DeviousMe

Acid floated about lazily on his back, figuring that wave should be the last for now.

"Hey Rosie, throw me one too please!" he yelled to her, waving an arm as he saw her go after a coke...

Acid laughed loudly as the wave carriedhima good distance, though sadly it wasn't powerful enough to perform a bellyslide on.

Then again, he could fix that.

"Hey, CT, do that again!" he grinned maliciously, telporting the assault bot about two meters into the air and letting it drop back down into the pool with another huge splash...

As Essex fell in above him, Acid couldn;t help but laugh - and promptly remember that he could't actually breathe water!

His trial ruined, he decided to heck with it and came back up to the surface, taking a deep breath. It was good to breathe. A lot of people took it for granted, never even knowing what they had.

"Fall in?" his floating head grinned broadly at Essex...

The only 'ferryman to the underworld' I can think of was the guy in greek mythology who you had to pay to get across the river Styx. I think his name was Karon or Karos or something...

Go figure what the guy spent that money on.

So who plays whom?

Yes, haven't you heard? Egyptian God is the new FOTM.

Oh yeah, if you want to know more about going out, click here.

Much to their likely dismay, neither Ryuji nor after-image ever got through the circle of swirling and chaotic energies, being violently repelled as they tried to get to the cannon at its center.

Hotaka facepalmed with a sigh. Hadn't he said something about not going into that circle?

Well, at least he hadn't been wrong - though right about now, he wished he had been. That infernal machine was sucking every last bit of energy from the mages bound to the 'tombstones' surrounding it, and...

Wait a second - the 'tombstones' formed the outside of that circle! That meant they were not entirely in it! They could be harmed!

Moving wuickly, he pciked up a charge from a fallen Rikti and tied it to an arrow, letting it fly at the closest metal plate. The grenade exploded violently...but was ineffective, only scorching the ally somewhat.

Alright, I'm gonna need help on this one.

Another jolt of pain ran through him, this time from his left shoulder, a Chief Soldier having gotten close enough to apply the balde of his ridiculously oversized sword.

"You're interrupting my thoughts!" Hotaka yelled detestfully, breathing a wave of toxins at the Rikti, something no human should have been able to do, "Katashi!"

With a flash, the Jounin was there, pummeling the soldier with quick strikes of his arms and legs.

Okay, how the heck do I tell them to attack those damn things holding the mages? The noise in here's damn near unbearable!

Until he could find a way, he'd just have to yell and point at the 'tombstones' as much as he could, hoping someone would get the idea or come to the same conclusion.

Until they did, he started flinging toxins at the one closest to him to degrade the armor...

"Keep your aesthetics to yourself, Mr. Ilusionist." Acid returned to Hallucinogen as he broke the surface, "Where I come from, this is normal, and you're not gonna get through with your human ways to me, bud."

Come to think of it, maybe I should've blown up World 12 as well. Humanity ruling the galaxy...brrr, scary thought.

With that, he went under again, wanting to see how long he could still hold his breath...

A Chief Soldier took the grenade for the portal, slamming into a wall, smoking and smoldering as he slid down it.

"What the eck are you morons doing?" Hotaka yelled across the room, "At least alternate hot and cold, if you throw it together, you'll just...argh!"

Reeling from the pain of a shot in the back, Hotaka spun around and let another arrow fly, this one setting his assailant ablaze with a sticky and very flammable mixture. The Rikti took off running as his suit told him the stuff was burning hot enough to break through!

Grimacing, Hotaka felt about the bunring scorch mark on his back, the blaster having torn a nice large hole into his robes there. The flesh was nearly black.

"Maybe I'd do better to watch my own back." he mumbled, nocking another arrow at a Rikti going after Pariku.

"Nah." Hotaka decided, letting it fly right past the mage's head and into the soldier, the noxious mixture eating through his armor, the fumes holding him fast.

Waziri didn;t even need an order, his masamune cleaving through the Rikti with ease, the degraded armor no longer an effective barrier...

((Haha, so you can FIGHT a draconian swordsman wearing nothing but a belt, but...you know what, I'm just going to drop it with you. ))

"Thanks, man." Acid waved to Helper, very appreciative of the mechanoid taking care of the inevitable mess.

Wolfing down his last steak, he threw his clothes into an agglomerated pile on a bench, then dove into the pool in Mini-bot fashion, loudly yelling, "BANZAI...!"

Typing away was what just about everyone did right now - including Howard Tharomar.

He'd arroved quite early this morning and was now busy sending letters, instructions, updates, and what-not to just about everything connected within and to his company.

After all, if he expected this of his employees, he'd better be ready to do it himself, this was his opinion. A hands-on man, Tharomar had never backed down from taking charge, and this was going to require quite a bit of coordination...

((Eh, sorry, but I'm gonna have to speak out against that idea. I really don't like the idea of an RP moving at a fixed pace - as Final Fight shows, 10 minutes of thread time can take several days and a whole day can take only a few hours. I'd like to see this thread kept dynamic, not the least reason being that I will be very busy tomorrow if I want to make the Pocket D party. ))

Acid laughed and almost choked as Kaloaten learned that not everyone could pull burning hot steaks off a grill -and he himself learne that luahging while swallowing wasn;t such a good idea either.

Wolfing down his first slab of meat, he started munching on a potato, clearly enjoying the meal.

Yeah, he'd never enjoyed the concept of eat only what you kill - there were just a few things about Morsko he'd never understood.

"To each his own, I suppose." he mumbled, biting into his second steak...

"Yeh, this is gonna be a fun evening." Acid commeted, whisking the steaks from the grill with his bare hands. The flames didn't even seem to bother him.

"Feedin' time!" he yelled across the patio, making off with two steaks of his own, the first one already disappearing in his jaws...

Hotaka's advice could probably not have come at a batter time.

The circle of metal tombstones uddenly falred up in a blinding blue light, the bound mages screaming their lungs out of their bodies as they were racked with waves upon waves of agony.

But they did not die.

The Rikti wouldn't let them.

If anyone went into the circle now, a crackling mass of energy would swifty repel them, and probably heavily ingure as well, if not outright kill the intruder.

The portal flared to life, punching a hole in the barrier between dimensions, and the cannon at the circle's center greedily soaked up the cracklig energies, loosing them into a coherent beam that struck through the gateway and into the unknown...

This is giving me ideas...muahahaha...

[ QUOTE ]
"CANNONBALL!" the demon yelled loudly, dropping his towel on the patio and leaping violently into the pool, splashing water everywhere.

[/ QUOTE ]
"Oh, quit your bickering!" Acid shouted to Combat Toy and Rosie, "See him? He's got the right idea!"

Turning to Helper once more, he inspected the potatoes, "Hmm, last I recall you put those in coals...but this's a gas grill..."

((Haha, no way. I'm having way too much fun just sitting around with people for once. Generally, we always fight or something nearby explodes. ))

Acid wasted no time with the steaks. His clawed fingers cut precise grooves into them, in which he filled small amounts of spices and herbs from the cabintes above the outdoor bar.

He'd had a lot of practice with this, and it was easy for him to rub in just enough to bring the meat's natural flavor out almost perfectly without overpowering it.

[ QUOTE ]
Meanwhile, CC was happily exploring the outside. She'd tested the temperature of the pool and the hot tub, poked around in the bushes, and peered down the path to the beach. Her ears perked up when Acid mentioned grilling.

"Hey, can I help? I help my dad all the time. You don't want to ask Lily though. She gets all pouty when you ask her to a controlled burn." CC grinned at her roommate. "'Course, she's probably trying to swap me with someone else...you don't wanna switch rooms, do you?" she asked Acid, looking up at him.

[/ QUOTE ]
Acid laughed heartily. yeah, he was liking this, whether he'd admit it or not.

"I'm gonna guess you got control over fire then, hm?" he retorted, igniting the grill and placing the first row of steaks on it, "Well, I usually don't need any help, but...hey, here comes Helper."

Acid suddenly realized he'd failed to greet the automaton back when they had entered - and he quickly felt very rude.

"Sorry 'bout forgetting ya back at the entrance." he continued, "My bad. Say, are those baked potatoes?"

Turning to CC, he went on, "Well, if you wanna help, I guess we can always use a good and even heat distribution. And truth be told, I don;t think Morsko or I will be using our room much - we're kinda outdoorsy. So if you don't mind random people walking into it at any given time to get stuff, you're welcome to stay there..."

"I'd prefer to fire this here up." Acid grinned, placing both hands on the oversized grill as he overlooked it with a promising glimmer in his eyes.

"Hey Rosie, do me a favor and raid the fridge if ya would. There's gotta be some steaks in there..."

The Rikti were surpised, to be sure, but they reacted quickly nonetheless.

Every single one of them was protected by their battle armor, and they made judicious use of it, blocking where they could with silver, gold, and ruby-hued arm covers.

Chaos seemed to break out as Riki took their swords and energy rifles to hand, depending on the range the respecive attackers engaged.

None of them spoke - they didn't need to. Their mental communciation was smooth, sophisticated, and worked near the speed of light.

However, the disorder was only an illusion. A keen observer would notice them forming about the cannon and the metal 'tombstones', for some peculiar reason staying out of the circle they created.

"Curious." Hotaka remarked, nocking an arrow and letting it fly as his Jounin covered him from the side. The Rikti he aimed for took the arrow with what seemed to be a chuckle, and pulled his energy gun...

...which promptly exploded as Hotaka's second arrow went right into the glimmering barrel, knocking the Rikti back and into a pile of crates.

"Bullseye." Hotaka smiled, analyzing the situation. Then he came to a realization!

"Don't enter that circle!" he cried out, trying to overhsout the roar of the machines. he pointed desperately at the mages trapped inside the tombstone-circle, trying to ward off anyone from going into it, "No Rikti in there! Something's going to happen! Stay away! No Rikti in there...!"

"Heh, nice to see you too." Acid officially greeted Hal as he appeared - although it was a little awkward. The guy tended to appear from invisibility, not teleport. Had he learned something new?

"Okay, I'm with blue boy here." Acid announced, thumbing at Experiment, "Let's go check out the backyard..."

Whaaaa?

I don't take it you've ever fought Spehiroth in FF7 then - when he performs his Supernova attack, he does this absolutely ridiculously gigantic calculation of doom.

It's got I-don't-know-how-many variables, and fractions and integrals, all manner of partial derivatives, summations...hell, I didn't even see all that stuff combined on my DFI-Q final last year! (DFI-Q = differential calculus and matrix methods. I have no idea where the acronym came from )

So yeah, he's smart enough to solve that monster math of his, therefore he qualifies as very intelligent in my book.

((Ohhhh, Hal got PWND by Solid. ))

"Finally." Acid sighed, looking down at Essex, "Hehe, feeling's mutual. Mind letting go of my leg, though? I'm wanting to take a stroll around, and I'm gonna need that for walking..."

The door slid aside without protest. Apparently, the Rikti believed the Hydra was more than enough to keep anyone out, especially with a Kraken at every door down here.

This was probably why no Kraken had been seen in Perez for almost a week now.

And as it opened, a wave of noise flooded out of the massive hangar, and stepping out onto the catwalk beyond the door only made it worse.

Looking over the railing, the Rikti on the floor - four or so stories below - didn't even seem to mind the loud humming and rumbling. Every one of them wore an armorsuit, weapons charged and ready for combat at any time.

"My, my." Hotaka commented, sticking to the shadows at the end of the catwalk attached to the stone wall of the sewer. It was likely no one could hear him, but he continued anyway, "They're up to something big this time."

And just as he said this, a sound of thunder echoed across the hall. The core of the cannon had begun to rotate, and the portal was building up energy, its rings charging steadily, field lines crackling powerfully at its vertex.

It had begun...

Hehe, I gotta say, scheme-wise, Sephiroth is my all-time favorite fictional villain.

I mean, just the concept of, "I will wound the planet...and there I shall be, at the center of it all. I will be reborn...into a GOD...!"

Not to mention all the careful ploting, planning, and subtle manipulation of everyone else he puts into it. You gotta admit, Seph worked hard at what he did.