Khellendrosiic

Frikkin' psychic heroes. >_< Don't they know that robots are supposed to be immune to that crap?

Anyywaaayyy.....just here to say that my next story will be up once I'm done reading my Cable & Deadpool comics. And after Essex gets me that song so I can write a seperate short story.

"WE GOT SOME MOTHER [censored] ROBOTS ON THE MOTHER [censored] PLANE!"

Sums that story up nicely.

thn all t3h rikti sad "forumasasin is te b3st! we mke im our g0d!"

[ QUOTE ]

Name: foRum asasiN X
AT: Stalker
Primary: Claws
Secondary: Ninjitsu

Bio:
formassasin x is born the sun of satan. . .

[/ QUOTE ]

....whn he was 5 forumasassin kiled wolverine n took his claws...

OOC: Quick clarification before the others post. AP = Armor piercing rounds for machine guns and rifles. So they weren't missiles, but that isn't too major. I'll let Bizzmereo have that one kill as a freebie thing, but remember, I control the opposition and when or where they fall. I think I forgot to mention that, so don't worry, I'm not mad.

And the Jump Bots shot flamethrowers, not bullets.

<_< You people and messing up my ordinance.

"And in the other cornerrrrrr... I'm proud to introduce.... Commander Fawkes and his Sky Raider squaaadrooooonnnnnn!!!!"

With a roar of micro-thrusters, the Sky Raider team shot out of their entrance.

A black painted sky skiff with purple eagles painted on the sides came out first. A liscense plate like decal on the front read F-HAWK. Two white pods were mounted under the wings alongside a pair of one shot missile launchers. Flanking the skiff were a pair of Jet Bots of the inferno variety, their flamethrowers out and pilot lights already lit.

Ten jet-packed Sky Raiders followed their commander out and then spread out into two groups. From the marking on their uniforms, each squad consisted of veteran Wing Raiders commanded by a Captain each. Their weapons were currently lowered, but could snap into firing position at any moment.

Commander Fawkes flew his skiff over to the center platform and came to a hovering stop right in front of Ruladork and the Lord of Rags. The Jump Bots landed on two smaller platforms that were slightly above and behind him, mirroring the other two platforms on the opposite side of the center. The squads took up hovering positions far above and to the right or left of Fawkes and then turned toward the assembled heroes and villains, waiting.

"It'll be a pleasure to eradicate some more of your dispicable kind," Fawkes said, his voice crackling a bit due to some slight distortion from his speakers. "Isn't that right men?"

"Sir yes it will, sir!" the assembled Sky Raiders shouted in unison.

"Gotta love enthusiasm," Fawkes said, chuckling. "Shall we tango?"

"Looks like we're rrrrreeeady to ruuuuummmmmmblllleeee!!!" the announcer shouted out. "Now remember, folks, the power levels of our gladiators can't exceed threat level 32 for today's fight! This will keep the fight interesting and safe; for you, that is! And now, without further adoo..... Let's get it on!"

A siren sounded and suddenly Fawkes shot straight up into the air as the two Jump Bots aimed down at the two supers in the center and opened up. Shouts rang out from the two Captains as they directed their fire. One squad aimed for Experiment, hoping to take the hero down quick, while the second aimed for Bizmereo. It would be interesting to see if those two could survive several dozen AP rounds.

"We ready to rumble boys?"

"Ready to rumble, sir!"

"Ready to kick some meta-human [censored]?"

"Ready to kick [censored], sir!"

"Then take positions! We're on."

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

"Weeeeeelcoooome to the Coooooliseeeeeum!" drawled out the announcer, a faceless presense behind the heavily armored and windowed box hanging above the center of the ring on the ceiling. "And have we got a fight for you today!"

A loud humming built up and the sandy floor of the arena started glowing lightly. Some of the audience stared at this phenomena, clearly wondering what was going on, while the rest ignored the spectacle, already knowing what would happen.

"For all you newcomers out there today, now is your moment to witness the majesty of the Coliseum's transformable arena!" the announcer continued as panels of metal slowly moved out from under the sand and moved into hovering positions around the arena.

"For today's bout, we're shifting the arena to the newly perfected 'Floating Battlefield' mode! With several dozen floating platforms moving in fixed circuits around the field and large portions of the ground plating removed, any fighter risks falling down down dooooooown into the underbelly of the Coliseum! And what happens down there, well, I don't think you want to know..."

All the sand had drained away through several huge gaps in the floor, chopping the arena up into a large central platform and half a dozen smaller platforms scattered around. The space that was missing was currently floating up in the air and slowly drifting around in a complex pattern. The bare metal plating was made of some material that was tougher and more resiliant than mere steel. Some theorized that it would take both Statesman and Lord Recluse hammering at one chunk of metal to put a dent in it. But where this metal was found, no one knew.

"Noooooow then!" shouted the anouncer once the arena had transformed into its new mode. "Let us introduce ourrrrr challengeeeerrrrrs!"

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

There were exactly two doors in the ready room. One of them lead back into the gladiator areas and looked like a normal door, although it slid aside on hidden tracks rather than use hinges. The second door was large enough to drive a semi through and looked thick enough to stop a tank. Above the large door was painted the words Arena Entrance and a pair of glowing red lights sat under the label. As the four contestants watched, the red lights flipped to green and the doors began grinding open, letting the brighter lights of the arena come spilling in, along with the bloodthirsty roar of the crowd.

"And here comes our firrrrst fighter!" came the announcer's voice through the opening door.

OOC: Let's get this party started. Have the announcer announce you as you enter in as dramatic a fashion as you want. You can have him call you out as fancy or as plain as you want. For example:

"And here's our first fighter, the amazing, the spectacular, the if-you-look-at-me-the-wrong-way-I'll-kill-youuuuuuu..... MANTICORE!!!!!"

or

"And here's our first fighter.... the heroic CITADEL!"

Something like that. The competition gets introduced when you're all out there.

[ QUOTE ]
level 51 recluse AV

It was an 8 person team with me lackeyed to a 49 while I was on my 42 dominator.

I'm sure that if I had no debt the number woulda been more eyepopping but still...wow.

308k xp and 275k debt

[/ QUOTE ]

That's only 27.5k debt there. Which still brings the total up to around 335k which still beats out Ghost Widow and Anti-Matter.

OOC: With my current lack of CoV and inspiration for RPing and my restless haunting of the boards, I've decided to bring the Coliseum back. Again.

I've effectively just cut and pasted the first post from the old guy and I'll probably have things work out the same way as well. I'm just going to tweak a few things...

BIC: Welcome to the Coliseum, the semi-legal brother to the well known Arena system.

Created for the sole purpose of entertaining those with power and money, the Coliseum exhibits fights much like those of its namesake from ancient times. One day’s worth of fighting could have a team of heroes hampered by power dampeners fighting for their lives against a gang of Hellions. A squad of Nemesis troops might fight alongside those of the Devouring Earth against a small army of Council while afterward a Circle of Thorns death mage reanimates those who died to fight against a small group of villains. Anything and everything goes in the Coliseum as long as it does not harm the patrons from which it gathers money and new gladiators. Any may participate for any reason. The Coliseum is also a place for those seeking to hide from the law; for as long as they fight, the influence of the Coliseum’s patrons will protect them.

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

The eighty yard diameter circle of the Coliseum floor provided more than enough space for most battles. With holographic technology and an entire floor that could be switched, swapped, or combined to form any type of terrain or environment it was more than enough. But all this technological marvel was wasted on this fight, a pair of trolls fighting a hulking pumacite. The fight was already a forgone conclusion; one troll's spine was broken and the other was fighting for his life against the sledgehammer fists of the rock creature. The troll slipped and fell on the plain sand that currently covered the arena and the watching crowd screamed and booed and cheered as his skull was caved in by a foot stomp. The Coliseum boasted a medi-port system on par with that of Paragon City but to use it you need either money or connections. Those two trolls had neither, which might have been the reason for their fighting. But that didn't matter, as the pumacite was being led away and the announcer was annoucing the next fight.

"And here we are ladies and gentlemen! The biggest fight of the night! A straight fight between two randomly picked teams! Let's see who wins!"

Two large doors on either end of the floor opened up to admit the opposing teams onto the arena floor.

OOC: So yeah, as before I control all of your enemies. This time I think I'll come up with sufficient numbers to give you guys a challenge, or maybe force you to wear power inhibitors.

Feel free to bing you guy's in and have them set up in the ready room. The ready room is a sizable room lined half with benches and half with lockers, for those fighters that wish to leave valuable and/or fragile objects behind before going to fight. The Coliseum guarantees the safety of any such items stowed this way. Several large TV screens are over the lockers in perfect view of those sitting on the benches on the opposite side of the room. The TVs currently show the results of the last fight, currents odds being given for the upcoming fight, and a view of the plain, sandy arena floor.

For the first fight at least, let's keep the number of characters per person down to one. We'll bring in more as things progress.

Also, yay for another fight thread with not even a hint of actual RP!

[ QUOTE ]
Bravo. Da capo, da capo.

Or even better: moar! What went on on Toy's head durning the second arc I wonder?

[/ QUOTE ]

[censored]. >_<

We're all going to have to wait for that, because while looking through the various files I have on Scirocco's arcs, I couldn't find any screen shots of the Mundi arc.

......

Which reminds me. Acid works with Scirocco, right? Think you could take some screenshots of the 2nd arc's souvenir clue text or copy it down or something and send it to me?

Since I can't play the game, I might as well write about it. >_>

<_< [censored] college.

The Mu door guardians remained silent as Toy walked up between them and opened the door to Scirocco’s office. He paused for a moment to give the two floating figures a nod before stepping inside to face Scirocco’s greetings.

“Ah, Toy Dispenser!” Scirocco said with a smile on his face as he looked up. “I’m glad to see you back so soon, I trust that Serafina was defeated?”

“We took some damage, but showed her not to mess around with the bad guys,” Toy replied easily as he pulled Serafina’s veil out of a belt compartment. “Here’s all that’s left of her. Things like her don’t get killed by guys like me, though, so she’s most likely still alive.”

“Though greatly weakened by your victory,” Scirocco said approvingly as he reached for the veil. Toy handed it over and the mystic spent a few moments looking at it with a blank expression on his face.
“You wish that I didn’t have to take her out like that,” the mastermind said as he studied Scirocco’s face.

Scirocco shot Toy a glance out of the corner of his eyes and then nodded once, slowly, before handing the veil back.

“You deserve that more than I, as confirmation of your conquest,” the man said as he looked over at one wall. “And yes, I think I would have preferred if Serafina had not come after me and made it necessary for myself to order her destruction. She was merely doing what she had been ordered to do by my late ancestor, the previous owner of this mantle. It was unfortunate for her that I must remain in possession of it.”

“So you really did steal the mantle from the previous Scirocco?” Toy asked, leaning forward a bit as he tucked the veil away once again. “I had heard the rumors, of course, and Serafina seemed to allude to it, but I don’t see how a…well…”

“How a villain such as myself could have plucked this wind mantle out of the heart of Paragon City during the height of the Rikti Invasion?” Scirocco asked with a slight smile. “It is an interesting tale, if I say so myself, but we have more important things to attend too.”

Scirocco then shuffled a pile of papers into order and slid them into a drawer before standing up and walking around his desk to the door. After staring motionless for a moment, Toy hastily stood up as well and followed Scirocco out of the door. Exiting, the pair was flanked by the Mu guardians and all four of them traveled down the hallway to a new, larger room. Not even close to an office, the room was more akin to a small theater, albeit one cluttered with various mystical signs on the wall, numerous crowded tables, and several very large pentagrams inscribed on the floor at the four corners of the room and an even more massive one located in the exact center. Scirocco made a bee-line for the center circle and Toy followed hesitantly, his sensors just barely able to detect the after images of great feats of magic performed here.

“This is my working laboratory,” Scirocco said as he stepped into the center of the main circle and motioned for Toy to join him. “It is here that I work and perform various spells that my duty requires of me. I have a larger, more well equipped room at my main base, but this is nearby and well suited to the task at hand.”

“Which would be teaching me magic, right?” Toy said with a half-hearted laugh as he inched into the circle with Scirocco. “I mean, well, I’m flattered and all but I didn’t think you would actually go through with it…”

“Nonsense,” Scirocco said with a dismissive hand gesture. “You have performed a service for me and I shall do you one in return. Of course, I will also be satiating my own curiosity about that unique aura of yours. If the divinations I have worked are true, or even mostly true, your aura of flickering lightning can be worked and coaxed into a form much like that of the lightning magic that the Mu are so fond of.”

“Speaking of the Mu, what are those two doing right now?” Toy asked, referring to the guardians who had drifted into two of the corner pentagrams opposite of one another with Scirocco and Toy between them.

“They shall be monitoring things and will serve as emergency power channels should things go wrong,” Scirocco said as he closed his eyes and seemed to center himself. “If you lose control of your energies, they can leech it out of this circle and redirect it into the Tangle, where it will harmlessly disperse among its thousands of strands.”

“Aha!” Toy said triumphantly, one finger sticking up in the air. “So that’s what the Tangle is made for; dispersing magical energies! How clever of Lord Recluse to make us think it was a doomsday weapon!”

“If only that were so,” Scirocco said with a frown, his eyes still closed. “But let us not speculate of Lord Recluse’s plans. What I want you to do right now is close your eyes, or turn off your visual sensors, and focus on your inner self.”

“Where the source of all my power comes from?” Toy asked as he shut down his sensors and focused his internal scanners on his power core. “Cause I can do that real ea-“

“Not your power core,” Scirocco said softly. “And do not look with your artificial eyes. Focus on the source of your power, not the power for your body. In your case, I would say you should look for where the strength of your personality comes from.”

“Well, that’s a bit more difficult to pin down,” Toy said in a quieter tone as he tried to isolate which anomaly in his coding resulted in his very self. “I’ve tried this before, but things are such a mess in my head that-“

“Try again,” Scirocco said, interrupting Toy for the second time. “Things will be different.”

“If you say so,” Toy muttered as he dug around in his skull. “But I really don’t think this’ll wor-……”

Toy’s voice trailed off as he found something odd. Visually, it would have appeared as a series of red glowing cracks in a rough black and white field of rubble. Technically, it appeared as nothing at all; unblemished code was all his scanners could see.

“Found something?” Scirocco asked.

“Yeah, and it’s as confusing as all hell. I can see it, but I shouldn’t be able to see it because I’m looking at my codes and you can’t see codes, you-“

“Follow what you have found to its source,” Scirocco said. “If we have found what we have been searching for so soon, then that lends hope to the strength of your power.”

Mentally frowning, Toy violated various laws of computer logic and started following the red cracks along the ground to where they came from. Several times the path he was tracking ended suddenly, with no warning at all, and other times the cracks and the landscape vanished, to be replaced with the lines of code that Toy saw normally. It took an effort of will to make the landscape appear again, but this time it was a little easier, as though he were retracing his own steps.

After an indeterminable amount of time, the cracks had converged into a single line that plunged into a deep hole that looked blacker than the void that Toy thought of when he wondered what he saw when he was powered down. Pulling out of the program-numbing mindscape for a second, Toy cracked open a single visual light sensor and looked at Scirocco. The mystic was still standing where he had been, with both eyes closed, and as Toy looked at him, Scirocco nodded slightly.

Taking heart from the fact that the more experienced mage was at least keeping an eye on what the hell was going on; Toy delved back into the black and white landscape and threw himself into the hole after the single red line. The line seemed to thicken as Toy seemed to fall deeper and deeper into his own mind. The android spent a brief moment examining the irony of an android doing something that only humans were supposed to manage but quickly focused his thoughts on the task at hand, finding where the damn line led.

And then all at once, he had it and some new system that hadn’t entirely been there before clicked into place.

“I think you found it,” said a dull, tinny voice out of the blue. “Which means you can stop blowing my room to pieces now.”

Snapping back into himself like a rubberband, and about as disoriented, Toy flipped on his visual sensors to a seen that could have passed for hell in a C-rated sci-fi flick. Red lightning was crackling all around and discharging itself against the thin air over the thick engraved circles in the floor. Where the arcs hit the actual floor, however, the effect was a bit more catastrophic. Already there were several sizable holes in the floor and as Toy stared in shock at the scene, another was blasted out from right inbetween Scirocco’s feet.

“Wake up, Toy Dispenser,” Scirocco said again, sounding more than a little annoyed with a dash of worried tossed in. “I would always regret blowing you away but-“

“But you’d do it to save me the agony of turning into some giant red exploding supernova bomb like in a movie? How sweet of you,” Toy said and all at once the lightning stopped.

Scirocco let out a heavy sigh and wiped a bit of sweat from his brow before stepping backwards out of the circle.

“I take it you have things under control?” Scirocco asked as he walked over to a far table and picked up a plastic water bottle. He took a big swig of it and then looked back at the android with an expectant look on his face.

“Seems like,” Toy said and then aimed one hand up in the air. With a sizzling crackle, red lightning shot from his fingertips and impacted against an invisible shield on the ceiling. “And it seems like you need to put a shield thing on the floor as well as the ceiling.”

“It appears I do,” Scirocco said, greatly amused. “And it appears that you’ve accomplished something great here. I do not believe that an artificial being has ever managed to do what you’ve just done here and now.”

“I’m pretty sure some random hero bot in Paragon can do it,” Toy said flippantly as he stepped out of the circle and looked at his hand. “But I have to say, I bet he doesn’t have anything on these magic fingers.”

“Let us hope not, because then the laws of reality might protest a bit much,” Scirocco joked and took another drink. “And do not think that this is the limit of your talent. I’m sure that with further training you can harness it even better and set your power to doing other things.”

“But this is perfectly fine for now,” Toy said with a grin in his voice. “All this trouble with Serafina was worth it just to see the expressions on the faces of the heroes that are going to be on the receiving end of this. Oh its times like this I love being bad.”

Scirocco nodded and motioned for the two exhausted guardians to leave at last. He followed them, the water bottle still in his hand, but paused when he reached the door to look back at the multi-colored android still standing in the center of the room.

“Just tell them you left your finger in a wall socket for too long,” joked one of the four patrons of Arachnos to the mercenary robot.

Toy flashed the mystic a thumbs up, but remained standing there alone for a little while after Scirocco had left.

“I’ve always had myself a little thunder,” Toy said, at last walking toward the door. “About time I got the lightning.”

End

OOC: Oh hey, you guys can make comments in the thread now. Please review, I like all sorts of comments from butt-kissing to critiques to outright flames!

That reminds me. Is Essex ever going to finish this?


EDIT: Maybe if I post the last chapter of Mechanical Storm, she'll reciprocate. Let's find out!

EDIT EDIT: >_> Well, we're gonna find out cause I finished MS.

*hugs Prodiguy*

HAAAAAALLLLLOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

OOC: Almost forgot to mention: For the foreseeable future, which could be anywhere from a day or two to until I get home, I will be unable to access CoX. This is due to new security restrictions at my school. I have talked with an IT friend of mine and he is willing to ask his boss to open up several ports which should let CoV run, but it may not happen. I'll make mention of it again if things start working.

I see that your question has been answered but I also noticed that you hadn't thought of anything about how her muscles operated. A standard that I work almost all of my robots from is the concept of myomer.

Myomer is the term for a bundle of metallic fibers that are wound together and then attached to the chasis of the machine much in the same way that muscles are to bone. By applying an electrical charge, the myomer tightens exactly like regular muscles do. The more powerful the charge, the faster the myomer tightens. Of course one drawback is that an uncontrolled electrical surge, perhaps from combat damage, could cause the myomer muscles to flex erratically and may cause more damage to the frame.

I got this concept from Battletech and it's served me well so far.

“Open fire!” Toy Dispenser shouted and then he was among them.

A red and blue blur dashed at Mini Bot and a smaller blur slashed out at the battle drone. The drone tilted away from the slash and just barely managed to avoid it, even retaining enough presence of mind to counter with its two buzz saw tentacles. The blur easily ducked away, but this was reason enough for Mini Bot to jeer at it.

“Nah nah!” the drone shouted at the temporarily retreating figure. “Can’t get me can you Mr. Mc Stupid Speedypants!”

In response the hero sneered at the little drone, sunlight glinting off of the goggles that covered much of his masked face. The man’s slim katana spun around almost lazily as he blocked a particle beam fired by Small Toy; if he hadn’t blocked it, there would have been a smoking hole where his blue spandexed heart would have been.

All of a sudden a shudder wracked Mini Bot’s frame and the other robots paused in their firing or aiming to look at it. The drone looked down quizzically at its chest and stared at the thin line that spread upward from its hip joint to the base of its neck. With a loud sizzling sound and a bang, white light shot out of the line and Mini Bot convulsed, its multiple red eyes going dark as their systems suffered critical damage. The bright red drone collapsed heavily, causing a huge burst of dust to shoot up into the air and slowly fall down, glittering prettily in the beams of light coming down through the holes in the ceiling above.

Ever so slowly, Toy Dispenser nervously shifted his grip on his pulse rifle to a single handed one and aimed the free hand at the hero. As red lightning began crackling up and down its length, the remaining six robots shifted their stances as well. All was silent for a few day-long seconds and then a bolt of lightning crackled out from Toy’s arm and slammed into the wall where the hero had been a moment before.

Suddenly in front of Combat Toy, the hero’s blade was met by a thick knife that ejected out of Combat Toy’s right wrist and rose up to parry the blow. But the strength of the blow caused the mammoth assault bot to stumble backwards a step as a sharp clang echoed through the room. A swing of its left arm caused the hero to duck and slash at Combat Toy’s leg, making the bot list to one side as its foot was cut cleanly away. Combat Toy fired its plasma cannons this time, but the hero had already ducked away and into a crossfire between Large Toy and Toy Bot.

The neon green battle drone pumped out bursts of plasma as fast as its twin guns could charge while the bright blue protector bot launched a rapid fired laser burst-photon grenade combo. The hero whirled around, deflecting the photon grenade and several of the plasma bursts away to harmlessly detonate on the walls while simultaneously avoiding the other shots. Bringing his sword around, the hero darted forward and slashed at Large Toy. An arm raised in self-defense clattered to the floor as it was cut off and the rest of the robot went into convulsions as the hero’s mysterious power did the same thing to Large Toy as he had done to Mini Bot.

Kicking out, the hero knocked Large Toy into Small Toy, sending the smaller battle drone wheeling and throwing off its shot. A quick shuffle step then sufficed to dodge a low laser blast fired at him from Toy Dispenser. At a muffled curse from the mastermind, the hero just grinned maliciously and then backflipped to land on top of Combat Toy’s shoulders as the assault bot attempted to bum rush him from behind.

“Get the hell off!” Combat Toy shouted as it threw itself to the ground in order to dislodge the hero and give the other robots a clear shot.

The hero neatly flipped through the air again and slashed at Toy Dispenser as he landed next to the mastermind. Toy narrowly blocked the blow with a suddenly shimmering white hand, the equipped force field generator serving as a handy point defense shield. With his right hand, Toy brought around his rifle and fired point blank at the hero, who sidestepped and slashed out again with his sword but this time with a second cut as he brought his sword back around. The first slash was dodged as Toy threw himself backwards but when the hero advanced forward and followed up, the pulse rifle was sacrificed to enable Toy Dispenser to escape unharmed.

The hero was then taken unawares as Block Bot tackled him to the ground, the protector bot also accompanied by a pair of seeker drones that buzzed ominously, their thin, whip-like stabilizer attachments traded out for high powered buzz saws. These flew around the struggling pair, waiting for the hero to take one wrong move as he battled with Block Bot for control of his sword.

“I may die but I’m sure as hell making it hard for you!” Block Bot shouted in the hero’s face with none of its normal lethargy as the robot tried to smash it in with one hand while trying to keep the sword away with the other.

What was visible of the hero’s face contorted in a deep scowl as he wrestled with Block Bot and saw Combat Toy getting to its feet over the black protector bot’s shoulder. With a snort the hero twisted the hilt of his sword, causing it to emit an extremely short ranged sonic pulse that tore into the vital systems underneath Block Bot’s armor while leaving only a small entrance scar. Its eyes flickering erratically as systems overloaded and shut down, Block Bot’s grip went limp and the hero was able to bring up both legs and kick Block Bot off of him, also hitting both seeker drones with the body and sending them tumbling to the floor.

Somersaulting to his feet, the hero avoided a flurry of missiles that slammed right where he had been. But he couldn’t avoid the trailing edge of the explosions and was launched through the air right at Combat Toy, who grabbed the hero in a bear hug and started crushing the life out of him. But the hero’s left arm was free and he took the opportunity to stab his fingers into the temporarily unprotected elbow joint of Combat Toy’s right arm. By channeling a brief surge of raw kinetic energy through his fingertips he severed some of the artificial muscles that kept that arm working and also gave himself some nasty burns, which was why he didn’t use that trick very often.

Suddenly able to wiggle free, the hero slipped out of Combat Toy’s grasp and danced away from the assault bot before slashing out for a near miss at Combat Toy’s head. But the sonic ability of his sword came into affect again as Combat Toy’s thin eye strip shattered and spat sparks as the massive assault bot toppled backward like a felled tree.

A purple particle beam grazed the hero’s shoulder and was immediately joined by two plasma bolts that slammed into his back and knocked him sprawling to the ground. A raw bolt of force then thundered into his side, sending him sliding across the ground to painfully collide with the wall. The amount of dust knocked up by all this set him to choking helplessly for a minute, even though he could see the remaining three enemies perfectly through his goggles.

“Finish him,” Toy Dispenser said to Small Toy as he crouched down low, spread his arms, and started focusing his energies, causing arcs of lightning to occasionally flash from his arms to the floor.

“Target sighted,” the pale grey battle drone said as it took aim down the entire length of its right arm, which was little more than a high powered sniper rifle.

There was a loud crack of superheated air as the rifle fired and two softer thuds as two battle drone heads hit the ground. Panting hard from straining his powers to the utmost, the hero nevertheless managed to give Toy Dispenser a wide grin as he pointed his sword at the mastermind.

Abandoning his offensive posture, Toy Dispenser stood up and looked squarely at the hero as he raised his hands.

“Guess you’ve got me,” he said as the hero started advancing on him with katana raised high.

There was a loud roar and the air was suddenly filled with dust and sunlight as six robots burst through the roof and landed in a rough circle around the hero. Combat Toy adjusted it’s footing on Toy Bot’s corpse as it loomed up behind the hero while Toy Bot stood atop the remains of the first Block Bot.

“Psyche,” Toy said as the hero’s grin fell and Combat Toy brought both fists down.

OOC: Oh hay, it's another Future Toy piece. >_> I guess that basically means where he has his customized bots, but anyway, hope you lot enjoyed yet another single scene fiction thing.

OOC: Alright peeps, let's see if I can get this right.

Situation Four: The Betrayal

Your character and one other person (either one of your other characters or a hero/villain group NPC that's working with you) have finally cornered an enemy that's been hounding you for weeks. The guy is really slippery, but you're pretty damn sure that you've got him this time. You can have cornered the guy anywhere, but I would recommend the sewers. After you and your friend fight through the guards, you encounter your target, issue dramatic monologues, and then get shot in the back by your 'buddy'.

Why the guy betrayed you is up to your interpretation. He could be mind-controlled, is a double-agent, or secretly really hates you, whatever.

Whether you win, have to run away, or lose is up to you, naturally. I'm making this much more loose than the other three situations, so dion't worry about making all sorts of stuff up, as long as you include the betrayal. Please add an OOC comment or two about what you think of my version of things, I'm sure Samuel will appreciate any suggestions, as will I.

Enjoy, folks.

OOC: I like the way you've set things up so far, Samuel. And I think I'll give you a brief break to recover your literary urge.

...

Tomorrow. I'm going to be too sleepy after I finish writing this one.

Side note: Whether: Not weather.

Another note: This has been influenced by Devious's story. Thanks Devious.

BIC: The giant hulk of a space freighter slowly drifted forward toward the donut shaped central ring of the deep space research station. One of five rings surrounding the central combination research/power core, the middle ring was the largest and functioned as the primary docking facility of any ships that had business there, such as the freighter carrying supplies for the station and the couple of Federation Defense Ships that were currently covering the freighter.

The sleek frigates had already scanned the freighter for any hidden weapons or explosive devices and sent aboard inspection crews for a more hands-on search. After passing these inspections, the freighter had been cleared to dock and unload its supplies. After the umbilical cord from the station had connected to the relatively tiny crew area of the freighter, a much larger, depressurized bay opened up and began deploying several cargo haulers to drag the supplies in.

"Tell McAllister to hurry up," the sergeant of the door guard said to the navy rating that was lingering nearby for just such an occurance. "We haven't got all day and I hate staring at his ugly mug while I have to check the supply list."

"Aye, sir," the rating said and reached out to trigger the compad set into the wall. He arrested his motion when the red light above the airlock door changed to green, indicating that the seal had been pressurized and was occupied.

"Belay that," the sergeant growled and stepped forward to slap the open button himself. "I can say that to the old buzzard him-"

The sergeant's comment was cut off abruptly as the door cycled open to reveal the blank whiteness of the connecting tube. The man's eyes widened briefly in shock and his mouth gaped open to shout out a warning, but all that emerged from his lips was a strangled gasp. Glancing down, the sergeant saw a long and bloody slash carved into his chest and the flickering after-image of a spindly arm pulling itself back.

Burbling unhappily, the sergeant slowly toppled backwards. His last vision was of the navy rating's head rolling across the floor toward him, the man's visage forever surprised.

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

"Guard post neutralized," hissed a voice over the comm. channel.

"Federation frigate Malthun's Glory self-destructed. No life pods launched," clicked another.

"Command deck secured, distress signal confirmed being launched."

"Federation frigate Faultless captured. Minimal structural damage. We are bringing her around to dock C."

"The raid appears to be a complete success," said an insectoid garbed in cruel looking light battle armor and equipped with equally nasty looking wrist scythes.

"High Command will be pleased," responded an even lighter armored insectiod. But although he carried less visible armor, it was much tougher than that of the first alien. A large backpack gave him a slightly hunchbacked appearance and this combined with a pair of flaming blue, multi-faceted eyes gave him a rather menacing air.

"Indeed they shall," nodded the lesser Itikil, or Space Pirate, as his race was collectively known as. "All we have to do is recover the research core and be on our way. We have even captured an entire ship. It will surely serve to bolster our fleet."

"We need every ship we can gather thanks to that accursed Hunter and his habit of destroying our bases," growled Granash. "And without his interference, I would not be stuck on such a miserable, routine assignment like this ra-"

"Alert! Alert! It's the Hunter! The Hunter is here!"

"This is Faultless! We have incoming ships from sector H4! Almost an entire battle group!"

"The Hunter is heading toward the core! I'll hold him off as long as I-!"

Granash reached up to adjust his respirator mask and cast a lazy glance at the pirate next to him. The pirate repressed an unconscious shiver at seeing the three-fingered hands, so different than the normal pincers of an Itikil. But Granash had been exposed to the mysterious element Phazon and had been heavily mutated as a result.

"Pull all forces back to the core and concentrate on getting it out and too the frigate. Have the Field Captain lay doggo until we have to leave, he should be safe with the bulk of the station shielding his signature," the assassin ordered as he twisted his wrist scythes to ensure that they were on tight.

"It shall be as you command," the Lesser Commander said as he started loping off, Itikil had never been high on military curtosy like salutes.

"Let the hunt begin," Granash hissed to himself, his mandibles twitching in a smile.

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

Granash's energy scythe skittered off the energy shielding of the orange and red armor of the Hunter as he ducked under a concussion missile. The Hunter twisted to one side and swiftly snapped his leg up to kick Granash in the jaw as he slid past. The pirate pulled his head up to lessen the force of the blow and then slid on his knees across the floor past the Hunter before jumping up and firing off his Galvanic Accelerator Cannon.

"You again," the Hunter said in his electronically masked voice as he crouched under the bolts and rapid fired a flurry of energy bolts at Granash.

"I thought I got rid of on Altima Prime when your explosives took out the entire fuel dock," the Hunter continued as he rolled to the side to dodge another barrage and countered with a bright yellow super missile.

"A day or two in the medi-pod and I was as good as new," Granash snarled as he contorted himself to avoid the missile and then charged forward in short hops from wall to ceiling to wall.

"And here I was prematurely adding another kill tally," the Hunter continued in an almost bored tone of voice as he fell back and then surged forward, tackling Granash to the ground and slamming an orange armored fist into his face.

Granash brought both legs up under the Hunter and pushed, shoving him away long enough for the pirate to roll out from under him and stab viciously as his helmet. But instead of humanoid armor, Granash was confronted by a three foot tall ball that was just small enough to avoid his strike.

"How many does that make then? 567 instead of 568?" the Hunter taunted as he rolled backwords, dropping several small glowing bombs in front of Granash. As the space pirate fell back, shielding his eyes from the explosions, the Hunter unfolded himself and nailed Granash right in the chest with a missile.

"When I kill you, all of their deaths shall be avenged!" Granash roared as he tore off a section of plate that was conscricting his breath and swiftly assembled a deadly looking rifle that had glowing blue lines down its sides.

With a loud crack the rifle fired, carving through the air and slamming into the Hunter's shoulder, knocking him to the ground and causing his shields to flare brightly.

But even prone, the Hunter had teeth, and proved this by firing several bolts of pure plasma into the armor on Granash's legs, causing the pirate to cry out in pain and leap onto the ceiling, dropping his rifle in the process.

"I'm guessing you're going to run away now," the Hunter said as he got back to his feet and started firing continuously as Granash dodged, gradually moving further away.

"As much as I would like to kill you here and now, I would prefer to survive a while to savor the taste of victory," Granash shot back as he slipped into a side corridor and started running.

"We'll run into each other earlier than you think!" the Hunter shouted after the fleeing pirate. "The bounty on your head is getting pretty high!"

Snarling to himself, Granash slipped through the station, now devoid of any other space pirates, and boarded the captured frigate. The freighter was long gone, blown to shards by the approaching Federation battle group, but the frigate was yet unseen. Barring catastrophy, the pirates would be able to escape, prize and objective intact. But Granash silently cursed the Hunter for the umpteenth time and even added the yet unknown figure who had leaked the plans for this raid to the Federation.

Someone was going to die for this and the Hunter would have to wait.

OOC: Sorry this turned out as a Metroid Prime fanfiction more than anything else, but Granash doesn't fit well in CoV and I really wanted to write something for him.

As far as we know, all you need is super powers and the desire to register yourself.

OOC: Direct brute force is impossible? NUUUUUUUU!!!!!! We'll see about that! Ghoul! Get your [censored] in there!

BIC: "Why someone with as much strength as Lord Recluse allows these fascist fools to run rampant will forever escape me," Archlich remarked as he looked at the armed compound from across the street, his antique armor and skeletal countenance disguised with a sophisticated illusion spell to make him appear as a low ranking Council soldier.

"Maybe they pay him lots of money," grunted a hulking Warwolf standing just behind the mage.

"What did I say about talking while the disguise is up?" the fake Council soldier said to the Warwolf.

"To only talk in growls and grunts," the wolf sighed and then snarled at a civillian that looked to be taking too much interest in their conversation.

"Correct," Archlich replied, somewhat mollified. "Now then, tell those idiotic constructs to get moving, this arms convoy was supposed to have arrived five minutes ago."

As though waiting specifically for those words, which they had been, a dozen more fake Council soldiers scrambled over and onto several plain gray vans that had been parked further down the street. The vehicles were a convoy intended to resupply the soldiers in the fort while they waited for the prisoner exchange to through. They would be waiting for a long time; Lord Recluse quite liked the scientists he had had Black Scorpion capture.

Which is where Archlich, Brutish Ghoul, and the small group of Toy Dispenser's robots came into the plan. Since Recluse didn't want to give up the men he had captured, wanted the Council's prisoner returned, and was willing to pay a great deal of money for the man's safe return, the mercenary group known as LMOUSVEV took up the challenge.

The first part was how to get inside and was relatively easy to solve. After Toy Dispenser had hacked the Council's database and pinned down the time and route of a supply convoy, it was simplicity itself to take down the guards without harming the trucks or allowing them to get off a warning and then get Archlich to weave a powerful enchantment to disguise the attackers as the convoy members. Now all that remained was to get safely inside, break into the prison, and get the prisoner out safely.

"Took you guys long enough," said the gate guard as the first van drove up with Archlich sitting in the passenger's seat and Ghoul lurking in the back. "The Archon has been getting antsy about possible retaliation from Arachnos."

"Like those pansy arachnophiliacs would be able to get in here," Archlich drawled to the guard as he passed over a clipboard and ID card.

The gate guard checked these out against his records and then submitted Archlich to a retinal scan, which he passed.

"Password of the day?" the guard asked as he handed over the clipboard and ID card.

"All for all," Archlich said, confidant in the information he had ripped from the former convoy commander's mind.

"You're clear," the guard said and pressed a button, opening up the main gates. "Unloading dock is on your right, just look for the Eclipse Warwolf wearing the red hat. Don't ask, don't get your head torn off."

"Roger," Archlich replied and then directed the driver to bring them in.

Things proceeded exactly as the Council expected them too for another few minutes as the trucks drove up to the small armory and disgorged their guards. They were tasked with helping to unload the trucks and then were dismissed to find bunks for themselves before they could get integrated into the base's command structure.

The convoy guards were nearing the door leading into the main building, where the barracks and prison was, when the trucks and the armory exploded. Alarms began blaring as the sentry guns failed to initialize, their power supply damaged in the gigantic explosion and the confusion of the living soldiers was only added too as the convoy guards dropped their disguises and opened fire every which way.

As the skeletal, pulse rifle armed robots distracted the guards, Archlich and Ghoul burst into the front door of the building and slew the few guards there within seconds. Acting quickly, Ghoul covered the other doors while Archlich slipped a flash drive into the USB port of the main desk's computer. The programs carried within it activated automatically and swept through the Council mainframe, targeting and eliminating the controls for the security cameras and elevators. The Council was now blind and their movements were heavily hindered. But that was the last of Toy's contributions to this mission, from now on Ghoul and Archlich were on their own.

"They will be expecting us to come at them up the stairwells now," Archlich said as he blew open a door with an energy blast and started walking down a hallway. "Also, the Ascendant soldiers shall begin making their way down into the body of the building, leaving their Archon lightly defended as they attempt to coordinate with the normal security and cut us off from the prison area."

"So what're we gonna do then?" Ghoul asked as he casually reached up and pulled a camera out of its wall socket as he walked behind Archlich.

"We are going to exit through the rear of this structure using your methods of breaking through materials, then we shall scale the structure from the outside while the robots continue their distraction. In all probability we shall be able to swiftly scale the outside walls, infiltrate the top floor, and eliminate their commander. This will further confuse them and cause the Ascendant soldiers to charge back up at us. We will then jump back outside and re-enter the building at the 30th floor, extract the prisoner, fight our way back down to the bottom floor, catching our enemy from the rear, and then flee through the hole we originally made in order to scale the wall."

By the time Archlich was done talking, the two of them had already reached the wall that Ghoul was supposed to break through. The brute stared blindly at it for a few seconds as he tried to mentally sort through what Archlich had said. Failing, Ghoul shrugged and shoved his hands into the wall. Dark energy flared down his arms and into the stone, sending tendrils deep into it and breaking the rock apart from the inside. Once it was weakened enough, Ghoul tore out the chunk of rock and tossed it to one side.

"After you," Archlich said, waving one hand toward the breach while the other wiped off some dust from his black cape.

"Here comes papa!" Ghoul shouted as he jumped out onto the street and then bounded straight up.

Grabbing onto a slight protuberance, Ghoul gathered his feet underneath him once more and jumped again. This was repeated a few more times before he had accidently crashed into and through a window on the top floor, tumbling to a halt right in front of a startled Ascendant Adjutant.

"My apoligies for the damage," Archlich said as he appeared next to the soldier in a bright flash. "Rest assured you won't have to worry about it for much longer."

The Adjutant got off a couple of shots from his sonic gun before the combined forces of Ghoul's darkness and Archlich's energy blasts took him down for good. Their engagement, although brief, was long enough for several more soldiers to rush into the room. The two villains fought a short but deadly running battle to the commander's room, where they put down the Ascendant Archon and took his passcard.

After Archlich took an extra moment to be sure that the Ascendants that had already goen downstairs were coming back up, the two jumped outside and descended to the 30th floor. This time they were caught by surprise as an entire pack of warwolves rushed them, but Ghoul was able to heal his wounds by absorbing the life force of the defeated Council soldiers and Archlich used a quick incantation to restore some of his health.

"Our distraction shall not hold out much longer," Archlich said to the tired looking old man who they had come to rescue. "Stay behind us and keep your head, lest I be forced to cut it off."

"Just get me the hell out of here!" the man shouted as he dashed out of his now opened cell and started running for the elevator. Ghoul stopped him by grabbing onto the back of his collar, stopping him with a sudden jerk.

"Follow us," the brute said as he dragged the man along behind him as they went down the stairs.

A few patrols were encountered, easily dispatched, and the three made it to the ground floor and out of the breach just as the last robot self-destructed in order to keep its origins unknown.

OOC: Now THAT'S how you use creative brute force.

OOC: I approve of this.

BIC: Lightning ripped across the sky, briefly illuminating several hulking shapes standing in front of the warehouse's massive loading doors. As darkness fell once again, the only thing visible through the torrental downpour and gloom were a quartet of red glowing sensor strips that sat uncomfortably above an average person's height. Believing that the presence of five Zeus Titans would deter even the most stubborn of pursuers, the majority of the weakened Malta cell took cover from the rain inside the warehouse.

The only one's not allowed to stay out of the rain were two tactical operations agents. The two men sullenly pulled the collars of their advanced kevlar armor up closer to their heads, not that doing so prevented the rain from dripping down their necks. It was a thouroughly miserable job, but someone had to guard the back entrance.

"Think we lost them?" the TacOps on the left whispered to the one on the right, who was nervously rolling an old bullet in his hand.

"If Azure said so, then we did," Bullet Guy said as the dented slug danced it's way around his knuckles. "Although I got to say, I wouldn't bet on it."

"Then why the hell don't we have more guys back here?" the TacOps shot back, a bit louder than he intended.

Further down the alley, a can clattered to the ground and something small and low to the ground shot by the pair of Maltans and vanished. Two snub nosed rifles were up and aimed at the source of the sound with the smoothness of professionals. But no other sounds were made and the two slowly relaxed their guard.

The instant their guns lowered, the small shape darted back towards them, the low whirring noise of its passage now audible. A second shape shot at them from where the can had fallen and the two soldiers had no time to react before the seeker drones detonated in their faces, acting as point-blank flashbangs.

The old bullet clattered to the ground and rolled down a drainage grate, barely avoiding being stomped on by a heavy metallic foot as it tumbled into the sewers. Several gunshots stuttered out, their shots muffled by the heavy rain and then cut off by two loud thumps.

"Put them down for good, Mini Bot," Toy Dispenser said as he and the rest of his bots stepped out of the back door from the adjacent warehouse. "And good job, Combat Toy. See what you can do about the door."

Dashing forward, the tiny buzzsaws at the end of its tentacles buzzing merrily away, Mini Bot neatly tore out the throats of both unconscious men. Meanwhile, Combat Toy was tenatively trying the door knob with its ungainly hands. It turned easily in its grasp and the black assault bot swiftly pushed the door open and slipped inside.

Several small patrols and efficient sniper kills by Small Toy later, the group found themselves in a large room filled with a single safe, a pair of sappers, and the lead Gunslinger, Azure-Tango-Midnight.

"No way in hell are you getting the meteorite!" the lead Maltan shouted as he slung out both pistols and fired them in a single, lightning fast movement.

"Forgot how quick they are," Toy said in annoyance as he stumbled back, his right shoulder smashed to pieces. "Dispense the pain, boys!"

"I would if I could move," Mini Bot said sadly as a sap beam temporarily drained all of the battle drone's power.

"It is advised that we destroy the sappers first," Toy Bot stated as it's two modified Rikti blasters opened fire, knocking the second sapper down, but not injuring him that badly.

What followed was a typical scene of carnage, with Combat Toy opening up with a full alpha strike, neatly wiping the standing sapper off of the face of the planet. Small Toy's attempt to snipe Azure failed and the drone had to charge into melee combat when the Gunslinger retaliated by destroying the drone's rifle arm. The second sapper was shot to death with combined fire from Large Toy and Block Bot while Mini Bot lurched to its feet and charged Azure, knocking him to the ground long enough for Combat Toy to shoot off his head with a plasma blast.

"You're up, Block Bot, and hurry!" Toy Dispenser shouted at the protector bot as it ran over to the safe and started running a hacking program on the electronic lock.

The program succeeded and Block Bot opened the safe but a failsafe activated, channeling a powerful shapped charge that blew the robot into many pieces.

"Pull yourself together," Toy said as he reached into the safe and pulled out a chunk of dull gray rock. "Then punch a hole in the roof and let's bail this joint."

"Yes, boss," Block Bot sighed as it's pieces rolled over the ground and reformed.

Soon after that, six streaks of light shot up into the sky, distracting the Zeus Titans while a seventh shape, lacking the give-away sign of thrusters, sped safely off into the distance.

OOC: I wrote altogether TOO MUCH. But I enjoyed myself. ^___^

I am..... >_> Somewhat skeptical.

<_< Yay bluntness.

But please go on.

There was a light pop and a little metal ball about half a foot across appeared in the air a dozen feet from Church. The ball hovered in place and extended out hundreds of wires that reached out about two feet, but left a slight gap directly under the sphere. White motes of light filtered through the wires and then fell to the ground at an ever increasing speed. Within half a minute, the light had gathered into a large, humanoid figure. Seconds after the figure was completely formed and light stopped falling from the matrix of the sphere, the light faded, revealing Brutish Ghoul.

The brute rolled his head, prompting a loud crack and reached up to grab the sphere, which had retracted all of its wires. Ghoul grabbed the sphere and crushed it in his hand, black energy flaring as he did so. Bits of metal tinkled to the dock as Ghoul brushed off his hands and looked around him.

"Nice digs," he said when he saw the ship. "When we going?"

"Look out below!" came a sudden shout from up above.

Ghoul looked up and then stepped back, opening the way for Solid Shot to touch down, crash, actually. The grey android slammed into the dock with a loud crash and flopped to the ground as the fires from the bottoms of his boots died down. After a second, Solid groaned and pushed himself to his feet. The reason for his uncontrolled crash was revealed as he started irritably scraping away a large clump of bird [censored] that had hit him right in the face.

"God damned birds have no respect," Solid muttered as he semi-blindly stumbled toward the water and shoved his head under. He pulled it out a few seconds later, now thankfully bird poop free, and seemed to glare at everyone around him, daring them to say anything.

The Wielder of the Painpipe chose a much more mundane method of transport than anyone else. A plain yellow taxi drove up to the end of the dockand disgorged the armored tanker. A loud, but brief, arguement started as Wielder tried to pay for the ride but the driver just wanted Wielder out. Eventually, the taxi sped away an Wielder shoved several bills back into a pouch on his belt.

"SO MUCH FOR SERVICE WITH A SMILE!" Wielder shouted to himself as he walked toward the group. Kairaishi's entourage stepped in front of him and Wielder waited for them to gain some distance on him before he started walking forward again.

"I WONDER HOW THIS TOURNAMENT SHALL WORK!" Wielder shouted to the bent lead pipe in his hand. "IT SEEMS TO BE RATHER COMPLICATED!"

Waiting a moment and the shrugging, Wielder slowly walked behind Kariraishi's puppets.

OOC: Note: Solid is now lvl 42 and Ghoul is now lvl 40. Just an fyi.

"I see that you've finally cornered me," said a sultry voice as Toy Dispenser and his bots filed into the former command center of the Arachnos base. "I suppose I should have expected it. The false Scirocco guards his treasure well."

"'False' Scirocco?" Toy echoed and he lifted up his pulse rifle and surveyed the room, cluttered with computer banks and lined with giant monitors. From where he stood at the entrance to the room, there were plenty of places that he couldn't see into, likely a purposeful design.

"From what I heard, whoever takes up the mantle of Scirocco gets the power."

"A half truth," the voice, Serafina, replied. "The one who receives the mantle becomes the next Scirocco but it is not for the taking. I was entrusted with the task of choosing the next successor and I come to reclaim the mantle which has fallen to such scum."

"Now now now, didn't your mother ever teach you about bad-mouthing your betters?" Toy shot at Serafina as he motioned for his bots to fan out and begin moving through the rows of consoles.

"Ha ha ha," Serafina lightly laughed, frustrating Toy's furtive sweeps with his rifle. "The tales that my allies tell of you are true. You really do respect no one other than yourself, do you?"

"I wouldn't say everyone," Toy replied. "But I certainly don't respect cowardly sorcerous wenches that taunt me from the shadows."

"Or wherever ever the hell she is," Combat Toy muttered as it kicked aside a toppled trashcan. "Count on a [censored] cape to hide and talk."

"If you truly have so little patience," Serafina said and her voice seemed to grow louder. "Then let me oblige your death wish."

"Error!" Toy Bot suddenly shouted out. "Strong magical presence detected! Warn-!"

Further talk was cut off as a gust of wind so strong as to be visible slammed into the drone, plucked it off its feet, and rammed it into the wall near the entrance that the attackers had just come through.

"Scatter!" Toy shouted as he dove to one side and took cover behind a console. "Keep her from hitting all of us at once!"

"I'm afraid that won't protect you," said Small Toy as it jerkily spun around and spat laser fire at Large Toy. The protector bot fell back, loath to fire on its brother, giving Small Toy free reign to fire without fear of retaliation.

"Get the hell off of my brother!" Mini Bot shouted and dove at Small Toy, knocking the drone to the ground. The two of them rolled back and forth, neither of them able to gain the upper hand.

"Where the hell is she?" Combat Toy cried out as a gust of wind slammed it into a wall, binding its limbs from moving.

"Show yourself, coward!" Toy shouted as he poked his head up over the edge of the console and found himself staring straight at a rather busty, blue clad chest.

"I'm right here," Serafina said and lifted her hand up, throwing Toy Dispenser up into the air.

The mastermind flailed for a moment before cutting in his anti-grav jets, freezing him in place and giving him enough time to take aim and fire a bolt of energy right at Serafina's face. The energy split just in front of her face and stabbed into the floor behind her, but from her cry, it was clear that she had still been wounded slightly.

"This would be so much easier if you just laid down and died!" Serafina shouted at Toy as her brow furrowed.

Pink energy swirled around her feet and lashed out at Toy's mind, attempting to break it in two. But Toy's mind, as human-like as it was, was still that of a machine and was not easily affected by mental attacks. But his processes were still scrambled, and Toy jerked under the effect of Serafina's attack.

"Without your toys you aren't much difficulty," Serafina said, a small smirk quirking up the right side of her mouth. "Perhaps I should have fought you earlier and put an end to this much sooner."

"You'll find I'm a bit tougher than you think," Toy grated out and snapped out his foot, catching Serafina right in the forehead and knocking her back.

Toy Dispenser fell to the ground and dashed forward, planting his foot on her chest and shouldering his rifle. He glared down at her and she up at him as he pulled the trigger.

The laser was suddenly snatched out of his hand as Block Bot's laser blasts tore it from his grasp. The protector bot, mind-controlled like Small Toy, then turned its gun on its former master and prepared to fire again.

"I've got him, sir!" Large Toy shouted and rammed into Block Bot. "You can take her, sir, don't give up!"

"Oh shut up," Serafina snapped and a gust of wind smashed Large Toy into a mainframe, lodging it there amid sparking wires and shattered metal.

"God damn it!" Toy shouted and lunged at Serafina, one fist drawn back to slug her in the face.

It wasn't that hard to imagine the gust of wind that blew Toy back and the mental stab that scrambled his mind once again, leaving him disoriented as the genie stood over him and lifted her hand toward him, a ball of wind slowly gathering in her palm.

"I'm sure you'll have a fine epitaph," Serafina said. "That is, if they don't just throw you on a scrap heap."

"SHUT THE [censored] UP!" Combat Toy suddenly roared as a long barreled cannon arm came out of nowhere and knocked Serafina flying. The genie managed to halt her fall and shoot a gust of wind at Combat Toy, but the assault bot had already jumped through the air and landed right in front of her.

Pulling back one arm, Combat Toy viciously rammed it into her chest, thrusting her back against the wall. Serafina yelped as the blast cover flipped back, painfully scraping her bare stomach.

"Nobody touches the boss and lives," Combat Toy snarled as it fired its plasma cannon, causing Serafina to cry out with pain and the skin around the barrel to blister.

Weak bursts of wind battered the assault bot, but its legs were locked and its great weight allowed it to easily withstand the light breeze.

"Now [censored] DIE!" Combat Toy roared and fired again, this time with its missile launchers.

The air around the assault bot was suddenly full of smoke and fire as the missiles did their work. Some time during the conflagration, Serafina's mediporter activated, pulling her out of the fighting. The only thing left of her was a veil, which lazily drifted through the air.

Toy Dispenser slowly pulled himself to his feet, his cape falling down around him, and reached up his hand. The veil seemed to float into his hand, which closed into a fist as he grabbed it. He brought the veil up to his faceplate and stared at it for a long moment.

"She's not dead, you know," Mini Bot said, its left arm hanging limply. "I bet she'll be back for revenge or something."

"Damn right she will," Combat Toy grunted as it stepped forward, bits of molten metal dripping down from its right cannon. "I hope she remembers us a long time."

"We're done here," Toy said. "Pack up and move em out."

Silently, the mastermind spun around, his cape flowing out behind him, and walked out of the command room. One by one, his bots trailed along behind.

>_>

<_<

>_>

GAH! DRAMA BOMB! I'VE BEEN HIT! SOMEONE GET ME AN INFUSION OF SERIOUSNESS, STAT!

>_> Oh wait. I'm not serious. <_< Damned.

So yeah. Awesome story. The drama and the lovey part nearly overwhelmed me, but I'm fine now. I just needed to go blow up some giant robots.

>_>

You should write more. <_< And yell at me to finish Mechanical Storm more, too.

Protect: Portal! Only chance: Escape!

Lost: Defeated! Position: Exposed; vulnerable!

-immune! Mentalists; mesmerists: Retreat!

Guardians: Shield: Armorless infantry! They: Most vulnerable!

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHGH!

Warmaster Chertak brought his massive warblade down in an overhanded chop that completely split a zombie in two. The former PPD officer flopped to the ground, clearing the path for a wounded conscript to drag his even more wounded brother away from the encroaching mass of zombies.

Hold: Line! Chertak mentally shouted as he clenched his left fist and punched another zombie in the jaw, shattering it but not detering the undead in the slightest.

Behind the steadily shrinking line of defending Rikti, the warehouse that they were protecting was bustling with activity. Unarmed scientists scurried back and forth, checking jery-rigged control panels and adjusting ad-hoc power connections to get the most out of the materials they had. A massive Portal Corps portal hung suspended over the center of the empty warehouse, it's frame currently inactive due to the haggling of several Rikti technicians.

Out on the lines, armored Rikti commanders were forced to bear the brunt of the fighting as zombie tooth and nail were hardly effective weapons against the finest Rikti metallurgy. But even these heavily armored soldiers could be brought down with enough numbers and there were too few to hold the line all on their own. The best they could do was fight a delaying action as the remaining lower ranked survivors retreated into the warehouse and took up preprepared firing positions. Under cover of their plasma rifles, the commanders could pull back with relative safety.

Too bad they wouldn't get that far.

One technician tinkering with a stubborn plasma generator ripped from the Rikti Warship, now overrun and abandoned, saw an unusual power spike. Trying to put this to a halt before the generator exploded, he inadvertantly triggered the activation sequence for the other plasma generators that had yet to be brought online. The activation of these reactors and the sudden surge of power through the computer controlling the process for a loop. Eventually it was decided that it was time to activate the portal.

However, there were no noordinates currently entered; so when the portal activated it blindly opened a path into the incomprehensible void seperating dimensions with earth-shattering results.

Chertak and the Chief Soldier he was fighting next too were brutally thrown the ground by the shockwave from the destruction of the portal. Two hundred Rikti minds screamed out in pain for a brief second before vanishing forever, leaving the rest of the group-mind confused and disoriented.

Taking advantage of the sudden cessestion of resistance, the zombies swarmed even harder, pulling down Rikti after Rikti under the unstoppable tide of flesh. It was only through sheer will power that Chertak managed to shake off the death of so many of his kind so suddenly in time to swing up his blade and sheer a zombie from groin to forehead.

Defend: Selves! Chertak cried out. Objective: Retreat; regroup!

All: Lost, moaned one Rikti as he stumbled toward the ashen remains of the warehouse. All: Doomed.

Time: None! Chertak yelled at the Rikti, still stunned and barely going through the motions of surviving. All: Wish: Life. Follow: Me! All: Wish: Death. Die: Well.

Chopping down another zombie, Chertak's warblade lodged and he was unable to get it out before another zombie jumped him. The Warmaster clenched his fists a certain way to deploy several electrified spikes from his knuckles and viciously beat the zombie down. Around him, several other Rikti broke out of their stupor and rallied around the Warmaster. Together, the ten of them managed to fight their way out of the ring of death and scale to the top of a nearby apartment building.

They watched solemly as the last of those who had remained behind fell and then moved on, jumping from roof to roof to avoid the streets.