Cowman

As the armored hero lept away, the person finally let go of the Arachnos soldier. She cautiously crept out of their hiding place, casting a quick look at her dead comrades before turning around to the person who'd saved her.

The young woman behind her wore disheveled clothing and an old hooded sweatshirt. Her clothes plainly told the story of someone accustomed to sleeping outside. All in all she looked like most of the unfortunate street people one sometimes came across in Paragon, except perhaps for her hair. She was completely bald, not the barest hint of fuzz anywhere on her scalp.

"Um... thanks," the soldier finally said after a few seconds of awkward silence. The other girl merely shrugged.

"Just lucky he didn't see you," she answered, leaning against the wall as she looked at where the hero had lept off to. Another few moments of silence passed before the soldier felt compelled to break it again.

"I'm Gilda. Gilda Ferris," she greeted, holding out her hand. She noticed a slight hesitation before the homeless girl returned the handshake.

"PJ," she said simply, cutting the physical contact as quickly as was politely possible. "So, what'll you do now? You guys got some kinda meeting place or something?"

"There are a few extraction points," Gilda replied. "But trying to get to them alone is probably not a good idea. Without a squad I'd be too vulnerable to heroes, Vahzilok zombies, Trolls and whatever else is wandering around out here. No, we have squads making trips in here quite a bit. I'll probably just hide out till one shows up and join them."

"Well, I've got a place set up over there," PJ pointed to a nearby, abandoned building. "Not much, but you could hole up there for awhile."

Seeing no better options, Gilda agreed and the two of them started walking.

As more of the soldiers fell, one near the back raised her gun to once again fire futiley at the attacking hero. Before she could, however, someone grabbed her from behind, pulling her into a small alcove behind her.

For a second or two the soldier struggled against the arm around her waist and the hand over her mouth, but a voice hissing in her ear stilled her.

"Don't be stupid," the person behind her whispered harshly. "You saw what happened to the others. Now stay quiet or he'll hear us." Despite herself, the Arachnos soldier obeyed, too afraid of the hero's blade to argue.

((Mason and Hell Song seem to have evaporated, so I'll probably move Lou along to the landing zone. ))

Lou watched as the monitor zoomed in on the human flying toward him.

"Shoulda known," he grumbled. "A Mutt. What is it with this planet and Mutts. Okay, let's be unrealistic for a moment and see if we can get outta this the easy way. Hit 'im with some Smokers and get ready to high-tail it for the landing site."

Several shells launched from the ship's weapons, exploding in mid-air into clouds of smoke and chaff. The ship then began to turn, though still keeping its weapon-lock on the incoming human.

"Send a message to the landing zone," Lou told Zoot. "Tell 'em we ran into a little trouble. Might be a bit late."

[ QUOTE ]
Lou would soon find coordinates to a landing location as well as a visual aid appear on his monitor, with instructions to land there, unarmed.

[/ QUOTE ]

"Unarmed?" Lou growled. "What do they expect me to do, rip the Flak cannons off the hull?"

"Eh, I s'pose as long as we power everthing down cept the engines, we'll be okay," Zoot shrugged, settling on Lou's shoulder.

"Whatever," the large alien growled. However, before he could complain any further, a beeping from the console interrupted him. "Looks like disarming's gonna have to wait," he growled. "We got incoming. Small, probably a flyer."

The hovering ship spun around to face the approaching figure. A hum of machinery started as its energy shields sprung to life and weapons began powering up.

A small ship broke the atmosphere of Earth, zooming down toward the large continent of North America. It was a bulky, worn looking craft which didn't at all live up to the sleek, stylish spaceship stereotype. As it approached the ground its speed decreased until it was hovering in the air above a city.

"What the slor? That ain't Paragon. Zoot, ya made a mistake with the coordinates." A deep, gravely voice bellowed within the confines of the ship. Lou glared at the monitor displaying the semi-ruined city, his nose-less face wrinkling in irritation.

"I did not," an idignant voice replied. "This is exactly where we're supposed to be. Someone musta just blown the holy heck outta the place. I mean, we WERE gone for quite awhile."

"Geez, why is it everytime a take a trip, somethin' like this happens," Lou groaned, running a hand through the spiky, unkept shock of hair on the top of his head. "Can ya pinpoint Bu at least?"

"Sorry," Zoot answered after a second. "The locater musta been damaged. Or just stopped working. It was a second hand model to begin with."

Lou only gave a rumbling growl in response. Flicking a few switches on the console he sent out his usual landing request. Usually it was received by City Hall, but with the state of Paragon at the moment, he'd just have to see who would answer.

There's a roleplaying community on pretty much every server. I've got characters on Virtue, Champion, Liberty and Pinnacle. I've met roleplayers and joined roleplaying supergroups on all of them.

((Hey all, sorry for the sudden disappearance. Had a major brain fart and simply forgot I was doing anything in this thread. ))


After receiving the message to regroup, Binro headed back with the others.

"What has happened," the large alien asked as they came upon Randall's team, now seeming to have an addition in the from of the slightly baffled looking Khelari.

[ QUOTE ]
"Ah, you may be sturdier, but with twelve seperate minions here and a nearly endless supply ready to replace them, you can see why I don't see much need for you."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Then I will endeavor to prove to you just how useful I can be," Binro replied with a smirk of his own, though the expression looked a little off on his alien features.

[ QUOTE ]
"Anyway, I don't feel like waiting. That guy better hurry up." He commented with irritation in his voice.

[/ QUOTE ]

" 'This guy' will keep up just fine," Binro said calmly as he joined up with Penny and Jake. His axe and the Nemesis staff were once again strapped to his back, while his mace was strung on his belt.

"And impressive as your machines are, I dare say I might prove a bit sturdier in the long run." Binro kept himself toward the front of the group in order to take the initial brunt of any sudden attack. The Vanguard soldiers that broke off to follow them kept toward the back, watching the rear.

"I am here," Binro said, retrieving his axe and the Nemesis staff. He slung his mace onto his belt as he walked over. "And am uninjured as well, thankfully."

[ QUOTE ]
The empowered mace crashed through his shield with a vengeance, catching the arch-villain's staff in counter. The weapons locked dead for a moment, and all seemed to stand still. Then Nemesis redoubled his efforts and pushed back, trying to strike at Binro's exposed head with the lethally grinding gear of his staff...

[/ QUOTE ]

Binro dropped his staff to the side, grabbing the handle of his mace with both hands and straining back against the villain's weapon. The gears of the staff were so close his face was buffeted by the energy coming from it, as though a slight breeze was washing over his head.

The Omega-Knight's own weapon flared with power as well as he fought to hold the staff in place. Cybernetically and spiritually enhanced muscles strained against the steam-powered marvel, but though Binro kept the gears at bay, he was making no headway in pushing it back toward its wielder.

"You seek to finish me, villain?" he shouted at Nemesis over the dull roar of the competing energies. "I have stood against the molten fire of a planetary core. Do you think your technology can finish what the universe itself could not?"

Truthfully Binro did not feel anywhere near as confident as he sounded. But if he could keep Nemesis focused on him; keep his weapon locked with his own. Perhaps the others would manage to cast the deciding blow.

The sudden wrenching motion of the mechanical villain's head forced Binro to lose his grip on the handle of his axe. He flew to the side a little ways, landing on his feet in a crouch. His axe now buried in Nemesis' head, the Knight reached for his primary weapon; the heavy mace on his belt that seemed to be almost humming with anticipation.

He also pulled the Nemesis staff from his belt, sending a blast of energy from it at the villain, who was now protected by another forcefield. Binro wasn't sure if Nemesis would be immune to his own weapons or not, so he followed quickly on the heels of the blast. His mace almost glowed white as he slammed it into the forcefield.

Randall was engaging Dark Watcher, Solid Shot had tackled Lady Gray, and Penny had run back down the corridor and sealed it with a forcefield. Binro could hear the faint sound of explosive decompression from somewhere on the other side. He was familiar with that sound; heck, he'd stood in the midst of it a few times.

As the other human's robots fired on Nemesis, Binro flew at him from behind. He pulled the large axe from his back and raising it high overhead, he brought the weapon down onto the mechanical villain's head with a resounding 'THOOM'.

[ QUOTE ]

"You!" he shouted at Binro, "Take point and take everybody who can move to check out what that was! If it's nasty, kill it."

[/ QUOTE ]

Binro turned immediately and ran back down the corridor, some of the Vanguard soldiers toward the back breaking off to follow him. His mace was in hand once more as he skidded into the room where they had initially appeared.

"Lady Grey," he called as he turned the last corner. "Is everything all..."

The sentence was left unfinished at the scene that greeted him since things were most definitly NOT 'alright'.

[ QUOTE ]

"Yo, armored guy..." he shouted at Binro, "Argh... I forgot your name... Still! Let's put this damn thing between a rock and a hard place!"

[/ QUOTE ]

"My pleasure," Binro said, launching himself across the room. He slipped the Nemesis staff onto his back and grabbed the War Horse, wrenching it violently down to help still it's movements.

He brought the glowing mace down on the machine's side where Penny, Jake and Randall's assaults had already weakened the armor. A section of it broke away and the Horse gave another lurch, trying to free itself, but Binro kept a tight hold on his end of it.

Binro recovered almost immediatly from the rockets, but didn't head back into battle. The female human seemed to have some sort of plan.

Instead he turned his attention to the rockets streaking about the room, destroying them with his mace. His boot knocked against something on the floor and he looked down. A long staff was laying there, a large gear sitting at the top, its smaller cogs still turning.

Binro had seen a couple other heroes using something similar once. Shoving his foot underneath the staff, he kicked it upward into his hand. He could feel the power arcing through it and spun around, pointing the gears toward a distant rocket.

A bubble of translucent energy shot from the staff to intercept the rocket which exploded harmlessly in mid-air. Binro's mace continued to bring down the ones that got close enough while he destroyed a few more from a distance with the Nemesis staff.

Binro waved the remaining smoke from around him to see the Horse charging about madly as Ineffable barely missed catching it and Penny began her assault.

The girl was much more durable than she looked, and Binro was quite impressed with her quick action and coordination of her own machines. When she was finally knocked aside, he made his own move.

The Knight sprinted across the floor, his mace flying to his hand as he went. Placing himself in the machine's path, Binro raised his mace. Some form of energy crackled around it as he held it high with both hands.

"Cursed machine," he growled at the advancing War Horse. "You shall FALL!!"

Binro roared the last word, bringing his mace down hard on the thing's head. It spun about wildly from the force of the blow, though it still seemed fully functional, slamming into Binro who raised his weapon again.

Unfortunately the Horse's wild firing paid off as two rockets impacted directly with the Knight's head. The resulting explosion was enough to knock him off his feet and send him skidding across the floor again.

Binro got to his feet, his milky-white eyes glaring toward the War Horse. His armor glowed with heat from the melted doors, but he didn't seem to be in any great pain from it.

His mace crackled with white energy as he lept into the air, throwing the weapon and destroying two of the rockets with it. Binro twisted in the air, putting himself in front of a couple more. The explosion sent him flying backward, but he stayed on his feet, armored boots sparking a little as they skidded across the metal floor.

[ QUOTE ]
Taking a deep breath, he took a hold of the blast door and started to pull on it...

"With enough-grr-pressure... Anything is-hurgh!-possible..."



[/ QUOTE ]

Taking another quick scan of the room to reassure himself that they were at least safe for the moment, Binro returned his mace to his belt and headed for Randall.

Grabbing the door's edge as well, Binro added his own prodigious strength to Randall's to force open the door.

Binro hefted his mace in his hand as he surveyed the damage. He hadn't had any real run-ins with Nemesis, but he'd gathered enough information from his contacts and other heroes to recognize the villain's mechanical minions.

He looked between the twisted remains of the combatants and the scorches and gouges they had left behind in their surroundings to atest to their confrontation.

"It must have been a great battle," he murmured calmly, running a hand along one particularly large blade mark in the metal wall near him.

Binro obediantly followed Randall's lead, one hand always near the handle of his mace. Despite his protests, the human had good leadership qualities.

Something about this place was setting the Knight's spines on end. The place felt cold and dead; like the derelict starships his squad used to board in search of pirates, looters, and other, worse things.

Binro sniffed the air tentatively, keeping near the front of his companions so he could step in front of any sudden attacks, protecting any of the less durable members of their group.

Most information on the grounds, students and faculty can be found at Mithril_Zeta's excellent site, here.

Binro moved a little away from the others as he looked out at the surface of the moon. The view reminded him of the ash deserts back on his homeworld; vast stretches of land covered in pale, blue-white powder that formed dunes and craters.

A brief moment of heartache washed over him, but he brushed it aside quickly. They were in an unknown location in hostile territory; now was not the time for reminicing. He turned back to his teammates, waiting to see what the 'experts' had to say.

Having no real connections or 'loved ones', Binro moved to stand by the portal entrance, the sash of feathers attached to his shoulder rustling a bit in the slight breeze.

He'd been on a Rikti inhabited world before, though probably not the one they were headed to now. While certainly not friendly, they had at least been tolerable of his prescence.

Of course, the Rikti he'd encountered so far on Earth seemed to have a very different disposition.