Khellendrosiic

You want Virtue.

EDIT: Virtue is the unofficial official RP server. Pinnacle comes in second.

Toy: >_> *kicks TV* [censored] super reception giving me alien news again.

Ghoul: Hey! I was watching that!

Archlich twisted his hand around and the box flipped over so that Ozell tumbled out and lightly hit the ground, slightly bouyed by the levitation spell Archlich had been using on the box. It's occupant now out, Archlich swiftly directed the box to sit in a corner and crossed his arms as he regarded the children.

"So three more humans, an elf, and a demon. I'm sure you will all fit in wonderfully. Now, what exactly are your ages? I'm fairly sure none of you are above ten, but I have been accused of being a bad judge of age before."

[ QUOTE ]
((I DIED, SOVIET, I DIED))

[/ QUOTE ]

OCC: *passes out Official Essex Brand Funeral Momentos*

1098: I will no longer tell my party members "You guys can do whatever as long as you roll really well." Because if I do so, the Marine will end up jumping through the air, landing on the Hydralisk's back, one-shotting the Hydralisk with his sword, jump again, land on the Lurker before it can burrow, and then one-shot the Lurker.

1099: Never let someone escape with JUST their weapon getting knocked away after rolling three consecutive ones.

There was a heavy clunk from upstairs followed by a dozen other, more muffled, thumps as a piece of armor tumbled down the stairs. Archlich irritably followed in its wake, mostly glad in his black, rune enscribed armor, and snagged the fallen piece once it hit bottom.

"Handle the emotional ones," Archlich said to Essex as he snapped the armor into place and looked over at the newcomers. "I shall see about getting yet more of our 'guests' settled."

His glowing blue eyes looking from Snuffy and Kip at the back door to Anarhis, the elf, and the box, the lich sighed and waved for them to step forward. His wave also caused the box to float slowly into the air towards him, giving at least one group of children little reason to not come in.

"I am Archlich," he said as the box floated toward him. "The second of two managers of this house. I will require your names and your reasons for being here as well as whether or not you will be staying the night. It is, after all, a little too dangerous for children to be wandering about outside unattended."

OOC: I am so badly camping the boards today.

BIC: Small Toy nodded and gestured for Vyach to follow it as its right arm flipped back into a less awkward mobile configuration. The little drone then scuttled off, making a beeline for where Toy and his group would be.

Archlich snorted in disgust at the child's fear as he started up the stairs to go back to his room.

"My name is Archlich, child. The female construct is known as Essex. She will show you to a temporary room. In the morning you and I shall discuss things, fill out paperwork, and get you a permanent room."

Annoyed at the length of his robe almost causing him to trip as he walked up the stairs, Archlich sighed in irritation and vanished in a small flash of light.

"Sweet dreams..." came the lich's voice, fading slowly.

OOC: Ah Archlich. How I missed you. *hug*

But....but....

I didn't have enough money to replace my arm with a cybernetic one. T_T All I could afford was the heart and ammo bin.

"Unknown," Small Toy replied as it shifted its stance, causing its active camo to ripple oddly. "But the boss has hypothesized as such."

The little battle drone shifted again, its movements making sense as it leveled its beam rifle toward Vyachslav's eye. The drone then silently waited, figuring that the alien could figure out what it wanted to hear.

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

"Small Toy reports that he's found another potential ally," Toy Dispenser said as he waved for Marcus and Slater to come closer. "But with this insidious little voice floating around in the back of my head, I'm not entirely sure we should go for first impressions. So how about we start moving toward the city and let the new guy catch up should he be in control of himself."

The mastermind looked back and forth from thug to hero and nonchalantly shouldered his pulse rifle in a carrying position.

"Any objections?" he asked.

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

Chertak ignored the footsteps and kept walking, finally clearing the last of the swamp and coming up to the high walls surrounding the city. With his pursuer thoughtlessly exposing himself, Chertak's sensors would have no problem notifying him if the stalker should move forward and attempt to attack him.

But just to be sure...

Flipping his rifle through the air, Chertak punched a button on his wrist and caught the rifle as it faded away into blue lines that seemed to drain away into his gauntlet. Matter compression technology, even as limited as their current understanding of it was, was truely useful.

*gets a cybernetic heart*

SWEET! Now I use less endurance to do stuff! Wheeeeeeee!!!

....now how the hell does this internal ammunition storage help me punch people stronger?

OOC: >_> This may or may not be my only appearance.

BIC: The door was roughly yanked open from the inside almost as soon as the young child had finished talking. The porch lights flicked on and his boombox shorted out at the exact same moment as the door opened, revealing a short skeleton dressed in a dark green fluffy robe. It's pinprick blue eyes glared angrily at the child, not that the child would probably notice that as he probably didn't know how to spot emotions on something with no face.

"You're a bit late," Archlich hissed as he backed up and gestured inside. "But I am prevented from turning anyone away. Come inside and take a seat in the front room."

The lich paused for a second and then seemed to be gritting his teeth as he followed with a, "Do you have any other luggage with you? I may assist you in bringing it in."

OOC: Who are we waiting for now?

Awwww.... So cute.

<_< Though I do agree somewhat with Grey.

Plot senses....TINGLING.

“Why is it always the Circle of Thorns?” Toy Dispenser asked rhetorically as he blasted a green-robed cultist into the wall with a force bolt.

Combat Toy moved forward and viciously punched the cultist in the stomach, folding the man around Combat Toy’s plasma cannon blast shield. The assault bot jerked its arm to one side and the man slumped off, unconscious. Behind them, a Behemoth cursed in some demonic tongue as Mini Bot and Small Toy ganged up on it, shooting the demon in the back whenever it turned to reach for one of the drones. But they could keep up this bait and switch routine for hours without doing any significant damage to the Behemoth, so Large Toy and Block Bot chose that moment to fire twin photon grenades. The explosions of buffeting force and light disoriented the demon long enough for Toy Bot to come up from behind and stab the demon in the back of its head. Pulling its claws out with a wet sound, Toy Bot backed away and let the demon hit the ground, dead.

“I mean, I can forgive the Circle for being the only major magic-based group but the fact that we seem to fight them every other day? Kind of annoying,” Toy continued as he started walking down the narrow passageway past the side corridor from whence the cultist and demon had attacked from. “At least good old laser fire is quite capable of killing demons and ghosts. If it wasn’t, we’d all be up the river without a paddle.”

“Found one of Scirocco’s men, boss,” said Mini Bot as the group rounded another corner and came up to a doorway that led into a giant room whose exact dimensions faded into the darkness above.

Just across a rickety looking bridge that led from the doorway to a massive stone outcropping that stood in the center of the room was a prone Mu mystic. He appeared to be wounded, several parts of his red armor torn or burned. But when they neared the body, Toy’s sensors told him that the man was dead, killed by the Circle of Thorns mages.

“Don’t look special when they’re just laying there, huh boss,” grunted Combat Toy as it nudged the body with its foot. “Guess they should rethink the whole ‘tied up and floating’ thing.”

“He certainly looks like he wouldn’t have died if he had been able to drag himself,” Toy said as he cast one more glance at the body and then shifted his attention to the ground around them.

Even if one didn’t have access to highly sophisticated sensors, one would have been able to tell that the top of this stone spire was witness to a brutal battle between metahumans. Parts of the ground were still covered in ice and shiny ectoplasmic residue covered most of the ground that wasn’t frozen. It looked as though the Circle had thrown its more expendable members, demons and ghosts, at Ice Mistral and her group first. They probably hoped to whittle down the Arachnos numbers to something more manageable, which wouldn’t have been very hard as the e-mail Scirocco had sent Toy indicated that Ice Mistral went off with only a very light bodyguard.

“Little more than a bratty teenager with superpowers,” Toy sighed as he thought about Ice Mistral. “Thinks she can handle anything that gets thrown at her and come out on top every single time.”

“Don’t we kind of think that too, boss?” Mini Bot asked, tilting its head to one side. “I mean, we never go and fight expecting to lose, and we’ve lost sometimes.”

Toy shot Mini Bot an annoyed look and turned back to inspecting the battlefield. It looked like the battle had devolved into a running engagement, possibly as Ice Mistral realized that she was a bit outnumbered. The fight seemed to have moved on out of the room and through some more corridors.

“Come on then,” Toy said as he hoisted his pulse rifle and started running, following the signs of battle. “The sooner we find Ice Mistral, the sooner we can get the hell out of here.”

When running at full speed all of Toy’s robots made an ungodly racquet, the echoes of their metallic tread spread far and wide through the underground labyrinth that was a massive guard post from ancient times when magic still ruled the earth. Several cultists were caught by surprise this way, the echoes making it hard to tell from where the original sounds had come and confusing some of the Circle into turning their backs to where Toy was actually coming from. The first several cultists caught this way were just bowled over, knocked flat by Combat Toy and then trampled under six other pairs of feet, leaving them in no condition to get back up and fight. The robots charged through the corridors in this manner until they came across open room, this one full of miniature ziggurats and dominated by a giant green crystal that hung from the ceiling in the exact center of the room.

“About time you showed up!” shouted Ice Mistral from where she struggled against the magical bindings placed on her by a Circle Archmage. The villainess was surrounded by dead and unconscious bodies of both her own entourage and unlucky cultists and demons.

“I’m always on time to rescue the damsel in distress!” Toy shouted back as he skidded to a halt and shouldered his pulse rifle, taking aim at the Archmage of Agony. “Now then, how about we let the ice queen go and you can walk out of here with both legs still working?”

The Archmage grinned, showing yellowing teeth, and gestured to his sides. As if summoned, a small host of demons, cultists, and lesser mages appeared out of nowhere; some of them springing into existence out of thin air while others merely walked out from behind some of the ziggurats. The air was suddenly filled with demonic howls, ancient curses, and sibilant chanting as the Circle revved themselves up to attack.

“Well this is a bit more of a welcome than I expected,” Toy said as he fired at the Archmage. A shimmering shield sprung into place in front of the Archmage’s body and would have deflected the laser blast if Toy had been aiming for anything vital. Rather, the blast cut a neat swatch through the large, ceremonial hat the Archmage wore, causing it to drop down and obscure the man’s vision. Cursing, he tore his hat off and lifted up one hand to incase Toy Dispenser in a shifting gravimetric field that would slowly crush him into the size of a soda can.

A light tap on his shoulder reminded the infuriated Archmage that the distraction caused by his hat had broken his concentration on holding the bindings trapping Ice Mistral together. His head slowly turned to face the blue-haired villainess. Ice Mistral had a wide, shark-like grin on her face as she leaned forward and kissed the Archmage on his nose. The Archmage’s eyes crossed as he struggled to see what she had done to him and saw a thin coating of ice spreading from his nose up his face. Within seconds the Archmage was covered in ice and shattered as Ice Mistral pushed him over.

“Think you can make me a snow cone after we clean up this trash?” Toy Dispenser asked as his robots moved up, confronting the suddenly nervous Circle group.

“Screw you,” Ice Mistral said with a frown as she jumped through the air and landed lightly at Toy’s side.

“So soon?” Toy asked incredulously. “But we’re only on our second date!”

A crossbow bolt whizzing past Ice Mistral’s face put paid to any further bantering. The crossbow bolt was answered by several dozen laser blasts, two plasma beams, and a bolt of ice. The fight really didn’t last that long.

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

“I guess I should be thanking you for the rescue,” pouted Ice Mistral as she led Toy Dispenser toward where she thought the Malleus Mundi was being kept. “But I’m not. As far as I’m concerned, I could have gotten out of there just fine on my own.”

“Whatever the lady wants, the lady gets,” Toy Dispenser said with a shrug. “Although I must say, those glowing runes of binding looked particularly fetching next to that horrified look on your face.”

Ice Mistral shot Toy a glare that made it look like she wanted to dismantle him right then and there, but she managed to restrain herself and settled on staring straight ahead as she walked.

“You and Scirocco are all the same, you know that?” Ice Mistral said. “Both of you are caught up in this whole ‘You don’t need to be a bad guy to be evil’ thing. It’s a load of crap is what it is. Why the hell do you take contracts and stuff and work for other people instead of just taking what you want? And Scirocco, god, he can be so goody-two-shoes some times I wish I had been apprenticed to the fish man.”

“Just because you two draw your powers from the same source doesn’t mean you have to like each other,” remarked Toy sagely a he lifted up one finger. “Confucius say not all bad people need to be evil.”

“What the hell does that mean?” asked Mistral as she shot Toy an annoyed glance. “But whatever, doesn’t matter. Has he ever given you his speech about how he used to be a freedom fighter and fought for noble ideals or whatever? I mean seriously, what the hell is up with that? I’m a villain! I’m in this to take what I want and not take any [censored] from people, why won’t he get that?”

Toy settled for rolling his head in a sarcastic gesture and let Mistral continue her rant.

“And that’s not even the worst of it!” Mistral shouted. “Now he’s falling in love with that dead witch. Talk about necrophilia, ugh. And he never seems to actually teach me how to use my powers better. It’s always ‘Respect your enemy’ this and ‘Honor your foe’ that. Who has time for that kind of [censored]? Just teach me how to freeze an entire bank so we can steal all the money from it or something. He’s just so frustrating! Worse than you, sometimes.”

This last sentence was finished with Mistral glaring at Toy with a look that made Toy think she was trying to figure out exactly how much energy it would take to just freeze the whole corridor and not have to deal with him again.

“Now now, my little ice dove,” Toy said as he laid a reconciliating arm over Mistral’s shoulders. “Do not let your obvious love for me get in the way of your relationship with good master Scirocco! Instead try to channel your feelings and use them to power your way to a new and better tomorrow.”

Mistral just looked at Toy and then let out a breath all at once.

“You are the weirdest damn robot I have ever heard of,” she said.

“I try,” Toy said as he removed his arm and pointed forward. “But if you’ll shift your attention to our destination…?”

In front of the group of villains stood a slightly larger group of Longbow operatives surrounding a slight looking woman of Asian descent. They all appeared to have seen the villains coming and already had their weapons out, prepared to fire on command.

“Well isn’t this a surprise,” Toy Dispenser said as he lowered his pulse rifle into a non-threatening position. “And who might you be, little lady?”

“My name is Mirror Spirit,” the hero said and as she named herself what appeared to be several mirrors sprang up into existence around her. “I believe that you and I are searching for the same artifact.”

“Probably,” Toy said as he gestured for Combat Toy to back off and let Block Bot and Large Toy move up. “And I’m sure you’re well aware that we villains don’t like to share.”

“Indeed I am, though I had hoped there might be a peaceful way to end this encounter,” replied Mirror Spirit as her Longbow bodyguards shifted uncomfortably.

“We don’t deal with heroes,” Mistral sneered as glittering motes of ice started circling her form.

“Indeed,” Toy added. “Though we generally do like to keep talking until we’ve got things set-up the way we want them.”

Before Mirror Spirit could reply, Toy stepped to one side, shoving Mistral up against the wall and clearing the way for the two protector bots to fire their photon grenades a the group of heroes. Then, while they were stunned, Combat Toy shoved between the protector bots and charged the heroes, spreading out its arms to gather them all up and shove them down the corridor and out into the open room that Toy had spotted behind them. The Longbow operatives sprawled every which way as they struggled to pull themselves back together, their confusion giving Ice Mistral enough time to freeze them or run them through with ice spears. Meanwhile, Mirror Spirit had unleashed an energy blast from one of her mirrors, knocking Combat Toy off her and staggering the massive assault bot. She didn’t get much of a chance to capitalize on this advantage as the other robots swept in, bathing her in laser fire and a blast of red lightning.

“Hit her with all you’ve got!” Toy said as his lightning aura began crackling heavily. “She’s a spirit or ghost of some sort and can take the hits!”

“That I am,” Mirror Spirit replied calmly as she absorbed most of the fire with her mirrors. “How astute of you to notice.”

“Astute this, [censored]!” Ice Mistral shouted as she charged forward and slammed into Mirror Spirit, forming ice blocks around her hands with which to beat the hero.

Caught by surprise, Mirror Spirit was quickly overwhelmed by the combined forces of Toy Dispenser and Ice Mistral and rendered unconscious. Toy also took the opportunity to activate an experimental teleport blocker he had on him and due to the fact that Mirror Spirit didn’t instantly fade away from a mediport, it must have worked.

“Seal her up,” Toy ordered Ice Mistral. “If the heroes are looking for the Malleus Mundi as well, then I think it would be in our best interests to interrogate one of them to find out what they know.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mistral said with a sadistic grin as she went about sealing Mirror Spirit’s limbs in ice.

“Now split up and look for the book,” Toy ordered of his bots. “I want to get out of here before any more heroes show up to crash the party.”

OOC: Ooops, I forgot to post what Small Toy was doing.

BIC: Small Toy crept through the forest toward where the trees were being destroyed. Its active camoflouge blended in almost perfectly with the surrounding terrain while its accurate footsteps avoided every single branch and crackling leaf.

Pretty soon Small Toy had gotten within line of sight of Vyachslav and Wolfgang. IFF identifiers recognized the giant dragon like creature to be a sometimes ally, while the other creature was unknown. Deciding it would be best to sit still and see what happened, Small Toy settled down, its camoflouge becoming even more concealing.

OOC: Chertak will come later when I have more time.

OOC: Yo'kay folks, my bad for stalling the thread. I'll try and put my guys in isolated situations next time I suddenly lose the urge to do anything RP related.

BIC: The last zombie hit the ground in two pieces, torn in half by Combat Toy. The assault bot was battered, one of its missile launchers torn from its shoulders but the pile of zombies surrounding it were worse off.

"Pfft," Combat Toy spat. "I could've taken them all down in half the time while taking out all these suckers."

"He's saying you did damn good," Toy Dispenser said as he flipped his pulse rifle over one shoulder and walked over to the wounded hero.

"For a cape," Combat Toy added sullenly as Block Bot moved forward and hit it with a nanite beam, repairing some of the damage.

Large Toy also moved up from where it had been hanging back, hurrying over to Slater and holding one hand out for steady the tanker while it played its nanite beam over his body. The nanites, though modified to also work on organics, didn't work as well on humans. They'd still fix more than a few problems, though.

"Hi Marcus!" Mini Bot said enthusiastically as it picked zombie fingers out of a tear in its armor, one tentacle waving in the Family psychic's direction.

"I suggest we leave," Toy Bot said from its perch hanging sideways from a thick tree. "Before moving off to investigate the approaching anamoly, Small Toy reported that its sensors detected more undead bioforms incoming from the south."

"Also known as: Get the hell out of Dodge," said Toy Dispenser as he looked around at the group surrounding him, his bots, the hero, and Marcus and his goons. "I'm assuming none of you know why the hell we're here and feel the same urge to go toward the central tower. Considering that I think I know who's behind all this and that eleven bodies are more effective than seven, it would be in our best interests to team up and find out what's going on."

"As long as the cape can survive working with the bad guys," Combat Toy said with a heavy amount of scorn.

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

Chertak planted his foot on the small hill in the middle of the swamp and took a moment to take advantage of his newly gained height. Activating the zoom function on his armor, the Rikti Warmaster looked to his left and right, taking note of the desert and thick forest. His sensors detected some sort of energy discharges in the forest and he thought he could see entire trees being thrown into the air by some powerful creature. But the path ahead seemed clear, which was all that Chertak cared about at the moment.

Punching the correct button on his left wrist and reaching behind himself, Chertak grabbed his rematerialized plasma rifle and started down the hill on the lookout for any more traps or undead ambushes. If all went well, he should arrive at the outskirts of the city within minutes.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that you guys can reply in this thread now. Since I need my regular ego boosting and since people didn't send me many tells saying how awesome I am, I figured it'd happen more often if you guys could just do a reply.

^_________________^

Next chapter should be up today, btw.

OOC: LET THE SEQUENCAL ORDER BEGIN.

BIC: [u]All Good Things[u]

It was a bright, sunny day, the air tinged with just a hint of sweetness, heralding the arrival of spring. Though the trees were still naked of their leaves they somehow managed to look less gnarled, as though releasing their tension with the end of winter. A flock of geese flew by overhead, their honking just adding to the overall feeling of newness. It was indeed a beautiful day.

Which makes it a real pity that the southern end of the Vagabond Hills in Cap au Diable was engulfed in a war between the Luddites, anti-technology activists and overall crazy nutballs, and the Circle of Thorns, mages possessed by ancient ghosts and allied with various demons. Both the Luddites and the Circle used the forest to their own ends, the radicals owning a small farm that was their base of operations in the Rogue Isles and the cultists of the Circle of Thorns using the forest as a secret place to train their followers, sacrifice civilians, and generally plan nefarious misdeeds. The two groups had been at odds ever since they had run into each other, the Luddites hating the Circle mages because they were essentially all evil ghosts and demons and the Circle resenting the Luddites’ intrusion into their plans for Cap au Diable. Suffice to say the two groups wouldn’t be sitting down and smoking the peace pipe any time soon.

This is where Toy Dispenser came in.

Marshal Brass, commander of Cap au Diable’s military affairs, which included the task of keeping the various factions under control, had learned of a planned assault on the Luddite farm by the Circle of Thorns. Apparently the mystics had finally tired of the interference of the foolish fundamentalists and wished to eradicate them. Although the Luddites were annoying, what with their endless protesting and pamphleteering, they represented a major force in Cap au Diable’s power structure and to lose them would destabilize the entire island. Thus it was with great reluctance that the Marshal contacted his various assets and tried to find someone who would take the task of stopping the Circle.

Once he received confirmation that Marshal Brass was hiring for a job, Toy Dispenser jumped at the opportunity. Truth to tell, the Luddites and Circle stationed in Cap au Diable were a little beneath the robotic mastermind but he really needed a break from the cut-throat ambiance of Grandville. Marshal Brass seemed willing enough to let Toy take the job and headed over to the Vagabond Hills as soon as the dollars landed in one of his checking accounts.

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

“So why are we hacking at these small fries?” rumbled Combat Toy as it ducked its shoulder and then dashed forward a couple of feet, ramming into a massive Behemoth Overlord.

The winged demon, flames spewing from its vaguely wolf-like jaws, toppled backwards, its cloven feet incapable of keeping purchase on the ground under the assault bot’s charge. The demon slammed into the ground with a loud crash and flailed its arms around, trying to find something to grab to haul itself back to its feet. But Combat Toy didn’t give the Behemoth that chance, instead planting a steel foot in the middle of the thing’s chest, holding the demon down while the blast shields on Combat Toy’s twin plasma cannons flipped back and unloaded their payload in the prone demon’s face. Leaving nothing but a charred stump of a neck, Combat Toy pivoted on its waist and unleashed a rippling barrage of missiles that blew a small clump of Circle Guardians and Luddites sky high.

“Try to keep from blowing up our ‘allies’, Combat Toy,” Toy Dispenser sighed as he kicked a Circle mage in the groin, causing the mage to crumple up on the ground, and then knocked him out with another swift boot to the head. “Saving the Luddites from the Circle of Thorns won’t mean much if we kill them all in the process.”

“Hnhf,” grunted the assault bot as several energy blasts ricocheted off of the shield around it. “You always gotta stop my fun.”

“That’s cause you’re fun is always stupid,” taunted a bright red battle drone as it grabbed a sword from the hand of an attacking cultist and snapped the poorly forged blade with ease. “All you ever wanna do is shoot people and blow stuff up.”

“I like to do it cause it’s fun!” Combat Toy shot back as it stepped to one side and clotheslined a charging Behemoth, a smaller cousin of the deceased Overlord minus the wings. “Who wouldn’t like to blow [censored] up and shoot people?”

“I suggest you all cease your conversation and focus on eliminating the opposition,” muttered a bright green battle drone from its position next to Toy Dispenser, guarding its master from rear attacks. “Cease your childish prattling, Mini Bot, and you, Combat Toy, control your aggression and focus on the assigned targets.”

“Calm down, Toy Bot,” said Toy as he fired a blast from his pulse rifle at a mage. The blast missed and the mage ducked behind a tree to escape a follow up shot.

Toy cursed and paused for a moment, looking over the battle. When he and his robots had burst onto the scene, the Luddites had fallen all the way back to their main barn and barracks, trying to fight for their lives against the swarms of Circle cultists and demons. His team’s alpha strike had put down almost a third of attacking villains, their defenses woefully inadequate to let them survive a heavy barrage of incendiary missiles, heavy laser fire, and photon grenades. The Circle had split their attention, sending fully half of their remaining number to hold off Toy while the others desperately tried to finish off the Luddites. But the well-armed protesters managed to punch their way out of the buildings and took the fight back to the enemy. Since then, the Circle of Thorns had just about been defeated and ‘friendly’ fire from the Luddites was becoming increasingly common.

Toy seriously considered bailing out and letting the Luddites clean up the rest and the sight of the lead Circle mage vanishing in the bright light of a teleport spell solidified this decision in his mind.

“Pack it up, boys!” Toy shouted out as he blasted a particularly unintelligent Luddite with a bolt of lightning. The man slumped to the ground with a groan, charred and battered but alive.

“We’ve overstayed out welcome,” the mastermind added as his wrist flanges whirred loudly, the force field generators contained within throwing up a strong field around Toy that repelled anything that didn’t give off a specific harmonic frequency. Corpses and unconscious bodies as well as still fighting Luddites and cultists were pushed away, clearing a large space around Toy Dispenser and his bots.

“Good idea, sir,” Large Toy said as it drifted back toward Toy. “It certainly looks like we’ve fulfilled our mission objectives.”

“We’d better get going before the Circle does something really nasty to kill us all,” whined Block Bot as it fell back, its dark blue paint job marred somewhat by acid scars from Circle mages. “I’d hate to get killed. Again.”

“True enough,” Toy said as he activated his anti-gravity system, floating gently up into the air until he was above the trees. “You guys are dismissed. I’ll call you back down when I need you.”

“Initializing homing beacon,” Toy Bot said as jet thrusters in its feet sparked to life.

All six robots compromising Toy Dispenser’s little army rocketed up and out of the forest, accelerating toward the sky and then vanishing in a synchronous teleport as their onboard systems synced with the teleporters on Toy’s manufactory satellite and teleported them onboard. With the battle safely behind him and his bots tucked away, Toy cut power to his force bubble and shut down his more sophisticated droid control algorithms. With no droids to control at the moment and no enemies to push away, both systems just cut into valuable processing speed and power.

It was a simple matter to call up Marshal Brass on the man’s private comm. line and inform him that the Luddites were saved. Brass made sure that the last half of the payment was delivered to Toy’s account and then cut the transmission. The Marshal of Cap au Diable was a very busy man. With nothing else to do for the day, Toy directed his flight toward Aeon City, the shining jewel of Cap au Diable and seat of power to who some said was the most intelligent man in the world, Dr. Aeon. Aeon City was a perfect example of advanced technology enabling a better tomorrow and not even the constant Arachnos patrols could dim its brilliance. But in the case of Dr. Aeon and his creations, for every beautiful thing were another dozen or so deadly and dangerous ones lurking in the shadows. This was evident in the true purpose of the Power Transfer System, the real reason Aeon City was around, but Toy didn’t really want to reminisce about the battles that lead to that revelation.

Rather, he really just wanted to perch on top of the giant atom globe in the center of Aeon City and watch people go about their daily lives. Even as a sentient robot, Toy still didn’t understand some of the fundamental things that made people people and he always tried to take some time every now and then to watch humans in their natural environment. It was during this period of observation that Toy’s high priority channel switched on and informed him of an incoming call. Wondering briefly who was calling him on such a frequency, Toy activated his comm. unit and took the call.

The glowing-eyed and goateed face of Toy Dispenser’s patron, Scirocco, popped into existence on Toy’s HUD. One corner of the mystic’s mouth twitched as he undoubtedly looked at a holographic representation of Toy’s head in his office in Grandville’s Watchtower.

“Well what’dya know,” Toy said jovially. “My favorite two-bit finger wiggler.”

“Greetings my rusty, obsolete friend,” Scirocco replied, his grin fully formed now. “As glad as ever to observe the formalities, aren’t you?”

“Robot see, robot do,” Toy said as he poked fun at Scirocco. “But anyway, what’s up? Got another genie problem?”

“Thankfully no,” replied the patron as he looked off to the side for a moment. “But I do have something that I could use your aid with.”

“Does it involve shooting things?” Toy asked. “I’m pretty good at those sorts of things.”

“Indeed it shall,” Scirocco said as he nodded, his grin fading, though not completely. “Your opponents in this case would be the Circle of Thorns.”

“Oh great, more of them,” Toy said in exasperation. “I just cleaned up a whole warehouse full a little while ago. But I can handle my crushing boredom. What’s the objective?”

Scirocco’s face became grim and his head shifted a bit as he crossed his arms.

“I need to you to rescue my apprentice, Ice Mistral, and then aid her in obtaining a certain book called the Malleus Mundi from the hands of the Circle.”

“You need me to rescue the annoying bratty chick?” asked Toy with a forlorn tone to his voice. “Don’t you remember what happened last time we had to spend an hour in each other’s company?”

“You thaw out very well,” Scirocco said, his earlier levity returning. “But rest assured that she is much easier to deal with when she isn’t bored out of her mind waiting for me to finish a meeting with Ghost Widow and her Fortunatas.”

“For the sake of my continued ease of movement, I hope you’re right,” Toy said with a loud sigh. “You have the coordinates of the section of Oranbega that she’s in?”

“They’ve already been loaded for your perusal,” Scirocco said. “As has an electronic check payable to your account for a suitable sum to take this mission.”

“Naw,” Toy said with a toss of his head. “You can keep the money this time. Since I’m rescuing a friend’s friend, I can afford to make this a freebie.”

“How magnanimous of you,” Scirocco said, his mouth twitching again.

“Yeah, I’m so nice sometimes,” Toy replied seriously as he downloaded the coordinates from his e-mail. “Alright, the place is just over in Nerva. I’ll have her royal Pain in the [censored]-ness rescued from the scary demon people within the hour. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck,” Scirocco said, sounding very amused. “And do try to avoid provoking her. I would hate to have to get a new apprentice.”

“Lay your fears to rest, good sir,” Toy said, striking a gallant pose. “For I, Sir Masterheromind, shall save yon damsel or die trying!”

Scirocco barely managed to keep his chuckles restrained as he nodded goodbye and severed the connection. As soon as it was gone, Toy dropped his pose and looked around. He saw a lone Goldbricker, his jetpack gently wafting flames to keep him aloft, staring at him with an expression of shock on his face. Toy stared at the man so long that the thief eventually snapped out of it and hastily flew away, unnerved by the sheer blankness of Toy’s faceplate. Sighing and shaking out his cape, Toy jumped off the globe and shot through the air toward the ferry. He had a date with a certain ice queen and it always hurt to be late to the party.

Dr. Phillis is freaking awesome. From what I've seen and read of him, I only wish I could make Archlich that good. But Archlich is a bit more limited due to the cliche I brought him out of.

And speaking of cliches, what do you guys think of Lord Netharak so far?

Oh yes, Zealstorm freaky hate. >_< Toy shall enjoy squishing her under Combat Toy's boots.

The light coming through the windows of Archlich's tower was a dull orange, seeping through the window as the sun slowly dropped below the horizon. Dusk had come and night was but an hour away, the time approached for the first and final threat to Archlich's power to end.

"The time has come to fulfill the prophecy, Toy Dispenser," Archlich said as he stood looking out the window, coincidentally facing the direction that Acid's darkship was at. "I trust the book has been secured and our enemies tracked?"

"Things are as you have planned, milord," Toy Dispenser said from his position by the door, standing perfectly straight with his hands behind his back. The only part of him that moved was his head as it tracked his master. "The mutants have been deployed, the mercenaries have been briefed, and the ship has been located. All that we need is your word to commence the end."

Archlich spun around, his cape swirling out behind him, and walked over to his throne. He paused for a moment before sitting in it and stared directly at Toy Dispenser, his piercing blue eyes seeming to look into the center of the android's very being.

"Are you ready?" he asked of his most loyal servant.

Toy Dispenser hesitated, an odd image of something green, pink, and scaley shooting across his mind's eye. This image shook him to the core, but he had no idea why.

"I am fully prepared to carry out your will, Overmagus," Toy Dispenser said, ignoring the odd thoughts.

"Good," Archlich said as he sat down. "Then you have my permission to begin."

"At once," Toy said with a low bow. Straightening up immidiately afterward, the android exited the throne room to issue his orders.

"Let's see how this all turns out," Archlich muttered to himself as he turned to look out the window again.

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

If Acid had looked back at his former car, he would have seen an odd shimmer following along behind it, almost as though the air was very, very hot in that one spot. Of course, he also might have recognized the shimmer for relatively advanced lightbending cloaking technology possessed by the dozen or so minor imps that were following his car.

He probably wouldn't see the explosion they would make once they caught up to the car once it exited the city limits.

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

The air around Rosie and her group suddenly seemed to congeal, a thick fog springing up out of nowhere to completely surround the group and reduce visibility to almost nothing. A preternatural darkness also seemed to fall, cutting off what little sunlight could make it through the fog and plunging everything into almost complete darkness. The only visible shapes were even darker patches of fog that writhed like something alive.

"Commander, stay close," Richter hissed as his spider legs sprang up and started twitching with readiness.

Shadows moved around the group, forming shapes that looked like looming, multi-tentacled monsters or pitch-black machines of destruction. It was hard to tell what was real and things only got more confusing when the shapes started making sounds that sounded real as well.

Richter lashed out at one such shape only to see it disolve into the background. But then something sharp clawed as his leg and the man fell back with a snarl, hand clutching at the bloody wound in his thigh.

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

Depending on what they were watching for, the sensors on Acid's ship would probably be noticing several things right now.

First, they would recognize an extreme magical build-up right in the center of New Mu. The magic couldn't be identified as any certain type, like light or dark magic, but its intensity only seemed to be growing.

Second, they would notice several dozen previously hidden boogies suddenly reveal themselves to be surrounding the ship. These were highly advanced fightercraft piloted by the most loyal and well-trained of Archlich's Army of Death bodyguards. The insect-like ships armored in what appeared, and was in fact, bone were armed with purely magical weaponry that obeyed only as many laws of physics as it took to damage their target. Needless to say, these weapons were very dangerous but also had the tendancy to self-destruct under the slightest of hits. Thusly the fighters were lightly armored and depended more on their manueverability and the resiliancy of the pilots to avoid taking damage. Each fighter had Acid's ship in their sights and had orders to take it down or die trying.

Thirdly, another strong energy source was coming from the heart of Oranbegan territory. It's origin and purpose was unknown, however.

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

In a bright flash, a grey robed man appeared in front of Hallucinogen and Schizophrenias. His hands were folded into his sleeves and his hood pulled down low to hide his face but the two could almost make out what appeared to be blue colored stones on the man's face.

"You two are to come with me," the man said in a slightly burbling voice, as though he was speaking while gargling water. "My goddess has foreseen the end of this existence and you two are needed to bring it about. I will explain things further when we arrive at our destination."

An intense light seemed to grow on the edge of the horizon from where the Oranbegan defenses were.

"If you do not come with me now, you shall die," the man added.

OOC: olololololol.

[ QUOTE ]
So long as you don't stick me in a witch outfit, go for it.

What? Seriously, how do those wenches freakin' breathe?

[/ QUOTE ]

Magic, Devious. Magic. They are witches after all.

[ QUOTE ]
I really miss the Khel's Broken RP, I had so much development for Midas and the real Doc to go through! Are we ever going to necromance that back up?


[/ QUOTE ]

<_< >_> <_<

I admit nothing! Nothing you hear! Nothing!

*retreats into closet and tries to muffle the sounds of power tools*

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
And so, as Hallucinogen advised, should we all.


[/ QUOTE ]

*cough cough choke cough* Accckkk......! Corniness...cutting off bloodflow....to my BRAIN...!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

<_< Shaddap, Mr. 'Somewhat Skeptical.' >_>

*pout* Okay, I just won't write any more stories. D:

[/ QUOTE ]

Bah, you always take me too seriously.

[ QUOTE ]
And so, as Hallucinogen advised, should we all.


[/ QUOTE ]

*cough cough choke cough* Accckkk......! Corniness...cutting off bloodflow....to my BRAIN...!!!

Anywho, YOU FINALLY GOT IT UP! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I'd "WOOOOO!" more but Soviet already got the most out of that.