TeChameleon

*rezzes*

How did you get Nicaraguan Caymans into Brazil?

As I write this, it is 1:40 AM, and about 30 degrees Celsius (around 95 Fahrenheit, I think, for you Yanks... way too bloody hot, anyways) in the open room that I am sitting in in this funky little resort-thing at the lone computer I have access to at the moment on this ridiculous Portuguese keyboard with the Shift key in the wrong place (you don't even want to know how many times I've put in a \ instead of capitalizing the letter I meant to) and the tilde (this thingy- ~) key where the apostrophe should be (so half the time when I use a word that~s got an apostrophe, it looks like that)...

*snaps and beats Chaotic96, Darkvapor, Build, and Entropy to death with the irritating keyboard*

("So, which of us is going to tell him he probably won't get experience for all of those?"... and, as a bonus, "Sir, the troops are panicking- the fight is going badly and they say there is a tiny avatar of the death-god hurling fire over by the South ramparts.")

((potentially me- sorry, still in Brazil and not having a lot of free time. Back for sure on the 23rd, maybe sooner depending on how things go))

((still in Brazil, but finally have some downtime- if I'm understanding correctly, it's just Xabu fighting... well, pretty much everyone... right now? I'm going to post with that understanding, if that's screwed up, I'll edit))

As Xabu sped around, Jager Horowitz had been lunging around the room like a kitten chasing a piece of string, with shouts of "Hyu schtupid... *OOF*"... "Vy hyu leedle... *SPLAT*"... "Hy'm gun... *CRUNCH*", apparently being totally unaffected by the power sink or the bone-splintering crashes against the various walls, the floor, and occasionally the ceiling. Unfortunately, he wasn't having much effect either, although if he actually managed to grab Xabu, the electrical wonder would regret it amazingly quickly. Whatever the case, he didn't seem like he'd be giving up anytime soon.

Energon X, meanwhile, was dancing a fine line of Zenlike concentration as he let his energies build in response to the Husk Lord, without losing control. The instant it became an option, Xabu was going to be getting a faceful of exotic energies that would detonate like supernova channeled through some impossibly vast magnetic tube into a single, cohesive beam, scrambling his extradimensional being and blowing him through the thick concrete walls, and potentially clean off the island.

The Blaster was fast- impossibly fast- but not on Xabu's level for speed. That being said... it wouldn't take much slowing on Xabu's part for E-X to draw a bead on him and blow him away.

((So, for the moment, Diov, I'm leaving it up to you whether or not Xabu gets slowed enough for Energon X to blast him- but the blast-start is up to you (as is Horowitz potentially grabbing Xabu). Of course, if you put it off too long, everyone's going to have to run...))

((still, in fact, in Brazil, and unfortunately without time to post or even catch up >.<

Don't get too far ahead of me

I'll be back and raring to go on the 23rd, most likely))

*reverses polarity on Entropy's cables*

*world explodes*

Gee, you really CAN learn things from Star Trek...

E-X shook his head at the Lieutenant's belated interjection. "Don't worry about it too much, officer. To the green goofs, this is play." A brief flare that might have been a wink flashed from his eyes, and he finished amusedly "Gotta respect cultural diversity and all that."

Then the energy levels started getting strange, and a frown creased his forehead. He spun for a moment, trying to locate the source, scanning the entire energy spectrum, but coming up short. Then the blaster shrugged. "Khel, get ready to eat." Then, with a powerful wave of his arm, he blasted a titanic wave of energy towards her. Anything that was draining in that area was going to get a rather nasty shock as two violently different forms of energy... explosively different forms... suddenly entered his 'mouth'.

"Ve's not alone in here..." Horowitz commented. "Brilliant, Sher-dumb." Energon X snapped back, sounding strained as he pumped out vast quantities of energy. "Qviet, hyu." the Jager growled, focussing on his nose as he tracked the interloper's scent, ready to tear in with claws, fangs, and vast strength once he found them.

"Ho, vell said! I t'ink I'ze liking hyu..." a new voice chimed in as Jager Horowitz clapped Fraenir solidly on the back. Jagers could, apparently, move remarkably stealthily when they wanted to. He shook himself vigorously, spraying the assembled metas with salty water, and grinned, showing a mouthful of huge fangs, and winking exaggeratedly at Briggs. "Hyu know, dohlink, hyu never deed tell me your name..."

Then Kheldragon caught his eye. "Ho-ho! Iz anuzzer luffly vimmen!" He was abruptly next to the Warshade without appearing to pass through the intervening space, and started to reach his arm around her shoulder. "Und who might hyu b..." he managed to get out before Energon X punched him in the head.

The Jager rocketed across the enclosed room, ricocheting off a wall before landing on his feet in a long, skidding crouch. "Nize punch! But can hyu tek dis... vait, vere'd hyu go?" Energon X' voice came from thin air near the ceiling. "Here, stupid."

A blast of blue-white power flattened the Jager, pinning him to the floor as Energon X drifted slowly downwards, decloaking. "You'll have to play later, Horowitz. Not all of us are indestructable constructs like you are- we actually need to think before we fight. So behave before I reduce your hat to flaking ash."

"Pfeh, party-pooper vit hyu fancy cape and glowin' eyez and death-rayz from hyu hands..." the Jager grumbled, but subsided.

Energon X glanced around at the stares, then shrugged. "I've had to deal with the Jagerkin before- even made it to their home dimension for a little while. Portal Corp really needs to fine-tune some of their dimension rips." he commented, sounding aggrieved. He jerked a thumb at Horowitz. "He's an idiot, but handy to have around in a fight."

"Hy'm an eediot? I'ze not de vun prancing aboot in purple undervere waving my hands to mek de bad guyz fall down, hyu..." could be heard faintly from the corner that Horowitz was sulking in, but the Blaster ignored him. "You're neglecting one other piece of bait, by the way... Breaker wasn't the one to blow Poe into a wisp of greasy smoke... seriously, what's in that bugger's diet?.. the last time they encountered him."

*spawns a wormhole in Chaotic96' gut with the other end in outer space, and points and laughs as Chaotic gets sucked inside out and strained out into deep space*

((*sigh*... Energon X is wearing a suitful of highly specialized short-range sensors specifically designed to try and figure out what it is that makes ultra-science and magic react together the way they do. It's going to produce slightly different results than Portal Corps' big sensor batteries over on PI, or at least it should- SERAPH is looking for different things entirely. Oh, and why on EARTH would Vern be able to sense souls like your lizard thing? What does the Soulhound even have to do with this?

And power =/= subtlety- is your villain likely to have thought to disguise/prevent the gravimetric fluxes, cerenkhov radiation, gamma bursts, and whatnot that would be caused by the wholesale energy-to-matter-and-back conversion of his dimension/time twisting and reality manipulation? Is he/she/it likely to have shielded their base of operations against short range density-variation tachyon scans or thermic flux readings? When you've got magic and super-science co-existing, the old 'a wizard did it' just doesn't work as well))

Energon X looked at Vern oddly. "I know that look... there's something you're not telling me. Something about the readouts is bothering you, but you either can't put your finger on it, or else there's something so minor that it's irrelevant, but nonetheless it's caught your attention." Then he blinked and leaned closer to the instrument panel, focussing carefully down on the visible spectrum of light.

"Company on the incoming." he announced over the team channel. "We've got a major teleportational event building, and it looks like it's centered on the main group. Vapor, I'm incoming to your location. If you would be so kind as to warn the Council types that I'm coming, then stab them in the back while I've got their attention, I'd appreciate it." This simple plan established, he took flight.

As he winged his way rapidly towards Darkvapor, a final thought hit, and he called Vern again. "We're dealing with wholesale reality manipulation here. There's got to be some kind of artifacts on-scanner from it. Oh... and what is with those twins' energy pattern?"

*watches all the antics with a certain amount of amusement*

*grabs the planet, snaps it in half, and wanders off, clip-clopping the two halves togther, coconuts-in-Monty-Python's-Quest-for-the-Holy-Grail style*

*everyone dies in earthquakes, floods, and molten lava*

*walks in*

*looks around*

>.>

<.<

*pushes Darkvapor into his own trap-maze and releases an infinite horde of rabid lemmings in after him*










*then shrugs and shoots him in the back of the head and has done with it*

Energon X had achieved balance on the flight out, battle-bred, combat-honed senses alert and ready, but remaining in a state of calm. Kaega's abrupt arrival was greeted by a brief, penetrating glance- had he have proven hostile, he would have been greeted by a faceful of enough energies to ignite a newborn star. When the Second Rook's identity was announced, he simply inclined his head.

"Kaega." he greeted the other man. "Your exploits are not unfamiliar to me, although largely as rumour and speculation. Although I do somewhat question the tale concerning the two renegade Rularuu Overseers, the Rikti Priest, and the Flying Nun."

Then he raised an eyebrow at Power Breaker's declaration. E-X couldn't curl his lip sardonically, given that his lower face was missing, but he gave the distinct impression that he would have liked to. "An admonishment to avoid collateral damage while fighting Poe?" he asked sarcastically. "That's a little like telling us to avoid dimension-hopping while running errands for Unai Kemen. Poe will be flinging fire about as though it were going out of style; we will be blamed for anything he destroys, so there is little point in attempting restraint when we might be better served putting out a little extra effort to bring him down that much sooner." the blaster said calmly.

Then he glanced over at Darkvapor. "And should this greater Husk Lord appear, run. Take the team as far away as you can get them. As many of you have seen, my powers react... violently... to the proximity of great energy sources. If this boss of Poe's is as much greater than his piddling henchman as you say, my detonation is likely to rupture their entire dimension like the birth of a Quasar in the middle of it." he finished as casually as if he were discussing the weather. His contribution to the discussion finished, he coolly perched himself in midair, folding his legs into the lotus position, and waiting.

((For those of you confused by E-X' apparent personality shift... his powers respond to his emotional state as well as the aforementioned outside energy fields. If he doesn't keep his emotions in tight check while outside of combat, the energy builds up to an uncomfortable, potentially fatal (to those around him) level. So he tends to go into almost a Zen-meditation-type state during downtime when things are tense, or potentially so.))

((I'm debating how selfish I want to be here... I'm having a good deal of fun, and I don't want to share

Also, keeping it a story really helps me open up an epic feel to it (trust me, things are going to get very interesting, very quickly *evilgrin*).

Oh, and should anyone be curious as to what the germ of this idea was... Way back in the day, when the Shadow Shard first opened, they had Soldiers of Rularuu popping out of portals all over Paragon City (this was pre-CoV), much like the Rikti do when the invasion hits a zone. Issue 10 actually reminded me of that old event quite strongly.

And Entropy, if you want a hand running your Rularuu RP idea, feel free to ask- I've already done a fair bit of research on them for this story ))

((Er... Kip isn't captured anymore, Briggs- he got loose at the same time Kheldragon did))

((... the [censored]? The guy is wearing a suitful of the best tech that SERAPH can field, specifically tuned for detecting magic as best as ultra-science gear can, that he's been carefully exposing to as much of what they've encountered as possible...

And nothing. Right. That's a bit of a cop-out.

EDITED to desnark it slightly.))

((Erm... could either Devious or Diov take control of Vern (E-X' SERAPH tech buddy) and pass on any relevant info? There's a reason I came into this with sensor-loaded armour, after all.))

((Indubitably... but the fact remains that the edit button is simply not there on my first post. No idea whatsoever why))

((If I was being given the option to edit my first post, I might just try that... but the 'edit' button is conspicuously missing from that particular place))

Ugh. There is NO WAY I'm eating that.

*grabs Uularur the Mirror by the ankle and bludgeons Chaotic to death with him*

((I was getting to that, when I realized that I have absolutely no idea how to change the thread title >.&lt)

((It started as a story... If people are willing to put up with my weird sense of humour and the fact that this wasn't originally intended to be an RP and so will be a bit rocky to start, they're welcome to jump in. I do have a pretty good idea where I'm going with this, and it seems like it could accomodate an RP... so, I guess what I'm saying is that if you want to join up, feel free to hop into the chaos))

Energon X grabbed some sky, finding a clear space to hover, idly taking in the ever-present blimp and wondering why the dropships hadn't taken pot-shots at it as well, then shrugged and returned his attention to the commgrid. The storm of static finally cleared, revealing some hold music that was rather funkier than Azuria's usual. The Blaster raised an eyebrow but shrugged, waiting as he watched the chaos unfold beneath him.

He made a small, amused noise at the sight of a Rikti Magus being cornered by a trio of Wisp Overlords, a psychic storm so intense that pink lightning crackled and earthed in the surrounding area as the enemies went mind-to-mind. Can't say I'm sorry to see that... even the Traditionalist Magi give me the creeps. And the buggers down there are War Lineage. Serves 'em right.

Eventually, Azuria's harassed voice came on the line. "Hey X. No, I don't know what's up with the music, wasn't my idea, and I've been trying to get ahold of Faathim since the first reports came in, but even Firebase Zulu's been cut off- something major's going down in the Shard." Energon X started to speak, and Azuria interrupted him. "And no, I haven't been 'going psychic' on you- you're the eighth person to call and tell me that we need Faathim the Kind." "Er... right. Thanks, I guess?" E-X said, then signed off, shrugging. He glanced around again.

There were already so many heroes in-zone in response to the Rikti that his presence one way or another wouldn't make a lot of difference, so he contented himself with watching for a few moments. He saw an Overseer go down under an avalanche of Rikti Drones, only to have the swarming get turned around as the eyeball monster managed to summon dozens of its own kind, Observers and Watchers materializing and laying into the drones, spines and blasts mingling with plasma bursts chewing up the pavement and smashing into buildings. He looked again.

That summoning... didn't look like the usual Shardwork. It looked like... he turned, seeking out a Rikti Communications Officer, then shuddered as he saw a Rikti Dropship shattered under the blasts of dozens of Overseers and their minions. Grife... no matter how many times you see it, the power these things wield is always frightening. The sky was beginning to get crowded- the Rikti response to the Rularuu attack was apparently to pour soldiers and ships into Atlas Park in an attempt to simply overwhelm the alien monsters. I'm really thinking that's a bad idea... E-X thought as he watched that 'strategy' come into play.

Dodging around a flock of drones escorting a pair of Heavy Assault Suits that were in turn forging a path through the clouds of soldiers of Rularuu for an even-more-heavily-armed-than-usual Dropship, he finally spotted a Rikti Communications Officer that wasn't engaging anyone, standing unnoticed and not really doing much of anything under the awning of a shop.

Energon X jinked and dove, cape snapping as he accelerated downwards, bringing a single red-glowing fist in a short, sharp arc that terminated with the luckless Comm Officer sprawled twenty yards away after bouncing off a lamppost, a wall, and a railing. Infuriated, the Rikti tech brought up his portal comp, snapping "This: unable to handle: you are!" A portal wavered into view, then distorted wildly. Conscripts, Guardians, Infantry, Drones, and Monkeys poured out, far more than a single portal could normally disgorge... already locked in combat with Brutes, Natterlings, Watchers, and Wisps.

Energon X nodded, his suspicions confirmed, then glanced at the Communications Officer, who was staring, wide-eyed at the melee he (she?) had just spawned, his/her lethal plasma pistol dangling forgotten in his/her hand. He nodded sharply, and grabbed her arm, blurring skywards to leave the mini-maelstrom of chaos behind, the now utterly shocked Rikti dangling from his grasp. As they ascended, he commented "Lesse, how would this go... 'Exclamation: Congratulatory! Portal-jacked: you have been!'" he told his captive.

Somewhat to his surprise, the Rikti returned snarkily "Sarcasm: Unappreciated. Appellation: K'ss'ndreh." She (probably) twisted in his grasp to look up at him, alien eyes unreadable. "War Lineage: Accusations against: truth?"

((Grey, I'm thinking you'd better just arrive us at Mauthe's Island- there's not much for anyone to do 'til we get there))

*shrugs, picks up Earth in one hand and squeezes over a really big glass*

Mmmm... fresh-squeezed planet juice. But now my hand's all sticky :/

*wanders off to wash hands*

Tch... getting so elaborate.

*bashes Darkvapor and Entropy over their respective heads with a club with a nail in it*

*shrug*

Simple and to the point... well, to the blunt trauma, anyways.