Khellendrosiic

OOC: I'm getting there, I'm getting there.

BIC: There was a brief sequence of almost simultainious flashes that heralded the arrival of Toy Dispenser and most of his crew. They had all heard the psychic message and withdrew toward one corner of the room, staying in a group.

Combat Toy, fists glowing red as his energy projectors gradually burned away Panzerfrau's blood, uttered a low pitched, very short blip of sound as he leaned up against the wall.

Toy Dispsenser responded with an equally quick but higher pitched blip as he shook his head. Small Toy and Large Toy started adding their blips to the apparent conversation as Toy interrogated them one by one.

If one could slow down what they were saying, then one would realize that they were arguing about what to do in Croatoa and where to hide the target now that they had it.

********************************************

The red light in the visor that served as Block Bot's eyes narrowed as he looked from the demon to the dragon.

"Who is that, how did he get here, and if it was magical, what assurances do you have that Blightlord has not noticed it?" shot back the annoyed android.

He also aimed a stream of nanites at the dragon's injury; it was hard to disobey what used to be one's prime directive, after all.

OOC: *sigh* Nobody answered my question.

BIC: Unluckily for Klaus, Ghoul had simply slammed one foot through the ice after slipping around for a second. Unluckily for Ghoul, he regained his balance several feet away from the mad doctor and thus was completely out of arm range. Unable to do anything but fume for fear of falling flat on his face and getting shot, Ghoul glared at Klaus until Martin grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him off the ice.

"You don' gotta tell me twice," Ghoul grumbled. "I was just jumpin' the [censored] for shootin' at a buddy's back. You want me to stop coverin' you all, just say the word."

"We've seen a few other 'bodies' like this," Toy said after Grey had finished speaking for the first time. "Small Toy even spotted what we think is the culprit. But the best look we've gotten is something small, scaley, and with a tail."

"It is doubtful that Nemesis has disintigrated these corpses," Toy Bot said to Grey in lieu of Toy Dispenser himself. "Nothing in our experience leads us to believe that Nemesis would even use such technology unless it would be to replicate powers in an automaton."

"Also," continued Toy as he twisted a bit to talk to Grey as well. "Nemesis tech, while pretty damn advanced, would still leave distinc-"

Toy was cut off as Ineffable appeared and relayed his uncomfortable message.

"What he means, Grey, is that there will be more bombs," Toy answered. "Although why Nemesis went through all the trouble with the Dark Watcher automaton just to blow us all to bits.... Hell, why didn't he just set them all off the moment the portal went haywire?"

"This is why we hate trying to foil Nemesis plots," Mini Bot muttered sourly.

***********************************************

"Hey Binro, Jake, Cher'tak," replied Solid as the other party finally arrived. "Ineff scared off one of the body snatchers, Toy randomly met an old friend, and now I think they're all clonking heads to try and figure something out. You're welcome to go and try to help, I guess."

"This Situation: More: More: Worrisome," sighed Cher'tak as he noticed the bomb that Ineffable was holding.

"And we haven't even got to the planet yet!" Solid responded cheerfully. "Just imagine how much fun we'll have there!"

***********************************************

Archlich cackled gleefully at the reaction of the Portal Corp employees. He had seen this kind of blind worship many times before and it had never ceased to amuse him. It also annoyed him too, but then generally only when some fanatic or another came to try and remove his 'unholy' existence from the world.

OOC: It's late, my brain is fuzzy, and I can't check for myself. Does Unyielding protect against the kind of KB that ice patch does?

"No choices, only poundin'," Ghoul said as he dove forward at Klaus, already bringing one dark energy wreathed hand up for a devastating uppercut. He'd then follow up with some entangling tentacles to keep the good doctor from running away and then start pounding away, the dark energy around each fist acting as a combination acid/smoke screen.

"One sec, cape," Ghoul replied as he spotted something. "You remember that old guy?"

Ghoul took a moment to draw Martin's attention to the mad scientist before bounding towards the man.

"Hey! Old fart!" Ghoul shouted as he took one last jump and came down towards Klaus, feet first. "CATCH!"

I have no idea what you nuts are going on about, but I have a perfectly good pysch write-up stating that, while my brain has a few issues, I am perfectly sane.

So ha.

"God damn capes don't know how ta pull off an assault without blowing everythin' to hell," spat Ghoul as he sat back and watched the aftermath of Dax and Bladewing going all out. "God damn stupid masks that don' know a thing about power discipline."

Growling in annoyance and frustration, Ghoul rounded on Martin and the other two capes and jabbed a finger at them.

"We goin' in or what? We can be just as invisible if we let the idiots take the flak while we sneak around another side."

[ QUOTE ]
Well for one thing, I happen to be legally insane. And yes, I am quite serious.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wait...What?

On a side note: Am I the only perfectly sane person here? Maybe its a side result of constantly analyzing why I myself do and/or feel things. Hmm... Maybe I should do that more often then.

"Banzai!" came a shout from above seconds before Ghoul landed with a heavy thump right inbetween Dax and Dennis.

Getting up from the crouch that he had landed in, Ghoul rolled his head to the accompanyment of several loud cracks and looked back and forth at the hero and villain.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say there was a fight about ta happen," Ghoul said after analyzing the situation for a second.

Would it be possible for the safeguard that keeps us from going insane when looking upon something we cannot comprehend to get overloaded?

Cause if so, that would suck.

Well, all I can say to that is to take a look at the Deathstalker series by Somethingorother Green. He frequently has the protagonists fight creatures or things that defy rational explantion and makes special note that any normal person would have their mind blown at the simplest sight of such a thing.

Green does lots of crazy [censored] in those novels. Like a kid with the power to render 2/3rds of the galaxy lifeless with but a thought or a psychic abomination composed of the brains of thousands of people with psychic talent that with it's mere prescense can cause an entire planet to go insane.

Crazy [censored], man.

The things that will always cause the human mind to break will be the ones that the human mind literally cannot comprehend. Buildings stretching off into angles that make your head hurt just looking at them, things like that. Until we can find someway to understand in more than four dimensions (including time) then anything that operates on any additional dimensions is really going to mess with our heads.

OOC: Oh. Maybe their busy? Didn't Jennifer say something a little while ago? Too lazy to go check for myself. Not sure what happened to Binro, though.

OOC: East, Krazy? The Council base is in the west.

BIC: "And off we go again," Ghoul muttered as he rolled his shoulders and did a couple of squats to warm up his legs. "Lead the way, blaster bot."

Running forward a few steps, Ghoul hopped once, landed, then tensed up his legs and sprang about two hundred feet in the air, describing a nearly perfect arc before he hit pavement and bounded into the air again.

"Try to make some landmarks or somethin'!" Ghoul shouted over the rushing of the wind. "I don't know my way around this scrap heap!"

"Can we just break him in half or something and get going?" Ghoul asked with a groan. "I thought we were here to beat up some high class [censored]. Not a Dr. Aeon wanna-be."

OOC: Jake got called by Toy to come over to the rest of the group where Grey is. If he's alone, it's only cause you missed something.

BIC: "Well there's something you don't see everyday," Combat Toy remarked at the same time Toy Dispenser shouted, "Acid!?!"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Toy continued as he stepped forward, pulse rifle hanging at his side. "Unai told me we were the first group that got sent through!"

"And more importantly," added Toy Bot as it clattered around to get a look at things. "What exactly are you doing to that cadaver?"

*********************************************

"Advice: Rejoin: Main Party," said Cher'tak to Jake, Penny, and Binro after Toy had finished talking. "Follow orders: Soldier's Duty."

"I'll take rear guard," Small Toy said quietly. "I'll probably notice things faster than you all."

The little battle drone faded back, literally, as it activated its cloaking field and almost completely vanished from sight. It would watch their back trail with its additional sensors deployed and make sure nothing crept up on them without Small Toy knowing.

*********************************************

"What the hell is going on up there?" asked Solid Shot of Block Bot as he craned his head to see past the still partially closed blast doors. "We find whatever was eating those Rikti?"

"No," sighed Block Bot. "Just another wild factor that'll end up biting us in the [censored] come D-Day."

Solid looked at Block Bot for a moment before shaking his head and heading up front to see what the problem was himself.

*************************************************

Archlich decided to remain quiet at this juncture. There was little he could add to this discussion that he hadn't already and so no point in talking at the moment.

But while the others discussed, Archlich was searching back through his mind for a spell that might prove useful. Surely there had to be something that he had learned during his long years of study and quiet watching?

Combat Toy looked at where Ineffable had been and then looked back at Grey.

"Funny. Didn't you tell him to burn through that other door there?" the assault bot asked. "Talk about insubordinate [censored]."

Archlich huffed slightly when he was ignored in favor of the dissassembled construct. But figuring that the machine would have something of importance to relate if Kemen was ignoring Archlich, the mage decided to listen in and see what was up.

"One could always check to see if something supernatural has allowed this 'Thing' to usurp control of your machinery," Archlich said after Ryatt had finished speaking. "Generally a practitioner does not mix magic with technology, but there have been exceptions over the years."

When everyone turned to look at him, the lich simply shrugged.

"Or perhaps it is even simpler than that and the construct's boogeyman was put into place at the formation of your machine. Considering the time when it may have been created, security protocals regarding odd bits of..." Archlich paused briefly as he sifted through his memory for conversations with Toy Dispenser. "Odd bits of code, yes. Things might have been a bit more lax back then."

Shrugging once more and with a very false sense of humility, Archlich added, "But then again I don't deal with these kinds of phenomena. I have others on hand that are far more well versed with technology."

***********************************************

"I got the other side," Combat Toy said as it stepped forward and grabbed onto the other edge of the partially open door. "Just give me the word and I'll break this scrap heap open."

"I'll call them up," Toy said curtly as he backed off and let Combat Toy through.

Placing one hand on his satt link, Toy mentally dialed through various channels until he locked onto the signal that his team was using. After putting it on quick dial, he called up Jake, Penny, Binro, and Cher'tak.

"Team 2, this is Toy Dispenser. Grey is calling off the dual search and wants you all over at the right intersection on the double. If you have any questions, call me back or ask Small Toy," he said before shutting off the link.

While he was speaking, the hand that wasn't on his 'ear' had crept down to his hip and started rapping its fingers against the armor there. Aside from his curtness, this was the only outward sign that Toy gave to show he was pissed. Solid, being another sentient android, recognized the signs and faded back to keep an eye on the rear.

Ghoul frowned, his brow furrowing in confusion. Martin had looked as though someone had walked over his grave just a second ago and one of the two buddy capes had done something that Ghoul hadn't entirely seen at about the same time. The brute's eyes narrowed as he looked at Karl. This all had something to do with the mad doctor, he could feel it in his bones.

But there wasn't much he could do at the moment aside from standing around and looking menacing, so he did just that and bided his time.

Orders: Recieved: Cap'n.

Statement: Yar.

"I could fit through there," Mini said as it waved its hand at Grey. "I'll squeak a lot, but I bet I can move fast enough to tackle the lizard thing while the rest of you get the door open."

"We probably won't need their help," said Toy in response to Grey's order. "You and Combat Toy can open the door and I'm sure we'll have enough firepower to put it down or out if Mini Bot isn't able to immobilize it on his own."

"Could open the door myself," huffed the assault bot in irritation.

"Speaking of firepower, where's the wonder twins?" Solid asked, referring to Thelth and that other guy.

"I'm fine with the smart cape leadin' the team," Ghoul said as he got a firm hold of Karl's foot. "And my name is Brutish Ghoul. Ghoul, fer short. Anyway, you want me to pull him up now?"

Whatever else Ghoul was, he didn't seem to have a problem with authority.

OOC: Apparently I posted earlier just to make myself look like an [censored] when I take so long to actually post. Serves me right for being a [censored], I guess.

BIC: "Right behind you, boss," whispered Solid Shot from the rear as he took up a covering position at the corner. While the area was supposedly clear, Solid was taking no chances with another Nemesis ambush.

Moving as quietly as about a ton of metal could, Toy Dispenser and his five bots moved up in between Grey and Solid to anchor the line. The mastermind moved up next to Grey to look through the gap in the door and dialed up the magnification on his sensors to get a good look at the figure chewing on one of the Rikti.

When Ineffable appeared, Toy jerked back as though he had been punched and flicked the brute off. He dragged his other hand across his neck to indicate silence before beckoning the brute to join him and Grey on the other side of the door.

"No telling how sensitive it's hearing is, sir," remarked Large Toy quietly over the team link.

**********************************************

"Status: Ready: Willing: Able," Cher'tak said to Penny and Jake, obviously eager to get moving.

**********************************************

The runes floating around Archlich flashed out of existence at the same moment he stopped chanting. A faint nimbus of white energy surrounded the lich as he started moving toward the portal.

He paused for a moment to nod at Lady Grey and then resumed his unhurried walk straight into the malfunctioning portal and certain death. He stepped into the portal and vanished immidiately.

At the same instant, Archlich walked out of the portal back on Earth, seemingly untouched and with his protective aura quickly fading. The various technicians and scientists stared at the mage as he violated all of the laws that had lead them to believe that passage out of this side of the portal was fatal.

Used to such stares from the untalented, Archlich easily ignored them all and approached the Security Chief, Unai Kemen.

"Pay heed, Mr. Kemen," Archlich said as he walked over to the man. "I bring you news of what has transpired on the other side since the portal malfunctioned."

OOC: And thus do all you people on the other side know what's gone on with the rest of us. Cheers!

"Not me," Ghoul said as he walked over to the coffin and looked at Karl's foot.

"Think he's ticklish?" the brute asked as he started pulling off the Mortificator's shoe.