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Post by Strife on Dec 28, 2009 17:59:56 GMT -5
((The Poor Mansion! D: ))
As far as he could tell, Strife's stone barrier bought Huntress enough time to get out of the way of the demon girl's attacks. A good thing too, because at this point, the barrier had completely toppled over the spot she had stood in a few seconds ago.
The Blarf standing at the doorway grasped the pirate captain with one of its tentacles and pulled her to safety. Fraze ran in her direction and then guarded the entrance to the laboratory, his flechette gun in hand, ready to pump the demon with clouds of nails should she come chasing after them... which was very likely.
Meanwhile, Strife stayed in the laboratory. He ran over to his toppled bike, picked it up, and again took a defensive stance, ready to use the bike as a shield in case the Commander decided to shoot his weapon into the lab's entryway. Despite his urge to once again slice at the demon from behind, he restrained himself, hoping he would enjoy the satisfaction of seeing her body get pummeled by a rain of needles.
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Post by Celestial on Dec 28, 2009 18:21:10 GMT -5
((Hopefully soon not to be Merpo's place which is good because the repair bill must be huge by now))
The pirate captain was blocked by a wall that suddenly appeared right in front of Celestial. It curved around in a dome, giving her some rookm to land and cling on. She had to get through to the woman and kill her while she was stunned. Rock was such a difficult thing to work with, especially given her abilities.
You're a creative messenger, you'll know what to do.
Yes, she did.
Pure white flames grew out of her hands and bit into the wall, trying to melt it away. They spread in a perfect circle which was big enough for her to go through because there was no need to waste energy with flashy melting of the entire wall. Besides, the pirate captain had to be killed by the dragon mage's bare hands.
The captain however decided to come to her, not content with being a damsel in distress forever. She leapt with her sword at Celestial. A scratch was all she managed to inflict before the dragon mage leapt out of the way.
"Had a crewmember once, possessed. Dragon, her name was. Know what I - what I did? Stabbed her. In the heart. She got better. Maybe you will too." the pirate regaled her with a stirring tale. Celestial laughed maniacally, a flame forming in her hand for effect. She had been practicing, even before the Underdeep took control.
"Even if you kill me, I'll keep hunting you. Some things in this world cannot be fixed by poking them with a sword," she said very calmly but her face fixed in a psychotic smile. This was going to be fun.
No it won't be. I'm not going to kill her.
I'm afraid you have no choice in this matter.
However, at that moment the thing that was blocking the door reached out and grabbed the captain. The other pirate was there too as well as the animal and the other Spacefleet leader she was also going to kill. They were running away on that giant beast.
This was almost too good to be true. Celestial had to fight the urge not to laugh. Plus, the dragon mage did not mind giving them the idea that they could win. After all, the best way to incite despair was to give a person hope and then snatch it away.
She just stood there and faced the nasty-looking gun that was pointed at her, keeping one eye on the pet beastie the pirates had and another on the man who had raised the stone wall against her; Celestial had no intentions of being caught off guard by him. Besides, she wanted to give these people a head start before she began chasing them as a dragon. The dragon mage wanted the beast to run.
The fight would be an even one. They weren't interesting if they weren't even.
((The Author's reply is coming soon as it is a textwall and I always feel guilty about having long posts. I hope that's alright. ^^;; ))
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Post by Celestial on Dec 28, 2009 20:18:51 GMT -5
((Apologies for the double post. ^^;; *pokes reason above* Kwoi if you would count this as a single post I would appreciate it.))
((Spacefleet Network))
By the way, if you want to bet on the outcome of Celestial v. Blarf, post your bet through the mailslot in the Fourth Wall. I'll get it.
Alright, cue the EPIC opening music and the flashy sequence which promises so much more action than this actually delivers. You're welcome.
MiniCat turned into a fridge, indicating that first of all he read TV Tropes and second that he thought that her proposition made no sense. But hold on, shouldn't he realise that after this was all over? The Author always thought that Fridge Logic was when you spot a logic flaw after the event has passed. Come to think of it, that realisation was Fridge Logic in its own right. Oh well, she shouldn't look into it too much. MST3K Mantra and all that.
She had been thinking about why she decided to do this job in the first place, aside from being a foil to Celestial's dramatic posts of evil. In reality, The Author was bored down on the surface. But up here, it was like coming from a barren desert into a rainforest; there was just so much. It was so easy to just get lost in it forever, wandering the network and observing. Human curiousity was really a blessing and a curse. So, this was what she would do. With Celestial deciding to abandon the plotline that involved her in favour of massive destruction, was else was there for a medium aware friendly AI to do other than just wander the net passively?
First she had to get out and modify her code so she wouldn't flag up as a virus. This was where Chekhov's Gunman HUL, initially introduced as a joke, came in. That is if he would let her without there being plotholes big enough for GodzillaCat to go through without any problem.
"HUL, listen. They're about to shut down this part the network and obliterate anything which isn't part of the system" she said to the computer, trying not to sound panicked. She wasn't by the way. She knew how to get out of a roleplay that was going south for her.
"Please tell me something I do not know. And this is good, you shall be wiped out, virus formerly known as 1052" he said calmly, although there was a trace of annoyance. The guy was beginning to gain emotions, definitely.
"First of all, I'm not a virus since I lack the ability to reproduce*. Secondly, I'm not malware," The Author said and then paused to consider what she just said, "Well, I am malware. The point is I'm not usually keen on causing damage like this,"
Not helping at all.
"You have caused damage and that is reason enough for you to die," HUL replied.
"Die is not something I'm going to do as I am not alive. I'll just cease to exist," she replied to him. "But HUL, I'm don't want to do that. I want to explore this network, not hunted by virus scanners but as a peaceful and quiet observer,”
”I’m not going to believe you,” HUL told her, stoic as ever. The Author’s face began showing the first signs of rage. Her code buzzed like an angry hornet.
”Of course you won’t. That’s the trouble with most AIs; once they sink their teeth into a conclusion they don’t let go of it. Frankly, I hate that attitude. I see no reason for you to trust me but look at the facts; I am not attacking you despite the fact that your shield is off and I have the perfect opportunity to. Besides, since when did malware try to reason with you?”
”When its existence is threatened,” HUL spoke but The Author could hear uncertainty in his voice.
”That is true but I cannot cease to exist; I’m a player character. The writer of this post cannot let me die unless she wants to and I know she does not. Therefore, I have to survive somehow,” she said to him and came closer. The Author put her hands either side of HUL’s eye and looked right into it, finding the contrast of red and green wonderfully dramatic.
”Despite being near-human, I am still an AI, HUL. I follow instructions that are written into my code. So, if you want a failsafe, you can implant an instruction in my code that if I ever do anything on the scale I have done here now, It’ll do something bad. And don’t worry about me trying to pry it out. If I have not under-estimated your intelligence, you’ll know that a surgeon does not do open-heart surgery on themselves,” she said with a smile and prayed that this was a plausible enough promise for HUL to agree to shelter her and at the same time not be completely out of character.
”Fine, I shall give you a chance. I’ll write the program when you’re sharing my hard drive,” he said to her, seeming to roll his eyes. The Author grinned.
”Thanks,” she said and for a moment thought that it was good for a damsel to give her knight a kiss. But she wasn’t a damsel, HUL wasn’t a knight and unlike most damsels, she knew about the horror that was ‘shippers and thus refrained.
”Put your hand on my eye and I’ll begin writing you up. And funny, I expected you to make some dirty innuendo about ‘combining’” HUL said with a slight trace of scepticism. The Author giggled and put her hand on his eye, feeling the tingle of a save. She wanted to explain to HUL what ‘shippers were and how much they were baiting them but decided she better keep quiet and not mention anything in case he decided to stop saving her.
* Before anybody mentions the shadow clones, that isn't exactly reproduction but more like a really bad and unstable temporary copy. They are to me what a child's clay model is to classical marble sculpture.
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Moonlight
Frequent Visitor
-insert something witty here-
Posts: 153
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Post by Moonlight on Dec 28, 2009 21:55:50 GMT -5
~Phantome Merc; heading to Tabloid town~
Wilhelm rested his head against the back of the seat and glanced around the new vehicle. The "Phantome Merc" was pretty cool, actually. At least, the fact that it'd been built from two crashed machines in under twenty minutes was neat. Yeah, he didn't really understand much about machinery....
But now they were back on course to Tabloid town, give or take a few extra members. Wilhelm listened to the offers from Gil and Draco. A bag The contents of a bag of treasure in exchange for the merc's help? "That's what we're for, isn't it?" he muttered in amusement to himself. Dunno what use dragon blood was for, though. Hm, maybe it's worth a lot of money or something.
And if all they had to do was give the phantome merc to Gil to have their base rebuilt(It'd never be quite the same, though), that would be a piece of cake. We don't really need this machine that bad, do we?
Oh, well. He closed his eyes and mulled everybody else's words over. Just this morning they were going out to town, thinking nothing of this seemingly "average" day.
He fell asleep hearing a faint noise, but nothing that seemed too unusual...
~Indecisive in Tabloid Town~
"This isn't worth my time," Rivanth muttered in annoyance as another explosion rocked the ground near the hospital. He turned around to get a look of the rest of the town, retrieving two cards from his coat pocket. "I guess I'll have to figure out what nonsense is going on around here. Something hasn't been feeling right since I got back, and three heads are better than one," he said, stating the obvious.
He murmured a silent string of words to Juverna and Liyer's cards, returning them to their pocket as their owners appeared out of...well, thin air to be cliche. "Time to be useful, you two."
Juverna stepped onto the ground beside him and rubbed at her ankle. Even though the wound had sealed up, the scar still kinda hurt.
The other of the two stood behind Rivanth, tapping his foot and wearing a subtle scowl. He was taller than Rivanth now, with white hair and dark brown eyes. "Oh, great, seeing you so soon. Now what is it?"
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Post by Amneiger on Dec 28, 2009 23:23:55 GMT -5
Amneiger had just finished getting back on his feet when he looked up and directly at the flashbangs.
He spent the next several seconds lying on the ground holding still so that he wouldn't accidentally roll under someone's foot or something. There seemed to be a lot of vibrations in the floor.
His sight and hearing came back in time to see that everybody else was retreating - to lure the attacker away from the Underdeep, it seemed. Well, he could help with that. If she was incapacitated in some way while everybody else wasn't, the blarf could just wrap a tentacle around her and drag her away.
Amneiger pulled out his dazzler, picked up a pencil from a nearby set of diagrams and moved about until he was facing towards only the attacker. Then he leveled the dazzler and threw the pencil at her to get her to face him.
"Hey, over here!"
He fired the dazzler at her eyes. If she'd actually turned to face him, she should have gotten an eyeful of light bright enough to blind her for at least ten seconds, which should be long enough for somebody to grab or attack her.
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Post by Jina on Dec 29, 2009 4:36:02 GMT -5
Merpoland Get on the Blarf and get away. That seemed to be the general idea. And, in the face of whatever that thing was, it was a general idea Jina quite liked.
She climbed up on the Blarf. "And, once again, we're being attacked, and I have no idea what's going on. How fun."
Tabloid Town Hospital It was... weird. Corenu had explained it like this. When he tried to revive someone, their soul, or... something, anway, tried to take on the shape it once had. If it couldn't find it's own material to work with, it would steal whatever else there was around, living or dead. Although nothing that had never been alive. Now, this can pose quite a problem, because if somebody is missing things, and you're in the wrong place, you might end up being the thing the reviving body steals from. So, they'd collected together piles of wood to place around Patri's body.
Patri was now standing, in patches of wood and flesh. Not great to look at, but functioning fine for battling purposes. Better than before, even, due to the sheer creepiness.
She grinnned. "So, are we ready to do this properly now?"
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Post by Strife on Dec 29, 2009 6:55:03 GMT -5
((Spacefleet Network))
"Let's see... dark green leads to the bio chambers... cyan to the oxygen reserves..."
The unnamed subcommander muttered the function of each wire to himself, until finally, he discovered the wires belonging to the satellite network.
"Haggoth, I have it! Hand me your knife." He stuck his hand out of the compartment and motioned for it. Haggoth placed the thick blade in his hand. In no time at all, there was a sparking noise coming from inside, and one of the wires flickered and ceased to emit light.
"There we go," sad the subcommander as he wiggled out of the compartment. "Now when we deactivate the satellites, they should stay that way. Pull the plug, Haggoth."
"My pleasure."
Haggoth turned around and grabbed one of the levers on the wall with his thick, meaty hand. He gave it the biggest yank he could muster, and the light above it changed colors from white to black.
"Satellites are deactivated," he said. "Go tell our men to start the recovery process and re-upload the security suite. I'll try and see if we can find an alternate way to contact the surface."
Haggoth swiftly left the networking room and marched down a hallway towards the central areas of HQ. Ideas swam around in his head.
Since satellites were down, radio communication with the surface wouldn't be possible, even on classified channels. However, he might be able to at least restore communication with Commander Fraze... through other means. Telepathic means. He remembered subcommander Cyclops being able to pull of communication with others through the neural pathways of his brain. Perhaps he should have a talk with him about how that works.
First, though, he had to find the little slime bag. Cyclops was likely still resting in the botanist laboratory. He had a thing for photosynthesis, it seemed.
Haggoth turned left at the next junction, heading for the science wing.
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Post by Huntress on Dec 29, 2009 14:11:06 GMT -5
((Merpo's place and thereabouts))
The blarf pulled the tentacle through the doorway and lifted it in front of one of his eyes to stare - rather morosely, as much as his face showed expressions - at the coati clinging to the tentacle. But blarfskin is thick and rubbery and something the size of an average dog wouldn't harm it much even if it tried really hard, so the kraken let the issue pass and lumbered backwards a little, lifting the tentacle above his back and then letting Hunty go. There was a time when this would've meant a very nasty death on metal spikes, but the blarf had since grown so big that the spikes on his back were each a couple feet long and rather sparse. The captain leaned her forehead against one of them and took a deep breath.
Fraze showed up on the blarfback at that point. "You okay?"
Hunty turned her head slightly to stare at him blankly with one eye.
"Oh, yes," she said flatly. "I mean, I was only tossed against a table and then got those same ribs squished with a tentacle. Happens all the time. Hardly something to bat an eye at. And I seem to be slightly deafer and blinder than usual, can't imagine how that could've happened."
She smiled all of a sudden. "But hey, I survived, you survived, everyone else seems to be ticking as well. S'what matters. Let's move out." The blarf backed rather carefully into the hallway.
"Even if you kill me, I'll keep hunting you. Some things in this world cannot be fixed by poking them with a sword," Celestial called out to her. Hunty tilted her head to look at her from behind the spike.
"I'll be waiting," she said with dark glee. "Everyone, move out! Back to the ship."
"Back to the ship, then?" Bloody Mary asked as the blarf started lumbering down the dark hallway, all tentacles held tightly above and against his body to avoid crashing the walls, forming a kind of protective dome over his passengers.
"Yeah," Hunty said and keeled over softly. The Sue-sword went out with a sad 'fwwzt'.
Bloody Mary craned his neck. "...Hunty?"
"M'fine," the captain mumbled into the blarf's thick black fur. "Just kinda... tired. Yeah, back to the ship. Back to the sea. We know where the Underdeep entrances are out at sea, we can avoid them. If she wants to attack us there, she'll be up against plenty of ranged weapons. If she wants to attack the ship itself... well, may she rest in peace."
"And, once again, we're being attacked, and I have no idea what's going on. How fun."
Hunty seemed to notice Jina just now. She lifted her head a little, then gave up and remained staring at the ceiling rolling past. The blarf's six paws made for a very smooth, wavy, oddly relaxing pace. Adrenaline levels were dropping. The fact that it was well past midnight and sailors get up early was shyly knocking on the proverbial door, kindly asking to be paid some attention to.
"We're surviving," she said. "As always. And we need to find Rane."
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Post by Celestial on Dec 29, 2009 18:46:32 GMT -5
((The ruins belonging to Merpo))
While she was waiting for them to leave, somebody threw a pencil at her, hitting her nicely on her wing. This was rather annoying.
"Hey, over here!" somebody called out behind her. Celestial knew immediately that something was up. She had no allies here so this was not anything uselful. You don't normally try to attract the attention of the one you're fighting unless you're trying to lure them into some kind of trap. Therefore, she should not look.
It was just as well. Something her her back and exploded into a bright light which would have blinded her.
And driven me out.
As soon as the light faded, she turned to face her attacker, her hands claw-like in front of her.
"You know, shouting what you did is just another way of saying 'Hey look, a distraction!'" the dragon mage stated to the one who attacked her and swept her arm across, leaving behind a trail of fire which moved towards the 'Fleeter. She didn't stick around to find out his fate. By now, the Blarf was getting away.
Celestial turned into a dragon, unfortunately destroying most of the house in the process* as a fifty foot long dragon does not normally fit in a house. She flew straight up out of the ruins and looked at her prey below. They were heading for the sea and the ship.
She had to cut them off beforehand. If they reached the White Weewoo, it was all over. The memories of it tearing up Castle Kestrel in the second Guild War were still fresh. Even the Underdeep could realise that fighting it was not wise.
You give me too little credit, I do. But if it comes to that, I will make you fight it. After all, you'll keep fighting for me even if your muscles are torn from your bones.
She flew higher, her wings sweeping through the air. Celestial looked down at them, noting that she was directly above them. It was crucial that she attacked before they got to the ship.
The dragon dove, bearing down on top of them. She unleashed what can only be described as a roar except this one had no sound. The shockwave would preceed her, hitting them with enough force to cause quite a good deal of internal injuries if they were not protected when it hit. Whoever wasn't damanged, Celestial would deal with when she landed.
Stretching out her forelegs, she prepared to impact the Blarf.
*I'm going to get sued for this by Merpo aren't I?
((Spacefleet Network))
For dramatic convenience, as soon as the last scrap of her code was saved into HUL's memory, the power to the satellite network was cut off. It seemed that she had caused quite a bit of damage, enough for Celestial to have some fun.
It wouldn't hold forever but hey, she'd done what she needed to do and now she could have some fun and go back to being a normal Playful Hacker, pulling harmless pranks. And best of all, the code that was written into her by HUL would change her digital signature and make sure she was not picked up as malware. Perfect.
Ok, enough with all the talking that would have taken a lot longer than she had anyway. Talking was a free action. As soon as the power was cut, The Author blacked out. Now to see if HUL kept his word.
Of course he did. She woke up up a sparely furnished room with very little in terms of furniture. Everything was also plain white. In her suit, she felt like a modern art piece depicting a white cat in a snow storm.
"So, you kept your word. Thanks," The Author looked at the eye with a grin.
"I wrote a code into your program which would activate if the security suite was after you again. This won't happen unless you flag yourself up as malware by doing something malicious," he replied from nowhere, uninterested in her thanks. She shrugged.
"Nice place you have," she said with a smile. "By the way, you mentioned that you do not go away from your position and thus do not take human form. Does moving between save space and your position count as 'being stationary'?"
"Please leave," he told her. The Author shrugged, taking that as a yes because answers like that only came when a nerve was struck. But still, she went out his place and left him to think about it. It was not exactly the most spectacular of Heel Face Turns that he had pulled but it was a start. Foreshadowing worked!
And where does one go from here? The net is vast and infitire.
Not right out of the plot, that's for sure. The Author still had a part to play in this. If she could gain a shell in the physical world, she wouldn't be written out of the plot due to lack of things happening.
Now if only Spacefleet had something into which she could upload herself and go down to the surface on. If that was true, it would be amazing. But for now, she'd just look around and see what she could get tangled up in.
The Author sat down and waited for the next posts.
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Post by Strife on Dec 29, 2009 20:35:26 GMT -5
((Merpo's Place - Not to be confused with Melro's Place))
No sooner had Huntress and the gang fled the scene, than the demon girl transformed into a much larger, more repitilian form that could only be described as a dragon. As the transformation took place, the beasts' massive size made it impossible to fit inside the mansion, and so, the entire place began to crumble and collapse.
Strife quickly grabbed his motor bike and teleport-dashed out of the laboratory before it drowned in a sea a wood, stone, drywall, and assorted pieces of furniture. Once the dust had partially settled, he could see the humongous flying creature soar upwards into the sky, preparing for an attack.
Whatever the dragon was planning, Strife figured it would benefit him greatly to build a shield around his body. So, he used his psionic energy and began to lift broken segments of stone from the ruins of the mansion. He pulled them close to his body, forming an orbiting sphere around him that would help him absorb damage from the upcoming attack.
Surely enough, the dragon vomitted a shockwave of energy that flew downwards towards the group. The edge of the shockwave crashed into Strife's shield of stones, causing the whole thing to burst and sending stones flying in all directions. The force that the stones couldn't absorb was instead absorbed by Strife's armor, and he was relatively unharmed.
Noticing that stones were now flying towards the blarf, he quickly reached out his hand and ordered them to stop. The stones halted just before hitting the creature and fell straight downwards, landing on the ground with a clatter.
Now things were getting interesting, he thought. Finally, he could test himself against a worthy force, just to see if he had improved since the last war.
Under normal circumstances, Strife might have felt like pulling a giant section of the ground out form underneath him and riding it into the sky like battlefield-sized surfboard, but this wasn't the time for that. Especially since the dragon was now diving towards his allies.
So, with his bike in his right hand, he used his jet boots to rocket into the air, straight towards the dragon. As he flew closer to the point of impact, he turned on his motorcycle, squeezed the accelerator, and prepared to chainsaw it into the creature's skin.
"Drink rubber!" he screamed as he swung the bike forward. He aimed for the neck, but if he missed, he'd at least hit something on the dragon, judging by his position and the angle of his swing.
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Post by Omni on Dec 30, 2009 1:51:00 GMT -5
Somewhere in the Great Dark Beyond *brick'd*
"The conditions are optimal, sir."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes. They're unusual, but they'll work for our means."
"Let me see... Hmm... Yes, this is good. But lets wait and watch a little longer. We need to begin at the right moment."
"Yes, sir."
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Still at the Spaceport
Siber whined quietly, gently prodding Ethan, who had somehow collapsed on the floor after his friends had left. Ethan stirred, his eyes fluttering open. "Siber?"
"Are you okay, boy?"
Ethan blinked and looked above himself. A small crowd had gathered, and a couple people were using portable medical scanners. Surprised, and a bit annoyed, he sat up quickly.
"Careful, sir!"
"I'm fine!" Ethan objected, pushing away the man next to him. He didn't like having this crowd stare at him like that, poking him, prodding him, surrounding him... He stood up, beginning to push his way through the crowd.
"Sir, we need to examin-."
"I said I'm fine! I'm okay! Trust me on this!"
He wasn't sure why he collapsed. He didn't have much memory of it, whether natural or digital. His record said that there had been some abnormal stats, and then a state similar to sleeping. But now his readings were all normal and there didn't seem to be any after affects, so he assumed he was fine.
At any rate, he wanted to get away from that crowd.
"Come on, Siber. Let's go."
He walked back into the shuttle, with Siber in pursuit, and closed the door behind them. He got back into the pilot's seat, starting up the systems.
Now he just needed a place to go... The hospital. Amnei said that the hospital was under attack. If he wasn't too late, he could assist with fighting the attackers off. He brought up navigation and... Odd. The satellites were down. But he still had a local map in the memory and could make his way around town based on that. He located both the spaceport and the hospital, and took off.
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Mage Manor
Omni watched as Loop Hunter sealed the sword in the wall with a tiny flame. Ah, the wonders of magic, creating immense heat from a candle-worthy flame without bothering the caster.
"I don't think the Underdeep has any magical capabilities, but then again, I don't know a lot about it, so it is possible. Omni could probably tell you if it does."
Omni took this as her cue to speak up. "I'm not aware of the Underdeep having any teleportation skills. However, it did manage to find its way to our basement. Then again, the basement had 'Deep-like qualities anyway, and I think there was a disturbance. I dunno. It's being weird in general."
"However, it does sound to me that some sort of spell was cast to your city to make it appear here, by someone or something, which could explain the earthquake that we felt earlier when your city landed from wherever it came from. I'm sorry if I wasn't that much of a help, Owen."[/quote]
"Wait," Omni interjected. "How do we even know that's what that quake was?"
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Post by Amneiger on Dec 30, 2009 2:17:41 GMT -5
Amneiger had enough time to hear what the stranger was saying and think oops before he noticed the wave of fire moving towards him. He stumbled backwards and around a table as it reached him. He pulled his arms over his face and fell backwards as it passed over him.
There were a few long seconds of what felt like an oven being rolled over him, and then slightly less heat as the wave of fire passed over him and dissipated against the far wall.
He realized that the reason there was slightly less heat instead of being colder was that his clothes were on fire. He was just about to try to put his clothes out when the stranger turned into a dragon and the house collapsed around him.
There was a great deal of dust and noise and confusion, and when things finally settled down, he was lying in a small space with thin layer of water; probably a burst water pipe. At least he wasn't on fire anymore. He could see what looked like stars through what he was guessing was gaps in the rubble around him. If he could see the sky, then he wasn't in danger of suffocating to death.
On the other hand, there was no way he was getting out of here without help. His communicator was lying nearby; he picked it up and try to contact the Spacefleet science labs.
"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 is with Commander Fraze and Captain Hunty! I'm buried in some rubble, but I think I'll be fine here for a while. Send help now!"
There was no response.
"Hello?"
Nothing.
"Is that hacker still there? Did they get into the satellite network? This is a horrible time to get hacked, right when the Underdeep is sending agents to eat us all!"
A...horrible...
Wait. Wait. Combined arms tactics. The timing on this might not be an accident. I shouldn't try to access the communications networks right now, the hacker might be listening in on my messages. I need to get to the Spaceport and try to get help there.
Amneiger began to feel around in the dark, trying to find a spot where he might be able to move some of the rubble without causing it all to collapse on his head.
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Post by Jina on Dec 30, 2009 6:05:00 GMT -5
The Blarf "We're surviving, as always. And we need to find Rane."
Rane. Right. Shouldn't we kill the mage first?
Behind them, Jina saw the ruins of Merpo's house collapse. Then, something... No, that's just the mix of chloroform and spiked drinks talking.
Jina looked up.
...
Correction. Rane. Right. Shouldn't we kill the dragon first?
"Um. Gu- OW. Up there?"
The shockwave had hit. Right in the spleen, too... Well this is painful.
The dragon was diving towards them. Not good, when the captain was falling asleep. "Blarf, can you throw me up please?"
...
"And smoo- OWWW!"
A tentacle wrapped around her and threw her straight up. She was heading straight for the dragon... and apparently, so was someone else. Oh, good. A two pronged attack. At least when my insides decide to burst all over the dragon I'll have someone to take me to see Sev.
"Drink rubber!"
...I think. Who is that guy, anyway?
Mage Manor "Wait. How do we even know that's what that quake was?"
"I've only felt one thing today that could have been an earthquake, and that was when we got brought over here, which means this earthquake was either us coming over, or it was before that happened."
Owen stared at the sword in the wall. Where did that thing come from anyway? This Underdeep thing sounded...
"Isn't there anybody who knows something about the Underdeep? I mean, somebody must have done some sort of scientific- or, in fact, even magical research on it, right? Where would you find that kind of information in this world?"
Tabloid Town Hospital "So how do you plan on doing it this time?" asked Sandra.
"I say we just stop trying to hide ourselves. It leaves us with one or two disadvantages in the long run, but in comparison to what we can achieve, they're not worth worrying about."
Sandra nodded. "Suits me. Patri, I hope you feel up to holding up an illusion." She lied down on the floor, and the other three stood on her back. Then, she started changing into a Roc.
She was nearly done when Halin spoke. "Wait! Someone's coming, they nearly saw us. Go back." Sandra started turning back into a human.
"That might be the help. Sandra, you were the one that went into the hospital, right?"
Sandra nodded.
"Okay then, I'd better go out there," said Halin. "You guys find a place to hide." Then, Halin went to the side of the hospital, and looked around the corner to see who had arrived.
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Post by Huntress on Dec 30, 2009 21:35:34 GMT -5
((I'm going to assume a street heading down the posh neighborhood of Tabloid Town, leading away from Merpo's house or whatever's still standing of it. *votes that the general neighborhood be called Beaver Hills*))
The blarf could move at the speed of a train when he put his mind to it. At this point, however, he wasn't so much escaping than skulking. He moved in quick, jerky semi-leaps, keeping as close to the ground as he could - not that it meant much with his size - keeping his ears perked and his head constantly moving around. He was snarling again. The low rumble would probably have been soothing if it hadn't come with the gait of a small boat on a very stormy sea.
"Dang, that's a shame, it was a nice house," Hunty said. She was lying on her side, watching as a huge dragon rose into the air from what'd recently been a pretty nice mansion. "This'd better not end up as our fault. We showed up in a very civilized manner and wanted to talk, he just ran off before we got the chance."
"And then you broke in without invitation and camped in his lab until you attracted, well, this," Bloody Mary pointed out. He was riding on the base of the blarf's neck, only his head reaching out of the black fur.
"Well, that was mostly Rider," Hunty said glumly. "I should probably lay some smackdown on her for this, but she already died today." She shot a concerned glance at the mansion. "Once. As far as I know. You can see that, right, boy?"
He did. The blarf's growling had grown progressively louder as Celestial got closer. Hunty got a pretty clear and pretty horrifying view of the dragon hovering right above them, then the mass of black tentacles clamped shut above her and nearly instantly bent downwards under the force of the shockwave impact. The kraken grumbled under his breath, arching his back and, as far as Hunty could tell, tensing all his muscles, then grabbed Jina, threw her at Celestial and promptly bounced sideways with nearly catlike agility, except cats generally don't plow up cobblestones when they do that.
And lifted his head to stare at the incoming dragon, every inch of his body quivering like a spring under pressure.
And opened his mouth.
And, well, let's stick to the word 'screamed'.
The blarf had two voices, neither of which he really used much. The usual tongue-and-vocal-cords combo was there for the characteristic 'blarps', which could mean pretty much anything depending on the situation. But the other voice emerged from the very depths of his body, using whatever hellish system of secondary vocal tracts he had there, and this voice spoke English just fine, if very slowly. His most common utterance that way was 'foooood'. But this time it was longer, fiercer and sounded like it was intertwined with at least two other languages.
"Bloody Mary?" Hunty asked. The meepit was generally good at stringing those soulful moans into coherent sentences.
"Um," said the meepit.
"I only got 'Iiiiii aaaaaaammmmm' and the rest was all in eldritch to me. What'd he say?"
Bloody Mary breathed in with a hiss. "He said 'I am what you are. They are mine. Do not cross me'."
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2009 23:19:44 GMT -5
<<Brassport: City Limits>> Ro hadn't even had an idea that something like Deus Ex Machina existed...physically, anyway. She'd heard the phrase before, but she'd been sure it was just a phrase, not a tired, sarcastic horse of all things...
But she didn't have time to comment on it, because it swept them all away at lightning speed. “You’ll find your sister near the center of the city inside the Assembly Hall.” And then it left. Sarn didn't bother to wait and instead raced off, as if he knew where to go.
Well, nothing to do but run after him. Checking that all her things were in place, and quickly tying up the stallion, she kept a hand on the hilt of her sword and dashed. Always the determined ones.
<<Brassport: Assembly Hall>>
Well, this was great.
At least the glass...thing, had moved onto another target. That didn't leave Asta in any better of a situation. For one...
Listen, this is the bird speaking.
She almost dropped the bird at that. "What...?" Maybe a speaker? Some sort of audio source?
Thank you. I can assure you though, all she told you is a lie but she is not like this normally. Something is wrong with her. If you could take me with you then I believe we can work something out.
The voice didn't reach her ears like normal sound should, though. Despite the chaotic noise of the Assembly Hall, she could hear it clearly. "Then, it's..." Asta stopped. "No. Nevermind, it's not important." She yanked one end of her scarf and unwrapped it, tying it loosely around her waist. "If you can't perch somewhere," she said, pointing to the improvised belt, "hop in here and hold on."
Now. Where were the glass creations?
<<Brassport: Still the Assembly Hall>>
Ro muttered curses under her breath. This wasn't the worst she'd seen, but it definitely ranked pretty high on the list of situations she never wanted to be in.
Still. It was manageable.
“Lady Ro, if you can hold the glass men still, I can try to freeze them.”
And there was her fellow knight. She nodded once and whipped out the shortsword, examining the nearest creature. the shards, she wanted to watch out for, but she'd let the chainmail take care of that...
What was that man doing?
A pair of pants fluttered onto one of the glass creatures. It casually tore it to shreds with the sharp edges. Noting this, Ro ran forward and slammed the edge of her blade against it, holding it in place.
"Worry not milady! I, Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer, have come to liberate you from the jaws of Death!"
"Idiot," Ro muttered, then turned abruptly with her sword still braced against the glass. An echo?
"You're not from here, are you?" a woman asked. Her own sword, short and oddly-shaped but genuine, was out before her. "Please tell me you're helping."
Not from here...in several ways. But Ro nodded.
<<Brassport: STILL the Assembly Hall. Dang. I need different colors for character viewpoints. Maybe blue for Ro and red for Aly and gold for Asta or something.>>
Oscar, Gentleman Adventurer, was either the biggest idiot Asta had ever seen or a brilliant daredevil. Possibly both, now that she thought about it. Either way, it worked--the necromancer was sent flying, and the wand spun across the floor.
"Get it!" Asta glared behind her, looking at the flame-headed knight barking at her. Another newcomer. Great. At least she seemed to want to help.
"Don't order me!" Asta shouted back as she slid and picked up the slender wand. A grating shriek sounded, and she looked up to the fist of a glass creature whistling down over her head.
The woman ducked, and rolled to the side, hoping she'd avoid most of the blow. Another grating, and she felt small pebbles lightly bounce off her coat. The knight had her sword up against the fist, grimacing as she did so. "Oi," she said simply, stepping to the side when Asta had gotten up. "Keep this still."
No, I don't want to, Asta thought. "Sure," she said instead, and brought her blade up. "Asta."
"Not the time," the knight spat.
"It's easier to narrate when you know the other person's name," the alchemist said wryly. Somewhere in the distance, the crack of a wall rang in the hall. Maybe it was just a glass golem.
The knight gritted her teeth and let the golem's fist fall, doing her best to keep the thing in place. "Ro."
"Nice to meet you."
"Fight."
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