Sybil grimaced at Thule's answer. She had half-hoped she could get multiple answers easily by claiming he hadn't given a good enough one. Then again, if necessary, there was always forceful intrusion.
But even as she thought of it, the idea suddenly slipped away from her. The feeling was disconcerting, but a voice in the back of her head told her not to worry about it. Instead, she asked, "What are the defenses in Elitist's tower?"
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 gave Soul an almost puzzled look as he tossed the civilian down on the ground not three feet from him. "The Hell do you expect me to do with this?" He asked, putting his arms in an almost shrugging position as he asked it. Isn't the villain with the life of a civilian in his hands a bad thing? He sighed, ordering a Battle Drone to pick the civy up. Jake kept up the steady stream of fire until the order to get out was issued. Ignoring the fact that the order was issued by an undead Mexican guitar player, he kept his bots in the defensive position, placing them at the rear to take any fire that would find itself flying in their direction. It was a force-of-habit more than anything, seeing as the immediate threat was phase-shifted out of existance for the time being. Jake rushed out as quickly as possible. He was smart, not brave.
Soul Striker skidded to a stop when Twilight had created the black hole to halt the androids. When he looked back he saw Jake asking, "The Hell do you expect me to do with this?" Soul Striker couldn't help but laugh, "Ha! Come on Jake, I know you're not the brightest fellow and all but that's a civillian, what do you do with it? PROTECT "it" for me for now will ya? Or is that too much of an alien concept to Arachnos?" Soul Striker continued to laugh, after he finally finished he looked toward Steve and started to chase after him, looking back towards Jake again he shouted, "Come on!"
((Pst - Hotaka already grabbed the civilians a few posts back. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
[ QUOTE ]
Sybil grimaced at Thule's answer. She had half-hoped she could get multiple answers easily by claiming he hadn't given a good enough one. Then again, if necessary, there was always forceful intrusion.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thule look at Sybil, he was good at reading people's expressions, "You are only getting one answer per question. If there are many different components of said answer, you will get most of them."
[ QUOTE ]
But even as she thought of it, the idea suddenly slipped away from her. The feeling was disconcerting, but a voice in the back of her head told her not to worry about it. Instead, she asked, "What are the defenses in Elitist's tower?"
[/ QUOTE ]
He smiled, she was finally getting somewhere, "his defenses? Lets see here," he paused and brought up his security log, making sure there had been no malicious software surviving in his system.
"First, we have several blocks of honor guard outside. Then when you get inside, you are greeted with several electronic scanners and a manual check. Quite a few patrols wandering the grounds as well."
"Then you have his fliers circling the entire complex, keeping watch on the streets. They will find you and gun you down with fully automatic lass cannons, remote controlled missiles, swarm missiles, and a few proton seekers."
SCAN COMPLETE. . . MINIMAL INTEREFERANCE, ELIMINATE_
The last line flashed for a few seconds before Thule stopped his explanation and told it "no".
"Then he has lieutenants on call. Basically, these guys just wait around until someone needs bashed, something done, etc."
He thought back to his times in the tower, there had always been dome-shaped spheres on the walls and some on the floors. They looked like something he had seen before. He couldn't remember quite what it was, just a popular nickname.
"You'd expect him to have turrets and other defenses correct? Of course, he has tons of those. Not normal turrets, things he liked to call Scorpions Surprises. He has laser defenses and systems."
"And lastly, special solders on loan. You know, like Tyrant's androids - anymore questions?"
"Fall in!" Toy shouted, switching temporarily to a rendition of a Sergeant Major's voice. Hopefully that would be enough to startle eveyone into listening to him. "Follow the guy in the weird hat!"
Running alongside Hokata, the weakness of before abandoned and ignored, Toy prepared himself for the inevitable. Already able to see in the most oppressive of conditions, Toy didn't have to do much other than prep his more sensitive visual sensors and start sending telemetry to his followers.
The other robots swiftly fell in alongside, missing only Small Toy, who had cloaked and ventured off on some errand that only he and Toy knew of.
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.
"Well, I just assumed that a hero would be smart enough to not leave the civilian's life in the hands of a villain. Now shut up, I'm providing cover in case Murphy decides to pay us a visit." Jake said, coincidentally getting the final bot in place as he did so. Rushing forward with the rest of the group, he had to wonder if Soul Striker really thought things through. He had even shown that he knew full well that Jake was part of Arachnos, not exactly know for its kindness to the general population.
He shook the thought from his head. That didn't matter. He had an objective in front of him, and he could be bothered wondering about the inner-workings of the heroic mind. He slid his blast goggles over his eyes and activated his rocket boots, catching up with the rest of the group rather quickly.
"Caleb" fell in line behind the robots following Hotaka. The fighting had been crazy and chaotic... And he'd gotten some measure of bloody satisfaction.
"I really gotta stop thinking about movie quotes," he muttered as he matched step with the machine in front of him, "It makes what I do somewhat... Disturbing..."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Twilight held his hands out once more and let netherworldly engery envelop him and his allies, providing them all with stealth and a small defense barrier as he followed the 'fellow in the funny hat'. He flew directly above him, so he could anticipate any more fast manuevers. "Let us be quick, We'd really rather not be entombed again."
((Sorry you guys, been real sick lately, on top of out of town. Not a fun combo. Now, let's try to get back on track. 
))
They ran quickly, and explosions in the back could be heard clearly. The androids calmly followed as they waited for the Phase Shifting effects to wear off.
Steve saw the door coming up ahead, and cried out, but not in joy. A pile of rocks had slid down, covering the door. Before he could yell an order, Arrow had drawn and fired. The grenade-tipped projectile soared and exploded on the rocks, blasting enough of them away for the others to squeeze out.
The wall of fire was coming into sight now, and the androids were beginning to regain their opacity. "Quick, ones with civilians go first!" Steve shouted.
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
((*coughcough* Thule. ))
The androids quickly found they had a rather severe problem with their intentions to 'calmly follow' the group.
They'd been immobilized.
Twilight's Black Hole may not have been a fully developed spatial singularity, bit its gravity-warping properties had more than enough power to lock its targets down for the duration of its effect. The androids were going precisely nowhere.
"Good idea." Baalial retorted to Steve's idea, taking off like a rocket and storming his way out of the caverns with a keen display of aerial mobility. Apparently, his large wings weren't quite as bulky as they looked, for he even turned back in mid-flight, yelling to Hotaka, "Play ball!"
Ryuu simply smirked in response, then twirled about and threw the first civilian like a baseball with wildly flailing arms and legs. Not a moment later, the second followed, and amazingly the two individuals described an almost perfectly straight trajectory, landing nowhere else but in the arms of the demon waiting outside...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
The wall of fire fast approached, engulfing the Assault Bot that had been lagging behind. Jake wasn't worried about the damage it would take. His bots were pretty well protected when it came to thermal damage. It was the civilian his Battle Drone was carrying that he seemed worried about. Taking a page, so to speak, from Baalial and Ryuu's little display, Jake signaled to the demon that his bot would also be throwing a civilian, only barely getting the person out of the bot's arms before the fire engulfed it as well.
OK, fantastic, the civilian's safe. Now to prevent myself from becoming grilled.
Jake sped forward with all the energy his rocket boots could muster, the exit getting ever closer and closer.
((Show offs? 
I dunno, it seemed a good idea considering there's a speeding wall of fire rushing at the group in the style of a Death Star explosion. ))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
(>.> Nonsense. *Edits post to account for the wall of flames* Damn my reading comprehension. >.<
Psycho13 sprinted forward to catch the civilians as they fell. As altruistic as the demon lawyer was being, he was overestimating the resilience of the humans just a tad...
"Not everybody can take bullet holes like me!" he shouted as he caught the first person...
...And promptly fell to the ground under the weight.
"Ungh... Heh-help!"
"You can't lift me?" the man barked at him, "I jsut saw you tear a few people apart, but you can't lift a perfectly ordinary civilian?"
"If... If you can sit there and talk, ya ain't broke."
"So?"
"GET OFF!"
The man complied and Psycho used his super speed to catch the next person, barely.
"Oh my god, it's that lunatic!"
"You're welcome, too, lady... Please move... You're crushing my spine."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Sybil was holding her hand up for silence as she kept another pressed firmly against her head. Her eyes were shut tight, and she began to shake with strain.
------------------
Steve made sure the civilians were out, then began directing the others through the exit as the wall of fire rushed closer. If they didn't move quickly, they would be incinerated. Arrow quickly leapt out, blinking in the sudden flash of sunlight.
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
((Edited my post now that I'm thinking somewhat coherently.))
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 lenses in Jake's goggles darkened deeply as he took a moment to glance back at the wall of pure heat that was approaching himself and his comrades. He bit his lip and made a last burst of speed that launched him through the exit. He flew a good twenty feet into the open before he managed to slow himself down, eventually just falling to the ground and tumbling from the momentum.
Well... I could've done that a bit more gracefully... His ego thought as he stood up and brushed some soil off of his trenchcoat. Glancing at his bots' status quickly, he determined that they weren't exactly doing well, but they were still alright. They would survive the blast, which was a very, very good thing.
Especially considering that he didn't have access to his never-ending supply of them.
You see, in his own time period, Arachnos had provided Jake with his very own warehouse that stored very many robots, all exact replicas of the originals that he had originally brought to the Isles. He could teleport them in and out of the warehouse as he pleased, thereby giving him free reign to do quite anything with them, and not have to worry about many, if any, consequences.
This was not the case in this desolate future. Seeing as Arachnos had been taken over, Jake somehow doubted that they'd keep the warehouse there for him. Hell, he'd probably been executed during the take over in this timeline.
In any case, Jake had to be more cautious with his creations. They were quite a bit more valuable to him now than they were a few years ago...
It wasn't hard to see.
They were too slow. Even an amateur could have seen that by now. They'd underestimated the speed of propagation that a chemical explosion could exhibit in free air. Numbers were irrelevant now. The detonation moved at the worst sort of speed: too fast.
That wouldn't do.
Before anyone knew what had even happened, the cavern went black. The overhead lights had given up their ghost a while ago already, but the detonation's flames had provided ample illumination.
Until now.
Gale-force winds whipped from the suddenly created shadows and rushed ahead and out, snatching all still in the passage with them and launching them out like an oversized pumpkin cannon.
Then came the explosion.
"Ouch." Baalial commented in a dry manner, "I've had that happen to me. Hurts a lot."
What he meant wasn't immediately obvious, but to a keen observer appeared rather quickly.
Hotaka wasn't with the group anymore...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Gah, sorry for missing out so much! I'll try to just push myself along for a bit))
Soul Striker narrowly jumped out of the cavern in a flash of light. Landing onto the ground, he was covered in dust and dirt. Getting back up, he began to brush off the dirt.
He turned when he heard the demon man speak,
Baalial:"Ouch. I've had that happen to me. Hurts a lot." Soul Striker took a quick look around. What the hell is that supposed to mean? That's when he noticed there was one person missing in the team. Wait....where is that other guy...? Just then he quickly remembered what Baalial said. Then he realized what he meant. With that new revelation Soul Striker only whispered, "Oh god...no way."
Steve brushed himself off, about to congratulate the group, when his mind suddenly clicked with the realization that something was off. He took a quick tally of the people with darting eyes and sighed.
"I... I'm guessing by what you said, he... He's got a form of-" Steve couldn't bring himself to say "back-up plan," all because if the answer was no... Well...
Arrow bowed his head for a moment. He also had the nagging sensation they really shouldn't be sticking around for long. Even if they lost one, they needed to head back to base before more troops showed up.
-----------------
Sybil sighed and let her arms lower. It took quite a large amount of effort to stop a dozen titanium walls from slamming down... Silently, she cursed her old age and turned back to the matter at hand.
She was actually rather surprised by Thule's answer. Not only had he given her everything her own scouts new, but also other information about the interior.
Sybil waved a hand and Thule found himself free to move about. "But what then would you consider the next step for yourself?"
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 checked the civilians they'd rescued. Amazingly, thanks to Baalial's crazy maneuvering and Psycho's ever-softening body, everybody seemed pretty much ship-shape.
"Relax," he assured most of them, "The bloodlust is gone... For the most part... Not for you! I don't want to kill you!"
They stared at him silently, worry in their eyes.
"No, I'm not about to say 'but I will!' Wait! I said I'm NOT gonna.... And they're running away..."
Sighing, he turned back to the rest of the group and noticed the sullen faces.
"Okay... Quick tally... Who'd we lose?"
When they informed him, he grimaced.
"Aw, man... He seemed really cool... No offense, Mr. Lawyer, sir... But I kinda had more bets in my head on him making it out of this than you..."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Jake had realized what Baliaal had mean shortly after he had said it, however, didn't realize who until everyone else did. He gave a quick bow of his head to signify the loss of a, albeit temporary, ally. He quickly snapped out of it though, as he realized that they couldn't stay for long. Noticing that nobody else had stated the obvious, he sighed, deciding on being the one to point it out.
"OK, yes, it sucks that we lost someone, but can you honestly say you weren't expecting at least one casuality?" He said matter-of-factly.
"There'll be time to grieve later, they'll have noticed by now that Apex is dead and that the base has been intruded upon. We have to leave. Now." And with that, he ordered his minions to him to further inspect them. He needed to be sure that they were in proper shape to travel.
Mental Note: Ask Sybil for use of some space.
"Alright, they seem okay... Anytime you guys are ready." He said, shouting the second part to the others and mumbling the first to himself.
"A secret. There is no secrets anymore. Ask the right questions and you may receive an answer. If you don't then you'll get no where."