Arbiter Daos sat at his desk, in his office. For once, his assistants were not about. Arbiter Daos was a very no-nonsense man, but every once in a while, he showed a tinybit of emotion. He took it out from its hiding place and looked at it.
The hat of Agent Deathstalker. All that was left of him, after Daos' absolute vengeance was complete.
It was always very akward. He would set it down in front of himself and just stare at it. Thinking. And every time, without fail, he had refused to shed even a single tear over the event. It took great effort on his part to not break down completely just at the sight of it.
Daos' latest revery was interupted as a million million alarms suddenly blared from his computer terminal. He barely managed to stuff the hat back into its hiding place before no less than four arbiters burst in. Less then ten minutes later, Daos was completely filled in about what Cry had done.
And he did not know what to do.
What he had done was WORSE than taboo. This transcended mere factionalism. Cry could not have done worse if he had directly attacked Lord Recluse. Cry had just killed Kalinda, Marino, Nocturne and Lunata in one shot. Four of Arachnos' most skilled members, who had all become Arbiters within the past 2 decades. Kalinda, who had already been the best seeress Arachnos had had many years ago, had only grown more skilled with time. Now she was dead. Marino had eventually joined the Night Widows and had personally worked with Nocturne in covert operations. Both of them had just fallen down dead in the middle of a mission. Lunata had collaborated with the Mu Mystics to further deceipher old mystical rituals involving spirits, and helped to develope several new ones the world would never see the likes of again. She had fallen down dead in fort Hades.
Cry hadn't just killed off most of the 'Seers and Widows.' He had just killed off the majority of Arachnos' psychic, intelligence, covert ops, assassination, technology, magic, and military specialists. This left Arachnos with a handful of fresh off-the-streets recruits, who had received Cry's curse mark. Cry had killed off over a hundred Arbiters, crippled the Arachnos psychic network, destroyed them in the espionage and intelligence department, lost over six hundred confidential documents to rival factions, *including four private ones that belonged to Lord Recluse* and had slaughtered well over a hundred thousand Arachnos personel. Oer 80% of the faction had turned against him with the return of Ghost Widow. She was a blazing beacon on the radar of Arachnos. Nobody missed her return. If anybody HAD missed it, they knew about it now, within all certainty.
Cry would not be explaining his way out of this one. He had just declared open and unrestricted war on Arachnos. There was only one person who could spare him now, and that was Lord Recluse. Daos knew this. He also knew that it was not up to him to decide what Cry's fate should be. This was HUGE. There was not a single faction or part of Arachnos that Cry had not just affected with his actions. He had just compromised Arachnos' inner workings a thousand times over and more, along with devestating their ranks. By killing off all disloyal arbiters, he had just 'killed' Lord Recluse over a hundred times.
Daos immediately called the Arachnos European office, forced his way through the hold with his authority, and requested an audiance with Lord Recluse himself via video conference. He had approved of Cry when he had first become a patron, but THIS...! This was beyond any form of redemption or mercy.
Justice was not in Daos' name though. It was in the name of Lord Recluse, and it was up to him to decide what to do. Doubtlessly he already knew exactly what had happened. He was not the lord and master of the Rogue isles and one of the most powerful military forces in the world for nothing.
The screen flickered to life and Daos stood to attention as the glowing red eyes of the count of the cruel and the archvillain of anarchy appeared on-screen.
"My lord." He said, bowing. "I bear catastrophic news. As I am sure you already know, one of your patrons has just commited a very bold act." A very light way of putting it. But Daos would not rest until Justice was done. There would be reckoning for this...!
***
Ghost Widow screamed and vanished as a large chunk of her power was extinguished on the spot as HER faction, which had been wrested away from her, was almost completely wiped out. Her power was directly tied to Arachnos, and Cry had just SEVERELY reduced it. She was gone, for now, but she thought to herself as she retreated: 'There will be reckoning for this...!'
***
Something stirred.
Dead...?
But there are...So many...
No...
There will be reckoning for this...!
Jake stopped dead in his tracks, so to speak, even before the former battle site came into view. His mouth literally hung agape as the blinking message scrolled across his head set, displaying its message with undeniable certainty.
Code Red: Lt. Cry. Mass killing of Arachnos Psi-Ops. No official orders as of yet.
"Just what the [censored] does that arrogant [censored]-ing baby think he's doing?" Jake spoke, too much in shock to actually yell. Even though this hadn't been his division, and despite the fact that he didn't even like the Psi-Ops division that much in the first place, this was still a major blow against Arachnos, and his brain-washing made him completely and unquestionably loyal to Arachnos.
The enemy of Arachnos was an enemy of the Arbiters, and Cry had just made one Hell of an enemy out of himself.
Turning around a literal one hundred-eighty degrees, Jake speedily made his way back to Steel Canyon's Arachnos Outpost with the intention of contacting Arbiter Daos. Next to Recluse, to the Arbiters, his word was law, and any orders regarding the matter would be delivered by him.
-----
Tamesis received the message while in the midst of combat and, despite his mind being devoid of any sort of brain washing, his was still fairly pissed off at the message. He took it as a slap to the face, and Tamesis wasn't one who the insulter get away completely unscathed. As soon as he finished up here, should his condition and time allow, he would be heading out to hurt one very specific infant.
-----
Even as the Tribunal discussed Cry's fate, alarms sounded, and a message was displayed within each of their helmets. An eerie hush fell over the room, completely disregarding the sirens.
"G-... Gentlemen." One of them stated, his composure shakily returning. "I believe our meeting here has been proven irrelevant."
With that, the room went into an uproar. Shouts of protest were heard as chairs tipped over from their owners' sudden rise. People screamed, and it would seem as if chaos had taken over before order was finally found.
But despite their unorganized cries of protest, one thing was for certain. They were all in agreement, now. Despite the lack of orders, Cry's punishment was rather obvious.
However, the group waited. They were not so outraged as to forget protocol. The order had to be given first. All anxiously waited, some leaning back and forth, some biting their lips, and some just standing still, but each of them staring at the upper corner of their head set, awaiting the command to bring justice to the traitor.
((sorry for the delay trying to figure out how to introduce another character, and Anth isn't doing much at the moment. But I've figured it out and will be introducing another character once there's a good spot for me to do it properly.))
Anthius politely refused the ride. "Thank you for the offer but I prefer to follow under my own power." He took a few steps away and let his Angelic wings grow out of his back, and motioned for them to go on intending to follow after them.
On the ATC, Acanous stopped, a buzzing in his ear widening his eyes.
------------------ULTRA base, Warburg---------------------
the brain of the man that used to be Doctor Ludwig Von Auger sat in a tank surrounded by monitors, lab equiptment, and the scrapped cybernetic body of Angus, the remnants of which were laid out on a lab table, being repaired slowly by robotic fabricators.
The Doctor monitored over 1000 channels, his psionic powers assisting to ensure he was not detected. While it took him a while to crack new codes, the alert that had gone out over a broad spectrum did not pass him by.
Inside his digital domain, he copied the alert, and sent it to all ULTRA operatives currently on active status, along with the message "Ve haff a Problem."
----------ATC, Steel Canyon---------------
Acanous shook his head slowly.
"Has the whole world gone to hell today?"
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
((Reading now it's probably a good as time to any to bring her out.))
First the huge blast messing with the dimensional fabrics in the area, now the huge influx of souls on their way to hell. These two factors gave Nyx her perfect chance to escape from Hell. Her only problem now was 3 imp like demons that stood one and a half times her height saw her making her escape and had no intention of letting her leave. Covering her hands in negative energy she grabbed one of the holes the souls were making their way through and pulled herself slowly to the other side. She slowly came out the other side to see steel canyon.
Not really in the condition she remembered it but she really didn't have the time to sit there an gawk. After pulling herself through she unfurled her black feathered wings and took off to the sky the 3 imps not far behind her. While speeding between building's trying to lose her pursuers she spotted a familiar pair of white wings following a strange vehicle. She sped off in that direction hoping the people there could handle a couple lower demons.
It didn't take long before she flew over top of the ATC so she would hopefully also take notice of any of crew inside that might hopefully be willing to lend a hand.
Acanous began pacing inside the ATC, trying to think up a strategy for dealing with the fallout that this Arachnos civil war would cause.
He was starting to form an idea when a flitting shadow caught his eye.
More than a little paranoid about possible Martial-Law, Acanous looked out the window, expecting Arachnos strike craft. Instead, he cought sight of a black-winged figure zipping ahead of the ATC.
"We got company!"
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
"Relax." the armored officer told Acanous with a sigh, slowly waving a hand in a downward motion at the man; a gesture to calm down, "She's not dangerous. At least not to us. Still, we'd better set down before her pursuers get here..."
--------------------
"Well now, I find myself quite disappointed." the blue-scaled draconians grinned savagely as Tamesis for some reason didn't make any attempt to escape the slab, the heavy grate burying the Arbiter underneath it.
His voice was lighter than Groul's, but carried the same underlying, guttural growl. Still, the tone was rather eloquent and by no means difficult to understand. The 'monster' was intelligent - and quite respectably so.
Taking the resulting opportunity, the right-hand creature quickly ground a clawed foot onto the slab as well to add a portion of his own weight to pin Tamesis down, "How do you expect me to distract you properly if you're not even really paying attention...?"
--------------------
Arachnos North Atlantic Fleet
Zone 5 - Former United Kingdom
Flagship: Battlecruiser THANATOS
Rain.
Wind.
Darkness, thunder, and lightning.
There were the companions of the fleet this night.
Despair.
Misery.
Dejection, pain, and anger.
These were its soul.
Aboard the THANATOS, fingers of white shot into the dark clouds above, spotlights coming online one after another on the raised aft portion of the vessel; the air staging deck.
At the same time, the aircraft carrier at the fleet's rear became active as well, running lights sprinting down its decks and cutting through the sheets of pouring rain and ocean spray.
A Flyer launched.
The storm swallowed all other noise about, the aircraft cutting through walls of wind and rain with deathly silence. It didn't take long at all to cover the short distance to the flagship. Aboard the THANATOS, there led a corridor to a junction. And at that junction, there stood a door, flanked by a Bane Spider on each side.
An armored hand replaced the receiver of the night-black telephone upon the desk, gently releasing the piece of plastic back into its place. The gaze of two piercing red eyes within an armored helmet lifted from the blank, black monitor beside the phone, glaring into space with rage. A pair of armored hands laid their fingers upon the desk.
Their owner arose.
Without warning, the doors tore aside and Lord Recluse burst from his office with brisk and forceful pace, each contact of an armored boot with the metal of the deck sending shudders through any and all nearby. The lord of Arachnos walked with grim determination, his volatile gaze never deviating from the course ahead, not even to look over his own shoulder as the guards scrambled to follow. Lord Recluse was angry, and all about knew it, the walls of the corridor passing his form with inevitable tempo, the archvillain's cape trailing in the man's own wake.
Not a minute later, the Flyer departed the air staging deck of the THANATOS, setting course once more for the aircraft carrier. The craft flew steady as a rock, as if the storm knew just whom it had taken aboard. Even the dark waters below seemed calmer. Thunder, lightning, darkness, and rain still roared about, however, and spotlights followed the Flyer without fail.
On the carrier's deck already stood several more personnel, some waving down the Flyer while others worked by the port elevator to bring one of the Council's hypersonic spy planes to the catapult, the sleek aircraft bathed in white light. The Flyer came lower, its landing struts making contact with the deck among the torrent of rain.
The next moment Lord Recluse stormed from the craft, personnel about saluting in haste as the master of Arachnos guided his steps toward the plane in the straightest of lines. Armored feet sent the water of the wet deck to scatter beneath every step, Recluse's forceful gait tolerating none save his own will, cape billowing in the wind and rain.
Two lines of personnel formed quickly to each side as the lord of Arachnos made his way across the deck and to the waiting hatch of the spy plane, stepping into the aircraft without hesitation. The order to launch fell sharp as a clap of thunder.
Without delay, turbines roared and ailerons flexed, personnel scattering to the winds as the spy plane aligned with the catapult, then tore down the deck without mercy and thundered away into the skies...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Pursuers?"
He looked out the hatch, spotting three flying imps.
One of his eyebrows raised, the other furrowed.
That certainly doesn't LOOK like Arachnos...
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
((gah will be treavelling to college to day, so will post again when able))
Bladewing suddenly clapped a hand to his ear, hearing the supposedly "covert" arachnos signal.
Grinning he turned to Band and Dax.
"Well guys, it seems as though one of arachnos's newest inner circle members just made about the whole organization go kaboom."
"Sounds like they lost every widow and fortunata they had....which means, no psychics, no espionage, no cloak and dagger stuff."
Thinking for a moment, Bladewing adjusted his flight path.
"Bang, What do you say that for your return gift, we go slaughter and raid a few arachnos outposts?"
((also secondarily and kinda stupidly, remind me of certain zones and their functions please. I remember that eden is a wilderness, the hive is more so, FF is a giant crater, talos is a ....well I dont remember what talos is. and I dont remember where the Bastion or the Fortress were.))
"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
OOC:
Can do.
Atlas Park: destroyed, as in the game on the A GON Y HALL map.
Galaxy City: undisclosed, but probably destroyed.
Kinds Row: somewhat intact, but very run-down.
Steel Canyon: mostly destroyed; location of the Bastion.
Skyway City: Crey's version of Midgar.
Bloody Bay: undisclosed.
The Hollows: undisclosed.
Perez Park: undisclosed.
Boomtown: active warzone.
Siren's Call: mostly wasted; location of the Fortress.
Faultine: undisclosed.
Talos Island: undisclosed.
Independence Port: staging area for the Arachnos navy.
Striga Isle: to be revealed.
Dark Astoria: undisclosed.
Croatoa: undisclosed.
Brickstown: undisclosed, but likely destroyed.
Founders' Falls: destroyed.
Eden: wilderness.
Crey's Folly: undisclosed.
Peregrine Island: to be revealed.
Rikti Warzone: undisclosed.
There, I think I got them all. Undisclosed ones haven't been picked by anyone for any sort of public purpose, so as I understand it, people are still free to do with those as they wish.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Speaking of purposes- could I lay claim to Australasia/Oceania? I've got a very cool idea for a last redoubt (well, I like it at least 
), but it'd be a pretty big thing to play with))
"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"
((How about no?))
((This is still open, right? Like I could jump in at any time?))
((shinji, you should talk with Blood Wolffe, and Bwerp, you have no power to deny Chameleon access if he gets permission from blood to use the area. Did you have something in mind for said landmass? if so then speak up, continents are bigger than city zones and can be shared you know.))
"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
((This is a thread about PARAGON CITY and the ROGUE ISLES. [u]YOU[u] have [u]ZERO[u] authority to go and use entire nations, REGARDLESS of size, for any purpose other than the introduction of a character. We have already threadjacked enough here, don't you think?
Unless it is by general consensus, you should not do anything. It is pointless, irrelevent, has nothing at all to do with the plot currently at hand. This story was NEVER meant to be on a NATIONAL, NOR GLOBAL scale. This is a story where it has already hit GAME OVER. World has ended. Buh-bye. This is SUPPOSED to be a story about the life and survival of people EXCLUSIVELY in the Rogue Isles/Paragon city in a post-apocalyptic/despotic society. If you want to go and use an entire nation/landmass ASIDE from those two locations, you may take your character AWAY from said locations, and as a consequence, out of this RP.
Now, if you have permission from Blood Wolffe, that is an entirely different matter. I will not object if you have official permission.))
((Then why even cry about it, Bwerp? Let Blood Wolffe handle his thread.))
((He's not really ever-present. :/ Some people have lives and can't manage to make it online when they are needed.))
((You forgot Warburg, which I've sort-of claimed, it's still held by Marshall Blitz, although in a blockaided, too-much-effort-for-the-rewards sort of way. Home to all manner of those who would run from Arachnos, It's also the location of ULTRA's main base... although that's a rather secret fact.
Recluse propably knows that several heroes and non-allied villains have taken refuge there, and more than likely allows it to exist just because it keeps those people out of the way and in one place.))
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
((Things like that are ok, because it's covered in the parameters of the thread. Warburg is part of the Rogue isles, and its not an independant nation. Rogue Arachnos is an actual NPC group under our jurisdiction. Warburg has always been a *true* free-for-all zone, so the way you have it set up it completely logical.))
((bwerp, in my previous comment I did say "IF" chameleon got permission, maybe he could use said landmass, and correct me if I am wrong, but hasn't someone been RPing Lord Recluse...who AFAIK is working to conquer great britan and is only now returning to the fortress...via some high speed aircraft?))
"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
((Lord Recluse does not control any portion of Europe, last I checked. He might have an embassy I believe, but is making little headway. In any case, I do not believe you should expect any mention of progress or action in Europe concerning Arachnos or any other NPC group.
Now please do complain about Scirocco and Cry so I may point that out again.
But yes, you're right. I jumped the gun there. I'll leave it be.))
((I claimed the Shard. It's more green glowing crystal islands than anything now and all part of Dax while he's there. Since he's not its kinda in power down mode))
Bang jumped three or four times in the air roughly bringing his boot heels down on Bladewing's shoulder, "YeahYeahYeahYeah DEATH-DESTRUCTION-MAYHEM lets go killem all"
Bang leapt into the air and promptly dissappeared. The crystal cat looked at Bladewing, "From all the chaos caused by those deaths he has gotten stronger. We will have to keep an eye on him. You never no when he will pop."
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
((occ: As RPd Recluse has won over Europe from the last of the Rebellion. Along with it Mako with the help of Black Scorpion created new assassin drones which largely helped Recluse win. Recluse is sorta injured by a final fight, but not enough to keep him from day to day activities, that injury will come forth sometime later.
If Paragon is in ruins from Arachnos and its tiers then as well as an assumption if the highest concentration of the worlds strongest super human heroes are disabled and into hiding then world wide conquest was not far behind with little resistance.))
((Recluse isn't human. You could probably rip his heart out, and he'd grow a new one. I don't think there is ANY kind of physical injury that can possibly impede him for long, but that's up to Devious to decide.))
Cry didn't find himself at a disadvantage, he only needed his shield to stay intact, for his physical mass was incomplete shedding the energies of Energon-X. "Should I do this? This organization has no way to high-tail it out of this one!" Cry reared up to protest his statement made long ago by Lord Recluse and Arbiter Daos.
"You're such a block, a worthless stone Ghost Widow! What you have done is an act agaisnt Arachnos! You have turned my ranks agaisnt me, agaisnt Arachnos! You are not of Arachnos anymore your position was denied and replaced with someone more ambitious then you. If it must come down to this then let it be, it is time to purge the conspirators from my ranks, from the ranks of Arachnos!"
Cry looked over to Scarlet Eye, smiling. "You have my orders to wipe every Fortuna or any under my command not bearing the mark of their curse I made for them."
The safeguards were activating, not in anyway unnoticed, Cry loved to meet his faction one by one, and in a way each safeguard was different then the last. Through useless psychic channels and high wire connections was Cry open to every mind insuring that his faction wouldn't turn on him. They could do nothing, for in the first place they agreed to it when they took on the mantle of Arachnos.
__________________________________________________ __
The wave of the command swept the world a silent push, a weak command but its power to sway was instantaneous. "By Code: 041 of the Arachnos Regulations and Standards, you by default chose this sentence of Execution without trial, overriding the Arbiter command insuring safety of Arachnos and its future." Wave upon wave of Night Widows, Fortunas, and others fell their minds erased.
"There are only a handful under my command now Ghost Widow. Give me a weeks time and I will see it that every loss within my faction is replaced by someone loyal to Arachnos, not its former royalties." Cry relaxed and shifted from the world to assimilate thousands of souls and minds to his matrix. Leaving Scarlet Eye to deal with Ghost Widow.
__________________________________________________ ___
This one was going to be hard for Cry to explain. But as always he had a plan. Cry blew off the attacks from Ghost Widow like a charm, her attacks were useless agaisnt him. Though the way Scarlet Eye unintentionally interfered was another annoyance to Cry. Now the minds and souls were one with Cry, their power in wait for some future conflict.
Cry flicked his wrist and a mound of sand form, whisperings of words and then a shaped form. "Of the sand, silent as the wind, my new soldiers of Arachnos, Laterre Warriors of the Italian Monks. Your internal souls have come at last call forth your legions and aid me and I shall renew your contract."
These monks dealt with Cry when he was just a simple demon. In fact there were actually the people who created Cry in the first place, their ideology creating the rules that governed Cry. Soon more sand started to pour and Cry released souls into the sand, breathing life into it. Soon outside the Fortress would Cry once again become tangible with the world and bring back legions that many would fear.
__________________________________________________ __
Ruby and Blue Starlet brought up their Tactic abilities and before they could counterstrike they heard thuds as many fell over dead except a few which seemed to be unaffected by it. "He did it, lucky for us."
"We could of died here, anyway, released from his curse."
"He would just do another ritual to make us live another death and we would be under his command once again Ruby." Blue channeled his Chi into a blast to knock down a Night Widow. "Well he just wiped out a good part of Arachnos' psychic division how is he going to explain this to Daos?"
"He will, but didn't you see it was wide spread mutiny. This has happened before in a larger scale in when Warburg had its nuclear missile crisis. Arachnos recovered nicely, and actually benefited from that purge."