DeviousMe

Wow, that's pretty slick. Damn, now I really want one too...

Graarh...curse lack of monetary fluidity. Still some cool stuff though, will definetely be watching.

"Careful with that gas!" Arek's deep tone shouted after Dr. Lore's charge, not entirely sure what (if any) effect it would have on her. He certainly didn't get to see it then end there, the man he'd pinned beneath his feet using the moment of lapsed attention to grab the draconian's leg and snap a twist, hurling the denim-scaled Drokar over and toward the ground.

Thankfully, Arek was anything but as heavy as he looked, spreading wings to slow and balance his fall while he tossed his force lange into the air. Thus he had a palm free to rebound and push up off the floor, landing on his feet again, his position a prepared crouch. Not a moment later, his free arm shot out to the right, hand twisted back and open, the staff-like weapon coming down securely in its toothily smiling master's grip.

"You will need to do better." he leaped up while bringing the lance before him, a web grenade on its way toward the black-dressed pale man at the same time, apparently continuing the fight. In truth, however, the Sky Commander was presently reassessing the situation, which had of course changed with the arrival of more combatants. Luckily, they seemed to be on their side. Still, just what was going on here?

Drago was certainly asking himself the same question, the Crey-hired team's communicators, relaying his still calm-toned, but doubtlessly desiring questions, "Guys, seriously, what's going on? Stahlhund, Millions, Dr. Lore, someone come in - what's happening over there...?"

Sarah relaxed visibly when she saw the new arrival was but the mailman, the large wrench already between her fingers slowly making its way back into the tool belt.

"I don't know..." she returned to Pax, her tone one of dismissive doubt, but also holding an underlying worry, "And I'm not saying that - I just don't think there's any way you can know for sure, to know truly beyond any doubt. Anyway, the notion that things as small as us can affect all that sounds kind of silly to me."

"Yeah, gotta agree there." Johnny added with a look up the Tornado. He grinned, "And from my perspective, you guys aren't so small. The whole world getting rewritten when someone changes something in the past, though...yeah, that does sounds silly. Not to mention you get into those self-cancel-out-mabob whatevers."

"Paradoxa." Sarah gave a nod, as well as a slight shiver, "Which I don't like. Every time Bill gets going with those, I wind up with a migraine. But seriously: I just can't believe time works like that. There's just too much that can happen that couldn't happen if it did."

"Actually, wait." Kia raised a finger at this, pointing at the floor a moment, "What if it couldn't here? That has to account for something, right? If Billy repeated his experiments here, who knows, something else might happen...?"

Coooooooool.

The denim-hued draconian did neither. Instead, he waited, assessing the situation below, listening carefully to the monotonous statements of the black-dressed men. The grenades shifted steadily between the claws of his left hand. He gave Dr. Lore a short glance when she hit the roof, but other than that didn't pay much heed to the woman. After all, there many heroes with white trench coats (and stranger costumes) around Paragon, and the chance that one stopped to see what had caused a ruckus here wasn't low at all.

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"What in the...?!"

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"That is what we are about to find out." the towering Drokar retorted in a dry, logical tone, then first spread his wings, and folded them once more in his leap through the hatch, attempting to ram one of Paxtera's opponents into the ground at behest of his large, clawed feet.

Of course, he wasn't idle during the fall, tossing a tear gas charge toward those that still patrolled around the van, hopefully assailing them with enough to leave them helpless. Though it of course fared better with organic systems, this stuff often worked on machines as well, so chances weren't bad.

Either way, Arek missed Rose's appearance.

Drago, however, did not.

"Why, what's going on?" he wanted to know over the commlink, "Don't tell me this went bad already..."

"Huh?" was Sarah's initial reply, trying to figure her way around the Kheldian's strange wording. She silently counted off her fingers, stopped, then began again, finally just uttering a confused, "What?"

Luckily, Johnny had an explanation to offer, interjecting from his perch above Kia's shoulder, "I think she means people like her and this Fugitive guy keep the general public thinking that changing history's an unproven theory because they couldn't be trusted not to do it if they knew."

"Of course," he added with a snicker, "that doesn't account for Billy..."

"Augh, don't remind me!" Kia exclaimed at this, hands clasped over her eyes and face, her outburst almost an exasperated moan, "Him and that stupid time machine!"

"Hey, I liked older Ralf." Johnny grinned at this, remembering well the chaos it had caused with everyone; especially Player, who'd had to watch the infant in a grown man's body since he'd still been just Kia's baby boy - only stronger and louder, "He didn't focus on me all the time."

"And you have to admit, it was pretty funny when you shook him like that after things went the other way." Sarah couldn't help but chime in, getting a smile out of Kia again with the memory of 'one mad scientist; shaken, not stirred', and looked to Pax again, "Yeah, he does. Brought himself back once, just to see what would happen."

The Tornado let out a sigh, though a somewhat happy one, "It was a fun week...but I don't think the house could've survived two Billys for much longer. So anyway: unproven theory. And I still don't think there's any way you could've made sure no one ever found it. There's just too many forms of intelligence, a lot of which we can't even see."

"You got that from Ace?" Johnny wanted to know, but got a headshake in return.

"The Traveler Dust he showed me." the Tornado explained, "Didn't talk, but we managed to rig an oscillograph so I could understand it too. That and Joy. We all know she exists, even though we can't normally see her."

Then another knock sounded on the door...

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Griffin's eyes grew larger once more at the sight of all the guns, arms stretched forward from himself and toward Max and his gang, his face one big worry, his tone curt and nervous, "Guys! Easy!"

"Seriously, you too." he glanced back to the mercenaries, " Shouldn't we all be, you know, helping each other out or something? Work on getting home? I thought that's what we all wanted."

"Well..." he looked to Valerie, "...maybe not all. Who're you...and, um...why are you following us?"

He had a sneaking suspicion War and Famine's hostility toward the gray-uniformed woman was due to just that, namely her apparently being a soldier. Since he didn't know anything about the context, his imagination of course played devil's advocate without restraint, envisioning her as an instrument of the regime the mercs had spoken of...

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Vlasta couldn't help but let out a whistle at Burning Brawler's rocket-like takeoff, remarking to Wolfgang, "I think you gave him a little too much juice."

"Possible." the cyborg gave but a single chuckle, looking after the VB officer as well, the smile in his mind clearly visible despite his metal jaw, "But you know...somehow...I'm not regretting it."

"I didn't expect you would." was the answer out the side of the Tsaigon's mouth as he turned to Torcher and Pyra, "Now, you two: what are you doing here?"

Before they could answer, however, he brought up a hand, "On second thought, tell me later. Right now, this is no place for Verejná Bezpechnost. Move, people. Fast response got nailed, so until the main groups are here, we're on our own. We need a better position."

Group in tow, Vlasta kept his plasma pistol raised as he began the climb out of the large crater, which despite its 'shallow' nature got rather steep at the rim...

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"This is very nearly the craziest place that has ever or will ever exist, you'll get used to it if you stay here long enough."

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"Hm?" Kia raised her chin again, puzzled at the remark for a moment, until she realized what train of thought Pax had followed. Unfortunately, it was fairly divergent. Before she could explain this, however, the Kheldian's manner became frigid and hostile.

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"Do you really think I would be stupid enough to take things from a planet that anyone will ever discover? If I did that I'd be changing history, 'cause stuff that should have been won't be there when it's supposed to be discovered. Like I said, I ain't that stupid. Came from some undiscovered and uninhabited rock out in the middle of nowhere where civilisation will never ever reach."

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"Heeey, that was uncalled for." the mountain dragon protested as Sarah's inquisitive smile turned into a cheerless line, the Tornado very taken aback, "She just wanted to know..."

"It's okay." Sarah interrupted her friend with the raise of a few fingers, her brows having taken on a determined slant of opposition, "About time anyway."

She dropped the hand again, then told the Kheldian firmly in response, "I'm not there yet, but considering that 'I know everything' attitude you're throwing around, I'm starting to lean in that general direction, yeah. How can you be that conceited? First you straight-up try to tell me that since you don't know about the island, I'm obviously making stuff up, and now you think you're so smart that you know everything there is to know about a whole planet? FYI, just because you think it's so isolated doesn't mean it is. We thought that about the island too, and then we get two humans in the same month - after hundreds of years of none. So yeah, so much for knowing something."

"Besides, if you're that worried about 'changing history', why didn't you just go there in our present?" she added, already a good bit more mellow again, "Then you wouldn't have had to think about that. Not to mention it's an unproven theory anyway..."

"Sound." Arek gave acknowledgement to the Peacebringer with a nod, reaching to the side of his belt and taking from it one of the silver cylinders. Have gave it a forceful shake, and the force lance telescoped to its full size almost instantly, the Sky Commander pointing the tip of the odd-looking weapon (due to its appearance leaving little clue as to whether it stood ancient or high-tech) at the hatch, "Head in first then. Potential hostiles are..."

He described to Pax the approximate locations. True, the draconian's binoculars may have been busted, but with a thermal and x-ray image, he could still make himself a decent map of the place, as well as convey this to his allies. Once the Kheldian and Rikti had confirmed they understood, the force lance spoke, blasting apart the hatch with a brief crack of thunder.

"Go..."

Hmmmmm...who to snatch up...? Ah, got it. I never did manage to get a full body shot of Jade Blackwind, so if you'd like to go for that, I'd certainly appreciate it. Long story short, he's a Mountain Dragon that fell under the Robocop curse. There's more to it, but the story's right in the link, and...oh, who am I kidding, I can't keep my mouth shut on these things.

He's a 400-year-old Dragon-turned-machine from a world upon which Judgment Day has come and gone, leaving little more than ashes, ruins, and bones scattered across the decrepit wasteland that was once a beautiful, luscious planet full of light and life. Whether you want to call him a survivor or not is up to you, the ripped-up remains of his original body having long since decayed, just like the rest of his world, across whose lands now prowl solely the mechanical nightmares whose original purpose was to protect the very people they so relentlessly slaughtered. Few pockets of survivors remain, the machines having hunted nearly all sentient organics to extinction, asserting dominion of cold iron over a burning world.

Dang, that almost ran away again. Anyway, the important part for a sketch is just that his head still looks like it used to before he got sliced up, while the rest of his body is now just cold metal. Don't get me wrong now, he's not a cyborg. Hair, skin, it's all synthetic, it just looks like it's still flesh. I did manage to sneak a head shot a while back, but like I said a full one is what I'd be most thankful for. I'll of course appreciate anything, so no worries if that's not what you'd like. Oh, and before I forget again, he sometimes wears a full helm when he wants to hide what he is, like in the small picture in the first link. Up to you which way you prefer, though.

Time for some steampunk sheep.

More of a raptor guy, but yeah - and considering he's about the size of a tall human and would probably think of the dog as a possible lunch, I'd say you're on to something. Don't look at me like that. He's got those teeth for a good reason, you know.

Kia sat back as well, Akemi's answer seeming to have made her a tad distraught, the mountain dragon's eyes downcast and looking at nothing in particular as she repeated with a soft sigh, "Therapy...yeah..."

The same feeling appeared to have gotten a hold of Sarah, and indeed it had. She looked to the automaton with a wondering glance, but when Pax made her mention the Tornado's attention refocused on her with a wry smile, "Oh? Try me..."

OOC:

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Also, Devious, I didn't realize you wanted me to reveal EVERYTHING in the building to you, from the composition of the rafters to the wiring in the walls. If you're going to be using a God Scanner to figure your way around, why even send the Rikti to do any scouting at all?

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Oh, I don't know. Maybe because when I asked "was there anything of note to be found from their current vantage point?", you replied with a generic description of the warehouse's outside, leading me to believe that you were saying "the scan finds nothing of value". Of course, at that time I didn't know you'd missed it so thoroughly.

Indeed, heh. Some mighty interesting stuff pouring into here. Also, last post updated.

Um, he doesn't have any scales. Why people tend to call him a lizard guy anyway is something I never did quite figure out, but it's probably just because of his general shape.

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good well.. Suichiro is the last one to be added then ..( i might add noxi mousy thing and victorus secrets if they want.. )

but still.. this is AFTER I finish my freebie-commisons...

..soo.. err... 13 women and one lizard man for nude bondage shoots... err... ok then... .. well its still gonna be patterned after coh comic 11.. page 21.. so someones gonna have to be in a soapy tub.... even if they have chains and ropes on..

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Can Mr. Majesty be there adding bubbles to the tub?

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..sure.. im sure the lizard guy wont mind... but no backwashing

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...

My character is going to kill me. Yeah, definetely kill me. I can already see my obituary: killed by orbiting laser cannon while taking dump. No remains to be buried.

And what'n blue blazes is a 'frozed rat'?!

Sounds fun. Sure, I'm in. Let's see...since this is somewhat special, this should be a challenge. Who do we have who...ah, of course. I know. For your consideration, the character:

Sabre Vern

Mechanical engineer specializing in total-energy physics and cosmostructural stability. In short, builds anything from scout 'bots to solar systems. Vern is a Krayten (in their culture as in Japan last name comes first), a quadrupedal people who bear a passing resemblance to 'classical' western dragons, though they have no scales, spikes, fins, spades, or the like, and don't get much bigger than a large dog (Great Dane, for instance). They also move and behave much more like large cats than anything reptilian. Being four-legged, they of course have no hands, so they evolved telekinesis instead. Works just as well.

As for specifics about his looks, other details (aside from the aforementioned deviated baseline, of course) include three clawed toes on each foot, a relatively short neck, and that his jaw has more of a saurian look to it, rather than the draconic sort. Kind of like this guy. His skin is deep-green, and he'll usually wear a segmented silver collar with a large blue gem at its center that resembles a star sapphire. It's basically just a different kind of pocket, in which Vern keeps anything from telescopes to guns to lunch (he makes really good sandwiches) to a little spherical robot he uses to keep holographic notes because he tends to forget things very quickly.

He's also a pretty good pilot, but only with smaller ships, like the fighter kind - mostly because those he can stuff into said pocket. A planet cracker? Not so much. Thankfully, he has friends who can fly the bigger stuff for him, which tends to be convenient because they've been labeled pan-galactic terrorists and are generally hunted wherever they go.

OOC:

While I'm not a very big fan of doing this, I'm afraid some confusion with Grey brought about a situation I can only fix by putting in a retcon. It's not big, and only applies to the heroes, I just want Khell and Rebel to know that I'm hereby changing Arek's binoculars to being busted, and due to them working improperly only the thermal and x-ray modes were available. He grumbled about this, so Paxtera and Cher'tak know.

He also told them what he found, and advised that the Warmaster focus his initial effort on the people in the cages, to see if they were in immediate distress. From there on, events continued as written, with Arek heading across the street and onto the warehouse roof, getting the energy readings described by Grey.

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BIC:

The Sky Commander glanced again to the energy reader, seeming a bit relieved. Indeed he was, for though the device showed what it did, the things he'd been worried about - such as roof-mounted motion detectors triggering some sort of alarm - remained factually absent, which was of course good.

Things thus being, the denim draconian took from his harness a clawful of grenades, specifically the kind filled with sticky, spider-like webbing and tear gas so potent it even tended to afflict foes that one would've thought would just ignore stuff like this.

"My guess is we will be facing either combat robots or cyborgs." he told the others in the meantime, "I do not have any electromagnetic charges, but if they have organic components, these should prove useful going in first. Or does one of you have a different idea...?"

Okay then, for your consdieration here's Warmaster Kul'bere. Thus far, I've only managed to steal stuff from Paragonwiki, and it would be very nice to have an actual drawing of her, especially since her armor's really supposed to be black and white, not just different shades of gray.

((So there's really no one in the warehouse? No signs of life/minds/energy to pick up?))

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..soo.. err... 13 women and one lizard man for nude bondage shoots... err... ok then... .. well its still gonna be patterned after coh comic 11.. page 21.. so someones gonna have to be in a soapy tub.... even if they have chains and ropes on..

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Oh geez, I come back to check on this thread and just about fall out of my chair laughing. I believe I might be a very odd shade of red right about now. Then again, I also believe I'm better off than my girlfriend, though. I think she's turning blue...or purple. Yeah, definetely purple.

In other words, go for it. Acid's going to boundlessly hate you for tying him up, and should probably end up with some sort of death glare at the audience, but his girl (of course the main character of mine) is going to absolutely love you for it. In fact, she has a message for you:

"Make sure to tie him up behind his back so he can't chew through whatever you'll be using; because if he can get at it, he will, even if it's a chain."

Aaaand now I think I'm the purple one. Anyway, I see Tanks has already been volunteered for the tub shot, but if you'd like another, go for it. In fact, if you'd like, Acid's a Khelari. He prefers hot-tubbing it in lava over water any day of the week. So feel free to go wild.

Arek gave a nod. The Warmaster had a good point, for the Sky Commander had no such thing as a handheld individual impulse probe. Still, he kept watch on the energy sensor...

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"Do so." Drago gave an approving nod, taking a beacon as well, "I'll join you once you've entered the building. I'm afraid I don't have an...a disguise handy, so I'll just jump to you once you're inside..."

Johnny's expression took on a bit of a sad look as everyone just ignored his question. He sighed. Being in a world of giants was indeed not easy. Sure, the ones he lived with didn't do this sort of thing - but then, they were used to him by now. He probably shouldn't have expected as much of those here.

Kia, however, did take note, the mountain dragon sitting up straight again moving a shoulder to just beside the little green dragon, and addressed the round, "So, uh...Johnny'd like to know how you guys make a living. Does someone pay you to bring in criminals like this Clockwork guy? Because back home, Protector sure doesn't work for the police. They're not even sure he really exists."

Sarah couldn't help but give a stealthy smirk. It was true. Of course, it wasn't like he needed to earn a living in the first place. After all, officially he was dead...and technically, he kind of was too. She remembered well the day a couple of reporters had dug up Babe's grave trying to prove that he and Protector were one and the same - only to be foiled by actually finding his bones...