Asephice didn't like the look of this. He bet he could take the drones out, but not without loosing a man or two. It didn't matter though, they were unimportant. His teech clenthec as he looked around and he gripped his weapon. The rest of the men weren't feeling too much better. They held their guns close but refrained from shooting, they were surrounded and they knew it. The crossfire could be deadly, and Watson wasn't looking to patch anyone up today. Agent Spiral remained how he always was, in the space between tense and calm. He let his rifle hang loose as he put his hands up slowly.
"I am Hero Jimmy Twist requesting sanctuary in this Longbow base with my men." Said Spiral as he spoke in fractured truth. The drones went silent and the moment was so tense you could bounce change off it. The ambiant sounds of wind and breathing were the only comfort for the Crey soldiers as they wondered as to the lengths of their lives. Robots were scary, they didn't retreat and didn't care if they died, as long as you went with them.
"We are unable to contact the Commander. If you wish for sanctuary, you must follow these units to a secure location while we attempt to contact a suppirior or a database." The words burst forth from the drone, they lacked emotion or subtlety. Spiral frowned for a moment, he needed a break, but 9 men to 6 drones was far to fair a fight. Maybe he could break out of wherever they would take him to.
"Men, we are going to follow these robots to their "secure location," let's be good citizens and follow them." Said Spiral with quiet command and a well integrating wink. As four of the droens hovered down around them, the troop began it's march. The minions fell into place quickly, behind their fearless leader. Asephice however, looked with shock and horror as his troop started to move behind "Hero Jimmy Twist." It didn't sit well with him. He was fearing a double-cross from a possibly not-so-former hero any moment. Asephice began the march grudgingly, looking for a good opertunity to put a bullet in in his arrogant partner. As they walked through the destroyed blastdoor, they left the other two drones behind. At that moment, Spiral heard their break. He swore he heard a bit of gunfire.
"Drones! Intruders!" Shouted Spiral as he pointed in the direction he thought he heard the noise. He may have imagined it, it may have been the Nemisis somewhere around his location, but either way two of the drones went off to investigate. As they disapeared from sight the odds became 2 to 9, clearly unfair enough to win. Spiral turned around and made some hand signals, the men turned around and brought their weapons to their shoulders. Before the drones could react, Spiral snapped his fingers in both hands. The drones flipped and turned, suddenly facing away from the Crey troops.
There was a mighty reckoning of lead and flame as round after round pounded the drones. Every attempt to turn around was countered with the sound of thumb and finger. Spiral would not let them fight, and soon the two drones succumbed to the barrage. The men reloaded and took deffensive poitions. They didn't know how or what Spiral did, but they bet he could do it again if the other drones came back.
Magus Kama'Sur staggered backwards, the stun clouding his vision. But the communications officer hadn't just brought in him for backup.
The portal was still open, and as the Rikti fired again, their stunning energy shots hitting home, a dozen vicious Rikti moneys, jammered out of the portal, spitting and screeching, throwing themselves upon the nearest Wailer...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Wei-li and Na-li looked to each other, and then to the mages. Slowly, Wei-li's claws sshinked into place, and Na-li put her hand on the hilt of her sword. Hajime's hand went to his shuriken bag, when a quick word from Akabane caused them to glance back momentarily, and move aside.
The woman walked forward sternly, her eyes on Tarxus. "Why." It wasn't a question, as much as a statement. Dawei stood behind and to the left of her, watching the proceedings with folded arms.
Akabane glanced around at the mages. "You watched us take that beast down alone. You did not render assistance. You did not attack, and yet you watched as blood was spilled. What benefit would we have joining forces with you?"
The Tsoo stood at the ready.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Suddenly, OpOfficer Williams was rolling out of cover, the gun roaring out its entire clip on full-auto.
Ahead of the Nemesis troops was another air lock. But this one was broken. Actually, its two doors were lying on the ground looking as mangled and pathetic looking as the earlier face metled guards. Through the doorway, they could see another long hallway littered with bits of dead bodies. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to their placement, as evidenced by three legs sitting in a row, but one thing was common, there were no heads to be seen.
If the Nemesis ventured forward they would see the glass enclosed remains of a large labrotory. Much of the equipment has been destroyed by acid or claws so what the lab was investigating will remain a mystery. However, there were long blood stains made from moving bodies that disappeared around a corner and through another, equally destroyed air lock. Straight ahead was another air lock, but it was untouched and a blinking light above the door showed that is was in use.
*******************************************
With the two Longbow Drones destroyed, Spiral could pay enough attention to his surroundings and noticed the cargo landing to his left. The corrugated metal door that normally blocked access was rolled up and the agent could tell that was the direction that the sound had come from.
If Spiral ventured inside, he would first encounter the two Drones, which would open fire immidiately. After those were destroyed, the Crey infiltration team would have ample oppertunity to take a look around the blood stained floors complete with shattered Longbow Guardian in the corner and the Nemesis Storm Rifle lying next to it. The would also have a chance to appreciate the loud hissing noises coming from the far side of the warehouse the moment they finished off the drones.
***********************************************
"I hate small elevators. I really hate small elevators. You want to know why I hate small elevators? I hate them cause they're-"
"Shut up, Hardy!" shouted all six other members of his squad. The Crab Spider Slicer shut his trap and resorted to nervously twitching his spider legs to get his point across.
The elevator the Arachnos troops had broken into was the last in a sequence of three that would bring them down to the lowest and highest security level of the base. Unforetunately, the elevator was only large enough to hold two Crab Spiders, or one Spider and both other people, at once. Captain Farfield and Private O'Hannien had gone down first to secure the bottom while Hardy rode down with Widow and Mu'Jurkan.
After another minute, the elevator dinged and the door slid open, allowing Widow and Mu'Jurkan to literally rush out of the car while Hardy slumped his way out.
"Someone really needs to revise his recruitment policy," Widow said on a private comm. link with Farfield.
"You think? But Hardy is a good soldier, despite his less savory attributes," Farfield replied and the switched to an open comm. "Ok you two. The elevator is coming back up. Just like before it'll take three minutes. Hurry up and let's find out what the hell has gone wrong with this joint."
"Yes, sir!" came the reply of one Slicer. "But, uh, there's something kind of odd up here."
"Odd?" Farfield frowned. "What the hell are you babbling about?"
"I think there's something else up here, sir," said the other Slicer and Farfield could just barely hear a clicking noise over the comm. link.
"What something? And what the hell is that noise?"
"That's what we're worried about, sir. You remember that dead guy we came across? What if what killed him is still up here?"
"It's long gone, trooper. Now shut up and get in the damn elevator."
"Yes, sir!"
Another two minutes later, one of the Slicer's called back.
"Entering elevator now, sir."
"Wait a minute!" shouted the panicky Slicer. "What the hell is that?"
"What the hell is wha- [censored]!!! Sir! We've got one incoming mutant! Opening fire!"
"Don't shoot it!" Farfield fumed. "Just hit the button and get down here!"
What followed was silence, about three minutes of it until the elevator reached the bottom and dinged open.
"I think I'm gonna puke," said Hardy as he quickly turned away from the elevator.
Inside was a molten mass that might have once been two Crab Spider Slicers. It was hard to tell if the loss of limbs or the quantity of acid they had been sprayed with that killed them. One trooper had his helmet melted off and the metal had pooled in the sockets where his eyes had boiled away and his face was frozen in a rictus of agony. There was also a great big chunk bitten out of his shoulder and the arm that should have been there was nowhere to be seen. Farfield couldn't tell what had happened to the man under him, but he didn't want to know.
The Webmaster reached inside and hit the door close button and then silently turned away from the grisly sight as the doors slid shut.
"I don't think I like small elevators either."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
((The Mages weakend it:
Tarxus sent his Casters out to confront the Beast. The Air Caster threw air at the beast, the Wind was knocked out of the beast as it was knocked back on its back. It stood up and ran to the side of Tarxus attempting to hit Tarxus with his claws, Tarxus cast a spell of sickness on the beast. The Fire Caster stepped up and threw an inferno of fire at the beast knocking it back as it was hit with Air and Fire at the same time. Then the Watter and Earth Casters stepped up hurling boulders and chuncks of ice at the Beast.
"STOP, let the Tsoo finish this beast off " Tarxus spoke as he orded his Agony and Energy Mages to not kill the beast. The beast got up and let out a roar of anger when the Air Mage stepped foreward and he threw a rock at the Air Mage and broke the Mages legs. ))
"Ahh we are powerfull Mages, we weakend the Beast, notice the burn mark on its arm. That mark is a weakness mark, all beings marked are weakend in mental capacity, and physicaly" Tarxus remarked as he motioned to his two atendants to walk foreward.
The two Mages walked up and bowed respectfully twards the Tsoo, "We thouhgt it would be dishonor to slay the beast" The Agony Mage spoke as he pointed at the Air Mage and made a fist as the Air Mage writhed in pain.
"Make the pai....sto..." the Air Mage whined as the Agony Mage made the pain worse and worse.
"Stop" Tarxus commanded the Agony Mage. "We offer our services of Pain" as he looked at the Agony Mage "and our service of Healing" as Tarxus knelt down next to the Air Mage and healed him most of the way. "you see im not just a Death Mage, im more of a Life Mage i still have the Death Mage powers for protection"
Tarxus orderd his four Casters to move up. Each Caster showed there unique powers off as the Tsoo looked sort of impressed at the Death Mage, but not the Casters powers.
"Im da Fire Caster, i throw Fire at bad people who wan to hurt the Tree" informed the Fire Caster.
"Im the Watter Caster, i can command Watter and Ice." Informend the Watter Caster.
"Im...the Air...Caste.., i use air ....to..hurt" mummerd the Air Caster.
"Im the Earth Caster, i can summon stone entites and maniuplate the Earth and Stone." Informed the Earth Caster.
"Im the Agony Mage, i make people suffer" Informed the Agony Mage.
"Im the Enegry Mage, just basic Energy" Informed the Energy Mage as he moved Hajime's shurikens around, eventualy one of them flew out and hit the Agony Mages rear end. "Its called Karma, you do something bad and it comes back and bites you in the [censored]...but not usaly" chuckled the Energy Mage.
(('Kay.))
Akabane glanced at the others. Their words slipped into a language incomprehensible to the mages.
"Dou omoimasu."
"*snort* Ore? ...Ore ga Saakirutachi wa aho da to omou yo."
"Hontou da ne. Iro iro na chikara...mou sentai mitai wa ne."
"Hahahaha! Hontou deshou!"
"Demo chikara ga aru'n da."
"Haoxiang-sama wa tadashii mono o hanashiteru. Ano hitotachi wa hontou ni chikara ga aru'n desu. Soshite pakkuto o shiyou."
"Demo...nan no tame ni iru no? Chotto kiite hou ga ii to omou yo..."
Akabane listened to this, and nodded with a little frown. She turned back to the mages.
"...Tell us what you are here for first. Then we will make our decision."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"We will tell you as the High Mage of Thron Isle told us." Tarxus and his two attendants told the Tsoo.
Time and space was manulipated in order to show the Tsoo.
10 years ago a seedling was planted in this building somewhere. The Seedling grew and became a strong Tree, you must obtain this Tree as it is the Great Thorn Trees seedling. Do this and you will be forever held in high regard by the Thorn Tree.
"Now would you tell us why your here?" Tarxus asked the Tsoo.
The Tsoo glanced between each other neutrally.
"...No." Akabane stated. "We will not tell you why you are here. It is you who offered your alliance. But here are our terms."
The Far Fire stepped forward, keeping her eye on the head Magus.
"...If you help us to secure this place, we will help you acquire the sapling."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Deal" Tarxus stated.
"Archmage Tarxus" I like that the Energy Mage said as he thought of them aqurieing the Sapling.
((I need to pull out of this thread for a little while. I'm going out of town soon and with when I'm getting home lately, I get an hour on CoX at the most. I may return when my schedule goes back to normal though.))
The Wailer Lord furiously stabbed at the Rikti Monkeys. They ripped into him, it hurt so much!
In his last moments, he looked back at his Wailers. "Don't you... forget about me."
He collapsed under a loss of blood, eyeballs, liver, and... well those Monkeys are sick freaks, lets leave it at that.
A King was zapped by the energy burst. "Remember what now?" The Monkeys advanced on him. "Runnin' around at the speed of sound, got no place to go gotta follow my-" The Rikti swarmed over him and ripped him to shreds. The Wailer Queen and King duo rushed in for the Magus.
She stunned him with a blast of sonic energy as he ran in for the decapitation. A Rikti bashed his head with the butt-end of its rifle.
His skull cracked and he fell. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" shreiked the Queen, the force of her cry knocking those nearby into walls.
As fluids leaked from his brain, he sang his last song on earth. "[i]I love you... you *cough* love me... we'll screw these mothers in hell baby, with a great big shriek and a stab from me and you, won't you say they'll die.... real.... sooon...."
His arm went limp. The Wailer Queen turned, fire in her eyes. Her servant jumped up behind her. "You give aliens, a baaad name!" he shouted before rushing in.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
Marcus lined up for the snipe...
"Hmph." Akabane merely said. Her eyes flickered to the rest of her squad.
Instantly they had resumed their positions. Dawei at a secondary position just behind and beside Akabane. Hajime scouting ahead down the center of the corridor. Haoxiang scouting ahead of Hajime, invisible. Na-li and Wei-li taking up positions in the shadows to the sides.
The Sorcerer looked at Tarxus with a neutral frown. "Just do not get in our way." Dawei murmured.
With that, the company began forward again...
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
OOC: Hey Soviet, I think you can just kill the Wailers off if I understand Burning's comment correctly.
BIC: The Tsoo and CoT were at a crossroads. The dead Repling and Guardian took up most of the middle, while the two groups took up the rest. Behind the Tsoo was the now defunct security room and behind the mages was a barracks and an armory. To the right was a hallway lined with more offices. Nothing much of value in that direction. Ahead of them was a high security elevator protected by an ID scanner, an eye scanner, and a DNA reader. If either of those devices showed an incompatable response three times in a row, then a pair of Class 1 turrets would descend from the ceiling and open fire at anything near the elevator.
If the two groups made it past this obstacle, they would find that the elevator had only one destination, a place called Portal Lab A3.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
And with a thump and a thud, the final wailers had bullets in their heads.
One was heard faintly singing: "And every...body's happ...y...now...the bad thing's...gone...away..." Before Marcus stepped on its face.
"Let's go." He muttered, clutching the massive stab wounds in his arms gingerly.
"Recommendation: accepted." Gunman Kul'Bere agreed, getting the Magus out of his stunned state to see if he could do anything.
"To help: allow me." Kama'Sur said to Marcus, holding him up by the shoulders. The Maltan didn't feel very comfortable like this, as the much taller Rikti held him at eye level so that his feet dangled off the ground, not to mention the stab wounds sending quite a bit of pain his way.
"Pain duration: short." Kama'Sur said as he locked eyes with Marcus, who felt a revitalizing force flow through him. For a second, it felt like a dentist drilling everywhere at once, then the pain was gone. As the Magus set him down again, he stood strong, not even feeling any more fatigue.
"Injured: I can help: any more?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Targets aquired. Rikti soldiers and Malta operatives. Commencing defense."
Six Invader class drones backed up by a pair of Guardians stepped out from around a corner and leveled their weapons at the allied villains. The Invaders were about one third the size of the Guardians and equipped with a machine gun and a light photon gun, one in each arm.
"You have one chance to surrender," said one of the Guardians. "Or we will open fire."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Marcus snarled. "No time! RIP 'EM UP!"
The Malta ducked for cover once more, letting go on full auto.
Hajime inspected the security protocols on the elevator with a frown. The Yellow Ink Man turned to his superiors, the two Lieutenants scowling down at him in secondary positions with Akabane's coldly neutral gaze appraising him in the center, as always.
"...It would be ill-advised to attempt to breach this elevator right now." he said cautiously. "I recommend searching the barracks for any corpses of victims found resting. All the information should become available if that is the case."
"Good." Akabane said. "Dawei, take Wei-li and Hajime to the barracks. Lord Haoxiang and Na-li, examine the armory. Take anything that will be of use."
The squad uttered a collective acknowledgement and scattered.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"So this is one of those fancy doors, eh?" Tarxus wonderd as he walked down the hall and took a look at the door. "i say we split up and find an Eye, the ID key, and some blood from the Portal Corps people." Tarxus added "You Fire Caster work on this door, try to melt it."
Tarxus went to look around in the frist office on the right side of the door, as he walked he noticed a Portal Corps scientist lying on the floor with several bite and claw marks in her back, he looked into her labcoat pockets for a ID badge of some sorts, he found an ID badge cracked in half. No use thouhgt Tarxus as he put the ID badge in his bag of magical charms.
Tarxus walked around and look at the computer on the desk he tapped diffrent keys untill something popped up on the screen "Portal Corps Main Frame, sercuity clearence unlimited" the word unlimited flashed repeatedaly Tarxus looked at the screen and saw that there was a data base with every door, window, computer, gun turrent, and etc he could unlokck every door, but he was to unused to technolgy and he set off the turrents instead of opeing the doors.
"Tarxus get out here" the Fire Caster yelled as Tarxus ran out of the office screaming "WICTH MACHINE".
The Fire Caster was shot by the Turrents in the celing and Tarxus barely dodged the bullets. The Fire Caster stood up and blasted one of the turrnets with an inferno blast. The Watter Caster came running down the hall with an eye and a Shotgun, he scrambled and dropped the eye and shot the shot gun at the turrnets, he was knocked back a foot or so from the shotguns recoil. The buckshot from the shotgun his the turrnet and clogged the turrents barrels, the turrnet blew up.
Tarxus walked back into the "Witch Machine" and tapped on the keybord till he heard the hissing of the door unlocking outside.
"Hial Tarxus" the Watter Caster said in a German accent.
"okay, here is what we do we go though the door and find the seedling" Tarxus told the Mage group.
OOC: Uh... Darkstorm? No. You don't get to do that. I decide what you find. You guys get to fight. >_> <_<
Post will come here later.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
((ok, ill edit))
Akabane, now alone with the Circle mages, glanced to the side in mild distaste.
"Abunai'n da yo..." she thought to herself, backing up. If they were going to screw with the door and set off the security alarms, she was not going to stand there and take the repercussions with them. This was their dishwashing liquid. They could soak in it.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"So this is one of those fancy doors, eh?" Tarxus wonderd as he walked down the hall and took a look at the door. "i say we split up and find an Eye, the ID key, and some blood from the Portal Corps people." Tarxus added "You Fire Caster work on this door, try to melt it."
Tarxus went to look around in the frist office on the right side of the door, as he walked he noticed a Portal Corps scientist lying on the floor with several bite and claw marks in her back, he looked into her labcoat pockets for a ID badge of some sorts, he found an ID badge cracked in half. No use thouhgt Tarxus as he put the ID badge in his bag of magical charms.
Tarxus walked around and look at the computer on the desk he tapped diffrent keys untill something popped up on the screen "Portal Corps Main Frame, sercuity clearence unlimited" the word unlimited flashed repeatedaly Tarxus looked at the screen and saw that there was a data base with every door, window, computer, gun turrent, and etc he could unlokck every door, but he was to unused to technolgy and he set off the turrents instead of opeing the doors.
"Tarxus get out here" the Fire Caster yelled as Tarxus ran out of the office screaming "WICTH MACHINE". Tarxus hit the Computer with a ball of death and the turrnets remained in the celing.
The Mages began to look through the offices again.
((sorry for the double post but i forgot to fix the earlier parts of it so i just reposted it))
Tarxus walked up to the Tsoo and offerd allieship with them.
"Good Fighting" Tarxus said "We would make a good team, Just dont Crane Kick me or my Mages" Tarxus offerd.