Sinister giggles crossed the infant's mind. Then layers upon layers of giggles filled the infinite domain Cry was within. "How can you silence me, when you cannot even live without serving it!" Cry laughed, don't cross me that I didn't expect it, of course I expected it, though in due course I will call you the Calamity.
"Your threats are worthless to me Ghost Widow, you do not even carry the intelligence or knowledge on how to strike me down. Even now I go stronger, every waking moment that I age in this world."
__________________________________________________ __
"Do you feel that? You think Cry is watching us?" Blue Starlet asked Ruby both leaning on the wall the meteor within Ghost Widow's former chamber.
"That or Cry is spreading his psychic network, remember that feeling before the invasion on Paragon. It feels about the same but he defiantly has improved his power and tactics." Ruby sighed her Chi network blocking out all psychic and mental barrages except the one link that kept her alive.
"He is planning something, like the rising sun we are only seeing the first light of his work."
"Perhaps this time the sun will set."
"He won't find anybody useful here, Mercy Island is a dead zone, psychics are dieing and regulars are just walking in a stupor and daze, Grandville is totally sealed off. Thats it."
"What?"
"Why didn't I think of it before? Cry strives to manipulate and know, he sets these little blocks into place and then collapses them on purpose to build a larger bridge. Cry is leaching off this thing and it probably doesn't even know it!"
Bang looked with wonder at the arm that was half in, half out of nothing. "Man I haven't seen anything like that since me, you, 'Kega, and Morin took that little trip to Guam and 'Kega decided that the bartender had one arm to many," The jester said while making a face at the cat.
"Don't remind me. I had to play peace maker that time and we ended up causing a civil war," The cat said as it leapt forward through the hole.
Bang looked around for a second as if to make sure no one was watching, "I wonder if I can do that." Bang spent the next ten seconds trying to stick his right arm through his stomach before finally succeeding. "Man it sucks being this weak. At full power I could swallow my leg up to the knee without a problem, now I have trouble even sticking myself through. . .myself."
"Oh well guess I should pop in and say hello to 'Wing," Bang said as he shoved his body through the hole head first resulting in Bladewing getting headbutted in a very sensitive area (I think, well it would be on a human male) before looking up at the saurian's face, "OY!"
All of a sudden Bang seemed to be every where at once, hugging the dark saurian and kissing him, "Mate, if you knew how long I've waited to see ur ugly mugg. Now I know I'lll get to destroie something."
I do not know my reasons for posting, but post I must. ~~Build
"We can't stop here, this is bat country."
--Johnny Depp
"I ain't bi-curious, I'm a man. Why do you think I'm wearing this tight spandex and got all these muscles?" Meatwad
Hanging out the side of the ATC, Acanous quickly dismounted as it came to a rest. His cape billowing behind him with the ATC's exhaust, he strode forward slowly, trying to find purchase on fragmented concrete and broken glass.
Looking around for possible hostiles, he scanned the area slowly, trying not to miss anything in the chaotic clutter.
Satisfied, he gave an OK signal back to the ATC, and proceeded up the hill of rubbish.
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
((I'm still here, but I think my brain has thrown a piston... and Devious, Target's flying alongside the ATC, and E-X had already agreed to being examined))
"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"
((Nashty. And oui, but the ATC got there twice already, and Bladewing also asked Energon to come along. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((It's a race!))
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
(( >.O Just assume that I'm coming along to wherever (both Target and E-X). I'm not sure whether it's tiredness or just colossal writer's block, but I can't seem to get anything worthwhile written))
"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"
(Well you DO have 2 seperate hero groups converging on you.
We should form a team!)
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
((Oh, leave the man alone. Everyone hits a funk now and then.))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
(Tru, tru.)
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
Bladewing's eyes crossed for a moment as he took a head to the crotch, and then he delivered a swift punch to the back of Bang's head.
"Damnit man!, why do you have to do stuff like that, now I'm gonna be feeling that for the rest of the day."
Grumbling, Bladewing smacked Bang's head once more for good measure.
"Grab the cat and hop through the portal already."
"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
Cry could leech off the rock all he wanted, nothing was stopping him aside from the tiny detail that there wasn't any psionic energy left in it. There was the original psychic shockwave that had echoed from the impact site, which would have been easy to feed off of. Except that it had already dispersed. The random beastie that had crash-landed in the meteor had also left, making it impossible for Cry to locally suck on it. Not only that, but his current method wouldn't have worked out anyway. Blue and Ruby were guarding a useless chunk of rock. Useless as it was though, somebody might have thought it useful for smashing people over the head with, because a group of fifteen Night Widows suddenly barged in. Their wrist-blades already out, and the pressure in the room fluctuated as they prepared their mental abilities.
"You shouldn't be here." The lead Widow said. "Our mistress demands you leave at once." This was a mutiny! There was a rumble from below as War and Death high-fived and the troops started to fight amongst themselves, split between serving their old mistress or their new master. Half of the widows, fortunatas, and seers had turned on the spot, with more converting back to Ghost Widow's side with every passing second. Cry was very unpopular, or Ghost Widow was impressive. Or both. All the systems and security features went haywire, none of them responding. They couldn't react against their own troops. If this little uprising managed to spread outside of the tower, things were going to quickly degenerate for Cry and what few followers he would have left. It was reasonable to hope Ghost Widow hadn't left yet.
***
Ghost Widow floated through the wall and was suddenly in front of Cry in his little bubble. She had been fast. Cry could already feel the solidness of her mental defenses. She had completely fortified herself. It was unlikely even Sister Psych could have broken through it. Thankfully, that meant Ghost Widow wouldn't be able to use any mental attacks herself. She intended for this to be a purely physical battle. Though she was a ghost, Cry would be quickly surprised to find her blows and strikes were all too solid. He would also have to think very fast now, after all, if everybody suddenly turned to Ghost Widow's side, he'd have lost through a democratic process regardless of whether he could hold out against her or not. His personal assistants were probably fine, as he most likely had dominated them long ago. Others though, well, they were probably already fighting with each other or running to this location to help Ghost Widow or Cry.
Completely obsessed with revenge, Ghost Widow took little notice of anybody or anything else in the room and attacked, sending a veracious storm of souls in Cry's direction. This wasn't your run-of-the-mill hold-This was an attack that could freeze Statesman himself in his tracks, if only for a little while. It would be extremely hard to directly resist the soul storm head-on.
Tamesis was no fool, especially when it came to combat. His specialist squad was not only already dead, but had been taken down in no less that a single hit, in some few cases two. This being said, as he had already established himself as a hostile, there was no point in stalling for time and hoping for a mutual agreement. He again lunged at the draconian being, hoping that his recent toss of a corpse had kept him off guard long enough to be punched in the jaw within a half second of Tamesis's recovery.
The rocks blew apart twisting around the bubble that protected Cry, beads of energy connected them as they twisted. "I can do little to resist your attacks my old lady." The whirlpool of energy grasped the souls and they became one with it. Cry could only chuckle. "That is why I will absorb them, there is little you can do, though perhaps I haven't tried this, quite an interesting idea."
Ghost Widow, is a ghost, a soul a manifestation of a spirit. "Ghost Widow you have never met someone with the same abilities as yourself, until now. Before I scatter your soul Ghost Widow, there is a reason why my organization fears me." The air shifted and a inward shift on the ethereal plane started to suck toward Cry.
"Your retreat is always welcome Ghost Widow, there are few that can fight me when I'm on the defensive." If Ghost Widow was fully aware, she would of noticed that her body was starting to disappear to the growing mass of Cry.
__________________________________________________ ___
Ruby and Blue Starlet both stood to attention. They didn't feel any sort of pressure their Chi fields up. "You all know once Cry activates the safe-guards you are all as good as Arachnos fish bait, Arbiters are even less forgiving to underlings like you." Suddenly a glowing snakehead of plasma appeared and started to ring around the shoulders of Ruby.
She struck out her hand and the ribbons of the dragon trailed her arm length to her hands. A ball of plasma erupted hit a Night Widow square in the head. Blue Starlit erupted into a glowing blue light the air humming with his radiance. "Bring it!"
Bang nodded quickly headbutting the saurian in the juevos five more times before pointing over Bladewing's shoulder, "Kitty ober der"
Dax chuckled, "Good to see your defenses still waver in atleast one place. So what are we doing now, 'Wing? Still trying to destroy the forces of evil while killing boredom at the same time? Or have we given up on killing boredom and just began to slap around every one in an attempt to find someone strong enough to actually fight?"
The crystal cat quickly did a double take to make sure no one had over heard him, it wouldn't do him any good for anyone to know he was anything but a green cat. Bang pulled the rest of his body through the portal and jumped up onto Bladewing's shoulders. "Oy! Lets go find us some dames and get me welcome home party started!"
I do not know my reasons for posting, but post I must. ~~Build
"We can't stop here, this is bat country."
--Johnny Depp
"I ain't bi-curious, I'm a man. Why do you think I'm wearing this tight spandex and got all these muscles?" Meatwad
((E-X went with Danger and the Devialiens; Target's going wherever Bladewing is going. Beyond that, I just can't come up with anything worth writing on that bit))
The Scarlet Eye watched Cry's vicious battle against Ghost Widow with mild disinterest, a minute fraction of its attention on directing the wild infighting in the Fortunata and Widow corps, shoring up wavering loyalty here, severing it there... a psionic maelstrom of chaos that fed both its hungers exquisitely.
An indetectable tendril of chaos snaked out, disrupting Cry's absorptive ability. The infant was in for a nasty shock next time he tried to just take one of Ghost Widow's attacks... Anything that drew this battle out was just fine by the Eye; it would stretch out the violence amidst Arachnos' Fortunatas and provide a veritable banquet. And if it spread... with careful manipulation, it was entirely possible that this could send the entire Fortress up in flames, and with a little luck, could spark the final confrontation between hero and villain that would lead to the ascendancy of chaos... and the Scarlet Eye.
"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"
"Okay Bang, just give me a moment to restrain myself before I show you the inside of a black hole for a return gift."
Twitching slightly, Bladewing began flying back towards the bastion, both shoulders occupied, one by the god turned cat, and the other occupied by the jester of Chaos.
Glancing around, Bladewing whispered out of the corner of his mouth, so that only Dax and Bang would hear.
"So, should we try and collect Kaega next wherever he is? or did you guys part on less than amicable terms."
"Oh and Bang, I have a lovely secondary resort/base tucked away in eden...any being with anything resembling a shred of intelligence avoids the place like the plauge, but thats just due to me slaughtering everything that has ever set eyes on the place....after all it is the world's msot exclusive resort/spa/base in existance."
Smiling to himself, Bladewing mentally commanded his mystic servants to begin prepping the Island getaway in eden for a few visitors with unique needs.
"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
Cry found himself laughing like a drunkard who hadn't yet realized he had just fallen off the edge of a cliff. He found himself high in the air, being neatly crushed by a swarm of malevolent glowing souls, as opposed to expanding like the bad-year blimp. He may have been a patron, but he had to brush up on his history. Ghost Widow was directly bound to Arachnos. The more powerful and wide-spread Arachnos was, the more powerful she was. Cry made her more powerful just by existing. Being a patron just made it worse. That alone was not enough to condemn him though.
What got him was that this applied to the souls Ghost Widow manipulated as well.
When Cry had been swarmed by the soul storm, it had been more like being swarmed by a hundred tiny Ghost Widows every bit as powerful as the actual one. Each was completely independent of the other and quite intelligent, and all that other fancy stuff. Normally this also wouldn't have mattered.
Except that Ghost Widow could not be siphoned off of, dispelled, despelled, disenchanted, cursed, exorcised, or any form of what-have-you get rid of spirits gun you kept around. As long as Arachnos existed, and was large and powerful, she would and could not wane in might. Right now, she did the opposite. She WAXED. This applied to every soul she manipulated. Cry had found himself trying to absorb something both larger than himself, with him being a sponge trying to take in a rock. It just didn't work. Having admitted himself that he could do very little to directly resist the storm, he was lifted into the air and bombarded with ghostly energies.
Ghost Widow waited patiently until the storm wore off. She, like most of Arachnos, was cruel. That was her nature. She adapted the workings of the organization. She taunted and humiliated her opponents. She was being MERCIFUL in combat. This was to let Cry know something vital:
Cut the crap or you will lose. If he wanted to stand a chance against an older, and much more experienced fighter than himself, he would have to try things differently. Less flaunting and flouncing about with how amazing you were and how mighty your powers were, showy and flashy. Showy and flashy was fine until you overdid it. In the end, true balance resided in things like Ghost Widow. They were streamlined. Efficient. Could they explode in surges of power that leveled entire cities? Sure, if they cared to. Did they? No. They didn't need to. They knew better than that.
Cry was probably, in all honestly, much stronger then Ghost Widow in terms of sheer power. That didn't mean she still couldn't still mop the floor with him, provided she used the proper application of directed force, tactical ability, and just a tad of common sense. The question: Did Cry understand this? He had a very good chance of winning once and for all here. There were times for consuming energy fields larger then your head, and there were times for straight-up CONVENTIONAL warfare, where people used troops and guns instead of just blowing the [censored] out of each other with nukes. This was the latter. Ghost Widow had been watching and planning for a very long time. She knew what to expect of Cry. Perhaps it was time for a slight change in plans and methods?
Ghost Widow hovered in place, waiting for Cry to take action. She wasn't being cautious at all. Either she knew exactly what was about to happen or she was very confident about Cry's next actions. Her guard was DOWN...!
***
The Night Widows were nowhere near as informed or as lucky as Ghost Widow. Their opponents actually fought conventionally, or appeared to be doing so for now. They had received very simple instructions on how to deal with this pair.
"Expect doomsday explosions that will level the tower."
This was not a doomsday explosion that leveled the tower. The blast caught the Widows completely by surprised, blasting its target back through the ranks, multiple widows barely dodging her flying form.
Then the element of surprise was lost, and the widows brought it. They all instantly vanished as their cloaking was activated. Smoke bombs suddenly went down, filling the entire room with a gas that decreased perception. Even if the two could see through stealth methods already, if their perception was damaged, they wouldn't even be able to see their hands in front of their faces. Fortunately, being members of Arachnos, they probably already knew this and had a plan to counteract both smoke and stealth. They had barely moments at all to react, and then they would be struck from almost every direction by the deadly widows.
The safeguards remained quite silent and inert. Even if Cry got them running again, they would not attack their own troops. If they had been disguised automatons, that would have been one thing, but these were actual registered Arachnos troops that had, until a few moments ago, served under Cry himself. It wouldn't be impossible to reset the defenses the desired way. It would just take longer then the fight was going to last.
Looking up, Acanous saw something he wasn't sure was real, and had to do a quick double take as the flying creature zipped off westward.
"Holy crap, was that Bladewing?" he said aloud, to no-one in particular.
"Wasn't expecting him... If Wing's here, and E-X.... How fast can that ATC of yours go?" he asked, rounding on the guy with the hoverwheels.
He hopped back into the ATC in one smooth motion, pointing towards Eden.
"Follow that Draconian!"
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
"Nah mate. 'Kega gone. He left right at the end," Bang said as his quicksilver mask changed from the sunny smile to a crying mask with a single teardrop under one eye.
Dax looked first at Bang and then at Bladewing, "It's okay man, what you gotta realize is that Kaega had lived far longer than he ever wanted to. He even got to see his son right before the end, that put a smile on his face."
Storm clouds had started to build. Maybe it was a natural occurence, or maybe it had something to do with the painful memories going through the chaos god's head.
I do not know my reasons for posting, but post I must. ~~Build
"We can't stop here, this is bat country."
--Johnny Depp
"I ain't bi-curious, I'm a man. Why do you think I'm wearing this tight spandex and got all these muscles?" Meatwad
((what ever happened to Squiddy-Attack, Khell, Blood wolffe, and TH3OR3M?))
"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
((I believe that Khell has had RL take over for a bit, Squiddy Attack has vanished, likewise TH3OR3M, and I think Blood Wolffe might have been feeling that his thread's been hijacked a little))
"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"
((Yeah I think the original intention of the thread was to be a future version of the two super school threads they got going. I knew as soon as I posted that would go down the drain fast. Always seems to happen when I show up.))
I do not know my reasons for posting, but post I must. ~~Build
"We can't stop here, this is bat country."
--Johnny Depp
"I ain't bi-curious, I'm a man. Why do you think I'm wearing this tight spandex and got all these muscles?" Meatwad
((You sure? It looked to have some manner of core plot going. I just thought Wolffe never got around to it due to the business of life. 
))
Tamesis was quite likely surprised as the draconian creature appeared to be making no motion whatsoever to evade his second charge, the being's eyes simply glaring into his own like some manner of ethereal daggers, the icy stare seeming to follow every thought in his head.
Of course, this was not the case, but it may well have looked so as his strike went wide, the draconian creature having ducked low in what felt like from one instant to another. Before the Arbiter even knew what happened, the grated floor underneath his feet suddenly appeared to have a mind of its own, a section tilting upward with force to send the man tumbling down yet again.
And as his back greeted the floor again, Tamesis quite clearly saw that the floor had indeed not come alive, but that his opponent had pried the section loose, the draconian's claws visible within the grated edge's spacing.
However, the section was also rather heavy, and the Arbiter's adversary seemed to have no intent of holding it vertically for any duration. Instead, he simply gave it a light push, letting the thing come down after Tamesis. At the same time, he of course took a step back, using the spared time to bound a bit to the left and a bit to the right.
At the same time.
Yes, there were indeed two of him now - and both of them carried the same smug and toothy grin...
--------------------
"I guess you should, seeing how they left him behind and all that." the diminutive Specialist answered the unspoken question of the quizzically staring lancer, "And no, just leave it be. If he doesn't want to tell you about the sword, he doesn't have to."
"Understood." the armored man gave a short salute, then waited a moment until Anthius and Target had boarded as well (or conversely, informed him they wouldn't). Following this, he grabbed hold of a door's rim, stepping in as the vehicle left its hovering position and took to the skies once more. Whether the Bastion or Eden, the craft would keep pace with Bladewing's course.
And as this transpired, Danger's own ATC of course came out of hiding, setting down just as the other departed, Ki already making her way aboard with an undulation that to humans generally appeared quite creepy.
Danger didn't feel much like pestering Energon right now, however, hopping aboard with a leap that shouldn't have been trusted of his tiny legs. Still, the man bounced in like a frog, and off they were, back to the Dark Rover...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Cry got a response, and it was one he did not recognize. There were no words, he just felt as if something had looked at him. The moment passed, but Cry suddenly knew something had gone wrong. This wasn't the Calamity meteor. This was not anything he knew. This was something else entirely. Whatever it was, he hadn't been expecting it. Then, another voice spoke to him. This time, the voice was all to easy to recognize, and it carried with it solid thought.
'I'm coming for you Cry. I serve Arachnos, and I can only act as Arachnos would. I am not the only one who seeks to punish you Cry. There are many, many others. So now I may act, as I have wanted to do for a long time now. I'm going to kill you now, Cry. Said the VERY angry voice of nobody other than Ghost Widow.
***
"Right, I'm going." Cynic said, heading for the nearest door.
"Wait." One of the assistants said. "You just got a message from Arbiter Daos. Lord Scirocco's forces are being attacked in Baumtown. He requests that you go and aid them."
"Sunuva [censored]." Cynic swore. "I don't have TIME for this! The longer I delay the longer things have to be seriously [censored] up beyond all recognization! Can't the all-mighty lord of dreadlocks handle it himself?"
"I don't know anything about that. I just know that Arbiter Daos is officially your superior and that you have to do what he says. I also think it would be a wise thing to do. You got off on the wrong foot with Lord Scirocco. Why not use this opprotunity to fix everything and start anew?"
Cynic pondered this for a moment. It was true he hadn't gotten on so well with Scirocco. He had no proof the other had arrived yet, and having Arachnos aid in destroying it would be very helpful. It COULD wait.
"Fine." He said. "I'll get a squad together. As for getting to Baumtown, do you have anything that flies?"
"Oh yes, plenty." The assistant arbiter answered.
"Anything FAST?" Cynic asked hopefully.
"Fast?" The aribter responded in a confused voice.
"Forget it, we'll WALK." Cynic spat in frustration, heading out the door.