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Post by Fj0rd on Feb 8, 2007 18:30:26 GMT -5
Fj0rd succumbed to her instincts, teleporting away to the other side of the fox hole, behind Wanderer.
"This is a job for a mod," she said under her breath, adjusting her hold on the naginata and swiping towards Wanderer's body with the blade. There wasn't too much room to move in here, either. Darn foxes, having tiny holes. At least it was a Wanderer-sized hole, though. She would've never even gotten into a real fox hole.
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Post by Rider on Feb 8, 2007 18:39:56 GMT -5
Wanderer whirled around, tails whipping against Fj0rd's face and hands. He faced her again, hissing and spitting. Three more fireballs, in succession.
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Post by Fj0rd on Feb 8, 2007 18:59:00 GMT -5
Fj0rd dodged aside. One of the fireballs skimmed her sleeve anyway, and the smell of singed cloth rose into the air. Without looking away from Wanderer, Fj0rd blew at her sleeve until she was sure it wouldn't catch on fire.
"Why are you doing this?"
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Post by Rider on Feb 8, 2007 19:12:05 GMT -5
Wandy didn't answer. His eyes slid in and out of focus as he lunged at Fj0rd again.
it was at that moment that Rider stepped out of her convenient plot hole and yelled. "Try to get him cornered, Fj0rd!"
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Post by Fj0rd on Feb 8, 2007 19:21:59 GMT -5
Fj0rd was confused at why Rider didn't just CORNER HIM HER DANG SELF (cough), but she obeyed anyway, teleporting over Wanderer again so that she was between him and the exit. She then advanced towards him, holding her naginata out horizontally to make more of a barrier than just herself.
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Post by Ikkin on Feb 8, 2007 20:08:12 GMT -5
It was at that very moment, as Wanderer backed away from Fj0rd's naginata, that the cavalry arrived. From the doorway, Crystal threw several kunai, startling the mod. He aimed a fire blast back at her, but it went wild as he was forced to dodge a strike from Fj0rd, which he had barely overlooked.
Just as soon as he had countered this attack, however, Rider came in from a third side, hedging him in even further. He barely managed to dodge a horizontal swipe from her cutlass, and nearly backed into Fj0rd's naginata as he did so.
Ikkin, despite her lack of sanity, was compelled by whatever kind of autopilot she was in to attack, blasting fire at the cornered mod with a swipe of her cutlass; Sev flew in overhead, equally lacking in true control, and swiped at him with his talons. Stal joined in the fight with a vengeance, his madness compelling him to strike out against the one who brought him to such a sad state.
Finally, Wanderer had no place to go. He was surrounded on all sides by Fj0rd and the mods, most of whom were set upon bringing down the murderer, once and for all. Sev kept looking uncomfortably at Ikkin; something about her made him feel wrong, even in the maddened state he was in.
Fj0rd, however, was still curious about what had caused Wanderer to snap. "Why?" she asked, one last time, even though she didn't really expect him to reply.
Wanderer didn't say anything. He looked from face to face, trying to determine which one was the most open to an attack, as the other mods tried to reason him into giving up. He continued in silence, obviously not paying attention to their words. It was an uneasy standstill.
Crystal gripped her kunai tighter. Rider took a step closer and leveled her sword at Wanderer's throat. Stal's two sai shook from the effort to control his rage. Ikkin looked forward, still oblivious. Sev shifted his wings uneasily, trying to look away from Ikkin. Fj0rd wondered whether the mods would ever get on with it.
Finally, Wanderer made his choice. He summoned all of Kyubi's power into himself, and launched it directly at Sev. The phoenix burst into flame, dead.
Wanderer hadn't taken into account the fact that Fj0rd might react in some way other than shock. With a quick slash of her naginata, the ninja slew the forum's resident murderer, then collapsed to the ground, hardly believing what had just happened.
When the others finally had the chance to look around, they realized just how bad the situation was. Sev, who usually revived immediately, remained a pile of ashes on the ground. Ikkin lay on the floor, seemingly dead as well. Of all the mods who had stayed behind in the forum, only Rider and Crystal remained alive and sane; Stal was still mad from his grief over Spot and Mindela.
"It can't end like this..." Rider said. "We were supposed to have a happy ending... somehow everything would turn out right... but now..."
Rider's hopelessness was interrupted as a spark from Sev's ashes drew everyone's attention. Within moments, the phoenix had revived itself once more, wings spread wide in his full glory once more.
"Ugh, I'll never try to sever my bond with Ikkin again," he said, clearly back in his right mind.
At that moment, Ikkin stirred, and sat up, rubbing her head. "Oww, my head... what happened?"
"That's what I'd like to know, too..." Fj0rd said.
"That can wait until after," Crystal pointed out. "I think Sev should revive everyone first."
Surprisingly, the phoenix didn't question the order, even before Ikkin nodded her head in agreement. So, with a burst of phoenix fire that lit up the entire forum, all of the dead mods were revived, and the forum was back to normal once again. And, as Stal was embraced by his still-living wife and daughter, his mind began to calm down once more.
"What about him?" Fj0rd asked, glaring at Wanderer, who had been revived with the others. "How do we know he won't do it again?"
"It wasn't really his fault," Sev said. "Now that I'm back to normal, I remember that there was some kind of illness that I caught from him, and it seemed to slowly strip me of all control that I had. Wanderer probably had some inner thoughts of revenge that ended up out of hand once the disease took him, just as I had some thoughts of disobeying Ikkin that ended up causing me to try to break the bond. It's gone now, though; there's no way it could survive a phoenix fire resurrection."
"I'm really sorry, everyone," Wanderer said. "I couldn't help myself..."
"That's all well and good," Rider said. "But, you're going to have to do more of your normal share of the cleaning to make up for it."
"...that's actually less punishment than I expected," Wanderer said.
Crystal smirked. "Well, then, we'll just have to return you to your former position as the modly torture toy to make up for it."
***
The rest of the forumers returned a few days later to find the NTWF sparkling clean.
"Well, I must say, I'm impressed. There appears to have been no major disasters while I was away, and the forum is as clean as I've ever seen it."
The mods and the forumers who had arrived earlier smiled at each other knowingly. There was no point in letting this debacle get out to the forum at large.
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