MrKrazy

((That mean you're predetermining the result of the battle, or are we still to hurt each other? :3))

Two streams of bright blue plasma headed straight for Acanous's head from above, which would literally melt the interior of his head should it hit. The beams were shortly after followed by another blast of forcefield energy with the strength to at least literally shatter bones. The beams were strategically placed so that the easiest way to dodge them would bring him straight into the energy's path, causing him to be incapacitated, if not outright killed.

Now, lest Acanous forget his observations earlier, he would have recognized the perpatrator of this act, a certain Arbiter Jake Walsh. Jake was a very high ranking Arbiter, and next in line for the position of lieutenant, should Black Scorpion fail.

"Sorry buddy. Private function. You should've RSVP'd."

((Because I'm waiting on the Sky Raider commander, and if any other Sky Raiders want to charge Jake.

... Don't tell me you already responded and I look like an idiot. >.&gt)

((*Pokes Sovs with a heated metal stick* :3))

ARC seemed to be forgetting he was facing not one, but six opponents at the time. Running away simply wasn't an option, not when one has half a dozen killer mechanoids ready to keep you locked down.

Which, coincidentaly enough, happened to be the plan agreed upon in the .0000000007 of a second Jake's minions took to spawn one. Both Protector Bots, N0-013 and 1-14X, teleported to either side of ARC, each almost simultaneously encasing him in what most know as a Detention Field. This would keep ARC locked down for as long as they cared to keep him down, which, in this case, happened to be about seven and a half seconds.

Of course, the amount of time they took wasn't nearly so much as important as the events that would take place within this time. The four remaining minions, including W0-07 and the three Battle Drones, surrounded ARC yet again, this time charging their lasers for a devastating blow. Each of them would deliver a blast almost equal in power to that of what ARC attempted, giving the ever-witty Model W0-07 yet another one liner.

"Witty Remark Found: File Directory, Internet Fad: 'I'M CHARGIN MAH LAZERS!'"

If ARC did nothing, he would be released from his prison the millisecond the robots fired their weapons.

But, hey. That's a pretty cool way to go.

"Witty Remark: File Directory, Internet Slang: lol n00b" W0-07, Jake's modified Assault Bot, stated as it slid inbetween Lt. Cry and ARC. Jake had been hard at work these past twenty years perfecting his robots, and, in addition to having his signature forcefield skin-tight, so to speak, around his minions at all times, they were also built with this world's equivalent of Adamantium. In addition, powerful electro magnets in the robot's feet would ensure it was safely on the ground when it needed to be.

In short, this thing wasn't going anywhere, and any energy that wasn't deflected back at ARC via the forcefield would be shortly canceled out by the metal's strength.

ARC would then find no less than five other heavily modified robots surrounding him, all six of them feeling it fit to charge their respective blasters in addition to aiming them at a certain Jump Bot.

"Human expression: Arrogant sneer." W0-07 cockily gloated as it fired it's plasma at amazing speed toward ARC, the other minions following suit in no less than a 0.0047 of a second.

-----

The Sky Raider charging Jake would find himself with a rather unpleasant feeling in his gut as the equivalent of three elephants' worth of force made its way into his torso, most likely crushing his chest as it blew him back about half a mile.

"So who's next? Come on, don't be shy."

-----

"Yeah, I'm told that a lot." Tamesis stated as he yet again teleported, this time direction behind the Porter. He had timed his to coincide with the moment the machine guns began to fire, thereby riddling the human shield with bullets.

"Amazing what teleportation can do." He threw the body down and teleported to either side of the vehicle, ripping off the guns one at a time. "I'd suggest some back-up, personally, because in about a half-a-minute, your flying easy-chair is gonna be grounded."

And indeed, he made no empty threats. Already he was behind the vehicle, randomly ripping out components that he deemed important.

[ QUOTE ]
The door closed and Cry sent a mental image to Tamesis. *A hero placed a flamethrower into the box full of amunition, there were four of them in total each with a badge. The image zooms in on one of the badges "Point Blank"

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I'll get right on that. He thought sarcastically, continuing to rip out wiring and what seemed to be a fuel tank. Right after I'm done saving your [censored]. Damn baby.

If Arbiter Tamesis had lips at this point in time, they would have been in a very cocky smirk. Aftering being flipped backwards through the air, Tamesis again teleported next to the Sky Raider's Sky Skiff, this time within his repulsion field. He had ignored the missiles altogether, deciding he'd get to them when they decided to come rocketing back to him.

"Again," The dry raspy voice stated. "Now you're screwed!"

He wanted to get their leader out of the way quickly, hoping that doing so would break the Raiders' morale. In the pursuit of this goal, Tamesis had come to the conclusion of cutting out the middle man entirely, this time going straight for the [censored]-pit. A darkened flaming fist rose above his head, and headed at a frighteningly quick pace toward the pilot's head. It would appear as nothing more than a dark streak before the man's head was melted and crushed simultaneously.

-----

At about the time Arbiter Tamesis was raining darkened terror on the Sky Raider Captain, a heavily modified Assault Bot literally rocketed down from the sky, going an excess of eighty miles an hour. A lone laser eye provided the sight for the unit, but it seemed to have an unusual hint of intelligence, something that, admittedly, didn't seem to be uncommon for machines in this day and age.

In any case, the machine landed with a large, weighted, elbow on the head of a small, poorly defended, head. The unfortunate soul would be caught completely off guard, and would most likely die on contact, if not from the shock, then from his skull being reduced to a two dimmensional object. The machine landed with on the ground with a loud slam, kicking up dust and debris in the process, and nearly destroying the already weakened ground.

"Appropriate Remark Found: File Directory, Cocky Gloating: Suck it [censored]-es!" The monotone voice seemed somehow full of emotion as its companions followed shortly afterward, forming a V formation behind it.

"Response To Gloating: Get over yourself, we have a job." Another monotone voice, this time belonging to a modified Protector, stated.

"Now now, kids, stop fighting." Jake dropped in from the same location as the others, holding a closed fist in the direction of a random Sky Raider.

"Like N0-013 said, we have a job."

A concentrated stream of plasma shot at the head of said Sky Raider, several degrees hotter than the sun, and with enough penetrating force to rival that of a rail gun on steroids.

((Now wait a minute, I'm confused. If the Scarlet Eye serves Cry, why were both sides affected by the psychic attack?))

Tamesis was not an Arbiter for nothing, nor was he simply one of the throwaway Arbiters, standing around Mercy Island and talking to the villains who were not above exterminating snakes. No, Arbiter Tamesis was far above them.

Tamesis specialized in combat, plain and simple. He was not a great intellectual mind, and he was not introducing any new and advanced technology or arcane developement of the organization. (On a side note, this was partially the reason he was placed to work with Jake. They're reasoning was that Jake's mind with his skill would make for a deadly combination.)

Due to this, Arbiter Tamesis simply held up his arms across each other in a gesture of defense, an invisible shield glowing every time it deflected a bullet. ((Picture coming when I can draw it.))

"Oh, you guys chose a really bad few seconds to attack. You see, I'm here right now, and that's never a good thing." He pushed another button on his helmet, opening up yet another comm link with Jake.

"What?!" Three times in half a minute seemed to be even more irritating.

"We just got attacked, Cry and I are attempting to hold them off, sound an alarm for me, 'kay?" Indeed, even as he said this, Tamesis dissapeared in a flash of light and a slight pop, reappearing behind one of the Sky Raiders and slamming him in the back of the head with a flaming boot. But that wasn't all. If the Sky Raider hadn't been caught off guard enough by the blow to the back of the head, his falling form would have even more to worry about when Tamesis teleported yet again underneath him, elbowing him in the gut, then pushing him away from him by kicking his torso.

"One down." He stated simply, teleporting on top of the Sky Skiff and engulfing his hands in a black flame, which seemed to spread to his forearm.

Then his shoulder.

Then his torso.

Then his head.

Then his thighs.

And calves.

And finally feet.

Two red slits remained where there once were eyes.

A raspy voice called out to the occupant in the Sky Skiff, seeming desperately in need of water.

"Now you're screwed."

Two hands, at almost the temperature of hot plasma, slammed the two fans keeping the Skiff aloft, in hopes of more or less rendering it unable to fly, in order to draw the obvious leader of the party out.

((Blast you Sovs! Too tired to retaliate; your timing is impeccable...

To the hibernation chamber!

*Sleep now, post later*))

((Ah, in that case...))

Arbiter Tamesis had been about halfway from his office to the soldiers' barracks when a beeping sounded on his display helmet, followed by a short string of text that read "Lt. Cry wishes to see you. Reason given: Had a fortune."

"Cripes..." He muttered, turning back around in the direction of his office. "It had to be Cry, didn't it?" Her((?)) office happened to be halway across the base, at least a ten minute walk. Knowing this, Tamesis tapped a button on the side of his helmet.

"Hey Jake, gimme about twenty extra minutes on that meeting, kay?"

"... Why...?" He was clearly annoyed, after all, having your helmet go off in your face twice within half a minute would get on your nerves.

"Lieutenant Cry wants to see me. Something about a fortune. Naturally, I can't avoid it. Mind rounding up the soldiers for me?"

Jake only sighed in response.

"It's not my fault..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Alright, but you better be at the front gate by..." He adjusted his eyes so that they would focus on the upper left hand corner of his display. "Six, otherwise, I'm going without you."

Tamesis inhaled as if about to respond before being cut off yet again by Jake.

"With reprimend, of course."

"Damn. Alright, thanks Jake. Over and out."

Over the course of this conversation, Tamesis had already found his way to the entrance of Lieutenant Cry's office and had been escorted in within the minute.

He stepped in, the ever present clang of his boots dissapearing almost immediately as it was oddly stifled by Cry's flooring.

"Lieutenant Cry, a pleasure." This was formally stated, lest Tamesis be showing disrespect to the Arachnos higher-up.

"I believe you called me in here regarding a fortune of some sort?"

((I thought it was pretty epic. :3

Also, Project, are you referring to Jake's partner, Arbiter Tamesis, or is that just an unfortunate collision of names?))

((Heh heh, Diov just got countered. ))

Jake gently touched down on the metallic panelling of the floor, his hair and cape finally ceasing to move. As he walked, his boots clanged against the floor, echoing throughout the bustling outpost. Following a marked location on his GPS, he briskly walked into the Arachnos base, taking the shortest path possible to the office of his partner, Arbiter Tamesis.

The interior of the Arachnos Outpost was just as visually dark and devoid of color as the exterior, not really allowing much for the imagination to use as inspiration. Jake's boots clanged with the same echoing quality as before, this time echoing for at least a hundred yards before becoming unable to be heard. A few hurried TacOps rushed past him, their boots too echoing throughout the quarters before dying off in a fade.

He finally arrived at Tamesis's office, which was surprisingly upbeat for an Arachnos Arbiter. For one, there was proper lighting, meaning that the room was very well illuminated. One might also note that there was carpeting and painted walls, which made it look much more like an actual office rather than some hijacked broom closet. Lastly, there was a desk with recliners on either side, clearly meaning to coax whoever met with him into a sense of security, false or not. It was in one of these easy chairs that our Arbiter sat, sighing as his modified Arachnos gloves rested his head.

"So what is it this time, Tamesis?" Jake asked, with boredom clear in his voice.

"Oh, don't sound so dull." Tamesis replied, turning his chair around to face Jake, which happened to be fairly young. Tamesis at twenty-one, was one of the youngest Arachnos officers to be promoted to Arbiter, next to Jake's nineteen. It hadn't been long since then, either, as he was only twenty-three as of now. His young face was framed by a head of golden-brown hair, which Jake suspected to be dyed, and his gloves seemed to be modified in a similar manner to Jake's as they bulged outward more-so than one would think practical. His eyes still sparkled with youthful optimism, despite his already hefty service with Arachnos.

"It's not my fault." Jake replied. "Mondays always make me like this. What's the mission?"

Tamesis simply sighed. "How can you be so young and so bitter at the same time?"

"Two decades in the Isles will do that. Get. To. The. Mission." Jake's face remained the same, but his tone clearly indicated himself losing patience.

"Fine, geez. Seems we've gotten some readings of activity in the southern section of Steel." Tamesis pulled out several sheets of paper, some with charts and graphs, some with text, and others oddly blank. "Specifically, we've spotted several heroes going to and from that location. We've monitored their actions, and it seems that at one point or another, they always seems to return. It could be a false alarm, it could be that damn base we've been looking for, but in any case it looks like the higher-ups are wanting us to lead a group down there." He sighed, his unenthusiasm about the current task finally being revealed.

Jake simply grabbed the papers from Tamesis's side of the desk, taking a look over them himself. "The higher-ups are paranoid..." He muttered to himself, flipping a page over as he checked for print on the back. "There may be a supply cache down there, but it's in a terrible place for a base of operations." He let the papers drop back down to the desk, looking up at Tamesis. "It's poorly defended, not to mention right out in the open."

"Maybe that's just what they want us to think?"

"No, this is all-out global war. They wouldn't take chances like that." Jake sighed. "But orders are orders. Gather up some Bane Spiders and Wolf Spiders and meet me at the front entrance in half an hour.

Tamesis gave a short salute and walked out the door, Jake following shortly behind.

-----

"Sir!" A TacOps shouted, entering what seemed to be a control room. "We've just received what appears to be a message. We've determined the source to be just above the city, but we couldn't pinpoint it from our current location. We have sattelites and other Arachnos Outposts searching for it as we speak." The soldier handed what looked to be the commander-in-chief of the room a single CD Rom, which, when entered into a computer, would reveal a... request to land?

-----

Jake would receive a message in his comm requesting instructions on how to respond to a request to land. He would simply order to give it coordinates to land, however, keep hidden weapons trained on it at all times.

"Yes sir." A voice replied over the other end, a short burst of static signifying the link being cut.

-----

Lou would soon find coordinates to a landing location as well as a visual aid appear on his monitor, with instructions to land there, unarmed.

A very familiar face stood alone on a grand pillar within one of Arachnos's many surface bases, his face as solid and stoic as granite itself. His now black hair whipped into his eyes, his cape through the air, as a sudden gust of wind blew, carrying with it the scent of ruin, dispair, and death. His arms crossed over his chest, obscuring a tiny Arachnos emblem on the upper torso of his Arbiter uniform. White metallic boots magnetized themselves to the pillar, ensuring that his otherwise precarious perch was safer than any he could find on the ground.

He gazed out toward the now ruined city, the section formerly known as Steel Canyon being his current base of operations. The sky was a stereotypical, albeit, beautiful, red, which was ironically complimented by a building burning on the horizon.

Despite what was clearly being seen before him, Jake did not grieve. No, he hardly even batted an eyelash. What once stood must be torn down in order to induce change. In order to create something better. To create, something must be destroyed. He had come to terms with this long ago, since before Arachnos's conquest of Paragon, and yes, even the US, had begun.

How long had it been since he'd come to the Isles, driven there by some unknown force, and so hypnotically drawn to serve Arachnos? How long had it been since his innocence and ignorance had been lost?

"Almost twenty years..." He replied to no one in particular, another building deciding to combust shortly afterward.

Twenty years was a long time. At least long enough for a cocky teen to revolutionize an enormous organization's technology program and rise to a very high position as both a scientist and a tactical commander, and at most long enough for a small island nation to combat and occupy one of the world's biggest super powers.

And it was surely enough time for said cocky teen to grow-up, in more ways than one.

Jake sighed as a loud beeping suddenly sounded in his helmet; the time for recollection had passed. Pressing a button on the interior of his left boot with one of his toes, the magnetic nature of his boots suddenly wore off, giving way to three rather power streams of flame exhausting from both of his boots. Lifting off into the air, he went into a hawk dive, taking off toward the ground at a nearly ninety degree angle. He had just received a mission, and was now on his way to the interior of the base to receive it.

Jake stepped off the train yawning, his metallic jet boots sinking into the snow rather quickly. "Ah crud..." He muttered, pulling them out of the perma frost and back into open air. "This is going to make walking difficult." Continuing his trudge into the snow, he eventually caught up with the group, listening in on their conversations, deciding to remain silent and neutral on the issue regarding robotic sentience.

Ditto, although I may use it to create alternate versions of my characters.

"Feh." Jake scowled, stopping his minion's fire. He ordered his minions to hold their fire, however, continue to hold a lock on the target with a nonchalantless any slacker would have envied. "Tell me when it's alright to shoot again, I'ma put up some forcefields." He announced to the group, opening a glowing gloved palm in Combat Toy's direction with the intention of providing him with some defense.

His course of action, however, was cut short with the detonation of the target. Schrapnel flew everywhere as Jake suddenly abandoned his action, instead favoring a personal bubble for himself, which deflected not only the initial blast, but also any schrapnel that saw it fit to fly in his direction. Any pieces of flying metal that collided with his shield would find themselves violently flung in another direction, leaving Jake untouched. His minions, however, did get hit, for what little good it would do. Jake's robots were designed with combat in mind, therefore, there was little they couldn't withstand. The blast caused them to slide back a few yards, and knocked down a couple of the smaller drones, nothing more.

Jake smirked as the damage cleared, anybody who happened to be observing clearly seeing he didn't truly care about the health of his comrades. "Wish more of my opponents did that." He muttered.

Jake listened intently as the topic changed to that of mechanical workings. Of course, this was strictly automatic. After all, if one spent the majority of their past few months using mechanoids to make a living (Quite literally), one would be inclined to listen to such subjects.

That being said, Toy's mention of secret technology physically made his ears perk, however, he decided it to be in his best interests to keep such thoughts to himself, not to mention refusing to act upon them.

Another time, perhaps... He concluded, shifting his position in his chair and leaning over to watch Expirament play Bejeweled.

The soldiers were indeed caught off guard. In fact, they were essentially screwed. Considering they had counted on Jake to find them a secure location, not a single iota of effort was put into any sort of defense until some type of headquarters was formed, and, apparently, this would be their downfall.

Or so one would think.

The moment before the Maltan explosives had decimated the bridge, a lone figure suddenly popped into existance no less than five meters from the opening. Stepping out onto the cold metallic floor, his black standard issue Arachnos boots making a satisfying clang, the Arbiter simply glanced out over the edge and emotionessly teleported his entire squad back into the hallway, after which he quickly set up a shimmering wall of green. One may have wondered as to what the purpose of this wall was, but it was soon made clear when an explosion ripped through the hallway up to the point where the wall was set up. The forcefield rippled, but held, much to the relief of the soldiers and, although one would have been able to tell outwardly, the Arbiter. Taking down the field, he quickly ported in another medical device with a device very similar to Jake's.

The soldiers, after getting their bearings, shakily stood at attention, the wind from the canyon blowing through the door and into their eyes, watching as the Arbiter ran a diagnostic on the new medical device and the drones that had been with them.

"Alright..." He finally said, his boots clanging as he walked turned around and strolled toward the group. "Status report."

"I want to know what went wrong, why, and what we can do to make this problem go away."

-----

Sighing, Jake yet again contemplated his place in the team, considering he had been left completely out of the loop. As he had already previously decided to follow the crowd, Jake flew across the canyon with his minions in tow, landing on the other side in a matter of seconds with yet another satisfying clang. He immediately spotted the fleeing mechanoid, and, as Newton stated, reacted, in this case, with a steady stream of lasers and plasma.

[ QUOTE ]
"Now then, shall we get going...?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"We shall." Jake responded as he stepped onto the craft, only glancing back after getting a comfortable spot. The scientist turned predator, in particular, bothered him. Anything without rational thought bothered him, in fact. The inability to think things through and act only after thinking of the consequences made him almost consider the thing a hostile. Only the fact that it was speaking to them kept him from labelling it an enemy.

Of course, this also went for any type of zombie or any other creature without the ability to think. Were it not for their having a master to obey, he would attempt to take them down as well.

"... OK, we can just ignore the guy who doesn't know the plan." Jake muttered, his eyes automatically keeping track of Randall in the air. "Suppose following the crowd's as good a plan as any." He muttered, simeaultaniously sending a request for some sort of leadership to be sent to the Riktified Terra via a small device in his pocket. The thing was, essentially, a cell phone, so it was highly unlikely that anybody would find this suspicious, even on the off chance they noticed him performing the task in the first place.

-----

The Arachnos soldiers and drones had absolutely no possible way available to them at the moment to detect the device and, therefore, fell right into the trap. As to what they could do regarding what the trap did once triggered, however, remained to be seen.

"Damn..." Was all Jake muttered as he looked at the advancing Malta.

"Two things. One, what did I miss while I was gone? And two, what's the plan?"


If Malta's here, then that complicates things. I may have to send for some leadership to keep the men in order if it comes to a fight, but as long as they keep themselves inconspicuous, they should be fine.

Should, anyway...

-----

The Arachnos soldiers paid the communications panel no mind and, trusting that Jake had planted them in a secure location, continued on their tiresome journey, crossing the bridge above them.

However, not before setting up an emergency med-porter at their current location. Should something happen to any of them, they would simply be teleported right back to the medical machine, ready to yet again fight whatever had taken them down.

Hey, another person from before I came here. >.> What's up? I'm Krazy.

And on the off chance we have already met, feel free to make fun of me.

"I'm back. What'd I miss?" Jake inquired casually upon his return, giving a small wave and glancing around, his eyes eventually settling on the Malta. His decidedly cocky grin suddenly turned into a grimace as he realized the reality of what this place was.

"Oh... [censored]..."

-----

And hide quickly the Arahcnos soldiers did. Already they had found a secure location and set up a set up a small outpost. Cloaking it with special devices that visually mimiced the surrounding environment, and already being a safe distance away from any threat (Or so they thought, as they had no idea Malta was currently here.) they felt that there was nothing to worry about.

(())