Acid's voice buzzed to the low subsonic, then whiplashed back up, repeating dozens of times before Danny managed to regain at least a little control between pulses. "Y're... nae... psychic, are ye?" the little archer managed. Absently, he rubbed his face where the bow had struck. "Summat... AAARGH..." he trailed off.
Another five-second interval of inside-out-time, flashes from all over the boat, wherever psychic energy was being deployed... and then, mercifully, that brief respite. "Summat raisin' Cain on th'psychic plane." Danny managed to blurt out. "Think 'tis a bomb or some such. Bloody hurts, whate'er it is..." He waved a hand vaguely. "S'tha' way, 'think..."
"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"
Brushstalker whipped around to face the martial artist again.
"ARACHNOBOTS! ENGAGE EMERGENCY RECALLS!"
Both of the Disruptors were gone in an Arachnos teleport. Brushstalker grinned widely. "Now I see yer game. 'Ere I was, tryin' t' even th' whole thing out, thinkin' ye were some kinda assassin-cult leader. But yer jus' a crazy old man wot tryin' t' scare me wid shadows. An' now yer a dead one! THE PACKAGE IS MINE!"
His monologue over, Brushstalker slowly faded from view right there in the middle of the crates.
There was the sound of approaching footsteps and then one heavy push-off, as though the Bane had jumped.
And just like that, Brushstalker was in front of him and swinging with another Stealth Strike, his power mace tearing through the air so fast that its red focusing gem was a veritable lightningbolt to the casual observer.
"Time t' cut off the head of the beast!"
The tranq dart hit Mr. Erik square in the chest.
***
'Sleep, it says. Now why would that be? Ah. Chemical agent, that would mix fairly well normally. What a nice thought. To sleep.
But no. To sleep now means to fail. I wouldn't wake up for over nineteen hours. I do not have such time. My indomitable will cannot falter. It will take more than clever human chemistry to undo me.
This man before me. Let him be like unto a thought. Let him be forgotten. FOREVER.'
***
Mr. Erik stared perplexedly at the dart sticking out of him, the neurotoxin obviously making its way to his brain t shut down his higher functions and force him into a comatose state.
That wasn't what happened.
Mr. Erik flickered away as Masquerade slashed at Curtis, nearly point blank range, before teleporting away again. This time to the room across the hall, which was thankfully empty.
One of the gunslingers felt a sudden tug as something tried to forcefully pull him somewhere else, a place where people were greeted with blinding pain and gigantic chest wounds. Or spinal trauma, depending on which way one arrived.
"Semi, but I figure I've got enough noodlebots running around in my head to deal with just about anything." Acid remarked casually to Danny's first question, but quickly changed his mind after the boy's sudden scream.
"Okay, so worse than I thought." he concluded matter-of-factly, trying to get a hold of Danny to take him back to the infirmary he'd told the Khelari of, "C'mon, we'd better get that head of yours taken care of before you go rushing off into the sights of someone's gun..."
--------------------
Again there echoed a fervent clash of metal against metal. Once more the mace came to a crashing halt against the flat of a Jounin's pitch-black blade.
"How perceptive you are." Hotaka remarked, again so close to the mace the distance would've been far too close for comfort for most people. Though his statement could've been taken as sarcastic, the tone certainly wasn't. Indeed, the hunter's words about the head of the best had given the towering Oriental an air of concern.
"Zilch!" came the sudden shout from below and ahead, Acid now standing before the thick, armored door that led from this hold to the mysterious crate's repository, "I don't think there's anything that can open this door that won't destroy everything on the other side too until that timer expires. And yeah, no way to open it from there either 'til then..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"HAH!" Brushstalker yelled suddenly, firing a Mace Beam into the Jounin-shadow. Backflipping off the cargo container, he landed a few steps away from Acid. "AAGH!" He continued, "THIS PACKAGE IS MINE!"
Charging towards the reptilian, he brought the mace above his head for a crushing-almost shattering-blow. But this time, just before impact, he fired a localized, wide-spread burst of energy from the Mace's focus lens, and for a split second, every shadow in the room was illuminated with a burning red glow.
Danny shook his head violently. "There isnae time... s'gettin' worse, an' th'docs canna do much, less'n they've got psionic... shie... lds..." his voice trailed off, and he slapped himself in the forehead (well, tried to. He missed.) "Daft stupid sod that I am..." he muttered. Another wave caused him to bobble in midair, making Acid's grab miss, and as his head throbbed, he fumbled around in his cross-D pocket for a bit.
Eventually, he pulled out what looked like a small Vanguard symbol on a string. He tapped it once as he slid it on over his head, and was enveloped in a brief purple glow. "Phew... I dinna use thi' thing often, so I f'rgot 'bout it..." He shook his head again, trying to clear it. Electricity crackled around the Vanguard Medallion as it drank power from the boy, and he shivered a little. "I canna use it f'rever- 'tis too much o' a strain, but it should protect me f'r th'moment."
He straightened out, floating in a somewhat more relaxed position now, and blinked as he saw Acid clearly for the first time. Then he smacked his forehead again, actually connecting this time, and said "Ai... where are m'manners." He stuck his hand out abruptly for Acid to shake. "'m Danny, 'though most folk in th'tights-'n-towels brigade call me Target Lad. Usually 'kick for m'uncle, Energon X, dinna know if ye know 'im." he introduced himself.
"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"
((Almost forgot.))
"Agh wha-" Curtis reeled as the slice lashed into his armor plating, cutting a rather sizeable gash into his chest. Fighting through the pain, Curtis administered a regenerative shot - a quickfix at best.
"We got a wild one, Gobi! Get t'the security systems!"
And Curtis and Gobi Lead were gone in the flash of a teleport.
Gobi Two was not so lucky. "Command, I've got a teleporter malf-" He never managed to finish, dying instantly as Masquerade broke his neck. Unfortunately for Masquerade, the Malta now knew where he was.
Outside of the room he heard boots, and the door being literally battered down.
A soft blue glow eminated from outside...
Valeria tracks the data her spider probe sends back every few seconds. She moves through the lower decks, hoping to god that by the time she finds the resonator, her leaders brain wont be mush. Valeria rounds a corner in the lower decks and sees two rather oddly placed cruise personnel standing near an open pipe. At this point she calls back her spider probe and places it back into her tech gauntlet, fitting fit neatly into a slot near her shoulder. Pressing a button on her gauntlet, the machinery seems to fold into her skin and she rolls her sleeve down, taking on the appearance of the staff member she is, she rounds the corner and speaks in an authoritative (but non-threatening) way, You two! She turns around the corner and walks towards the two operatives quickly, all non-engineer personnel need to be on the upper decks preparing for the masquerade. In fact, I will need to see both of your employee ID tags because I sure didnt give you the order to come down here!
((Valeria works as a real crew director on the ship
she one of many in charge of making sure that all personnel are in their respective places at the right time. Her involvement with the queen is
.well its a secret
shhhh))
*****
[ QUOTE ]
Famine walked casually up to Silk and Harry, having brushed off the ashes from his burning experience. "Yeah well that was cool I guess. Except for the part where I got lit on fire. By the way, is there any trick to getting these out?"
He pointed behind him. One of Silk's arrows was firmly planted between two armor plates below his right shoulder. "I'm starting to lose feeling in this arm."
[/ QUOTE ]
Silk looks over at Famine and stands back up immediately, Oh my god! I am so sorry! I hope I didnt hurt your armor
as funny as that sounds armor is expensive yno? She walks over to Famine and grabs and arrow pulling it out as if it were stuck in cotton, oh and the trick to these babies
, she twirls the arrow in her hand before removing the second one, there is no trick to removing them
they only come out if you are an intangible
each arrowhead is made of a material that molecularly bonds with whatever it hits
they are completely permanent and deadly
until I pull them out She twirls both arrows into her hand and then slips them into her quiver, spiffy huh? She taps him on the chest before making her way back to her chair, Oh, sorry I almost forgot. This is Shioh
I believe motioning to her, and this is my dapper young gentleman caller for the evening
Harry motioning to him, sit down and enjoy yourself. She smiles widely.
"Acid." the Khelari smiled, still a bit more toothily than he intended, as he wrapped his fingers securely around Danny's hand. His claws here doubtlessly sharp as razors, yet he left the boy without a single scratch, "And can't say I have. Heard of him, though. Hasty guy, I'm told. Kind of like you, huh...?"
--------------------
"Whoa there, big guy." Acid stretched his hands from himself as the Operative barreled to the ground not far from him, backing away from Brushstalker, "I don't even want it. You-"
He didn't get any further, for the man swung, and the reptilian had no intention of getting hammered this early in the night. Though the crimson blast took the predicted ninja, the Khelari was long gone by the time the mace swing through the temporary vacuum his jump had left behind.
"Wow, this guy's more nuts that I am." he quietly told Hotaka, whom he'd rematerialized next to in zero time, "And yeah, I'm sure about the door. I've got experience."
"Good to know." the towering man replied in the same quiet tone of voice, seeming calmer now, "In that case, let's run, shall we?"
"Do let's."
With that, the two took off for the nearest exit, hoping that the Operative's desire for the crate would keep him from chasing them...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"We're with systems maintenance, there's been a power flux that we're fixing. Off grid, independent system." The 'crewman' reported to Valeria without so much as missing a beat. "Here you are."
He then produced a perfectly forged ID, his assumed name stolen from another employee working at the opposite end of the ship.
---
Famine nodded at Shioh before turning to Harry. "Lucky [censored]." The mercenary grinned to him, nodding in a congratulatory sort of way. Famine calmly sat down, pulling his orange hoodie back over his ballistics armor and unplugging his Cryo pistol from its belt-fed source. That alone increased the temperature in the bar a few degrees.
"So the bow thing; is this some kind of ancient family secret, etcetera, or do you just like the pew pew more than the boom boom?" He asked, turning back to Silk and raising an eyebrow in earnest.
---
Brushstalker fired off a few ill-aimed mace blasts after them before collapsing to his knees in front of the monolithic container.
"I am the greatest warrior that EVER LIVED! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
The Khelari and the Oriental would certainly hear the laughter as they left, but thankfully it was static.
He was done with them.
---
"Spider's in the cargo bay. He's secured the package; we're waiting for a timed lock."
"Proceed as planned."
The Malta Sappers found nothing in the room except a chilling voice.
"Do come on in." Masquerade said in a sinister fassion. He was nowhere to be seen, as he was using a form of invisibility that was superior to most other forms of it. Not only was he incredulously hard to see, but he could attack in this state and remain unseen.
If he went into bezerk-slash-everything-mode, it would turn the room into one huge death trap.
***
'Master.' A very informal and impatient voice rang in Masquerade's head-and the Resonance Generator wasn't sending either Masquerade or the sender into a coma. So it must have been some other form of communication.
'Ah, Black Masque. Have you finished your assignment?' Masquerade responded.
'Yes. It took some worked, but I hauled it from below up loads of stairs and hid it. Damn thing was heavy-felt like it was loaded down with sand. But anyways, don't congratulate me, it was Ether who cast the glamour over it and helped me carry it.'The first voice explained quickly. 'I can see you're occupied, so we'll just guard it. Enjoy.'
[ QUOTE ]
"We're with systems maintenance, there's been a power flux that we're fixing. Off grid, independent system." The 'crewman' reported to Valeria without so much as missing a beat. "Here you are."
He then produced a perfectly forged ID, his assumed name stolen from another employee working at the opposite end of the ship.
[/ QUOTE ]
Without even looking at the IDs, There was a robbery in one of the maximum-security vaults just minutes ago and you should have both been reporting to your superiors as soon as your non-emergency notification tags signaled in your collars...and besides, she looks down at the ID cards and recalls all of the crew numbers and positions with her eyepiece readout that is still on her ear, Crew #A000042325 is supposed to be at the childcare center and #T000067342 is currently scheduled to be doing a bikini wax down at the spa
for a Mrs. Beatrice Felderman Still making sure not to make any threatening movements, Valeria folds her hands, content with her analysis, Don't keep Mrs. Felderman waiting..
[ QUOTE ]
Famine nodded at Shioh before turning to Harry. "Lucky [censored]." The mercenary grinned to him, nodding in a congratulatory sort of way. Famine calmly sat down, pulling his orange hoodie back over his ballistics armor and unplugging his Cryo pistol from its belt-fed source. That alone increased the temperature in the bar a few degrees.
"So the bow thing; is this some kind of ancient family secret, etcetera, or do you just like the pew pew more than the boom boom?" He asked, turning back to Silk and raising an eyebrow in earnest.
[/ QUOTE ]
The arrows and intangibility are just a bonus...archery is truly my passion Silk puts her hand over her heart elegantly as she says this, but I am assuming you prefer the bang bang boom boom approach?
((Lets let em catch up Famine))
((Do I still have the go ahead for the crewmen to respond?))
(( oh plese do!!!))
The 'crewmen' looked at each other.
"We're on it, Ma'm."
The two men she had assigned to their tasks disappeared around their respective corners. Of course, they were supposed to wheel right back around as soon as she left.
#A000042325, however, was on his way for something more important. As he walked, he talked into his collar.
"This is Nevada Hellsing 7-2-2. I'm maintaining my cover identity and...uh..."
"And moving to intercept a possible informer. Send 7-2-5 to replace my position; I'll be back...Uh...ETR is one hour, clocking from now."
"Uh...We copy, 7-2-2."
The other men disappeared around their corners and immediately entered various access hatches, moving to the internal part of the maintenance area and guarding from there, where there'd be no more interruptions.
---
7-2-2 walked into the Spa and cracked his knuckles. "I uh, heard they needed me down here."
[ QUOTE ]
"Acid." the Khelari smiled, still a bit more toothily than he intended, as he wrapped his fingers securely around Danny's hand. His claws here doubtlessly sharp as razors, yet he left the boy without a single scratch
[/ QUOTE ]
"Acid." Danny echoed, glancing down at the short, fingerless glove he wore- a casual visual inspection for any tears in the leather that could catch a bowstring and foul a shot. "I' tha' a reference t'th' chemical, th'drug, the rock music, or just a coincidental carryover b'tween languages?" he asked curiously, returning his gaze to Acid.
[ QUOTE ]
"And can't say I have. Heard of him, though. Hasty guy, I'm told. Kind of like you, huh...?"
[/ QUOTE ]
"An' y'r surprised tha' th'student is like th'teacher?" Danny riposted with a smirk. He shrugged. "If'n ye dinna ha' anythin' t'do wi' this psibomb doodad, y'may want t'join me in findin' it- th'pulses seem t'be intensifyin', an' if it gets too strong, there's nae any ammount o'... noodlebots?" he trailed off for a moment, raising an eyebrow as he realized what the big reptilian had said. Then he shrugged. "There's nae ammount o' noodlebots tha' can be protectin' ye." he finished. Then he raised his eyebrow again. "O'course, i' ye are wi' th'mooks who put this bloody headache-inducer aboard, I'm owin' ye a belt in th'gob for what 'tis doin' t'my poor head."
"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"
Shioh cocked her head at Silk's description of the arrows.
"So, if you were to die, or somehow get separated from your arrows, or if someone STOLE one of your arrows...what would happen?" she asked, "Shiomi-nee always says to me to 'never use something that will leave a trace."
As she said this, she closed her eyes and pointed one finger in the air, acting like a teacher of some sort. On close inspection of her finger, those gathered around her might notice a distinct lack of definition present in her finger. (OOC: No fingerprints)
In her room Alyssa stirred, then rolled over shouting "Would you shut it already, some of us are trying to sleep!" Of course then she realised that there was no one else in the room. "Great, hearing voices... in my sleep. Yeah, that's probably not good." She looked around at the plants, though she often talked to them they never answered, at least not in any language she could hear... did they?
She was however distracted from her musings by a surge of pain in her head, the same headache she'd had when she fell asleep returning in full force. This wasn't right, she thought to herself. It was too strong to be a normal headache and it couldn't be the drinks, she never got hangovers. Not since the accident, even that time she drank herself nearly into a coma she didn't get a hangover the next morning. No, this must be something different.
Getting up off the bed she made sure she was still dressed before leaving the room in search of an infirmary, ending up wandering more or less aimlessly through the halls since she had no idea of where the infirmary was on this ship. With her mind fogged by pain and what remained of the alcohol she'd drunk earlier, she failed to realise that her seemingly aimless wanderings were in fact taking her somewhere - towards the resonator that was causing her headache. The same fog kept her from noticing the person ahead of her until she ran into him. Alerted by the collision she looked up to apologise, but no words came as she noticed that he wasn't human.
((Knock knock Devious, If it's not obvious which one she ran into it's the one that's talking to Danny 
))
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
David lay next to Odette and smiled weakly, "Don't fret. Give me an hour or so and I'll be ready to go again." He said with a laugh. With one hand he absent mindedly played with her hair.
"Good grief, what a jerk." Acid remarked as Hotaka and he finally stopped, though it didn't seem to be to catch their breath, "You run into people like that often?"
"I used to." came the answer with a shrug, "Hasn't happened much in the last hundred years though, so I have to admit, it brought back fond memories."
"You're nuts too, you know that, don't you?"
Hotaka only smiled, "Look who's talking, Mr. Terrorist. At least I don't go running right into the lion's den and biting the thing in the tail. Just how tall's that money stack on your head these days?"
"Okay, I deserved that. Fine, so we're all deranged."
"Some more than others. So, you're sure about that door then?"
"Yeah. That vault's got to be the brain child of a cousin of mine with that level of paranoia. Armor thick as my skull, dampening field, anti-phase, anti-psi, anti-everything."
"So how'd you get i-waaaait a second, I remember the last time I asked something like this. You gave me a waterfall of math and physics. On second thought: you: quiet."
"Fair enough." the reptilian grinned innocently.
In any case, Hotaka's worries had been dispelled. The only way through that door (that wouldn't take out half the ship too, of course) was to wait for the time lock to expire, and then have both a correct key card and pass code on at least the fifth try. Apparently, the towering man wasn't too worried about anyone coming after him for his card and code. Brushstalker didn't strike him as smart enough to have figured out that he had those.
Of course, there were several more people who held cards and key codes the door would open for. After all, that crate wasn't the only thing aboard the ship's passengers had secured, and while said people were few and far between, they did certainly exist. Henteko, for instance. Then again, nearly no one knew just who they were, but that probably wouldn't stop someone with enough intel to make himself a rhyme on it.
However, there existed another way through as well, and this one could be applied well before the time lock expired: Acid's method of teleportation. Of course, the mere idea of someone catching him and managing to get him cooperative sounded so ridiculous that they didn't even consider it...
--------------------
"The latter." Acid told Danny, "And no, not really. Then again, I don't recall saying I was. As for Malta, no. If I was, I would've called a Sapper team by now. Anyway..."
"Whoa now." a rough, leathery palm against her forehead stopped Alyssa's progress, the tone of the reptilian calm and passive as he removed his hand again, "What's with me tonight? Can terconium be magnetized all of a sudden and I just didn't get the memo? Oh, and howdy..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Alyssa looked up at Acid mumbling something about 'sorry' and 'wasn't looking where I was going'. Moving around the reptilian she continued on her way down the hall, but stopped and turned around to ask, "Either of you know where the infirmary is? Was looking for something to help with this bloody headache."
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
[ QUOTE ]
"And moving to intercept a possible informer. Send 7-2-5 to replace my position; I'll be back...Uh...ETR is one hour, clocking from now."
"Uh...We copy, 7-2-2."
The other men disappeared around their corners and immediately entered various access hatches, moving to the internal part of the maintenance area and guarding from there, where there'd be no more interruptions.
[/ QUOTE ]
Valeria watches as they both leave and she walks towards the pipe that the resonator was in. This is freshly welded, she thought to herself as she touched the buckled metal. She rolls up her sleeve and her tech gauntlet once again wraps around her arm. The lays her hand flat on the newly-welded panel and the tech readout begins a simple analysis of the pipe. All things turn up normal until the gauntlet tests for psionic energies. The readings are off the scale and the earpiece whines in her ear causing her to cringe a bit. [censored]! Thats one hell of a resonator.
Valeria steps back and presses a few codes on her tech gauntlet. One of her tiny spider probes scuttles off of her arm and onto the floor. After moving a few feet from her, it begins to unfold, and more and more machinery appears as the tiny probe quickly begins to look like a full size droid. It turns out that each spider probe has small dimensional pockets that continue to build on each other until the entire robot exists on one dimension. ((How else do you explain a MMs spontaneous regeneration of Robots lol)). For the time being she holds the robot at bay, programming its instructions for the delicate process of disarming the resonator.
[ QUOTE ]
7-2-2 walked into the Spa and cracked his knuckles. "I uh, heard they needed me down here."
[/ QUOTE ]
Suddenly a shorter blond girl with a blond pixie cut rushes up to 7-2-2 and in a huff says, who are you?! Where is Genevieve?! ((the real crew member #A000042325)) She was supposed to be here 15 minutes ago and Mrs. Felderman is waiting for her wax?! The girl is obviously uptight and supremely stressed. She has electric blue eyes and tiny pouty lips frozen in a frown directed right at 7-2-2.
[ QUOTE ]
Shioh cocked her head at Silk's description of the arrows.
"So, if you were to die, or somehow get separated from your arrows, or if someone STOLE one of your arrows...what would happen?" she asked, "Shiomi-nee always says to me to 'never use something that will leave a trace."
As she said this, she closed her eyes and pointed one finger in the air, acting like a teacher of some sort. On close inspection of her finger, those gathered around her might notice a distinct lack of definition present in her finger. (OOC: No fingerprints)
[/ QUOTE ]
Well dear, I prefer to kill my targets in one go by inflicting the maximum amount of damage
.aimed perfectly silk smiles and then blows into a straw and shoots the straw wrapper right at Shiohs heart.
[ QUOTE ]
David lay next to Odette and smiled weakly, "Don't fret. Give me an hour or so and I'll be ready to go again." He said with a laugh. With one hand he absent mindedly played with her hair.
[/ QUOTE ]
I dont know what to do now
she probably thinks that I destroyed the mask to try and hurt her and so shell probably send someone for me immediately...oh if you only kew some of the evil women under her control
they are heartless monsters that put on the guise of women
its really sick.
"Sure." Acid gave a nod, reaching his hand out to Alyssa again, this time for her to take. She didn't look too stable, and his nature demanded he make sure she got there alright.
He turned to Danny for a moment, "I'll take her to the infirmary then. You go see if you can shut off that...what did you say it was? A psi bomb? Hm, guess that makes shutting it off a problem. I guess 'make sure they don't detonate any more' is more fitting there."
If nothing else got in the way, he'd follow this up by getting the leafy woman to the hospital he'd initially wanted to reach anyway...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Sorry for the delay in posting. Had a couple really busy days there. ))
[ QUOTE ]
and this is my dapper young gentleman caller for the evening
Harry
[/ QUOTE ]
"Geez, don't think I've EVER been called 'dapper' before," Harry smiled, giving Famine a quick wave. "I think the closest I've gotten up till now is 'scruffy'."
[ QUOTE ]
"Lucky [censored]."
[/ QUOTE ]
A small voice whispered in Harry's ear, making a comment about the usual course his luck tended to take. A course that more often than not involved the crapper.
Harry, in return, gave his hair a sudden ruffle as if scratching an itch. The sound of a small body falling into the bowl of pretzels on the next table went unnoticed thanks to the background noise of the arena.
And up four the very next moment.
No, they hadn't drawn their second swords - the ones they held had cleaved off the legs of the Disruptors come to block their cu...cleaved off the impervium-reinforced legs?!
Right about now, Brushstalker would've had to be above and beyond the term single-minded to not take note of the strangeness of these completely black ninja. He may have missed that black swords generally weren't just a fashion statement, he may have missed the Jounin jumping in and out of patches of cast shadows, but there shouldn't have been a way in hell he didn't connect the dots as their swords cut through impervium reinforcements with nary more effort than butter.
And if that didn't do it, the sudden vaporization of the one ninja struck by the a Disruptor's (formerly) fourth claw had to have done it: these guys weren't human. They were shadows. Living shadows, animated by some force beyond sight. Their swords had no width. If the blades came into contact with matter, they could splice its molecules apart with the greatest of ease, so long as enough force backed up the strike - and there was no question these ninja had said force in their unnatural arms.
On the upside, they didn't seem very sturdy at all. Nimble, quick, and apparently resistant to low-grade impacts (they'd outright ignored the sticky webbing that had fallen over - and then through - them), the claw strikes, as well as the energy wave from Brushstalker's mace earlier, had been capable of disrupting their cohesion almost instantaneously. This probably meant just about any hard-hitting impact could do so, be it a pinnacle-of-technology plasma cannon or the simple sole of a boot.
It just had to hit them first. So long as they could block or evade - no dice. And if the Arachnobots couldn't do so quickly, they were as good as metallic confetti.
Hotaka certainly seemed to like the idea of evasion, leaping away from the blast and to a container across the passage the Operative now occupied with another haughty laugh.
"Oooh, I haven't been prey in ages." he seemed positively jolly, "I should get a cave. Oh, you don't mind, do you...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters