[Nexus] AMEN XLVI: Divided We Fall

[happyturtle]

Main Room

Zefir will only see the inferno for a moment. As soon as it's going, Moff C spreads the portal to seal off the entrance and keep the smoke and flames from spreading into the base.

Of course, that means it's fairly dark in here, being underground and without electricity and all. Luckily, there's some light from the portal.

Creepy yellow light.

Moff B is already building furniture barricades, and he's happy to have Zefir's help. "Hey, got some bombs we can set up in the corridor, ready to go off if that portal gets destroyed?"

[Earl of Purple]

Airspace

I did say most standard airships. Of course KR and DC did science to this one to improve it with guns on the balloon. The biplane will swoop down on the zeppelin, firing its machine guns at the balloon and trying to rupture as many of the hydrogen cells as it can. When at its lowest point, the pilot throws a Molotov cocktail out of the cockpit, hoping to ignite any leaking gasses and blow the thing up. The blazing bottle of petrol might miss, however, or explode in midair, or just not work. Especially if it's helium or magic/science gas that keeps the vessel in the air.

[Zefir]

Main Room

"Sadly, i only got mechanical once. They explode while someone is close. The EMP attack damaged the remore bombs and I wasn't able to repaitr them."

Zefir grabs one of his shoulderpads alias spidermines. It seems still active but the light looms like it's only on 50% energy.

[Darkcomet]

[Outside AMEN]

DC's response to the drowned and the fire is simple.

It is called 'fly upwards to not drown in weird auras or burn, and also send the telekinetic storm of shrapnel flying out at the drowned'. Because that is what he is doing.

Not much more to say about that, really, other than maintaining the EM-pointy-at-AMEN-y.

[happyturtle]

Main Room

Main Room

"Sadly, i only got mechanical once. They explode while someone is close. The EMP attack damaged the remore bombs and I wasn't able to repaitr them."

Zefir grabs one of his shoulderpads alias spidermines. It seems still active but the light looms like it's only on 50% energy.

"Exploding when someone is near is perfect! Do it!" Moff B urges. Meanwhile, he begins spraying the walls and ceiling with his own Weird Gun, though nothing appears to be happening. No oil or fire this time.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Meeting Room

Greg uses his psychokinesis to hold the hand back while he reloads, but he doesn't see the mouth. He loses his foot at the ankle and then falls to his knee. Apparently feeling no pain from that crippling injury, he takes aim at Ivaz and fires a short burst at her. His face is blank, any emotions lost beneath zenlike peace.

Hall outside of the Meeting Room

Ivaz watches Greg fall with some amusement. Sure, cutting off feet is fun, but it's better when they scream.

Then Greg aims at her.

Oh crap!

Ivaz spins on the spot to her left, her right hand extended out. The shadow on the wall behind her leaves said wall and curves out in front of her, forming a barrier between herself and Greg. The bullets go into the shadow and come back out from a shadow in the meeting room. Ivaz doesn't really care where they go, so she didn't aim them.

Even with you holding back, you still helped protect me. Kinda funny, huh?

Shut. Up.

[Devixer]

Outside AMEN

Boris is outside of the flamethrower's line of fire, assuming that it's based on gasses and not liquids. Still he quickly lays flat to avoid being set on fire, still aiming his rifle at the portal. Unfortunately, there isn't much that he can do about that portal.

[Morty]

[Outside AMEN]

Wenomir's eyes go wide when the gun spouts flame. His instinctive reaction is to dodge but he figures out in time that it won't save him, so he mutters the command word for his belt and vanishes, teleporting backwards in the nick of time, just as the flames would set him on fire. He appears a little behind Boris... and immediately falls to his knees, vomiting. The oil's stench is nauseating in itself, and the disorientation caused by teleporting only exacerbated the problem. He doesn't look like he'll be better soon.

[Earl of Purple]

Front Room

Dam'Bul arrives here. He's wearing a dark suit and black sunglasses. His hair is matte black, and he's holding a rather practical-looking sabre with a sharkskin hilt.

[UncleWolf]

Outside AMEN

When the gun clicks over to flame and starts spewing out fiery death, Cutter and his perception of the world freezes, icy fear stabbing right into his heart. Fire.

Fire.

Most living things had a reasonable fear of such. An extremely reasonable fear that thrives on an instinctual level for the most part. But for Cutter, such a fear is greatly increased.

Fire, one of the very few things that can kill him all too easily.

Every nerve in his body tells him to flee, to scamper into the shadows and hide from the potential death. Even his affinity with Nurgle seems to be shying away from the thought of being so close to the purifying flame. But even so, Cutter still had a job to do. He wasn't completely mindless, completely enslaved to the will of his new God or to the Horror that claimed his body so many years ago. At his core, he was one thing, and one thing only.

Doctor David Nathaniel, one who has seen far too many of his friends die needlessly.

As he's behind Wenomir, the Halt-Horror is in perfect position to try and grab the swordfighter and throw him out of the way of the flames, but two blindingly-fast steps in, the man teleports out, leaving Cutter in direct path of the fire.

Unable to move away in time, his body reacts by instinct. He kneels down, putting his right side towards the fire to shield his weaker side, and turns his head away to try to protect his face. Before the heat reaches him though, one of his innumerable blessings begins to try and defend him. The human shell on Cutter begins to blister rapidly and a buzzing fills the air as hundreds of fat flies begin to erupt from within.

By the time the flame gets within a few feet, a thick cloud has put itself in harm's way. Even so, the flames are held at bay for just a heartbeat before they lick around and touch Cutter.

His human shell is burned away on his right side instantly, flaring up in green flames as his true flesh beneath begins to blister, weep, and blacken. Despite attempts to protect his head, his hair is incinerated and the right side is charred until parts of his skull are showing beneath the flesh.

Finally, the pain too much to bear, Cutter lets out an ear-splitting inhuman screech of pure agony. His voice is such that it sounds like a dozen different people were trying to scream through him at once as he's forced to wait out the attack.

[The Alexandrian]

[Main Room]

Very interesting...

WATCH isn't breaching AMEN's perimeter as speedily as Roxanne had estimated thanks to Moff's terrific defensive strategy (and judging by the beautiful, satisfying agonized screaming that brings a jolly smile to Roxanne's face, they won't be doing so just yet). Taking full advantage of the extra time Moff has provided, Roxanne cloaks, prepping herself to ambush WATCH as tanking without her heavy armor would not be optimal for her survival of the conflict, though the mechanical whir of her still spinning chain gun might divulge her position (grabbing cover behind a wall) to the enemy.

[Reinholdt]

The henchmen seem to have stopped fighting each other and are now recovering and regrouping, heading towards the sound of fighting. Since they aren't trying to kill each other along the way, these must not be affected by mind control. There are twenty remaining and can be used by whichever AMENite chooses to use them.

So long as that EMG continues to exist, AMEN's systems and the mechano-panthers will continue to be down.

[FireFox]

Meeting Room

Hall outside of the Meeting Room

Ivaz watches Greg fall with some amusement. Sure, cutting off feet is fun, but it's better when they scream.

Then Greg aims at her.

Oh crap!

Ivaz spins on the spot to her left, her right hand extended out. The shadow on the wall behind her leaves said wall and curves out in front of her, forming a barrier between herself and Greg. The bullets go into the shadow and come back out from a shadow in the meeting room. Ivaz doesn't really care where they go, so she didn't aim them.

Even with you holding back, you still helped protect me. Kinda funny, huh?

Shut. Up.

Meeting Room

Once the sleeper agent sees that he's having absolutely no effect, he decides there's no point sticking around long enough to let himself be eaten. So he simply... disappears.

Main Room

Greg appears in the back of the room and proceeds to launch a psychokinetic blow, each with the force of a sledgehammer, at everyone here, targeting Roxanne by the sound of her chain gun. While most of his attention is focused on that, he also points his assault rifle at Zefir and fires a long burst.

[D_Lord]

The base stops shaking, if people look around the black threads that were everywhere in the base are gone.


Outside

Well the people in the airship are likely to see this, one portal opens up fairly high above DC. Jumping out of it, quietly holding a sword downward is an Armored figure.

[Darkcomet]

[Outside]

DC's response to this is as simple as it is unlikely for this fight to be as simple as this:

He launches all that shrapnel he's been hurling around at this armored guy that just showed up. Though, to his credit, he seems to be shifting strategy: Keeping the EM gun held up telekinetically and pointed at the AMEN base, and holding that dagger of his in hand.

Seems he expects this to be more complicated than it looks. Perhaps rightfully.

[D_Lord]

Outside

Too bad for DC, this is Dark Lord's avatar as it has pulled itself out of the base and stuffed itself into armor. As such it's a lot stronger than something as that size should be, plowing through the shrapnel trying to impale DC.

DARKNESS

And also casting the old spell of magical darkness.

[Darkcomet]

[Outside]

DC quickly flies backwards to avoid getting impaled, only for the eldritch avatar to (presumably?) plunge the area around them into magical darkness.

"Wow, does this take me back. AMEN-related eldritch entities just love swordfights." His nonchalance about his inability to see is quickly explained, as a glowing translucent red blade suddenly extends from the dagger.

The light from the psy-blade should provide some illumination, though it's probably still pretty dim in there at best. I'm kinda imagining it as DC being able to only just see in there (so he's at something of a disadvantage, though not totally blinded), but everyone else seeing it as this weird dark field in the air.

"I think I nearly broke old Frosthand's sword last time. Let's see how you compare." He makes a quick slashing attack at the Dark Lord's avatar, speed aided by the fact that it only has the weight of a dagger. The psy-blade is similar to the main weapon in essentially-supernatural sharpness, though whatever the avatar is using is likely able to withstand it just fine. Eldritch things tend to be like that.

Outside the field of darkness, the shrapnel DC was using falls to the ground, no longer held aloft. The gun is still there, though I'm not sure if it's in the field or not.

[happyturtle]

Main Room

The main room has changed quite a bit from the last time Greg saw it. For one thing, it's rather dark, with only some gloomy yellow light that isn't in any way natural or electrical. Targeting anyone in the room by sight will be difficult. Some of the light comes from the portal in the corridor towards the front door, but most of it comes from the ceiling and walls of the main room. Or rather, from where they used to be. Right now, the "room" appears to disappear off into the mist in every direction except for the perfectly normal floor.

Dangling in pairs from the ceiling are dozens, perhaps scores, of feet. Anyone standing upright who is taller than 5'7" (1.7 metres) might have toes in their hair or even in their face. The bodies from the knees up seem to be obscured by the mist, but the feet are there, shifting in the air like windchimes. The mist along what used to be the walls has dark shadows moving through it, and unnatural growling and howling noises can be heard. Some of the shadows begin making their way in Greg's direction.

Moff B gets hit with the blow, but his natural resilience to mental effects makes it feel more like a sudden headache than a sledgehammer. He clutches his head and drops behind the furniture barricade. Moff C cannot be seen. But his presence might be inferred from the high pressure spray of powerful acid that is fired at Greg out of the mist in the wall nearest him. The spray is especially aimed at the gun and Greg's hands, trying to either damage the gun or to hurt Greg enough to get him to drop it.

[Earl of Purple]

Main Room

Dam'Bul is also mind-hammered, though his resistance to mental attacks (which aren't mind control) also serves him well. Though his host is now suffering from a nosebleed, Dam'Bul hasn't actually noticed that. He turns around to spot the attacker, removing his sunglasses to allow him to see properly. The faint glow from his blood-red irises might help give Greg a clue where he is; whilst he's not actively hiding, he is wearing a black suit in a dark room so should also be hard to spot.

Ordinarily in a situation like this, he'd jump to the ceiling and stay there, reorientating his 'down' so it was everyone else's 'up', but the ceiling looks a bit too dangerous at the moment.

[UncleWolf]

Outside AMEN

When the flames die off, Cutter's revealed to have been absolutely charred on his right side. It seems the heat exposed his inner Horror self, as the flesh that's burned is clearly inhuman, even if it has been heavily damaged. What appears human is his left half, but even there the skin is bright red from the burns.

With the way his right leg and both right arms (from his Horror form), appear to be fused from the heat, it appears he's dead.

Until his remaining eye opens and he gives a deep throaty growl full of anger.

The air is filled with a horrible crackling sound as the Half-Horror forces himself to stand. Cracks appear in the blackened flesh as he pushes his movements too far, and liquids begin to flow from the wounds. When he's finally done standing, his lower-right arm is still fused to his side, and he appears to have trouble breathing.

With his good hand, he reaches up to his face, feeling the eyeless Horror side before feeling the human one. His mouth is a jagged tear on the former half, filled with hundreds of needle like teeth, so it will end up proving quite difficult for the man to speak in the future.

His good hand runs down his burned chest and side and he gives another deep growl before pulling out a scalpel. Unless stopped, he digs it into his own burned flesh to cut apart the hardened shell, allowing himself to breathe easier.

It's a miracle he's even alive, let alone able to stand, but whether or not he can fight now is an entirely different question.

[Morty]

[Outside AMEN]

Wenomir, at this point, is slowly managing to stand upright again. Mostly because he doesn't have anything else to throw up anymore. He's still shaky on his legs and covered in the disgusting oil, though. He leans heavily on his sword.

"I'm going to *cough* feed this Moff *gag* his own intestines," he manages to say.

[Zefir]

Main Room

Zefir just wanted to answer Moff as Greg appears. The mind attack hits him and he goes on his knees holding his head. Even with his efence up it causes pain. Lucky for him he is behind the barricades so the bullets miss him.

[The Alexandrian]

[Main Room]

Roxanne is buffeted with a psychokinetic sledgehammer! Stupid cover system doesn't protect her against nonphysical attacks that can bypass walls! Grr!

Luckily, Roxanne is still equipped with light powered armor. The completely un-telegraphed strike does cause her to suffer light injuries, a minor contusion that she'll indubitably feel in the morning but nothing major like broken/fractured ribs. Greg did hammer a shallow dent into Roxanne's armor, though, which disrupts and partially disables her cloaking system, which makes it entirely useless. The attack also knocks her off of her feet, though her grip on her gattling gun doesn't slacken. At least she doesn't have probably supernaturally stinky feet hanging in her face when she lands squarely upon her rear. She attempts to fire a spray of bullets at Greg, ignoring the disturbing feet before her HUD is configured to filter them out by focusing solely upon ending Greg's life even as her gattling gun probably jams after a second or two of maybe actual chain gun fire has possibly elapsed. Twas no more than a prototype, after all. >.<

[D_Lord]

[Outside]

DC quickly flies backwards to avoid getting impaled, only for the eldritch avatar to (presumably?) plunge the area around them into magical darkness.

"Wow, does this take me back. AMEN-related eldritch entities just love swordfights." His nonchalance about his inability to see is quickly explained, as a glowing translucent red blade suddenly extends from the dagger.

The light from the psy-blade should provide some illumination, though it's probably still pretty dim in there at best. I'm kinda imagining it as DC being able to only just see in there (so he's at something of a disadvantage, though not totally blinded), but everyone else seeing it as this weird dark field in the air.

"I think I nearly broke old Frosthand's sword last time. Let's see how you compare." He makes a quick slashing attack at the Dark Lord's avatar, speed aided by the fact that it only has the weight of a dagger. The psy-blade is similar to the main weapon in essentially-supernatural sharpness, though whatever the avatar is using is likely able to withstand it just fine. Eldritch things tend to be like that.

Outside the field of darkness, the shrapnel DC was using falls to the ground, no longer held aloft. The gun is still there, though I'm not sure if it's in the field or not.

Outside

Hin I believe I'm a better swordfighter than him.

Clang blocked with sword
Slice Another sword incoming
Chop An another sword how many does this thing have
Swich an this one is an ax.

Looks like D can see through it's own darkness spell and still has more than normal amount of limbs. And you could say is going grievous on DC. (more like this one)

[Devixer]

Outside AMEN

Boris gets back up from the ground. His uniform is singed from the fire, but he's otherwise mostly fine. "Focus on getting in there first," he says, looking for any sort of way he can take the portal down.

[happyturtle]

Outside AMEN

At the moment, the portal can't be seen because of the oil fire in front of it.

[UncleWolf]

Outside AMEN

Cutter stumbles for a moment as he tries to walk, but after a bit he settles on a limping drag of his right leg. A couple steps later, he's leaning on his sword, watching the fire. Whether he's unable to speak, or simply choosing not to, is up in the air.

[Morty]

[Outside AMEN]

"Right, I don't have any ideas, though." Wenomir then finally registers Cutter's state. "Goddamn. We need to get him back to the ship."

[Darkcomet]

[Outside-Airborne]

The nice thing about flying is that it gives you a lot of ways to maneuver that you wouldn't really have normally, and makes many things significantly easier to avoid.

So as DC sees the sheer number of bladed implements coming his way, he flies back, even then being forced to block one with the psy-blade. With that amount of weaponry going around, there's basically no way he can go on the attack in melee without getting blended.

So instead, what he does is...run, apparently, flying off and taking his weapons with him. He'll fly out of the field of darkness and seems to be heading towards...the top of the valcano with its rainbow lava?

Wonder what he's up to.

[D_Lord]

[Outside-Airborne]

Telaport

Pop and here comes Mr. Blender, and it looks like the darkness spell is centered on itself so that's back too.