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Post by Amneiger on Jan 4, 2010 0:04:06 GMT -5
((Merpo's disaster zone))
There! He'd managed to move enough of the rubble to wiggle out from under it. He'd found the laptop earlier, but a beam of wood had fallen on it and crushed into into plastic splinters. Amneiger had left it where he found it and kept digging. In any case, he was now standing outside of what was left of Merpo's mansion.
...Wow. That was a mess.
He swept his eyes across the horizon and saw one or two large dark moving shapes somewhere in the distance. That might be where everyone had gone. First, though, he needed backup. A lot of backup. Overkill levels of backup, if possible.
He backpedaled towards the Spaceport, trying to keep his eyes focused on the direction he'd seen the shapes in. After several minutes, he was finally close enough to contact the Spaceport using the short-wave function of his communicator. He turned it on and repeated the message he'd tried to send earlier.
"This is Professor Amneiger. I need backup immediately. There's a big dragon attacking Commander Fraze and Captain Hunty of the Pirates! The big dragon is some sort of magic-user; it was in the form of a woman in big purple robes. I think she's being influenced by or receiving aid from the Underdeep. She flew into it, and it healed her. Strife has returned! He's with Commander Fraze and Captain Hunty right now! Also, stay off the satellite network; the hacker, the dragon, and Strife all appearing at the same time can't be a coincidence."
There was silence.
"Hello?"
"Professor Amneiger?" It was the Spaceport. "Could you repeat all that? There was something about a dragon and Strife and the satellite network."
Amneiger said it again, more slowly this time.
"...That's almost unbelievable, except that with the hacker and our last reports of the sudden Underdeep openings anything could be happening right now. What do you need?"
"Some sort of attack ship would be good right now. We could capture and transport Strife, evacuate Commander Fraze and Captain Hunty, and take on the dragon."
"One moment." There was some silence, and then crackling as the other person got back on the line. "You're in luck. We have an armed dropship with anti-personnel weaponry available; it was being used to train some technicians. They're putting it back together right now. Do you think the laser cannons and rockets would work on the dragon?"
"I have no idea, but it's worth a try."
"It's lifting off now. It'll home in on the signal from your communicator and pick you up, and you can direct it from there."
"Got it. I'll wait here."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 0:48:52 GMT -5
<<Mage Manor>>
Aha. Outskirts. Riiiight.
Thank Pyra Aly was good at hiding her expression. "Fine by me," she said. "I need to get out and stretch my legs."
[And set fire to a few villages, and maybe steal a few gems, and shoot a few townspeople...]
"You know, I'm really tempted to set you on fire right about now."
[Then it's a good thing that I'm just as fire-proof as you, isn't it?]
"Anyway...If you want to insist on just traveling in the day, fine. How long will it take to get there, and let me grab my stuff and some food."
[Glutton.]
"Again, Lika. Shut up." It really didn't help that the cat had decided to direct her speech only to Aly. Usually, she was fine with that--it made eavesdropping practically impossible--but at times like these, it just made her look insane.
Well...not that she wasn't. But still.
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Post by Jina on Jan 4, 2010 1:27:31 GMT -5
Mage Manor "Anyway...If you want to insist on just traveling in the day, fine. How long will it take to get there, and let me grab my stuff and some food."
"If you guys don't mind being carried, I can get us there much quicker. You know, big metal suit and all? How far is it, anyway?" Owen looked at Kiddo. "And how long will it take for you to get what you need, once we actually get there?"
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Moonlight
Frequent Visitor
-insert something witty here-
Posts: 153
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Post by Moonlight on Jan 4, 2010 5:25:55 GMT -5
~Still somewhere near Tabloid Town Hospital~
Rivanth smirked and glanced around. "Don't be so cold, Liyer. Even you can do such a simple task as that, can't you?"
Liyer took a hurried step forward and punched him hard, square in the face. "You...That's for killing me! First that witch, and now you...Wonder why I hate (most of) you mages?" He clenched his hands. "At least I'm human again. I HATED being a cat. Four whole years..." He muttered a curse under his breath and rubbed the new chains around his wrists; dull silver coins. "Dumb puppeteer." ""Hmph. You idiot," Rivanth stood shakily, taken aback. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be here. You're ALIVE because of that contract. You dare-"
His last sentence was interrupted by a swift kick to the back of his head. "Doesn't it defeat the purpose, killing me yourself? You're the greedy one." Liyer kicked him again, watching Rivanth fall to ground in shock before landing another blow. "You're weak, you know. Too bad that dumb contract stops me from killing you."
He knelt to the ground and poked Rivanth. "...Someone's not going to be happy when they wake up." Maybe that was a bit too much?
Nah. He deserved that.
A sound behind Liyer reminded him of the other person accompanying them. Juverna. She glanced at him, than Rivanth, too stunned to do much. He sighed and got up, "I must look look like a monster, huh? Can't be helped now, I suppose. Come on," he grabbed her wrist and turned to walk away.
She stayed put in place, looking at Rivanth's unconscious body in unease.
"Look. I haven't been with him long enough to know much about him, but I'm sure you won't want to bear his wrath when he comes to. C'mon." he pulled harder. "We can find some information for ourselves, too."
Juverna reluctantly followed him away from Rivanth, limping slightly on her bad foot. This was uncomfortable...
"Hm, this kinda looks promising." Liyer halted in front of a run down bookstore. "The older the shop, the older the info inside is. At least I think. Oh, well." Forgetting the useless logic he pushed the ancient door open and looked back to see if Juverna was following.
Little bells tinkled as the door swung shut. The place smelled of dust and old paper. Whether the scent was great or not it depends upon the person, really. Behind the desk a shopkeeper glanced up from his romance novel to look over the strange looking pair of customers. Thinking nothing of them, he returned his attention to the book. A small black cat lounged on the counter beside him, fixing its gaze on Liyer.
He stopped in front of an aisle of books. "Now the boring part. Which book should we pick first?"
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Post by Bengal tiger on Jan 4, 2010 15:48:50 GMT -5
Familiar scent in the air prompted the tiger to glance at the people. It was the same scent that warned him about the intimidation of the people in front of him. He wagged his tail in curiosity, for he had to figure out how he can present himself in the best way possible to avoid conflict.
The tiger went on towards the bipedal dragon and bowed his head in meekness. He would try to pull off a sign that he would not attack anyone around him. The tiger took one more glance, particularly at the idle PFA. When would she recognize him?
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Post by Rider on Jan 4, 2010 22:43:55 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]I have to ask, why beavers? Do beavers even live in the hills? Whatever, we're in Tabloid Town now.[/glow]
"Well, that was mostly Rider. I should probably lay some smackdown on her for this, but she already died today."
Had Rider been active, she would have resented that. Breaking and entering wasn't a real crime in her book. Her book of "real crimes" was also very short.
For example, stealing an anti-Underdeep dreamcatcher was also not on her list of "real crimes." However, it was also not on her list of "good ideas." She made a habit of not stealing merchandise that felt like it was daring her to steal it.
She quietly bought a poultice to ease the near-constant reminder of her lost battles with gravity. The Silver Ring, eh? She had heard of it. Granted, she had heard of just about any place in the city that served alcohol. She and Schzain had probably robbed the patrons of every tavern in town.
Rider left the shop, staring wearily at the town that Cele and the Blarf had torn up like Godzilla tearing up Tokyo. Her city. Strife stood in the middle of the wreckage, looking up at the stars. It was a delicate moment of - if not peace, then truce - and she felt she would break it with the slightest touch.
"Where is the dragon? Which way did she go?"
[glow=red,2,300]Brassport[/glow]
The glass beast below Adeline froze. Adeline waited for the fog of panic to clear her mind, then descended fromt he tree as carefully as she could.
The mage who had done this lay in a dazed heap. Her hands were burned. Adeline wondered at this for a moment. Her own hands had been burned so many times before she learned to control her power.
But no, this was a witch, entirely foreign to her. Not at all like herself. And it didn't help that she had tried to kill her.
She drew her dagger-handle and poured the water out of it and onto the witch's wrists. She shaped the water into half-circles, cuffing her to the ground and froze them, releasing the heat into the road.
"I will release you if you explain what you have done here. And I'll ask you one more time. How do we get home?"
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Post by Kiddo on Jan 4, 2010 23:44:53 GMT -5
Mage Manor
"Outskirts," Kiddo repeated firmly, "Or I go alone and leave you here. But take us to the base of the mountains. I remember the paths up... and I go them alone. I'll return in the morning, after the sun sets and rises again. Need to hunt. Sleep. Find the records."
She paused. The Manor wasn't to be trusted.
"And I keep the records in the Dojo. What I read is what you know. Those are my terms or else I leave you to fight the Underdeep in ignorance. The ninjas have survived on secrecy, not some cheap tricks woven into the fabric of stone and wood. So. Daylight is wasting, so if we go, we go now."
Sure, a number of non-ninjas had been to the courtyard of the Dojo. But the less that ever entered, the better. Besides, for a secret society that lived in a structure made practically of paper, it would be ridiculous to assume everything important was in one place, not when a stray match could destroy it all. The mages would just have to remain at the base and hopefully the trails she remembered would still be there.
And maybe a rabbit or two to catch and eat on the way, as well.
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Post by Scar on Jan 5, 2010 2:19:40 GMT -5
- Brassport Assembly Hall -
Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer, stood triumphantly over the evil, wand-lady of Guaca -- evil, wand-lady and struck a pose, politely making sure not to gloat with a foot on the fallen foe's back. She was a lady after all.
"No, mother, I have no wish to be a florist," mumbled his fallen adversary.
He tugged sharply at his whip so it uncurled itself from the chandelier to fall neatly by his side before leaning over his adversary. "Then you shouldn't play with thorns!"
Gallant pose? Check. Witty repartee? Check. Fawning Maiden?
He spun to regard Lady Sarinon, hoping to flash his winning smile at her ... only to find her crying in the arms of the angel.
This .... this was unexpected.
He stormed over to the duo, side-stepping the iced over glass golems to get to her, the wand-lady all but forgotten.
"What's the meaning of this?" he demanded, standing over the two as they sat on the floor, the epitome of the Touching-and-Teary-Reunion. "Who are you and what's going on here?"
His eyes narrowed. "And you'd better not be with wand-lady over there," he added to Sarn in particular. Angel or not no one was going to outclass Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer, and poach his mark.
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Post by Strife on Jan 5, 2010 7:52:59 GMT -5
((Tabloid Town - Outside Zagora's Shop))
Strife had stood up and stepped out of the crater where the dragon had attempted to crush him, and was now continuing to gaze up at the stars. For a moment, he felt a relaxing silence penetrate his mind, until he heard a voice.
"Where is the dragon? Which way did she go?"
Strife snapped out of his moment of serenity and lowered his head. He saw a pirate mook that he recognized from Merpo's lab... Rider, was the name?
A few seconds of silence passed, as he wasn't quite sure if she was addressing him, but her cautious gaze in his direction told him that she probably was.
To avoiding startling her too much with his voice, Strife slowly shrugged his shoulders and shook his head to tell her that he had no idea. He then turned to the side, extended his right hand so that the palm was facing the ground, and started to casually manipulate the earth in front of him. A small pillar of dirt spouted upwards towards his hand like a water fountain.
He did the same thing with his left hand. It looked like he was trying to sculpt something from the ground up - partly out of boredom over waiting for the Captain, partly because he wondered if he could make a feasible weapon out of stone. Unlike his usual aggressive maneuvers, though, he manipulated the rocks with the calmness and concentration of an artist at work. Whether or not that meant bad news was anyone's guess.
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Post by PFA on Jan 5, 2010 10:47:27 GMT -5
((Ninja Dojo))
PFA is a lazy poster shut up watched as just shortly after she spoke, a bengal tiger came out of the woods. She tensed a bit, backing up and reaching toward her kunai pouch defensively. After a moment, she realized that the tiger wasn't going to attack her, and relaxed. It was also about this time she realized that Ikkin had already left. Well, there went that.
She instead decided to turn her attention to the tiger. "Um... hello. Nice kitty... good kitty?"
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she thought she should have recognized the tiger. But the rest of her mind told her this notion was probably crazy.
---
((Phantom Merc, approaching Tabloid Town Hospital))
It wasn't long before the hospital was in sight. Jernath sighed inwardly with relief. They could get Scar some good help in no time.
"Beaver Hills, huh?" Jernath said in response to Draco, who said there looked like there was something going on in that direction. "Could be worth checking out later. But for now, we need to get to the hospital..."
As they got closer to the hospital, something about it started to feel very odd. Something about it--Jernath couldn't quite put his finger on what--didn't seem to be giving off the proper air of a hospital. Like there was something more dark and ominous going on here. But he quickly dismissed the feeling; maybe the bad events of the day were catching up to him.
"HELLO?" Jernath called out the window once he decided they were close enough to the hospital for someone to hear him. "We need a doctor out here! And probably a stretcher!"
Part of him wondered if anyone could hear him. The reasonable part of his brain said of course they could--they were at a hospital, and there were always doctors and nurses at a hospital, right? ...Right?
((Lemme know if I missed anything important about the goings on at the hospital <3))
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Post by Celestial on Jan 5, 2010 15:20:51 GMT -5
((The Silver Ring and beyond))
"My good man, I am very much stone sober. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to talk to this young lady in private. Out we go, if you don't mind. What message would that be?"
Rane reacted a lot better than most people in a tavern react upon hearing they have a message from their wife. Furthemore, he was happy to talk with her alone and outside. This was simply too good to be true and Celestial had to be cautious. There was no telling what trick he could spring, no matter how harmless he looked. It was generally the harmless, goofy ones that got away from evil to save the world just in time.
They stepped outside, away from most of the tavern's eyes, although it would be hard to hide this crime. Excellent. The dragon mage turned to the pirate. She created a vacuum around them, making sure no sound could escape to his comrades back in the tavern.
"This is so nobody can hear us. So-" she began before the Underdeep once again slid into her mind, taking the grip on the puppet's strings. Her eyes in an instant filled with the same old static.
"You really should be able to detect liars better," she hissed and formed shackles out of air currents around Rane's hands, binding them tightly together. Celestial then carried him into the air, stopping him at the exact height of her dragon form and shapeshifted. As soon as she felt him on her back, she took off into the sky. Hopefully Rane was not insane enough to jump off to his death.
She needed to heal and think of her next plan. Even with the Underdeep controlling her, having her throat bleeding from the inside was not doing anybody good. But she also needed to plot her next move.
They were approaching the hosptial and the Underdeep inside her began to call out to the entrance within. She didn't pay attention to anything but the Underdeep's entrance somewhere in the building.
The dragon landed on the roof and turned back into a human and once again clamped Rane into the air current handcuffs. The Underdeep seemed to reach out and began guiding her body down towards the entrance and taking the pirate with her.
((Tell me if I got anything wrong because I'm really not sure what is going on at the hospital))
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Post by Bengal Tiger on Jan 5, 2010 15:46:11 GMT -5
((Near Ninja Dojo))
PFA finally recognized the tiger, and that made him relieved. He approached her and rubbed his head against her right hand, as if immediately turning himself in as her newfound pet. Almost immediately afterwards, he started sniffing her hand.
Scent of fresh bath. She must have not wandered far off before.
Releasing himself from PFA's hand, the tiger looked at the direction of the one who took off with a strange-looking bird. He sprinted for a second, then turned his head back to the others. He groaned to them, as if telling them something, before running off to follow the girl.
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Post by Nasuella on Jan 5, 2010 17:09:14 GMT -5
Near the Ninja Dojo except soon we won't be cause we'll be in Mage Manor where there are mages and a sort-of ex-ninja and one of the mages is also a pirate and hey this could be interesting get me some popcorn. Look ma, a run-on sentence! Not as impressive as some of the others, but hey.
This was certainly not one of the tigers that had come from the world Kovaran had grown up in. Aside from being gargantuan, they were often foul-tempered and aggressive. This much smaller one had first bowed its head submissively, then walked over to PFA and rubbed its head against her hand, as though it was a large pet cat.
The big lizard was clearly more confused than anything.
This quickly changed, though. He looked back in the direction where Ikkin had gone with Sev. Even if there had been a momentary disruption, Kovaran had made a promise. And he was going to have to uphold that somehow. Because if he could not be true to his word...
The tiger wouldn't have needed to grunt at the komodo dragon. With surprising speed he took off, following the kitsune to Mage Manor. If they were to follow as well, the others would be able to walk themselves; he knew.
--
Another TOTALLY MYSTERIOUS AND WHATNOT--hey it has something to do with Kwoiffei--dimension.
"You will be silent, messenger. I know that Kwoiffei si'Larnax is dead."
"But m'lord! I-I don't think anyone can see--"
"They will. And the Underdeep will fall. There will be no failure."
((Yeah, they just jinxed their chances right there.)
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Post by Omni on Jan 5, 2010 23:05:18 GMT -5
Tabloid Town Hospital
As Ethan approached the hospital, the ship's sensors picked up something strange. Near the strange reading were several lifeforms. The hospital itself looked like it had seen better days, and he thought that the place with the reading was more interesting as a pressing matter.
Unfortunately, the particular shuttle he was using didn't have a cloaking feature. So he had to find a landing site farther away than he would have liked. While he could still make his way back to the lifeforms, it would take longer.
He parked in an alley and made his way to the site of the readings. The whole time, Siber seemed to be on-edge. Not that Ethan could blame him, seeing as he got a weird vibe from the town as well. They approached more slowly and quietly when they grew close. Siber grew even more tense, beginning to show his teeth. Ethan peaked around the corner, trying to see what was going on. There definitely were figures there, but they were too far away to tell what they were doing.
One of them started to approach the two. Ethan wasn't sure what this meant for them. He decided to try and find a hiding place and watch. "Siber," he whispered, "act cute, but be careful."
Siber sat down and lowered his head, sadly, ready to play the part of a lost dog as well as he could.
Meanwhile, Omni tried to sort out what had happened since her last post.
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Post by Draco on Jan 6, 2010 0:25:44 GMT -5
<<Tabloid Town Place Of Healing, aka The Hospital!>>
Taking his eyes off the road Gil stares at the hospital as they slowly approach it. The ninja copilot's eyes grow wide as he grabs the steering, and swerves the machine to the side quickly. A small bumping feeling could be felt. "What the heck was that?" The ninja points to the road on the side of them. Gil turns his gaze to the road and sees a person laying in the road.
Draco slides a door open to go check it out. He hops out and over to the man laying on the ground. "He's alive, kind of. It looks like you might have run him over..."
Gil sticks his head out of the window. "Uhh... Maybe he was all ready like that?"
"No, you definetly ran him over, I felt it."
"...That's why I stick to the air. You can't run people over in the air."
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