Khellendrosiic

"Come on, I just want to see how the other half lives," whined a techi-colored armor suited figure near the back of the hero section.

"Yeah, right," replied the Longbow bouncer. "And how many banks would you rob if I let you through? No dice, villain. Besides, your little buddies don't hide very well."

The armored villain turned around and saw his robotic minions attempting to mill around aimlessly. The villain shrugged and sighed.

"Fine then, see if I donate some charity money to the families of Longbow veterans, punk,” the villain spun around, his cape swirling majestically behind him, and stormed away. The six robots quickly fell in behind their master and took up a standard circular defense formation.

“That’s nice guys, but I won’t need you for the rest of the night,” the villain said to his robots. “Go out and exercise those new dance routines I gave you or introduce yourself to a nice lady robot or something.”

“Gotcha, boss,” replied one of the battle drones, Mini Bot. As one, the minions left their master behind and went out to the dance floor to dance. They may have been soulless automatons but they had some damned good programming and could act like normal, rational human beings. Usually.

Wiping a bit of dust off of his armor and returning the dirty look a muscle bound hero gave him; the mastermind tramped up the stairs to the hero bar and flopped down in a seat. The stool groaned and bent a little bit at the villain’s great weight but he ignored it as though it happened often.

“Hello there, miss,” he said. “You have something that’s healthy for the old nuts and bolts back there?”

The bartender shrugged at this normally unusual request and pulled out a can of something that looked a lot like motor oil. She poured some of the thick liquid in a glass and wordlessly passed it over to the villain.

“Thanks,” he said as a straw extended down from his chin. He sipped his drink a bit before he noticed the pair of heroes sitting next to him.

“Hey, there, nice to meet you,” he began. “Toy Dispenser’s the name and it’s awfully blue over here, isn’t it?”

Being hit in the chest by a grenade and flanked by another pair of enemies did not sit well with Captain Farfield. Launching another couple of blasts with his beams at Iosif and Semanov, he ordered the Longfangs into close combat. Brandishing their artificial spider legs and the hooked blades on their wrists, the Crab Spiders lunged at the two mercenaries. Farfield ducked under another precise burst from the spec ops and dug in his feet. With a cry, the Webmaster hurled himself at CptCommie, confident in the fact that the mercenary couldn't beat him in close combat.

OOC: Sorry about that, Ryan.

BIC: 7h3 74nk managed to spot Goro as the rock man rushed in and took the hammer blow to the upper chest instead of the head. Reeling backward, 7h3 74nk shouted for the Juicer Freak to give Charcold a hand. The faster they could take down one hero, the better. Then, pivoting at the waist, 7h3 74nk brought his own hammer up to smash Goro in the face.

The other Freak's continued to fire at Coldfire. The Mad Freak Gunner slotted a reload into his gun and kept firing. The Juicer Freak stayed at range and blasted Coldfire with streams of electricity. Hopped up on Excelsior, the Mad Freak Slammer pulled out his sledgehammer and charged Coldfire, intent on caving his face in.

[ QUOTE ]
The guard looked over the trio as the approached the door.

[/ QUOTE ]

The guard grunted and looked at CptCommie's ID card.

"Another A-3?" he said rhetorically. "At this rate we won't have much of an arena left. Take the door behind me, your allies are the rock thing, one of the feuding dudes, Mr. Freaky, and the insane woman. You're also outnumbered."

The guard slapped a button behind him and ducked out of the way as the door quickly shot open. As CptCommie, Iosif, and Lt. Semanov moved out onto the field, two things happened at once. First, the door shut. Second, Captain Farfield and his two Longfangs thumped down to the ground in front of the mastermind and his soldiers.

"Get him!" shouted the Webmaster as all three opened up with their disintigrator beams and machine guns.

OOC: I'm leaving Gideon and Midnight Dawn behind. If they want back in they can restart, it was taking them way too long.

[ QUOTE ]
He pushed both hands together as if squeezing something and pressed hard. Slowly, another fire ball emerged from his hands, smaller this time. He sent oit over to the same golem Jord was about to hit, knowing that the combined force of the fire ball and Jord's massive strength, along with the earlier damage would cause it to be destroyed.


[/ QUOTE ]

The fireball was severaly weakened as it passed into the golem's protective blizzard shield. The sand creature reeled back from the blow, but would have recovered had Jord not dashed in at that moment and shatter it with a well-placed punch. The last golem howled and jumped into the air, intent on crushing Jord beneath its weight.

Meanwhile, Andraxus was finishing up a lengthy incantation. With the last word, Andraxus drew forth a crystal shard from his robes and held it up. The crystal started glowing brightly and then disappeared. A moment later, Andraxus, the golem, Jord, and Iron Fist winked out of existence. They materialized back down on the main floor, in their exact same positions as they had been back up in the smaller arena. Only they had taken something with them, multiple somethings.

The six beings of shadow twisted and writhed, angered at being trapped on this corporeal plane. As one, they turned toward Andraxus and advanced on him.

"Hold!" shouted the Archmage and the creatures froze, their features contorted in rage. "I am your master! By the ancient pact I once had with you, I charge you to destroy that man!"

Andraxus pointed at Iron Fist and the shadow beasts slowly turned toward him. With a hissing cry, they lunged at him as Andraxus laughed.

Coldfire was intercepted by the Juicer Freak, who had managed to untangle himself from the other Freaks. The Juicer lanced a powerful bolt of electricity at the hero. Tossing the Juicer a wave, 7h3 74nk jumped down through the gap with the other Freaks hanging onto him. The Tank Freak landed with a thump that sent a small ripple through the sand around him.

"G0 h31p 7h47 d00d 0u7," he told the minions as he pointed at at Charcold.

The two ran over to the immobilized villain and began chipping away at the ice covering him.

OOC: Damn, I forgot Blarg.

BIC: The right most golem stumbled back as the chunk of earth slammed into it. Staggering, the golem regained its footing, grabbed the piece of rock and threw it right back at Iron Fist. The second golem hissed and steamed as the fire breath met its cloud of ice and snow. A gigantic plume of steam was released into the air and when it dissapated, it revealed a golem that already had a chunk of ground in its hands. Copying the other golem, it hurled the boulder at Iron Fist.

Just then, a shudder went through the floor and a thin line appeared bisecting the middle of the arena. With a groan, the two halves started drawing into the walls, sending a cascade of sand falling down through the ever growing gap. The cries of the crowd reached a feverish pitch as if they knew what was happening.

His eyes darting back and forth between Coldfire and the gap, 7h3 74nk slowly backed away. But then, hatching a plan, he slammed both hammers into the ground, hoping that the combination of his shockwave and the ground's rumbling would knock Coldfire into the hole.

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

The doors in front of the new fighters slid open and revealed a football sized field covered in white sand. Near the middle of the field, there was a small waterfall of sand falling from the ceiling.

[ QUOTE ]
Coldfire, angry about missing such an easy target, called forth frozen aura and froze the oncoming bullets. With bloodlust in his eyes, hidden away by his dark sunglasses, Kaiser let out a huge cry of anger as he summoned forth all his power to blast forth with his ultimate attack, inferno.

[/ QUOTE ]

The explosion once again bowled over those that had been standing up just after Iron Fist's ill-timed deathball. 7h3 74nk managed to weather the flames with little more than a couple of black smears on his armor and laughed as the ice slick melted under the heat. The other Freaks were slightly less fortunate, having been blasted back against the wall. It would take them a minute to untangle themselves. Clapping his giant mallet hands togther, 7h3 74nk rushed at the exhausted Coldfire.

"5700p1d m0v3, n006!" he shouted as both hammers came down on Coldfire.

A business suited man jogged up to Infernus, Jord, Charcold, and Goro and hastily nodded his head to each of them. Behind him trailed an Inferno, a Damned, and a pair of Fallen.

"The computer says you guys are ready to fight," the man began. "I have with me the friends that you brought in that are judged strong enough to fight at this time."

"I got an A-5, boss," said the Inferno as he waved an ID card around. "Pretty cool, huh?"

The man cast a glare at the Inferno and returned his attention to the four supers in front of him.

"As I was saying, you've been split up. Ms. Jord and Mr. Goro, you are both on the Left Team with the rest of the supers. Mr. Charcold, your enmity of Mr. Coldfire has been well documented, thusly, you fight on the Right Team. Mr. Infernus, you are also on the Right Team but you are allowed to bring some of your friends with you. You may pick either the Inferno, the Damned, or both Fallen to bring with you.

"Now, if you will all just follow me, I will direct you to where the various entrances are."

OOC: The guy leads you to a different door then was used to enter the fight originally, so don't just burst in and start shooting.

>_>

<_<

>_>

Unless they fixed it, do you think a team of heroes could spawn the Kronos Titan in Siren's Call on Protector? I want to kill it with the only high level I've got. My Mastermind.

Now if you don't mind, I'm going to slink back to the less painfully bright villain board.

OOC: Actually, I asked what an Inferno was. That's why nothing happened with you. And I was going to tell Jord that she could fight INfernus and Goro, but it seems that I forgot. >_>

Let's try to avoid multiple characters to one person, ok? I've never liked that.

EDIT: Sorry Ryan. I'll try to remember that his hammer is a special one.

Suddenly the air grew heavy and Goro's mallet crumbled into dust as did the rest of the objects he had summoned. Infernus' flames also winked out and no matter how much he tried, they wouldn't come back.

"Thank you very much for participating!" quipped the cheery voice again. "Mr. Infernus, congratulations! You have been classified as an A-3 super class! This qualifies you for the most difficult fights that we have in the Coliseum! Now, if you would please take your new ID card from the slot next to the door you may happily continue on your way to becoming a gladiator champion!"

There was a slight whirring noise next to Jord and a pair of cards popped out of a small slot. One of them had Infernus' face on it and the second had a mug shot of Goro.

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

Andraxus' eyes widened as Iron Fist brushed off his attack and then launched the incredibly large fireball. With a final, imperious gesture, Andraxus finished the spell that he had been casting. A trio of sand golems rose up from the sand and roared loudly. One of the golems leapt atop the fireball, setting it off. The explosion knocked almost everyone off their feet and sent bits of glass flying everywhere. When the smoke cleared, Andraxus was just getting to his feet and looking coldly at the crater where the golem had been.

"Someone must have made a mistake puttig you in here," said the mage. "To have such a blatant disregard for any forms or propiety. No wonder they called me in, someone must not like you. Of course, disliking you seems to be rather easy."

Pointing his staff at each golem in turn, they became surrounded with a swirling cloud of ice and snow. With a cry, they charged toward Iron Fist.

OOC: Just a reminder, PvP fights you guys can do like you're back in Supervillain 101.

[ QUOTE ]
"Out of my way, worm, I need to get into the arena." Jord said politely to a guard positioned at the door. "Iron Fist is my partner, and your stadium has started the match without me."

[/ QUOTE ]

The heavily armed and power suited man shook his head.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but house rules specifically prevent reinforcements to one side once a fight has begun," he began and then held up an empty hand when Jord looked ready to pound him. "If you'll hold on a moment please! As I was going to add, if you can find someone willing to reinforce the other team, then I'm sure something could be worked out. Now, may I see your evaluation card?"

Jord took out a card that she had been given after she and Iron Fist had been evaluated not but thirty minutes ago.

"Damn," whistled the guard. "A class A-1. I think the only guy avaliable that could match you was Andraxus; and he's already fighting. You could go check out the ready room, see if anyone is willing to go out there against you. Otherwise I guess you're [censored] outa luck. Ma'am."

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

"Very impressive, Mr. Infernus!" chirpped the insufferably cheery voice. "Now, if you would mind testing yourself against our friend Goro, here, then I am sure we'll have your evaluation in no time! But watch out, because Mr. Goro is rated an A-3!"

The spotlight switched off at the same time that the full lights turned on. It revealed a fairly small, blank room and a tall, stone-like man standing off next to the wall. The walls all looked extremely durable, as did the floor and ceiling.

"Whenever you're ready, Mr. Infernus!"

OOC: Eh, what exactly does Inferno do? I'll get you in in a post or two, Ryan.

BIC: A switch was thrown and Infernus was suddenly illuminated in a bright spot light. He couldn't tell how large the room was but there was a definate sense of someone else out there just outside the light.

"Greetings prospective fighter!" said a cheerful mechanical voice that seemed to come from nowhere. "Greetings and welcome to the Coliseum! If you would be so kind as to provide your name, alias, a general description of your powers, and a return address we would be glad to move on in our evaluation!"

The sheer chirpiness of that voice would be enough to drive even the most mild mannered pencil pusher into a killing rage if it kept talking for too long.

Andraxus scowled at Iron Fist's ursuption of his spell and angrily gestured, countering the fireball with a ball of ice. Lifting his staff high into the air, Andraxus slammed it down into the ground and sent a wave of rock rolling toward the mastermind.

"A worthy opponent indeed, O Incarnate," said Andraxus as he started making complicated gestures with his free hand. "A more worthy opponent than you shall ever be."

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

Seeing Coldfire coming right at him, the Juicer panicked and jumped backward. He collided with the Mad Freak Slammer and the two of them went down. The Gunner had stepped back as well, but only so that he could get a better angle on the charging hero. With a cry, the Freakshow opened up a full barrage at Coldfire.

7h3 74nk was less fortunate, as the ice patch was impossible for his flat metal feet to grip and he fell flat onto his butt. Swearing in 1337, the massive Tank started pounding on the ice slick with his mallet, knowing from experience that if he tried to get up he'd just fall over again.

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

"Ya damn fairy!" cursed Farfield as he widened his stance. "I'll take you down myself! You two! Get the other guy!"

"Yes, sir!" snapped down of the Longfangs and the two of them oriented on Gideon.

"Open fire!" shouted Farfield as he loosed a barrage of red disintegrator beams at Midnight Dawn. The Longfangs attacked Gideon with their less powerful machine guns which were built into two of their four spider legs.

OOC: I'll get to Infernus later. My computer time is up for right now.

The thug looked Lord Infernus and his buddies over and whistled.

"Nice outfits. Very red. You guys got a manifesto to go with that?"

The guard chuckled at his own wit. A blazing glare from Infernus caused the guard to pale and his laughter to trail off.

"Eh, people never appriciate my jokes," he muttered as he pressed a button next to the door.

The door silently slid open and revealed three corridors.

"Alright, take the right corridor. You'll want the third door on the right, your lieutenants the second door, and the other guys should go in the first door. In there, you'll find apptitude testers to see if you've got what it takes to fight in the Coliseum."

The guard stepped to one side and motioned Infernus and his gang inside.

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

Andraxus smiled thinly as Iron Fist charged him. As if on cue, the Freakshow and Arachnos jumped away from Andraxus as the mage lit up like a Christmas tree. With a pop and a crackle, Andraxus appeared to Fist's left.

"Dorn ah angus," the mage said and a bolt of pure magical energy lept from his staff straight at Iron Fist.

"We've got a few late entries to introduce, folks, so please bear with us," blared the announcer. "An addition to the super side is the inestimable Iron Fist! We have no clue who this guy is but from the mess he made of the trainer, we're going to have quite a fight on our hands!"

Iron Fist stepped out of the entry way and took a few steps forward onto the sand floor of the arena. The crowd was unusually quiet as he looked out over it.

"And to even out these two teams, we've pulled out all the stops! Introducing the Archmagus of Death, Andraxus!"

From behind 7h3 74nk's Freaks, a glowing figure approached. The Circle of Thorns archmage stepped up beside one of the Longfangs and cast a pair of burning blue eyes over the several super powered men in front of him. The Tank Freak and Webmaster let Andraxus step to the forefront and tried to keep clear of his crystal headed staff.

"I am ready," intoned Andraxus in a deep voice. "Can the same be said of my erstwhile allies?"

Captain Farfield drew himself up and glared at the mage while 7h3 74nk followed suit.

"Yeah, we're good to go," said the Webmaster.

"54m3 h3r3, n00b," muttered 7h3 74nk.

"Then let us begin."

At this pronouncement from Andraxus, the doors behind each team slid down in their grooves and thudded shut. The crowd restarted its roar as the announcer started the countdown.

"And we've got four seconds!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Fight!"

OOC: You guys go first and remember that I decide if you hit the other team or not, just as you decide if your character gets hit or not. Just don't dodge every shot.

OOC: Ok, let's get the fighting started. If you're late, just post a description of your character and then I'll do something to get your guy into the action.

BIC: "Alright folks!" shouted the announcer over the loudspeakers. "We have tonight a three hero team. They've never worked together, never fought together, and by the looks of things they don't even like each other! I'm proud to introduce Midnight Dawn, Gideon, and Coldfire!"

The crowd cheered and booed in more or less equal amounts. There seemed to be a pretty strong group from the Rogue Isles in the audience today.

"And now for their opponents. First up, we have long time gladiator Captain Farfield and his squad of Crab Spiders!"

From the opposite door a trio of heavily armored figures emerged. The lead Crab Spider lifted his hands up in the air and played up to the crowd. His artificial spider legs twitched and mimicked his real arms as he waved. While the lead Spider had the markings of a Webmaster on his breastplate, his two followers had a pair of blood red fangs painted on their helmets, marking them as Longfang lieutenants.

"And partnering up with Farfield's mechanized menace we have a newcomer to the Coliseum, 7h3 74nk and his crew!"

A massive Tank Freak stepped out from behind one of the Longfangs and elbowed it out of the way. The Arachnos officer drew back, not wanting to take a hammer in the face from the irritated gangster. Behind 7h3 74nk trailed a tough looking Juicer Freak and a pair of unaugmented Freakshow lugging around an Uzi and a giant mallet respectively.

"What the hell kind of name is 7h3 74nk?" spat Farfield as he glared through his visor at the Tank.

"Wh47 7h3 h311 k1nd4 n4m3 15 Farfield?" grunted 7h3 74nk.

Farfield snorted and pointed at Midnight Dawn.

"You're mine."

OOC: Yay! Two of you! I'll wait a little longer before posting the attackers. After all, I need to make sure they would be a challenge.

OOC: Alright. I'm going to try this again. I think the main problem last time was the fact that I forgot to say Open RP. Anyway, the set-up.

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 fifty 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: This RP will be a bit different from those that are here normally. Instead of joining you with my own character, I will instead control those you will all fight. Therefore, you can’t instantly knock anything out of the fight. The most you can do is say what you try to do, such as throwing a fireball at a Skull, and maybe add a contingency plan just in case the fireball misses or otherwise fails. I am the ultimate decision on what happens when someone attacks an NPC. PC combat will operate normally.

You can be anything in this thread; a hero, a villain, the Sergeant of a squad of Longbow, or a CoT demon leading his troops into battle. Any mix of powers is acceptable. If you want to be a guy who can fling fireballs, manipulate gravity, and throws cars, that’s ok, just remember that I may point at something and say, “No. You can’t throw cars.” And that would be that.

Have patience, keep an open mind, and let us see if we can make this work as well as I’ve gotten it to work before.

And as for teams, right now I'll have all the player created characters versus my guys. So feel free to walk/run/fly/move out of the left door and set yourselves up.

I wonder is you could get a badge from killing the roaming Arachnos Flyer? And who was that guy that tossed a grenade into that hole? Regardless, I can't wait for some dual-pistol wielding, trenchcoat wearing thugs to tote around.

The thing about questions of morality is that there is no one 'right' answer. Therefore, we all got it right according to what we thought would have been appropiate in that situation.

My answer depends on the policy of our organization. In Arachnos, I would have to follow your order since Wolf Spiders are trained for loyalty above all. But if our organization has a more liberal approach to this sort of thing, I'd probably accuse you of treason, shoot you, and then shoot the hero. I'd then browbeat the men and alter the records to show that I was in the right. I always wanted your position anyway.

With a loud groan, a huge piece of the ground in between Blarg and the Crab Spiders rose up and formed a wall. At the same time, other walls began rising one after another until Captain Farfield and Blarg were effectively blocked off from their men, or clowns, if you will. Blarg's pyschic attack disipated harmlessly against the rock wall.

"What the hell!" shouted Farfield, "I thought the maze was supposed to come up in the next fight! Damn it!"

The Webmaster pivoted and slammed his fist into the wall, causing a few chunks of rock to fall off. After a quick comm. conference in which Farfield learned that his Longfang's were still together, he gave the sane Longfang the information he needed to reactivate the other one's armor. Then, he set off down a random passage in an attempt to find that crazy [censored] clown and put an end to this fight.

OOC: Sin Reaper and Cross Breed are still right next to each other.