Paradigm_Shift

OOC:

My character is taking a nap outside Paragon, while White Masque is about to fight a buncha Hellions and zombies.

The Doc was LUCKY. Most metahumans could recover from crashes similar to Cynic's in UNDER a minute through simple resting, certain specialized healing techniques, meditation, lots of crap really. Heck, most metahumans these days could shrug off attacks that would leave normal humans in a coma. Where the Doc's paralyzers might very well have been fab against a human, Cynic was a human wearing military grade armor that monitored and controlled his bio-works, had special training to boot, and had a weapon that was more effective the more belief in it he had. Certainly, it should have been SURPRISING it should take Cynic 7 minutes to recover at all, especially after having his suit's workings rebooted by the protector bots. The only reason he wasn't kaput dead from the gas cloud was because of the very kind Protector bots who had seen fit to drag him out of range before the [censored] had hit the fan.

The Doc was lucky that at the very least, 1 of the dozens of super-powered individuals in the building could actually go down. Seeing as he was at least as invincible as everyone of them anyway, why was he worried, furious, or angry at all?

Cynic, not being able to twitch at the moment anyway BECAUSE of the paralyzers, *a crash alone wouldn't have completely immobilized him* had no choice but to be dragged to the closet.

OOC:

Talk to the decoy, he's gonna be the one having fun with this.

OOC:

"Pshaw, dying is a slap on the wrist." White Masque said easily in response. "And you need to cool it." He pointed his blade at the Damned and a bolt of ice shot at him.

OOC:

Everything can be explained by 1 of the 3 most awesome words ever:

Jump!

"Ok. Right. Collapsing building, annoying weak enemies, and now unseen crouching death freaks. I need some air." White Masque said almost disgustedly, leaving the building. To see the woman being robbed of her purse.

And, as fate would have it, the building DID collapse right then. Starting with the entrance and working its way back, nobody else would be following White Masque out the entrance, and would probably miss the Hellion gang as a result. Possibly. Possibly really not at all, but sometimes for the sake of drama, certain things happened or didn't happen.

White Masque, being the hero that he was, drew his icy blade and calmy approached the gang and their victim. "Feeling better already." He said gleefully.

Masque was about to reply when he noticed that everything was too calm. Normally he could detect anything nearby, but now...

'He's still recovering outside the city limits.' White Masque thought to himself. It made him uncomfortable not being able to truely see everything around him. But he could work with the tools he was given...

"Professor, could you do us a favor and perform a mind-scan or whatnot on the surrounding area? We can confirm if the place is cleared or not and then move on or engage." He suggested.

"Or how about we just do what comes natural?" White Masque said cheerfully, tapping his icy blade against the side of Kokuin's head in a playful manner. "Tactics is all well and good, but this is hardly a strike force of villains we're dealing with. These. Things. SUCK." He waved in the direction of the smashed/sliced/obliterated spiderlings.

"Or is there a bomb we're supposed to stop from going off? A macGuffin we're supposed to protect? Why should we not just start fanning out and dropping everything we see?"

"This was bad?" White Masque asked the Professor, leaping into the conversation. "These were SPIDERLINGS."

Cynic didn't respond. He couldn't due to his helmet automatically sticking an oxygen tube down his throat and regulating his breathing, making it impossible for him to even yelp. Crashes sucked.

The suit was doing its best to force the prompt recovery of the Commander, but was hard pressed with no energy to work with, until the protector bots injected the suit with nanites. The suit itself was still in fine condition, its user being the one who had been wrecked by the belief backlash, but the repair nanites did carry with them a small 'jump start' charge, so to speak. Working with the limited energy, the suit restarted essential systems and started speeding up the Commander's recovery.

He would be up, pissed, and in a grade-A combat condition in less than 7 minutes. Barring his actual 'death,' the Commander would remain on-site until he could continue.

'...Light gives way to darkness as greatness dies, mammoth powers dying in untold numbers to sink into a cesspit of unknown, even the unbound did not know exactly what it was. They had never died before. So they never saw the madness rising like a bloody demon to watch worlds burn and laugh while doing so. A terrible force that parraded through the endless, dancing in the revels of insanity and laughing in the darkest of humors. All the while hiding beneath a Masquerade of benevolence, wearing the flesh of the innocent and slipping like shadow through light to trick and deceive, all in order to further...'

'.....'

'...Hmmm?'

'Time. The wretched curse of which I have no use. You have snuck up on me yet again, how many more times must you disrupt such a tale? Fate, what of you and your horrible black eyes? Twitching finger, string, and path? Why can you not...'

'...Leave me alone?'

'Well, perhaps it is time to proceed once again. Once more, let us pick up the dance. Let there be rhythm...Yes...YES...I can see the story clearly, and how TYPICAL it is. Neglect, fear, terror and pain. Tragedy, once again you run around rampant and unchecked. How many times must I tell you? The only Tragedy I can allow is my own. But Tragedy does not beget Tragedy, so first, let us have some COMEDY. Oh yes, let there be the subtle empathetic wit of light and merciful Comedy. Let there be...VICTORY! Tragedy will be swept away by Comedy, and then MY Tragedy shall overcome and overtake everything! Come come, Comedy! Let us perform the first dance!'

'Let truth temper fanaticism!'
'Let reason expose deception!'
'Let grace repel darkness!'
'Let law smother anarchy!'
'Let duty subdue instinct!'
'Let purity reject artifice!'

'Let the Masquerade begin!'

***

Overhead in the sky above the raging fight, a star arched in the sky, slamming down to the Earth far, far away.

***

Well outside the limits of Paragon City, a smoldering form slithered from the wreckage of a fiery craft that had impacted the Earth, gazing upon the clearly visible War-walls in the meantime. The trip had taken a lot out of the arrival, but he was not worried. It wasn't like he intended to do any actual fighting himself until the final act. There were a great many actors he could use until then, but for the first act, he needed to start off light.

Waving his hand, the air wavered and a decoy appeared. Sculpting the decoy expertly, it shifted in size, form, and color until it shone with brilliant radiance.

White Masque adjusted his new suit.

"Go. Entertain the audiance." The visitor spoke. White Masque nodded cheerily and vanished in a burst of light.

***

"This city has more than enough pests without these running around." Giggled a lofty voice. White Masque suddenly fell in from the ceiling in a flare of white light, landed next to Professor IQ, and sliced a spiderling in twain that had been creeping up on him using a blade made of ice.

"Dynamic entry." He laughed lightly, nodding at the professor before charging at the next available opponent.

"No can do." Commander Cynic replied to Kirae, not very surprised by her sudden appearance. "I'm about to crash..."

And then he did, and the Commander fell flat on his face as the power of his own belief suddenly reversed its flow and poured into his body. It was like being shoved into a procrastinator furnace and locked in, lethal and overwhelming. The last thing the Commander saw before his battlesuit went into lockdown was a message flashing across his now opaque faceplate:

Damage to biosystem: 97.84%
Damage to primary power supply: 100%
Damage to secondary power supply: 100%
Energy drain detected in primary weapon. Energy loss: 100%

WARNING! Biosystems have sustained over 80% damage. Emergency bio-lockdown in progress.

Then Cynic's helmet cut off on him, spending the last of its power and leaving him frozen in the dark, a prisoner of the very clothing he wore. To everyone else present, it appeared he had just fallen on his face, and there wasn't even a hint that anything was wrong.

OOC:

It's called force of nature. It may not be LOGICAL that force of nature EXISTS and is READILY AVAILABLE, but it is STILL THERE. Unlike you, I have a reason behind it.

OOC:

I'm still wondering how he managed to deflect a built up total focus, but hey, whatever works. ^.^ Leis for everyone, life goes on.

Cynic just leapt off the wall and redirected his incomplete attack at the black dressed stranger YET AGAIN, who had managed to move before Cynic had even gotten the opprotunity to attack.

OOC:

Sorry Devious, I keep mixing up your character with Pete because of the Duster. I am attacking YOU.

Charles Simmons, the cheating cheater himself. Pun character based off of an NPC from the Sims!

Commander Cynic, the demented watchman badass. Doing what he must...because he can.

Silver Meniscus, the deadly Knife of Artemis assassin. She enjoys collecting magazine coupons.

Masquerade, my 'serious' character.

Cynic did have shielding in the form of temporary invulnerability projected by the Night staff, but it was useless against the stun bolts. Especially stun bolts from 5 sources simultaneously. Cynic was only human, and he couldn't stand much. He began to falter.

He wasn't done.

Cynic activated the most powerful function of the Night staff. It harnessed his own willpower in the form of belief and projected it in a protective shell around him. The more he believed this function worked, the more powerful he was. Cynic's belief in the Night staff was absolute, and it repaid him in kind by making him a force of nature.

Energy bolts now impacting with 0 effect, the Commander leapt across the room, completely unheeded by the attacks from the stranger's bots. Building up, Cynic reared back the Night staff, and swung as he came into range of the blue-wearing man. The mighty weapon crackled with the total focus of energy stored, prepared to unleash into its target. Even if every bot redirected in an attempt to knock the commander off course, it wouldn't work with his acrobatic training, and because he was almost untouchable in his empowered state anyway. So what would happen?

Cynic had gone through a standard military acrobatics course, and had some work done on his nerves while he had been at it to make him more resistant to being incapacitated. The stun bolt didn’t accomplish quite as much as its user had probably wanted. The numbing effect only helped the commander overcome any pain there might have been in his arm.

He was up, he was pissed, and he was a raving lunatic with heavy weaponry.

His Night staff fired off a small handful of bolts, and had conveniently generated a single bolt for every target plus 1. Half the storm was specifically aimed at every bot, con Vulse, and the blue masked stranger. The bolts didn’t home in on their targets, but they were incredibly accurate, to say the least. The other half of the storm spread and scattered like a shotgun blast, whether they hit any of Cynic’s targets was up to pure luck.

OOC:

I believe Bane Spider Scout stealth defeats all forms of player-implemented perception up until the point it attacks.

The Computer is a Cheating [censored].

OOC:

Ho ho ho! You have reached over limit mode! Toggle black doom aura and tingly sound effects, complete with flinch resistance! Rawr!

Oh, and [ QUOTE ]
((Well now.))

[/ QUOTE ]

LARMLAK!

BIC:

"Hello Lavern." Sestra said.

"Hello Shirley." Destra said.

"Meet our sisters, Rhea and Hecate." They both said simultaneously. Both skeletal knights found not 2, but 4 Hands of Artemis before them. Swords drawn, both knights suddenly encountered multiple attempts at splitting their heads in twain along with disembowelment. The 4 Hands of Artemis were dancing in a deadly death waltz around both of them, swords flashing.

And the infantry had problems of its own. The Knives fought like woman possessed, cleaving through armor and bone alike with equal amounts of ease. Caltrops were scattered everywhere, grenades flying and assassins flying and jumping everywhere. It looked like both forces were equally matched.

And it was interesting how Jake's bots were holding up, considering THEY were the center of the assault. Each bot had at least 2 knives hacking away at them, including the one that had just proffered its limb.

Silver Meniscus was not doing as well as the rest of her force, the grab at her ankle throwing her off and earning her a bullet to the forehead. She went down, hard, whispering very odd last words.

"The Moon Rises."

Her body did not vanish as it hit the floor, but Jason wouldn’t be able to raise her as an undead slave. Clearly being a proficient necromancer, he would probably recognize the signs of building up nether energy around her body. The beginning signs of a soul transfer. And it looked to be targeted EVERYONE in the room who wasn’t a Knife or Malta! The sheer power behind the transfer would completely overwhelm any defense, stunning everybody it affected without fail to fuel Silver Meniscus. Even Jake would be blown right out of his personal force fields by it, as well as the Arbiter.

OOC:

.................................................. ..........

BURP?

[u]BURP?!?!?!?!?!?![u]

*inhales*

Wait, on second thought, it would probably be best not to do that here. One second.

*Goes to the AK-47s for EVERYONE thread*

[ QUOTE ]
How about a villain and a hero? What I mean is, both having been friend in their lives, they always fight but both can never manage a killing blow. HOWEVER, the villain tries to redeem himself and become good, while at the same time, the hero is brainwashed *Permanantly* in to becoming bad.

I don't remember a story going like that!

[/ QUOTE ]

*Closes book*

And so the story of the story of the evil villain turning good forever and the good hero turning evil forever has now drawn to a close. And because it has taken me over 2 lines to tell you all of that, this book probably weighs a ton.

*BOOK SMASH ATTACK*

OOC:

Teleported you into an empty hallway, by the looks of it.

WHOOPS! Make that not so empty. >.<

"Sestra! Destra!" Silver Meniscus shouted.

The newcomer of Asian descent suddenly found 2 blades at his neck, wielded by Hands of Artemis.

Silver Meniscus leapt into the air at tremendous speed to avoid the shots, which thankfully allowed her to dodge the Arbiter's kinetic blast as well. She *landed* on the ceiling, and bounced off. Having gathered several Gs worth of force in her moving body, she was little more than a silver blur in the air heading right for the Arbiter. Closing to point blank almost instantly, Silver Meniscus aimed a fist at the Arbiter's ruined armor-aiming right for his heart, unleashing a grasp of darkness as black as midnight in the process.

That's when all of Jake's drones were bombarded by several grenades all at once, thrown by various Malta operatives. The Knives, seeing their chance, all leapt out of cover and descended on the drones, now thankfully out of range of Jake's force bubble. Charging in once the grenades had done their work, the deadly woman put their swordplay skills to use.

Jake himself was still being bombarded by even MORE web grenades from select Blades who had chosen to remain behind cover.

OOC: Julia and Cynic are now separated by solid armor plating. It's a DOOR. Otherwise he WOULD have hit her. :P