The_Viceroy

25 second remaining...

A dull yet juicy thud can be heard as a bullet enters the forehead of one of the zombies; brain matter erupts from the back of its skull. It paused for an impulse before continuing its carnage. Another was decapitated but didn't stop it's movement until it was literally torn apart by bullets from the Malta barrage of concentrated gun fire. Those fallen seem undead no more, and none of the other deceased seems to rise to join its unholy vanguard.

20 seconds remaining...

The two Grave Knights lasted as long as they could, but could not out match three Knives. The Lich and Dark Servant held the line. Tendrils appeared from the shadows cast by the Malta and Knives themselves, wiggling through their boots, ripping through the clothing and finally piecing through the skin painfully holding their Achilles Tendon to the floor. Even under the concentrated fire which took out the zombies, the two managed to remain nearly unharmed as the dark servant heals the ally force around them and the Lich steals the life force to replenish its own.

15 seconds remaining...

Jason walked casually over to Jake. There's nothing he can do but warn him of the skull-ripping headache poor Jake's about to receive. “Here, take these... this is gonna hurt, she's about to go boom!”

He dropped two of his H-packets on the floor, leaving two left for himself. The wonderful thing about phase shift is anything small dropped seems to return back in sync with reality. A small pink packet also dropped, commonly refer on the street as a break-free. He's pretty much running on empty now, Jason knew he should of stocked up before heading out and strangely blames the television although he can't rationalize why.

10 seconds remaining...

Everything went black, screams of confusion mixed with pain erupted all around. Light returned, slowly at first after the dark explosion, as Silver Meniscus rose from the stolen life-force. The last of the Zombie was gone, as with most of the Arachnos forces. Some were emerging from the two remaining med ports, but there were simply too many defeated to process. How the Lich and Dark Servant managed to survive is beyond Jason's guess, but there they are, and within seconds, those near the Dark Servant were near combat ready condition.

Jason was mildly impressed, it was flashy, effective in getting her message across. But what ever golf-clap he may be performing in his head, his expression was a mask of perfectly sculpted blasé.

“Amateur...” he just couldn't help himself as he shot that line toward her.

5 seconds remaining...

Jason calmly walks toward the pile of fallen Arachnos, he maneuvers around a bit until he found 'the sweet spot' as he slowly counts in his head how much time he has left.

3 seconds remaining...

Jason cleared his throat as he raised his hand like a conductor. He pauses, a few second left before he falls back in sync with time and space. There was a fearful moan from Jason's right, a soldier of Arachnos had somehow survived.

2 seconds remaining

Jason raised his hands like a conductor at an opera.

“... please, help... me...”

1 second remaining...

Jason looked down at the solder, then gently placed his heel on the soldiers adam's apple. There was a slight tingling sensation signifying he's now back in normal universe. He steps down hard and snap the soldiers neck. This will set Jason back a moment, but it would be inefficient to let the soldier live.

His hands back up in position, he clears his throat.

Screams and howls fills the room. Not from the voices of the living, but from the dead on the other side. A chorus of tormented pain, each voice slowly tearing down the barrier between worlds; the room went black for the second time. Coldness numbs the remaining Malta and Knives, their bodies suddenly sluggish and slow, their mind assaulted by the unholy aria, building more pain with each crescendo causing further lost in equilibrium and disoriention. As the netherworld opera fades, light returns but not to its original brightness, everywhere seems darker... more sinister...

Semi-transparent vapors seem to float out from the nose and mouths of the Malta and Knives, their life forces escaping and floating toward Jason, dancing around him like will-o-wisps. Slowly consumed as the fallen Arachnos rose en mass, not in the animated undead manner but truly brought back to life.

As Jason finished conducting Howling Twilight, he surveys the condition. Knives almost all disoriented and helpless for the moment, with the exception of Silver Meniscus with her excess of life energy protecting her. The Malta were immobilized and slowly being slaughtered by the sudden surge of Arachnos soldiers returning to the front line. With less defeated, the medical bay worked more efficiently, those who were too far to be brought back by Jason were now emerging and attacking helpless sisters.

Arachnos forces slowly regains the upper hand and Jason had did it with style...

Bullets rips through the zombies like a hot triple-blessed knife through delicious unholy butter. As one falls, another dead Malta or Knives took its place. In typical zombie movie fashion, they bite huge chunks of flesh off the living, occasionally two would work together to literally rip a victim apart in half, feasting on the entrails and other blood rich organs.

Lavern and Shirley continued in their sword dance with Sestra, Destra, Rhea and Hecate, further pulling the focus of the Knives away from Jake, his robots or the medical bay. One of the Knives succeed in decapitating Shirley, its skull flies in a graceful arc across the room landing near Jake, the eerie flames in the eyes sockets flickers and finally fades. A cold sensation washes over Jake as a Tortured Soul materialized from the grinning skull inches from him. It paused for a second, staring deep into Jake's eyes, reading his sins and past failures, before turning around and joining the combat.

Another Grave Knight steps out of the shadow and continued where Shirley left off. Its sword glowing with a vile purple glow that can be best described as the physical manifestation of pure hatred. It performed a head-splitter and down goes Rhea, so much for the mother of the Queen of Hades...

The Lich calls forth foul tentacles of pure darkness, giving the Knives a taste of their own medicine. A Dark Servant appeared in the middle of the heaviest Malta concentration, joining the Lich in summoning the strangely serpentine tentacles of the frozen moonless night.

This was combat at its most brutal, the air filled with the scent of warm blood mixing with rotting flesh, of intestinal bile and post-morten loosen bowls. Shocking the senses and psyche of those who are used to the gentle nature of modern crime fighting, where the defeated was teleported safely to a medical facility. Some of the opposing numbers were lucky enough to escape the fate of true death, but the majority of the fallen are beyond any hope short of divine intervention.

The sheer brutality surpasses even Agincourt, the dinner entertainment of Vlad the Impaler or the atrocities of Pol Pot...

Jason barely heard what Jake had said, "Do what you will, I'm not attached to this particular batch. Just do me a single favor, stop 'defeating' them and start KILLING them. This. Is. War."

His attention was drawn else where, the strange energy signature from the corpse of Silver Meniscus. He felt... pity(!) for her, he wanted her to live with the shame and humiliation of defeat. He had imagined her at a ripe old age of 65, haunted every night wishing if she had only made Jason a better offer.

He started to recognize the pattern of the negative energy, it reminding him of the exploding corpse utilized by his Earth counterpart Dark Sovereign the Warshade. Jason's eyes widen as he realized what was about to happened. The undead may be damaged, but he could always replace them. The Arachnos forces would be fine, if at least one medical teleporter remains undamaged. He shifted his priority toward self-preservation, side-stepped partially into the infinite parallel universes and phase shifted.

With two cold steel blades pressed up against his thyroid cartilage, Jason calmly turned toward the head sister barking orders to his two wardens, "Looks like someone failed Tactics 101, those blades enter my jugular, I'll just pop back over there by the med bay. Those blades stay where they are, that's two of your knives with their attentions divided. My dear, we call that a lose-lose situation.

"The Arbiter over there just offered to purchase my service, while you have made no such offer, in fact I find it rather insulting. I could of turned the tide in your favor you know, I think you'll remember this day as your greatest military blunder."

And with that, he pushed his own neck into Destra's dagger, crimson blood sprayed out like a fountain, splattering the wall and any unfortunate to be in the way. After moments of intense agony, Jason reappeared on the platform of the three remaining medical porters. The move was masochistic and foolish, yet it satisfied his impulse for the dramatics.

"...brain!"

One blue and decomposing hand reached for the ankle of Silver Meniscus, pulling it closer to its mouth. A Malta sapper screamed as the other zombie tore a small chunk of flesh from his head reveling brain matter. He might live with immediate medical attention, but with a damaged frontal lobe he will never be the same again. Another Malta agent, dead from a direct acid missile blast to the face by Jake's bots, slowly climbed to his feet and reached for one of the Knives of Artemis, "Braaaaain..." it muttered, whatever loyalty it had to its former companions have been replaced by an intense unholy hunger.

Out of the shadow appeared three ancient skeletons, two in rusty armor and the third in tattered funeral shroud. Arcane phrases of some long dead language can be heard from the skeleton wearing the shroud as it drains the life force from any Malta and Knives within its reach, aging them physically as their souls are literally stripped from their body little by little. The other two armored skeleton intercepted the original two knives that had threatened their master.

"Sestra, Destra," shouted Jason, "Meet my girls, Lavern and Shirley!"

With his own personal undead army filling the front line infantry, Jason turned his attention to raising the moral of the living Arachnos soldiers. With his charisma and Leadership, he rallied the troops, "Soldiers of Arachnos, fight on! What are you afraid of, if you should fall, you'll be teleported to the med bay a couple feet from you, our enemies has no such luxury. Show them what it means to be the elite of Lord Recluse!"

“Damn you Doctor Aeoooooooooonnnnnnn!!!!!!”

*thud*

Someone fell from above, no, a former someone. At first glance, one would assume the corpse was one of the many dried husks which currently infects Dark Astoria.

*thud*

A second corpse fell six feet west of the first, barely missing Silver Meniscus by inches. This one was more blue-ish than gray in skin tone. It smelled 'fresher' which was obviously not very pleasant. Unlike the first corpse, this one was still twitching.

*thud*

“Oww... my pride...”

The speaker seem dazed as he slowly attempted to stagger toward an upright position. Human male of the Asian descent. Shocking azure hair and a matching Vandyke in the same shade, round sunglasses, the right lens shattered from the impact. He was, of all things to wear, dressed as a member of the 5th Columnist.

“Lemme guess, judging by the combat around me, I've died and gone to Valhalla. That's not quite fair, I'm a Buddhist, I should of reincarnated!”

---
Golden Giza Penthouse Suite #274A
St. Martial
Exactly One Year Ago

“Ian! Ethan! Evan! I'm going out!”

Three identical triplets appeared from the lounge, each had the same red mohawk and goatee. Ian, or maybe it was Ethan, hit pause on his portable game system. Evan, or maybe it was Ian, silenced his mp3 player. The last of the triplets professionally hung up his cell phone.

“Where are...” said the first brother.
“...you going...” continued the second brother.
“...Jason?” finished the third brother.

Jason paused at the door and thought about it, “Grandville, I think, or maybe Cap au Diable. I'm leaving you three in charge of the Society while I'm gone.”

The triplets replied in monotoned unison, “Yes Sir!”

---
Aeon Corp.
Grandville
Three hundred, sixty four days and eight hours ago

Dr. Aeon wasn't happy, Efficiency Expert Pither had sent someone to 'extract' information from him a few hours ago, a group of hero had trashed his inner sanctum last night in their attempt to reach Lord Recluse, and unbeknown to him in a few more minutes, Professor Echo was going to phase into his kitchen and drink the last of his soy milk only to rudely leaving the empty carton back in the fridge. The last thing the doctor needed was for some council reject to teleport into his restroom stall and threaten him with violence. “You want me to do what?!?!?!”

“I want you to write a report on how television is beneficial to the development of the human brain, to be presented to Arbiter Dios by myself as your co-author.”

Dr. Aeon hid his smirk, “And here I thought I was being ambushed by the great Warshade Dark Sovereign, instead I have the honor of being in the presence of his Praetorian double the Viceroy Incubus. A villain pretending to be a hero who was a former villain, the irony is simply too delicious... very well, I agree, now where's my pen?”

Dr. Aeon reached into his lab coat to remove not a writing instrument, but a remote control of some sort. In one smooth motion, he pressed the single red button on this device. The last thing Jason remember was his undead henchcorpses bashing down the stall door followed by a sensation of falling backwards, then, he simply wasn't there anymore. Dr. Aeon didn't know where he sent the Viceroy, nor did he cared, all he wanted was a nice cold glass of soy milk.

[ QUOTE ]
Shame that MM Icon next to your name makes it's super easy to spot you. I've never had any real problem targeting the MM who tries to hide behind a Pet name. Takes the same amount of time to target as any other MM. Just look for the icon.

[/ QUOTE ]

Shhhh!!! Quit ruining it for the rest of us!!!

Seriously though, I know how to spot them too, but I still giggle every once in a while when a hero would broadcast "Where's the MM?"

Oh and credit to my friend Doc, he was the one who gave me the inspiration to create the "Where's Waldo" MM, and he managed to macro an choriagraphy song and dance for his thugs to do the YMCA. Now if only I wasn't so busy so I can set up a macro for my guys to do Shakespeare's MacBeth. So Doc was lucky enough to get the name Enforcer2 for his thug MM and looked like the tier 2 with a 3rd eye. Even with that people still had trouble telling him from his pets.

But yeah, to make a long story short (too late!!!) that mm icon is a dead giveaway. Then again, so is the fact I'm spitting poison at the hero, granted that can be done if I maneuver behind them and hope I'm out of their camera angle. But the biggest giveaway is the fact I have the SJ aura animation on as well. And honestly, that one in front which all the others are follow is always the mm. Perhaps we can start a training program to run around and use goto at the same time to make a decoy thug out in front posing as the leading mm?

Yeah, I did that on victory, I also have a few costume so if my cover's blown I can run away and swap to look like my enforcer or another thug and keep them guessing. Here's the thing about the "Where's Waldo" Thug MM, your name. Thus I named my guy 'Paragon of Vice' and wear the badge of the same name, set up a macro to rename all my thugs to match. Now you got 7 guys all with the same name. As long as they didn't get lucky and tab onto me, it generally buys me an extra 10-20 seconds in PvP.