Ineffable

"Ah. A Land-Line. Handy." Said an icy voice.

Kuro emerged from the portal Energon-X had just conjured.

"Noit, status and time remaining." He barked into thin air.

"Terra, surrounded by pissed-off people. Thirteen minutes to one hour and fifty eight minutes, twenty two seconds and counting." Said a cool and calm artificial voice from seemingly nowhere.

"Right then, no time to waste...Which one of you would be Power Breaker?" Kuro asked, his red tinted sunglasses piercing into every member of the room as his head swept about.

"I sense nothing myself." Ineffable said. "Although my range while solid is limited. If anybody would prefer it, I can give the general area a quick once-over."

"None here." Said Igor from his seat were he obviously had not been a second ago.

Ineffable appeared outside. He hadn't touched one of the harnesses.

"Ten seconds in and already there is the prospect of mysterous deaths and violence. I like it here." He said dryly as Acid snarled his order to remain close.

((What's in where?))

Unfortunately for Darkvapor and his little bubble, that was all moot beause Poe's base of operations was currently within an hour's walk. Or a few minutes worth of hideously fast jumping/flying or a few seconds worth of super-speeding.

Whoever was coming was going to be there in no time flat...

-----

Of course, there was nobody else in the room aside from Conlin, Build, and the figure. The Final Generation Husks had been cut off by the door.

The figure merely listended to their tale.

"Right..." He said when they finished. "Send you home...That can do."

He snapped his fingers. The node the pair were standing on activated, and before they could react, they were whisked away.

-----

Build and Conlin both rematerialized on the Docks of Nerva Archipelago. Nobody paid them any mind, people did tend to just 'pop up' here.

-----

Kuro stared at the node.

"Did you get all of that?" He asked to the air.

Noitpeced faded into view. "Yes." He said. "What now?"

"Well. For one thing, we go there and we end this whole ordeal." Kuro responded, reconfiguring the node via his sunglasses. "And I think it would be best if we reconfigured Xabu's signature so he gets redirected. I see no reason why the master should know anything about this situation."

"Very well." Noitpeced said, his eyes going blank as he made arrangements. "I think we'd better hurry. I don't want to repeat the whole Shadow Manor fiasco. Preferably, I'd like to make this deal WITHOUT the looming threat of Terra being obliterated this time around. And if I'm right, we only have fifteen minutes in real-time before Poe leaps in."

Kuro considered this before asking, "And how much real-time do WE have left?"

"Two hours." Noitpeced said.

"Hmmm. Terra always was a nice planet. I suppose it's a good a place as any..."

He stepped into the rift node.

"...To fade away..."

Kuro vanished, shortly followed by Noitpeced.

((Someone isn't very optimistic I see.))

And that was that.

Xabu, although a brute, had a very large glaring weakness.

His literal glass jaw.

Kaega's blow with his special sword was all it took.

The world froze. There was a giant whooshing noise. The dimensional distortions, the waves, the lances of electricity, every last bit of energy that had been spiraling and whirling around like a hurricane imploded into a single point. Xabu.

Standing in the middle of the imploding maelstrom, the various runes on Xabu's armor were glowing bright red, and kept on getting brighter. The giant himself appeared to be clawing at thin air. A million cracks of pure light seemed to spread across his frame as the red runes overloaded.

His armor cracked.

It crumpled itself into a little compact trash-ball, before being blown away into dust, leaving only a howling figure that appeared to be made of pure energy behind. This figure continued to claw at the air about it. While it SHRUNK.

Mere seconds later, the figure had gone down from fifteen feet to fifteen centimeters, and after that, Xabu was gone, taking all the energy in the vicinity with him.

-----

Location Unknown

A light on the monitor went up.

"NOW he sends a signal? Noit, go take care of it." Poe said.

Motnahp nodded gloomily and faded into thin air.

-----

Bad news for Build and Conlin. They couldn't use the node! The moment they had stepped into it a calm voice had said something about Essence Signature-But it was over. They had lost. Any moment now hundreds of guards would swarm them-

Nothing happened. The door leading into the room had snapped shut the moment they had entered.

"So...." Said a voice.

A figure seemed to ooze and melt into the pairs' vision.

"How do you two fine gentlemen know Poe, and what are you doing here...?"

The man asked the question in a friendly enough tone, although he appeared to be slightly annoyed.

Xabu, who had been running at under the speed of light, didn't even have time to register something was wrong before the sword sucked him up. All the other assaults directed at him, missed. Unless they were aimed at Bladewing, in which case, all they would hit would be the blaster.

After he figured out what was happening? There was going to be hell to pay. And unfortunately, he figured it out not a moment after being sucked up.

A voice that could have been Xabu's boomed about, the difference being it was multi-pitched and layered. Like multiple synchronized voices.

'OH NO YOU DON'T! TWO CAN PLAY THIS GAME!'

And suddenly, the blacker-than-black sword changed colors.

From pitch-black to smoldering red. That could mean only one thing. Light was escaping the pull of the black hole, which, in turn, meant it something was very very wro-

The sword exploded in a torrent of energies as Xabu, running faster than the speed of light, erupted from the sword like a rocket. The pull of the black hole slowed him down to a point where he was clearly visible, and as a matter of fact, it was slowing him down so much that he was just 'really fast' as opposed to 'impossibly fast.' It wouldn't be too hard for anybody who was fast enough to hit him now.

Assuming they could navigate past the tremendous explosion of energy, and the temporal and spacial disruptions being caused by an object traveling FASTER than light in the nearby vicinity of an object that warped gravity. It also shortly became clear that very soon, things were about to get REALLY messy REALLY fast, and it would be all over the place. Both in the literal and metaphorical sense.

-----

Of course, just accomplishing a task was much easier said than done. In the time Build had taken to even glance at Conlin and deliver that simple statement, hundreds of stunning rounds had already impacted the wall directly behind him. It had been a sheer miracle they had all missed, and more kept coming. The pistols were fully automatic, and there were more guards joining the fray every second.

Jonas and Conlin had a huge obstical in their way: The multi-dimensional crowd of varied species. Some of them were as large as houses, and ticking them off was not advisable. Furthmore, they now had a rather thick ring of guards surrounding them from all sides, pistols out and blazaing, thousands of stunning shots heading right for them.

The door that Build and Conlin wanted to head through was still there in plain view, a mere two hundred meters away with around three dozen pairs of guards between them and it, not to mention a few hundred multi-dimensional ccreatures standing in neat orderly lines.

((A: Xabu isn't a Husk Lord.

B: Did you miss the giant black hole that Bladewing just conjured? I will remind you all that gravity affects everything, not just my character.

Additionally, he just auto-hit me with that-Which means for you to be attacking Xabu right now, you'd have to be aiming at Bladewing.

C: The reason I'm quote, 'Putting it off' unquote is because I was waiting for others' reaction to said auto-hitting black hole of absolute doom.))

Xabu's localized Power Sink shut off the moment the faults and tremors began. And was it just an optical illusion, or did the place suddenly appear to be filled with billions of identical stumbling figures?

The image flickered out quickly though, and then Kaega charged in with his sword. That's when he learned that although his physical bloodlust could cut through solid steel, intangible energy fields were not steel. He might as well have just swiped at a river.

And additionally, using a metalic weapon against an electrical foe was a VERY bad idea...

The second his blade touched the torrent of energy, it became magnetized and unless Kaega had a very good grip on the weapon, it was going to be flung out of his hands due to the polarization. Assuming he held onto the blade, every volt of electricity in the room was about to be conducted through it and directly into HIM.

Still, it shortly became obvious Xabu was thinking rather than attacking. He had a sapped but still potentially dangerous Jonas, a ground-breaking Fraenir, and some bloody (stupid) psychopath slicing at thin air with a conducter. That and with everyone running around, Xabu was having a hard time conducting a proper battle plan.

Ineffable could detect energy. But only if it was close by. If it wasn't within a defined area, it might as well have been dead to him. Unless the transmission went directly through the dropship, the chances of him detecting it unless he turned intangible were zero.

He remained silent during the selection of their landing spot. He didn't care where they landed, as long as they landed at all.

"It's happened plenty of times before." Xabu said in a bored voice from seemingly everywhere. "But there's one tiny problem here. You havn't reversed it."

That's about when Jonas' energy levels began to flatline. His murky aura might have been able to protect his energy from being sapped, but it still wouldn't last forever. The small dark storms of energy he kept putting out began to flicker.

"Ya see...You may be able to drain energy...But it looks like that dark consumption of yours doesn't effect the entire area. In short, it can miss. And I am running at just a little bit under the speed of light right now. I have to STUTTER what you're hearing right now just so you CAN hear it."

Staic sparked as Xabu chuckled from every place in the room at once.

"That's check, little moth."

Xabu deflected the dark spark with a red one of his own.

"Oh, another living energy eater. Just like that Nictus from before. Your type are all the same. So cocky and confident just because you're trying to compensate for your crappy diet plan. Well I have news for you..."

Xabu flickered, fuzzed over, and vanished in a small shower of sparks.

"That high horse you're on? It just ran away without you." Xabu's voice finished from apparently everywhere at once.

And at that moment, there was another localized powersink. This time, around the Darkin. He couldn't dodge it since it affected the entire area he occupied, and because it was anchored to him. His energy rapidly began to dwindle as it was sucked and sapped from him at speed. Additionally, his ability to naturally regenerate energy sputtered and failed as he was exposed to the sapping field.

Worse yet, he was not going to be able to drain the potential out of his surroundings to recharge. The power sink was leeching the energy out of EVERYTHING within its radius, which effectively meant that trying to replenish his energy by taking it from his surroundings would get him nothing, as the energy in said area had already been taken.

-----

Build and Colin leapt out right back where they had started, looking said monster in its blank face.

The noes were apparently, NOT simple to construct. They were apparently, NOT just simple half-hybrids of Tech and Magic. That was hardly right in any way shape or form.

The Redirect Lounge was not ammused, to say the least. It redirected Build and Conlin's sloppy rift attempt right back to where it started.

And now the room was filled with various security husks, who simply fired their pistols. Thankfully, it appeared they didn't want to kill the two. They merely fired stunning rounds.

From fully automatic pistols.

((I'm implying that half a dozen OF THE ZOMBIES THAT ARE THERE said 'Blargh.' But it is very possible some of the troops may have run off after they figured out that the members of the party who kept going missing when nobody was looking wern't going to come back.))

Ineffable shrugged and he was suddenly by Toy.

"What is this? I JUST left the damn place where all the threats like that were usually delivered. Can't I get into ANY fight at ALL where I'm not fighting some hopelessly outclasses child who talks tough?"

Xabu made a spitting noise and a tiny red spark hit the floor at the Darkin's feet.

"Out of the way little one. Let the people who know what they're actually doing fight me."

-----

All Build got in response was a few more raised pistols.

"Last warning. Back into the receiving room." The guard said coldly. There were a few odd dozenish guards getting closer through the crowd.

((I was waiting on Briggs, but I guess I can go on. >.&gt)

Xabu, who had apparently vanished during the explosion, seemingly rose up from the floor in a puddle of static.

"If you wish to sacrifice yourself to me, plaything..." Xabu said tauntingly to Kaega. "...I will not stop you. On guard!"

With a blur of motion, Xabu conjured a pair of electrical blades and weaved them about in a kata around his body, bringing them down in an offensive stance, facing the sword wielder.

"I'm going to fikth the Rocket Carriage." Igor said in a calmy voice as he stepped through the portal. "Altho get a few more gumbo-headth up."

"Blargh." Said half a dozen Arachnos corpses as Igor passed by.

"Although, ith there anything I can do for you? Do you require athithtance in any matter? Ith there thome materialth or thomething elth you need? Thall I get thome doomthday devith componenth? Do you need any thpare parth for a ten thtory tall mechanical monthtrothity? Maybe thome mobile rapid-fire artillery? A back-pack ICBM mithile? I livth to thervth, mathter."

Ineffable slowly rematerialized by the Lady Grey, muttering something about sockpiles of oranges.

"Aside from the Rikti ship I just noticed, is there anything important I missed?" He asked in an annoyed voice

Igor shrugged. It was normal for him to be ignored when he offered help. He was an Igor, there to serve and to listen and not much else.

He shuffled out the door again. Might as well do something moderately productive.

Igor waved Klaus off.

"Ifth thith ith in Therbia, my couthin Igor might be able to help uth. The moved there two yearth ago. It wouldn't be too hard to contact her and havth a few ofth her Flieth do thome thurveillanth work. It would take a few dayth to relay actual imageth though."

And that's when an entire battalion of Council troops ported in.

They gave the two heroes before them a half-second big hairy eyeball before charging.

-----

Salvatore and Volder didn't even try dodging. The Ascendent Archon had a wide variety of new abilities thanks to the H-Boosters, and he wasn't going to allow a little cave-in to disrupt them. He flipped on the force bubble just in time. Still, the ruddle caved in on the outskirts of the bubble and trapped both Adjutant and Ascendant beneath. It would take them quite some time to dig out...

Ineffable completely ignored Scarab and winked out of existence once more.

And reappeared in the space Scarab was currently occupying. He was going to simply make Scarab pop like a baloon by rematerializing inside of him. Either that or just obliterate him from the inside out.

It didn't even matter how fast Scarab was. All Ineffable had to do was perform a minor course correction mid-teleport and he'd wind up inside his target regardless of what evasive manuver it tried to perform.

Igor sighed.

"I thtill maintain thith ith hardly an amazthing dithcovery. Reanimated corptheth altho uthe their entire brain capathity to functhion. Ifth you want, I havth a diagram in my bag fully detailing the human brain."

He paused.

"Although, I am thtill inclined to help now, becauthe it would be bad for buithness for anyone elthe to figure it all out." He added quickly. Which was only half true. Igor was also too subserviant to turn down any given task or job.

((Synapse is actually a blaster, pretty sure anyway. He could be an Incarnate though...))

"I' not a Husk Lord. I'm just an old friend of their boss." The Xabus all replied simultaneously to Kaega.

Then Kip went Beserk and started to attack.

Their attacks passed right through every after-image they attacked, and then the nastiness again. Their opponent had no intentions of playing fair.

"Hey, careful there sport." Said one Xabu cheerfully as he delivered a blow that could have removed the giant's head.

"Yea, you're going slow that if you're not careful, your life might pass you by before you even figure out what hit you." Chuckled another.

The images all flickered, and vanished.

And reappeared in a perfect circle around Kip. They all conjured electrical blades.

"Eat electric death."

Twelve blades filled every inch of space between them. Xabu was running in a perfect circle around Kip, delivering blows at regular intervals at each spot an after-image appeared in.

Kip was probably well protected from the physical and energy portions of the rapid attacks, but they were also slowly sapping his end with each hit. The question being, could he resist being drained of energy?

All the attacks hit Xabu dead on.

Nothing happened. The giant didn't even flinch. As a matter of fact, it seemed as though their attacks went right through him.

"Just my after-image." Called a crackling voice from the opposite side of the room.

No less then three Xabu's crouched against various surfaces. They all looked rather relaxed.

"Ya know Synapse? He's a freaking tank-mage. Everyone thinks it's his speed that makes him special. Lemme tell ya-It isn't. I'M the real Positron in those terms. My skill..."

The image of Zabu everyone was beating up on vanished.

"Is my speed."

There was suddenly a large collection of fuzz everywhere.

Multiple Xabu's began popping out of thin air. Soon there were six of him.

"Your move." They all said simultaneously, looking completely calm and relaxed, their red coal-like eyes drilling holes in the group.