

HT cannot find out in Aric's post whether the cows hit or not. Uncertainty cows! However, Moff will keep firing. Two more spider-cows! The ship probably isn't dexterous enough to dodge forever, though it could fly out of range fairly easily. Whether or not they could avoid the cow-a-pult while still being in range for emergency teleporting is not for me to say.

The skeleton's musket shots don't hit, unless the flying ship is a lot closer than I thought, or the skeleton's muskets are better than the RL historical muskets that delivered poor accuracy.

Watching the duel

Moff sits next to Arkh and procures big foam fingers for both of them to wear that say "GO AMEN!" and "HARLEY ZORZO RULES!" This will almost certainly deliver a crushing morale blow to Clegg! BWAHAHAHAHA!

[Ashen Lilies]

Main Room

Decker sits up, bumps her head on the table, and scoots out. "What are you doing here?" She glances at the glue restraint, then at Moff, and scoots a little closer. "Don't worry. I'll get you out of here."

[Main Room]

"Just visiting." Says KR.
"DC's trying to kill the Thing in the Walls, There's a giant flying ghost ship invading the base, and a powerful daemon-cultist thing is going to be going on a one-woman roaring rampage of revenge rather soon, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity!" :smallwink:
KR looks down at her glue restraints, then shrugs.
"Oh, there's no need for that, I can leave whenever I feel like it. I actually wanted to make sure you got out safely."

[D_Lord]

Hayden grins, a wild expression on his face as he says.

So it's time to get fired up already? ALRIGHT! The legendary hero gets to prove himself. Get ready abominations, a fist that has traveled throughout time and space has come to end your evil! "

Adopting a runners pose, after burners appear at the back of his legs, cloth tearing to expose the metal skeletal framework underneath the cyborgs "Casual" attire, exposing what looked like small scale jet afterburners, yet the heat and intensity that came off them turned the rock beneath him an angry red! Those turbines propelling the cyborg forward with an explosion that DC, and any other science oriented types, would recognize as the sound barrier being broken! curtails of flame following the cyborg as he propels himself towards the target, white blue fire burning hotter with every moment! Truly this was the speed and strength of a hero of the future! A flying lariat coming at D_Lord with mach speed intensity, steel servos preparing a special salvo as his arms opened, displaying a circular row of gas canisters as he spun, attempting to line up the blow as one of the canisters would explode, launching the explosive payload at the same time as an uppercut would connect, attempting to send that villain flying with force that would explode the rock around him even if he were to dodge! If it connects, he'll launch himself up into the sky, raining explosive blow after blow that would send the creature ever higher until he reaches the limit of his jumping ability, however, at mach speeds this is likely to be quite a few blows, and also likely to exhaust one arm's rocket payload completely.

"TAAAKE THIS! A PUNCH THAT ECHOES THROUGHOUT THE COSMOS, PROPELLED BY THE FIRES OF COURAGE. ROCKET PUNCH BARRAGE!"

Right on top of Lava.

The avatar disperses into black threads upon the first hit, that wind their way into the stone walls of the Valcano. Hayden on the other hand is likely to finish his movement right into the lava.

[Aric Kale]

Cowapults and Claws

)(I am terribly sorry about the quality of posts I'm putting out...I never wanted to run anything this big, so I'm kinda at a loss)(

The cows missed, but the next two spider cows smash into the hull of the ship. Alright, Chuckles has had enough. He cackles madly, ordering the crew to unleash a barrage of cannon fire at [location of catapult]. This won't be a full broadside, however, as monsters are attacking the crew! The undead pirates are running amuck, slashing with their blades in an attempt to slay the spider cows. Hopefully the artillery assault ends soon.
Curse you Moff!

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

"That's right! All of you run! You all think you're some untouchable pack of madmen, but you're not! You're just same old trash there's always been and it's time you realized it! You're not special, you're not a cut above the rest, you're just a pack of psychopaths that huddles under the eldritch bed for protection from the world that would stomp you like the bugs you are! You're practically the psychopath garbage bin!" DC yells down the mountain, shouting about all of AMEN in general with wild, infuriated gestures, clear of the rift by now. Presumably Clarissa absconds as well without being imploded, but that's just a guess or something, and I won't dwell on it too much since I doubt it'd be appreciated.

"Two men and your protector runs like a scared rat, and we're not even the worst there is! Whoever that guy is. When you finally provoke the Nexus to truly act, you will burn, the same as the rest of them! You're not safe in this pit you call a home!"

If his loud, deranged-sounding ranting wasn't enough, it has a bizarre and ominous effect of seeming to echo in people's minds, as if broadcast telepathically with no true connection, similar to the mass messages but much creepier.

He doesn't seem to be leaving yet.

[Fan]

Right on top of Lava.

The avatar disperses into black threads upon the first hit, that wind their way into the stone walls of the Valcano. Hayden on the other hand is likely to finish his movement right into the lava.

Oh.. kay?

Well, that was the most boring possible answer to his attack. Welp, an object in motion stays in motion, and one of the rockets that would've been used to hit the dark death avatar is used to propel himself in an angle away from the lava, readying another blast as he reached the wall, using the explosions to keep his speed as he changes direction mid flight, after burners and the already heated air keeping him aloft as he dashes towards the monster again, the mach cone breaking again as he accelerates after the direction change.

"NO ESCAPE MONSTER! STOP RUNNING AND FIGHT!"

He said, he'll barrage the rock wall of the volcano with the 4 remaining missiles , dozens of blows raining down on the valcano to hammer into the rock wall at mach speeds, hundreds of blows in the span of seconds. Hayden screaming at nothing as he did so, NOTHING made him angrier than a coward, catch his blows. Tell him how weak he is, attempt to kill him, but to run from a fight?! UNFORGIVABLE!

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

[ThePhantom]

Teleporter Room

No, no, no! Harley's fighting Clegg one-on-one, a mistake in Mr E's mind, the base is getting wrecked again by a rift in the sky, and now DC's gloating. That does it.

Mr E sets two timers on the teleporter, one so he can go and get something, the other to send him out to use the thing. He steps onto the platform and disappears, reappearing in the

Armory

Now, Gordon left the prototype in the locked weapon vault. Good thing that Mr E made a key to that, or else those special toys that he made would never see the light of day. Well, the prototype is the best of what's in there, cause its the only one that works regularly.

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

The rift is unstable and will destabilize soon enough, and also isn't affecting the whole base...though it's entirely likely the area up there is going to be hazardous to stay in, especially in the area around the rift.

DC is briefly distracted from ranting by...some guy trying to punch the rock.

"That isn't going to work. The creature can be repelled from that form by a technomagical electromagnetic field, but brute force against the object it infects isn't likely to do too much, it'll just infect whatever's next to it. It has to be driven out and then purged. I managed to draw it out since it seems to have some fascination with me, probably because I blew it up once and then launched a fragment into the sun. Sadly, I am fresh out of EM devices and superweapons, although if anyone comes outside I have a couple more grenades to fry things with." He clarifies, re-sheathing his daggers. "But I think I know the parting gift I'll leave."

With a gesture and another reddish aura flare around his hand, DC telekinetically lifts up...a bunch of lava. Regular lava. Well, regular rainbow lava, since the lava here is, y'know, rainbowy.

Then he starts flying back down the mountain towards the main entrance, with the lava following along with him. I wonder what he thinks he's doing.

[D_Lord]

the Valcano]

About that, you disrupted my portals so I had to get something.

The avatar is back, and sliding out of the Valcano walls, is a lot of cannons, some futuristic others old fashioned. Black flesh slides over them, mouths of many shapes and sizes appear on them.

Sing Wave Motion Choir

The mouths open, and not only do people have to deal with cannon blasts, but also the songs of the twisted, the dammed, the ones slain by this insane horror. Letting voice to their their misery, their insanity, and their rage. DC because he is now on the crazy train may hear things more clear than other people.

[Fan]

[Over the Valcano]

The rift is unstable and will destabilize soon enough, and also isn't affecting the whole base...though it's entirely likely the area up there is going to be hazardous to stay in, especially in the area around the rift.

DC is briefly distracted from ranting by...some guy trying to punch the rock.

"That isn't going to work. The creature can be repelled from that form by a technomagical electromagnetic field, but brute force against the object it infects isn't likely to do too much, it'll just infect whatever's next to it. It has to be driven out and then purged. I managed to draw it out since it seems to have some fascination with me, probably because I blew it up once and then launched a fragment into the sun. Sadly, I am fresh out of EM devices and superweapons, although if anyone comes outside I have a couple more grenades to fry things with." He clarifies, re-sheathing his daggers. "But I think I know the parting gift I'll leave."

With a gesture and another reddish aura flare around his hand, DC telekinetically lifts up...a bunch of lava. Regular lava. Well, regular rainbow lava, since the lava here is, y'know, rainbowy.

Then he starts flying back down the mountain towards the main entrance, with the lava following along with him. I wonder what he thinks he's doing.

Hayden isn't just mad, he's ABSOLUTELY LIVID, at this revelation. For there is nothing a hero despises more than evil that will not face judgement! Such cowardice is worthy of death, no, ten thousands deaths!

"EVIL AND A COWARD!? FINE! Then who's next? What evil hides in the darkness of the past? Where can justice yet find those who would hide from the glorious light of good?!"

Hayden's afterburners don't normally let him fly, but riding on the cushion of super heated air in a volcano allows him to hover just over the surface, and digging his fingers into the now cratered rock he climbs up to meet DC, extending a hand, synth flesh hanging off in ragged clumps from the mechanical limb, and the hand was apparently also backwards, being attached with a ball joint to the limb proper. Something Hayden notices, and then.. the oddest dissonance of character happens, seeing something goofy like this illicts a chuckle from the cyborg, that earlier posing goofball coming back into the photo. The joint spinning around to face the hand properly as the hero from the future offers DC a handshake.

"Ah Sorry. I get fired up when I see a chance to well, fight. Hayden - and AH HELL YOU WONT FIGHT ME FACE TO FACE, AND WONT LET ME FINISH SPEAKING?!"

He says, and if DC had accepted the handshake he'll find himself being carried along WITH the grip as he boosts out of the way of the cannon blasts, synth flesh burning away from his legs as they catch fire, the ambient heat and now the explosions having raised them to their burning temp, synth flesh falling away in disgusting clumps, but Hayden didn't seem to mind too much as he looked down at DC.

"Alright Science Guy, have you got a plan, or is it the standard all in?"

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

DC gets interrupted in his plan to lava-sling by having that guy show up and offer a handshake.

Which...he accepts, oddly enough, apparently appreciating the assistance.

Then cannons and that blaring SINGING and OH GOD FLYING AROUND LIKE A MANIAC. But that lets DC focus more effort on attacking than flying on his own, I guess, carried along by Hayden's boost away from the cannons.

"Nngh...sure. It's called Operation Eldritch Muzzle."

At which point DC hurls that bunch of lava he was telekinetically dragging along toward the cannons, followed by him firing off a similar spread-beam cryo attack as earlier with the goal of freezing it on them and sealing them and the SCREAMING into the rock.

Ideally that should neutralize the cannons and screaming, at least partially, by sealing them in the flash-cooled rock.

[5a Violista]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Anyway, Clegg's first powerful strike hits her scabbard: rather than being forced out of her hand, her wrist twists uncomfortably and the scabbard slides a little bit under her hand.

Harley, after noticing her blade is gone, drops the hilt in frustration. She tries to retreat back out of his range, but she's not quick enough. She brings her weapon up to the fifth guard, to stop his downward strike.

Fortunately, like a real sword, her scabbard won't break with such a perpendicular strike near its forte: her arm would sooner give than the solid piece of metal.

Unfortunately, unlike a real sword, a scabbard does not have a guard.

Clegg's blade slides down her scabbard and first severs her thumb. The large force keeps it going and does the same to her wrist. The vile necrotic energy radiating from the sword affects her flesh - unless she burns off the now-dead flesh, she won't be able to regrow her hand. With nothing to use to hold, the scabbard falls to the mud, next to her palm.

She cries out in pain.

That is why one should always wear armor when in a battle.

Feeling a surge of pain and adrenaline, Harley prioritizes her needs. First, she needs to retreat five steps, without removing her eyes from Captain Clegg - she does so, towards the fire at the perimeter. Next, she stops the bleeding by rerouting her arteries. Third, she'll need her scabbard back, because daggers are only good when wrestling.

In the brief two seconds that this happened, she begins to shapechange parts of her body so she can try to push the Captain back. Her left hand's fingers grow clawed and harder. Her legs and right arm need to catch on fire, so they begin secreting a flammable oil - luckily, oils don't mix well with rain. Then, finally, the bones in her right forearm (which is behind her) fuze together at the stump, and begin to grow out longer and sharp like a spear.

[Arkhosia]

The Sidelines

KICK HIS ASS! KICK HIS ASS! KICK HIS ASS!
Ark repeatedly chants, trying to encourage and support Harley.
Clegg may feel slightly tired. Only slightly more.

[Hattish Thing]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Anyway, Clegg's first powerful strike hits her scabbard: rather than being forced out of her hand, her wrist twists uncomfortably and the scabbard slides a little bit under her hand.

Harley, after noticing her blade is gone, drops the hilt in frustration. She tries to retreat back out of his range, but she's not quick enough. She brings her weapon up to the fifth guard, to stop his downward strike.

Fortunately, like a real sword, her scabbard won't break with such a perpendicular strike near its forte: her arm would sooner give than the solid piece of metal.

Unfortunately, unlike a real sword, a scabbard does not have a guard.

Clegg's blade slides down her scabbard and first severs her thumb. The large force keeps it going and does the same to her wrist. The vile necrotic energy radiating from the sword affects her flesh - unless she burns off the now-dead flesh, she won't be able to regrow her hand. With nothing to use to hold, the scabbard falls to the mud, next to her palm.

She cries out in pain.

That is why one should always wear armor when in a battle.

Feeling a surge of pain and adrenaline, Harley prioritizes her needs. First, she needs to retreat five steps, without removing her eyes from Captain Clegg - she does so, towards the fire at the perimeter. Next, she stops the bleeding by rerouting her arteries. Third, she'll need her scabbard back, because daggers are only good when wrestling.

In the brief two seconds that this happened, she begins to shapechange parts of her body so she can try to push the Captain back. Her left hand's fingers grow clawed and harder. Her legs and right arm need to catch on fire, so they begin secreting a flammable oil - luckily, oils don't mix well with rain. Then, finally, the bones in her right forearm (which is behind her) fuze together at the stump, and begin to grow out longer and sharp like a spear.

The Captain grunts a bit as his mighty blow grinds down the scabbard of Harley's now rusted blade. The connection sends vibrations of force down Clegg's arm, and the sparks begin to die down as the blade quickly rushes down the scabbard, moving to Harley's fleshy hand... As The Crone's Fang severs her thumb and slices at her wrist, severing her arteries, Clegg begins to feel and taste the blood in the air... The intoxicating smell of her crimson lifeblood is utter bliss to Clegg. Only blood can be smelt and tasted by Clegg... An ironic addition to his curse seeing as in life it was his bloodlust that built up to his demise.

As the magnificent scent pervades the air and bombards his senses, Clegg feels physically stronger... He wanted more, no he needed more! He wanting nothing besides the feeling of sinking his teeth into her throat and draining her lifless on the courtyard floor as the rain plummets upon them... He shakes such alluring thoughts from his head as quickly as they come, however, for any distractions would certainly spell his downfall. He seems to allow her to move backwards and catch her breath, changing her form. Clegg doesn't realize any sort of flammable secretions are occurring for his sense of smell is absolutely terrible. Hard to smell much when the insides of your nostrils are full or barnacles after all. He does, however step his black combat boots down upon her scabbard, the metal and cloth keeping the scabbards powers from touching his skin and affecting him.

He easily reaches his base defensive positioning yet again, preparing himself for anything. She was growing claws and a bone spear limb. This was highly irregular for a human being last time Clegg checked, which brings a look of curiosity to his face. I don't recall hearing of your Changling nature. You're full of surprises, Ms. Zorzo.

[5a Violista]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Harley hopes to get this over with quickly, because inflammable neither means incombustible nor immune to burns.

Harley takes another step back towards the fire. Good; she can feel the heat of it. Only a little farther..."You know, of all the people here in the Nexus, you're now tied with Magtok on how much you know about me." Pretty much, only Ilpholin, Magtok, and now Clegg know any personal details about her. (Unless I've forgotten someone...)

She steps back once more, into the fire. The flames quickly run up her legs and her painfully long skirt, and her right arm ignites in spite of the rain. "It's actually very easy to keep secrets hidden when people don't really care to know."

From there, Harley Zorzo begins sprinting towards Clegg. She's still not that adequate in the mud, but this is her goal: when she gets close enough to leap, she does so. Her flaming right arm is poised to beat away his sword (most definitely at great pain to her own nerves), so she can try to tackle him and get the battle down into a wrestling brawl.

She actually doesn't know how well pirates are at fighting in too-close quarters, but that's what claws are for, aren't they?

[Arkhosia]

Outside AMEN

Ark suddenly has an idea!
She darts up to the rooftop and whispers something to Moff!
Mind if I ride a cow?

[happyturtle]

Main Room


[Main Room]

"Just visiting." Says KR.
"DC's trying to kill the Thing in the Walls, There's a giant flying ghost ship invading the base, and a powerful daemon-cultist thing is going to be going on a one-woman roaring rampage of revenge rather soon, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity!" :smallwink:
KR looks down at her glue restraints, then shrugs.
"Oh, there's no need for that, I can leave whenever I feel like it. I actually wanted to make sure you got out safely."

"Why wouldn't I be safe?" Decker asks.


Cow-a-Pult

Moff grins, and helps Ark up to the next cow, already strapped into the Cow-a-Pult. :smallbiggrin:

He doesn't mention the fact that if the cow misses, she'll be splatted all over the landscape with the cow. Of course, someone with as much common sense as Arkh would have already considered that outcome.

Ark-and-Cow away! :smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

[Hattish Thing]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Harley hopes to get this over with quickly, because inflammable neither means incombustible nor immune to burns.

Harley takes another step back towards the fire. Good; she can feel the heat of it. Only a little farther..."You know, of all the people here in the Nexus, you're now tied with Magtok on how much you know about me." Pretty much, only Ilpholin, Magtok, and now Clegg know any personal details about her. (Unless I've forgotten someone...)

She steps back once more, into the fire. The flames quickly run up her legs and her painfully long skirt, and her right arm ignites in spite of the rain. "It's actually very easy to keep secrets hidden when people don't really care to know."

From there, Harley Zorzo begins sprinting towards Clegg. She's still not that adequate in the mud, but this is her goal: when she gets close enough to leap, she does so. Her flaming right arm is poised to beat away his sword (most definitely at great pain to her own nerves), so she can try to tackle him and get the battle down into a wrestling brawl.

She actually doesn't know how well pirates are at fighting in too-close quarters, but that's what claws are for, aren't they?

Well, Clegg was hardly expecting Harley's newest attack. How can one plan for his enemy to suddenly set herself on fire and bull rush you? Clegg's eyes definitely widen as she approaches, realizing he'll be in for quite a bit of pain... Fire hurts terribly for undead, although he's quite soggy, so catching him on fire might be a bit difficult at first. I happen to care for those I battle. The greatest connection one can have with a human being is a shared glance before death. The others look of shock, revulsion, happiness, pain.... It's the most honest look a pair can share. I see it in your eyes... you know the glance I speak of. I wonder how you'll look as your light fades from your eyes... and as my teeth tear your throat out... He chuckles a bit as she runs forward to him, bracing himself for one attack before he's on the ground.

He swings The Crone's Claw at her right arm, hoping to lop it off completely. Regardless of whether or not it hits, the blade is then batted out of his hand. The sword embeds itself in the ground beside him. He had tried to have it land close to him, and actually manages to succeed. He could easily reach it, however he's currently preoccupied with flaming Harley atop him. She leaps and tackles him down to the ground, Clegg's back smacking onto a mossy rock embedded in the mud. This brings a jolt of pain up his spine, so this round he won't get another attack on her.

[Aric Kale]

Outside AMEN

Ark suddenly has an idea!
She darts up to the rooftop and whispers something to Moff!
Mind if I ride a cow?


Main Room



"Why wouldn't I be safe?" Decker asks.


Cow-a-Pult

Moff grins, and helps Ark up to the next cow, already strapped into the Cow-a-Pult. :smallbiggrin:

He doesn't mention the fact that if the cow misses, she'll be splatted all over the landscape with the cow. Of course, someone with as much common sense as Arkh would have already considered that outcome.

Ark-and-Cow away! :smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

Of Crone's and Cows

Great...more cows.
Chuckles forces the wheel upon another crewman. In a flash, he's drawn his magic water revolvers. They draw moisture from the rain pouring around the ship, and fire with enough force to damage Iron Man level power armor. Within ten seconds, the undead First Mate fires off 10 water bullets at the cow and Arkhosia as they land on the ship.

[Arkhosia]

Crone's Claw

Ark grins, ducking to avoid the bullets, before springing off the vow and firing 5 shotgun shells at the nearest crewmen, slightly sapping energy (but not much: they'll feel a little sluggish).

[D_Lord]

[Over the Valcano]

DC gets interrupted in his plan to lava-sling by having that guy show up and offer a handshake.

Which...he accepts, oddly enough, apparently appreciating the assistance.

Then cannons and that blaring SINGING and OH GOD FLYING AROUND LIKE A MANIAC. But that lets DC focus more effort on attacking than flying on his own, I guess, carried along by Hayden's boost away from the cannons.

"Nngh...sure. It's called Operation Eldritch Muzzle."

At which point DC hurls that bunch of lava he was telekinetically dragging along toward the cannons, followed by him firing off a similar spread-beam cryo attack as earlier with the goal of freezing it on them and sealing them and the SCREAMING into the rock.

Ideally that should neutralize the cannons and screaming, at least partially, by sealing them in the flash-cooled rock.

Outside

I don't think so. Hellball

I did say the avatar was back, and it's firing the spell known as Hellball (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Hellball) at DC's hurled Lava.

As for the cannons well they can't turn angles, but the song/screams/cries of horror are getting louder.

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

"Won't you just-" DC starts flying on his own power again, launching himself towards the avatar even as his attempt at sealing the cannons shut fails thanks to the lava getting blasted all over the place by an aptly-named ball of hell. Fortunately, thanks to all the flying around, DC and Hayden are probably away from that...I think...but still.

Although some bits of hellballed lava may very well still reach the cannons, it'll just be very scattered and inconsistent.

DC telekinetically hurls one of those magitech'd up ion grenades ahead of him at the avatar as he flies towards it. While the avatar's movement from the original blast zone and the lack of immediate bombing means there probably won't be another rift, the avatar is still going to be experiencing magiteched up ionic nonsense from that grenade if it goes off near it. Which, given the Thing's weakness to magitech charged magnetic fields, might be rather unpleasant in and of itself.

And if the grenade's explosion connects, it is likely to once again be followed by some weather-based nastiness in the form of lightning strikes. That might give the creature some pause, however brief. Clegg's storm continues to be inconvenient for anything hit by those bombs.

Hopefully that will at least stun it, though given its resilience against giant mountain-shaking explosions, it will definitely not kill it.

"SHUT UP!?"

Should the avatar not be too preoccupied with magitech ion blasts and lightning strikes, it'll probably notice that DC's swapped weapons back to those daggers again, pistols temporarily holstered.

[D_Lord]

[Over the Valcano]

And there goes the broken tv thing that the avatar does when it's hit with magnets. The blast blows back the hood and it's broken, lines moving, eyes, can be see staring at DC with a terrible glee.

Babbling sure.

And now it's talking, mostly nonsense but some things seem to be true, dark mysteries and reminders of your failures. Over all with the choir and the avatar doing that, it's starting to get kind of painful to listen too, like while there may be a storm, it's starting to rain blood. Not red normal blood but blackish blood, blood with something wrong with it.

[Fan]

Hayden swears as he watches the cannons continue to fire, and DC launching himself at the big bad, this turns to swears of indignation. Surely, our hero wasn't being sidelined for the B-Team of the present? Surely, this was merely a distraction? But given that the villain seems to be answering him with the reveal of his face, our legendary hero is forced to accept that this is perhaps, not his final villain. Perhaps this is not the grand conflict, but the first in many in a long journey!

Very well then, our hero accepts! To be sidelined for now shames him greatly, but with a cry of valor he dives towards the cannons before arcing up, running up the wall to draw their attention before adopting a pose, arms spread as if he were cruicified, his shirt tearing to expose metal plating, exposing the heroes strongest weapon! The only heart that could contain the flame our heroes courage, the thing that brings warmth and light to the void, a burning star being exposed, fractal lenses exposing themself before closing over the chest, a green light building as he cried out. Cannons, lasers, and weapons of all sorts striking the legendary hero and searing away the flesh that once covered his form, blackening the metal of his futuristic cybernetic body, but it would not be enough to conquer the courage of a hero, his eyes blazing with the fire in his heart, and energy leaking out from the raw intensity of the star of courage inside him it erupts in a flash as he roars out!

"THE STAR OF JUSTICE REJECTS YOUR EVIL! NOVA BEEEEAAAM!"

And with the legendary heroes cry, a lance of energy is brought to focus on the cannons, powered by the intensity of a heroes heart, and brought forth by his courage!

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

Well, there was also the probable lightning, but that probably just intensified the magnets thing anyway, given electricity and its magnetic properties and all that. So probably the same thing.

DC just keeps on flying towards the avatar, the daggers' forcefield-extensions activating once again as the psychic swerves in midair, now flying slightly to the side of the avatar...with the force-blades positioned so that they will be hitting the monster's neck, in an attempt to decapitate it through sheer momentum from the flight speed.

This time there are no words.

Only an enraged...silence.

[D_Lord]

And there goes the cannons. Yet the 'song' doesn't stop.

It giggles as it's head goes flying. (I waited so long for this to happen)

Still giggling, like the insane thing it is. Its body reaches to give DC an big hug. As for its head it's growing a body, flying towards Hayden.

[Fan]

The legendary hero turns to face this new enemy, an expression of mind bending rage breaking out across his face as he flies towards this new conflict with no regrets! Living for the sake of eradicating evil, for the sake of creating the brighter tomorrow he fights for, such is the courage of a hero! Undaunted by the cries that attempt to damper the flame of his heart, unfettered by the despair of darkness all around him he strikes! Though it no longer carried the rocket payload of before it still came with the will and strength of our hero!

"Yes! FINALLY A FIGHT! TAKE THIS. ORARARARARARARA!"

Hundreds of blows in the first second of contact! Cybernetic servos burning hot with the fury of the motion, steam coming off his form as our hero gets fired up, finally allowed to meet the despicable villain in combat, though bloodied and beaten he will not be broken, and he fights with his all!

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

Uh...giving DC a hug is very difficult, given the part where DC kept on flyin'. Momentum and all. Unless the avatar has Mr. Fantastic's arms now. That said, there's an opportunity for a close range attack opening up very soon, as the psychic flips around in the air and flies back, one hand now daggerless (the weapon's forcefield disengaging as it floats along). Instead, there's now something else in that hand.

Namely, the last of the fancy ion grenades. DC's going to fly the headless avatar and launch that last grenade with a considerable amount of force, in an attempt to ram the thing right down the insane thing's neck.

Where it will then explode. Inside it.

Which will then likely trigger lightning right on top of it thanks to the storm.

That...

May be unpleasant, to say the least.

Truly this thing's impractical insanity is its own worst enemy.

[D_Lord]

[Over the Valcano]

At least DC didn't try to stick his hand holding the grenade down the neck, as with the teeth that just bit the grenade would have gotten his hand. Yes the things insanity is why it's not very active most of the time. But it has upsides, like ignoring massive amounts of pain.

The head with only a small body regrowing from it, is hit by Hayden mighty fists. And there he goes playing paddle ball with it.

[Fan]

Our legendary heroes servers whine as the heat begins to turn the metal red, the hero having given this attack his all! Hundreds of blows having been allowed to connect, but our hero isn't just strong but wily as well! Each of his blows having served a purpose, immobilizing the target in the rock, smashing him deeper and deeper with each blow into the cliff face!

Now, our hero facing his foe immobilized adopts his arm spread position, light building in his chest as he does so, a hero cannot tolerate such evil in this world, the star in his chest being allowed to flare as he builds up the energy, gouts of flame erupting from the afterburners as they attempt to bleed the heat from our hero's anger!

"DIE MONSTER, YOU DON'T BELONG IN THIS WORLD! POINT BLANK ATTACK! NOVA..."

The light of our heroes heart builds, burning with an intensity yet unseen, it seems though that after all this built up heat an attack of this caliber will be our hero's last before his energy is spent, so with a heart full of righteous fury he charges further to ensure that this foe will never again blacken the world with it's evil!

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

Did...did the headless avatar just pretty much eat a live ion grenade specifically made for fighting it?

As for what happens, you could say the flavor is shocking. The eldritch chomping does disrupt the grenade, so that its energy ends up discharging randomly instead of in an explosive burst. So now it's more of a sustained unpleasantness than an explosion. Might or might not still cause lightning.

...Actually, that may be worse, because it may cause more sustained lightning strikes. The avatar might want to go get inside or something. Or go into black thread mode to get rid of the broken grenade in it. Or somehow spit it out. Or something.

"Just..." Oh look, DC's switched weapons fast again, the dual pistols in hand again. With the freezey cells still active.

Then he fires them off to the sides (still in scatterbeam mode), not aiming at the avatar, but at the raining black blood the avatar itself loosed in order to cause it to freeze from the cold blasts, at which point DC's body flares up with his signature aura once again...and starts trying to telekinetically bombard the maw in the avatar's neck with a whole bunch of frozen shards of black blood, which are...probably pretty pointy, and that part looks rather unarmored if it's eating grenades.

[D_Lord]

[Over the Valcano]

Well the one fighting Hayden, breaks into black threads and digs into the rock.

The headless one does in deed get zapped, thing is lighting is hot, the bolts melt the blood shards.

Hahhahahahahahaha

The headless one, starts collecting the horrible sound into a blade. As one would expect from a blade made from the sounds of the damned, the sound of raining blood, the yells of battle, it doesn't look like something you want to get hit by.

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

Uh...hm.

That's.

Well, if the grenade is still causing minor discharges and in turn triggering lightning strikes, then that means this thing is going to be...constantly getting hit with lightning until the grenade runs out of charge.

While being a melee combatant wielding a sword made out of condensed metaphysical suffering, madness, and rage.

Needless to say, a foe being constantly struck by lightning is not one anyone is going to want to engage in close combat, because if it doesn't get you with the weapon made of hell, the lightning strikes will.

And if lightning isn't cutting it, the beam pistols definitely won't.

And DC is out of grenades.

Only one thing to do now.

He glances towards his improbable ally in this battle, holstering his pistol and reaching out to him with a hand that flares red...

"Let me aim that for you."

...As he telekinetically turns the boisterous cyborg so that his attack is aimed directly at the insane avatar, guided by the light of the lightning. (Godmod approved.)

[Fan]

A grin splits the legendary hero of the future's face, truly, this was a moment to be remembered. With the confirmation noise of his power having reached maximum power! All limiters at maximum capacity, focusing lenses at critical intensity. Yes, this was the strength of the future's greatest weapon hurtled back through time to prevent the darkest tomorrow! Feeling the psychic grip turn him towards his target our hero roars the last of his attack, Teamwork without parallel, his power flaring with his heart, targeting lenses locking on to the figure flying towards DC.

"BEEEEEEEEEAAAAM!"

The energy of a star erupting from the heroes chest to find it's new target, the beam of energy burning with blinding intensity as it accelerated toward the target, rainbow lava vaporizing before the path of this truly legendary attack, the light like a star atop the mountain, the hero roaring in defiance as his attacks light banished the darkness! An attack of such intensity that the mountain behind Hayden began to peel away from the blast of the attack.

[D_Lord]

[Over the Valcano]

And now the headless avatar is missing it's torso, the arms flop to the ground, while the legs just stand there.

Ok, then, you win,

The head part of the avatar is only sort of sticking out of the ground, most of it is black threads.
Take your loot, and go away now.

Loot in this case refers to the sword, which the avatar now has let go of.

[Ashen Lilies]

Main Room



"Why wouldn't I be safe?" Decker asks.



[Main Room]

KR shrugs.
"Well... your face is kind of all over above those bombs that went off in Inside, Skyside and Riverside. If anyone comes calling, you're probably going to be one of their chief targets. I'd just be careful, is all."

[Taet]

[The Front Lawn that is More Unsafe than Not]

The psychic attacks hit Ykysa too. Darkcomet was shouting at AMEN people and she was not AMEN. That was just loud information. D_lord's cannonballs of crazy are stronger but stuck to the cannon balls. They hurt when they fly past but then go further away and fade. The psychic energies press on her material. Some of the energy goes into the atoms and makes her more crystal and gem like. Some of it gets locked out and shakes the crystal and makes it create sound waves. There is theremin song all around Ykysa now. And louder when a cannonball comes close and also makes the air shake.

Someone flies out of the ring of storm lifting a great ball of color! This stops Ykysa to stare at it. So she gets to see another someone fly out too and take over the flight. And the color being shaped and thrown back toward the wall of lightning and hail falling down the sides of the volcano. And then to see all the colors break and explode just before the storm clouds roll down and cover it all. :smalleek: The flyers dive back into the storm and the song around Ykysa goes lower and higher and lower again. More psychic attacks.

And then a cow flies overhead again but this one has a rider who is shouting with joy. :smallconfused:

This is just the last of it. Ykysa starts walking a lot faster now. She does not run exactly. But she is not stopping when she steps into the field of oil fire in front of the door. Her dress catches on fire and burns away before she is a quarter of the way across. Her metal hair goes soft and wet and sticks to her face and shoulders.

She step around the hole in reality in front of the doorway and rings the doorbell. She is a sapphire glass golem. Not much hurt. But her pretty hair is melted to her head and shoulders. Her ivory plates are burnt brown and black. And she is still giving off that theremin song.

[Fan]

Our hero's heart flutters, a mere spark compared to the blazing inferno of before, his energy spent to banish evil he touches down on the rock, barely able to move. His body stripped of flesh, and his metal bodies framework damaged from the battle, once shining chrome that was a symbol of our heroes pure desire for justice now blackened by the fires and weapons of evil!

Though beaten, bloodied, and damaged he manages a smile, giving DC a thumbs up from his position on the ground.

"We won, fellow hero! Evil wont be tormenting these people anymore. Though, if I could ah.. gak!"

He says smiling until he has to pause to vomit blood, oh no! it seems the damage to our hero was more severe than he let on, such is the courage and tenacity of a hero that he would persevere through such terrible injury.

"Be taken to a hospital.. or a machine shop.. that'd be great."

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

Well. The annihilation of the torso probably eliminates the grenade and lightning problem.

They don't have anything with meaningful firepower against this thing left, though. DC is out of grenades, and he somehow doubts the pistols will do much. And he really doubts that guy can fire that giant laser off twice. While the creature might be out of commission temporarily, it will regenerate to defend AMEN again, in time. At least that's some time.

But...they can't exactly leave that weapon to the AMENites. Nor can they trust it to be safely contained, especially when this thing created it. With how it acts like an infection of the land itself while not manifested, the weapon could very well be a contagion vector.

DC certainly does not want to touch it. That kind of weapon reeks of terrible things to a psychic. Suffering, failure, madness, rage, metaphysically manifested into a single horrific weapon. While I'm not going to say it definitely does (that would be godmodding), it's probably truly awful for anyone with telepathic abilities to be around.

"...Smart. You force me to either fall for your trap, or leave that weapon in the possession of the AMENites. The weapon is also likely to spread your infection if I attempt to contain it somewhere, and I am fresh out of technological tricks for causing superweapon equivalent events. However."

As he talks, his personal teleporter unclips from his belt and flies towards Hayden. Once it reaches him, it will activate and send him to an area just outside Watchtower, to be taken to the infirmary there.

"I do have one trick left." The remaining regular power cell for his pistols flies towards the sword, overloading and detonating just like normal. This probably doesn't do anything in and of itself.

Except...

DC raises a red-glowing hand towards it.

"I suggest running."

Streaks of DC's signature red aura start dashing between his hand and the sword as he pours more power into it, fueling the fell weapon with his own energy, made all the more terrible by the psychic's own immense guilt, hatred, and rage.

And yes, there is a purpose to this.

Because between the overload, the power of the sword, and the psychic power being poured into it?

It is highly likely to cause another rift to tear into existence inside the sword, to tear it apart with its chaotic, swirling power and seeming gravitational pull, as it bursts forth in all the colors one can think of, and probably then some.

For DC's part, he stays stock still, even as this (hypothetically) happens. This seems utterly suicidal: He has none of his escape routes, his ally with the rockets is gone, and there is no explosion to provide a boost this time. What does he think he's doing?

[D_Lord]

[Over the Valcano]

The avatar's legs comedly run off. While the arms start holding on to the ground. The head on the other hand.
Prismatic Sphere

Aaaa, an old spell but very good at shielding things.

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

Under his helmet, DC smirks as he sees the rift tear the unholy weapon apart (confirmed via PM more or less), his body flaring red as he strains his telekinetic powers of flight against the rift's pull. Just like last time, he finds himself unable to fully pull himself away. He forces both hands up, weapons holstered.

As it turns out, those power system linkages in the palms of that armor?

"Discharge all available power, sustained burn!"

Are also guns, and are doing exactly what DC said: Firing off everything they've got to provide a bit of extra power to try to get him clear of it. For a bit, it seems like it's working, the psychic managing to get a bit of distance from the rift...

But then the power runs out.

He stays still, for a moment, the rift fluctuating and shifting, looking like it's about to destabilize and vanish...but then his resistance fails and he goes flying towards it. He continues trying to resist, swerving around, but it's much too late for that. The psychic's left arm goes straight in, and it's mere luck that the rift closes in that instant, slicing it right off above the elbow. To say nothing of the potential issues from its emissions.

Yet for all the agonizing pain of it, he makes no immediate sound. It's happened twice in the past, although that was the other arm.

What he's doing for expressing that is much different, namely in a telepathic message to somebody we won't see, giving someone an immense ache in the head from the pain he's inadvertently transmitting along the link.

Naturally, after that, he is making a beeline out of there at the fastest flight speed he can muster, on a course for...Inside, if anyone can tell.

The blood trail is surprisingly scarce, given the SEVERED LIMB. The rift might've cauterized it. Or he's good with the pressure thing. Either one.

Either way, the psychic has left the building. Or airspace, rather.

[D_Lord]

[Over the Valcano]

As the rift closes, the arms let go of the ground and crawl over to the head. Sticking themselves to the neck. It semi stands up, and walks over to the puddle of blood.

Well, wasn't a total lost.

It starts licking up DC's blood.

[Darkcomet]

[Over the Valcano]

Should the entity ever attempt to create duplicates of our good friend DC as he did with Greg, it will find them essentially utterly useless: They come with no psychic abilities whatsoever, and probably not much in the way of science either.

Mostly, about all it's gonna get out of that is screwing with people.

[ThePhantom]

Front Door

Sweetums, the ogre, opens the front door, the very large machine-gun he holds in one hand pointing at the entrance.

"Who are you and what you want?"

Above the Volcano

Now that reality has calmed down, Mr E finally teleports here, the jetpack he got out of the armory keeping him from falling into the lava below. He stares at the fleeing DC through the lens of his gas mask. The psychic is weak, nearly out of weapons and badly wounded. However, his mind is still working, and its that mind that could tear him limb from limb. So, Mr E chooses not to pursue, letting him retreat.

Mr E's interests are here after all, and theirs a certain ship out here somewhere that needs to be dealt with. So, Mr E turns on his cloaking device and silently flies through the rain to locate Clegg's ship.

[ThirdEmperor]

The Crone's Claw

Wait. The Cat Burglar blinks, then cautiously pulls himself up off the slimy deck. That worked? They're not even going to take away the sickle, or handcuff him, or anything? Just ask him to go quietly and not cause any trouble?

Well, he doesn't, right up until the first cow-splosion hits the ship. Then there's trouble. Hoping the skeletons escorting him towards the cabin will take a second to regain their balance, he gives the one nearest him a hearty shove before taking off running towards the ropes securing the sail.

[Taet]

Front Door

Sweetums, the ogre, opens the front door, the very large machine-gun he holds in one hand pointing at the entrance.

"Who are you and what you want?"
"Is it a bad time?" Ykysa starts to say. But the psychic attacks over the Valcano are fighting up to the end battle now and all the extra energy is going in through Ykysa's gems and coming out as song. And that song is getting so loud her voice is not hearable.

The song stops. They do not know it but it was right when Darkcomet's hand got chopped off. There is still a ring of fire and oil fire and the ring of storms spreading out over it and rain falling and hissing and turning to steam before it hits the oil. But that is a lot less loud. Some storm wind hits Ykysa and blows her melted hair into the air before it dries.

"I am the Ladychild Ykysa. Of Childecrowne, Riverside. I am here to answer the will about that property. Are these the usual ways to answer visitors with questions about law?" She points back over the lawn and the chaos.

[Hattish Thing]

The Crone's Claw

Wait. The Cat Burglar blinks, then cautiously pulls himself up off the slimy deck. That worked? They're not even going to take away the sickle, or handcuff him, or anything? Just ask him to go quietly and not cause any trouble?

Well, he doesn't, right up until the first cow-splosion hits the ship. Then there's trouble. Hoping the skeletons escorting him towards the cabin will take a second to regain their balance, he gives the one nearest him a hearty shove before taking off running towards the ropes securing the sail.

Well, attacking a ship of abut 450 skeletons, some stronger than others, doesn't seem the greatest of plans. Anyway, the first skeleton is easily shoved seeing as she/it wasn't really expecting it. the female rotty skeleton thing hits the ground and hisses. The other skeletons are quite used to striding about the ship during storms and intense wind, so the cow attack isn't much of an issue. Unfortunately for them, Cat Burglar is quite fast, escaping their cutlasses. However, Byrebreak notices the conflict. The vampiric spellcaster aims his staff at Cat Burglar, and upon command a lightning bolt of darkest black is shot out at Burglar. The bolt won't do too much for electricity damage, but it will absorb life. So, basically if Burglar is hit he'll be feeling quite weak and a bit shaky. Not enough to kill, but enough to attempt and disable the prisoner.

Now, about twenty move skeletons/zombies/ (And one ghoul!) rush over to chase after Burglar.

[happyturtle]

The Crone's Claw

But can the skeletons handle the spider-cow when it leaps upon them and tries to nom them and wrap them in webbing? :smalleek:


Main Room

"Yeah, I guess that was pretty dumb of future me. You think I'd get a henchman or something to make all those claims." Decker says.

[5a Violista]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Because The Crone's Claw neither hits a joint nor straight-on, it doesn't completely remove the rest of her arm - but the end result is arguably worse. Severed muscles, cracked bone, and so on, added to the cells mutating in accordance with the negative energy - Harley's right arm is not a pretty sight. A clean cut would've been better.

Now, this moment on top of Clegg would have been the perfect position - had Clegg been a living foe and not undead. With her claws, she would have torn at his jugular, impaled his arm with her shoulder blade, and then....

But that is not the case; this sort of thing hardly works on undead. In addition, the mud has smothered most of the fire on her, putting it out - especially most of it on her skirt. Then, it starts to rain eldritch blood, from the battle above. It turns out it puts out oil fires much better than water or snow.

Harley takes advantage of this moment to push herself off Clegg and grab her scabbard from near his feet. Her breathing is choppy. Her own red blood mixes with the supernatural black blood as it runs down her arm. However, as the black ichor hits the scabbard, it sizzles and burns.

"I hope you'll forgive me, but you won't have that chance just yet." she replies, with determination in her eyes.


[Just outside a Damaged Wall,] for Zefir.

Yet another WATCHTOWER man has come to the battle. Because he can't fly, he had to run all the way here - though, as a massive beastly wolf, it wasn't that hard.

He senses the weak wall, and digs with his claws into it. Then, just when it's about to give, he rams into the wall and it breaks.

The werewolf tumbles into a hallway (Near Zefir?) - and, as he enters the base, he's no longer a wolf. He's now a man, wearing a cape and boots (and other clothes), with a wolf's head instead of a man's head. On his sleeve is WATCHTOWER's insignia.

In addition to the several scars he has, he also has some brand-new cuts and scrapes from ramming into that wall and tumbling through.

[ThePhantom]

"Is it a bad time?" Ykysa starts to say. But the psychic attacks over the Valcano are fighting up to the end battle now and all the extra energy is going in through Ykysa's gems and coming out as song. And that song is getting so loud her voice is not hearable.

The song stops. They do not know it but it was right when Darkcomet's hand got chopped off. There is still a ring of fire and oil fire and the ring of storms spreading out over it and rain falling and hissing and turning to steam before it hits the oil. But that is a lot less loud. Some storm wind hits Ykysa and blows her melted hair into the air before it dries.

"I am the Ladychild Ykysa. Of Childecrowne, Riverside. I am here to answer the will about that property. Are these the usual ways to answer visitors with questions about law?" She points back over the lawn and the chaos.

"No, this is not usual, and it is bad time."

Sweetums waves the machinegun pointing away.

[Hattish Thing]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Because The Crone's Fang (:smalltongue:) neither hits a joint nor straight-on, it doesn't completely remove the rest of her arm - but the end result is arguably worse. Severed muscles, cracked bone, and so on, added to the cells mutating in accordance with the negative energy - Harley's right arm is not a pretty sight. A clean cut would've been better.

Now, this moment on top of Clegg would have been the perfect position - had Clegg been a living foe and not undead. With her claws, she would have torn at his jugular, impaled his arm with her shoulder blade, and then....

But that is not the case; this sort of thing hardly works on undead. In addition, the mud has smothered most of the fire on her, putting it out - especially most of it on her skirt. Then, it starts to rain eldritch blood, from the battle above. It turns out it puts out oil fires much better than water or snow.

Harley takes advantage of this moment to push herself off Clegg and grab her scabbard from near his feet. Her breathing is choppy. Her own red blood mixes with the supernatural black blood as it runs down her arm. However, as the black ichor hits the scabbard, it sizzles and burns.

"I hope you'll forgive me, but you won't have that chance just yet." she replies, with determination in her eyes.


Clegg's on the floor, writhing and grinding his teeth together in the mud. Now besides being covered in Harley's rather exotic smelling blood, mixed with the muddy rainwater. Then, it just so happens that it begins to rain horrible eldritch blood. How very fitting. The blood certainly comforts Clegg and makes him feel just a tad more confident due to the necrotic/demonic energy that the black blood was composed of. As she's pushes herself away and attempts to grab at her scabbard under his boot, he'll attempt a simple kick to Harley's face. Crude, but it might break her nose. Regardless, Clegg will rise and grab his own blade, giving Harley more than enough time to grab her weapon of choice and rise. It appears Clegg is quite the honorable opponent, willing to let his enemy catch her breath.

He points the necrotic blade at Harley, gently turning his head to the side, staring at her as the disgusting concoction of black ichor, rainwater, and mud drips off of his body. You look to be in pain. You know... You seem the competent leader. Why waste your time and blood on a group so chaotic and haphazard? Can't you see how vile they are? Join me... Miss Zorzo. Become one of us. You won't live with pain, and I can see quite clearly you're in great pain... Join willingly... Or I will force you to.

[Aric Kale]

Cowapults

While spider-cows are indeed quite the challenge, they'll find that eating undead only serves to have their stomachs ripped apart from the inside. Sure, the devoured skeletons and zombies will have to take a moment to allow their limbs time to regenerate. Also, something that Hatter has brought up several times: The Crone's Claw radiates necromantic energy and can make the living feel ill while on board. So that may begin to effect Arkhosia and the cows. As for the cannons, those have officially stopped firing, now that the ship has been boarded. First Mate Chuckles ducks and rolls down the stairs to the main deck, popping up and firing two more rounds at the invader.

[Arkhosia]

Cowapults

While spider-cows are indeed quite the challenge, they'll find that eating undead only serves to have their stomachs ripped apart from the inside. Sure, the devoured skeletons and zombies will have to take a moment to allow their limbs time to regenerate. Also, something that Hatter has brought up several times: The Crone's Claw radiates necromantic energy and can make the living feel ill while on board. So that may begin to effect Arkhosia and the cows. As for the cannons, those have officially stopped firing, now that the ship has been boarded. First Mate Chuckles ducks and rolls down the stairs to the main deck, popping up and firing two more rounds at the invader.

Ark is feeling a bit ill now, and attest to absorb the momentum of the bullets, slowing them to only bruise her on contact slightly!
Go to sleep you rotter!
Ark fires a volley of shotgun shells!

[Taet]

"No, this is not usual, and it is bad time."

Sweetums waves the machinegun pointing away.

[Front Door]

Ykysa puts her hand up. She is small. She can just about reach to touch the under part of the gun.

"It is never a good time for law." :smallsigh:

And unless Sweetums does not let her she will hold the gun pointing out and just walk right past it and around the ogre.

[ThePhantom]

Front Door

And Sweetums puts his arm out to keep Ykysa out.

"Its raining blood, there's holes in the ways, a rift that just closed in the sky, and our leader is fighting for her life against an undead. Wait for when the solution has happned."

He does have a point with that last one. Its the leader who has the most voice in making decisions for the group.

[Zefir]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Because The Crone's Claw neither hits a joint nor straight-on, it doesn't completely remove the rest of her arm - but the end result is arguably worse. Severed muscles, cracked bone, and so on, added to the cells mutating in accordance with the negative energy - Harley's right arm is not a pretty sight. A clean cut would've been better.

Now, this moment on top of Clegg would have been the perfect position - had Clegg been a living foe and not undead. With her claws, she would have torn at his jugular, impaled his arm with her shoulder blade, and then....

But that is not the case; this sort of thing hardly works on undead. In addition, the mud has smothered most of the fire on her, putting it out - especially most of it on her skirt. Then, it starts to rain eldritch blood, from the battle above. It turns out it puts out oil fires much better than water or snow.

Harley takes advantage of this moment to push herself off Clegg and grab her scabbard from near his feet. Her breathing is choppy. Her own red blood mixes with the supernatural black blood as it runs down her arm. However, as the black ichor hits the scabbard, it sizzles and burns.

"I hope you'll forgive me, but you won't have that chance just yet." she replies, with determination in her eyes.


[Just outside a Damaged Wall,] for Zefir.

Yet another WATCHTOWER man has come to the battle. Because he can't fly, he had to run all the way here - though, as a massive beastly wolf, it wasn't that hard.

He senses the weak wall, and digs with his claws into it. Then, just when it's about to give, he rams into the wall and it breaks.

The werewolf tumbles into a hallway (Near Zefir?) - and, as he enters the base, he's no longer a wolf. He's now a man, wearing a cape and boots (and other clothes), with a wolf's head instead of a man's head. On his sleeve is WATCHTOWER's insignia.

In addition to the several scars he has, he also has some brand-new cuts and scrapes from ramming into that wall and tumbling through.

[Just outside a Damaged Wall,] for Zefir.

Possible close to Zefir, since he was going to plant some bombs what may be the reason for a weak wall.:smallbiggrin: Zefir turns around, wondering is Clarissa just broke through another wall, but a man with WATCHTOWER's insignia? Defnitly not Clarissa. And defnitly not good for him since a man with a wolf's head might be troublesome.

Zefir grabs in is bag behind him, drawing the gun he stole from Clegg when he was a living human and no undead(something with T was his name). He aims at the WATCHMAN.

"Bad timing wolfhead. Best you give up immediatly." This is AMEn, but a hostage is more worth then a dead body, well unles you have to fight.

[Ashen Lilies]

Main Room

"Yeah, I guess that was pretty dumb of future me. You think I'd get a henchman or something to make all those claims." Decker says.

"Assuming it is future you. It could be a frame-up." Says KR. She's well aware of Decker's age and her not-quite-linear perception of time, however, so she doesn't really question it.
"You're pretty good at avoiding trouble, but if someone powerful tries to hunt you down things could get messy. Is there anyone else here you'd rather not get hurt?"

[happyturtle]

Main Room

"Why would I frame myself?" Decker asks. :smallconfused: "Kal. I don't want her to get hurt."

[Ashen Lilies]

[Main Room]

"No, I think demons are framing you. And going into hiding for a while might at least keep Kal out of danger if she wants to pr- wait, what?" KR at least knows of Kal, even if they don't really associate with each other, but she was fairly sure Kal was male the last time she saw him.

[happyturtle]

Main Room

"I know, right? Like he wasn't hot enough already!" Decker says.

[5a Violista]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Harley doesn't wipe away her bloody nose; it would be wasting excessive energy that she doesn't have. What with the adrenaline rush limping away and being replaced with just pain and exhaustion, she has to concentrate with all that she has left.

She responds. "I won't do that," she articulates, "because they're my friends."

Harley takes a deep breath between her teeth, and feints to draw his blade out of the way. Not with her weapon, but rather with her advance - instead of leaping forward, she only takes a half leap with her arm extended. Then, she finishes off the lunge, thrusting towards his chest.

Her sanctified scabbard only needs to scratch his flesh to take effect and initiate a series of small explosions.


[Just at the Damaged Wall]

Conrack, the wolf-headed man, raises his right hand. Not up, but forward, towards Zefir. He does this to quickly cast a reflexive counter ward.

From his hip, he draws his sword into his left. He growls. "I should say the same to you."

He doesn't make the first move; he's hoping Zefir will just give up quickly or will make a hasty and unprepared move.

Side note: All of my swordfighting characters are lefthanded because that's how I do it in real life, and it's easier for me to think through realistic combat with the weapon in the left hand.

[Hattish Thing]

[AMEN's Courtyard]

Harley doesn't wipe away her bloody nose; it would be wasting excessive energy that she doesn't have. What with the adrenaline rush limping away and being replaced with just pain and exhaustion, she has to concentrate with all that she has left.

She responds. "I won't do that," she articulates, "because they're my friends."

Harley takes a deep breath between her teeth, and feints to draw his blade out of the way. Not with her weapon, but rather with her advance - instead of leaping forward, she only takes a half leap with her arm extended. Then, she finishes off the lunge, thrusting towards his chest.

Her sanctified scabbard only needs to scratch his flesh to take effect and initiate a series of small explosions.

The Captain can smell her blood in the air, along with the scent of the black ichor. It's distracting and so sweetly intoxicating... He needed to feed soon, he was hungry... Clegg prepares for her attack, and the feint succeeds. He's distracted by her intoxicating scent, and wasn't at all expecting such a ferocious attack. He brings The Crone's Fang down in a mighty swing, missing completely. However, if the attack had hit, the force would have been strong enough to slice a particularly burly troll. The scabbard slides straight up into Clegg's rotting chest with a sickening squelch. The eapon embeds itself among his rib cage, the back of the holy scabbard poking out through him, having impaled him completely on it. She might even get her hand stuck in his rathere soft undead flesh.... It's incredibly uncomfortable.

As soon as the scabbard enters, Clegg grunts in pain. He felt the scabbard burn at his rotting flesh, the holy power causing his maggot-ridden insides to burn away and melt into ash. Wisps of black energy are given off from the sizzling, and the horrible scent of burning dead flesh will no doubt fill her nose. If that wasn't repulsive enough, it's highly likely Harley is now absolutely covered in his black blood. As he begins to disintegrate, he grips The Crone's Fang firmly with his left hand, and aims a claw at her shoulder. Should the claw hit, it'll probably tear away a good chunk of her flesh. Not only would this strike infect her with the undead infection, it'll also release a plethora of nasty natural diseases into her bloodstream due to just how gross his claws are.

He begins to shudder and quiver as the explosive powers set in, his body going limp.... As the explosions star to rocket his insides, he screams out, his mouth open wide. GODS DAMN YOU! He doesn't get to continue, for white holy fire shoots out through his throat, his eyes, and his nose, before his entire body explodes from the inside. This will absolutely shower Harley in nasty rotting flesh, bone, blood, and maggots. Any open wounds will probably end up covered in the filth as well.

His shouting is an obvious sign to Chuckles and Byrebreak that it's high time to leave the area and to sail away.

---

Of course, Clegg reforms in the bowels of The Crone's Claw. Deep in the maw of the large ship, a pool of fetid, sickeningly green water stagnates quietly. The Captain reforms here, a few feet below the surface of the green water. He's dressed in his normal clothing, with The Fang at his belt. He's extremely weak, and unable to do much but lie down. Ohhg...

[Zefir]

[Just at the Damaged Wall]

Conrack, the wolf-headed man, raises his right hand. Not up, but forward, towards Zefir. He does this to quickly cast a reflexive counter ward.

From his hip, he draws his sword into his left. He growls. "I should say the same to you."

He doesn't make the first move; he's hoping Zefir will just give up quickly or will make a hasty and unprepared move.

Side note: All of my swordfighting characters are lefthanded because that's how I do it in real life, and it's easier for me to think through realistic combat with the weapon in the left hand.

[Just at the Damaged Wall]

A ward you say, well nthing Zefir can really stop since magic is less effective against him. Still a ward caan protect him from the gun, since it's not made by Zefir.

At all he will keep the distance and make out the ward. If it appears to be stuck in place he will go a few steps to the side to have a clear shot at Conrack. He will shoot if he can find such a position , aiming at the legs/arms .

Side note: My chars tend to be right hand, but some are double handed.^^

[Aric Kale]

Crone's Claw - Fleeing the Scene

Chuckles hears the shout and calls out to the helmsman to turn the ship about and sail away at full speed. The crew are hustling about as best the can, but with the majority engaged in cow combat, and their First Mate dueling with someone, efficiency is low at best.
As for Arkhosia, the water bullets are able to shatter concrete, if she can slow them down, good for her. If not, a bruise would be a slight understatement. Still, she has some time to recover, since Chuckles just lost a large portion of his stomach, and fell to the ground.
Oh yeah, that part where Ark was going to be able to rest? That was a lie. A (totally subtle :smalltongue:) zombie pirate is about to attempt to thrust a dagger between her shoulder blades.

[Arkhosia]

Crone's Claw

360 no scope!
Ark spins around, shooting the zombie, before jumping off the boat, absorbing her own momentum to slow her descent to not break her bones and faceplanting on the ground!

[Ashen Lilies]

Main Room

"I know, right? Like he wasn't hot enough already!" Decker says.

[Main Room]

"I'll uhm... I'll take your word for it." Says KR, looking amused and a little bit flustered.
"I think I should go. Moff? My coat, if you please." She says, standing and turning to face Moff.

[5a Violista]

[AMEN's Courtyard]
Internal Version:
(Skip the spoiler to see what everyone else IC sees.)
(Otherwise, open the spoiler and read what Harley thinks.)


"Ha." Heavy, slow breathing. She beat Clegg, fair and square. She'll need to train and get ready for the next time. If she could at this moment, she would be laughing in joy. Instead, a faint smile just appears on her face. "I...Szih..." Shoot. English escapes her once again.

She can't get up straight; not enough energy. Just leaning there, against her scabbard. Okay, first things first: stop her arm from bleeding. Reroute the arteries and constrict the capillaries. Okay. Done. Wait, hold on; her shoulder hurts. Just put the knee on the ground. Why is her shoulder hurting? Oh. That's why. Apply pressure, wait...cut off the blood flow. Okay, now get...

Hold on; what was she thinking about? Oh, right. Her shoulder. What was it that caused it? ... Oh. That's what. It'll get infected and...who knows what else undead have on their hands. When was the last time he washed them? How is she going to clean her clothes? She needs new clothes. Armor, too. She needs that as soon as possible, and maybe a new sword. Also, there's mud here. Her skirt will get muddy if she stays out for much longer.

Oh, right. Harley, you need to purify your wounds. Get up and go back to the base to get some alcohol...no, that's not getting up. That's lying down. She's so thirsty. A glass of lemonade sounds pretty good right now... Wait, whose blood is this on her face? Speaking of blood, her hand hurts. Oh, right. Explosion happened. Her legs are burnt too, but she can't feel them anymore. Are they still there? Maybe. Legs can't just get up and run away. She'll need new clothes; they're all ruined again. Seriously, here at AMEN, she's gone through clothes so fast that it's not even funny. Okay. First things first: get enough money to pay back that Thanksmas loan to AMEN. Then go shopping and get some new clothes. Clothes are good, but not when they're burnt. Pockets. Pockets are good, too.

What is she thinking about, lying there in that mud? Oh, yes; that's what. Is that blood? She could kill for a glass of water right now. Just tap water, please. Hold the ice. Ice can sometimes hold parasites. Wait, parasites? Why is that on her mind? Does it have something to do with the strange feeling she has, of something crawling? That's silly. There's only rain out here. Black rain. Why is it so dark? Dark like a butterfly. I mean, it was dark before, but now it's just ridiculous. Hold on a second; is that blood? Why is it so cold? Isn't blood supposed to be warm?

Right here actually feels like a good spot to rest. Just ten more minutes, please, and then I'll get my armor. Oh, wait. She doesn't have any armor. It's a good thing it's so warm in here, because it would suck if it was cold. Myiasis. That's a word, isn't it? It sounds like one. Okay, now it's time to get up and take a shower, so she can finally wash this blood off her...blood? Why would she go to sleep with blood on her? Wait, what time is it? How is it so dark out still? Why can't she feel her fingers? They feel numb. And wet. Wet sounds good.

Hold on, how is she lying down now? Is that mud or is...eew. Harley wishes she hadn't felt what that was. If it didn't hurt so much, her lunch would be gone. Wait, is that blood? Whose blood is it? It's red, so...wait, no. It's black now. Now it's white. White blood? That's impossible. Why is everything going so white? Wasn't it dark out? Even when she closes her eyes, everything looks white. She can't let go of her scabbard, but she can hardly tell she's even holding on to it. Ha. That word almost sounds like my name. Harley Martinez. Nice to meet you. Oh, no: that's not my name anymore. Sorry. It got changed. Names like to do that every once in a while. It's very unfortunate.

Curse this blood loss, she can't concentrate on anything. Oh, right. Blood. Clegg was here. She's still bleeding. Harley needs to reroute the larger veins and constrict the small ones. In her arm, and then...is that blood on her shoulder? Why...how...? Wait, there's something crawling. And why is it getting darker? How did her arm stop bleeding? Did she do that already, or...?

The world was already so dark that it couldn't go any darker, but now even the light from what few fires remained seemed to be fading. Even the lava is turning black. Why? Why can't she feel...

Is that blood?


[AMEN's Courtyard]
External Version:

After Clegg explodes, she gives a very faint smile, but it's hardly perceptible with all the...everything on her face.

She's too weak to get up and she falls to one knee. Her arms push, trying to get up once more.

She falls into the mud and blood, holding her scabbard with a death grip.

Her harsh breathing finally grows soft.

Harley faints.


[At the Damaged Wall]

The ward is, in fact, centered at Conrack's hand. It's thicker there, and thinner the further away. In fact, this leaves his legs at the weakest part of the ward.

However, Conrack notices Zefir aiming. Oh, well. No chance to end this easily. He needs to quickly close the distance, so he starts sprinting towards Zefir.

Since I don't know how good of a shot Zefir is when aiming at the legs of someone sprinting, I'm going to assume it barely misses because of a combination of the werewolf's swift running and the distance.

[Arkhosia]

Courtyard

Ark gets up, badly bruised and with a fractured rib, and darts over to Harley, attempting to pick her up and bring her over to the infirmary of AMEN!

[Zefir]

[At the Damaged Wall]

The ward is, in fact, centered at Conrack's hand. It's thicker there, and thinner the further away. In fact, this leaves his legs at the weakest part of the ward.

However, Conrack notices Zefir aiming. Oh, well. No chance to end this easily. He needs to quickly close the distance, so he starts sprinting towards Zefir.

Since I don't know how good of a shot Zefir is when aiming at the legs of someone sprinting, I'm going to assume it barely misses because of a combination of the werewolf's swift running and the distance.

[At the Damaged Wall]

It's right to assume Zefir isn't the best in using a gun. In fact some might wonder that he is that good with such kind of weapons. He never ever used them, btu that's nothing a stolen Object couldn't fix. (think it was strength).

However, Zefir will slowly walk bakwards when the wolf man starts to run. There is some distance between them and Zefir will at least try to slow his opponend down by shooting at his legs. While one hand holds the gun the other one wanders to his other bag, drawing a few little glass balls. Should the enemy come close enougth to attack, he will throw one of them. It will likly shatter on the ward, but it covers the area around it in a strange thick smoke.

[happyturtle]

[Main Room]

"I'll uhm... I'll take your word for it." Says KR, looking amused and a little bit flustered.
"I think I should go. Moff? My coat, if you please." She says, standing and turning to face Moff.

Decker stands up with KR. "I guess I can go with you, if you think I should. Let me just leave a note for Kal." She takes out a lipstick and writes a message on the wall. Even though she doesn't wear lipstick. :smalltongue:



Kal, Be safe.

<3 Decker

"Okay! I'm ready!"

Moff gives KR's coat to Decker. "Give it to her when you're out of here," he says.

Out Front


Courtyard

Ark gets up, badly bruised and with a fractured rib, and darts over to Harley, attempting to pick her up and bring her over to the infirmary of AMEN!

"Ark, you idiot, the...." Moff calls at her. Then facepalms. "... flames." Yup. Looks like Ark ran right through the wall of flame to get to Harley. That's loyalty! (Unless she didn't. But I think it's funnier if she did. :smalltongue:)

Whether Ark did or did not run headlong into the fire, Moff goes to the flame wall and sprays some fire extinguisher to make a path to safely get to Harley.

[Arkhosia]

Decker stands up with KR. "I guess I can go with you, if you think I should. Let me just leave a note for Kal." She takes out a lipstick and writes a message on the wall. Even though she doesn't wear lipstick. :smalltongue:



Kal, Be safe.

<3 Decker

"Okay! I'm ready!"

Moff gives KR's coat to Decker. "Give it to her when you're out of here," he says.

Out Front



"Ark, you idiot, the...." Moff calls at her. Then facepalms. "... flames." Yup. Looks like Ark ran right through the wall of flame to get to Harley. That's loyalty! (Unless she didn't. But I think it's funnier if she did. :smalltongue:)

Whether Ark did or did not run headlong into the fire, Moff goes to the flame wall and sprays some fire extinguisher to make a path to safely get to Harley.

Oh yeah, forgot about those!
Ark replies as she darts through them, extinguishing the fire on her and Harley with her speed due to needing to release so much absorbed energy.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Main Room]

KR rolls her eyes, then mutters a few syllables. The hardened glue binding her arms should harden and crystallize slightly, before cracking into chunks and disintegrating, freeing her. Assuming that she is freed, KR will attempt to grab her coat back from Decker before drawing her hand down in the motion Jezebel showed her, shrugging her coat back on before darting through the portal created.

[happyturtle]

Main Room

KR's spell works as intended. Decker follows her through the portal.

[UncleWolf]

The Portal

The Portal leads here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=17048619#post17048619)

[5a Violista]

[=> Infirmary?] (AMEN has an infirmary? I didn't know that.)

Well, it appears Harley got some more burns. Only a few, though. But...it was cool, right?

Some time later,
She'll wake up. In what condition depends on what kind of care she got. So, I'll put off describing what she looks like until someone describes that.


[At the Damaged Wall]

Shooting at people's legs makes them want to dodge more. This happens with Conrack, as a bullet or three pass (slowly) through the ward and hit either him or his leather boots. Due to their reduced speed, I'll bet it doesn't hurt so much, but (because the ward's thinner down there), they didn't slow down enough to not hurt him.

It does not, in fact, shatter against the ward, because it's a ward, not a shield. As the glass ball hits the ward, it slows down immensely and starts dropping. However, it shatters after hitting the ground, and the smoke comes up anyway - same result, right?

With the smoke now on the floor and Conrack close enough, he begins a huge leap towards Zefir.

[ThePhantom]

In the Rainy Skies

Excellent, she beat Clegg. Unfortunately, those wounds he dealt to her could be lethal, and AMEN doesn't have very good medical care. Well, good thing that this jet pack can be programmed. Mr E hits a few buttons to set the jet pack to go and pick up Cat Burgler, he has somewhere else to be.

Infirmary

Like here, for example. Mr E walks into the infirmary and goes over to examine Harley. Hmm, that's not so good. Well, best start with the standard AMEN healing practice, put healing potions down the injuried party's throat and see the results.

[happyturtle]

Infirmary

"Think I should go kidnap a doctor?" Moff asks. "We could use a doctor slave."

[ThePhantom]

Infirmary

"Not a good idea. A doctor bought here unwillingly is likely to not going to do their best, and frankly, we want the best. Plus, a doctor could do a lot of damage under the guise of 'helping'. Lets get her stable, and then we can see about tricking GLoG to help us out.They have the best doctors around."

Mr E goes to check Harley's pulse.

[5a Violista]

[Infirmary]

A pulse exists! In part because of healing potions. It's a little weak pulse, though, so...stuff. Also, checking the pulse let Mr E know that Harley had suddenly sprung a fever at an unrealistic speed.

And so, having read up about healing potions for the past half-hour, I've decided on what it does: The healing potion kills off the undeadified flesh and heals up the wounds. It also restores blood loss and increases random mutation rate. The burns are healed, too, in spite of what Pokemon teaches us (but the heat is still there). Dirt and grime and stuff...are unaffected by it.

So, in other words, although the huge wounds were healed up, it's still obvious that there's something off with them, as they're somewhat visible. Also, her entire right arm is pale, and her hand is still replaced with that bone-spear. I've decided that healing potions do nothing to the parasites or diseases, although, for some reason, half of them in her shoulder have mysteriously died. Also, out of her scapulae are hard spikes that appeared very recently, and her clawed left hand is still gripping the scabbard, but has been coated with something that could be easily mistaken for scales. Also, other things randomly happened but aren't immediately perceptible.

However, she remains unconscious just so people can continue talking around her and moving her when I'm offline. I personally think tricking GLoG is a fantabulous idea.

[Taet]

[Front Door]

Ark past the small golem and the large ogre. She ignores them both. And the field of fire. And the ring of fire too. The foam cheer finger lasted through so much. But now it melts and falls off. :smallfrown:

And then Moff runs past too and starts to use a fire extinguisher. Ykysa picks up a not pretty any more piece of gold hair and looks at it. And looks back at the field of fire that is now being put out. "You had one after all." And the Ladychild is not in any mood to get stopped at the door again. :smallannoyed:

[Infirmary]

She walks in behind but with the burnt woman and the people trying to help her. Ykysa walks straight for the nearest open fire and puts her hands in it. There is no point in not doing that now. Her clothes already burned. She is a sapphire glass golem with a hollow belly. She will not melt in low fires. The ivory plates on her hands crack all the way and fall off.

When she is sterile and cooled the Ladychild gets something to stand on and helps with the cleaning of Harley. She picks off flakes of mud and clots of blood and pieces of melted foam finger. She finds a pot of vaseline and coats the burned areas but does not cover them out of sight. And with where she found the pot in mind she finds out whether or not Harley is carrying a baby. There is much too much of that going around lately. :smallsigh: It is good plain sterile cleaning. Nothing in here will give her a new problem. But it is useless against magic or undead or psychic or anything else that happened in the ring of fire. :smallfrown:

[Zefir]

[At the Damaged Wall]

Shooting at people's legs makes them want to dodge more. This happens with Conrack, as a bullet or three pass (slowly) through the ward and hit either him or his leather boots. Due to their reduced speed, I'll bet it doesn't hurt so much, but (because the ward's thinner down there), they didn't slow down enough to not hurt him.

It does not, in fact, shatter against the ward, because it's a ward, not a shield. As the glass ball hits the ward, it slows down immensely and starts dropping. However, it shatters after hitting the ground, and the smoke comes up anyway - same result, right?

With the smoke now on the floor and Conrack close enough, he begins a huge leap towards Zefir.

[At the Damaged Wall]

Well, Zefir's main intend of this ball was to blind the enemy for a moment befor he can swing his weapon against Zefir. I should note that the smoke is creating a ball formes smoke which blocks view.

If that is the case, he darts to his right (Conrack's left). Hoping the enemy is confused when he doesn't see his target, Zefir tries to hit at Conrack's arm and hopes to disarm the wolf man.

Should the smoke not blind him Zefir will dart to the other side to avoid the blade.

[5a Violista]

And so, it happened that all the <remnants of Clegg> and the <black sanguine rain> and the <mud?> and the <patches of melted clothing> and <who-knows-what-else> were cleaned off.

Actually, it would have been slightly better if the sterilization had happened [I]before the healing potions, but...hindsight is 20/20, right?


Some time later,
She'll wake up. In what condition depends on what kind of care she got. So, I'll put off describing what she looks like until someone describes that.

So, after some time, Some time later arrives. Harley, who is decidedly and quite plainly not pregnant (as that would require a very certain form of intimacy), wakes up.

Her eyes, blurry and watery, open. She tries to sit up, but quickly decides against it. There's bright lights. "Ugh. Soh kse tsafaz akso..." she starts off, before remembering where she is...or where she supposes she is. As far as she knows, nobody else speaks ssa Thiskuza tzas Ssokptzas (although, if someone wants to pretend they do, I'd gladly write out the rough English meaning of the random syllables she says). "I...what...where am I?"


[At the Damaged Wall]

The smoke definitely makes his eyes water, such that he has to slow down and close his eyes, giving Zefir a chance to dart by him and disarm him.

Conrack (who, admittedly, hadn't been holding onto his sword with as good as a grip as he normally has) drops his sword, and it clatters to the right until it hits a wall.

Even though his eyes are still watering, he now knows where Zefir is. Blinking furiously, he growls and twists to his left. He leaps in the direction that he felt and heard Zefir, and brings his right fist back and then pumps it forward/slightly downward in a swing.

Yes, that means the magical ward is going to hit Zefir. If Zefir were a completely normal person, this is what would happen should the ward hit him: it would definitely not hurt him, nor would it affect any blocking attempts, but it would prevent any direct counterattacks, as they would get caught in the ward. (But, then again, I don't know exactly what would happen to the ward as it reaches Zefir, so feel free to control it in whichever way seems logical.)

[Arkhosia]

Infirmary

Ark is sleeping in a nearby convenient chair!

[Taet]

Infirmary

Nobody hurries to tell the hurt fighter that she is safe now. Even though the ogre called her leader. This is why it is an evil group I guess. :smallyuk: Ykysa stops looking in the half empty box of medicines and steps back on it and looks down at Harley.

"Your security is not the best is it."

The Ladychild is small as an Erfworld archon. The same all blue eyes. The same calm servant look. Ykysa has been burnt by the fire though and her hair is melted to her shoulders and her ivory is all covered in soot. Is there anyone at AMEN who looks like that? Or does Harley know the first person to talk to her is someone she does not know? :smallconfused:

[ThePhantom]

Infirmary

Well, when one's computer has a bit of a meltdown, it gets harder to post. Anyways, Mr. E having stuck around the infirmary to keep an eye on things, but the battle hasn't quite wrapped up yet, so he has been monitoring that as well.

Now that Harley is waking up, he turns towards her.
"Ah, you are in the infirmary, Miss Zoro, and I see that will need a talk with Sweetums about who is let in here."

Mr E wants some answers from the uninvited but helpful guest here.

[Zefir]

[At the Damaged Wall]

The smoke definitely makes his eyes water, such that he has to slow down and close his eyes, giving Zefir a chance to dart by him and disarm him.

Conrack (who, admittedly, hadn't been holding onto his sword with as good as a grip as he normally has) drops his sword, and it clatters to the right until it hits a wall.

Even though his eyes are still watering, he now knows where Zefir is. Blinking furiously, he growls and twists to his left. He leaps in the direction that he felt and heard Zefir, and brings his right fist back and then pumps it forward/slightly downward in a swing.

Yes, that means the magical ward is going to hit Zefir. If Zefir were a completely normal person, this is what would happen should the ward hit him: it would definitely not hurt him, nor would it affect any blocking attempts, but it would prevent any direct counterattacks, as they would get caught in the ward. (But, then again, I don't know exactly what would happen to the ward as it reaches Zefir, so feel free to control it in whichever way seems logical.)

[At the Damaged Wall]

Well, we might not find out. I assume Conrack's attack comes after the disarming and not during it so Zefir has at least recovered from his attack.(In the menaing of not having his arm streched out) Zefir got a good sense of magic and immediatly notice the incoming attack. His reaction is good, but quiet not fast enougth to counter it the right way. Zefir will punch with his arm against the incoming attack, but he will miss Conrack's arm. Still something happens. The ward that has covered Conrack nearly totally got hit. As Zefirs fist reaches the spell, Conrack shold see that there are cracks in the air. Even thought he is blinded, white cracks should appear where the spell is for less then a moment. The moment after it Conrack might hear a shattering noise like glass and pieces of what was one the award should fly around.

Assuming this works, Zefir got hit by the punch in the chest. Not knowing how strong the wolf is, Zefir will stagger backwards

[5a Violista]

[Infirmary]

Computer meltdowns are rarely cool.

Harley nods slowly. "Oh, okay. That's much better than where I thought I could have been." As a note, her breathing is very rhythmical and shallow. She begins raising her arm to her head, but notices that it's very unbalanced...and decides not to accidentally impale herself.

Now, I'm not sure if she has enough energy to get that bone-weapon back into a hand, but she can definitely make her blood begin flowing in there again. So, she does that. Still with her eyes out of focus and feeling lightheaded, she doesn't recognize - or, rather, not recognize - the golem.

"Well, physician," she says to no one (or everyone) in particular, forcing herself up to a sitting position, "I'm feeling as right as rain; am I free to go?" It's a lie, in case you couldn't see it clearly on her face.


[At the damaged wall]

Conrack's strength can be accurately defined as that of a 50-year old retired mercenary. Or, in other words, he's still quite stronger than the average nobody (because otherwise he wouldn't have survived to retirement!) but he was much stronger some twenty years ago. (Also, good assumption.)

Wow. His ward shattered like glass. That's never happened before.

This leaves Conrack a little shocked, unable to follow up. His eyes are still teary, and the smoke is messing with his sense of smell. Fortunately, though, he still has his wolf's sense of hearing, so he's not entirely out of the battle.

Conrack backs away three steps from where he supposes Zefir is, and draws a dagger into his hand Then, his right hand moves into position to make another ward. "Come on. Is that all you've got?" he growls. "Cheap tricks?"

[Taet]

Infirmary

The Ladychild looks over her shoulder at Mr E and talks to him more than she talks to Harley. "No. I believe nobody is free to go right now." And steps down and away to let a real AMEN person explain things. She goes to the wall and stands there and is mostly golem still and ready to serve.

But after a little time Ykysa does have one question. "There is no paper clothing. Nothing I can cover up with? Your fire field burned my clothing." :smallconfused:

[ThePhantom]

Infirmary

"I'm afraid I insist that you stay on the bed, Harley. You were pulled from the edge, but you are not well yet."

Mr E gently tries to push Harley back onto the bed.

"Will someone get the golem a coat?"

[happyturtle]

Infirmary

Moff takes off his shirt (with exaggerated slow motion, intended to be sexy, though he's rather ordinary looking) and offers it to Ykysa. "Um, now that you're wearing my clothes, who are you, and why are you here?"

[5a Violista]

[Infirmary]

So, Harley is forced back down onto the bed. Sad, I know.

If she was in any condition to watch Moff, she would find him both incredibly sexy and chivalrous. It's too bad she's not.

She grumbles.

[Arkhosia]

Forgot to note:
Harley should have a lot of energy: ark gave her enough to exhaust herself.

[Taet]

Infirmary

The shirt is much bigger than Ykysa. She rolls up the sleeves a lot. Then she puts one arm in a sleeve and twists the shirt around herself before putting on the other sleeve. Somehow this twists it into a dress closer to her body. The too big shirt and melted hair look as she just got out of a shower though.

It is hard to be all official like this. She tries to adjust. "I came here to settle the will for the property Childecrowne in Riverside. AMEN owns the house now. I do not know why. It is ordinary."

"I am Ykysa. I was a servant kept shut in the house. I memorized and kept official the paperwork. I am the will and I will say it all when your lawyer is ready. I do not come with the house. The will gave the Ladychild Oyzya also but she was broken years ago." Ykysa puts her hand on herself when she talks about the one called Ladychild. So they were both golems? Gargoyles? Archons?

[happyturtle]

Infirmary

"We have a lawyer?" :smallconfused: Moff asks. Then, "What's a Ladychilde?"

[Taet]

Infirmary

"Who keeps your paperwork without a lawyer?" Ykysa does not understand the problem. Maybe I made a mistake on her alignment because she is sounding very lawful.

"The titles go along with the house. Boniface Childecrowne who owned the house he used titles but not our names." :smallannoyed: She sounds bitter. "The details of the titles are also part of the will."

[ThePhantom]

Infirmary

"We have a lawyer, Moff. Sure, he's on call and not a member, but he is a lawyer. I'll work on getting him over here."

Mr E takes out a phone and calls someone. "Hello. Yes its that group, the unpopular one. Listen, we need your services, so I'll send out a car for you."

[5a Violista]

[Infirmary]

Forgot to note:
Harley should have a lot of energy: ark gave her enough to exhaust herself.
Well, fantastic; that's quite the torture. Forcing her to stay lying down when she's illogically brimming with that much energy.

Harley continues grumbling as she listens to the conversation going on around her.

[Arkhosia]

Ark grumbles a bit as she turns slightly in the chair.
... is she talking in her sleep?

[Zefir]

[At the damaged wall]

Conrack's strength can be accurately defined as that of a 50-year old retired mercenary. Or, in other words, he's still quite stronger than the average nobody (because otherwise he wouldn't have survived to retirement!) but he was much stronger some twenty years ago. (Also, good assumption.)

Wow. His ward shattered like glass. That's never happened before.

This leaves Conrack a little shocked, unable to follow up. His eyes are still teary, and the smoke is messing with his sense of smell. Fortunately, though, he still has his wolf's sense of hearing, so he's not entirely out of the battle.

Conrack backs away three steps from where he supposes Zefir is, and draws a dagger into his hand Then, his right hand moves into position to make another ward. "Come on. Is that all you've got?" he growls. "Cheap tricks?"

[At the damaged wall]

Without Conrack follow up, Zefir is able to catch himself from the hit. At first Zefir goes for a defence stance, but as he hear the wolf man back away Zefir looks after his opponent. When Conrack draws his dagger, Zefir draws one himself, while hos other hand grabs again in the bag the smoke ball were before. He had noticed the effect on Conrack's eyes and wonders what happens when he use a flashbang.

"Ceap tricks? Your the one with the broken spell not me." Zefir replies as he prepares the flashbang.

The next moment he will throw the flashbang . It's aimed directly at Conrack. Zefir can just hope the ward just slows down incoming thing instead of letting the time pass slower of an item. Zefir will cover his eyes for a maoment to avoid the bright like the grenade produce if it explodes. His ears are unprotected, so he will be effected by the noise the grenade produce.
((As allways all attemped adn could be interrupted))

[Arkhosia]

Moff's phone rings.
Oh god.
It's Ark.

[5a Violista]

[At the damaged Wall]

Yes, the ward does not have temporal distortion in it. It just slows it down.

Conrack quickly put up the ward again with the gesture of his hand - and the flashbang goes in it...and explodes. Inside the ward, the sound takes a bit longer to reach the edges and, thus, the sensitive ears of everyone around. The light, however, is unaffected due to the nature of light.

The bright light and the loud noise are painful, obviously. But they don't do anything additional than make him blink and wince, sadly. Oh, yeah; the disorientation, too. That happens.

Before his vision returns fully, he responds, "Isn't that what magic always does?"

After most of the disorientation disappears, he runs again towards Zefir to punch him in the jaw. (Oh, hold on; he's still holding a dagger. Wait, no. He dropped that.)

[Infirmary]

Harley.

Her phone's not ringing, 'cause she doesn't have one. Besides, it was Moff's phone that was called.

She feels jealous of Moff, having a phone.

[happyturtle]

Infirmary

A few minutes ago, Moff left the room for reasons (see sig). His phone is in his shirt pocket, which is on Ykysa. So anyone can answer.

((Just need a break for a little while. Probably just a few days, maybe as long as a couple weeks. :smallsmile:))

[Taet]

Infirmary

Ykysa is ringing. Again. :smallsigh: And again she looks for where the top of the pocket went. It is easy to feel where the phone is ringing. Finding the pocket in the twists is the hard part. This time she finds the right place and the phone falls out of an upside down pocket. Ykysa catches it and puts it into Harley's hand when someone starts to talk. "She can talk and not get up yet" says Ykysa to Mr E. But did she hear everything or did the Ladychild turn on the phone too soon? :smallconfused:

[Arkhosia]

Infirmary

Ykysa is ringing. Again. :smallsigh: And again she looks for where the top of the pocket went. It is easy to feel where the phone is ringing. Finding the pocket in the twists is the hard part. This time she finds the right place and the phone falls out of an upside down pocket. Ykysa catches it and puts it into Harley's hand when someone starts to talk. "She can talk and not get up yet" says Ykysa to Mr E. But did she hear everything or did the Ladychild turn on the phone too soon? :smallconfused:

It's PlotClone!Ark.
I found a trebuchet in Skyside!
Then she tells a location and the call ends!

[ThePhantom]

Infirmary

"Now then, since our lawyer is coming over by car, perhaps you can wait outside for him to get here."

The sooner the golem is out of here, the less information can leak out.

[Taet]

Infirmary

The Ladychild looks back and forth between the phone and Arkhosia. But decides she must have been hearing things. :smalltongue:

"Have you put the fire field out?" :smallsigh: she asks. But takes the hint and leaves. She will try to stop just inside the entrance if it is still raining fire and hail and ashes. But wherever she ends up she stops and goes golem still again.

[ThePhantom]

Entrance

Yes, the fire was put out, so this part shouldn't look so bad. Its still not pretty. Anyways, a black van pulls up, and a man in a brown suit holding a briefcase steps out of the back. He sighs, and walks over to the entrance.

"Hello. I take it you would be the executor of the will in question. Well, I have the misfortune of being AMEN's lawyer, so can we begin?"

[Zefir]

[At the damaged Wall]

Yes, the ward does not have temporal distortion in it. It just slows it down.

Conrack quickly put up the ward again with the gesture of his hand - and the flashbang goes in it...and explodes. Inside the ward, the sound takes a bit longer to reach the edges and, thus, the sensitive ears of everyone around. The light, however, is unaffected due to the nature of light.

The bright light and the loud noise are painful, obviously. But they don't do anything additional than make him blink and wince, sadly. Oh, yeah; the disorientation, too. That happens.

Before his vision returns fully, he responds, "Isn't that what magic always does?"

After most of the disorientation disappears, he runs again towards Zefir to punch him in the jaw. (Oh, hold on; he's still holding a dagger. Wait, no. He dropped that.)


[At the damaged Wall]

Well, Conrack might have aproblem with attacking. As I mentioned, Zefir covered his eyes from the explosion. The sound effects him, but he is used to it since this is his primar fighting style. He will rush forward, oth fists up. With the one he got a dagger, he aimes again for the ward to crush it and if that worked again, he will try to hid Conrack at the head with his other fist.

[Taet]

Entrance

She stands up very straight and still. She stares out straight ahead. And starts to talk without any stopping to breathe. A talking magical machine.

"I am the Ladychild Ykysa Childecrowne. I am the oldest golem living at the house. We the golems belonged to the owner of the house."

"I speak for the house that is known as Childecrowne, Riverside. I am the will and all its papers. You are the witness." :smallannoyed:

She stops here. And lifts her head to look him in the eyes.

"When the owner Boniface Childecrowne dies this will happen."

"The house and all it holds will belong to the Association of the Malicious, Evil, and Nefarious. Whoever lives in it will control all this. No one will order this with their power in AMEN. Only living there through one turn of the Westside lamp will give control."

It is so hard to say day about a place that has no sun.

"The house and all it holds is kept tidy by the Ladychild Childecrowne"

Ykysa cannot stop talking. But she can sound VERY angry as she goes on.

"who is also willed to" :smallmad:

"AMEN and whoever will live at Childecrowne for one turn of the lamp!" :smallfurious:

"Spoken to and witnessed by the Ladychild Oyzya Childecrowne and the Ladychild Ykysa on this date." The date is over a hundred years old. :smallsigh:

"Spoken to and witnessed by the Ladychild Ykysa Childecrowne on this date. Say your name please."

The law magic is keeping her straight and still. But there is no please in the sound of her words.

[ThePhantom]

Entrance

Hey, getting angry at the lawyer isn't going to make this better. Ren steps back at the sound of the angry in her voice.

"I, Ren Truse, witness this will."

[Taet]

Entrance

"The will is signed and sealed." :smallsigh:

There is a soft noise now. It is the squeak of a tiny diamond writing on a tiny sapphire. It goes on as long as it takes to write Association of the Malicious, Evil, and Nefarious all over Ykysa in letters that are too tiny to see.

She reaches for her money but that was burned away with her dress. "Go inside and ask for your pay. My money was theirs now." :smallmad:

[ThePhantom]

Entrance

Ren sighs. Wills were simpler usually where he was from. And since while he is AMEN's lawyer, they aren't his only clients, so he doesn't share their morality. Besides, the front door cameras are broken right now.

"Would you like me to publicly post the part of the will that is open to the public? The part about lasting for a turn of the lamp?"

There should be someone better than this group who could do that, but why would they try it without knowing about it?

[Taet]

Entrance

Ykysa thinks about that. "It is not freedom but it will make things difficult. Yes. Do that." :smallamused:

[ThePhantom]

Entrance

"Alright then."

Ren nods at Ykysa, and heads inside the base to finish the requirements for this trip.

[5a Violista]

[Infirmary]

And so, some time passes.

Harley feels frustrated, sitting in there doing nothing. She figures she's good enough to walk, so long as it's not too quickly. Her arm feels strange, but...well, lying around doing nothing won't make her heal any faster.

So, she waits until she thinks nobody is looking, and gets up. Using her scabbard and her still-transformed right hand as canes, she makes her way out of the infirmary (being really stealthy...) and towards the kitchen to get a bite.



[At the damaged Wall]

Well, Conrack might have aproblem with attacking. As I mentioned, Zefir covered his eyes from the explosion. The sound effects him, but he is used to it since this is his primar fighting style. He will rush forward, oth fists up. With the one he got a dagger, he aimes again for the ward to crush it and if that worked again, he will try to hid Conrack at the head with his other fist.

[At the damaged Wall]

Sensory overload is pretty terrible.

The ward isn't hurt by the dagger, but it may crack when his hand hits it.

Zefir's fist hits Conrack's head, but that, unfortunately, brings them in very close range. Conrack's jaws instinctively bite towards his attacker's arm, and his arms now reach out to pull Zefir into a bear hug. (After all, that's a main strategy of people who don't have a weapon and are in close range.)

[Zefir]

[At the damaged Wall]

Sensory overload is pretty terrible.

The ward isn't hurt by the dagger, but it may crack when his hand hits it.

Zefir's fist hits Conrack's head, but that, unfortunately, brings them in very close range. Conrack's jaws instinctively bite towards his attacker's arm, and his arms now reach out to pull Zefir into a bear hug. (After all, that's a main strategy of people who don't have a weapon and are in close range.)

[At the damaged Wall]

Clearly Zefir intend to break the ward and not use the dagger against it.

The bite hits, luckly Zefir wears some leather gloves over his hand. That way Conrack's bite isn't so painfull, but still hurts. With the bite, Zefir isn'r really able to escape and get's into the Bear hug, but Conrack may forgot something. The hand with the dagger is still free and the dagger is very sharp. So he tries to hit Conrack with it, hoping to get free of this hug this way.

[ThirdEmperor]

Kitchen

It's a real mess in here.

There's tomatoes liberally splattered across the wall, and a spilt carton milk Harley's likely to put her foot in when she steps through the door. Eggs have been lobbed at the walls, there's a truly revolting smell of blue cheese with anchovies, and something rather unfortunate's happened to the sink involving a blood pudding.

So, about what you'd expect from AMEN's kitchen.


From the slightly burnt wreckage of the fridge, staring up at Harley with choice morsels dangling from their mouths and a guilty expression on their faces, are a tubby white cat and a bright red imp in a miniature toga. A rain of crumbs from the ceiling might draw her attention towards the third unwanted visitor, a bat hanging from the (ruined) light fixture.

[5a Violista]

[Kitchen]

Harley steps onto the spilled milk and stops. She looks around the disaster area. First, to the cat and then to the imp.

Then, her eyes slowly follow up the trail of crumbs, and then she sees the bat.

After the initial shock ends, she shakes her head and steps further into the kitchen. "I'm so glad I don't have to clean this up," she says to herself.

Fully into the kitchen, she finally puts her scabbard back on her back. Gingerly making her way through the kitchen, Harley rummages through the remaining cupboards, looking for something left to eat.



[At the damaged wall]

Conrack's mouth releases when he's stabbed, but his military training allows him to keep on holding on with his hands in spite of the pain and the blood.

He bends one knee, then pushes all his weight forward, trying to throw them both onto the ground. Ha. Try to use a dagger while falling. He dares you.

[Zefir]

[At the damaged wall]

Zefir tries toe hold against Conrack, but the weight of Conrack and his armor os to much for him and soon they both fall backwards. When they hit, Zefir looses his knife. Now beeing under the wolf man without any weapons, Zefir got less Options. But he got his one hand free and will try to grab at Conrack's head with it. Should he manage to grab him, will soon notice his skin getting cold where his hand ist. Only moments will pass and it feels like it freeze. Just like the water in the air and under his skin decide to freeze.

[5a Violista]

[At the damaged wall]

Just as Zefir's chilling touch connects, Conrack swings a punch at Zefir's head. Just like in a UFC match. He would continue, however...

...

...the skin is freezing, and it hurts. It's even worse that it's on his head. People's heads are really sensitive, you know? So he yelps and tries to get up off Zefir. He's so disoriented because of this that he won't be able to get up should Zefir try to stop him, and even if he does get up...he'll be reeling around.

[Zefir]

[At the damaged wall]

Conrack isn't stoped from standing up. Well it's not like Zefir won't go on for the fight, but having been punched in the face and lay under your enemy is both bad, so standing up is ok. He will do the same after he got a few moments to stop the whole hall from spinning around.

"Cold enougth for you?" Zefir say while facing Conrack again. He is not going to force an attack, still the water controll is draining some energy. He can just hope this fight won't go to long.

[5a Violista]

[At the Damaged Wall]

Conrack only growls in response.

It's only now, now that there's a lull in the combat, that he hears the sounds from outside have died down. Does this mean it was a success, or not...?

He begins feeling his way back towards the wall he had broken in. He wasn't ready for this battle...and his weapons are lying on the ground. Now would be a great time to retreat.

[Zefir]

[At the Damaged Wall]

Zefir remains still, unless Conrack tries to grab his weapon. If he does, Zefir will use his elemental control to let some stones, dust kick the weapon futher away. Should he try to escape, Zefir won't stop him.

[5a Violista]

[At the Damaged Wall]

Actually, trying to get his weapons would be pretty stupid at the moment, in his eyes. It's not like one of them is Excalibur or something.

So, he goes back through the damaged wall and begins stumbling down the mountainside away from AMEN. He'll be back, in some distant future. Better prepared, probably.

[Lord Magtok]

Entrance

A black Audi A8 pulls up to AMEN, and a man with slick brown hair, dark sunglasses with smooth angles, and a gray business suit steps out. He nonchalantly proceeds towards AMEN, as if his entrance and actions were no stranger than any other means of entering the Association. The suitcase gripped tightly in his left hand shudders and quakes as he advances, as if something were living within.

[ThePhantom]

Entrance

Well, the front door of AMEN has finally been fixed, its thick steel dusted with smoke. A camera mounted on a turret turns to face the man in the suit.

"What do you want?"

Looks like it also has a speaker on it.

[Lord Magtok]

Entrance

"Information," answers the stranger simply, flicking open one of the two locks on the suitcase. The other is still keeping it sealed tight, however. I don't know if that's meant to be a threat if AMEN doesn't cooperate, or payment for doing so, but there's definitely quite a thing in that case.

[ThePhantom]

Entrance

"Well, standing orders is for information to be carefully released. Just telling stuff to random people at the door isn't htat. But then again, some information is free to tell. So what info are you wanting?"

Looks like someone set up some better security after the last time.

[Lord Magtok]

Entrance

"Everything available on HALO, AMEN, and your Lord Magtok," Suit Man answers.

[ThePhantom]

Entrance

The camera holds stills for a bit.

"Well, I can't tell you much. HALO is trying to get more active, something about a merge with WATCH. As for Magtok, he's very wealthy and has his own place. He's a cyborg, and has a habit of talking his way out of things. As AMEN, we have our standard open joining rules if you want to join up. Mind you, things are not so open right now."

Not all henchmen try to keep up on knowing what is going on.

[Lord Magtok]

Entrance

"I'll pass," Suit Guy answers, already moving back towards the car he came in on. It looks like he'll have to look elsewhere for answers; this one doesn't have what he needs.

[Zefir]

[At the Damaged Wall]

Actually, trying to get his weapons would be pretty stupid at the moment, in his eyes. It's not like one of them is Excalibur or something.

So, he goes back through the damaged wall and begins stumbling down the mountainside away from AMEN. He'll be back, in some distant future. Better prepared, probably.

At the Damaged Wall

Zefir will let him pass, as mentioned before. After he is gone Zefir sits down. The elemental controll in stress situation is still exhausting. After a few minutes he stands up and grabs the weapons left by the nemey and his own knife. Should the sword be magical Zefir can notice it.

[ThirdEmperor]

Things have been quiet here. Too quiet. Not a murder nor monstrous act to be found, not even a solitary scream echoing down the perilous slopes, nor a dramatic crack of thunder from the everpresent stain of storm clouds overhead. One could almost think AMEN's been forgotten about, between the war and all the other exciting diversions all around.

But not quite. Not yet.

And now a carriage all in bright red with pitch black horses comes gliding up the valcano, velvet shades drawn over every window. The man driving is a strange fellow, for he seems to be made of gingerbread with clothes drawn on in icing, lifeless gumdrop eyes never straying from the narrow mountain trails as he guide the coach along. Another gingerbread man sits beside him on the roof of the carriage, a rusty blunderbuss resting in his hands as he watches the rocks for any sign of movement.

As the coach rolls to a stop at AMEN's doorstop, driver swearing at his horses as he reigns them in, the guard steps down from the roof. Taking a bright red umbrella from beneath his arm and snapping it out, he pulls the carriage door open with a bow.

The man who steps out beneath the parasol's shade is the very image of vampire, deathly pale skin and deeply sunken red eyes. Only, here the skin is marzipan and his eyes are candied gems, the gleaming teeth amidst his smile spears of crystallized sugar. He wears jeweled robes so opulent that two imps must follow along to carry the trailing hems, and practically vanishes within the bulk of a tremendous coat of sheer white wolf fur, it's former owner's head resting on his shoulder. In his hand rests a scepter of purest gold, topped by a grinning sugar skull with a crown of little rubies.

Extending a gloved hand, the vampire knocks on AMEN's door.
"Is anyone still home in there?"

[5a Violista]

[AMEN's Front Door]

The henchman Crimson opens the door. He sees the carriage. Then, he immediately closes the door again. Through the cracks in the door, the vampire can hear the following conversation: "'ey, Aquamarine! Da girl scouts are back again! Wha' should we do wi' 'em?" he shouts out. "I 'unno, maybe Pink called for them?" "Pink's dead, ya idiot." "Oh. Ask them what they want, then."

The door opens again; this time, wider. "Sorry, bu' we're no' buying dis time, afta wha' 'appened." Crimson pauses, and sees the vampire. Or, rather, he finally notices the vampire. "'Ey, wai' a minute. You dun look like a girl scout. Wha' do ya wan'?" he asks. Wow. That's sure an opulent guy. 'E's even got hisself an umbrella and a scepter.

[ThirdEmperor]

Doorstep

The second time to the door inches open, the vampire plants his hand firmly against it. Shutting people out like that is just rude and cannot be abided. Oh deary no.
"I vas enquiring vether anyone was still here. And now, I vould like to know if your leader is." He inquires, voice laden with an air of long suffering patience. Really, the class of minion around here.

[5a Violista]

[Doorstep]

"Oh, Harley? Yeah, she's no' 'ere ye'," he responds. "She's still over a' da'..." Crimson suddenly shuts up as he's hit in the back of the head by something. "da...da...da...somewhere. Yeah. Dat's where she's a'."

Oh, look. There's a hand in the way of shutting the door. Sad. "You should prob'ly come in, dough, an' dere's prob'ly other people you can talk ta." In a strange psychological maneuver (he read about it in a book once), he opens the door more openly. "I'm sure dere's other people around here somewhere..." He looks around the room.

[Arkhosia]

Main Room

Ark's there, reading a book.

Entrance

Oh, look.
Caelynn's at the door.

Another Timeline @ Entrance

A big thump is heard!
It appears a girl in a waist-length tan jacket with a shield emblem on the back, white leggings and a shirt of the same color, with a harness wrapping around her thighs and chest.
Odd boxlike objects hang from her waists, and teo swords are scattered on the field behind.

[ThirdEmperor]

On the Doorstep

"Perhaps you misunderstand." The vampire's mouth sets in a thin line of disapproval, blades glinting at the edges. He raises his sceptre and the gingerbread men rush in, pushing their way into the main room with whip and blunderbuss at the ready. Their master follows at his own languid pace, feet hovering just off the ground as he floats over the doorstep, the imps holding his robes taking flight as well on their stunted wings.

"Is your leader here? Is he, perhaps, standing right here? Looking you in the eyes with a very mean look?" The vampire suggests, with a very mean look. And that blunderbuss' business end isn't looking too friendly either.

[5a Violista]

[On the Doorstep => Main Room]

The other henchman present, Aquamarine, sees the gingerbread men run in. Everybody knows you can't outrun a gingerbread man, but he tries it anyway, trying to reach the alarm. Man, they should really install one of these right at the door.


Crimson's eyes dart back and forth. "N-no," he responds nervously. That blunderbuss looks pretty intimidating. "Our l-leader's still no' righ' 'ere, b-because our leader's female, an' I dun see 'er." He does not get it. He does not get it at all.


[Another later Timeline @ Entrance]

The door gets answered.

[Arkhosia]

[On the Doorstep => Main Room]

The other henchman present, Aquamarine, sees the gingerbread men run in. Everybody knows you can't outrun a gingerbread man, but he tries it anyway, trying to reach the alarm. Man, they should really install one of these right at the door.


Crimson's eyes dart back and forth. "N-no," he responds nervously. That blunderbuss looks pretty intimidating. "Our l-leader's still no' righ' 'ere, b-because our leader's female, an' I dun see 'er." He does not get it. He does not get it at all.


[Another later Timeline @ Entrance]

The door gets answered.

Oh look.
The girl, with short brown hair and fair skin, appears to be unconscious.
What are the odds? :smalltongue:
Main Room

Mr. BBEG may be surprised as a Shotgun shell possibly hits him in the back of the head.
Followed by another
And another
And 6 more, for good measure.
Ark stands up from the couch, shotgun staff trained on Mr. BBEG and ready to dodge any attacks.

[ThirdEmperor]

Main Room

Ark is in for a surprise herself as the vampire reaches down, aiming to pluck Crimson off the ground and launch him into the path of her shots with a lazy flick of his wrist. I'd imagine Crimson might be a little alarmed about that himself as well. Surprises for all!

"And all I vanted was to do you people a favor." With a dramatic sigh the vampire shrugs his wolf stole into the attendant's waiting hands, allowing his imps to lift the robes from his shoulders as he unfastens them. Beneath is a white and gold-flecked jerkin, short waisted and collared, with ruffled gray britches besides. Clothes to fight in - and ones he won't miss so terribly much if they get shredded.
"Von't you please just give up?"


Meanwhile, the stagecoach uncoils his whip. With a good circle overhead and a sharp crack he brings it down, aiming to wrap the braided licorice around Aqua's leg and send the minion tumbling head-over-heels before he can reach the alarm.

[happyturtle]

Main Room

Moff portals into the scene, not in response to the alarm - which may or may not be ringing now - but the door knocking. It had been so quiet lately that he had to come and investigate.

Apparently the geometry has been changing again. Moff could have sworn there was a tunnel between the front door and the main room, and yet now the front door opens straight on the Main Room, as if they weren't civilised enough to have a foyer or a vestibule! Well, he supposes they aren't terribly civilised. This is AMEN after all. Yet still. The change bothers him. And the smell of all the candy makes his nose wrinkle. So much sugar and ginger. And is that a hint of liquorice? Surely that's liquorice instead of braided leather. It'd be a criminal violation of the theme otherwise, which Moff wouldn't put past this upstart.

Moff dials a setting on his Weird Gun and sprays a liquid at Mr Stagecoach at high pressure.

It's milk.

[5a Violista]

[Main Room]

The Crimson Henchman was, indeed, very surprised! Getting picked up and thrown into the path of rubber shotgun bullets is rarely pleasant. Hitting the ground is even less so. He groans on the ground from his bruises.

The Aquamarine Henchman is rudely tripped by the braided licorice. He hits the ground teeth first...loosing a couple in the process. He cries out in pain and wishes he had better Dental.

[Arkhosia]

[Main Room]

The Crimson Henchman was, indeed, very surprised! Getting picked up and thrown into the path of rubber shotgun bullets is rarely pleasant. Hitting the ground is even less so. He groans on the ground from his bruises.

The Aquamarine Henchman is rudely tripped by the braided licorice. He hits the ground teeth first...loosing a couple in the process. He cries out in pain and wishes he had better Dental.

Ark curses as she realizes she never changed the ammo type. Ah well.
She runs at Candyvamp, dodging the flung person, and swings her ShotgunStaff at him with tremendous force, draining energy from all those around if she can.

- - - Updated - - -

Door

There's still an unconscious girl here, btw.

[happyturtle]

Door

A pair of henchmen go to toss the unconscious girl into the valcano. This is AMEN, not a hospital!

[ThePhantom]

Door

A pair of henchmen go to toss the unconscious girl into the valcano. This is AMEN, not a hospital!

Or they would have, if Mr E haven't shown up on their way there.

"Rather than waste things, bring her to my office. Unless you would care to play one of my games instead of her."

[Arkhosia]

Girl's still unconscious
((editing post now FYI TE))

[happyturtle]

Mr E's Office

The henchmen do not want to play Mr E's game. :smalleek: To his office it is!

[ThePhantom]

Mr E's Office

Mr E's office currently looks like a bare room, with a desk in the middle, through clearly its far more than that. For example, with a flick of his fingers a tray holding some nasty instruments on it comes out of the wall.

"Put her on the desk, and leave."

Once the henchmen finish their task, Mr E tries to puts restraints on her, then if that works follows through with trying a healing potion on her.

[ThirdEmperor]

Main Room

The candypire doesn't have energy to drain, what with being an animated lump of marzipan that's somehow also undead. That's, like, double lifeless. Not that it slows him down any, adroitly flitting aside from Ark and lifting his sceptre to block. The skull's eyes flash with ruby light and Ark might find her ShotStaff is suddenly made of peppermint.

And seeing as peppermint isn't too durable, and she did swing it with 'tremendous force', that means she probably just shattered her weapon into tiny, tiny pieces.


The gingerbread man, meanwhile, gets blasted with milk! He's dashed against the wall, and the edges of him crumble off as his pastry flesh is soaked through. Some days it plain sucks to be made of sugar and cheap flour.

[Arkhosia]

Mr E's Office

Mr E's office currently looks like a bare room, with a desk in the middle, through clearly its far more than that. For example, with a flick of his fingers a tray holding some nasty instruments on it comes out of the wall.

"Put her on the desk, and leave."

Once the henchmen finish their task, Mr E tries to puts restraints on her, then if that works follows through with trying a healing potion on her.

The girl is secured.
He succeeds! The girl wakes up, looking around disorientedly and looking slightly afraid.
Where am I?

[ThePhantom]

Mr E's Office

"In a place that could be very unpleasant, or just a minor bump in your life. Of course that depends on how you answer my questions.
Starting with who are you, and where are you from?"

Mr E, purple hat as almost always covering his face, quietly goes to pick up one of those painful looking instruments and tilts it around in his hands.

[Arkhosia]

Mr E's Office

"In a place that could be very unpleasant, or just a minor bump in your life. Of course that depends on how you answer my questions.
Starting with who are you, and where are you from?"

Mr E, purple hat as almost always covering his face, quietly goes to pick up one of those painful looking instruments and tilts it around in his hands.

The girl watches Mr. E intently, slightly frightened.
My name is Sarah, and I hail from the city of Trost.
She replies slightly defiantly to Mr. E.

[ThePhantom]

Mr E Office

"I see. Then its likely that the word Nexus would mean little to you, correct? Also, what did you do when you at Trost?"

This girl might be more useful than he thought at first. He flicks his fingers again, and the walls, ceiling, and floor fade to a clear white, making it a bit unclear how large this room is, or where the door out of here is.

[Arkhosia]

Mr E Office

"I see. Then its likely that the word Nexus would mean little to you, correct? Also, what did you do when you at Trost?"

This girl might be more useful than he thought at first. He flicks his fingers again, and the walls, ceiling, and floor fade to a clear white, making it a bit unclear how large this room is, or where the door out of here is.

The girl shakes her head.
You are correct. I was a member of the military in Trost, sir.
She replies

[ThePhantom]

Mr E Office

"That explains the swords outside our door. How would you rate yourself as a soldier?"

Mr E goes over to a different wall, and has a tray with a number of metal objects and vials on it. He then brings the tray close to his desk.

[Arkhosia]

Mr E Office

"That explains the swords outside our door. How would you rate yourself as a soldier?"

Mr E goes over to a different wall, and has a tray with a number of metal objects and vials on it. He then brings the tray close to his desk.

Sarah thinks for a minute, so to speak.
hmm, out of a 10 maybe a6 or 7? I'm skilled with my maneuver gear, but I've only been in combat once.
Sarah replies.

[ThePhantom]

Mr E Office

"Maneuver gear? That wouldn't happen to be a device that uses a chain, would it?"

Mr E pauses, this could be troublesome if it is what he thinks it is.

[Arkhosia]

Mr E Office

"Maneuver gear? That wouldn't happen to be a device that uses a chain, would it?"

Mr E pauses, this could be troublesome if it is what he thinks it is.

Sarah shakes her head.
No. It uses a dual set of grappling hooks and wire.
She informs him, gesturing to the godlike objects on her if she can or if they're still there.
If in sight, she gestures to them there.
That's 3D Maneuver Gear.

[ThePhantom]

Mr E Office

Well, since the henchmen didn't take things off, she should still have it.

"So, I see. Was it Titans or people who you fought against?"

[Arkhosia]

Mr E Office

Well, since the henchmen didn't take things off, she should still have it.

"So, I see. Was it Titans or people who you fought against?"

Sarah smiles slightly.
Titans. Do the citizens of this land also know of them?
She inquires, curiosity in her voice.

[ThePhantom]

Mr E Office

"Only a few. There are barely any titans here, so most wouldn't know."

And now Mr E picks up a vial, within is something green, its not clear what it is. He takes off the lid and holds it over Sarah's face.

"And now I need you to drink this. And please don't struggle, I would prefer not to have to remove a limb."

[Arkhosia]

Mr E Office

"Only a few. There are barely any titans here, so most wouldn't know."

And now Mr E picks up a vial, within is something green, its not clear what it is. He takes off the lid and holds it over Sarah's face.

"And now I need you to drink this. And please don't struggle, I would prefer not to have to remove a limb."

Good. Yeah, i'd prefer not to lose one.
Sarah replies, relaxing and drinking the fluid when it is offer to drink
((is this that titan serum thing?))

[ThePhantom]

Mr E's Office

No, it isn't titan serum, that would result in Mr E getting eaten. That would be undesirable from his point of view.
No, what it does is that it makes the mind very open to suggestions, while also causing a slight growth of scales. Drugs that are unethical with dangerous side affects, are so useful for a spymaster who doesn't mind losing people from time to time.

"Now then, are you feeling calm? If so, please stick out your tongue."

[Arkhosia]

Mr E's Office

No, it isn't titan serum, that would result in Mr E getting eaten. That would be undesirable from his point of view.
No, what it does is that it makes the mind very open to suggestions, while also causing a slight growth of scales. Drugs that are unethical with dangerous side affects, are so useful for a spymaster who doesn't mind losing people from time to time.

"Now then, are you feeling calm? If so, please stick out your tongue."

Sarah sticks out her tongue, noticing the scales growing slightly under her clothing (where I can't say as I haven't decide where) with a slightly raised eyebrow at the sensation.

[ThePhantom]

Mr E Office

"Good, now its important for you to stay on the desk for a while. Doing so will be following the doctor's orders."

Mr E undoes the restraints on Sarah, afterwards he takes two vials, one blue and the other violet and mixes them together, seeing if the drug will keep her on the desk.

[Arkhosia]

Mr E Office

"Good, now its important for you to stay on the desk for a while. Doing so will be following the doctor's orders."

Mr E undoes the restraints on Sarah, afterwards he takes two vials, one blue and the other violet and mixes them together, seeing if the drug will keep her on the desk.

Sarah stays on the desk as ordered, watching him inquisitively

[ThePhantom]

Mr E's Office

Mr E walks back over to Sarah. Good, its working.

"Now, since we want you in good condition, you need to drink this."

Mr E holds out the vial holding the new liquid to Sarah.

[Arkhosia]

Mr E's Office

Mr E walks back over to Sarah. Good, its working.

"Now, since we want you in good condition, you need to drink this."

Mr E holds out the vial holding the new liquid to Sarah.

Sarah drinks the liquid as she is told to.

[ThePhantom]

Mr E Office

This drug will cause some lizard traits to come to Sarah, likely a tail and claws, while also strengthening her muscles. It also creates a likelihood of extreme loyalty. As Sarah deals with these changes, Mr E holds up a radio to his ear, then puts it back down when she has stabilized.

"There are new orders for you Sarah. You've been transferred to my diversion. Do you understand?"

[Arkhosia]

Mr E Office

This drug will cause some lizard traits to come to Sarah, likely a tail and claws, while also strengthening her muscles. It also creates a likelihood of extreme loyalty. As Sarah deals with these changes, Mr E holds up a radio to his ear, then puts it back down when she has stabilized.

"There are new orders for you Sarah. You've been transferred to my diversion. Do you understand?"

Sarah, looking quite surprised as a tail and claws form, nods.
Yes sir.