"I'll be about." Ineffable said simply.
He faded into thin air once more.
--Jade Moon--
Randall grunted as Ineffable disappeared.
Stalker class, most likely. That "Chert" guy sounds [ticked]. Well, this is a wipe in the making...
"Now hang on everybody... Let me get a look at what's out there first. I know I'm the leader of Delta Squad, but since most of us are a little... squishy... I think it would be best if I took a look around first..."
His eyes rolled in consternation.
"And... Ineffable, right? If you're still around, your little stealth trick would come in REALLY handy if you would give us a heads-up as to what's out there. I'm not too keen on all of this 'Hi there, I'm gonna do something nasty, okay bye' [stuff]. We're a team, boy. Showboatin' is only gonna get us killed."
He gave a short glance to the rest of the meta types.
"That goes for all of you, got it? If one of you does something that has a high risk of getting the rest of us killed, I swear by anything and everything you could hold holy, I will do something very regrettable to you."
With that, he started edging along the wall to get a good look around the first corner. He moved surprisingly fast for a rooted stone tanker, too.
----------
--Portal Corp.--
Matt smirked at the skull-faced villain. He snicked the blade out of its scabbard, but didn't aim it threateningly at Blightlord. Instead, he whisked it this way and that as he spoke to illustrate his point (which means that it sometimes pointed at Blightlord, but not threateningly).
"Well, Numbskull, in case you haven't noticed, the portal's not exactly stable. I'm fairly certain that hopping in there is a one-way ticket to looking more like you, and less alive than I'd like to be. As for killing people to make the world a better place, well... I've done some of that already. Not too fun, but not too trying. I also find it has about the same effect as letting them live, minus the fun of incessantly sticking it to 'em. You know what I'm saying?"
He took a breath and rested the blade on his shoulder.
"Besides. I'm waiting for Kemen to tell me why the Hell I'm not working on some other things I wanted to do with my Steed and where my boss is."
He arched an eyebrow at the lich(?).
"So... Who the [something bad] are you supposed to be, and why aren't the authorities riddling your corpse with holes? Judging by your attitude, I'd be correct in assuming you're a rogue, right?"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Binro obediantly followed Randall's lead, one hand always near the handle of his mace. Despite his protests, the human had good leadership qualities.
Something about this place was setting the Knight's spines on end. The place felt cold and dead; like the derelict starships his squad used to board in search of pirates, looters, and other, worse things.
Binro sniffed the air tentatively, keeping near the front of his companions so he could step in front of any sudden attacks, protecting any of the less durable members of their group.
"What do you think I am, a stalker?" Ineffable's voice drifted from everywhere.
"Some of us here just like the idea of being invisible. Regardless, I'll keep a close eye on our general surroundings. I'll give you a heads-up if I see anything coming.
(Oh, and Grey, I'm fairly sure that's actually Arch-Lich, not Blightlord. 
)
[ QUOTE ]
(Oh, and Grey, I'm fairly sure that's actually Arch-Lich, not Blightlord. )
[/ QUOTE ]
((Yup. But if I remember it right, Toy puts it as Archlich.))
Danica shook her head the whole time as everyone scrambled to figure out what happened, and bad news continued to follow.
She watched carefully as Randall stepped forward to take the lead, keeping not too far behind him. From the looks of things, she was one of the more durable members of the group.
Big Thelth chuckled at Grey's threat. "Now, would that be regrettable for me, or for you, friend? Worry is unnecessary here. Nothing can be gained from Nemesis controlling the world."
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
"Fine by me..." Jake half-muttered as he heard Grey volunteer himself to go ahead. It really didn't matter to him much whether the tank or the stalker went first. Truly, it didn't concern him. He was more preoccupied with his mission from Arachnos and the matter of getting some alone time to listen to it.
He took note of Ineffable and Grey's little debate and chuckled at the disagreements between the two. He could definately figure out a few ways to take advantage of the tension between the two, and most likely would, however, now wasn't the time. Now was the time to blindly follow the leader, simply waiting for the perfect oppurtunity to slip away...
[ QUOTE ]
Now was the time to blindly follow the leader, simply waiting for the perfect oppurtunity to slip away...
[/ QUOTE ]
"Don't even try it," Penny Arcade's voice was low and light, as casual as if she had been asking about the weather. She was smiling at him, and even gave him a wink. However, there was no doubt that she was quite serious.
Penny Arcade had met him in the past, and wouldn't hesitate to upset even his most carefully-laid plans, if she felt that people would be hurt. And yet, Jake was one of the very few people on the Rogue Isles whom Penny Arcade counted as a friend... or at least as much of a friend as could be found in that treacherous place.
Through various misadventures in the past, Penny Arcade was aware of his true situation. Unable to do much to help him, she had still gone to great lengths to do what she could. It was inevitable that their different situations and viewpoints left them in conflict sometimes. Yet, Penny differentiated Jake himself from the Arachnos organization, and often worked against the one, while ensuring the other wouldn't come to harm.
Now she looked at him not as a hero determined to ride roughshod over villainy, but as a friend who knew him well enough to have some pretty good guesses as to what he was up to, and who wasn't about to see him charging off and potentially getting hurt. She did have a reputation for having unusually good information. "If you leave," she said, far too quietly to be overheard, "Then I am going to have to go after you, and when I catch you - and I will - I am going to be pissed off as hell at you for embarrassing me," she growled at him in a mock-stern way, but her eyes twinkled merrily. "Besides..." she looked around at the assembled group, "You're the only person I know here, and us tech geeks need to stick together." Still watching to make sure no one was listening, she leaned her head in close to him, and whispered, "Can you even summon your bots here, when we are a zillion miles from home and the only nearby extra dimensional portal is... shall we say, wonky?"
She herself, had only encountered perfected microminiaturization less than a month ago, and knew perfectly well that she would have not had the option of resummoning her droids if she hadn't switched to it. Her eyes searched his face in some concern for what his capabilities would be in such a place - she had never asked him how he transported his 'bots in, and if he was using some of the more commonplace transportation methods, she was worried he wouldn't be able to summon any more if his current set was damaged somehow.
((>.> That was my narration. How'd Penny hear me? <.<)
Jake literally smacked himself in the forehead with his open palm when he heard Penny's first comment. "Oh come on!" He said in a loud whisper, however, still managing to only have Penny hear it. "How freakin' transparent am I?" He sighed as he listened to her threat to interrupt his plans and waved it off, adding in a 'Yeah, yeah...' in a disregarding tone.
"Don't worry about me, alright? Whatever I've gotten myself into by accepting this mission, I can handle it. You've seen yourself just how resourceful I can be when I want to."
[ QUOTE ]
Still watching to make sure no one was listening, she leaned her head in close to him, and whispered, "Can you even summon your bots here, when we are a zillion miles from home and the only nearby extra dimensional portal is... shall we say, wonky?"
[/ QUOTE ]
"Huh? Oh!" He said, his eyes lighting up at the change in subject. "Yeah, I changed my method of teleporting just last week. See, I visited a friend of mine, Technician Naylor, you've heard of him, right? Anyway, he and I figured out a way to get those CoT ((He pronounced it See Oh Tee)) portals to not only reduce in size so that they can be crammed into one of these things," He said, pulling out one of his teleporting devices, "But also to get them to popup almost anywhere, and with other side of the portal recently being installed in my bots, it'll allow for teleportation anywhere, even across dimensions." He grinned at what he thought was a genius solution. The portals didn't even require a power source, and even though arcane wasn't his forte, even he understood their mechanics.
((Matt's a (relatively) recent student of mystical arts, so he can't really tell one undead "overlord type" from another. The question mark is more of a reflection of his own uncertainty.))
Randall snorted.
"Ah yes... Hubris."
Already the team was divided, he could feel it. Behind him, he figured maybe half (maybe!) were following. If this was how it was all going to turn out for the rest of the mission, they were all gonna hurt (himself included).
"Regrettable for all of us," he muttered to Thelth (not that he really knew the guy), "The fewer people we have, the less chance we have of getting out of here alive, much less completing the mission. Now, if you'll excuse me..."
Randall peeked his head around the first corner.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
And saw Ineffable's face leering at his.
"We have a problem." He said. "Something's wrong..."
((Leering?))
"I kind of figured," Randall glared back into Ineffable's eyes, "And?"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((Leering. ))
Ineffable thumbed over his shoulder.
"Incoming. I'm not too sure what it is. Only that its either a moderately large force or a very very large thing. Energy readings were so high they almost made me lose concentration in my feet entirely, and I still left plenty of smoldering foot-prints along the way."
Indeed, it was possible to see a trail of black, smoldering foot-prints behind Ineffable trailing down the corridor and around a turn. Just how fast was the leather-wearing villain anyway? One moment he had been talking to Grey and the next he was in his face giving an incoming warning.
Although it was fairly easy to tell he wasn't lying. There was a very soft blowing noise, like steam, and it kept getting slowly louder...
OOC: Stop typing already! 
I had a post was was going to copy and paste after work... Now it's completely invalid! 
"This a private conversation or can anyone hop in?" asked Solid as he moved over to where Penny and Jake were huddled in conversation. "I couldn't help but think to myself that if two known villains were discussing something so earnestly amongst each other that it would be best for everyone to know if something's up? Sound good?"
"What are you?" Toy suspiciously of Ineffable. "And if your answer is anything that could be understood to mean 'better than you' then get in back and let the real professionals handle things."
Silently fuming, Toy directed Small Toy to warm up its active camoflauge and check out if Ineffable was telling the truth. The modified battle drone nodded and swiftly faded from sight, slipping quietly around the corner to investigate.
"I've got one of my drones on the case to see if there's really anything up ahead," Toy said to Grey. "If there's anything, I'll let you know immidiately."
*********************************************
"First of all, my name is Archlich, mortal, and it would be in your best interests to use it properly," shot back the lich. "And yes, I am a 'villain.' I would ask you to stop waving your sword around like a five year old, though. If I were here to fight, you would be dead at this very moment."
Irritably waving one hand, Archlich caused a dense coat of frost to incase Matt's blade, instantly causing several hundred pounds to be added to the sword. Casting his glare about the hustle and bustle of the area, Archlich picked out the person who seemed to be giving the most orders and stalked over to him, brushing past several people who found themselves halted in their tracks as the mage passed.
"Unai Kemen," Archlich said to the security chief (he had gussed correctly). "I am Archlich, associate of Toy Dispenser. Your summons has called me from a fairly important task so this had better be good."
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.
What lay about the rounding of the corridor could be seen simply enough. A soft crackle had come from beyond the hallway's twist, accompanied by a spastic flicker of the already somewhat twilit illumination of the Rikti facility. Orange had mixed with yellow, creating a fluidum of reflection upon the wall opposite the corner, and the scene that presented itself as the source of said reflection could be summed up in a single word.
Damage.
All lay in shambles. Scars etched deep into walls, floor, and ceiling spoke volumes of horrors what wrought devastation here. Still-crackling fires warned that it all hadn't been long since gone, the gouges carved all about as frighteningly varied as their staggering number.
Some spoke of plasmatic energy bolts and power-laden heavy edges; Rikti blasters and blades. Others told the tale of heavy ballistics, stunk of oil and fire, or brandished the revealing patterns of fully automatic weaponry; weapons of the Nemesis Army.
And scattered through the remnants of chaos lay the fallen forms of the combatants, Rikti armor locked motionless with the shattered remains of steam-powered automatons. Jaegers had been cut to ribbons, the mechanical constructs in pieces on the floor, and here and there rested part of a Warhulk, pilot capsules crushed and smeared in manners that suggested the Rikti had been pushed to the edge by desperation.
Half a hulking machine lay pressed against the left wall, while sat wedged in a closed blast door to the right, the gate's mechanisms having sheared the attacker apart. The remainder of the monstrosity moved no more, and one could only begin to imagine what now lay on the other side of that door.
"Look alive, people." the Colonel of the Vanguard troop backing up Delta team grumbled through his face mask, the piece of armor muffling his voice, "Don't wanna be caught off-guard."
Lk'Onik couldn't help but agree, though the Psi-Scoud did so silently, having returned to his usual, shy demeanor. Like the small number of Vanguard, he treaded carefully. This corridor showed the scene of an obvious last stand, and the Rikti wasn't in the mood of running into any traps that may not have sprung upon the attackers in the final showdown...
--------------------
"Then I guess your definition of good will depend on how much you like your associate." Kemen answered the arcanely empowered skeleton, not batting an eyelash as his gaze darted back and forth over the personnel trying to make sense of the portal's behavior, "Toy Dispenser is presently on the homeworld of the Rikti, along with a large group of other people, and that infernal machine over there isn't letting anyone back."
"Sir, telemetry from the past few hours." a Longbow soldier interrupted, handing the Security Chief a clipboard with a stack of printouts and a few scribbled notes, "Just as you said. Nobody's had any contact with the supercomputer for the past three days. It's like the thing's doing this all on its own..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Something was very wrong here.
The blowing noise was getting louder.
And it was VERY loud now.
Ineffable suddenly looked very stressed. The ground beneath his feet began to crack.
"I am what I am." He said in response. "And THAT is an enemy, and its right around the corner."
He gave an odd shiver and vanished into thin air again.
[ QUOTE ]
"This a private conversation or can anyone hop in?" asked Solid as he moved over to where Penny and Jake were huddled in conversation. "I couldn't help but think to myself that if two known villains were discussing something so earnestly amongst each other that it would be best for everyone to know if something's up? Sound good?"
[/ QUOTE ]
"Really?" Penny's face also lit up - she did love to talk shop with Jake. "Do you know, I interrupted a Crey raid on the Circle last Thursday and I found the most - "
But she broke off abruptly as Solid approached. "Hi, Solid," she said pleasantly enough. "We were just - "
But again she broke off in mid-sentence. "Oh dear... that looks bad."
Though well within range, Penny Arcade hadn't followed the scouts too closely. This was partially due to the less-than-spacious conditions of their entrance point, and partially due to simple praticality: moving six robots around, one of them gigantic, plus the staggeringly large 'bot that Vanguard had assigned to go with her, was hardly conducive to stealth. The 'bots had taken up positions along the outer walls, within immediate access of any conflict that might break out, but as much out of the way as possible, so as not to impede the movement of any of the team.
Hovering only a few inches above Randall's head, the tiny probe, the size of a golf ball, was sufficient to give Penny Arcade a perfectly clear view of what was around the corner, while providing only minimal possibility of counterattack. "Mmmm," she said, frowning behind her visor as the images played across the screen. "Well, it's definitely Nemesis... I don't think this is as deserted as it appears... you guys ready for trouble?" She smiled at them cheerfully.
Binro hefted his mace in his hand as he surveyed the damage. He hadn't had any real run-ins with Nemesis, but he'd gathered enough information from his contacts and other heroes to recognize the villain's mechanical minions.
He looked between the twisted remains of the combatants and the scorches and gouges they had left behind in their surroundings to atest to their confrontation.
"It must have been a great battle," he murmured calmly, running a hand along one particularly large blade mark in the metal wall near him.
"Always, Penny." Jake replied, smirking and pulling out several of his teleporting devices, getting ready to activate them at a moment's notice. "Do we have a clear image of it, yet?"
Jake, for obvious reasons, wasn't exactly at the front of the group, let alone had taken a peek around the corner. All he knew of the situation was what Ineffable had said and Penny's warning.
[ QUOTE ]
"Always, Penny." Jake replied, smirking and pulling out several of his teleporting devices, getting ready to activate them at a moment's notice. "Do we have a clear image of it, yet?"
Jake, for obvious reasons, wasn't exactly at the front of the group, let alone had taken a peek around the corner. All he knew of the situation was what Ineffable had said and Penny's warning.
[/ QUOTE ]
"Oh, whoops, sorry, just a moment - " Penny frowned for a moment, then held out her hand. In the palm was a disk made of the same silvery substance that her dress was: and from the disk projected an image of the room they were facing. "I would go ahead and summon now," she said thoughtfully.
"Right." He muttered, tossing his devices on the ground and porting six battle ready robots into the room. He heard some groans from people who had been pushed back by the summon. Chuckling, he gave an in-sincere 'Sorry.' And proceded to put forcefields around them.
"Hey, Penny, can your bots account for the trajectory alteration my forcefields will give them? Otherwise, they'll be protected, but utterly useless."
--Jade Moon--
Randall flicked the switches on his belt and started plodding down the corridor. Nanites started flowing from the devices they connected to, and Randall had to take a deep breath to calm himself as the Aggressors got into his bloodstream.
Regaining his sense of what he was doing, he looked back to the others.
"Let me take point... I have certain... advantages... Even here, in this 'alien world.'"
As he reached the War Hulk half, he wrenched a piece free. One never knew when they'd need a good piece of debris to hurl at the enemy. Taking a deep breath, he took a hold of the blast door and started to pull on it...
"With enough-grr-pressure... Anything is-hurgh!-possible..."
----------
--Portal Corp.--
Mad Matt arched an eyebrow at Archlich. Sighing, he let the ice covered blade fall to the ground. There, he simply shook the weapon and pulled it free of its icy prison.
"If you'd like to disarm me, you're going to have to do better than that, Numbskull."
Smiling like an [jerk] at Archlich's back, he sheathed his weapon and followed in time to hear the bad news.
"So... Unai, right? What the Hell are we going to do about this?"
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
[ QUOTE ]
Taking a deep breath, he took a hold of the blast door and started to pull on it...
"With enough-grr-pressure... Anything is-hurgh!-possible..."
[/ QUOTE ]
Taking another quick scan of the room to reassure himself that they were at least safe for the moment, Binro returned his mace to his belt and headed for Randall.
Grabbing the door's edge as well, Binro added his own prodigious strength to Randall's to force open the door.
"Disgruntled Statement: Opening Door: Formerly Forthcoming," Cher'tak huffed as he withdrew his hand from the keypad while the door dissolved. "Give Thanks: Further Intervention Unneccessary. Current Codes: Old, Remembered: Used Next Time."
As the door finally faded away, Cher'tak was the first to step through. As if on cue, recessed lights in the ceiling lit up revealing a long corridor that slowly bent until it's curvature could no longer be seen. There were no portholes on the outside wall but there were a couple of doors on the opposite wall.
"Where do you think they go?" Toy asked as he peered around Cher'tak to see what was up.
"Storage, Barracks, Other: Unknown," Cher'tak answered as he drew his bladerifle and stepped into the corridor. "Randall Grey: Designation Tanker: Correct? Suggestion: Take Point. I: Open Indicated: Doors."
"This ought to be fun," Solid said as he racked a slide on his rifle.
*********************************************
"Humans can be quite unobservant when their attentions are otherwise occupied," said a dry, sepulchural voice from Matt's right.
Standing there was a short, skeleton clad in black armor inscribed with arcane runes that probably bore little resemblence to what Matt might have seen his friend Cory use. The skeleton wore a slightly dingy crown and a black cape that was also inscribed with runes. The skeleton turned to face him, glaring at him with its bright blue eyes.
"But why are you, a 'hero', not in that portal trying, undoubtedly, to make the world a better place by killing someone?"
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.