Weaving behind a corner, Psycho13 pressed his severed left arm against the stump. There was a strange slithering sound and the limb stitched itself back together.
Funny thing was, it didn't leave a scar. There was a line of slightly lighter flesh, yes, but it was nothing like the nasty scar that circled halfway around his arm just below the elbow.
"That's what tells me I'm here," he muttered as a light started shining on him.
The flyer had sought him out. The pilot must be bored. Psycho13 flipped him the bird and bolted under the vessel's belly.
Kip was busy carving a neat line through one of the guns. As he was about done, he took a hold of the barrel, wincing as he came in contact with the hot metal (fortunately, a wreath of black-purple smoke wrapped around his hand, mitigating some of the pain). Wrenching it free, he made for the cockpit.
"Evening, [boy]!" he shouted as he hefted the impromptu club, "I hope this hurts!"
He swung the barrel down to smash into the canopy. The glass spiderwebbed, and he lifted the weapon up for another swing.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Immediatly after Twilight had said his remark he held his hand outstretched with five digits extended. 5...4...3...2--
[ QUOTE ]
Psycho13 came running around the corner.
"I found a bunch of Resistance soldiers holed up in... in..."
[/ QUOTE ]
[/i]Hm, sooner than expected. Fast Hero.[/i] While they had their little conversation and Kip distracted the machine, Twilight was floating above it, preparing. He held his hands outstretched to the side as a light glow came about him. Near transparent white tendils leaked from his eye sockets and onto the machine, growing as they slipped off the sides and onto the ground. The flyer began angling its propulsion system down as it tried to escape their supernatural grasp. The remaining guns targeted Twilight and let loose; forgetting about Kip altogether. And this is where they make their mistake. Various bottom guns and cannons were crushed as the mechanical monstrosity was dragged onto the street...Though the top half was still firing. The opportunity for Kip and Psycho to take this thing out was now while it was held and busy.
"You really are willing to put yourself through this for these heroes?!" The voice in Twilight's head said increduously
"For all your 'ancient wisdom' it is apperant you do not understand their potential..."
Bullets tore through the chaos leather surrounding Twilight; a black and red liquid falling out. Not to say this won't be a problem... He could only keep this massive flyer held so long before he would succomb to the injuries. "It would really be nice...if you two took care of this now..." At this point the blood was even seeping through his ventillator
[ QUOTE ]
Busy executing the attempt, even if he interrupted at this very moment, Thule stood little to no chance of countering the strike of dual katanas from this close a range, not to mention behind...
[/ QUOTE ]
((I'm thinking stab and not slash, so correct me if I'm wrong. Also, don't we have a fight in almost every thread involving Thule Devious? :P))
A second or two went by before the blades impacted. Being katanas, they cut right though the bullet proof vest like all knifes with razor sharp edges would. They however stopped dead a the alloy underlay that was at its most primitive form, chain mail, but linked at the cellular level.
The chain links were not solid like old chain mail. They were hollow and filled with repairing nanites that would flush out and repair the individual ring if damaged too badly.
He was powerless about the two strikes. As soon as he registered the two strikes his wrist blades extended as he turned himself around with enough force to cut a steel pole with his two wrist blades. His first blade went high while his other went lower to take advantage of more momentum from being second.
This gave Steve a chance to whirl around and see his attacker. "You! I knew you couldn't be trusted!"
He rolled forward, then spun to kick Thule's feet out from under him.
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
As Hotaka dropped the brick wall, the flier got in position to launch another, much larger package.
Behind Ryuu, a large box unfolded into an even larger Assault Bot. It's cannons glowed a bright red before letting loose a heavy laser pulse.
As it did so, the Battle Drones were beginning to scale the wall, two Proc Bots upgrading them and themselves with nanites at the same time.
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
Kip's club smashed through the canopy glass with a cascading crash, and the pilot looked up barely in time to notice Kip doing a one-handed handstand over him and dropping both feet down into his collar bone.
Unfortunately, Mayhem pilots wore a pretty tough crash harness, and Kip wound up bouncing off the enemy and rolling over the nose of the vehicle. As the pilot aimed it down at him, Psycho13 was there, his hooked blades at the ready. He stabbed into the nose and started crawling his way up the machine to the suddenly very frightened pilot.
"Hi, honey!" he shouted, "I'm home!"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
The Sniper froze when he saw Wirespike's gun. After a few moments he slowllet go of his hand on the trigger. He then let go with his other hand, and the sniper rifle hit the rooftop with a clang. He remained silent, as he raised both hands above his head, and stepped off Soul Striker.
Soul slowly got up, removing his helmet and reaper, revealing his blue eyes, pale skin, and krew-cut hair, "Pops, it's me, Don!"
"Stop calling me Pops. You know I hate that name," uttered the sniper, void of emotion. Soul Striker's hopeful smile turned into a grin."Then you haven't forgotten me?" Pops responded just as he had done, "Of course not. You died fighting the Masters of Mayhem."
Soul Striker's face changed from a grin, to a look of horror, "I died?".
Pops: You died. And you'll die again if you try to stop Mayhem. These guys aren't like the Freakshow, they started the war against the supers, and they won.
Soul Striker only muttered to himself, "I'm dead...?"
When Soul said nothing, Pops continued his voice now sounding hopeful, as Soul's had been, "But it doesn't have to end that way! I can convince the Masters to let you join them, all three of you! We can all be safe that way, you guys would do it right? Wirespike, I know you would, you used to work for Arachnos according to our database, surely you'd want to join the guys on winning side, right?"
Jake hopped over from the adjacent building, his bots following suit and stopping about ten feet behind him. He smirked at the old man's comment about Soul Striker being dead, even going so far as to chuckle a bit. "Well well," he said, "Seems one of us is more skilled than the other, aye?" He enjoyed this small moment of victory, seeming almost insensitive to the reality of death.
Well, excluding what happened a few minutes ago...
He cleared his throat. "Anyway..." He started.
[ QUOTE ]
"But it doesn't have to end that way! I can convince the Masters to let you join them, all three of you! We can all be safe that way, you guys would do it right? Wirespike, I know you would, you used to work for Arachnos according to our database, surely you'd want to join the guys on winning side, right?"
[/ QUOTE ]
"Hell no!" Was the resounding response from both Wirespike and Jake alike, oddly enough coming at the same time. Taking but a moment to look at each other and exchange looks about it, Wirespike spoke first.
"Years ago, when the Masters first took over, they offered positions of power to all of the Chosen Ones, offering them lavish riches, power over the masses, and unimagineable privilege. Many agreed, of course, but my mind was still altered to a state of loyalty to Arachnos. So I gave them resounding '[censored] no!', flipped them the bird, and escaped before I was executed. To go back now would be suicide."
He finished, letting the information sink in for a second or two before continuing.
"By the way, how'd you figure out my identity? I created the alias Wirespike specifically to keep my name hidden."
-----
At this, Jake released a sigh of relief. "Thank God, he didn't create the name voluntarily..."
((Slash, but not much difference. And there's only been one so far. Not sure I'd say 'almost every' there. 
))
Thule had just made a costly mistake. With the duo of katanas still in contact with his body, his own spin created a situation akin to a potato peeler, the blades slicing deeper and deeper into his under-armor the faster he spun.
His daggers, however, made no contact at all, the Jounin bending his body about and through the volume of safety between them in a truly inhuman manner, more like a snake then a man.
However, this maneuver (not to mention pulling his swords from Thule again) meant he couldn't execute a counterattack at the same time...
--------------------
Hotaka hadn't let the Flyer from his senses even once, but the 'package' it tried to squish him with came as a deft surprise. Scrambling away from the box in a haphazard fashion, even ducking low didn't prevent the assault bot's pulse laser from blasting the hat off his head.
"How rude." the martial artist scowled, twirling about to stare down the mechanoid. More than likely, Panzerfrau presently observed the battle through her henchmen's eyes, so she'd probably take notice of a certain something immediately.
Hotaka's eyes were pupilless.
Just blank white oculae, no iris, lens, or any other workings of the human eye to be seen. Still, the man's glare seemed to drill its way right through the robot.
Not allowing said machine a second chance, the tall martial artist quickly formed a spiritual symbol with his fingers, calling forth an Oni not three meters from the assault bot. The Japanese demon gave a savage laugh, more than likely woefully underestimating his opponent, then belched a swath of flame at the machine and all around it...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Soul Striker took no notice of what Jake had said, he was still questioning his current existence. How did I die...? Was I ambushed? Murdered in my sleep? Strangled...? Maybe the Masters is the right path.
Meanwhile, Pops continued speaking to the two Jakes. "How did I know your name was Wirespike? Well, let's just say we had someone keeping "tabs" on you on your way out of the building." Pops chuckled almost evilly. "That person might just possibly be me."Well it looks like it's just me and Soul Striker, you'll help me finish them off, right buddy?" Said Pops, casually, as if they were back in the days of old.
Soul looked towards Wirespike and Jake, Would killing them be really worth it, would I be willing to turn on everyone I was working with? Soul Striker mumbled, "I can't do that Pops, I'm not going to betray them." Pops sighed, and said grimly,"Soul, please. I don't want to have to kill you again."
Soul Strikers eye's went wide, "What did you say?! I thought you said I died fighting the Masters of Mayhem!" Pops moaned, "Well, I lied a bit, you didn't die fighting. But you did die at the hands of the Masters of Mayhem. My hands specifically, you refused to fight me."
Soul was appalled, asking the one question that came to mind, "But why?" Pops replied sadly, "I didn't want to, but the Masters of Mayhem were becoming suspicious of me, they almost found out that I was sheltering you! If they did, they would have killed me!"
Soul was outraged, "So you killed me and took my designs!"
Pops retorted in an another attempt to justify himself, "I told you, I didn't want to, I had no choice. Plus, I only took your designs, to have something to remember you by! You know you were like a son to me, you still are. Don't make me kill you again, I'm begging you!"
Soul Striker's hands turned into fists, but he spoke softly, "You were like a father to me. Why do you think I kept calling you Pops?" Pops began to speak, but stopped when Soul Striker continued, "Do you know why I took martial arts? I took it as a non-lethal way of fighting villains, I wanted to protect people, without killing others you know, and you know what? I think I'm going to have to get blood on my hands, and I'm going to get vengeance, for myself....Sorry Pops."
Pops merely nodded, "I see. Then I have no choice." He then reached from behind him, and produced two pistols. "These pistols are filled with armor piercing rounds, specifically designed to be able to puncture the armor of your suit, in case anyone else tried to steal your design, I hope all three of you are ready to die!" Pops then began to fire towards both Wirespike and Jake, with precise accuracy.
"Yeah... no..." Jake nonchalantly said as he threw up a shield on himself, refracting the shot's path to just breeze by his head. "Sorry, but a..." He stopped for a short moment, counting his fingers for emphasis, "Nine to one fight doesn't sit well for you." He smirked and ordered his minions to open fire on the man, telling them to give him deadly force.
-----
Wirespike casually threw up yet another shield on himself, again refracting the shot to the point where it missed him entirely. He then raised both his hands and muttered one small obscenity.
"You [censored]."
He then fired two streams of plasma at the man Soul called 'Pops' aiming to kill the man with two perfect holes in his head.
The Assault Bot stood calmly in the flames, the heat doing little to damage it. The bot raised both arm cannons, firing bright blue pulses of energy to stagger the Oni.
The Battle Drones made it up over the wall enough to fire at Hotaka from behind, the quick laser shots likely to surprise.
As soon as the Drones seemed about to make it over, both Proc Bots lifted off, jet boots letting them leap easily over the pile. As they came down, arms converted to something similar to chain guns. This similarity became even greater as they rained a hail of bullets on Hotaka before landing.
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
Psycho13 stabbed his way up to the pilot. When he made it to the cockpit, the pilot pulled a pistol from next to his chair and went to point it at the scrapper.
Baker stabbed the blade into the pilot's wrist with a raspy cry. Before he had a chance to recover, he slashed the hooked blade across the pilot's throat, causing a spurt of blood to splash over him. The vehicle started spinning out of control, with the gunner and the engineer scrambling to regain it.
Psycho13 was flung from the machine. Though he could have survived the fall, it would have hurt and Kip didn't have the time to wait for him to regenerate.
Catching him in mid-air, he landed on the other side of the street and looked back to see how Twilight was doing.
"My hero," Psycho13 chortled and started trying to kiss Durj.
Kipland dropped him like a sack of rocks. Then kicked him for good measure.
Baker chortled out a pained laugh as he reached for his friend in mock affection, shouting "Don't ignore your feelings!"
"And yet more evidence that you're the real deal," the other scrapper muttered to himself as he analyzed the current situation and planned for his next move.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"Hey. You. Demon," came an authoritative, if whiny, voice from the corridor leading into the room where Sybil and Baalial were talking.
A short, rusty black android stepped into the room, one ridged hand pointing a Baalial. The android's armor was done up in a classic steampunk pattern, making it look more primitive than it actually was. The voice was coming from a grill that looked like a partially open mouth and its glowing red eyes were slightly bugged out from its head in an almost comical fashion. Two radio antannae sprouted from either side of its skull, though neither of them seemed to be emitting at the moment.
"If you're going to Croatoa, then I'm coming with you," the android said. "'bout time I got the hell out of this place anyway. You people are a drag."
This last comment was directed at Sybil, who would probably ignore it, having heard such comments at least once a day ever since Block Bot had been stationed at the main rebel base by Toy.
*************************************************
From the top story of a partially destroyed building behind Hokata, a bright blue lance of energy suddenly shot forth. The beam struck one of the battle drones in the head, completely destroying it and sending the ruined shell flying forward to land in a heap next to the martial artist.
*************************************************
"Now this is interesting..."
Toy Dispenser, Toy Bot, and Large Toy were all gathered in front of a large, solid looking metal door set into the wall at the end of a long hallway somewhere underground. Ill-powered lamps on the walls gave forth light only intermitently, providing just enough light for unaided sight to be effective. The three robots were currently examining a keypad set by the door. A standard looking security measure, for some reason this one was cycling through a random series of numbers almost faster than the eye could see.
"This is your thing, Toy Bot," Toy Dispenser said as he stepped back and let the neon green droid step forward, a thin wire already extended from its right palm.
"I shall be done shortly," Toy Bot said as the wire zipped into the keypad and Toy Bot focused on the program inside, trying to find the correct way of cracking the code.
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.
Toy Bot may have received the robotic equivalent of a minor migraine as the panel shorted and the door opened. It wasn't a code, the thing was scrambled.
A circular room was revealed, pop-up turrets all pulled out of the walls dangling by wires. The sparks they cast were the only light in the room, except for one single beam that shone down on a large, blinking orb.
But it wouldn't be the orb that would catch their eyes first. It would be the figure of a woman with bright pink hair and a black and white striped costume. She looked up at them with her large eyes, one green, one brown.
The villainess was just about to reach out to take the orb, and sighed as they entered. She spoke in a French accent. "Well 'ello. You won't just let me take zis, will you?" she said, pouting.
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
Hotaka seemed less surprised than Panzerfrau's henchmen would have liked. While the Assault Bot standing in a torrent of demonic flames was certainly new (usually things just tended to light aflame and/or melt, but apparently Panzerfrau had constructed her robots to be completely non-flammable), the other mechanoids were previously expected.
The three - correction, two - Drones found their pulse laser fire deftly blocked by some manner of ninja bodyguard that had simply leaped from the ground behind his master. The Jounin didn't seem to care that his katanas couldn't block every bolt (not to mention it was somewhat odd the a sword stood capable of blocking a pulse laser bolt), the undeflected fire shredding into his form, but not packing enough punch to take the strange Jounin out.
The Proc Bots ended up even worse, their solid ammunition easy prey for Hotaka's next move. Tracing the sign of the snake into the air like a magical rune, the martial artist placed a hand to his mouth, then without warning spat forth a wide, conical spray of toxins and acids most vile.
The rounds simply melted to slag long before they reached their target, the swath of poisons speeding on to shower the Proc Bots in a corrosive concoction that almost instantly began to eat into their frames, reaching internal systems and causing enough havoc to severely slow every single one of their operations.
Thankfully, backups and such prevented them from being completely held in place by the vicious corrosives, but the effect was nonetheless dire. The mechanoids were seizing up from the inside out. It wouldn't take long before they shut down completely.
Indeed, the Assault Bot seemed the only one with any success to report, its energy blasts spearing right through the Oni. Black blood spattered across the ground, the demon hurled into the dirt from the force of the blast.
But let it not be said that any sort of demon had ever been easy to take down, least of all an Oni. The creature of the pit called upon a katana of solid fire as it rose yet again, then hurled the infernal blade at the offending machine's head in an attempt to split it in twain.
Hotaka merely smirked. This was going well. So long as the Flyer didn't get any bright ideas of joining the fray, he'd be able to hold these guys long enough for a certain little sniper to do its job...
--------------------
"Ah, I see we split again." Baalial retorted to Block Bot, "If I am to predict Toy Dispenser correctly, he's likely off fetching something very important then. Alright, let's make sure he has a safe place to stash it. Madame Sybil, fire up that telepad. Let us depart for Croatoa..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Fool, just because I'm old, doesn't mean-" Pops began to speak, only to get a round house kick to the back from Soul Striker, sending him to his hands and knees. "You little brat!" Pops grumbled. "What'd you say?" Soul Striker mockingly said, as he brought his foot down for a drop kick, only for Pops to roll out of the way again. Unfortunately, Jake's bots were aiming for Pops as well, and the blast just barely missed Soul Striker as well.
"Damn it Jake, do you have to try and kill me now?" Soul screamed towards Jake. "Gee-" Soul was going to continue his rant, had he not felt a sudden shot of pain through his right leg. Instinctively he clutched the wound, and looked towards where the shot came from.
Pops was standing at the edge of the rooftop with only one pistol raised, "I thought you were smarter then that Soul." For a second, Soul actually smiled. Even in the battle, they're friendship was still there. While Pops stood there, a rain of more blasts from Jake's bots came, and with himself at the edge, he was forced to leap towards Soul Striker. "Perfect." Soul thought to himself, and simultaneously, he dived towards Pops, and as he came closer to the ground, he landed on his hands and pushed off to propel himself further, with his feet guiding him to knock Pops off his feet, causing him flail, and send his pistols flying off the roof top, while he crashed down.
Yet for every hit Soul Striker dealt, Pops seemed to have a counter-attack, as he quickly performed a sweeping kick, knocking Soul down while Pops got back up, who had grabbed a small round object from his belt. Most people would recognize it as a grenade, though to the technologically adept, they would realize it was heavily modified. "Time to even the odds!" said Pops, as he threw a grenade towards Jake and his pack of robots.
"Again. Prob'ly not gonna happen." Jake said as he put the grenade in a detention field, rendering it all but useless. "And stop dodging my fire, you freak." He said, smirking. "It's very rude." He then fired a force bolt at the man, aiming to have him stop just short of falling off the building, and then following up with a tsunami of heated elements.
-----
Wirespike was relatively useless at this point. Sure, he had a few close combat weapons, but with the thirty second cool down and re-heat cycle he had to go through every time he shot his weapon, he was better off just hanging back and shooting from afar. After all, he designed this weapon for sniping.
(Sorry about the late responses, have some stuff to catch up on in real life as well.)
Since the battle was nearly over and the machine was without a pilot, Twilight felt he could release it now. With one more violent thrust of the tendrils the machine was forcefully shoved to the ground, Twilight dropping from the sky on top of it with a thud. While ultimately it was a minor victory it had taken it's toll on him; as was visible by the trail of blood he left rolling down the side of the flyer onto the pavement.
His voice now was pained, as he could not simply regenerate his body at will like Psycho. "We're very happy you two could have this little get together....unfortunately hovering back up is not much of an option for me right now." His costume was riddle with bullet holes from the turrets atop the flyer, blood seeping slowly down from each. The Masters obviously modified their bullets so that users of the arcane would not simply shrug them off. "You slit the throat of the pilot did you not? He also was in a great deal of pain from his wrist it would seem."
The ancient half of his voice suddenly sounded as though it had greater malevolence behind it. "Would you mind laying his body near me..."
The Assault Bot slid back to the side, avoiding it colliding with its head, but the sword of flames still sunk deep into the bot's shoulder, causing an arm's larger weapon system's to go offline. The arm converted into something similar to a spear, which it quickly fired at the Oni as the other arm fired another powerful burst.
The Battle Drones were unbothered by the Jounin, firing on it more rapidly than before in an effort to get to its master. As for the Proc Bots, they were noticeably more sluggish, but by no means out of the fight.
As one lobbed an electric charge at Hotaka, the other sent a small explosive orb hurtling towards him. Even with a Jounin in the way, the area of impact would still suffer.
The flyer may not have been involved before, but that was merely because it had not yet reached full range for its weapons. Escape here would be intolerable. Holes opened in the bottom and a variety of turrets hung down, except for one which dropped a forcefield generator in the midst of the fight to protect the bots. A barrage of laser bursts and bullets came down on the fight, while a weapon on top of the flyer began to glow.
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
Psycho13 grinned and suddenly bolted from his position on the ground. Kip arched an eyebrow at Twilight.
"From what I saw, the body was still in the ma-"
"Got it!" Psycho13 grinned and laid the body down, "I was kind of worried, too. I was thinking I'd lost one of my blades, but after you knocked that [thing] out of the sky, I was able to get it back lickety split... Oh yeah, here's the body, too..."
The pilot wasn't quite dead yet. Gurgling on the pavement, he stared, wide-eyed in horror, at the skinny man who'd ended his life (and tenure with the forces of Mayhem).
"What about the others in that thing?" Kip asked suddenly.
"What part of super speed do you not understand?" Psycho13 replied glibly, "I had more than enough time to... finish the job."
"You've become a lot more bloodthirsty as of late, old friend."
"These bastards killed friends of mine. They have laid waste to this wonderful city. They subjugate the citizenry to fuel their mad ambitions. They hold the world at the end of a sword. I'm fairly certain I am the lesser of the evils in this case... The Devil you can deal with, if you will. Aren't you much the same? Warden?"
"It's been a long time since I've been called that," Kip barked, "And you shouldn't even know anything about it!"
"You'd be amazed what you learn when you're a Committee prisoner, tortured into helping them cobble together 'meta-projects.' You'd be sickened at what kinds of conclusions you reach under such duress."
Kipland nodded and rubbed his eyepatch.
"Do you really need that?" Psycho13 asked suddenly.
"Yes."
They looked back down to Twilight.
"You gonna be okay, siphoning the last of the life out of that [man]?" Psycho13 asked calmly.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"Yeeeeaaah....." Toy Dispenser said as he stepped into the room. "I think you'll be right about that. Now then, do you want to do this the easy way or the fun way?"
"The correct term is 'hard way'," said Toy Bot as it started moving along the right wall.
Toy Dispenser facepalmed in return as Large Toy encased both androids in protective flames.
************************************************
"Excellent," nodded Block Bot as he shot a look at Sybil before falling in next to the demon.
************************************************
There was a puff of dust from in between the two slowed proc bots and suddenly a pair of explosive mines appeared on their backs. The mines went off within a couple of seconds, destroying or otherwise crippling both robots.
"The boss sends his regards and thanks for occupying the enemy," said a patch of air about ten feet to Hokata's right.
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.
"Good." Hotaka gave back with a satisfied nod, "Have an estimate of the time he'll still need? I should be able to keep them busy for a reasonable while."
Speaking like in any casual conversation, the martial artist bounded over backwards and out of the target area of the Proc Bots' strikes. Thanks to their slowed (and by now likely done-for) systems, escape was rather easy.
The Oni seemed perplexed for a moment at the actions of the Assault Bot. Standing to the side, the machine had to rotate its frame to launch its spear, then turn a bit yet again to fire an energy burst. This resulted in an awkward dance that allowed the demon to simply evade both strikes with quick steps to this side, then that. Had the machine stuck to just one of them, it likely would've succeeded.
The Oni struck back with another thrust of its blazing katana, but found his strike quickly deflected by a suddenly appeared field of force from a certain little generator. Not one to linger, the demon tried again, but Ryuu certainly wasn't happy with the development.
"Oh bother."
Hotaka's comment had quite clearly been in reference to the descending Flyer, which had been somewhat lazy until now. Well, Ryuu supposed, if the enemy wasn't lazy anymore, he'd better get off his hind quarters too.
"Looks like I'll need to summon up something bigger." he cackled maliciously, drawing something from his belt that looked very much like a tiny scroll, "Let's see how you deal with this."
Like greased lightning, Hotaka's ringers unfurled the scroll from one instant to another, then thrust the thing into the ground before him with an open palm. A cascade of smoke burst forth, erupting high into the air to cover just about the entire area. Something respectably large had been called to the fray.
It didn't take long to see what. The great head of a dragon rose from the smoke within the first few seconds, the form of Hotaka easily finding space to stand above its pupilless white eyes. Curiously enough, the martial artist had somehow regained his hat, and instead of taunting the enemy with superior smirks now stood there quiet as a rock - almost as if he concentrated deftly on maintaining some manner of illusion.
The creature, however, was most certainly not a conjured phantasm. Large, lean, mean and green, this was the real deal - not a draconian, not some manner of dragon-like being, and certainly not a wyvern. This was an honest-to-goodness dragon, easily the size of the Mayhem Flyer, standing tall on its hind legs as it spread the wings of its back.
Hotaka's wry chuckle echoed all around from the thing's head...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Hahah...Yes he is still alive, this is better than we thought..."
Twilight stared at the man laying next to him, seemingly gazing not just at him, but inside of him. A cloak of darkness became visible around Twilight, and proceeded to slowly melt off onto the ground. The low hanging fog swept over the near dead mayhem soldier and a barely audible scream was the last noise that the man would ever make. As the fog slid off, the amn became visible once more, a grisly sight he was. The skin had been stripped of his muscles and bones and he layed in a pool of his own blood. Whe the darkness reached Twilight it melded over the form of his body, filling any bullet holes and closing the gaps in his suit.
"Exquisite catch there Psycho. His pain and horror were simply delectable. Now, do we have any--" Twilight was stopped mid-sentence by the sound of an explosion and the tell-tale signs of laser-fire.
"We think we have found a lead. Jojn us if you wish, we've seen our necessary carnage here." Twilight took off, flying in the direction of the sound of Jake's robots.
Steve nodded to Hotaka, moving quickly towards the entrance that should take him underground to the weapon. He was nearly there, about to activate the hidden elevator, when he was moved from his current location to a new one.
Next to Thule.
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