"Whoa!" the hero yelled, leaping to his side, into a bunch of undead stragglers. His previous explosion of spines didn't work very well when he leaped INTO the enemy.
Wait... That's right! The ZOMBIES are the enemy! he thought to himself, confused, So why am I fighting Burning again?
Because you have to, his voice replied in his head, He tried to hurt Essex, remember?
No, not really...
...Well, just take my word for it.
...But you're a random, disembodied voice in my head. I think I will trust my intellect over you right now.
What intellect?
Experiment ignored this comment, and jumped up in a slashing circle of doom on the undead piles of flesh and rot, stabbing his spines into the wall again. He climbed, calling down as he ascended. "Hey, could you tell me why we're fighting? The voices in my head are both giving me a headache, and possibly causing insanity, so... Yeah..."
"What do you mean why are we fighting, you were with Toy Dispensor and-" A confused look crossed Burning's face. "With... Wait a minute... Something's not right with me."
The hero shut his eyes tight, muttering a chant. He opened his eyes and they seemed... calmer.
"I dunno about the voices, but for whatever reason this whole place seems to make me angry. Do you know what's going on?"
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
Experiment glanced around, and grinned. "Yeah. T-virus got out, and then everyone forgot their anger management classes. Makes PERFECT sense. I mean, I would be pissy too if I had your emo hood on, but other than that, no idea."
Kill him.
You never shut up, do you?
"It's not an emo hood, I wear it to- nevermind. Well, whatever's going on, that tower has to have something to do with it," said the hero as he pointed at the spire in the distance. "And we still have to deal with them."
The undead now had closed in on the two, making a tight circle. Burning sighed and created a fresh patch of ice, knocking some to their feet as he raised his hands to cast the spell he had been attempting before Experiment's attack.
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
Experiment sighed, leaping backward and decapitating a zombie or four. "Aww... At least I was having fun while fighting you... I've been fighting these stupid undead things for the past five hours! I'm BORED!"
He spun, severing a few more undead limbs, and stopped, scratching his head. "That thing looks like it's a LONG way away... Can't we just TP there? Would that be a lot faster than fighting all these guys?"
"I'm having trouble flying too high. Even if I got in the air, I'd still be in range of zombie spit," said Burning as he finished the spell. Tiny fireballs began raining from the sky. The zombies moaned, stumbling as they sought cover from the flaming death.
"Follow me," he said as he held his palms up. His palms kept a constant stream of flame going and he walked forward, forcing the zombies to step back in the midst of the fire rain chaos or be charred.
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
A good thirty minutes of trudging through sand, being attacked by sixteen more sandworms, being assaulted by legions of the dead, and falling into more then one seemingly bottomless pit later, a very weary looking Rag man wandering out of the desert and into a swamp. He had originally been heading for the forest but being eaten by sandworms sixteen times in a row, then bursting through their stomach walls will tend to divert which direction one heads in.
The rag man now looked even more...well...raggedy. He had sand and grit embedded in the tears in the cloth that formed him, randomly scattered rocks had taken to nesting in his body, and there was a small cactus sticking out from the rag man's head.
The Lord of Rags took five steps into the swamp.
Then promptly fell into the large marsh-hole in front of him.
The rag man fell into the water, which closed over his head in a heart-beat. He didn't even seem to notice, he just kept walking through the muddy murk of the water. Searching.
((My apologies for not being around for an apparently eventful day... It seems my ISP decided it was too cold to work...))
Slater stood, shrugged at the large machine, and started laying into ghosts. It wasn't the first time he'd dealt with them, and he was glad MAGI had given the Black Mauler an enchantment to affect the critters.
"I'd have to wear a cape to be called one, don't you think? Fortune... Fame! Mirror... VAIN! Gone-in... SANE! But the memory remains... ow..."
The last bit of his recital punctuated with mace strikes was interrupted by a barrage of sonic blasts to the chest. A winged spectral demon floated before him, "breathing" for another scream.
"Oh... I see... A critic. Well, tsk, my brother's louder, my blood's pumping, and this mace is perfectly handy for dispatching you cretins, so what else do ya got?"
Another pair of spectral demons appeared behind it. Slater narrowed his eyes at them.
"I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut, now..." he muttered as he closed with the monsters and raised the Mauler so it could get it's two cents in.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Eyes widening, Amora dashed away from the incoming beams as fast as she could. Falling behind a large oak tree, she took a quick peek to the side, only to quickly jerk back as an energy beam nearly took off her nose. Cursing, she could only get a general sense of the attacker's direction across the lake.
Taking another look at the tower and the enemy that stood between her and her goal, she snarled, and summoned dark energy to her fists.
She was well aware that her assailant knew of her location. Crouching, she slowly made her way to another tree, then another, until she was able to get a somewhat closer view of her enemy.
Amora could only see dark metallic armour that tailored to his body, several odd devices and knacks that were attached as well. She distinctively recoiled when she saw the deadly rifle in his hands.
((I'm not enetirely too sure what your character looks like, so I just made this part really simple. =O))
She hissed softly, raising her hands, negative energy dripping down her arms as she did so. Anger, both from the Tower and her own thirst for vengeance, arose in her, and before she knew it, she had released a beam of energy herself.
"Die!" Amora screamed.
Entropy watched from above as the girl fired dark energy at her attacker. She had avoided any encounters thus far by sticking to the trees and having her nanobots keep her cloaked, but it seemed she would have to take action now. She couldn't pass up this chance to assimilate the tech the attacker was obviously packing; who knew when she'd get a shot at any more?
She watched the exchange of blasts, awaiting her chance. What to do about the girl? There was something about her that mirrored Entropy's own dark psyche; she could be a valuable ally, or a brutal enemy. Decisions, decisions... She hadn't had this much fun in a long time...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The undead came at him in waves. Dozens, scores of zombies and skeletons fell before him as he trudged through gore-splattered snow and bitter cold wind. Sword, axe, and mace alike were stained with blood and gore. His arms swung his weapons tirelessly, decimating the minor undead that besieged him; his eyes, however, never wavered from his goal.
The tower.
The man known as Warbound walked on. He could feel his rage building with each step, knew it was coming from some kind of spell. He didn't care. Woe to any who get between him and his goal.
((Again, Vyachslav isn't scanning anything, he's just listening. 
))
The things Vyachslav 'heard' just there weren't exactly promising. Whoever the guy with this Xey character was, he apparently had a checkered past - that might prove useful later.
However, other thoughts over there were much more interesting. The combatants had moved into the forest, out of direct visibility, but their minds still yelled scatter in every direction. Needless to say, Vyachslav was extremely glad when he recognized Toy's individual patterns.
He could, however, clearly see Wolfgang now, approaching the tree he had chosen as his vantage point. Actually, it was kind of nice to be looking at someone at eye level for once, even if he was presently on all fours. In Vyachslav's opinion, of course, most other lifeforms were quite small, and the tree helped out a fair bit.
My name is Vyachslav. Of where is not important. So...
The thought was interrupted by a sudden sinking feeling of his left hand. Not two instants later, Vyachslav detected motion all about.
A trap - it figured. So this guy had just been bait, huh? Well, he'd show him that being big didn't always mean one was slow too.
The razor disks, however, were faster, and the first one struck home before Vyachslav could leap back. The saw blade collided with his left arm, sounding aloud as metal slammed into metal.
Suddenly, Vyachslav just stopped.
He hadn't even felt that...the razor disk had clanged off uselessly, digging into the dirt as it rammed into the ground.
Vyachslav ran a calculation. The result: the razors had neither the proper velocity nor material hardness to do any harm to his armor.
What was going on here? This was obviously a trap - and this guy had lured him in...no?
Okay, rewind. First my gate gets redirected here, and then something tries to suggest me anger. Next thing I know, there's people beating on human zombies, and this guy, so conveniently a telepath, starts talking to me. One of the zombie-beaters is Toy, the others not sure yet...
Vyachslav of course kept his thoughts to himself, but it looked more and more like the same force who'd brought him here had also brought Toy here with the same intention: to lure them both into a trap. Since others were helping Toy right now, it was only logical that the same applied to them.
However, without the snippet of thought from Toy, this still would have taken quite a while to figure out. Vyachslav knew far too many with the power to do such things. However, the robotic mastermind's scatter narrowed it down to just one: Blightlord.
Vyachslav remembered Blightlord. He loved traps and could never get enough zombies. Yeah, this reeked of him all over.
Still, there was something he couldn't figure out: Blightlord wasn't the smartest guy around, but he knew how to set a professional trap for the intended target. This was just downright pitiful - which meant Vyachslav couldn't possibly have been the intended target!
They're after Ace!
The conclusion seemed painfully obvious now. This trap was most certainly a danger to his friend, and Blightlord knew plenty of Acid's curiosity. He knew the guy'd wander right over to Wolfgang, who bore the outward appearance of just wanting to strike up a conversation.
In truth, he had to be one of Blightlord's allies!
Indeed, Blightlord's spell sent to retrive Acid had royally messed up. Then again, there was no way the spell could've known that a certain bounty hunter would jump in after Vyachslav instead of the reptilian.
The whole thought process had taken less than a second. In the meantime, three more razor disks had clanged into him and met their demise in the dirt. He didn't even bother trying to avoid them. The same fate reached any disk that targeted him.
An almost painful impulse suddenly roared into Wolfgang's mind.
Sorry pal, you picked the wrong victim for your little trap!
With truly frightening speed, Vyachslav rushed forward and struck a massive clawed hand larger than most humans at him. Even if Wolfgang managed to avoid it as well as the sudden vortex of air its pass generated, the tree splintered like a toothpick...
--------------------
The sound of rapidly cracking wood suddenly washed over Toy, Slater, and Marcus. In one direction, the trees seemed to have taken on a life of their own, their crowns swaying and shaking violently as a few came crashing down with a racking cacophony of cracks and snaps...
--------------------
Thysthe swore as he saw Amora take aim, instinctively leveling his rifle to her new position and squeezing the trigger again...
All the weapon discharged was a cloud of hot air as the heat vented through the sides of the half-split barrel. The beam rifle had, as predicted, overheated.
Not good!
The bounty hunter instantly rolled to the side, his prone position making this extremely fast and easy.
Sadly, not fast enough. The moonbeam((?)) hit home and lifted his body up with force, throwing the armored man into a nearby grove of trees and brush...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
(( ahh ok having read over it again I get it but just to clarify its like radio, correct? if you have the ability you can listen to unblocked minds.))
"Sorry pal, you picked the wrong victim for your little trap!" came the mental shout
"What is your reason for attack? Do you think that I am in some way in control of the flying disks?" Wolfgang replied coolly
Wolfgang remained seated on the tree branch until it was clear that it was not a bluff but indeed a true attack. Wolfgang made a leap towards a near by tree but the vortex of wind caught him and picked him up and through him into a tree. He slid down and landed with a thud on the ground. He lay on the ground belly half exposed his back against the tree trunk and paws laying limply.
Wolfgang rose and turned to face Vyachslav for a moment; Wolfgang had looked posed to attack but then his legs gave out from under him. He laid on his belly looking up into the face of Vyachslav with his blue eyes and ears against the head in a show of subordination. If this didn't work he would have to fight back and it was the worst time to do that with no allies. Wolfgang's only hope was that Vyachslav knew or could read body language of a wolf.
((Ok this is to clarify for people. Wolfgang is a Gray Wolf with mental ability. Xey is human and Kessel....well I won't give away what kessel is but I think most people already know. Also what time of day is it?))
[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?
((I was going with Dark Blast, but Moonbeam works! ^^))
Amora, seeing that the Dark Blasts hit home, leapt down from her position to stare at Thysthe. Her eyes, still glowing a pale blue, were narrowed. Her cheeks were flushed a rosy pink, mostly with pain still from her flesh wound. Anger, both hers and channeled from the Tower, surged through her, and although she was strangely detached from human emotions, she could still sense them trying to dictate her moves. Shaking, she managed to hold off her bloodlust to speak to the downed man in the bushes.
"Who... are you?"
Slater's Black Mauler tore through the very being of the spectral demons, but not without a price. For every strike he delivered, they reciprocated with three more, and that didn't include their screams. Their touch was cold and pervasive. He could feel a part of his soul being torn at, sucked away, and withered. Their terrifying howls echoed in his skull...
Kill them! Kill them ALL! They'll do the same to you, don't hesitate to strike... JOIN US!
"NO!" Slater roared and drove the head of his mace into the face of the nearest demon, "I swear, on my life, on my mind, on my soul, I will break you down before my last breath!"
The demon fell and its fellows attempted to gain some form of vengeance for their fallen brother. As their claws reached for the young stone tanker he charged at them, roaring. Crystalline protrusions struck out of the stone armor, and Slater barrelled into the nearest again. Though it was a being that lacked substance, it was a being that affected the material world... It's brother(?) fell, so too can this one.
The crystals seemed to hum as Slater's body crashed through the ghostly thing. A look of horror crossed the creature's face as the negative energy holding it together was stripped away and dissipated. Screaming, it seemed to fade away as if it were never there.
Slater, however, crashed to the ground in an ill-conceived attempt at a tackle. He was tired, he was damaged, and his body had just done something he didn't even know was possible. He struggled to stand again, to press the fight, but it felt like trying to lift the world.
Gripping the Black Mauler, he fought for some kind of resolve within himself, some kind of inspiration that would enable him to keep up the fight. His soul was strong again, he could feel it, the deaths of those last two demons must have returned to him the energy they had sapped. But that didn't equate well to his physical reserves.
Suddenly, one of his favorite songs sprang to mind...
New blood joins this earth,
And quickly he's subdued!
Through constant pained disgrace,
A young man learns their rules...
"Time to die," the last demon in his fight rasped and chuckled, "You chose... poorly."
"What I've felt..." Dustin muttered in response.
"What?"
"What I've known..."
He planted the mace head into the ground and used it to push himself up. On a knee, he looked into the face of the monster.
"Never shined through-in what I've shown..."
"Shut your mouth!" the demon roared as it swiped at the hero's face.
"Never free," Dustin deflected the attack with his left forearm and forced himself to stand, "Never me!"
He smashed the mace through the demon's chest and followed it up with a flurry of punches, leaving the weapon hanging inside the part of the creature's being that would have been a heart in most living things. When the flurry of blows had ended, Slater wrenched his weapon from the thing's chest and smashed into its face, ending its existence.
"So I dub thee Unforgiven..."
Sweating, gasping for breath, Dustin lurched around to the massive assault drone that had threatened him earlier.
"Was that good enough?"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((What happen? <_< Somebody set up us the bomb?))
((I'm still waiting for someone to notice the falling trees. >.> <.<
Not to mention Khell seems to be busy lately and I don't wanna overpost...))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((If someone feels they have nothing to do, or urge their character on, let me know and I'll give you 'motivation' 
))
Burning and Experiment eventually were free of the valley of death. They now stood in an open field, so far clear of undead.
Confident, Brawler moved forward. Suddenly his senses went crazy. The hero leapt back just before being skewered by a spike that shot up from the ground.
"Traps..."
He attempted to fly again, but all he could do was hover a mere few inches off the ground. A trip wire could still catch him, or some form of mystic detection.
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
((Oh no, I've got plenty of motivation - I just need people to notice the raging chaos near the first. And I really don't want to lose Khell from another thread by just postrunning him down again. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Experiment was shocked by the spike, usually his 'gig,' shooting from the ground, sure.
However, Burning then proceeding to go forward yet again, without, perchance, throwing a few rocks, or a fireblast or two, in case of invisible enemies, obstacles, or, most likely, more traps?
"Look, I'm all for the suicidal emo-complex, what with the hood and all, but come on, leaving me stranded to sate your own self-death desires? That's pretty selfish, Burning, if I may."
"Just stay on your toes. Literally." Brawler turned around toward Experiment. "Now that I know they're here, I can trust my senses to find the traps. If Blightlord's the one behind this, then anything he sets up won't be triggered by tossing a rock or something."
The hero turned back around. "You can try it, of course. But I'll bet half of them are designed to come back at the thrower."
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
((Oh newtz... Now I see the falling trees. Hm... I think I'll let somebody else take the floor on that one. Slater was a bit involved with fighting the screaming demons to notice.))
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Experiment blew his hair out of his eyes (rather useless, really, due to the fact that is simply falls back every time), and follows behind Burning, jet's activated, and being forced to the same altitude as him.
"What makes you so sure it's Blightlord? Couldn't it just be some random villain who, while it may seem similar, uses zombies and magic against their foes? I mean, it isn't like there is some sure-fire sign, like some 'Blightlord wuz here' graffiti somewhere... Unless you saw something down in that undead-valley that I didn't, in which case, I like Blightlord 'cause he has a sense of humor now."
"Well lets see," said Burning, turning back again. "So far we've faced undead, are surrounded by traps meant to kill, and painfully, were teleported here magically, I'm here and we're both enemies of his, and there's a very large tower that pretty much screams 'come to me.' It's a pretty safe guess."
Burning kept moving forward. A sudden whir of power alerted him to a triggered trap. "Look out!" he yelled as a pit's covering fell away in front of Experiment, the ground beneath him lurched forward, tossing him towards it and the acid pool that waited inside.
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
((M'kay, I'm gonna try this and see if it ellicits a response.
*pokes Khell and Soviet*))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Status: Not surprised," Chertak said as the grave knights suddenly burst out of the water around him.
Reacting quickly, Chertak reached behind him and then whipped his arm back out, his plasma rifle materializing in his hand. One shot to the head sufficed to knock one grave knight back into the water and then the rest were in melee range.
Blocking one sword with his rifle and avoided another by deflecting it with his left forearm, Chertak kicked backwards, knocking away another knight who thought to attack from behind. Rolling his left arm, Chertak succeeded to lowering that knight's guard and then brought his rifle around and smashed it into the undead's face. Startled, the knight fell back, giving enough time for Chertak to duck under another sword swing, land on one knee, and punch the attacking knight in the gut.
Chertak's fist easily went through the enchanted armor that protected the grave knight and tore into the creature's stomach. This on its own wouldn't have done much more than inconvenience the grave knight, but Chertak flipped on the plasma charge with his fist still in the knight's belly. Instantly the knight's torso burst into flames and the creature fell back, batting furiously at itself until it tripped and fell backwards into the water.
Rising up, Chertak did a rising kick to the chin of another grave knight trying to charge him from beind, shattering the thing's jaw and knocking it to the ground. Two strikes then got through Chertak's defenses, dragging over and chipping at his armor. The Rikti responded by grabbing both swords and pulling them in the opposite directions, causing the two knights to slam into each other in front of Chertak.
While they were stunned, Chertak reached behind his back and pulled out his warblade, the energy sheath allowing the heavy metal sword to cut through both of the grave knights, sending them to the ground in a tangled heap. A spin and a heavy downward slash finished off the last one, it's two halves staying upright for a moment before falling into the water.
"Effective: Warm up," Chertak said, shoving his warblade behind him once again.
After checking to see that he suffered no critical damage, he hadn't, Chertak continued on through the thick brush, trusting in his suit's navigational system to point him in the right direction.
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.