DeviousMe

Nice to know people will be there in case of jaw-droppers.

Simply sublime. Thanks, Blue. I enjoyed this read very much.

Damn, now I need to go find my jaw.

Moreover, he returned to find the room empty. Sage had apparently vanished into thin air. While this was of course not the truth, the man was unequivocally no longer here...

((Well, you aren't really moving much plot around here. Not surprised people aren't replying.))

Delicious.

((Hm...alright. You get one more chance, AD. ))

"Six ate seven-five, three-oh-nine." Sage shrugged with a long blink and a brief sigh, then turned and started walking to the nearest wall with a demented chuckle, raising a gloved finger for a moment along the way, "Abdul, Abdul, Abdul...excuse me, I wanna drive..."

((Well, this died a lot faster than I'd expected. ))

[ QUOTE ]
Six became formless, similar to the other six beings.

[/ QUOTE ]
"And what's the point of that?" Sage remarked, sounding a little disappointed, "Now I couldn't even use you for parts..."

((Pst, Cham - Sage is with Six, as in not with the others. ))

"Go to New India? Again? Already?" Sage queried disappointedly head tilted slightly to the side, "But I just came from there."

"Not to mention I lost someone..." his gaze drooped, going to the hat in his hands again, "Someone so endearing. Can't I take just a little break to get over him...?"

Sage's smile remained as well, though his eyes did open once more, taking some of the friendly innocence from the visage beneath the cloth, "Who? Who is but the form following the function of what, and what I am is a man in a mask. Oh, don't worry, I'm not questioning your powers of observation. I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is..."

[ QUOTE ]
Everything began to slowly wither and die. Bricks fell and turned to sand. Metal rusted and turned to dust. The undead also turned to dust. It was dying -- everything was dying.

The supers from other time streams slowly began to feel... less physical and more mental. This happened to everyone - especially Horowitz.

[/ QUOTE ]
"Buh?" Sage suddenly felt a tad tipsy, stumbling for a moment before he managed to steady himself again. His eyes narrowed as he pulled a periodic table from his cloak, hanging it in the air before his eyes, "Hm...that's just mildly unhelpful. This doesn't make any sense at all, how am I...?"

The sudden rotation of the paper interrupted him, turning the table upside-down, and returning a generous smile to Sage's partly hidden visage, "Ohhh, of course. I can't believe I didn't see that. I guess we should leave then, huh?"

They - or rather it, now - agreed...

[ QUOTE ]
Six knew what was happening and quickly found her way out of the time stream.

[/ QUOTE ]
"My, what a mess." Sage greeted her colloquially, the robed man's back turned to her as she arrived in safety. He closed the notebook in his hand, returning it to his cloak, then eyed the (for a human) somewhat strange-looking hat he'd picked up, "You know...I miss him already. I never even got a chance."

"Say, what about you then?" he turned to her, eyes closed for a moment with the wide smile beneath, "I know this lovely place down by the Riviera..."

((Yay, Dogma's back. I had only dared to hope at AD's mentions. ))

Sage couldn't help but blink in surprise, though whether it was at the fact that the explosive shell had not rent the mace asunder - apparently, the thing wasn't as unstable as it looked - or Bladewing zooming past him and back outside was a good question indeed. Actually, it was a little of both, but no one needed to know that.

"Delays, delays..." he muttered as he calmly walked toward the whole mess. It was horrid, really. Even when he didn't plan something, it didn't go as planned...

((Aoops, I might've made a mistake there then. CE stands for Contained Explosion, which now that I think about it is not a relatively common term. Should we edit?))

((Standing by...))

Planning. Plotting. Preparation. Planning...wait, that was there already. Yeah, this was getting really boring. He didn't like boring. Didn't like boring at all. So he did what anyone with some common sense, basic logic, the ability to think rationally, and the complete disregard for the aforementioned would do.

Hot shot the Jaeger.

Well, not exactly. Sage did produce his gun, a large, vertically double-barreled assault cannon, which gave a happy clack as he removed the safety, followed by a most satisfied crack of thunder as he sent a CE-shell at Horowitz's techno-mace, trying to rend the thing into a million pieces. True, he wasn't a sharpshooter, but where he came from all archeologists were crack marksmen...

((Okay, okay, I'll move then. ))

Sage performed the equivalent of quirking an eyebrow at the droopy dust. Then he gave a shrug, and dropped the pen back into the notebook, which quickly ate the writing instrument. Apparently, the changes here were not by the power of the Necronomicon, but from something else instead.

Oh well. So for now, he'd just have to keep following the people vaporizing zombies - at least until he found a proper location. Big deal. He'd done worse...

The Lady Grey

"The Lineage of War stood quick to react to this new threat, and scrambled all holding craft that could be crewed at the time, including of course our own. The opinion of Toy Dispenser that the meteor itself may have been a trap we did not heed. Unable to make out any manner of invasion force upon or entailed by the rogue asteroid, the decision to destroy it as quickly as possible became accepted in a nearly unanimous manner. In retrospect...we should have known better. Including Our person. Regrettably, the threat this meteor presented blinded us to its true nature, for were it allowed to complete its course toward the planet, it stood without a doubt that nothing could have survived the impact. Not even microbes. The homeworld of the Rikti would have become the barren wasteland it nearly had before, and the prospect that the efforts of those who had saved their planet from the brink stood to go to waste if this collision came to pass spurned our forces to act, needless to say in particular those of the Rikti, fast as they could."

"Our attack was nevertheless an unmitigated disaster. Mr. Zero had not relied upon the sheer size of the meteor as sole its deterrent toward those who sought to do it harm, but in addition installed a coherent energy barrier that completely shielded the weaponized asteroid from our weaponry, both of Rikti and human manufacture. Even the arcane aspects of our assault proved futile against it, the meteor not so much as dignifying our attempts to end its existence with even the smallest amount of shift in course or speed. It was as if it taunted us, mocked the very nature of our efforts, and while we refused to give in, the end result already seemed written in stone: we could not stop it. Not alone."

"Upon these words, however, came the epiphany: the architect of the Forgotten Sanctuary had spoken of such a calamity - and though this may sound strange and macabre, it was from her that we promised ourselves salvation. Delta Team made haste to return to the site, scouring its entirety for the suspected control system that commanded the tools spoken of in the recovered tablets. We stood sure that if these means had been capable of fighting off the Battalion, they could certainly do the same with the meteor. Or at least...so we hoped. Assurance, we knew, was not something to gain there and then, for the passage that had spoken of the creations of the architect falling to the enemy had not escaped our memories. But at least initially, fortune seemed to smile on us, for the search of Delta Team did indeed culminate in the discovery of the control system. Ironically enough, it was the wisdom of not our heroes, but that of a villain who did not even truly stand by our side that brought about its revival..."

Well, the first thing that springs to mind is of course that gravity can theoretically affect all kinds of normal matter, including air molecules (wind) and of course electrons (lightning). Temperature changes within a gas can be achieved by compressing/expanding that gas, and this gravity can do nicely as well.

The second is the reverse correlation: that enemies are locked down by miniature weather patterns swirling so tightly around their bodies that they cannot move (immobs/holds), that highly focused, gale-force winds can throw stuff (propel, wormhole), and that great concentrations of miniature weather patterns can form a remote operating point from which the controller can call upon additional control (singularity).

Of course, those are just the first two that spring to my mind. There are probably many more rationales.

"Hm." Sage remarked as he watched the carnage up ahead, again apparently whispering to the wall, "You guys are going to have to step this up if you actually want to beat these folks. No, seriously. Six...Abdul...anyone?"

Guess not.

With a shrug, the veiled man simply kept up what he had now been doing: reading in the little notebook he'd produced from his cloak and scribbling this and that onto the walls here and there (along with some creative rearrangements here and there).

Best of all, no one seemed to be paying any attention to him whatsoever. This was just too easy...

"Aw c'mon, Six..." Sage quietly pleaded with the wall, "Be a pal?"

No response.

"Drat."

Sage turned his sights down the hall, where people already tore into the undead, and watched Horowitz with a smile beneath his mask. Apparently, it was time to start cooking up a plan of his own...but how should he...?

Oh yes, he knew just what he was going to do - and then he'd have the Jaeger all to himself...

Sage peeled himself off the ground with a slight groan, blinking several times as he transitioned from a push-up to a standing stance once more, the dusted himself off, chuckling psychotically, "Oh yeah. He's real."

Now in the middle of the changing scenery with the others, its presence gave him a thought. True, he'd never actually investigated the possibility of it, so he didn't know if it would be done, but...eh, it was worth a try.

"Hey, Six." he whispered to apparently no one in particular, "Can you shift this place into an arena? Like something really nightmarish and such...?"

That's just awesome. He came out strangely Asian-looking, but still.

"Seriously though, I'm just getting the feeling we're running in circles here." Solid Shot remarked as he peppered another squad of Nemesis Army soldiers with a raucous volley of highly electrified rounds, virtually single-handedly routing the enemy position down the corridor of this tower of the Forgotten Sanctuary, "Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I'm not really getting what even half of all this drama is supposed to be about, so repeated chances to shoot as many bad guys as possible are very welcome things, but I can't help thinking Nemesis needs to get his story straight somewhere."

"Tell me about it." Sheldon Wallace rolled his eyes with a grumble, keeping his robotic teammate up to speed and then some - quite literally, being a kineticist and all - and of course taking the opportunity every now and then to shift the balance of power in favor of their small squad, both by moving a figurative lever's fulcrum as well as very much disrupting the enemy's balance with his gravity gauntlets, replying to the mechanoid with a sigh, "But hey, that's what happens when you get involved in a Nemesis plot."

"I know, right?" Solid retorted in mock enragement, throwing a metal hand in the air, "This is a Nemesis plot, that's a Nemesis plot, everything's a Nemesis plot - how is this guy not stretched so thin that he's come apart by now?"

"Maybe he has." Sheldon couldn't help but snicker, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose as his other hand sent something large, heavy, and decidedly random at a Lieutenant.

"What...was that a globe?" the android's cycloptix almost seemed to widen and give a set of blinks, earning a nodding smile from the inventor before he turned his attention back to firing the rifle in his hands, "Cool! I gotta get me one of those. That's just funny."

"You should see Randy's heat-seeking rocks then." Wallace laughed now, "By the way, just out of curiosity...do you think we're not taking this seriously enough?"

"Naaah." Solid returned in a tone virtually synonymous with 'what an absolutely ridiculous notion', "These guys are pushovers. Besides, who doesn't appreciate a little conversation during-?"

"Cease: babble: maddening!" Warmaster Cher'tak's shout practically thundered down the corridor with the same volume as the energy cannon of Ryat66, "Psychological warfare: improper targets!"

Neither said a word to this. They didn't have to. Mini Bot, however, felt a little differently about such things, and Toy Dispenser very nearly breathed a true sigh of relief when a division of Rikti spirited the Warmaster away in a direction different from that their group pursued.

"You know, as much as I hate to admit it," the robotic mastermind told Randall Grey as they set out for the next tower across the bridge that linked it to the one they'd just cleaned out, "they do have a point. The hell's Brasshead up to? He's not stupid enough to take on the Lineage of War and Vanguard here and expect to win. Anything going on elsewhere?"

"Not a word." the large tanker shook his head, the very same thoughts plaguing his mind. This was too easy. Something had to be wrong. What was it that he wasn't seeing - that apparently no one saw? Randall wasn't a strategic genius, but he did know a thing or two about tactics, and right now was the perfect time for Nemesis to attack anywhere else he might have considered important. Why hadn't he? What was he waiting for?

"Incoming aerial craft!" Large Toy announced militaristically, indicating what could be clearly identified as an approaching starship. Larger than the Drop Ships employed by the Rikti, the vessel still wasn't that much more sizeable, but right now that didn't really matter. The jumping point was that several members of Delta Team had seen this sort of ship before: it was the class of dropship Acid tended to employ. Toy remembered well the time he'd asked the reptilian about its design, and why it stood so similar to the UD4L Cheyenne from 'Aliens'. The Khelari had just smiled that toothy smirk of his and told him that the concept of 'a rocket gun that carries stuff' had very much appealed to him; not to mention that he had never liked the traditional design of transports anyway, preferring instead to stuff every weapon that would fit into his, just in case they might one day need it.

"Boss?" Block Bot lured the mechanoid out of his thoughts once more, the dropship setting down in one of the 'suspended bowls' between three towers (the name of course coined by none other than Solid Shot), inquiring pessimistically, "Are we really going to have to fight that?"

"Doesn't look like it." Randall answered before Toy could, his eyes locked on the craft that had already reappeared over the structure's rim, and seemed to be heading for orbit once more. He couldn't help but crack his knuckles, a light smile beneath his beard, "Let's go see what it dropped. Maybe get some answers. Miss Arcade, would you kindly get us the shortest route there?"

"I don't think you'll need it." Penny's voice came back through the team's communications channel, "In fact, why don't you guys head back over here? I think you'll want to see this."

A few concerns came to light here and there about this sudden and very cryptic proposal, but in the end the decision fell in the woman's favor, the rest of Delta Team returning to the command center that - surprisingly - had not switched sides yet again. Apparently, Vanguard's forces were exceedingly skilled at holding into things they really wanted, and with Penny's technical expertise linking their systems back together, they'd really given the Nemesis Army's soldiers a downright nasty beating.

"Wait for it." Penny told them with a very amused smile, two fingers raised to bid patience as she stood facing the CC's ornate entryway, the team having arrived via group recall, "This'll either be funny, or scary. Either way, I think we're going to get those answers you were talking about, Mr. Grey."

Before Randall could say anything in response, the large door swung open in response to a thunderous kick from the other side, the heavy boot that had done the deed still in the air and practically steaming.

"Commander Cynic!" Overwatch Captain Salvius burst out as he saw his superior, visibly riled up and grumbling beneath his visor.

And alone.

"Relax." the Commander gave a diplomatic nod to Penny as he set his foot back down, "I'm not angry at you guys. In fact, you want answers? I got answers. Which do you want first?"

"Duh." Solid's remark came naturally as could be, but when Cynic didn't answer the mechanoid's steadily aimed rifle after a few seconds, he felt he should add, "Why should we trust anything you say and not just arrest you as well?"

"Because I'm leaving." the Commander's gaze locked his men down, asserting his authority, "We all are."

"I believe I speak for all of us when I state that I retain a healthy amount of doubt as to your sincerity." Archlich mannered himself eloquently as he stepped forward, the undead arcanist wandering casually toward the Commander. The tips of his armored fingers clacked against one another ever so slightly as he walked, his feet stopping not a few centimeters from the man as his eyeless sockets gazed deeply into Cynic's crimson visor.

"Well now," his skinless skull turned back to the others after a few seconds, Archlich clearly taken aback, "the man speaks the truth."

"Alright." Toy Dispenser gave a nod that dripped with skepticism, marching toward the Commander as well. He knew he could trust the skeletal sorcerer's word, but that didn't mean he in any way believed in Cynic's motivations. Thumbing at Combat Toy, the large assault bot giving a wave of a powered-up plasma cannon in return, the robotic mastermind told Cynic in a very uncompromising fashion, "You have thirty seconds before I tell him to fry you. Start talking."

"I only need three." the Commander responded stoically, taking a datapad from his belt, but retained it for now, wanting to know if the Jade Moon installation had been attacked before he handed it over.

"Apparently, yes." Penny couldn't help but blink in surprise as she received confirmation from Balsk that this had indeed taken place, and was as a matter of fact still ongoing, of course prompting her to send the question, "Why didn't anyone say anything?"

"Well..." the draconian's tone seemed unsure, and just why became clear very quickly; specifically, when a loud crash, followed by a roar, followed by shouts of panic, followed by an explosion shuddered through the channel, "We were going to call you, but when they came in here they knocked over something that had to do with Sage's painkillers. He's presently on a rampage, and the soldiers are kind of just taking cover and shooting every now and then. Yes, our soldiers. The enemy...I'm not sure you want yo know. Anyway, the situation's under control here...I think..."

"Good." was Cynic's only remark before he passed the datapad to Toy Dispenser, "Now, if you don't mind, we'll be leaving before that gets here."

"I don't believe this..." the robotic mastermind groaned in exasperation, the faceless faceplate of his head almost seeming to have a face that presently melted into frustration. Indeed, only the fact that there wasn't anything convenient nearby to bash his head against kept him from doing so, "I. Don't. Freakin'. Believe this!"

"What, who, when, where, why, how?" Mini Bot's boss suddenly had the battle drone's full and undivided attention, the childlike machine hopping about Toy with energetic attempts to see the datapad - at least until Combat Toy gave his smaller counterpart a 'tap' on the head once more.

"I told you he was gonna pull this." Toy Dispenser preempted any further questions, his tone disbelieving and dejected, especially once he handed off the pad to Grey, "Yeah, it's a meteor - and of course, it has to be the size of Texas..."