Lost in thought and heavy concentration, Acanous almost diddn't notice when the wall came rushing towards him, fire and debris moving into the dark energy coating him, then appearing again on the other side, his neat little fold in space protecting him from most forms of damage. The dust stirred up would start to bother him, though, as soon as he needed fresh air.
What DID catch Acanous' attention was the sudden brightness.
Looking up, he noticed that the same robots from before had managed to follow him.
have to check for a tracer before heading back to base
Again, a detention field settled over him. He welcomed the reprieve, at least no dust would be getting in through that.
Turning, he looked for Anthius among the rubble, certain that the Archangel's celerity would have spared him from the blast, but worried anyway.
Mentally, he counted the seconds, timing it against the last time he had been DT fielded, and engaging the rest of his defences.
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
Blightlord watched the Arachnos base grow larger and larger as he approached. Here he sensed the most concentrated amount of corruption. Here, he could grow in strength, at least until he was ready to act independantly.
That would take time however, and resources. He currently had plenty of one but little he could discern of the other. There was also information to acquire...
----------------
Deep in the earth, a cavern lay. It had been undisturbed for years, and long sealed off by an unfortunate cave-in. But its sole occupant did not mind, for she had come there to study. The power and knowledge would keep her nourished until the time it was ready.
It was ready.
A girl looked up, raven-black hair flowing long enough to pool on the floor even as she hovered above it in a lotus position. She watched the book cradled in her arms, eyes fixed on the symbol on its ancient cover.
A green fireball, one that had begun to shine with life.
Art thou ready, child?
'I am.'
Then it is time.
The book flared to life, a great column of black and green flame shooting upward, piercing the cavern and rising high into the sky. As quickly as it had started, the flames retreated back inside, flowing into the girl, infusing her with their power. She cried out in pain, writhing in the heat and scorching pain.
Resist, child! Thou knew well the risks, now resist!
She screamed, fighting through the urge to let the flames consume her, mind, body, and soul. She fought to let them not take her over, but to merge with her. Another scream, and the fire ended, leaving her lying on the ground, smoking, her meager rags of clothing burned away.
Thou hath done well, my child.
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
((Wait, as in, skin tight shields? Dang. Editing, if I can at this point.))
Whichever way Cynic's plans truly went time-wise, Scirocco didn't much care so long as things finally returned to normal - which they did, slowly but surely.
Mu mystics gradually restored protective spells and reinstalled wards, and Arachnos technicians worked to get network security and exterior defenses back online. Hopefully, the turrets would be back before the Sky Raiders tried something else; and this time, with better protection from hackers.
"Oh, and have someone contact the airfield." Scirocco told one of the Arachnos personnel not presently engaging the intruder, "Even if it's not Kheldian, it would be wise to have a few attack bombers standing by..."
--------------------
"Understood." Danger's diminutive tone remarked in the otherworldly dialect they'd used to communicate with the Dark Rover thus far. Apparently, the Specialist had received new instructions while Groul conversed with the others.
Removing the pair of fingers from the side of his ear once more, the tiny humanoid turned to his towering compatriot, demanding Groul's attention with a wave of his arm. It didn't take but two sentences to inform the red-scaled Groul of Energon's departure.
"Actually, that we could use." the Field Commander remarked in English, taking in hand the map the hero had left and tapping a claw upon the communications contact, "This is Groul calling Energon X, do you read? If you'd like to draw enemy forces your way, I've a suggestion where to head..."
--------------------
Weaver Airfield
Former Paragon City International Airport
"Get a hold of yourself!" one of the Arachnos soldiers finally stepped forward, grabbed his stammering comrade, and shook the man to and fro. The others standing in the gloomy corridor of standard Arachnos decor still debated heatedly on what to do and whom, if anyone, to report this to.
"Look, just calm down." the TacOp held the other soldier firmly by the shoulders, "Now just tell me: what did you see? What came after you?"
"I don't know!" the terrified man burst out, shaking like dry branches in the wind, "Just big...fast...lots of teeth..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Bzrk))
"Cape coming down on us, 6 o' clock high!" One Raider radioed to the rest of his crew.
"Defensive positions!"
Target could barely see the ripple of air as a Gauss slug ripped past his face. And then another. And another.
And then they came in droves.
Edit: Shortest intro I have ever made in my entire life. Sky Raiders are really lowest common denominator >_<
THE DARK ROVER-
Energon X took Groul's call. "I live to serve." he said drily, one of his friends in the lounge relaying Groul's first, (he thought) untransmitted comment. "Anyways, this is exactly what I was thinking of. I can make a fairly good decoy, particularly since a couple of our people inside Arachnos think that one of their higher-ups is taking an interest in me. Give me a heading, and I'll flap along, pretending to be lame in one wing..." he finished sarcastically, not really caring if the aliens got the reference or not.
THE SKIES ABOVE STEEL CANYON-
Target didn't even flinch as the gauss slugs ripped past him. It was nothing new, and the pattern and speed he was flying at made it difficult to draw a solid bead on him.
At the bottom of a loop, he drew a handful of arrows back, the heads glowing and spitting yellow-white light. Release; the arrows formed a series of brief streaks, each one aimed precisely at where the archer's short-term precognition said the Raiders were going to be. If they hit, the shield knives should disrupt the Raiders' forcefields long enough for Target to start 'killing' the skiffs and jetpacks with steel rods in their jet intakes and ramscoops.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
Tamesis hit solid shielding. Cynic had not monologued THEN shielded. He had shielded and THEN he had monologued. Taking advantage of the fact there were no vision-impairing mace blasts to block his vision, what with all the troops CHARGING him rather than opting for ranged attack, Cynic activated his staff's flight function and zipped for the nearest exit.
The Mystics repairing the network discovered there was nothing WRONG with it. The only problem was that the Commander's particular registry was being blocked. Everything else was still 100% operational. No matter what the Mystics attempted though, they could not get through the filter blocking his profile.
Knowing what these robots were capable of- from last time this happened, Acanous took stock of his situation, appraising the area from a combat standpoint.
The wall was blown out, which left a reasonable route to open air. Acanous hated aerial combat, but hopefully the robots wouldn't know that. They'd propably expect him to try running that way.
He shot a glance around the room, noting a door, badly damaged, that lead out into a long hallway. Perfect for breaking line of sight and forcing them to come at him one at a time, but it might incur further structural damage to the building if they decided to just blast away untill they got him.
From the dust in the place, Acanous was pretty sure the building was empty, especially being in a war zone like Steel Canyon... but if there was anyone on the street, he couldn't risk toppling a building.
He took a long look outside, ensuring that the robots noticed what he was doing, hoping that they thought he was searching for possible escape routes when he was actually looking for innocent bystanders.
That's when he saw the Sky Raiders.
so they weren't all defeated in the attack? hmm.. or maybe these are from a different squad. No matter, they have no love of Arachnos either way. I could turn this to my advantage...
He did miss, however, the archer they were chasing.
His plan clicked into place, he coiled himself like a spring, and waited for the field to drop...
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
The pair would find that the robots had no intention of letting them escape. Indeed, as soon as the two had seemingly conceded to their fate, both Protector Bots simply renewed the Detention Fields and began to carry the two away. It wasn't difficult to push a being cut off from reality through space, and it was certainly made easier considering both of them were simply waiting.
The robots flew off into the distance, carrying their bounty back to their master.
-----
"Nice reflexes..." Tamesis muttered as his hands hit the forcefield, noticing that the man hadn't even flinched, but instead had opted to take to the skies. Wasting no time, he teleported into his path, this time attempting to knock him back with a blow rather than damage him.
Right now, he had to bide for time. Hopefully, along the course of the battle, a weakness in the shield would be found.
((Well, methinks that it's the perfect situation for Ac's first signature move 
))
Finding himself being hamster-balled by the robots, Acanous decided that was quite enough.
I hope nobody in a 700 kilometer radius needs an EMT any time soon
As he was lifted into the air, he grasped the hilt of the shortsword on his back, it's mirrored scabbard shining as black lightning began seeping out of the small gap between the blade and the scabbard.
Acanous thought one last time about what he was about to do, then grit his teeth and drew the sword that marked his status as keeper of the Third Gate, the locks that held it in place on his back popping open as the Black-beyond-Black blade met with the air.
Some called it Planereaver for what it did.
Infidels called it Godslayer, for it had slain many who had made that claim.
Mages of great power across the planes called it the Sword of Justice, from the inscription that laced the crossguard, "He who holds me wields Justice"
Acanous knew it by only by it's title, the Gatesaber.
Even Acanous was buffetted by the vortex of energies that accompanied it's release, contained as he was in the bubble of extradimensional space. burns he knew would later scar crisscrossed his forearm, even through his mirrored impervium gauntlets.
"You seek to imprison the Keeper of Space, the Guardian of Aern, He who shall not be bound."
Bringing the pulsating rip in space and time that made up the blade of the saber to bear, he pointed it at the bubble of the detention field.
"Know that no door may bar me"
he pressed it into the bubble, as sparks of energy began flying in every direction, that which cut holes through space and time was parting the bubble like a curtain
"No wall may stop me"
he flicked his wrist, sending a ripple through the bubble, collapsing it around him like a mirage
"And no one may stay my hand"
Spiraling downwards, on the outside of the wall, he dissappeared, then re-appeared on the ground outside, sliding the blade back into it's scabbard, pain evident in his eyes.
Across the city, monitors that flashed "Signal lost" on every emergency teleporter screen suddenly blinked back to "Status normal"
((Yup, drew it to dispel the phase shift, diddn't even use the attack ))
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
This was certainly a new developement. The robots' collective experience with this particular being didn't show him to be able to do that. Regardless, their objective would be completed. That would be assured.
Seeing that their one method of containment wouldn't work, one sole Protector Bot continued onward with its prey whilst the other five stayed behind, ready to take down the threat.
W0-07 uttered a single word before he lead his squad into battle against the master of space.
"n00b."
A literal wave of plasma beams, incindiary missiles, and overall pain crashed over Acanous like a tidal wave would a surfer. Should he be even the slightest bit damaged from his little escapade from the bubble, he would be absolutely devastated by the sheer force of the attack now being launched at him.
So far, everything had gone exactly to plan. The robots reacted exactly as they had earlier, with a full on assault that would decimate him, the street, and propably nearby infastructure.
That's why he had teleported to where he did, within easy hopping distance of the Sky Raiders above him.
Jumping in a literal leap of faith, the missiles streaking after him, and the heat of the plasma starting to leak through his dark shields, he positioned himself smack in the middle of the Sky Raider patrol, hoping that the cluster of soldiers would buffer some of the damage off of him- or that thier shielding might deflect some of the rockets altogether.
Either way, those raiders were going to notice, and hopefully the explosion would hide Acanous in the violent chaos that would erupt.
Time seemed to freeze as he cherished the moment; the missiles streaking towards him, the sky raiders around and behind him, and the bots in front of him. He smiled, his mouth forming the words he knew that the robots, with thier enhanced optics, would see:
HAX!
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
If things were indeed going according to Acanous's plan, it had to be one of the least formulated plans in the history of reality. The Sky Raiders, if they had the least bit of intelligence, would have gotten out of the way of the onslaught far before Acanous reached them.
((I'm assuming. I'll leave it to Sovs, who actually controls them, to decide.))
But, in the unlikely event that they did sit there, dumbfounded, and basically more helpless than a turkey in the rain, they would find a steady stream of plasma and missiles, a feat of organization and timing allowing the robots to keep up an attack that would devastate all opponents. As W0-07 opted to switch to explosives rather than incindiary rounds, he saw the words come from Acanous's lips to which he responded.
"lol skillz"
His four other followers replied "Kekekekekekekekeke", fired yet another literal wave of plasma and missiles at the group. The Sky Raiders would be completely decimated, and Acanous would at least be partially crippled from the burns.
((Hey guys I'm not really gonna be able to post until after new years as such I'll let Acanous control Anthius for now as he knows his capabilities better than most))
Blightlord stood in front of the entrance to the villain base, his arms crossed, and his face rather amused. He held a hand out to one of the zombified Arachnos soldiers standing next to him. The zombie produced a security clearance card, handing it to its master.
Blightlord turned toward the door and swiped the card. Any readings the security system needed to take, palm, retina, should all be accepted seeing as this was the same body that had left for patrol earler that morning.
-----------------
In the Bastion's medical facility, a silent alarm went off to inform the attendants of a new arrival. If any were to step inside however, they would find nothing new or amiss about the room.
That is, until a suddenly flash of black and green fire created a whirlwind around one of the empty beds. It surged and then dissipated, leaving a woman with incredibly long black hair draped across her bare frame fairly conveniently for modesty's sake.
She appeared incredibly weary, and shuddered every few minutes. Scans would show these shudders were often accompanied by small spikes in the room's temperature.
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
A sigh came through Energon's receiver, but of no more than a moment's duration; almost as if it had slipped out in reflex and Groul had attempted to conceal it.
Still, how much sense did that make? None of them had tried to hide their thoughts of human behavior earlier, and they certainly hadn't given any suggestion they would in the future. Not only that, but Energon's remark hadn't exactly been the pull of a trigger.
Groul gave him no chance to inquire, replying quickly, "Good. Then head toward the airport. Try to stay low until our monster's job is done. Your best bet is to be one yourself; out of sight, but always in mind..."
--------------------
Scirocco scowled as news of the happenings at Weaver Airfield reached the mystic. Apparently, today was just one of those days. Thankfully, the site commander seemed competent enough to handle things - he'd already called for backup, and Scirocco knew well that Arachnos wasn't the only group with personnel there.
Tamesis would handle the new intruder, and Walsh would certainly deal with the ones who'd thought themselves already escaped and safe. Machines weren't Malak's thing either, and though some of his mystics were of course on station to resolve the network incursion, he personally wouldn't have contributed much.
These thoughts and more occupied the mind of the mystic as he stepped out onto the Fortress' airdock once more, the trio of Flyers he'd come with already awaiting departure.
Perhaps, he surmised, there weren't even unique events at all. If this was so, his investigation could be even more pressing than he'd formerly thought...
--------------------
((Hm...we seem to be short on general happenings volunteers. 
))
Cynic's idea wasn't bad. Ultimately, however, his plan carried a fatal flaw - the Fortress housed an amalgamation of villain groups, and though Arachnos technically oversaw proceedings, each faction still had been quite adamant about privacy; common sense, really.
There was hardly a path not blocked by some sort of gate after less than a dozen meters, and these doors were of course secured by a colorful assortment of means to prevent the unauthorized from opening them.
Now true, said means weren't perfect. Blightlord's postulations were quite correct - biologically, he was still the same Arachnos soldier, after all - therefore, about the only thing he had to fear were surveillance cameras with someone actually paying attention at the security desk. Chances were, of course, that the arcane mastermind had a way around this.
Cynic's encapsulating shielding, however, rendered him unable to interact with them at all. Ergo, a closed door might as well have been a solid wall to the man. If he did nothing to remedy this, Tamesis and his troops would have all the time in the world to figure a way to do the officer in.
Luckily, it seemed the same applied to the hacker bothering the Arachnos network. Since someone or something actively blocked a part of the system, it was just about the easiest thing in the world for the technicians to trace it back to the source. At roughly the same time as Malak and his escort departed, an extermination unit received the order to head to said source and perform the action their name implied...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"With the fall of the East their psychic network is completely down, finnally news will spread evenly between my seers." Cry rarely did spells of arcane nature in combat. Energon X would be surprised as what came out of a invisible phase shift, an anomaly created of stone and will.
The air wavered and before the city nearly a building high was a creation of Cry. Its hulking mass of stone and steel roared through the city. At the center of it,protected in a bubble of energy was Cry controlling the gaint monster.
"Alas a hero comes out of the shadows in these lands. None like you have shown themselves since the death of the Phalanx. Unlike certain heroes, your mental security is well... lacking."
((Ergh... okay, so Cry is attacking E-X, the Dark Rover bunch are planning on using him as bait, and... what all else is happening? I'm not entirely clear on what's going on >.<
)
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
((Ya got me; I can't tell up from down in Project's posts. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Well, TeC, Acanous just leaped into the group of Sky Raiders chasing target. Acanous is stealthed, sort of, and there's a group of robots raining hell on his position with lazers and AoE missiles. The raiders have yet to react, and Krazy and I both have to wait on you and theSoviet before we can continue ))
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
((occ: Sorry, chameleon, thought you didn't regonize the first post and then I tried to refit the second post to make up for it! Sry about my grammar once again lol))
It was there, then there, then it moved at a blazing speed that could pass former Paragon City in five minutes if he didn't keep attention at it. Until it became a full blare of energy. Screens popped up images of a armor clad hero rang yelling alerts of all sorts. "This is the famed and heroic Energon-X." He weighed the consquences of leaving the base again and if Scirocco needed him he wouldn't be around to respond.
"This is the best for Arachnos, Scirocco has his head in to much policies and procedures." Cry started to waver until the glow of his eyes were left, the eyes popped at the sound of a giggle.
__________________________________________________
"DIE........!" The scream of a thousand voices echoed the ground just under the city shook and perfect cyndrical slabs of earth nearly a quater mile in length shot from the Earth. "Your time has come Energon-X, it is time that Bastion will fall." The pillars now fell from the Earth aiming at Energon-X their structure falling apart into a mass of stone, the sky was changing in the area the smokey sky now turning pitch black with waves of celestial purple.
"With the fall of the East their psychic network is completely down, finnally news will spread evenly between my seers." Cry rarely did spells of arcane nature in combat. Energon X would be surprised as what came out of a invisible phase shift, an anomaly created of stone and will.
The air wavered and before the city nearly a building high was a creation of Cry. Its hulking mass of stone and steel roared through the city. At the center of it,protected in a bubble of energy was Cry controlling the gaint monster.
"Alas a hero comes out of the shadows in these lands. None like you have shown themselves since the death of the Phalanx. Unlike certain heroes, your mental security is well... lacking."
"Well, [censored]!" The head of the tribunal cried, his face getting so hot so as to almost give literal meaning to 'blood boiling' anger. He slammed his fists on the podium, a thud followed by a small crack indicating that at least some damage had been done to the elegant piece of furniture.
He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"OK, attention!" He screamed, conversations that had been going on instantly dying at the sound of his voice. "Cry has left his post. Courses of action?"
"Track him down, of course!" One man shouted, his face indiscernable in the crowd.
"Wait for him to come back. He lacks the finesse to read minds, so there's no reason he should be out there because he's running." Another shouted, his face equally as hidden.
"Agreed. Besides, that's not his style."
Much debate was had over the subject until the group finally came to a compromise.
"Very well, we'll send out several probes and wait here until he's found. Agreed?"
"Aye!"
"Fu-" One Raider began before his momentum carried him right into the arrow. Unfortunately, besides him and a couple of other raiders, the arrows would definitely not be finding their mark. The Sky Raiders were twisting and maneuvering in no discernible pattern, rolling through the air with a sort of grace about them. A Jump Bot suddenly made its way to the scene from afar, soaring out of the air and firing for effect at Target.
((Errr...Not to sound silly, but where is Cynic right now? I was under the impression he was inside an Arachnos corridor, but by flipping trough it seems as though we are OUTSIDE... >.> Clarification would be nice.))
((grr i would love to post again, but my progress in this and one other RPG is limited to what other people do...POST DAMN YOU BUILD!!! POST!))
"You, dear sir, are a legend. "- nelly. "PIE DOESN'T HAVE TENTACLES!"
Bladewing Draconian lvl 30 KAT/SR scrapper
DarkNinjutsu lvl 50 DM/REG scrapper
Dajoji Hino lvl 50 elm/ela scrapper
Bloody Byakko lvl 20 claws/sr scrapper