((Aoops. 
Fix'd.))
"You know it doesn't really work that way." Baalial commented, closing his draconic eyes to obtain better focus, "Unless this Apex Twin is some sort of concentrated ball of evil, darkness, and malice, the only thing I can do is get us clo...oh wait, I think I spoke too soon."
"You're kidding, right?" Hotaka wanted to know, cocking his head to the side quizzically.
"Nope." retorted the demon with a toothy smile, "Giant collection of anger, hate, jealousy, rage, resentment, and just general chaos of bad mumbojumbo. You wouldn't believe how easy to find that was. Okay, here we go."
A snap of the demon's fingers was all it took. Actually, it didn't even take that much. Baalial just felt he should be giving a signal or something. The scenery changed from one instant to another as the telepad cavern vanished into oblivion at the apex of endlessly long streams of surrounding, only to be replaced in almost zero time by a much larger cavern in which a gargantuan riot raged.
"Oops." Baalial remarked with an embarrassed grin, "I think I got the wrong address."
"Nono, we're right." Hotaka assuaged the demon calmly, indicating the buckled door at one end of the room, "Bunch of people just stormed through here. I can still smell 'em."
"You sure?" questioned the demon.
"Of course I'm sure." Ryuu insisted, "If you don't believe me, just look in deep infrared or something - you'll see their tracks all over the place. We're right where we wanted to be...well, within a dozen meters, anyway. And considering this outpouring of mutual hate right here, I can't really blame you."
Baalial gave a shrug. It was true enough. Actually, this was quite a bit better than if they'd landed right in the middle of it all.
"I'll take these guys then." the demon nodded to the others, an aura of felfire springing up about his form, not even wrinkling the business suit, "Join you as soon as I'm done sucking out their souls."
"Okay." Hotaka gave a nod, advancing to the door as the demon made himself part of the riot, and ran a hand over the material. He turned to Combat Toy as he stepped back again, "As far as I remember, this was always your forte..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"PAAAAAAAAAAAARTY!" Mini Bot shouted as he immidiately dove forward, rolled under a soldier, and eviscerated the poor guy as he went.
"We shall take care of things here," Toy Bot stated as generators within his body whirred to life, sucking the kinetic energy from a Huntsman and transferring it to Baalial in a stream of blue light.
"Indeed we shall," Small Toy agreed as he stepped forward, launching a smoke bomb at a patch of Mayhem soldiers and then tossing a wave of energy at the nearest soldiers.
"Just try and keep yourself from getting killed while we're busy, sir," added Large Toy as he started circling the main fight, but not before flooding Combat Toy's systems with specially designed nanites that pumped up his combat systems to new heights.
"You guys worry too much," said Toy as Combat Toy waded through the melee, knokcing aside several soldiers to reach the door. It took several seconds for him to focus and then project enough power to blow a man-sized hole through the doors, but it worked well enough.
"Call for back-up, Stevie Wonder?" Combat Toy asked as he pushed through the hole and into Apex Twin's chamber.
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.
As soon as the numbers were dwindling in the control room, an explosion rocked the side wall. This was merely for effect, however, as they hidden doorway could open without the smoke bombs.
Another group of a dozen Mayhem soldiers streamed into the room, having been woken from the Barracks to help deal with the chaos inside. However, they weren't prepared for the sudden arrival of the bots.
When Combat Toy burst inside, Steve whirled around. "I told you not to call me that!" The moment of distraction was quickly taken advantage of as a club came down on top of his head. Power only stumbled a bit before whirling around and slamming his fist into the soldier's chest hard enough to dent the armor. "Don't tell me Sybil sent you. She said this was my mission." He ducked another swipe, then hit with an uppercut hard enough to send the helmet flying away, leaving the soldier's nose open for a finishing shot that sent him to the floor.
Arrow looked at the oncoming group of soldiers and cursed. He let another grenade-tipped round fly, purposely shooting just in front of them. The soldiers slowed, but after two seconds and the smoke had cleared, they resumed their charge, straight into a patch of time bombs and trip mines.
Half the group flew through the air, and were heavily damaged, the other six kept going strong, seeking to hold things down while the three remaining Elite soldiers fended off the attackers.
Lithanika had been unwise to leave herself open in such a way, and Apex Twin took this opportunity. The soft rush of air as his fists became wrapped with power was the only warning before he sprung into view, slamming them hard across her head and chest in a bone-smashing assassin's blow.
Not one to stand idley and make sure his kill stayed down, Apex threw down a smoke bomb, obscuring him as he retreated back into the darkness.
---------------------
The chaos outside the main chamber continued for a few more seconds before the soldiers noticed there were people in the room who didn't belong. The Heavy Assault soldier, a limp body in each hand, squinted as he made sure he wasn't seeing things.
He snarled, yelling "Get them!" as he tossed the bodies at Baalial. Another second and anger had switched targets. Their pent up frustration was now being unleashed against real foes.
Though the numbers had dropped severely, leaving only twenty where there had been forty concious, it was still not a pretty situation.
-------------------
The Ruby Blade stood before Blightlord, waiting to hear what the necromancer thought about his findings. "We will do nothing, for now."
"Nothing? That doesn't seem wise. If they were to come after you-"
Blightlord chuckled, and the chuckle seemed to come not only from him, but the walls themselves, soft moans mixing in with the sound. "They would not dare. Not at this stage." Not when I am this close... "I will let Elitist know of your findings. You may continue doing whatever it is you do now that you have your brother's head on a platter."
Blade's eyes narrowed for a moment. It seemed as if he would take that as a challenge, but instead, nodded and left the room. He was sure Blightlord knew what he did now that his life's goal was accomplished, now that he had his hands stained with his brother's blood after so many years.
Nothing.
--------------------
A man in full, orange and steel-gray armor walked quickly threw the hall of the Tower of Mayhem. The Omega on his chest shone brightly even in the dim lights, but they did not last long. The bulbs shattered as he walked by, his excitement forming an electric field.
Doctor Con Vulse into Elitist's throne room, and bowed his head for a moment. Just then all the lights in the room went out, and the Masters leader growled. "The Resistance is attacking Apex Twin's base, he said, speaking in an obviously fake German accent.
Elitist sighed. He had told Apex to move Windsong to a more secure location, but the assassin insisted that she would be easily handed there. More likely, he simply didn't want to give her over to Harlequin for 'mental examination.'
"How long do we have, Vulse?" he asked, already certain of the answer.
There may not even be enough time, he said. I mobilized a squad of Elites to aid him, but from the security vids Im receiving, things arent going well.
Where in the compound are they now?
When last I checked? The mess hall in front of his control room.
Elitist sighed, rubbing his eyes. If we lose him, what is our plan of recovery?
Short term? What it always is, self destruct. The titanium walls are still in place to drop the moment Apex falls, said Vulse, pleased with himself. The walls had been his own personal idea, one of the many that earned him the position of Chief of Security.
I want escape routes covered thoroughly. Even if they win this one, I want every last Resistance member either dead or secured for examination.
Doctor Con Vulse nodded, bowing his head again and stepping out of the room.
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
"No, we've been hired by a third party." Hotaka answered Steve with a sly grin, extending a hand into the room in the fashion of a conjurer.
Indeed, clouds of smoke and cinders burst from nowhere as an Oni suddenly materialized on the floor. The summoned demon laughed heartily as he blasted a fireball into a random crowd of the enemy, then forged a solid katana from blazing fire and threw himself into the fray without a second thought.
"Oops." Hotaka whispered, laughing quietly, "Should've thought that one through more. Oh well."
With another raised hand, two humanoid silhouettes rose from the shadows, taking the form of ninja of the Jounin rank. Sadly, they weren't as skilled as the real Waziri and Katashi, but they'd have to do for now. So long as Hotaka stood nearby, his tactical leadership at least gave the shadow ningyō some awareness of the chaotic situation.
They followed their master as he strode into the room as if he owned the place, taking care to pre-empt any attacker that came too close with their dual katanas. They had more tricks up their sleeves, of course, but for now it was better to just have them act as bodyguards.
"Well, that won't do." Ryuu scowled as he saw someone who clearly wasn't the enemy go down. The tall man passed a hand over his face as he leaped quickly over to her, then slammed a vile green orb into Lithanika's body with the very same hand. Within moments, she felt her life and vitality return as the elixir did its work, making her even stronger than before.
"So we have one who fancies himself skilled in ninjitsu, hm?" Hotaka chuckled, "Well, let's just see how good you are. Ningyō, shiken!"
The Jounin duo took off after Apex Twin like a pair of rockets, the man clear in their eyeless sights as he was in the senses of Hotaka...
---------------------
"Yes, do come closer." Baalial laughed diabolically, unleashing a wave of felfire alongside his blazing aura that consumed pert of the essence of the nearby soldiers, reinvigorating the demon and enabling him to keep fighting tirelessly.
Claws wrapped in the netherworldly flames of the Pit tore into Mayhem soldiers, though the demon had to admit his real job here was crowd control - Mini Bot and Small Toy were the ones really cranking the carnage into overdrive here...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
The troops were everywhere. Whoever these "Masters of Mayhem" were, they obviously weren't very imaginative. Their crack footsoldiers looked to be little more than Arachnos troops with a few new coats of paint.
Same armor, same tactics, same bull-headed nonsense.
This was going to be...
*GORK*
Fun!
Standing over an eviscerated Mayhem trooper, Psycho13's eyes twinkled with manic delight. Where, usually, he had a severe migraine from trying to restrain the adrenaline rush, he was now just running with it.
"I'm just immortalizing the moment," he chuckled as he stalked toward the next soldier in his field of vision, "Time for some of the old ultra violence, and to paint the walls with the red red kroovy!"
"What the Hell kind of maniac are you!?" the Mayhem trooper shouted as he hefted up a studded club.
"Isn't it obvious?" Psycho13 caught the club to his ribs with an audible crack, but he didn't even flinch (rather, he bunched up the weapon in his left arm and locked it there), "I'm crazy!"
Then he stabbed. The curved blade stuck under the soldier's jaw, jammed through the mouth and pierced into the brain. A twist later and the man was dead quite quickly.
"I have a great many mental wounds," the crazy little scrapper breathed out, "Many more than I had before... I lay the blame on you..."
He aimed the weapon in his right hand at another group of soldiers.
"...And can only be cured by the spilling of the kroove..."
"What?"
"I'M TALKING BLOOD YOU FOOL!"
Psycho13 was a blur, and he tore into the center of their ranks, still shouting, "RED, RED BLOOD!"
The blades went snicker snack, and tore through armor, cleaved through bone, and rent flesh. Seething, the former hero, now just meta type humanoid, stood atop a pile of corpses and glared into the rest of the conflict.
"Brother..." he muttered, "Vengeance will soon be mine..."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Cortianna frowned, she had never liked Bane spiders, strong mental disciplne in them made them resistant to most of her tricks. She could always over power thier mental walls, but it was annoying.
One of the Elites lowered his mace to fire at her, glowing eyes fickered toward him as she made a shooing jesture with her hand. A semi-visable wave of telekinetic force slammed into him, denting his armor and flinging him back a dozen feet. While she was dealing with his fellow, another tried to come up behind her. The downswing of his mace was blunted by a faint barrior, though the sudden strain caused the girl's nose to bleed.
Placing a hand against his chest plate, she glared at him and smirked as she excited the molecules in the metal to the point of igniting. As smoke and flames licked out from the gaps in his armor, Cortianna lifted her hand and threw the soldier into the air.
A flash of pain echoed across the link she had formed with her allies, Lithanika had been hit. Baddly. Flying forward she lashed around her with the intent to induce a case of mind-numbing terror of everything infront of her except her allies.
Pinnacle
Heroes
When in danger, or in doubt; Run in circles, scream and shout.
"That's certainly not good..." Jake commented, getting serious for once and taking the situation with much more mental thought than he would have otherwise. Lathankia's down. There's a stalker type super in the room right now, and a good one at that. He didn't even show up on my sensors...
Now, as odd as this may seem for the situation at hand, Jake took down his Personal Forcefield. This, of course, invited several Mayhem Troopers to attempt to bash in his skull, but they were soon disuaded by a forcebolt to the gut and a couple dozen lasers to the head. Brushing some imaginary dust off of his trenchcoat, he began to focus on some of the higher ups in the room, having his bots fire a couple of shots in their direction so as to garner their attention. Jake figured that if he could convince them that the bots were the main threat, then he could keep casualities to a minimum, but was quickly being contradicted by the new comers who had just entered.
After the display of the quite possibly insane scrapper and the firey antics of the firey demon Baliaal and his henchmen, he was quickly undermined, being labeled as one of the lesser threats.
Oooookaaay... He though, slightly annoyed that his plan, albeit, unspoken, was completely ignored. I suppose that works too... Same result I guess... Jake sighed and went back to letting his bots have at it with the soldiers, the Assault Bot seeming to almost take joy literally bashing in the head of one of the soldiers, helmet and all.
Twilight took note of the Spine scrapper's fall to the assassin in the room, however short her time down may have been. He also took delight in seeing the possibly insane man let loose so much blood, it was refreshing...
Twilight noticed 3 or 4 men, Mayhem Elite, running towards him; where they got the notion that would be a good idea is unknown.
Twilight dropped his hands to the side and brought them up in a sort of arc motion, a cloud of concentrated radiated energy following, smashing into at least two and sending them flying back. He sent a cosmic burst of radiation directly at one more of the charging men, causing him to fall next to Twilight...A bad move.
Tendrils of darkness reached out from under him, slowly clawing their way towards the guards dazed body. The other side of Twilight used this opportunity to feed itself, Twilight's human side had learned that their flesh and some of their soul kept him content. When the darkness over the man lifted, his flesh was no more, only bones and armour were left.
The other soldier, in fright had slammed his club into the back of Twilight. He felt the pain, but didn't show it, he only turned around. Twilight just stared a petrifying gaze at the man and he was still. The villain placed both of his hands on the man's head and just pumped radiation into it. The fear was visible in the guards eyes, but he had to just stand and watch as the bright green light was transferred from Twilight's arm into the man's head. The villain had just enough time to turn and walk away before the guards head exploded from thousands of radiation induced tumors.
"Always so messy..."
"Sybil's got nothing to do with us," Combat Toy snorted as a former Bane Spider slammed his mace into the robot's side. Thick bolts of electricity swarmed the impact area moments before the mace hit, absorbing most of the damage.
Cocking one fist, Combat Toy beaned the Spider in the head, knocking the man back a foot or two. The combat droid then followed up with an overhand double smash that slammed the Spider into the ground with enough force to crack the floor.
"Leave the bodyguards alone, CT!" shouted Toy Dispenser as he worked his way through the hole the more powerful robot had made in the door. "Go and flush out Apex!"
"Fine!" Combat Toy shouted as he jumped over the worst of the melee and landed next to Lithanika.
Sweeping his gaze around the area where he had seen Apex vanish too, Combat Toy activated a flood of short-lived nanites that briefly enhanced his senses to an unheardof degree. The nanites would burn themselves out in about a minute and he'd be paying for the brief overload in a couple of hours, but the now was much more important than the then.
Toy Dispenser, for his part, started off his bit in the fight by erecting sophisticated force fields around every non-Mayhem metahuman in the room. When a soldier got too close, he hit the man with a concentrated burst of electricity that overloaded his nervous system, sending him falling to the floor in a twitching spasm.
******************************************
"Now this is MY kind of party!" Mini Bot shouted happily as he nimbly dodged between a couple of soldiers and then rolled forward onto his hands.
From his handstand, he spun around in a quick circle, kicking out at everyone around him. Then he did a headstand and started lashing out with his claws as his body spun around another couple of times before it ran out of momentum. The soldiers nearest him went down pretty quickly, either crippled or heavily wounded, Mini Bot didn't much care. They were down and down might as well have been out since Toy Bot was around.
The neon green android had siphoned the speed from one of the Huntsman and was zipping around the cafeteria, pausing every now and then to brutally savage an already wounded soldier before dashing off and increasing the kinetic energy of another of his allies. Small Toy was also adding his firepower and unique skills, moving invisibly about and leaving patches of caltrops and trip mines behind him, making sure that the Mayhem soldiers couldn't regroup and form a cohesive charge. Large Toy was hanging back, burning the occasional foe but mostly focusing on healing his allies with his thermites.
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.
A tan and black blur zipped off one soldier and hummed past a second. When it stopped, it cleared into the form and features of Psycho13. His face had lost its manic expression, and had taken on a grim set.
The two Mayhem troops he'd just dispatched fell apart rather gruesomely, one losing his arms asymmetrically, the other losing a chunk of his head. Those blades from the Council Mech Man claws were nasty!
He was working his way to the freedom fighters Vendetta had told him about. They were easy enough to determine from the Mayhem troops. For one, they didn't dress in the same uniform and lacked a big "M" emblazoned upon their person. For another, they were fighting the Mayhem troopers.
"It's hard to make that kind of mistake," Psycho13 hissed as he carved into another trooper's bowel, "I never understood the 'Fog of War' myself... Of course, I'm something of a perfectionist at heart, so I... take... great... pains not to make such mistakes."
It seemed some of his initial madness and blood rage had waned, but what was left in its place was the attitude of a cold and calculating killer in the body of a super fast regenerator.
On the plus side, it seemed he'd stopped making bastardized quotes of Clockwork Orange.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
The soldiers were fighting back as best they could, but the downside to these caverns was much of their support had been cut off. They were ill-prepared, divided, then conquered.
One was beginning to lose his control, and charged into the midst of the Resistance fighters, his mace overloading as he ran. If he made it, the explosion would be crippling.
Apex leapt about the room, his eyes locked straight onto his target as he made quick, far leaps from the smallest jutting piece of stone on the wall. He cast a quick glance back at the Jounin hot in pursuit.
The Master reached into his belt, drawing several shuriken. He tossed them behind, blindly, but it should distract them long enough not to go headfirst into the blinding powder he had left drifting in his place.
This attempt at evasion would certainly make it easier for Combat Toy to see him, however. Apex turned toward the big robot and grimaced, knowing things were about to get more out in the open if he didn't move quickly.
Apex waved a placating hand in front of the robot, then used him as a springboard to shoot out the door. The Master rolled to a halt and cast caltrops behind him in a small attempt to slow pursuers.
Between the distraction of the kamakaze soldier and the escaping Master, quick thing would have to be made.
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
((Hey guys, Sef here. Using this account from now on, thanks to someone for hooking me up with it. My main account is going down in a few days, so I just decided to post with this one instead. 
))
Lithanika stumbled forward and fell to her knees, in pain but not particularly surprised to the sudden attack. She struggled onto her knees as she felt a renewing surge of life flow back into her.
"Whoa!" Gazing up into the man in front of her, she gave him a bloody grin, then spat the blood out. "Thank you. That was quite..." She clenched her fists, "Refreshing."
Suddenly, Lithanika turned away, her focused senses alerting her. Eyes narrowing as she saw what the soldier with the overpowered mace was doing. Her eyes also shifted to the escaping Master. She paused for a second, indecision clouding her thoughts.
Then she nimbly leapt over the caltrops, and pursued the Master.
((Damn server not displaying non-American characters! 
Now I see why Term had to use a normal o.))
Apex's plan came to naught. The ningyo made a beeline right for him, spearing headfirst through the blinding powder. They had no eyes to blind, needed none to see.
Not paying attention to them after that was an even more grave folly. The two were upon him faster than he knew, and by the time he threw the handful of caltrops behind him, the duo had closed to melee range - one in front, one behind, and four katanas diving to draw blood between them...
--------------------
"I should hope so." Hotaka chuckled, his head's turn following apex, "Well, off you go then."
No sooner had she leaped away than the martial artist placed a hand upon the ground, commanding the Oni to take a moment and strike a wall with a fireball. The demon obeyed deftly, conjuring a rain of fire across the room to keep the remaining Mayhem soldiers on their toes, then did as told.
Hotaka nodded in satisfaction as the Oni resumed his work. Slowly but surely, he painted himself a picture of the place...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Catching Lithanika's brief indecision, Cortianna turned to the charging Elite as the scrapper lept off. A wave of psionic energy rippled from her, snagging the charging trooper and stopping him cold, then reversing his course as the telekinetic surge swept him along with it.
Cortianna's eyes narrowed as she focused all her attention on the Elite and those behind him who would also get caught in the wave.
Pinnacle
Heroes
When in danger, or in doubt; Run in circles, scream and shout.
With fewer Mayhem troops around, Jake was becoming less and less serious by the second, and even felt confident enough to try and have a little fun.
Waiting for a Mayhem guard to come charging at him, Jake ducked at the last possible moment, aimed up, and shot a force bolt at him. This sent the poor sap flying into the air, which would then give the bots free reign to fire at him, filling him with very many holes and quite and unpleasant feeling regarding his vitals.
Chuckling, Jake said "Fish in a bucket." and resumed his normal method of battle.
"Nonononononono!" the kamakaze soldier wailed as he was thrust back into his fellow soldiers. The explosion temporarily blinded anyone who looked into it.
Steve lurched forward, tackling one soldier. He twisted his arm, and it snapped. Another quick jerk of the broken arm brought the soldier into unconciousness.
Arrow took an entire handful of explosive rounds and grinned at the three soldiers who held their own weapons ready to fire.
He let them fly, and nearly shook the room. The soldiers were flung back into the cleverly placed trip mine against the wall, which they slid down. Another explosion finished them off.
Steve nodded in approval now that the room was clear of soldiers. "Quick, after Apex!" he shouted, racing down the hall. Arrow nodded and followed.
***
Apex twisted away from the attack, and merely was sliced across his front instead of fully impaled. He turned to his attackers and slammed his glowing fists directly at their heads.
Once more not one to wait to make sure the hit landed, he continued his escape, sighing as he wished he had trusted Tyrant enough to set up a better security system.
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
The soldier looked up from his computer, watching Thule for a moment, seeming to take pleasure in making him wait. What was really happening was a DNA scan to prove his identity. A soft beep within his helmet told the soldier that the scans matched.
He nodded and gestured toward the hallway that would lead Thule to the elevators and bring him to Elitist.
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
Thule nodded at the man behind the desk. Before the man could turn back to his work, Thule was already in the long Arachanos hallway leading to a series of elevators that would take him to where Lord Recluse, Ghost Widow, Sciricco, Black Scorpion, and Captain Mako would have been if Elitist hadn't completely taken over. He pushed a few buttons on the wall near the elevator, a green light lit up above the elevator pod in approval and the door opened.
Inside the elevator was nothing like it was before. Thule had been here many times in his past employment in the Rogue Isles, all of the times, the elevator had been empty and barren. Now, under the employment of Elitist, it had changed alot. Security cameras had every inch of the hallway, elevator, and old Arachanos War room covered.
Rommel looked up into the ceeling, there was a dome, a black one-way reflective glass dome that would contain a security camera, he waved at it before the elevator rocketed upwards. . .
"Elitist," walking around the corner his voice echoed as he came face-to-face with the Master of Mayhem himself, "pleased to meet you in person. We have some business to attend to."
"Yeah, yeah..." Jake shouted, turning on his rocket boots and rocketing forward in the direction of Apex. His bots performed similar measures, albeit, with fewer rocket propelled feet and more running to catch up.
Soul Striker looked up from the battle after kicking down another Mayhem soldier as he saw Apex run down the hallway, and running as fast as he could, he chased down the Arch-Villain.
As he started to close in, he attempted to trip him as he jumped and slid towards him in a collision course, causing sparks to fly across as his armor went across the floor. It's time to end this!
"There you are," snarled Combat Toy as he caught sight of Apex's defensive maneuvers. "Time to put the fear of death back into you puffed up crooks."
Seeing that Apex's aim was to slip through the hole he had blasted in the door and escape the base through the front and under cover of the large melee still raging outside, Combat Toy started charging straight at the hole, bulling aside anyone in his way.
"Toy! Blacksmith! Now!" shouted the massive brute as he rushed toward the door, which was now partially blocked by the blurry form of Apex.
Toy Dispenser, not able to see what Combat Toy was talking about but with plenty of programmed reflexes to make up for it, enacted his part of the 'Blacksmith' plan, where he would throw up a super-powerful force bubble to force whoever was trying to get past him right into the arms of Combat Toy at double the force.
Having set himself up as well as he could and arranging himself into a tackling position, Combat Toy prepared to catch Apex Twin between a force field and a hard place.
"Hitting it!" Toy shouted as he drew back and dialed his force field generators up to maximum strength. A solid wall of force rippled away from him, phasing through immovable objects like walls and those friendlies that Toy had entered into his IFF targeter.
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.
Apex's left fist struck home, knocking the ningyo into a backflip and against the wall. Like a collection of nothing but dust, the man vanished in a cloud of very dense black smoke that immediately dispersed back into the dark. That was the problem with shadow ningyo - fast and lethal, but they just couldn't take a good punch.
The right fist went wide, the ningyo evading deftly. Apex really should have followed up, as his attacker now aimed to stop his escape by cutting his legs out from under him.
Literally...
--------------------
"This could be a problem." Hotaka grumbled as he removed his palm from the floor again, standing tall as his hidden eyes surveyed the place. Yes, there was no doubt about it. The echo had told him all he needed to know.
"Baalial, Toy." he produced a communicator from his robes, contacting the troop, "This place is on a hair trigger. Get everyone moving toward the exit and quickly. Plan B is gather in one spot so I can...you know. I'll need a blackout, though..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Gasping and choking on his own blood, Psycho13 emerged from another crew of Mayhem troopers. They were losing momentum, now, there weren't enough of them to keep up the fight and their boss was running.
"Some commander," he gurgled, "Won't even stay until the end of the fight."
Dropping to his knees, he started shaking violently. He then stopped still, and stopped breathing.
"I think he's dead," a Mayhem trooper rasped as he got close, then nudged the former scrapper with his studded baton, "Yeah, definitely-"
Psycho13 fell to the ground when nudged.
"-dead."
The troopers following him breathed a sigh of relief and they headed to assist their boss. Their efforts would probably have slowed down the resistance fighters pursuing Apex, but they weren't going to get close enough.
"I'm not dead," Psycho13 hissed into the rear soldier's ear as he rammed the blades under the trooper's armpits, "And it's naive of you to think it was going to be so easy!"
A couple other troopers looked back to see what had happened to their comrade. Psycho13 dropped the body and held the blades straight out to the sides (or as straight as they'd go) like a crucifix.
"You guys know why women like Jesus?" he grinned wickedly, then stopped, "Uh... Nevermind..."
"Kill him!" the Huntsman shouted.
The soldiers pulled pistols, both semi and automatic models, and started firing. At first, they missed. Then, like a wave, the skinny man felt the ammunition impact with his skin and tear its way through. The agony was intense, and the little man didn't seem capable of standing up to the barrage. In fact, he didn't. When the troopers stopped firing to reload, he fell to the ground again.
"I'm gonna shoot him in the head," the Huntsman growled as he stepped closer, "Make sure this time!"
Psycho13 stabbed him in the foot as soon as he got close. Screaming, the squad leader pulled the trigger, but the buckshot missed the scrapper's head by mere inches (it was much too close to generate a spread).
Psycho13 pulled himself up the Huntsman's leg, stab by stab, ending with a strike to the diaphragm. Pulling sharply, he rolled the body over him just in time to use it as a shield.
It didn't protect him completely, and he grimaced as he lost a toe, but he could always grow that back later. Taking the Huntsman's shotgun, he pushed the corpse over and sat up with the weapon aimed at the troopers. A bullet tore a streak across his scalp.
"HAAAAAAUGH!" Psyscho13 screamed as he squeezed the trigger, pumped the chamber, and squeezed off another shot, "Die, you mother-"
Ka-BLAM!
Superspeeding again, he pushed the body off himself and got up. From a crouch like a wild animal, he dove forward and collided with a stab into the nearest still-standing trooper. As he fell, Psycho13 used his remaining blade to hack through the other survivors of his assault. Before the first victim could hit his knees to the ground, Psycho13 was snagging back his first knife.
"I'm figuring none of you guys took my bros on head-to-head..." he hissed over the corpses, "You'd never have survived!"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
The soldiers around Psycho were frantically trying to remain out of his reach, firing at vulnerable areas.
The Heavy Assault soldier was pushing others out of his way as he moved in on the others. He let loose a feral growl and charged after those pursuing his leader, firing blasts of corrosive energy after the group.
Apex grunted as he was slowed by a cut that came across his leg, severing part of a very needed muscle. Now he couldn't even speed away once he was clear of the twisting walls.
A sudden slide-tackle from Striker sent him flailing backwards, already off-balance from his wound. Toy's forcefield hit him full on, sending the Master flying back into Combat Toy. But Apex was ready to return at least some of this pain.
As he flew towards the large robot, he held his arms in, then struck with the force of his strength and the speed of the bolt propelling him. The shockwave that would have shattered his arms was smoothly absorbed by the energy around his fists.
Unfortunately though, even if this attack was successful, he could no longer run from the rest of them.
***
Steve Power fought his way through the chaos to catch up to Apex, grabbing soldiers and skillfully hurling them out of his path. He broke through and ran to aid the fight.
Arrow was doing something similar, sending wide waves of arrows flying. Some of the soldier's armor sent the shots pinging away, which frustrated the archer. In the present, those arrowheads could pierce most any substance, but apparently things had improved here.
Still, he made his way out, and could soon get a shot in at Apex if necessary.
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
Jake chuckled. "Can't say I didn't see this coming..." His bots immediately retaliated to the assault, unleashing a barrage of lasers and such on some poor sap who happened to be swining in Jake's direction. The blast blew him back some, momentarily leaving him flat on his back.
Taking a few moments to survey the battle, Jake determined that there were roughly ten Mayhem soldiers present. He smirked. The head of this base had obviously underestimated them grossly. Ten of these guys wasn't going to be a problem at all...