"Alrighty then." Jake said, immediately turning off the detention field and looking back to the battle at hand. "I swear though, if you try anything..." Jake let the statement hang, letting him fill in the blanks as he continued on with his fight.
The soldiers' numbers were being thinned out. Soon one last one stood, trembling as he swung his mace left and right. His helmet covered his eyes, and it was obvious the way it was slanted he couldn't see.
"This guy must be new," Stevie said, ducking under the swing, the rising back up and lifting the soldier off the ground by his neck. He took off the helmet so he could stare him in the eyes. The soldier was really more of a kid, maybe sixteen or so. "What traps are in place, and how do we get past them?"
"T-traps? They don't tell me anything!"
"They probably don't even trust him, Stevie," said Arrow, lowering his bow.
"Call me Steve now, by the way. I took out the 'i' when I turned twelve," he said, setting the boy down and placed a cuff on his wrist. Steve pressed the buttons on the side, and he disappeared. "They'll interrogate him back at the base and see if he knows anything useful. Let's keep going."
Arrow nodded, following as he readied to fire at any instant.
They continued down the tunnel path mostly uninterrupted. Large machines occasionally showed themselves, and Steve would stop to take a picture with his communicator. The odd patrolling soldier tried to stop them, but they were easily overcome.
Soon they came to a much wider room filled with soldiers seated at wooden benches, eating, playing cards or gambling. At the back of the room was a stone door with a large "AT" imprinted on it in stylized writing.
There were a few dozen soldiers, and more than a few of them wore the capes that signified their higher rank. "Any ideas?" asked Steve, turning to the group.
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
"I could send these guys in as a distraction." Jake said, hiking a thumb toward his bots. "They'll give us an element of surprise, along with taking down a few of them on their own, I'm willing to bet." Jake said with a nonchalant air, hands in his pockets and eyes lazily scanning the room.
Soul Striker only smiled behind his mask in hearing the Bonehead say, "Friend", and continued to follow Steve after the mob was taken out. When they approached the room filled with more soldiers.
Steve:"Any ideas?"
The question left Soul Striker thinking for a minute, Well, let's see, my suit can turn invisible for a bit, but once the door is open, I think I'd be noticed by then...hmm But it was when Jake chimed in that an idea came to Soul Striker.
Jake:"I could send these guys in as a distraction. They'll give us an element of surprise, along with taking down a few of them on their own, I'm willing to bet."
"We don't even need to bet." Soul Striker said cheerfully. Then in a serious tone he said, "Look, this suit of mine was made with the idea of being an improvement to the Crey power suits, but of course, since I quit, this happens to be the only version made, one of the nifty features happens to be, stealth. Now, if Jake's little tin cans can play distraction long enough, I'm pretty sure I could reach the door and open it, no problems, then with that open, Cortianna and Skull Face over there, judging by what I've seen of them, they could probably incapacitate the guards over there,temporarily at least, and by the time they've awakened, we've passed by, and they think it was all a bad dream."
After his short speech, Soul Striker reverted back to his confident/laid back nature and started to nudge Jake and then Steve saying, "Pretty clever eh? Eh?"
Lithanika quietly observed the group that Steve had pointed out.
"They don't look too dangerous. I could jump in first, and probably take out a few myself before you guys jump in." Her body sprouted with spines, and she grinned.
"Your call, though."
Steve shook his head at the idea of a full on assault. "There are way too many down there, and we may not be able to see all of them."
Several Mayhem soldiers faded into visibility as they sat down at a previously empty table, proving his point.
"I like the distraction idea, but we don't want them to know we're here until we can get into Apex Twin's room."
"I have a cloaking device," offered Arrow. "Maybe we can stage something?"
Steve held a hand up to his chin, thinking. "I have an idea... Anyone with stealth abilities, go down there and see if you can cause some trouble. Throw someone's food at one of the big guys, just try to avoid too many of those caped guys. A few of them have enhanced visors that can see through some invisibilities."
Arrow nodded and faded from sight, the soft scuffling of his boots the only hint he was heading into the crowd.
"When they start trouble, any of you who can make them see things, try disguising us. That trick won't work when they're paying attention, but if things turn chaotic, they probably won't notice." He glanced at Cortianna mainly when he said this.
"And you," he said, looking to Jake. "Try having your bots fire a laser to once the food really starts flying. If we can get them using their weapons on each other, we can pull this off. As soon as all hell has broken loose, get toward the door as fast as you can."
By the time this had finished, something similar to the paste astronauts eat was flying from one soldiers plate and smacking a Heavy Meta-Human Response soldier. The large man stood up, snarling as he wiped the goop from his face.
As soon as he had done that, another soldier's food flew away and struck him. "That's it!" shouted the big man, flipping over the table and causing shouts from those around 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
[ QUOTE ]
After his short speech, Soul Striker reverted back to his confident/laid back nature and started to nudge Jake and then Steve saying, "Pretty clever eh? Eh?"
[/ QUOTE ]
"Erm, I guess..." Jake said, trying to get him to stop nudging him. "Just... stop touching me please..."
After finally getting Soul Striker to finally stop poking him, Jake said, "Anyway, sounds good." And threw up a Peronal Forcefield around himself for precaution's sake. "Just tell me when to let the lasers fly.
((*pokes Khell* 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
The new man had guessed the group's intentions the moment they came to see the door with AT imprinted on it. He contemplated if continuing with them was really the best course of action. He asked the soul he shared this body with.
You sensed the power the combined group has, you know the potential here. The Masters forced us into Paragon, decimated your artifacts and eliminated the chance for revenge I would get on the Circle....
True; alone we can barely dent their organization, hiding in this forest will not be our eternal fate. We shall watch the outcome of the attack on Aphex Twin. If this group falls, we flee back into the shadows and await our next opportunity. Oh, and tell them how to address you, the fool in the power suit is making me agitated with his nicknames.
The man looked at Soul Striker after being referred to as 'Skull head'. "Our name is Twilight Radiation, address us as such." He held his hands out to the sides, a dark energy seething out of them and enveloping him and all nearby allies; it seemed to give them added stealth for when they moved through the room ((Shadowfall)). Twilight looked at Steve "We can move at your command."
((You and me both, Devious. You and me both.))
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"This thred big," Serps sez, then he unwraps a Hershey bar and starts eating it way too loudly while standing right behind someone else in this thred. When he eats all of it he sez "Wer it go!?" and trows it at the guy he's standing behind, then trows himself on teh ground and starts crying like a baby and lights himself on fire to deth.
OOC: <_< *pokes back, with a knife* I know, I know. Had the RP bug a little while ago, posted once, was in the middle of making a post here when I got distracted and things fell apart. Rest assured that when I come back, I'll put us very close to merging with the main story line.
Have patience, grasshoppas.
<_< And please don't kill me. I like living.
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.
((*Stops the falling anvil* Oh fine, but I can only hold this for so long... grk.))
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
OOC: OHHHHH YEEEAAAH!!!!!
BIC: Vendetta accepted the folder from Baalial and started flipping through it. Combat Toy loomed over his shoulder in order to read as well, something that probably wouldn't have been neccessary if the link that Toy Dispenser had had with his robots still existed.
"Please wait one moment," Small Toy said to Psycho, turning towards him. "It is unlikely that the situation would have changed while Vendetta takes the time to re-"
Small Toy was cut off as the computer console started beeping loudly. Looking up at Vendetta and Combat Toy, who hadn't moved an inch, the robot sighed and walked over to the console. Fingers swiftly dancing over the keys, the robot quickly brought up an image showing another robot's face. This one had the same eye visor that Combat Toy had with the addition of several motes of pink light that floated around its black painted head.
"Block Bot?" Small Toy said in confusion. "You are not scheduled to report in for at least another day."
********************************************
"Screw the report," Block Bot said into the screen displaying Small Toy's face on the pop-up panel on its wrist. "What I just found out is much more important."
Pausing for a moment to make sure no one other than the mind-controlled rebel was nearby, Block Bot resumed speaking.
"Sybil's pulling one of her stunts," the robot explained. "Apparently Windsong got her [censored] kidnapped and she's sent Stevie Wonder and a whole lot of new blood to rescue her. And that's the weird thing, I haven't seen any of these people before and every single one of them are metahumans. One of them is even a psyker. It was everything I could do to keep myself hidden from her."
Block Bot was Vendetta's man on the inside among the rebels. Normally he acted as a relay between the rebel leaders and Vendetta, but he also acted as a spy, using his psychic powers to manipulate perceptions in order to allow him to listen in on supposedly hidden conversations. This tactic is how Vendetta knew about some of the riskier plans that the rebels had tried in the past and had been able to arrive in the nick of time to either join in the victory celebrations or help cover the retreat. Block Bot had mostly kept its psychic powers secret, though it was hard to do so around the ever-paranoid rebels.
"Stupidity aside," continued Block Bot, its voice becoming exasperated. "All of them, new guys and Steve, are hitting Apex Twin right in his home base. You and I both know that even with all the help, there's next to no chance of this assault getting pulled off. Apex may be small fish, but he's still a Zone Leader and certainly no push-over."
There came a knocking at Block Bot's door and he maneuvered his captive into distracting the other rebel for a few more seconds.
"I'll call back in when I can. Just tell the boss to get everyone else together and hit Apex's base with all we got. If we're lucky, we'll pull off a win."
Hastily snapping down the wrist panel, Block Bot turned to face the person who had come to see him.
***********************************************
"Interesting," Small Toy said as Block Bot's face went away. "Your wish may be granted, Caleb."
"May nothing," Vendetta suddenly spoke up. "We're going and all three of you are coming with me. This file has quite a bit of useful information that I'll have to digest later, but the most interesting part is this."
Folding the folder back, Vendetta exposed the first page and tapped the second paragraph with a finger.
"See this here? Looks just like some background fluff on what happened here but it's really a message in an old Master cipher that I had cracked some months ago. Simply put, it says here that no matter what else I do with this folder, I have to support whatever the heck the rest of this time travellers do. Weird as hell, I know, but it lists some more stuff that's... fairly convincing."
"And personnal," Combat Toy rumbled angrily. "How the hell did this guy know about-!"
"We're moving out," Vendetta said, cutting Combat Toy off. "Small Toy will lead you to my teleporter while I get prepared. Why don't you get to know each other?"
Vendetta then quickly power walked off into a smaller room that was set unobtrusively in a corner of the larger cavern. The room was shielded by a large screen and what seemed like a white noise generator, evidenced by the fact that Vendetta's feet stopped clicking against the stone floor after he had gotten within five feet of the screen.
"Follow me," Small Toy said as it lead the way down a short tunnel to a teleporter room taken right out of Star Trek.
OOC: Ok, hope this'll help put us back on track.
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.
Cortianna tilted her head as she concidered the room before them and poked her mental fingers in a bit beyond.
"When they start trouble, any of you who can make them see things, try disguising us. That trick won't work when they're paying attention, but if things turn chaotic, they probably won't notice."
Corti smirked at Arrow. "Chaos, I can do." Her form flickered a little further from perception as she floated along the ceiling.
Taking the lead from the confusion Arrow started, the psychic closed her eyes, her hands touched lightly against her temples as she opened some blocks she placed around her power. When she opened her eyes, the pale blue/white of her eyes was blazing with light, the soft teal spiking in front of her.
She held a hand out to the room as her mouth curled into a grimmly satisfied smile.
<You all will have two minutes, watch out for the Huntsmen, or whatever the Masters call them. They'll most likly throw off my influence sooner then the rest.>
Mental probes spiked into the minds below, bypassing what little they had for mental defences. Once inside, she found the smallest instances of anger, resentment and annoyence the troops ever felt for their fellows, then she magnified it beyond reason and surpresed their self-control.
The result was that the room errupted into a full blown riot as the troops saught to 'get even' for the wrongs the others had done them. The Huntsmen tried to bring order back, but their words were ignored and Cortianna gave a little extra push to them. Their anger over their men's behavior surged up and they drew weapons to deal with them.
Above, floating silently, Cortianna smiled once more.
Pinnacle
Heroes
When in danger, or in doubt; Run in circles, scream and shout.
"Well..." Jake muttered, "Looks like I'm not needed after all..." He let his bots fire a few stray lasers into the room, hopefully getting rid of any hesitation the Huntsmen had in firing their weapons, and in turn, allowing the lower ranked soldiers to retaliate accordingly. Chuckling at the ensuing chaos, Jake patiently awaited the order to move on through.
This wasn't too hard... I don't know how we would have faired in a straight up fight, but mind over matter, I suppose.
Steve whistled in approval at Cortianna's work. "Glad you're working for us," he murmured as the hero gestured toward the group and began to proceed through the area to the AT door.
As he walked by, Steve made sure to hit a few Mayhem soldiers hard across pressured areas, all in the interest of fitting in with the scene of course. Arrow re-joined the others at the door, coming into view.
"Alright... I'm going to open this door on three, then we need to rush in so I can lock the soldiers out," said Steve. He held up three fingers, then two, one.
He threw the door open and charged in. As soon as all the others had made it, he whirled around, kicking hard at the metal and buckling it, firmly wedging the door into the rock. It would take time for them to move it out of the way, if they even calmed down anytime soon to notice it was damaged.
A soft clap echoed throughout the room. "And now you think you'll storm in here, take over my base, and go home with an extra? The Resistance gets more foolish with each passing day..."
The voice seemed to come from everywhere. The good news is, no guards were inside. Or at least, that they could see. Likely some of the Mayhem Elite, the former Bane Spiders, were in hiding as well.
The thought was proved right as several of them came into view, dropping from the ceiling and spinning as they swung thier maces wide.
Arrow fired an explosive shot at the ceiling, knocking loose some rocks around them, but also dislodging a few that had been about to rain fire down onto them.
Steve leaped out of the circle of fighters, attacking from the edges.
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 followed docilely, but inside, his brain was churning, trying to piece together what he'd just seen. What could be in that folder? Why did that big machine get all freaked out by it? Time travellers?
Feeling the blade tap against his thigh, he loosed it from his belt and checked the edge. The mystery wasn't important at the moment, there was plenty of time for explanation later. Now... Now he had to focus on one thing.
"I wish I could give this thing a gut hook," he muttered, "A really deep one... Oh well. There's always time later."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"Yep, here we go again, kick [censored], rinse, repeat." Muttered Soul Striker with a smile. As a Mayhem elite rushed towards him, he entered his fighting stance. As he swung his mace though, Soul Striker, ducked, and tripped the man, and gave him a quick kick to the side of the head, rendering him unconscious. Standing straight again he whispered yet again to himself, "Rinse, repeat. Ok, who's next?"
Hotaka and Baalial wasted no time, following Small Toy at a brisk pace. Ryuu smirked maliciously under his bamboo hat, tightening the black wrappings about his lower arms. This was going to be fun.
"I do hope there aren't any barriers in the way." the demonic lawyer commented as he laid eyes on the telepad, "Or at least that your machine is capable of breaching them."
Indeed, the likelihood of protections against unwelcome visitors was quite high. The Masters of Mayhem weren't stupid, after all.
However, even if the machine couldn't get them straight in, Vendetta knew all he had to do was provide Baalial with a general description of the location. So long as there was 'evil' there, the demon could get in literally anywhere - perk of the job, if one will...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Twilight Radiation let out what resembled a laugh as the Mayhem Elite started dropping from the ceiling. "Hah, this just became much more fun..."
Twilight quickly flew to near the ceiling, where the Elite were dropping from ther ropes, and began quickly spining in a circle, standing straight with his arms crossed in the air. As he spun faster his eyes began to radiate a green glow. When he reached top speed, searing beams of radiation shot from his eyes as he spun, the beams slicing through all the ropes and causing several to fall to the floor from fairly high up.
Twilights hands emitted a green glow. "Nowhere to run..."
OOC: *pokes Devious* You were following Small Toy, foo.
BIC: "Hold here please," Small Toy told the group as it started fiddling with the computer console set in front of the teleporter. "In order for this operation to be successful, we need to pull in as many of the others as we can. Hopefully they are not tremendously busy."
"Remember to leave Block Bot alone," Combat Toy grumbled. "If he up and leaves, the rebels might get paranoid again. We haven't really told them how good these salvaged 'porters are."
"Affirmitive," nodded Small Toy as it finished up. "Incoming teleportation, please shield your eyes."
The need to shield one's eyes became fairly obvious as a flash of light brighter than several camera flashes at once suddenly filled the room. As it faded, it gradually revealed three new robots standing on the teleport pad.
"Trouble with the Masters?" asked a short, neon green robot that stood in the center of the pad.
"Affirmitive," answered Small Toy.
"Who're the new guys?" asked a similar sized red robot. A trio of claws snikked out of its wrist as it tilted its head and dug at a chunk of dirt lodged in its neck joint. This robot seemed to be covered in dirt and muck, obscuring much of its brilliant red color scheme. The pauldrons on its shoulders were also heavily dented as though they had been hit by many heavy rocks.
"If they're in here, then they're rebels that Vendetta trusts, Mini Bot," answered the last robot before Small Toy or Combat Toy could say anything. This last robot was a bit taller than the other two and painted a dark blue. Like most of the others, it had no visible mouth and its eyes were covered by a thick red visor. The robot ran one hand down the bands on its chest in a nervous gesture as it stepped off the teleport pad.
"These are Toy Bot, Mini Bot, and Large Toy," Combat Toy said as he pointed at each robot in the order that they had spoken. "Normally they're out on detatched operations, but at an instants notice they can be recalled."
"This teleporter was the only thing I managed to salvage from the wreck of my manufactory satellite," said Vendetta as he walked up from behind the group. But Vendetta wasn't clad in the bright gold yellow armor that he had been before. Now he was wearing what appeared to be a riot of clashing colors and a cape that was covered in blue and red diamonds.
All of the robots seemed to stare at Vendetta in shock as he stepped up to the teleport console and started hitting buttons. After a couple seconds of this, he turned to the only three living creatures in the room and tilted his head at an angle, a broad grin written across his every movement.
"Think it's about time for Toy Dispenser to make a return, eh?" he said lightly. "Now Baalial, do your thing. Try and augment your power with the teleporter. It should work to punch us through the intereference and get us right on top of Apex Twin and his goons."
Combat Toy cracked its knuckles loudly and rolled his neck. Mini Bot snikked out its other set of claws and started grinding them against one another in anticipation. Large Toy's hands started radiating a dull flame while Toy Bot and Small Toy remained motionless.
"So much [censored] is going to get kicked," Mini Bot cackled joyfully.
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.
Growling, Lithanika charged into the middle of the chamber, dark metallic spines already sprouting along her body as she did so. Stopping abruptly, she eyed the soldiers around her with a malicious grin.
"Come and get some," she said, laughing. Dodging their blows easily enough, Lithanika felt a surge of power flow through her. ((Build Up. 
)) Waiting until they were in close proximity of her, she left loose her pent up spines in a burst, impaling all who got near. The attack left her temporarily exhausted and vulnerable for damage.
Psycho13 grinned wickedly as he approached the teleporter. His fingers twitched on the handles of his new blades.
Yes...
So much [censored] was about to get kicked. And cut. And gashed, and lacerated... and perhaps a few more horrible adjectives that just aren't polite for casual conversation.
"Is that you John Wayne," he chuckled, "Is this me?"
That should do it... That should bring out the crazy he needed.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
The man just stood, or floated rather, in the cage, never moving, never speaking, only watching. Despite the seeming threat to him from the Resistance it seemed as though he was focused only on the Mayhem soldiers in front of them. As two approached him, weapons at the ready a flood of darkness escaped his ventilator and the void where his eyes used to be, seeping slowly through the detention field which held him, engulfing the heads of the two soldiers. When it passed the two men were left cowering on their knees.
The voice he spoke in had two tones in it, one with the sound of a normal man, and another sounding almost ancient. "......Friend."