--Rikti Earth: The Forgotten Sanctuary: The Pursuit--
The fleeing machines seemed destroyed or disabled. It was highly unlikely that anything could have survived, much less escaped, that barrage that had filled the corridor. Cory broke the spell pinning him and Ryat66 to the floor and stood once Solid Shot indicated it was safe to do so.
"Well done," he said to the two machines, "Exceptional work. Now, we should probably return to our friends."
"I think I've got a crick in my neck," Ryat66 grumbled and there was an audible metal on metal grinding sound, "Ope! There it goes."
----------
--Alternate Space: En Route to Rikti Earth--
Sheldon chuckled at Acid's comment.
"Twenty-one years? Is that counting time you would regard as being a child? I know I wasn't much concerned with my physiology when I was five..."
Couldn't this trip go by any more quickly?
----------
--Prime Earth: Crey's Folly: Second Malta Group Base--
"Smooth," Kip muttered as he and his friends lowered to the ground with their hands clasped behind their heads, "Real smooth."
"Stay down!" the agents shouted as some moved in to cuff the heroes, "Comply! Comply!"
"Dammit, Nester, I told you to hang back!"
"I did!" the defender replied, "Matt was the one who punted a jerk down the hall..."
"Then you just HAD to blast him with a radiation beam!" the vapor-wrapped scrapper barked back.
"Guys, guys, guys!" Matt shouted, "Calm down or they're gonna start kicking us!"
"That's a good idea!" one Malta Agent chortled and promptly kicked the sword-wielding hero in the stomach.
This had consequences, namely, that Matt now had ownership of someone else's foot. With a twist of the body and a kick to the groin, Matt rolled around and judo-flipped his enemy into some of the approaching foes. Nester then kicked on his Regeneration and Recovery Auras, bathing his compatriots in blue and green light. Suddenly energized, the heroes sprang into action. Ryat99 stepped in front of the group and became a solid block of ice.
As bullets impacted off the tank, the group made a quick plan of attack for what was next. Kip and Nester would take left, Ryat99 and Matt would take right. As soon as the tanker's ice block broke away, they bolted and tore into the flanks of their foes.
When the Malta Group agents started breaking their formation to deal with this new, divided threat, a Gunslinger leveled his pistol on the leg of one of his troops and fired. Few noticed the friendly fire. They noticed when Sarah Grey screamed, however. The terrifying banshee wail tore through their minds and left them all in a quivering mess. Looking back with trepidation, the Malta Group soldiers were treated to what seemed like one of their own leading a blond man in military trousers and futuristic armor, a white-haired girl in a red skirt and a white shirt, and a short, pudgy man in a green jacket with a bow.
The archer fired an arrow into their midst and a large portion of the group promptly fell to the floor. Before he could let fly a fire arrow, however, Kip fired his energy eye beams at it, and the whole group was promptly set ablaze.
"Activate the mediporter! Activate the mediporter!" several agents shouted before promptly disappearing in the blink of an eye.
With a whoop, Cedric leapt into the fray with the last of the Malta Group. With their now filled-out team, the heroes were able to make short work of the last vestige of insurrectionist forces.
"Thanks for the help," Kip muttered to his other-dimensional self, "How'd you know we'd need help?"
"One of the guys in that last base, he's one of our guys. You didn't see him, and he told me you guys were headed for a world of hurt. So, I gathered up these guys."
"You guys are trying to save Daddy, and we're gonna help!" Sarah barked, "And don't give me any of that 'you can't go, you've got better things to do,' [trite]! I had to spend the past evening consoling my Mom! Trust me, if she knew we were doing this, she'd be here, too!"
"Okay," Kip shrugged, "Alright. You got it, Snuffy. Let's amscray."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Curtis' revolver reported with the gunshot.
Curtis looked a bit annoyed that nothing had happened, but he payed it no real mind. He was using a revolver. It may be easy enough to ruin a GLOCK, but Curtis' only problem was that now he'd probably warped the barrel.
"Ever wunner how much data one c'n lose from gettin' yer [censored] wires fried?" Curtis smiled down at the Mastermind, pulling out a grenade-like device. Clicking a small blue button on the side, Toy would immediately notice that it was starting to feel a lot like a nuke had just gone off on top of him as the Electromagnetic Pulse Generator bombarded him incessantly.
"Ah [censored]," Toy said as Curtis pulled out the grenade. "I thought Longbow liked EMP grenades."
As Curtis hit the button, Toy jerked himself around, trying to flail one arm into the grenade and knock it away.
"A l-l-little help-lp-lp-lp overrrrr here!?!" Toy shouted on the team frequency.
-------------------------------------------
"Well that was fun," remarked Solid as he hopped off Combat Toy's shoulders. "One of these days we'll have to use that on a Kronos Titan or something just to see what'll happen when every single shot hits one thing."
As Solid finished talking, every single one of Toy's bots suddenly stiffened and bolted for the exit back to where the dropship had crashed.
"Whoa!" said Solid as he jerked himself to one side, just barely dodging Combat Toy as it rushed past him. "Where's the f-?"
""A l-l-little help-lp-lp-lp overrrrr here!?!"
"Oh god damnit, that's where that Gunslinger went. I hate AV class villains," sighed Solid as he hit his thrusters and hovered into the air.
"You and Ryatt want to hold the fort till we get back?" asked Solid of Cory. "Though honestly I think we could use all the firepower we've got to take this mother out."
"Which is why you need to move over and let me at Small Toy," ordered Block Bot as it pulled itself up off the ground.
Solid Shot just stared at the protector bot, wondering where the hell the gaping holes in its head had gone, and saw several liquid streams of metal flowing from the ground up into Block Bot's head where they filled in the damage.
"Less staring more rescuing," Block Bot snapped at Solid as it trundled past him to Small Toy. "You capes are supposed to be good at that, right?"
"Right..." Solid said eventually before he tossed a wave at Cory and Ryatt before blasting off after the rest of the bots.
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.
--Rikti Earth: Forgotten Sanctuary: In Pursuit--
Cory nodded and grinned. Snapping his fingers, he took to the air and tore down the corridor after the androids and robots giving chase to assist their wayward ally.
Ryat66 gleefully hopped after as well. He had dangerous energies swirling around inside his body, and they sought release in a violent way toward bad people that had it coming.
-----------
--Rikti Earth: Forgotten Sanctuary: Main Group--
Randall grumbled at the message, then quirked an eyebrow at the way it came across the screen.
"I think our compatriot, Toy Dispenser, is in a scrap of trouble. Last time I saw a robotic-type talk like he did, his brain was scrambled from age and disrepair, and T.D. didn't look the type to be scrambled by age."
He looked to Acid Zero and Essex.
"If you can handle taking care of yourselves, I'm gonna go check and see what that's all about."
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"That's probably because when you were five, you probably weren't concerned with galactopolitic situations and cosmic factories either." Acid returned with a much-saying and very toothy smile, "And since I imagine you'd like to know now, Khelari reach the morphological status of young adults in about four months. Kerat was a little less than a year of age when I took his form."
"Of course, that part's a story for another day." the reptilian opted to not delve into this aspect of his past, "The main thing is that we grow up fast. Kind of practical, actually. The planet wasn't forgiving, and if you didn't grow thick skin quick, it'd burn you. Ah, we're approaching the atmosphere. Hold on, this'll be a little rough. I'm gonna drop us straight down."
Acid wasn't kidding - in a few moments, things would shake and rattle all about, as if an earthquake had chosen to make its new home in the ship. There wasn't any time to lose, and the Khelari had no intention of slowing the ship to a proper decent speed. Instead, he'd build a force landing, Arcon style...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((*Poke Soviet*))
((RIGHT))
"Goldarnit." Curtis frowned as he once again vanished suddenly in a bright blue light.
---
"This is Thunder Molotov Nine-Oh-Seven."
"We have received go-ahead for Operation Push To Shove."
"I am activating the Assault Code for the Legion in Five. Four. Three. Two."
---
Kip could probably hear the echo of a monotone voice seconds before it happened.
The crates and containers that had been in the base had, for all intents and purposes, been like any other in the various villainous hideouts in Paragon City. Good for blocking yourself off for a quick rest while your foes milled about. The containers certainly appeared average enough.
And then there was a terrifying sound, as if a thousand generators had been activated in perfect sync. One of the freight containers' doors suddenly exploded open, and in rank-and file emerged what looked like a hellish cross between a Hercules Titan and a Mastermind's Assault Bot. Each bot had a plasma cannon for either arm, double shoulder-mounted missile racks, and as if that wasn't heinous enough, a wrist mounted flamethrower. There also seemed to be a rather malevolent glow in their strobing eyes. Out of smaller crates rose minor variants of the same sort, their arms outfitted with what looked to be rigged-on parts from some sort of mass-produced Assault Rifle the Operatives had acquired in bulk.
And there were dozens of them in this room alone.
One of the larger variants turned to face the heroes, and without warning a Heavy Microwave Laser began to fire out from just below its head-mounted optics package, giving the impression of laser eyes. Unlike the hero variant however, this laser swept to-and-fro, trying to slice all of the gathered heroes apart with one gaze.
---
The heroes on Rikti Earth were about to have just as bad a time.
What looked (And felt like) artillery shells began impacting around the heroes in masses almost too numerous to count, cracking open and spilling forth a drove of the same machines that Kip and his team were facing back on earth. The main difference was in the armament of the smaller drones - It looked like their weapons had been acquired on-site. Instead of Auto-Kalashnikovs, these killers sported a Rikti Sword-rifle on either arm, and they didn't hesitate to begin sniping away at them with mechanical precision.
---
The Operator facing down no-less than an Arbiter was either cocky, stupid, or a genius.
"Bull [censored]." He frowned.
"Kill them all. Kill them clean."
The Operatives opened up with silenced sub-machine guns, filling the room with lead. Jake was certainly not left out of the fury, as an Operations Officer zeroed him in and fired off a precise set of bursts from his MP7.
Toy Dispenser watched the artillery shells come in. It had been fairly hard to not notice them, seeing as how most of the processes normally dedicated to operating the majority of Toy's body had nothing to do at the moment. It was a relatively easy thing to track all their trajectories, notice that none of them would land on himself or Acid, and then order Combat Toy to pump one 'shell' full of plasma.
This resulted in Combat Toy suddenly making a running leap, twisting his torso about in midair, and firing both plasma cannons. The recoil made CT hit the ground a bit hard, but the big assault bot was easily able to make up for his loss of momentum.
The 'shell' that was hit, however, had bigger problems. The plasma cannons burned through metal and ceramic on one side of the shell, blasting enough mass off it to alter it's trajectory just enough to miss the tower and plunge down into the opaque mists below.
"Desecrators!" Cher'tak shouted as the shells landed and split open, spilling their deadly cargo onto the ground and revealing the modified battle drones with Rikti bladerifle arms.
The Warmaster jumped through the air in a powerful leap, landing atop one such drone and crushing its neck with his weight. As soon as he landed, the Rikti set about him with the axe-edge of his bladerifle, dismembering the dozen or so battle drones around him in a fury.
"Now the party really gets started!" Solid shouted as he fired a grenade at a pair of assault drones, knocking them both back and throwing off their targeting so he could dodge the resulting eye beams.
"They've got lasers, too! You should really look into those, Toy!" Solid added as he blasted a heavy slug into the same drone he hit with the grenade, followed by a light burst and a shotgun blast as he closed the distance.
"Copycats!" Mini Bot shouted angrily as it dove into the nearest formation of battle drones, hacking away at them with wrist lasers and tendril buzzsaws as he weaved among them.
Small Toy hung back and took cover behind a large chunk of rubble blown away during the fight with the Maltan titan. Its participation would be limited to occasionally blowing the heads off battle drones that threatened either Toy or the two protector bots.
"Stun them and blitz them," Large Toy said as it and Block Bot both spawned a quartet of seeker drones that buzzed into groups of drones before exploding and overloading their sensors. The proc bots followed up with a volley of photon grenades and laser fire at the same pair of assault drones that Solid was targeting.
Combat Toy just ripple fired every single missile he could while waiting for Randall to charge in. The assault bot wanted to smash [censored] up with his fists, but knew he'd survive better with an actual tank around to absorb most of the fire.
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.
((Cory, Randall, Ryat66 and (soon) Sheldon Wallace are on Rikti Earth at the moment. Not Kip. I'm going to assume, from Khell's post, that you meant Cory, Sovs.))
--Prime Earth: Paragon City: Crey's Folly: Second Base on the List--
"You gotta be freaking kidding," Kip muttered before the beams arced through the air and caught him and the robotic tanker at his side, "AUGH!"
Kip's energy shield protected him, as did Ryat99's ice armor, however, it still hurt like Hell. Nester's Healing Wave Generator soothed the ache and closed up the wounds, but it did little to alleviate the sickness the scrapper felt, nor the android's scrambled sensors.
"Here!" Nester shouted, blasting a collection of nanites into his brother that immediately reinvigorated him, "Kick it through the wall!"
Kip tried. He felt like he could kick through steel all of a sudden. However, he was rapidly disproved as he delivered a savage side kick to the "belly" of the titanic machine and it didn't budge. It didn't hurt Kip, though, so there was some give somewhere...
Cedric bounded to the left flank with his sister, brother and best friend in tow. Roland let fly a barrage of arrows, from a flash to acid and finally a glue arrow. The robots were quickly mired in the white muck and he launched an explosive in their midst before Cedric and Matt closed in on them.
The two friends then tore through the smaller machines, Grey like some sort of crazed berzerker, McGinty like a cartoon-character samurai. The tanker hardly tried to avoid the Kalashnikov weaponry, but Matt often turned aside guns, kicked robots around, and once even deflected a bullet with his sword.
"You're moving like a blur, man!" Cedric cheered as his axe cleaved through a robot's head, "Keep the tunes coming, Sis!"
Sarah nodded and hummed gently to herself along with the hard rock song she'd chosen for the fight. She made sure everybody was hearing it, and the effect invigorated her family and friends, strengthening their resolve. It was amazing how much more effective they could be with the right music.
Nester, however, was having a rough time. With the fight divided, Ryat99 and Aaron having gone to help Kip, he had to move back and forth between the two groups, monitoring their health and making sure nobody died. A bullet grazed his armor and he yelped before blasting the offending robot with an X-ray beam emitted from his visor. That didn't take it down, but it was promptly bowled over by a kick from the wildly yelling Mad Matt.
Ryat99 was shot back by one of the beams from the large robot. When he came back to punch it in the chest, he took note of the machine's make-up.
"I've never seen them built like this," he told Kip, "You think maybe we've found the place we're looking for?"
"Yeah," Kip vaulted off the machine's arm and kicked it's sensor array in, "We found it. On to the next robot."
----------
--Rikti Earth: The Forgotten Sanctuary: The Battle with Malta Group Forces--
"Oh my God!" Cory shouted as he dove behind whatever cover he could find, "Ryat! To me!"
"Not just yet," the android replied before firing a blast of super-condensed energy at one of the approaching robots, "Come on, Cory! Your spells, a few area of effect attacks, we could take these guys really easily!"
"Alright," Simmons replied as he flew out of his cover and over the fray, "But wait for my signal..."
Ryat66 continued to provide support fire for Solid Shot as the wizard found a proper place and fire-bombed a cluster of the offending androids. Energy blasts whipped around him, as if the air currents were carrying them aside. However, one struck home and knocked Cory out of the air. The wizard struggled to his feet, getting knocked and batted about by the offending machines until he finally regained his senses and exploded in a massive conflagration that scored massive burns into each of the assault bots. Cracking a blue gem in his hand, Cory drew his hand around and pulled through the Aether...
-----------
--Rikti Earth: Forgotten Sanctuary: Command Group--
Randall perked up and looked to Acid Zero and Essex.
"I have to go, I trust you can take care of him..."
Before the pink replinoid could reply, Grey disappeared in a flash...
----------
...only to reappear next to Cory. As various stone armors wrapped about his body, Randall's fist slammed hard into one of the robots and the wizard quickly summoned Ryat66 to their side. The android cheered as his electrified fists smashed into another assault bot and they started fighting their way back to Solid Shot.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"Was afraid of that." Jake muttered, throwing down his disks, revealing half-a-dozen robots and nine Arachnos Drones. Fifteen bright flashes filled the room with enough light to at least rival that of a flash grenade, and, in addition, their onslaught began immediately. The Arachnos Drones, armed with disinigration rays, began firing on whatever targets they saw, while Jake focused his minions' attack on the head of the operation, the six of them launching into the air, firing plasma at the man all the while.
In the meantime, Jake had already placed several powerful shields up on himself, the Arbiter, and the Arachnos agents that were alraedy there.
Oh, yes, of course! The Arachnos agents certainly couldn't be left out of the fray. Energy and webbing, too, flew toward the squad of Malta. By the end of the attack, not only would the Arachnos agents be utterly unharmed due to Jake's brilliant defense, but the Malta Operatives would also be reduced to a scorched pile of flesh.
It was good to be a villain.
-----
The Arbiter wasn't very pleased with his failed bluff, his face tightening into a grimace as the attack began. He quickly shielded his eyes from the flash bang, expecting it beforehand. Afterwards, he held out his hand, sending several agents flying back.
Clearly some invisible force had just been unleashed, but what was it?
Whatever it was, it had felt like a truck had slammed into the two and just kept going. Not to mention, said truck was under the command of the Arachnos Arbiter.
But what was it?
The first thing that Large Toy and Block bot would notice was that Seekers and Photon grenades, in fact, ALL energy weapons, didn't do anything to the robots besides piss them off.
They also happened to activate a certain few protocols.
]activate
]
]power_overwhelming
]
]New_lock
]
]all_hostile
]
]Engage_Overload
Without warning, the Robots began another hellish spree of laser blasts and plasma cannon barrages. They weren't just ineffective - they were making them stronger.
Randall would find his electrified attacks were similarly disheartening in nature, as the Assault Bot he punched suddenly grappled for him and began leeching his power at an incredible rate.
---
Of course, the Operations Officer leading the attack was behind cover, along with his men. He wouldn't just be firing at the 'bots from the middle of the room. The Plasma bolts lanced at and around him and he crouched low behind the Arachnos equipment he was hiding behind, which quickly began to shatter and explode.
"He's nuts! Get the Mastermind and the Arbiter! Now!"
The Operatives hit by the Arbiter's sudden strike remained calm and collected as they scrambled back to cohesion. "Utilize Biofeedback weapons!" One yelled to another, and the Arbiter would suddenly have quite the sinking feeling as blue beams snaked around the room, striking several of his minions. Two bolts shimmered towards him quickly. How could he use his force to stop them?
"Okay, that'll do." Rosie graced the golem's presence with her attention, cracking her knuckles in preparation for some 'fun'.
Whether Termoplast's empowered ring of fire managed to immobilize the guardian or not, Rosie wasn't one to let an opportunity like this slide. With alert ears and defenses at the ready, the were-human flung herself toward the construct, claws at the ready for the strike...
--------------------
Like a blazing comet the Drop Ship literally fell out of the sky, Acid pushing the craft to its limits. The deflector fields could barely keep up with the sheer volume of super-heated air the descent threw at them struggling to ionize and repel the dangerously hot particles before they could make catastrophic contact with the hull.
If the trip down looked unpleasant from the outside, however, it wasn't much more comfortable within the ship. Ram pressure shook the craft like a massage chair gone insane, and thick swaths of ionized plasma wavered about the direct-view screen ahead, blazing in all their colorful and lethal glory.
But the Khelari was an experienced pilot, and though not the best by far, knew very well how far he could push this thing's machinery. the decent remained harsh, but all in all uneventful, and in less than thirty seconds, the Drop Ship entered the airpsace above the Forgotten Sanctuary.
Only to be greeted by a volley of SAMs.
The ship rattled viciously once more, the released forces transmitting through the rigid shields, but remained unharmed. No random control panels blew up in anyone's face, no sparks rained from the ceiling.
"Looks like they know we're here." Acid stated the obvious. He didn't even turn to Sheldon, but from a sideways glance to an eye of the Khelari, the scientist knew the reptilian's mind to be racing. He spoke merely to give himself time to think, "Don't worry, they can't get through the shields. Doesn't help us of course, since we can't use this thing's weapons or teleporters with 'em up."
"I'm telling the autopilot to set down at the same platform we originally docked at." Acid explained as he brought the ship around to the mentioned course, claws tapping across touchscreens once more as Rikti symbols flew across the viewer, "No, I've got no idea what to do. All I know's there's a ton of Malta down there and our pals are gonna need all the help they can get. If you come up with a plan, please don't hesitate to let me know."
With that, the reptilian vanished with the characteristic echo of air filling a spontaneously created vacuum. He'd jumped, his method of teleportation differing radically from that of the Rikti. The Drop Ship's normenergetic shields were no barrier to him.
The autopilot performed as instructed, guiding the craft down to the airdock. Sheldon of course had the team's comm. frequencies, so he hadn't been left entirely alone - just at the edge of a very sticky and dangerous situation...
--------------------
One might have touted Acid selfish for seeking out himself first, and maybe rightly so. Still, with Essex's efforts in vain, and nobody else around anymore now that Randall had joined the battle with the Malta Operatives where they'd once more entered an open-air area after rushing down their corridor in pursuit of Toy Dispenser, something needed to be done about his pain-wracked biological form.
Even if it might be nothing more than getting the restorative reploid where she could be of more use.
"Hey." the reptilian greeted her briskly as he rematerialized literally beside himself. He quickly crouched to place a recall beacon on his other self, placing the palm of his left hand upon the floor to support himself as he adjusted the beacon with the other. Thunder cracked in the storm circling the Sanctuary as the mostly unconscious Khelari vanished in another jump.
But as the remaining Acid looked to Essex, wondering why she hadn't already jumped him with one of her characteristic gleeful hugs, the reptilian's slitted eyes went wide. Her pupils had assumed that hue of blue, and with the clatter of metal upon stone, the pink-armored reploid hit the floor, a telltale EM dart protruding from her left shoulder.
In the blink of an eye, Acid's head snapped round toward the source, locking down Whiskey Tumbleweed 3-4-9 with a glare that could pierce solid terconium. At the same time, the elite Gunslinger released the now-useless dart launcher, the empty weapon clacking upon the stone and metal of the floor.
Curtis.
"You!" Acid snarled in contempt, baring jaws filled with vicious, predatory teeth at the man.
"Me." Curtis retorted almost with a snigger, his accent-laden tone cool, calm, and smug as could be.
As Acid's hand shot to the handle of his pulse rifle at his right shoulder, Curtis' fingers whipped his pistols from their holsters like greased lightning, blasting the reptilian's weapon from his hand before the Gunslinger had even fully extended his arms.
Acid, however, had already jumped, his quick teleportation allowing him to avoid the follow-up of rapid fire even as he appeared only meters from Curtis, hurling himself at the Malta man with blazing speed like a coiled spring; a predator on the attack...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
--Sheldon--
"First plan is this..." Sheldon hit a few buttons as he heard the chatter and explosions coming from his friends, "I make you go fast..."
He released a beam of green-tinted kinetic energy on the pilot as the ship came to a stop. Instantly, the Khelari would feel invigorated, like he could run forever at a speed most people dream of.
"Next, I engage this inertial dampening field..."
Yellow-tinted energy filled the chamber, and the two suddenly felt very light.
"And now we go find your other and see what we can do to help."
----------
--Randall, Cory and Ryat66--
Randall looked down at the little machine and could feel the familiar energy coursing through his arm.
"No!" he barked as he lifted it up and smashed it against the ground, "Bad dog!"
"Oh crap!" Ryat66 shouted, "I hit them, but it just makes them stronger!"
Cory broke another blue crystal in his hand and muttered an incantation. Waving his hands to the sides, an ice patch formed on the ground and he pulled the android with him.
"Randall! This way! Refrain from attacking!"
The tanker stomped into the ground, his rooted foot crushing the robot he just slammed and sending a shockwave through the surrounding ranks. He then turned and followed after the wizard, his crystalline armor twinkling with the energy deflections. He still gritted his teeth with each successful strike, though.
Once past the ice patch, Cory uttered another spell and a wide area was suddenly wrapped in ice. Robots caught in the path were immediately flash frozen and held in a delicate stasis.
"Keep from hitting the imprisoned, Mr. Grey," the warlock shouted over the blaster fire, "We have to make our way to Solid Shot!"
Randy responded by picking one of the frozen robots up and hurling it into the midst of the still-firing robots. He couldn't admire the collision, however, and kept pace with his fellow heroes.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"Lay down and die!" Solid shouted as he shoved the barrel of his gun right up to the assault bot's visor and pumped a load of buckshot into it.
Yanking his rifle back, Solid then punched his hand into the newly opened hole, grabbed a handful of stuff, and pulled it out. Now using the trashed bot as a shield from the fire of most of the others, Solid decided to use thier own trick against them.
"You guys like sucking stuff up, huh?" Solid asked rhetorically as he snapped a shot off at a battle drone, knocking it to the ground for the moment. "Well how about I give you a taste of your own medicine!"
Solid's arms started glowing a bright blue as things not originally imagined by his creators started happening under their flat grey armor. Every enemy robot within ten feet of Solid would find their power levels dropping dramatically as the android somehow drained them. Anyone capable of seeing into the electromagnetic spectrum would now see Solid as surrounded by a literal whirlpool of electricity, every single bit of it being sucked into his forearms, which started to glow brighter and brighter...
Combat Toy brought both hands together in a clapping motion, crushing the head of a battle drone like a ripe melon. Grabbing the body and hurling it one handed into the same group that Randall threw his robot, CT forged through the robots around him, lasers sloughing off his armor like a heavy rain.
Mini Bot and Toy Bot were not far behind, the bright green drone lobbing bolts of Rikti plasma as fast as it could fire while Mini Bot slashed, kicked, and tore with every appendage as its disposal. The two were further bolstered by Small Toy blowing the occasional robotic brains out with its particle rifle.
"NO ONE TOUCHES THE BOSS!!!" CT roared as it finally closed in on Toy Dispenser, who had managed to keep himself safe by trapping a battle drone in a detention field and moving the field about like a point defense shield.
"Glad to see you made it," Toy remarked as he propped himself up on one arm. "I was almost starting to worry."
CT responded by grabbing the detentioned drone and hurling it like a bowling ball into another grouping of drones, scattering them like tenpins.
Large Toy and Block Bot had fallen back to take cover, their only weapons being completely useless against the robots. They could, however, help Acid with Curtis and Large Toy rushed forward to grab Essex and get her out of harm's way while Block Bot shielded the alien.
---------------------------------------------
"%!*#^!*(@)!#(!" bellowed the crystalline golem as it jerked to a halt, it's legs immobilized by Thermoplast's efforts.
Twisting about, the golem slammed the ground with it's arms, seemingly incapable of reaching far enough to attack any of the party members. Archlich laughed to himself as he watched Balsk scurry back from each of the blows, the draconian unable to get close enough to land a hit without getting hit himself.
Then Rosie launched herself at the golem and the construct seemed to snap toward her with a speed not evidenced in it's previous actions.
"#^#Y!)&#!@(#(!*!^(!" shouted the golem as one hand flung out, fingers crossed in an odd gesture.
As Rosie ran forward, a white nimbus of energy slowly enveloped her form and she started moving slower and slower, almost as thought she was running through water. Both the were-human and Archlich seemed to recognize what was happening and both of them cursed at about the same time, though Rosie was still halfway through her first word when she suddenly froze.
"Damnable time magic!" Archlich growled as he waved a hand at the golem, a wave of energy rippling forth a blowing a chunk of stone out of the thing's shoulder. "Destroy the golem and she should be freed, you fools!"
"Easier said than done, bone bag," Balsk muttered as he dodged another blow and then took an experimental chop at the limb. To his surprise, his sword sunk a good foot into the arm and the golem bellowed once more in pain. Balsk was barely able to pull his blade out in time as the golem jerked its limb back, but at least he knew he could hurt the thing now.
"Distract it so I can fly up and get it in the face!" Balsk shouted at Thermoplast and Archlich as he pulled back and leapt into the air.
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.
When it came down to it, Malta sapper rays were an absence of energy, draining the fuel straight from whatever poor sap happened to get hit by it. This transference of energy gave the rays a state of equilibrium, and thus, they dissapate, having become balanced.
However, when the force you wielded WAS pure energy, it was a simple matter to negate said beams, rendering everything but the actual gun utterly useless, as it could still be thrown.
The Arbiter's quick reflexes and former experience with Malta were the only things that allowed him to cancel out the beam when he did, after which, he put a shield up around himself and his allies to prevent such a thing from affecting any of them.
You see, the Arbiter wielded pure kinetic energy, the force of movement. And, while not what most think of when the word energy is mentioned, it is still a valid form of it, and highly useful in many situations.
Having completed his defense, he again threw an invisible force at the group, repeatedly knocking them over as they attempted to formulate an attack strategy.
In the meantime, Jake's bots were careful not to destroy any more equipment, under the young mastermind's orders. However, their accuracy sensors were spot on, and allowed them to manuever into such a position as to not hit anything while still firing on the squad, mostly involving the six of them hovering in the air while they fired.
"Ye should know this drill al'reddy, snake." Curtis sneered as he disappeared in a flash of light. Immediately coming out of it facing the other direction, more of a doge than anything, Curtis began to bump-fire his revolvers, once again while reloading, at the Alien as he backed up towards Essex.
---
The Frozen robot Randy tossed kicked up a [censored]-storm of debris as robots were torn apart, sparks flying side by side with now freed limbs. But more kept falling down, as if it were some sort of endless artillery barrage.
"!" One Assault Bot seemed to say as it wheeled around, zooming in on Large Toy before unleashing a maelstrom of plasma and heavy-microwave laserfire, trying to assist Curtis in his endeavor to snag Essex.
---
"Kineticist!" One Operator warned of the Arbiter before being shot to death by Jake's bots.
"[censored] this!" The OpOfficer yelled as he and several other men volleyed flashbangs over their cover.
"I need Knives, NOW!"
Curtis' rounds wavered in a sudden suction, passing through nothing bit thin air as the Gunslinger's reptilian opponent jumped in literally zero time. Not an instant later, a sharp pain raced up the man's left arm as Acid raced past him like a bullet, lashing out with a handful of vicious claws to tear into the man's sleeve of woven armor. Chances were he only nicked the skin, but it was a painful experience nonetheless.
"I do." the Khelari gave retort as he hit the ground again in a crouch toward Curtis, still skidding a bit from his remaining momentum. Though one hand once again dug its claws into the stone-metal of the floor, the other was free and open to face the Gunslinger.
Chances were that by now Curtis had done the math, coming to the correct conclusion that Acid had predicted his teleportation, ergo following with a jump of his own. Thankfully, even though he'd moved in the direction the reptilian had anticipated - toward Essex - he'd been off more than enough to avoid a lethal strike. Still, it meant he'd have to adapt his strategy a bit, and by the look in Acid's eyes, Curtis' adversary expected something like that; especially snipers...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Sister Hecate of the Knives of Artemis was at her station, attending to important matters that needed to be dealt with, when a klaxon suddenly went off.
The Knives were being called to arms.
***
Suddenly, NINJAS, hundreds of them! That was the way of the Knives of Artemis. An entire group was ready in moments, prepped to leave and reinforce Malta's position. Sister Hecate was moments away from initiating the deployment beacon, when a hand caught hers from out of nowhere.
Silver Meniscus 0-3-3 nodded at Sister Hecate once, and snapped her fingers. 3 extra members joined the ranks of the groups. The Hands of Artemis. Silver Meniscus nodded again, and Sister Hecate initiated the call.
***
The operator felt a gush of wind blow by his face as several unseen somethings rushed past him.
"Received." Said a soft voice.
Anyone with tactical vision would have seen an entire insertion group of Knives had just arrived, including not 2, not 3, but 4 Hands of Artemis in the mix. Mercenaries and Blades rushed forward, the group splitting and rushing at Jake's bots and the silver-clad Arbiter. The Hands stayed behind cover and drew their most powerful weapons.
Their ungodly stun grenades.
"Priority change," Toy Dispenser muttered to himself as he slammed a drone with a force bolt, sending the small robot flying through the air.
Combat Toy blocked a trio of plasma beams with its shield and responded with a ripple barrage of missiles. Unsheathing his wrist blade, the assault bot pivoted on one foot and neatly bisected a drone that had been pumping lasers into his rear armor. Toy Bot assisted CT's missile barrage by rapid firing balls of plasma into the same group while Mini Bot jumped on top of another battle drone, ripping and tearing with both hands and tendrils, swiftly eviscerating its head.
--------------------------------
"Affirmitive," Small Toy said quietly as it shifted in place slightly, bringing its scope in line with Curtis.
Aiming for the piece of equipment that allowed the Gunslinger to teleport, Small Toy fired.
---------------------------
Large Toy's left arm was completely ripped from its body under the focused fire from the assault bot. The drone tumbled to the ground and rolled away to get closer to Essex. Block Bot also took this oppertunity to sprint from cover, zig zagging its way toward the unconscious reploid.
Once again, it looked as though their enemies were going to use Essex as a hostage. Toy was tired of having that happen, though.
---------------------------------------
"So I'm currently crackling with enough energy to blow the crap out of the Empire State Building," Solid Shot remarked as he jumped through the air, kicking off from the face of one assault bot as he jumped again.
"And I've been wondering to myself: Just how does one make a bunch of robots absorb energy without exploding?" Solid continued as the assault bot he had jumped off of slowly toppled over, every single system in it's head shorted out and melted down.
"I figured a sudden surge of unprecedented size would work quite well, actually," he went on as he landed and jumped off another couple of assault bots, melting their heads as well.
"Of course, all this takes a tremendous strain on my own systems, but I figured what the hell, at the very least I'm showing up the Skittles Bot," Solid went on as he landed amidst a small pack of battle drones. The drones were shattered within seconds as Solid hit them with a powered up jumping doublefisted hammer strike of epic proportions.
"So as I was saying, can we finish this up before I burn out?" asked Solid of the rest of the team as he dashed into another assault bot, uppercutting it's head into the sky.
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.
"Solid, get over here!" Cory shouted, leading the retreat back to where Acid Zero was locked in combat with Curtis, "We've gotta get the Hell away from these things!"
Randall batted another robot out of the way and pushed the two blasters in front of him down the corridor.
"I'm going back for Toy Dispenser!" he shouted, "Cory, you get back to Acid and Essex, port the rest of us over there!"
"You've got it boss, Sixty-six, try to keep up!"
"Right!' the android shouted as they bounded down the hall.
Randall turned back to the robot swarm. His left eye twitched a little and he snarled. Gray rock started wrapping about his body again and he started stomping through the ranks of the assaulting drones. When one got too close, it promptly got its head crushed...
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
"My, aren't we popular." Jake stated, his goggles allowing him to view the coming onslaught. His quick thinking and reflexes allowed him to activate a favorite toy of his that he often found little use for. The Force Bubble.
Soon, everything labeled unfriendly would be flung back several dozen feet, especially if said unfriendlies were small and petite, like, say, a woman.
Unless these girls were able to put on some incredible weight, they'd be flung back like a barn in a tornado.
Additionally, with the group of intruders now convienently bunched up together due to said Force Bubble, they could effectively unleash an effective volley of attacks. His Assault Bot launched dozens upon dozens of small missiles at the large conglomeration of people, everything from fire to acid to traditional explosions bathing them, and, if that weren't enough, the other five continued to fire burning hot plasma at the group.
It was undeniable. Malta was on the defensive in this fight.
Meanwhile, The Arbiter continued to hop around the room, slamming the (From what he could see) group of Malta with several blasts of kinetic force from a random direction roughly every three seconds.
Curtis sneered at the wound he had been given. "Yew call that ah blow? Ah'll damn well show yas a-"
Curtis suddenly stopped halfway through his rhetoric and snapped backwards at an incredible speed, Small Toy's laser grazing his shoulder. Which should have been completely impossible. Not missing a beat, Curtis began blasting away at the sniper with his offhand pistol while trying to cover himself against everyone who was closing with the other hand. Teleporting backwards until he was right on top of Essex, Curtis re-holstered both revolvers and threw a wide spread of flashbangs into the air around him, blinding light enveloping the area.
If anyone could possibly stop him at this point, Curtis was now ducked low over Essex, waiting for his Base's central computer to get his exact location to extract him through teleport.
---
At the Arachnos base, Operators and Knives weren't the only thing that Arachnos had to worry about before firing on those who were pushed back. As the force bubble moved the bodies of a pair of Malta Engineers, their completed Field Turrets were suddenly revealed. The onboard computers on both guns began spraying fire from the dual miniguns mounted on each respective turret, hosing the men and machines down.
Acid's eyes narrowed with Curtis' peculiar behavior. The reptilian seemed to be reconsidering an action he'd been about to take, slowly bringing together the clawed fingers of the open hand he'd faced at the Gunslinger.
The flashbangs didn't much affect the Khelari, or at least not in a fashion enough to stun him. His ears were adequately tolerant of volcanic eruptions, and a pair of secondary eyelids dealt with the sudden brightness. Still, it meant he couldn't actually see his opponent for a short amount of time.
Then again, right now he didn't need to.
Tearing his bladed rifle from its 'holster', the reptilian aimed the weapon straight up as the chamber clicked, switching munitions, then blasted an amplifier shell to altitude so Acid's portable scanner would have a larger operating area.
What did it see? Was Curtis' backup-less operation just a fluke or part of some more sinister plot; an insidious trap that'd spring as soon as he'd gotten Essex clear...?
--------------------
((I just noticed I completely forgot Khell. Aoops. 
Also Sovs, I'm rubbing off on ya - Grey's other characters could probably use a reply too. 
))
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"Understood." Thermplast practically exhaled, his tone seeming to contain no care at all.
From his large while cloak, the man now whipped his Phantom Bayonet; the weapon entrusted to him by the Soul Police. Its construction resembled that of a Nemesis weapon, though the intrinsic design of the techno-spiritual gunblade was of course quite different.
Thermoplast didn't hesitate even an instant, igniting the ground about the golem's feet...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
If Sheldon's drop-ship had ANY sort of intelligence gathering capabilities, it would rapidly note that there was a rather large tesla-coil like object pointed up at the ship, swarming with Operatives. It would also notice that this massive coil was about to release an EMP lance strong enough to turn Tokyo pitch black in his ship's direction.
There were, unfortunately, at least a dozen Surface to Air Missile sites around it in all directions, and they were prepared to fire the very second Sheldon's shields went down.
---
The high altitude scan would reveal a rather depressing fact.
The Dronetillery wasn't being shot. It was coming out of teleport over a mile in the air. A teleport whose origin point was shown to be on the surface of Venus. Of course, there weren't any Malta on Venus (supposedly) so it was clear that the Malta were being very clever about making their inbound teleports untraceable.
And there were, at the second of the reading, over one hundred more teleports coming into the area at that moment.
Curtis grinned as the beacon got a lock on his location.
This was literally the last moment to stop him.
One of Toy's wrists flared white the instant he felt the barrel of the gun pressed against his head. Thanks to the feed he got from his bots, the mastermind figured he knew exactly who it was.
"Ever wonder how much of a hand one can lose from a misfiring pistol?" Toy asked as he tilted his head a bit to look up at Curtis. "Feel free to find out."
In the split second before Curtis had fully materialized, said his piece, and started to pull the trigger, Toy had placed a miniature forcefield with the same density as a detention field inside the barrel of the Gunslinger's gun. Firing it would most likely result in an interesting misfire that would deal more damage to Curtis than to Toy.
And just to make sure he had everything covered, Toy's other wrist flared and placed an identical field inside Curtis' other gun. It was a damn good thing Curtis had gotten close enough to let Toy do this.
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.