Cobalt was getting annoyed at the lack of an answer. She looked over the odd group of people standing in the center of the domed room, some of which had that far away look in their eyes.
"Is someone going to tell me where this place is and how I got stuck here?" She shouted as she hurled a small rubber ball at a random person in the group. She was looking a bit cross.
"Ow!" Hal exclaimed as the ball hit him in the forehead, and he was suddenly back in the domed room, the vision clearing. "Uh, huh? Who the heck are you?" he said, blinking at Cobalt. "And if I knew either of those things, I assure you, I'd tell you. . ."
"I probably wouldn't, just to bug you." Experiment said, smiling. "I mean, if you are going to throw balls at people, I would love to see how many it takes to knock Hal out."
It seemed Experiment was pretty much back to his normal, unaltered self, apart from the clothing. Even so, he was now making odd noises of disgust at how his other version had dressed.
"First, I suppose you could say I'm renting it." Vern answered Cobalt, "Second, we're presently at the boundary of Terra's crust and mantle. And third, no idea. But if you got in here, then you were supposed to. Sadly, I'm not entirely sure of the reason. My 'landlord' isn't too takative..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Cobalt was instantly intrigued by Vern. "Ohhh!" She muttered as she ran out and went up to him for a closer look. "Talking lizard thing! What are you? Are you related to Naga? Or even same species? Who is this landlord? Why'd you build this down by the mantle? And who are the rest of you wierdos?" She asked without taking a break in between each question.
OOC: Third time's the charm, lol. Xey, since you're actually paying attention to this thread, toss a PM to Tomanton and tell him to come and respond to what's about to happen. Tell him I said that whatever he's said before is being disregarded. >_> I need to get you people moving.
*glares pointedly at Devious*
BIC: "Why hello there, young fellow," the old man said to the winged man ((Can't remember his name, sorry.)). "I believe my friends and I are here to rescue you."
"BUT WHERE IS THE OTHER ONE!?!" boomed the large, armor plated man wielding an old blood stained lead pipe. "I THOUGHT THERE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TWO!"
"Calm yourself, Wielder," the old man said with a thin smile. "My servants have already informed me that the second one is watching, perhaps unknowing of our purpose. Maybe if you put away your weapons he would come out."
"There could be enemies about," said one of the rebels cautiously. "A split second could be the difference between life and death."
"Worry not," the old man said with a more genial grin. "We'll be fine."
Grumbling to himself, the rebel slid his two automatic pistols into their hip holsters. The other four rebels placed their rifles and submachine guns in special carriers on their backs or under their arms while Wielder slid his pipe into a leather strap hanging from his waist.
"Now then, let's see what we can do about getting out of here," the old man said quietly as the six odd looking robots at his back slowly walked away from the light forest that they were on the edge of.
************************************************** *
((Acid is currently at the edge of the palace complex. The entire complex is walled from the outside and ten gates are set around it. The complex is mainly full of well artitechtured administrative buildings that are generally active at any time of the day or night. The center of the palace, an area of about five hundred yards in diameter, is taken up by the giant tower, the Edge of the World, and the mansion/office that lies around it. Three armories are built into the ground around the edges of the clear area whose entrances are massively armored doors leading into underground vaults. Barrackses for each of the different armies are also there, as well as the headquarters for each part of the Triumverate. It is rumored that the Secret Police headquarters is in there as well, but no one really knows.
However, the first fifty meters around each gate is absent of structures. Two disguised pillboxes also face the gates from across these flat areas.))
"There's the *click breathe* 'Blood Rider', Short Iron."
"Well as I live and breathe, he looks exactly like the old coot. No wonder he got so damn far."
"The Overmagus will be *click breathe* pleased that his new security *click breathe* measures worked."
"Indeed he will. So anyway, let's give our guest a waaaaarm Western style welcome."
The heavy metal gate in front of Acid's car finally rolled aside, splitting down the middle and revealing eight figures standing in his path. One of them was short, almost abnormally so, and seemed to be wearing bright green and black armor. Next to him was a man dressed up as an old Western cowboy with the addition of a thick cloth that obscured his mouth and chin.
As soon as the doors ratcheted open all the way, the cowboy let out a whoop and snapped up two advanced looking pistols toward Acid's car. The six other thugs around him did the same. They opened fire with a blistering barrage of magically enhanced lead, each bullet enchanted with a different type of elemental damage. The green armored figure just lifted up his right arm and blasted a beam of barely contained radiation to add to the attack.
With a dull roar, twenty Steel Troopers rocketed over the wall and landed in either side of Acid's car, careful to remain out of the way of any stray shots. Their cannon arms snapped up and blazed plasma at their target.
Welcome to the Edge of the World, Atomic Firecracker thought. Enjoy the view before we push you off.
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.
((Forgot Thuel...again XD))
"Thuel, is it?" said the black haired man sitting at the large, paper strewn desk.
General Jack, or Outlaw Jack to his fellow Soul Sworn knew him as, set down the latest report from the Oranbegan front and motioned for the Secret Policeman to take a seat in one of the hardbacked chairs set in front of the desk.
After Thuel sat, General Jack steepled his fingers and gave the cyborg a good hard look.
"So you're the one Feliks is assigning to hunt those subversives?" Jack asked and then continued on without pause. "I've read through your record. Exemplary duty, fifty seven confirmed rebel kills, only thirty nine collateral kills. Fairly impressive in this day and age."
Shuffling some papers aside, Jack extricated a single piece and handed it to Thuel.
"Those are your requisition orders signed by myself. You need anything, you can walk up to any armory or supply dump, show them this paper, and you can have whatever you want. I'd suggest keeping the use of biological weapons to a minimum, though. Those really don't look good in the Sunday paper."
Standing up, Jack walked over to the wall opposite the large window that faced the Edge of the World and rapped his knuckle against a large map. The map shuddered slightly and than seemed to shrink as it zoomed in on a point on the outskirts of Paragon City in the former United States.
"Portal University," he said. "We've gotten a report from there regarding people who look like the one's you're after. Go on down to the Overmagus' private airfield, there's a Concord waiting to take you to Paragon. You should arrive within half an hour. Get going and God speed."
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.
Thuel nodded his head and with that he walked out the door, and into the alleyway. He walked down the busy streets of New Mu to The Overmagus' private airport, not to far from where he was. He boarded the plane and waited. . .
((Thankye. And no way, this is juicy stuff. 
In fact, I'm wishing Essex and Phillis had come along now more than ever. The stories they'd tell...
...well, maybe we'll have another opportunity later in the thread. 
))
[ QUOTE ]
"Ohhh!" She muttered as she ran out and went up to him for a closer look. "Talking lizard thing! What are you? Are you related to Naga? Or even same species? Who is this landlord? Why'd you build this down by the mantle? And who are the rest of you wierdos?" She asked without taking a break in between each question.
[/ QUOTE ]
"Holy geez you talk fast." was Vern's first remark, even as he bade the others to get a move on, stepping through the opening that had formerly been sealed by the security ring.
It led the way into a canyonlike room occupied almost completely by a bridgelike construct suspended over a sea of white. The walls and ceiling were almost conveyed the impression that this entire place was a gigantic automobile engine, pipes and what-not running all over the place.
The 'floor' of the room was entirely composed of the strange, seemingly semi-liquid white material. It was almost blinding, had to be more than fifty meters below the bridge, and exerted an odd kind of pressure. The kind of feeling that made a human's hair stand up on he back of their neck.
"Alright, in this order..." Vern continued after commanding yet another security ring to open, "I'm Vern, and I'm from Krayt. I don't think I know any Naga, but I've got a memory like a noodle strainer, so I might and just not remember. And I built the base this far down because that's about the best spot for its purpose. My 'landlord' is the land itself, and this far down it's indeed very cooperative."
He continued talking even as the group travled deeper into the 'base', which seemed clunky and somewhat haphazard. Suspended walkways were the norm in disproportinate corridors, the floors of which were always much too far below the ceiling and covered with the white, crystal-like material. Indeed, maybe there was no floor at all. It was certainly hard to tell - though the stuff seemed crystalline, it behaved like a fluid, ebbing and flowing almost like water in extreme slow motion.
The corridors connected rooms that were clearly research labs of sorts, many of them containing steep ledges that led into more of the white-filled pits. Said labs were filled with that a certified expert would call 'random junk', from a one-eyed pyramid floating about and looking at things really really creepily to a collection of spheres constantly bouncing into one another and the walls without their kinetic energy losing any magnitude at all.
After a few such labs, they came to a slightly larger one, and it seemed this was to be their destination for now. It was divided into two sections, the floor of the other much lower than the one they had entered on.
A walled-in pit filled to the rim with bubling green goo sat in a corner, labeled consicuously with 'DO NOT DRINK', and a very large, deep-black object floated above the floor of the lower section, taking up almost all of that partition's space.
The thing looked crystalline, but seemed to be made of metal as well. 300-meters in length, the thing almost looked like an overdimensional Sukhoi-47, but with no canards attached to the fuselage. The forward-swept 'wings' sat all the way in the rear, sloping down at an angle instead of sitting horizontal. The 'tails' swept forward as well, and sloped to each side by the same margin as their wing-like counterparts.
The nose of the strange craft sat pointed at a huge bullseye painted on the wall it faced, and a few control consoles lined the division in floor height, whcich had to be at least a hundred meters. That meant it was a long way down to the other section, even though the right 'wing' of the black crystallic craft hovered almost close enough to the edge to touch.
"I'll just have to make a few adjustments." Vern told the others as the consoles began seemingly manipulating themselves, "Then we can get back to the surface and meet up with Dj...Moonscribe again..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"...at Gate 4. An intruder, presumed armed and dangerous. Yes, I know that is impossible, but the computers do not lie. Very good, sir. Yes, sir. They should have about forty seconds to arrive before the intruder gets suspicious. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
Acid scowled at what he was hearing. There went that idea.
"I'm sorry." SENECA apologized, audibly feeling she'd failed, speaking through the car's console as well.
"It's alright." Acid replied, "I can't expect you to hack everything perfectly. You ready?"
"I'm in position."
"Good. Kef, in a few moments I might say something very crazy. I'm asking you please refrain from exploding with laughter or something like that."
Acid's fingers ran over the center console again. The red paint job disappeared in a crackling discharge of pale-blue static, restorin the night-black sheen to the car, though it looked to have become semi-transparent - things could be seen through it, but it wasn't entirely invisible. The engine roared up like a tubine, and then the vehicle lurched forward.
Just the, the gate opened, and th attack commenced. the forty seconds had passed.
And just as timed had passed through, the fire slpped from one side of the car to the other, seeminly unaffected by the thing it was supposed to hit.
If the cannon-toting bots really stood on both sides of the car in direct LOS to one another, they had probably frid each other by now.
The figures standing in the way were probably quite susrpised as the car kept coming right for them, looking as if it would run them over. Whether they actually managed, or even tried, to get out of the way or not, however, was irrelevant - the vehicle passed harmlessly through them at maniacal speed, covering the distance from gate to an entrance to Archlich's tower in mere seconds.
Could the Overmagus see what transpired below from the windows of his throne room...?
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
There was a bright flash of light and suddenly Acid and Kefetasura were standing on a featureless white plane. The ground they stood on seemed to stretch on and on and eventually bend upward until it formed the sky. A bubble of ones and zeroes surrounded Acid, a physical representation of his mono-shield. Just outside of the bubble stood Archlich.
"I wondered when you would come here," Archlich said right off the bat. "With the limited reach of the Malleus Mundi I knew there was no hope of eliminating you and your troublesome allies from the time line."
Archlich frowned, the edges of his jaw twisting downward like actual lips would. This being a realm of the mind, physical limitations didn't mean much.
"And you will notice that I have tried to penetrate your shield," he continued with a vague gesture to the ones and zeroes floating in the air. "Your technology is generally better than anything of my own and my area of expertise lies not in the mind. I delegate those tasks to others."
The lich put his hands behind him and started walking around the outside of the shield, his black, rune edged cape fluttering out behind him.
"We have as much time here as we wish, Acid Zero. What occurs here occurs in the space between seconds. So be as long winded as you wish when you answer my question."
Slowing his walk to a stop, Archlich turned toward Acid and spread his arms wide in an inqusitive gesture.
"Why are you here? And if my assumption is correct, why do you wish to put things back the way they were?"
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.
Acid felt the attempt as it came. Instead of striking back, however, he merely confronted it. After all, this might yield a better way than stepping out of the car at the foor of the tower and asking Archlich if he was coming down or of they would have to come up.
To Acid's delight, he was right.
"Those are very simple questions to answer." he said, walking towards Archlich. There was a visible strain on him, but the cause was a mystery for now. Kefetasura probably knew. Acid was working hard at remaining singular in order to better speak with Archlich.
"Truth be told, I have little against you changing the world. Ater all, I'm working on this myself, as you probably know. I do, however, have a problem with the way you changed it."
Acid sat down in an office chair. The white expanse had turned into a conference room. The ones were gone, though Archlich suspected very much they only seemed to be.
"Do sit." Acid requested, continuing, "Basically, the heart of the mater is this: whether or not you like to believe in free will, people make choices. Its one of the fundamental rights of existing, that one can choose. You've taken that right away from...how many idividuals? Five or six billion?"
Acid paused for a moment, then looked directly into Archlichs eyes, "I can't seem to recall when this happened anymore...and though I may be scatterbrained to no end, I remember this very clearly. You wanting to help. Wanting to do good."
The curtains on the far wall slid aside, showing the ruins of the front against the war with Oranbega, "Not only did you take away their choice, but you also place them into this. You caould have made any world you like, written any desire. Yet you chose destruction, suffering, despair...why...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
[ QUOTE ]
"My servants have already informed me that the second one is watching, perhaps unknowing of our purpose. Maybe if you put away your weapons he would come out."
[/ QUOTE ]
Seeing the general feel of the company easing up, Lyden took one long glance at the old man... and then started down the hill. Within a few moments he was among them- looking to the authoritative figure with a measure of confusion. He was unsure whether to look independent, or submissive, or just plain lost- as he felt he was.
When Thuel boarded the jet that would carrie him to Paragon, it immediatly took off and rocketed through the air at high speeds twards Paragon. Within minutes the plane was already over the Atlantic Ocean, within minutes he would be over Kings Row, where he would parachute out of the plane. Then he would procede to tracking down his target.
And just as suddenly the scenery changed into that of a vast throne room, with Archlich standing just in front of a great throne carved from obsidian and interlayed with gold and silver filigree. The lich did not sit in it, instead he just looked at Acid, locking stares.
"Because they deserve it," Archlich said, acid dripping from his tone. "Humanity deserves punishment and the punishment is now. At the least, we can agree that my race has perpetuated untold horrors for our age."
Both walls to the left and right became slideshows, riffling past scenes of war, devastation, and death. The death camps of World War 2, the great blood soaked trenches of World War 1, the ruined cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Yet more images rolled past, most of them of even earlier times, displaying massacres and the results of single murderers.
"I have lived through all of this, Acid Zero," Archlich said as he continued to stare into the not-lizard's eyes. "I have watched, I have witnessed, and I have been appalled. The sheer fact that as a whole, humanity is cursed with short sightedness. They think only of the here and now, ignoring the did or the could be. This has led to mistakes that could have been prevented by avoiding similar mistakes that were made throughout history. This has led to mistakes that could have catastrophic consequences to future generations."
The throne room was gone, replaced with the office that Acid had conjured up. Archlich was still standing, but behind him was now a portrait of an old, leather bound book.
"I know that is was selfish of me," the lich said as he finally looked away, staring up at the ceiling instead. "But before I can lead this race into glory, I must first purge myself of my hatred for it. Toying with their lives and ruining their civilization helps me with this."
Then Archlich smirked, his jaw twisting upwards, and he beckoned at Acid.
"But come, surely you of all beings can figure out what I intend to do after I am done indulging myself. Or do you, as with so many others, believe that I shall do nothing more than drive humanity, my own species, into death?"
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.
"Ah!" said the old man as Lyden came out of the trees. "There he is!"
Standing up a bit straighter, the old man dusted off his dirty white lab coat and bowed toward Lyden, sweeping off his bowler hat as he did so.
"So very pleased to meet the both of you," he said. "I am the Dark Animator, one of the many rebels opposed to the Overmagus Archlich and his cravenly lot of misfits. My companions and I have been sent here to rescue you two and bring you to our commander."
"METAHUMANS ARE GENERALLY CONSIDERED TO BE EVIL!" shouted Wielder. "IF YOU WERE TO WANDER AROUND, A SERVANT OF THE OVERMAGUS WOULD DEAL SWIFT FALSE-JUSTICE TO YOU!"
"What my companion is saying, if you may forgive his enthusiasm, is that the world is not kind to those of our particular abilities," Animator said as he rose back up, the clear plastic is his blast goggles reflecting the sun in a brief flash. "And yes, it is quite plain what you both are."
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.
Lyden stood warily, his body somewhat slack with confusion. None of this had been in the briefing.
Rebels? Overmagus..Archlich? Comma--
And that was when Wielder yelled. Jerking with surprise at the sudden outburst of sound, Lyden had gotten half the latches off of his gun case before realizing Wielder was just being loud for.. no reason. In an attempt to get back a bit of his composure, standing himself in an upright, attentive position was how Lyden remained as he patiently waited for them to finish. Animator had introduced himself, and now it was his turn. This was confusing, though- Lyden had been taught to hate metahumans, though he was clearly one himself- and now they were to be allies? He reasoned it was in the best interests of the mission.
"...Unit Lyden is a supersoldier property of Greensryche Research, a subsidary of Greensryche Industries. This unit will comply with any orders noncompromising to this Unit's physical capacities."
"That's a rather long way to go just to vent a little frustration," Kefetaura said in a strangely non-judgemental tone, "Don't you think?"
The slideshow on the walls of the throne room kept on going but the scenes it displayed changed sharply in demeanor. Isis craddled the baby Horus in her arms, soldiers in uniform wept over the memorials of their fallen brothers, Neil Armtrong on the moon, Louis Armstrong on the trumpet.
"Family, empathy, perseverence, creativity," Kefetasura narrated along with the changing images, "They don't solely wreak destruction. They live, and breed, and die. They makes choices," he said nodding to Acid, "And they make mistakes as well," conceding the point to Archlich, "But without the chance to evolve from one generation to the next no creature will ever truly be better.
"And they are, as a people, better than they were. Beyond doubt or question. Yes, they split the atom, and yes they leveled two cities. But ask yourself this; Given the same level of technology what would the Romans have done? The Egyptians? Babylonians? Sumerians? What about those tribes lost to history whose wars of extermination founded those nations to begin with?
"Like it or not, they are growing into something greater. But it takes time. It takes countless generations and unknowable incarnations to acheive enlightenment; such to the fact that after one hundred and thirty thousand plus years they're, what? Maybe a quarter of the way there.
"If you want them to be better you need to release them. And wait. The hardest thing for a parent is to watch the child make the same mistakes you did, and remain silent. It's also the best way for anyone to learn."
"Jackpot." Acid added, "You can't expect them to grow unless they bash their heads in on that wall every now and then."
He chuckled for a moment, "You probably know very well that I have the means to do this very same thing. There's a reason I don't. Willfully or not, you are doing the very thing you say you want to prevent. Humanity needs to evolve if it's to survive what lies in store for it. The challenges will only get bigger and bigger. If you don't allow them to overcome their faults on their own...then you really are driving them to death...and with that I mean complete and utter annihilation..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Archlich glowered at both Acid and Kef, the scenery suddenly shifting back to its former pure white endless landscape.
"What they will do is drive themselves into extinction," Archlich growled. "They survived their previous mistakes not because they were 'growing' or 'evolving', but simply because they had managed to avoid screwing up everything. But sooner rather than later, they would have killed their own planet and thusly themselves.
"Humanity as a whole is stupid, I have said, and stupid things generally die out through their inability to survive or through their own actions. The human race would have committed suicide in that alternate timeline. But here, now, I can change that. Even in the current situation, global pollution is at least fifty percent lower than it was before. Part of this is from the new widespread use of magic over technology.
"But once the time is right," Archlich said, his brow unfurrowing and his arms slowly lifting up toward the blank white sky. "Once the time is right, I, the great Overmagus of this world shall lift humanity out of its ashes and lead us into a true Golden Age! With the knowledge of centuries behind me I shall rule more wisely and benevolently than any other ruler of men in the past. We shall expand and take our place among the universe's denizens as a great Imperium of Man!"
With his hands still uplifted as though trying to reach up and drag the sky down to his level, Archlich looked at Acid and Kefetasura one last time, his brilliant blue glowing eyes boring into theirs.
"And who are you to try and prevent this glorious thing from happening? You are nothing."
************************************************
And then just as suddenly as it had happened, Acid and Kef were back in their own bodies, watching as Acid's phase shifted car slammed into an invisible shield around Archlich's tower. The car seemed to freeze, none of its systems working or responding to commands. It would remain like this until the phase system shut down on its own, at which point the car would reactivate and be fire upon by the rapid reaction force which was even now closing on its location.
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.
Cobalt listened to Vern's explanation but appeared to be more interested in the flying machine at the moment.
"I'm Cobalt Stinger. Naga never mentioned a Krayt, she only pointed out Delta Pavonis on the star chart. I thought maybe you two related since both lizardly."
"I was zipping about Paragon Siren's Call when suddenly I'm here. Long time since teleport malfunction, and the mantle is way outside my range. Your landlord must have brought me here and I want to know why."
"I also want to know what that is?" She asked, pointing at the vehicle. "And who are you all?" She asked the others.
Experiment bowed, smiling. "I am Experiment 2.0, super hero and technological extraordinare! For future referance, I am pure awesomeness in a can. Thank you." he chuckled, stretching his arms. "So, now that I finally got THAT out of the way... NEXT!"
It seemed he was impatient, having not been able to do anything so far.
Kefetasura glanced over at Acid and said nothing for a split second.
"Well," he decided with a sinister grin, "It's a good thing we both have extra bodies laying around. Oh, and I suppose I should use this moment to inquire about your master plan for coming out unscathed. I'd hate to ruin it by helping like I did last time."
[ QUOTE ]
((Alright, let me see...
[ QUOTE ]
"
Yeah...I've lost track of Xey, Lyden, Ink Dyne, and Dragonistic. No idea what's going on with them.))
[/ QUOTE ]
((Xey is in the town where Thuel was last but don't know where Lyden went.
so what do yall think radom portal opening up and getting ploped down on rest of group?))
[url="http://www.g4tv.com/pile_player.aspx?video_key=16533"]http://www.g4tv.com/pile_player.aspx?video_key=16533[/url]
a City of Heroes movie on the way?