The light coming through the windows of Archlich's tower was a dull orange, seeping through the window as the sun slowly dropped below the horizon. Dusk had come and night was but an hour away, the time approached for the first and final threat to Archlich's power to end.
"The time has come to fulfill the prophecy, Toy Dispenser," Archlich said as he stood looking out the window, coincidentally facing the direction that Acid's darkship was at. "I trust the book has been secured and our enemies tracked?"
"Things are as you have planned, milord," Toy Dispenser said from his position by the door, standing perfectly straight with his hands behind his back. The only part of him that moved was his head as it tracked his master. "The mutants have been deployed, the mercenaries have been briefed, and the ship has been located. All that we need is your word to commence the end."
Archlich spun around, his cape swirling out behind him, and walked over to his throne. He paused for a moment before sitting in it and stared directly at Toy Dispenser, his piercing blue eyes seeming to look into the center of the android's very being.
"Are you ready?" he asked of his most loyal servant.
Toy Dispenser hesitated, an odd image of something green, pink, and scaley shooting across his mind's eye. This image shook him to the core, but he had no idea why.
"I am fully prepared to carry out your will, Overmagus," Toy Dispenser said, ignoring the odd thoughts.
"Good," Archlich said as he sat down. "Then you have my permission to begin."
"At once," Toy said with a low bow. Straightening up immidiately afterward, the android exited the throne room to issue his orders.
"Let's see how this all turns out," Archlich muttered to himself as he turned to look out the window again.
**********************************************
If Acid had looked back at his former car, he would have seen an odd shimmer following along behind it, almost as though the air was very, very hot in that one spot. Of course, he also might have recognized the shimmer for relatively advanced lightbending cloaking technology possessed by the dozen or so minor imps that were following his car.
He probably wouldn't see the explosion they would make once they caught up to the car once it exited the city limits.
***********************************************
The air around Rosie and her group suddenly seemed to congeal, a thick fog springing up out of nowhere to completely surround the group and reduce visibility to almost nothing. A preternatural darkness also seemed to fall, cutting off what little sunlight could make it through the fog and plunging everything into almost complete darkness. The only visible shapes were even darker patches of fog that writhed like something alive.
"Commander, stay close," Richter hissed as his spider legs sprang up and started twitching with readiness.
Shadows moved around the group, forming shapes that looked like looming, multi-tentacled monsters or pitch-black machines of destruction. It was hard to tell what was real and things only got more confusing when the shapes started making sounds that sounded real as well.
Richter lashed out at one such shape only to see it disolve into the background. But then something sharp clawed as his leg and the man fell back with a snarl, hand clutching at the bloody wound in his thigh.
**********************************************
Depending on what they were watching for, the sensors on Acid's ship would probably be noticing several things right now.
First, they would recognize an extreme magical build-up right in the center of New Mu. The magic couldn't be identified as any certain type, like light or dark magic, but its intensity only seemed to be growing.
Second, they would notice several dozen previously hidden boogies suddenly reveal themselves to be surrounding the ship. These were highly advanced fightercraft piloted by the most loyal and well-trained of Archlich's Army of Death bodyguards. The insect-like ships armored in what appeared, and was in fact, bone were armed with purely magical weaponry that obeyed only as many laws of physics as it took to damage their target. Needless to say, these weapons were very dangerous but also had the tendancy to self-destruct under the slightest of hits. Thusly the fighters were lightly armored and depended more on their manueverability and the resiliancy of the pilots to avoid taking damage. Each fighter had Acid's ship in their sights and had orders to take it down or die trying.
Thirdly, another strong energy source was coming from the heart of Oranbegan territory. It's origin and purpose was unknown, however.
**************************************************
In a bright flash, a grey robed man appeared in front of Hallucinogen and Schizophrenias. His hands were folded into his sleeves and his hood pulled down low to hide his face but the two could almost make out what appeared to be blue colored stones on the man's face.
"You two are to come with me," the man said in a slightly burbling voice, as though he was speaking while gargling water. "My goddess has foreseen the end of this existence and you two are needed to bring it about. I will explain things further when we arrive at our destination."
An intense light seemed to grow on the edge of the horizon from where the Oranbegan defenses were.
"If you do not come with me now, you shall die," the man added.
OOC: olololololol.
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.
((Sits back with popcorn))
((Finally! 
Okay, who's still here?
SOUND OFF!
ONE, TWO!))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((THREE, FOUR. ))
((*Runs up to drill line panting*))
((Runs out of Popcorn.
WELL?!?!?))
((...Five, six?))
((Pick up sticks?))
((Hoo hah!))
((*pokes Khell* Thule. Nikolai. Helicopter. New Mu. Get.))
((Oh be quiet, you.
*hands Diov more popcorn*
*inspects the drill line*
Okay, so we still have AD, Soviet, Prodiguy, Tom, Billy, Khell...I know Hal and Ess are on their way from the channel...okay, cast and crew assembled. Let's get this show on the road then.
*hands script to the DIRECTINATOR*
Action!))
--------------------
Acid let out a sigh of relief. For a moment, he'd feared they hadn't fallen for it. Though different from the active camouflage and deflector generators he was used to facing, the shimmer of the light bending was enough of a clue to tell cloaking fields when he saw them.
It had worked. Good.
Though he ran the risk of other pursuers now following the semi (which had no sensors to detect such pursuit, unlike Aci's car), he felt it was a warranted risk.
He'd done everything to keep it minimal, too. He'd made his and Kefetasura's teleport as covertly as he could, and the tinted windows of the truck's cab, along with the reflections of the orange halogen lamps of the highway, appeared as mirrors in the dark of night, not allowing any sight of the inside unless someone got extremely close, as in right next to the window.
The transponder had been manipulated as well, still showing the truck on its original route even when Acid switched lanes towards the next exit. There was no way for the transponder tracking system to keep tabs on this truck now.
Slowly but surely, the semi made its way out of the city. Checkpoints were no problem, as the truck was ID tagged and cleared for EZ-tag stations, not necessitating a stop. It was a good system Archlich had built, as cargo trucks simply couldn't be stopped at every checkpoint without strangling New Mu's supply lines.
Before long, Acid and Kefetasura were in the French countryside...
--------------------
Acid's car kept its present course as the semi exited the current highway and transited to a different route.
Now it would just drive around for as long as possible without alerting suspicion that there wasnt anyone in it anymore. Once it ran out of time and/or room, SENECA had a little surprise in mind for its pursuers...
--------------------
Vern sighed. Wow, his sure was taking a long time to get everyone into the telepad bay. Luckily, it seemed the group at least followed a general migration pattern.
Once everyone had finally gotten into the bay, Vern gave the ship the go, and off they were...
--------------------
The group materialized deep in the French countryside - a hilly area dotted with fields, hedges, a few collections of trees, and a village here and there. The area was off the main road and rail system, through a few smaller roads did cut through the terrain.
Night fog blanketed the landscape, a common occurrence in the rural areas of France, even during the day. Since night covered the sky now, it had of course formed even more so.
Some of this mist started to gather around the group almost immediately, obscuring them from view.
"Just in case." Vern stated, 'looking' about, "Moon, why don't you add some more?"
It didn't take him long to locate Rosie and crew just a few hundred meters south-southeast of their position.
Vern turned to the robed man again, "Lead the way..."
--------------------
The mechanoid carried Cobalt through a series of other rooms and corridors, all constructed in the same strange manner: catwalks and platforms over the abyss of the white-glowing substance.
The robot seemed to know where it was going, taking confident steps through the maze-like construction that carried uncanny resemblance to a giant engine of some sort. At times, it seemed to Cobalt that the bot was doubling back they way they'd come...at times this was even true.
Still, the end of the journey was reached before long.
Another of the large, black, mosaic-like doors hissed away in the blink of an eye, freeing the way into a cylindrical room with what appeared to be a pillar at the center.
The cylinder was gigantic, several stories high and at least fifty meters in diameter. The central pillar ran from a collection of pipes and nodes on the ceiling down into the abyss of the white, slowly moving substance.
"Junction reached." the mechanoid declared monotonously, simply stopping after the door had closed, "Directions for use to Unit Cobalt: jump..."
--------------------
The Dark Airship, now bereft of 'crew', had no intention of taking on Archlich's Army of Death fighter craft. It had to admit, it was surprised that they'd managed to find it through the dark matter cloak, which rendered any sort of electromagnetic-based detection systems unselss.
Still, there were of course means of scanning that didn't involve the EM spectum, such as sonics. As such, the ship was of course impressed - but not unprepared.
The massive aircraft engaged more layers of obscurity. Moments after the fighters appeared, it faded from their perception completely. The additional cloaks rendered it completely covering it against any direct means of detection, even hyperwaves.
Then it dropped altitude, calculating the fighters were likely to shoot at its last detectable position, before they could do so. Almost all human pilots, so likely even undead ones, were trained to pull up when things got hairy. Going down was the very last thing any pilot wanted to do, and so the ship exploited that instinct...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((*Grabs popcorn*
YAY!
*Munch Munch Munch*
*Poors popcorn into hat for later*))
((Where'd my drill line go? 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Tug-O-War competition with a rival Drill group.
They didn't want me to play. Said I lacked the arm strength.))
((Right here, mon capitan!))
Rosalind's ears laid back aggressively against her head, and she twirled a pistol onto her finger - Emry's Spirit Disruptor. Cocking it to the side in a display of gangsta precision, she fired it at the distortion in the air.
If whatever it was had a spirit, it would be hard-pressed to defend itself at this range. Her left hand extended out in front of Richter protectively, the claws on it glowing white in preparation.
"Looks like we have a welcoming committee." she growled, glancing to the side at Bear. "Get ready for some fun."
------------------------------------------
Selene swallowed uneasily as they were all teleported to the ground.
"...Where are we?" she mused, shrinking closer beside Midas. "Um...Where are we going?"
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
((I'm awake! I'm awake! Five more minutes Mom. . .D
)
". . .Uh. . . okay. . ." Hal said nervously. "I guess that pretty much narrows down my options. Heh."
"Awwwwww," Schizo said inside his head as Hal nervously followed the strange figure. "You should've died! Giving up is always an option!"
((And I have no freakin' clue what Moonscribe was doing. XD;; I'd love a prompt, but otherwise I'll read through the thread awhile later. <.<
)
((Thanks to Devious for giving me a quick prompt. XD))
"Certainly," Moonscribe said, and as he struck the air with his fingers as though pressing invisible keys, the fog thickened gradually, so that they were almost impossible to see from a distance.
"And as for where we are going," he continued, as they began making their way toward Rosie's position, turning to regard Selene calmly from under his hood. . . somehow she was certain he was smiling at her. "We are about to meet a good friend of mine. I merely hope she is pulling together. These are grave times."
((And if Hal were there, he would SO say "No [censored]. D:"))
Bear nocked an arrow.
"Well, that had to be a record-time response to a rebellious Inquisitor." He snarled.
---
Drechi muttered darkly to the Death's Angel Inquisitors under his command. The leader of the group, a Cuban man with a cybernetic fist, nodded.
"I copy." Vasquez confirmed his orders. Rulaag, meanwhile, was working with their radio.
"Team Sigma Mu here...Say again, command. What are current orders? We have interference, possible Oranbegan signatures detected nearby."
((Sigma Mu: Scorpion Mercenaries, lol.))
((Yup, its sure dead here...))