"Oh for the love of-Fine. That's it." Cynic turned disgustedly and went back through the Ouroboros portal. His drones followed shortly, and the Arachnos troops who were still alive were probably dead within a few moments.
***
"So now I just need to 'catch back up' with my previous flow of time, right?" Cynic asked the mender gloomily.
"Yes, when you only go back in time for anything under a day, you tend to 'fluctuate' in your temporal phasing unless you sync up with your potenti-" The Mender blathered on, unaware that Cynic had tuned him out after the first word.
He was fairly pissed off. They had KNOWN he would be coming. They had set up precautions ahead of time. They had outmaneuvered him when he had a 19:1 advantage in the numbers department-At least that had been what it seemed like.
[censored] aliens from another plane or whatever who were infinitely more advanced than everything and its cousin. Aside from being a Nemesis plot, their motives and goals were entirely unknown, and they could pretty much come and go as they pleased, take or drop what they wanted, and kill anyone they wanted without any fear of consequence a all.
And what had the Blue Army been doing there?
Moving aside from Cynic's thoughts for a moment, a brief explanation is in order: Cynic, being only vaguely familiar with Earth's history, having only frequented the place twice now, does not known much about the Malta group. Having encountered them in plenty of alternate planes, he knew they pretty much attacked on sight, were a highly advanced military group, and wore blue. So Cynic attacked them on sight, called them the Blue Army, and really didn't even bother asking the questions concerning them at all. Thus why he had decimated the group at Weaver airfield.
Going back to Cynic's train of thought:
There was nothing he could do except think while he caught up with his time flow, so that's what Cynic did. He THOUGHT.
((sorry guys I'll make a post when I get home from work))
((hooray creativity is mildly returning...but damn i have class...and build seems to have vanished once more.......shall we just say that dax, bang and bladewing are at the "resort" in eden and i will re-intro bladewing at a later time......for now i must think of new content.))
"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
Under any other circumstance, Jake wouldn't have worried at all about the crumbling state of the building around him. Indeed, it would have even given him an advantage, allowing him to remain safe inside of a repulsion bubble while his enemy suffered under several metric tons of weight. However, this wasn't any other circumstance. His shield had been weakened, and he was beginning to worry if it would even hold out in the case of a... Wait... That was it.
"You have fifteen seconds." Jake shouted to Acanous, immediately after rocketing toward the nearest exit.
"You guys know what do do."
"Statement: Witty Comment. Reference: Comics. W007 smash!"
"Statement: Indeed."
"Good."
As soon as they were out, the five unleashed a barrage of missiles, lasers, and plasma, all aimed at the supports of the structure. This was a last resort, but the Ultra had to be taken down. There was no way he would be stuck fighting the 'It Came From Planet Mars' monster reject for any longer. A screech filled the air, followed by a slow groan as one could literally see the walls bending, eventually giving way to a collapse of the ceiling. Anyone around without any ear protection (Which, thankfully, was Arachnos standard issue. Never know when a screamer will show.) would be slightly deafened for a good time to come.
And even if worst came to worst, he had pulled the railguns out before the demagnetization. All barrels were trained on where the creature had been before the collapse.
The grenade-carrying TacOp swore viciously as he saw Jake and his entourage rocket out the window gallery, and by the tugging motions of his cable, the Black Hawk's pilot wasn't too happy either. Still, they were out, and that's what mattered.
He didn't care a lick about Acanous, however, which meant that if the meta wanted to die here, it suited him just fine. Releasing the grenade belts, the man depressed the contact of his harness, signaling the helo's winch to start spooling back in order to catch his fall as the Malta operative leaped back out the windows as well.
The sniper had of course lost his bead on Acanous due to the hero disappearing behind a collapsing wall. Then again, he didn't much care, as watching the minigunner hose the whole CC with high-explosive shells from a chain gun that could fire more than 4000 of these suckers per minute was at least twice as entertaining.
The Vulcan literally shredded nearly the entire command chamber, its compound ammunition tearing through control terminals and monitor banks while the spinning barrels spat fire and thunder into the air between helicopter and tower, razing the entire level with enough collateral damage to make any insurance agent die of fright.
The Ultra barely had time to react, still focused on Acanous at the time Walsh had taken off - and with the hail of high explosives tearing not only into its body, but the structure all about as well, things didn't look at all good. The thermocannon did power up again in an attempt to destroy the hovering helo before its gun could finish the job, but the chamber's destruction - courtesy of Jake and company - prevented anything even remotely resembling aim. Rained on by debris, shrapnel, and of course 20 mm detonators, the huge reptilian merely staggered backward, its cannon never discharging.
The Ultra and CC alike vanished in a storm of dust, smoke, and fire as everything about collapsed and exploded, even a portion of the corridor behind the chamber.
And as the Black Hawk finally ceased fire and took its away-man aboard once more, the only question that now lingered was whether the meta had survived...
--------------------
Or not.
The Arachnos troops Cynic had left behind were certainly still alive. Then again, quite a few of them probably wished the pacing monsters would get it over with already, rather than dragging the situation on and on!
"What do you want from us?!" one man's nerves collapsed, the Bane Spider figuring if his last moments had come, he might as well die quickly - well, sort of, anyway. The man's coherence had left his mind right after the initial breakdown.
And in his onset of psychosis, he did something that filled many others with dread and fright: he flung his power mace into the dozen pacing creatures.
Nothing happened.
Literally. The weapon only clattered loudly against the ground, having passed right through every single one of the nightmarish beings it should have made contact with.
In that moment, it dawned on the thrown Night Widow, and without hesitation she sought out the ellipsoid and ran the device through with her blades. The shield wall vanished virtually the next instant, as did a slight pressure on everyone's ears; the sort that occurs when one is exposed to a barely audible hum.
Moreover, however, the dozen Antis faded away into thin air.
Cynic had fallen for it; as had they all. Those twelve had never been there to begin with...
--------------------
Close to the far side of the Arachnos tower complex, on a roof a good five stories above the tarmac, five beings had come running from a hole in the wall the flat, metallic roof sat adjacent to. Two were reptilian, the other three animalistic and vaguely skeletal.
Below and all about, the battle for Weaver Airfield raged in its fullest, lancer fire teams composed of various xenomorphs exchanging energy bolts with Arachnos forces supported by the high-powered 'conventional' weaponry of the Malta Group and the Council. The engagement wasn't in their favor, however, as the skies belonged to several ATCs flying CAS with their tribeam cannons, often rotating about their yaw axis in one direction even as the ventral-mounted cannons spun the other way.
"Relax." the black-scaled saurian told his towering comrade, the Sky Commander's draconian from hunched over in pain, a bloody arm clutching at his side. At one end of the roof, and ATC hovered to a stop, folding back its side hatches to allow the five to board in addition to the fire team it carried, "They won't get here in time."
The blue-scaled officer smirked warily at this, a trickle of blood running over his maw's razored teeth as he spoke, "I'm not...so sure about that."
The robed saurian didn't need to gaze in the direction his taller compatriot now indicated. He already knew of the flight of Arachnos Flyers presently crossing over the edge of the tarmac, as well as which held the source of the spell that had jammed the Dark Rover's recalls.
"That would be very bad for them." he told the Sky Commander dryly, "Because then Mr. Malak and we shall have a bone to pick..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC:
I had thought Cynic requested a DEVICE that blocked the recall? And wouldn't that mean Jake would have it, and not one of the Arachnos fliers?
Plus, aren't spells non-operational in Weaver airfield right now?
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC:
Almost.
OOC:
Dang, and I'd hoped that'd be explanation enough. 
Oh well. Translation: not everything is as it seems, and I will generally not be straightforward about the truth; at least not right away. You'll need to read between the lines and figure things out for yourself if you want to know what's going on before I choose to reveal it.
Take as an example the Ultra's reflection field. I didn't even need to explain it in oder for Krazy to puzzle together what it did. The clues are all there - you just need to find and arrange them in the right order. A tip for your questions: look for timing, sound, and air. 
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC:
Uh...When I said 'almost' I was referring to the link. But since we're talking,
I REFUSE TO THINK ON MY DAY OFF. Damn you for trying. And don't deny it, I have your CONFESSION!
[ QUOTE ]
need to read between the lines and figure things out for yourself
[/ QUOTE ]
BLARGHHARHARHARLANANAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
BIC:
Tamesis medi-porter was different from a normal Arachnos operatives. As an Arbiter, he had exclusive rights to his own private medical station, ready to receive him at any time. It was this that he now appeared in, completely revitalized.
Ah, welcome Arbiter Tamesis. Said a distant voice. A Mu Mystic walked over to the reclaimer from the shadows. WALKED. He had also forgotten to wear a helmet, revealing dark hair bunched into a ponytail to hang down the back of his cloak, and the bindings that generally kept a Mu Mystic bound were also missing. The only real similarity this mystic had with the normal ones was his long, flowing blood red cloak, which fell around his entire body, except where it parted in an inverted V starting at about chest-height, revealing standard regulation Arachnos techno-armor. The mans face was very hollow. His eyes were blue, but they were sunk so deep into his skull as to look horribly deformed. Perhaps he was, at that. His face was normal enough until it reached the areas where his eyes should have normally been level, then the folds of flesh just suddenly turned in a completely different direction and headed inward. Blood red mystical power tattoos surrounded these eyes in an intricate ornate pattern.
Magus Laquatus at your service, although there are some who call me
Erik? I have apparently been assigned as your personal assistant by order of Arbiter Daos, who would like to inform you your appointment with him in his office is in 5 minutes.
OOC:
I dun' get it. Link works fine for me. Guess your ISP ate something that didn't agree with it. 
And I shall not. I have no reason to. After all:
[ QUOTE ]
Khellendrosiic writes: You monster.
DeviousMe writes: I try.
[/ QUOTE ]
'Nuff said.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Arbiter Tamesis only stared at the Mu, the sudden transition from raging battlefield to sterile environment, creepy guy included, through his mind for a metaphorical loop.
"Um... Okay?" He muttered, nodding a thanks to the man as he stepped out of the med porter, feeling the area where he'd been hit. His armor had remained shattered around his torso, and the surrounding area wasn't fairing much better.
"So, personal assistant, right?" He said as he walked. "Mind getting me some new armor while I'm talking to Daos?"
OOC:
No, the link works fine.
BIC:
"Of course sir, I shall have a fresh and newly polished suit of armor ready for one once you are back from the meeting." Laquatus/Erik? said confidently. "Just come back here once you're done." The Mu Magus walked away, and through one of the nearby circular Arachnos-styled doors.
***
Arbiter Daos, in the meantime, was having another staring contest with Agent Deathstalker's hat. For once though, he had another pressing issue that was nagging him:
'Who the devil is he?'
"Alright, thanks." He shouted back, giving a wave as he fell out of sight.
-----
A few minutes later, Tamesis walked nonchalantly into Daos's office, grabbing a chair in front of his desk and flipping it around, straddling it. "So, Daos, what's up? You wanted to see me?"
Acanous' slide took him exactly where he wanted to be, underneath the Ultra.
Surprisingly, nobody even tried to prevent it, and he felt abashed at the waste of a perfectly good surprise maneuver.
[ QUOTE ]
"You've got 15 seconds"
[/ QUOTE ] came from behind him, over his shoulder- and then things got really loud. Pieces of rubble began flying everywhere. Acanous screamed as he clutched at his ears- the dark shielding dampened it somewhat, but not nearly enough to stop the pain that was reverbirating through him with the waves of noise.
Exploding Bullets ripped into the structure. The Ultra's bulk was a welcome redoubt from the hail of Red-hot artillary. and debris.
He stayed flat against the floor, practically curled in the fetal position under the falling monster.
The pillars gave out, walls collapsed, the ceiling hit the Ultra, who in turn fell to the floor, covering Acanous like some sort of dark grenade as literally tonnes of infastructure broke it's back.
The hail of explosive rounds tore into the room, the walls, the Ultra, and the remaining support structures.
Then the floor gave out.
Acanous was pretty battered, but not nearly so bad as someone in the same situation would be if they diddn't have a 5-metre armour-plated meat-shield (Muahaha three dashes in one sentance!), or what was left of one, between him and the oncoming ceiling.
So when the floor fell out from under him, he was in a rather good spot to make the most of it.
Still reeling from the sonic onslaught, he managed a roll into the newly broken sewer main that had appeared under him. The remains of the Ultra likewise fell, but in a far more "Whumph" fashion.
Bits of building followed them in, sealing the hole. Muted, the pounding continued as the Malta's guns continued emptying into the wreckage above.
A slight creaking came from the pipes around him, signalling that the area was likely to give out any moment now.
Fighting his way to his knees, Acanous emptied his guts liberally into the brakkish green water, adding his own acrid ingredient to the already nausiating stink that permiated the corridors of the sewer.
no time to feel sorry for myself...
He stood slowly, using a hand on the wall to steady himself.
Grabbing at his belt with the other, he unhooked a small disc, and tossed it to the floor near the Ultra's pitted body.
Crimson runes started to flow outward as it began growing upwards, like a bizarre metal-hued tornado.
Soon, it's shape contorted into a fully-deployed raid disruptor pylon.
Acanous tapped on it twice while drawing a ragged breath, then stumbled for the nearest door.
That signal could pierce dimensional barriers. It shouldn't have too much trouble getting to the ULTRA base from here. Von Auger would get his sample, and me? well, I'll find some way back out eventually.
He coughed liberally, leaning against the stone flood controll wall. Closing his eyes, he tried to catch his breath.
Thankfully, the tunnel he was in diddn't reek as bad as the one he had just come through. Heck, it smelled almost like flowers. Flowers in a garbage disposal, but it was better than crap.
edited for explosive rounds.
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
(OOC: and now Ac's alone, trapped in the sewers, and propably gonna end up glancing off some Devouring Earth. Wonder where Anth is?)
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
((Um, dude, I think you misread something. Those weren't bullets. They were 20 mm explosive shells. The sort one uses to tear apart sturdy military aircraft. The Ultra's been pretty much liquefied; there ain't no body. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Eh, in that case I'll TP the puddle. Still, those shells had to go through building before they hit the beast, and if they were splodey shells, the floor would have given out sooner rather than later. Also, landbound things can have a lot more armour than aircraft. Things that would rip a jetfighter apart would bounce off a tank. Literally, in some cases [yay bouncy bullets]. Will edit to account for the splosions.)
You can't spell Slaughter without laughter
All your gonna do is just farm behemoths anyways.
My thoughts on November 30.
"Sit down and listen." Arbiter Daos' muffled voice came from beneath his desk as he hid Agent Deathstalker's hat before Jake could see it.
"Ok! Now why did I call you here? Oh yes." Daos said, getting back into his chair normally and locking Tamesis with a gaze that could have drilled through a mountain. "This is about our, by this time, now mutual companion Commander Cynic. In the 10 seconds you've known him, what's your opinion?"
((Sigh...yall need to stop taking things so literally. Oh well, whatever. Just be prepared to pay the piper. 
))
"All clear for the moment, Sir." a lancer told the black-scaled saurian as the two arrived at the waiting ATC, the synthetic tone of his armorsuit's vocal systems muffling his words somewhat, "All demolition teams have reported back and Spearhead Lambda is standing by at the liquid port."
"Good work." was the reply of commendation, the reptilian taking another look at the Flyers spreading their formation at field's edge, "We won't need to bother with them then. Have all units pull back and give Groul the go. We're done here..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Cynic?" Tamesis replied, dissapointment crossing his face as he rubbed the back of his head.
Was hoping for some sort of promotion...
"The guy's kind of creative, I guess. That staff he has comes in handy, and he can sure work his way out of a rock and a hard place, but he doesn't seem all too trustworthy. I mean, I dunno what you told him, but I doubt anybody would pledge their loyalty to an organization they just became aware of, especially if just the moment before they were attacking it."
He finished, not changing his position much during the evaluation.
"Why? What's up?"
"I don't trust him." Daos said flatly. "We don't know who he is, where he came from, hell, we still don't even know the color of his eyes. We are Arachnos. It is part of our job to know everything about everyone. ESPECIALLY those under our employ. It makes me uncomfortable with somebody like him around. Which brings me to why you are here."
He set a slightly charred piece of crumpled black metal on his desk.
"That used to be rogue hardware in our mainframe. It kept creating firewalls and filters that blocked access to the Commander's profile. When it was removed, it activated a dead-man's switch and erased everything the mainframe had on him. What we got from it was its manufacturer. Brass Track Industries, a well-known Nemesis front that was shut down years ago. This is a custom-made device, and Brass Track did keep actual records to make it look more legit."
He tossed the device to Tamesis.
"Since we have no digital information on the Commander, we're going to have to dig up some dirt on him the old fashioned way. By looking through the physical records. They're kept in Cap Au Diable, in an office buildings in New Haven. I want you to go there and find out whoever ordered this device. Once you do that, find THEM, and get some intel on the Commander."
Daos rose from his chair, and crossed over to the door leading to his private chambers. Right before leaving, he said:
"Really, do try your best on this one. We need something we can hold over his head. Dismissed." Daos left, leaving Tamesis with the charred device.
Tamesis glanced back as Daos left the office, turning his head once he actually left. Sighing, he moved his eyes to gaze at the charred piece of metal, picking it up and juggling it a bit.
"Well, beats fighting the creature from Hell. Jake can handle it. He always does."
He walked out of Daos's office, making his way back to his own. Hopefully, that assistant of his had some new Arbiter armor ready for him.
While Arachnos worked their schemes and preparations, the forces of the Dark Dragon were of course not idle either. Unlike their spider-themed counterparts, however, events took a drastically different course with the return of the Portal Court investigation team.
Their report yielded more than enough information to not only confirm that the Dark Rover had indeed stayed within its own time, but shifted its state level to a universe home to an entirely different stream.
Calls went out immediately to recall all forces, more than annoying the Field Commander who'd just before had finally gotten the go to get his own operation underway. Still, none of them were here for fun, and now that they'd determined that a simple dark shift would carry them home, the process commenced as soon as possible.
Less than twenty minutes after the war at the airfield had ceased, the now-empty Dark Rover counted down the final seconds to autodestruct, the disintegration pulse crumbling the titanic vehicle's structure first to dust, then monoatamic vapor. Nothing but a slowly expanding cloud of translucent green gas remained - and even this last witness wouldn't take long to fade away...
--------------------
((Sorry guys, but my interest in this thread just plain-old keeled over a while ago, and it ain't coming back. Hope yalls have fun. And yeh, you'll probably see these guys again in some other thread sometime. ))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
The sewer system sprawled with the plant life fueled by the demonic druid, Rot. The lush green plant life one would expect was not here, but that of fungus, decaying feeding matter and disease. The mutations not only made the plants ugly and dangerous but also resislent to forms of energy gained through the extraction of chemicals in Crey's sewer lines.
Crey knew of the problem, and they were employing the best pesticides found on the planet agaisnt the plants, to bad the plants decided to absorb them and release them in a toxic matter harmful to carbon life forms not resistant to its effects.
"Bzzt... if they go any farther then they will reach the lower facilities!" The fire of flame and cyro blasts into the passge illuminated the faces of the Devouring Earth and that of Devoured minions. One by one the forces Crey employed at the last moment to keep the infection at bay fell. The last man crawled under the pressure door and sighed relief as he heard the carnage behind him.
"This will hold them, lets see them stand up to napalm."
BANG* The door dented and the men moved back surprised, BANG* the door started to give way. The claws pulled and tore the door off its hinges. The growl stunned the men for a few moments as the beast tore away more for a larger opening. Red lights and sirens of warning signaled the threat.
"Get the code out, call for help!" The man in lab rags hastily dialed numbers and cried with relief that the phone worked. "This is Caretaker Alan, give me connections to the Mistress, emergency!" The phone went to upbeat tune of some old 21st century band. The man cried hearing the banging and scratching of the door behind him.
"Alan, I only have a minute tell me what is so important?"
"They overran the facility, it came out of nowhere, it grew so quickly we thought we could handle it, I am the last man alive here Madame! Their claws and teeth!"
"What is there Alan, what is there?"
"The... the... gah!" The sound of blood spattering. The last gasp of breath lifted as a hand tore it from its former user.
"Who is this!?"
The voice chuckled, "Mistress Crey, I was surprised your facility was taken over so easily by my forces."
"Tell me who are you?"
"I understand its a side facility, but what you are working on here is forbidden by Arachnos, did you know that?"
"So you're with Arachnos! How much did they pay you? I can double it."
"You can't buy me Crey, I am not with Arachnos, goodbye."