The Molvia vanished from the skies of Independance Port...
...and reappeared an instant later above the underground American supply tunnel the train had passed a short while ago.
As the pilot deftly maneuvered the helicopter further along the path of the train, his copilot checked the sensors and cursed loudly at what he saw.
"Holy [censored]! There's enough magical energy getting thrown around up ahead that we should've detected it from orbit!" he exclaimed. "They must have got some high class cloaking spell to hide it all for so long."
"They have a pair of dragons," remarked Toy Dispenser as his bots moved toward positions marked in bright yellow paint on the floor of the Molvia. "It gives them great flexibility. After you teleport us in on top of the underground signature, you are to stay in a holding pattern. If you are engaged by the creatures you are to transmit a distress signal on the channel I am now downloading to your computers."
"But sir," interupted the pilot with a wary look. "Standard procedure is to-"
Dispenser cut the man off with a swift gesture of his hand.
"This is not a standard situation. You will recieve aid if you do as I have told. Be prepared to teleport us out at any time."
The pilot obediantly shut up and did his job as Dispenser walked back into the main hold, joining Sombal and the others on the marked positions.
"My men are ready to attack, General," said the Drustevník, his voice rendered slightly tinny by his helmet comm. "Do you have any further information?"
"Standard tactics apply: Kill the mages first, all others second. We will mostly likely appear in their midst but I shall disrupt their formation."
As he spoke, Dispenser began waving his hands at each soldier around him, white light flaring from his wrists to coalesce as an almost completely transparent shield around them.
"Casualties are acceptable and they shall recieve full honors," he continued, sounding almost as though he was remarking on the weather by this point. "My drones shall assist you. I will take care of the rebels."
Sombal exchanged glances with his men, garnering almost imperceptible nods of readiness in return. Dispenser nodded in satisfaction and alerted the pilot.
"Ground teleport in five! Four... Three... Two... One... Port!"
All fifteen figures vanished in a brief flare of light from the hold of the Molvia...
...and appeared almost right on top of the Chinese forces just as they emerged from their own teleport. As soon as they fully materialized a bubble of pure force slammed out from around Toy Dispenser, phasing through the Sovereign forces as though they didn't exist to plough into the Chinese, slamming them against walls, floor, and ceiling with the irresistable force of an industrial strength junk compactor.
Taking advantage of the element of surprise, Dispenser and his forces opened up on the stunned Chinese like a force three times their size. Plasma rifles, missiles, and laser beams of various sorts storming out every which way except directly at the train, which Toy Dispenser would begin running towards after assuring himself that most of the Chinese were eliminated.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Unwell the rebels may have felt, but if they did, it didn't show. There were real, thinking, battle-hardened soldiers, not just some manner of armed minions only good for cannon fodder - and the Chinese would learn this very quickly.
Or so Kruger thought.
As the Kommandant and those up the train gradually rid it of its ghastly infestation with the ghost traps (they may have been able to absorb multiple specters at a time, but the train was still fairly long and couldn't be cleared just in a snap of one's fingers), the rearward personnel of course found themselves initially horrified by what Isabel had done. Once they saw what effect it had on the burning man, however, they understood.
And switched strategies.
A pair of sharpshooters broke out their sniper rifles and headed up to the roof, under escort of course, and went prone as best they could, then targeted down the tunnel to coincidentally do exactly what Toy Dispenser had just confirmed a certain Drustevník should do.
Needless to say, the sudden replacement of a certain magus' head in one's scope's crosshairs with the frightening metallic visage of Combat Toy was more than unexpected, and the man fired in all but reflex; unfortunate, because the assault bot's shield easily deflected the round, meaning all he'd done was give away his position.
A sun-hot beam quickly found its target.
The other sniper had remained outwardly calm, though on the inside he was just about ready to freak out at the sight of a squad of the Pozemna Armada's - wearing Kazbeks, and with robots to boot. Special forces, had to be. He wasted no time transmitting, informing Kruger and all others as quickly as he could.
The Dark Sovereign's force had come for them - with no less than the Iron Fist of the Overmagus...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Isabel paid no attention to the momentary horrified stares of the soldiers around her, instead taking off after Flashpoint. "Always did like a challenge", she replied to the big Tanker as she landed next to him. "Lead the way." She again considered just blasting the tunnel roof to collapse it, but discarded the idea a second time since the Chinese mages would simply teleport past the blockage. No point in wasting the energy when there were so many better places to send it - like straight into the chest of the nearest enemy.
Behind her, Valerie chuckled quietly to herself as her mind dug up a memory of a much younger Isabel saying the exact same thing in the exact same tone. She hesitated, not sure if she was still meant to be in charge or if the reappearance of her commanding officer relieved her of that duty. Not only that, but the forces now arrayed against them were certainly formidable enough to cause a further moment of hesitation. Not so much that she didn't at least move out of sight of those snipers, though.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
War and Famine's eyes met for less than a single second.
"Yeah, he's been cracking down especially hard lately." Famine began.
"I won't lie; we've done work for him before, but he's not exactly one to stick to his word on payment." War added.
"But hey!" Famine cut back in, "Before that business gets started, what say we help you with your little rebel problem here, hmm?"
The Unteroffizier hesitated a moment as well, though used this time to absorb what had just happened more than anything else. Think before you act, that's what they said. So she did - and hoped dearly that not turning the Odcarovat back on was the right decision here.
Seeing Valerie's pause, however, she gave the other woman an understanding nod, then began to position the troops in cover as best she could, having heard the sniper's transmission and expecting imminent attack on the train by the Dark Sovereign's troops. If by some chance they didn't get through right away though, she'd of course order support for those who'd jumped out the rear door, since it probably meant that contrary to expectations they were still alive...
--------------------
Vlasta glanced to Wolfgang for a moment, the cyborg giving but a shrug to convey this opinion of indifference. Both knew the portals probably wouldn't be working right for at least the next few days even if the engineers got back at it first thing in the morning, so Famine's suggestion was probably a decent idea.
"Sure." Teivos thus replied with an accepting nod, then closed his eyes, "Let's see...I don't believe we currently have a-no, seems I'm wrong."
The Tsaigon's eyes snapped back open, "Toy just started breaking necks less than sixty kilometers west. Now...normally I'd say someone's already taking care of it here, but I do think I'd like to see what you can do. Let me get my Kazbek, and I'll be..."
"Ohhhh no you don't!" Wolfgang was up and had a hand on Vlasta's shoulder in a heartbeat, "I get that you're worried, and now that you remembered you don't like beer want to fight instead, but first you're not going into a hot zone without your guard, and second you have a parade to conduct tomorrow morning. You're not going anywhere."
"But I don't want to conduct the parade." Vlasta protested with a despondent expression to his bodyguard, "I don't even get to march. Just stand there and smile and wave. Makes me feel like pompous idiot..."
"I don't care." the cyborg remained steadfast, "You're not just CoLeader here. You can't just weasel out of this by pushing it off on the others anymore."
"Hmf." Teivos grunted with a glare and crossed arms, defeated...for now...maybe just until he could find someone else to push it on, "We'll see about that. But fine. War, Famine, you need transportation? And would you like SLIs implanted when you get back?"
If the phrase 'implanted' didn't turn the mercenaries off to this immediately and they inquired what an SLI, or Standard Life Implantate, actually was, the answer would come quickly and casually - basically no more than a body-intern form of ID, which could be used not only at physical checkpoints, but on communications channels and the global network, essentially the native equivalent of Primal Earth's internet, as well. At the very least, it saved people a good amount of time spent typing in passwords to read their email.
Expanded versions also existed, allowing their users direct wireless access, and thus enabling them to find virtually any information they desired (and were cleared for) just by that: mere desire. That's how Teivos had just found out about Toy's operation, for instance. Still, the basic forms were much more common, especially among the humans. Cyberization as a whole was still quite new to them, after all...
--------------------
Chiron Medical Research Center
Citizen's District
Dark. It was dark. But then, he'd expected that. Wait...why had he expected that again? He couldn't...hey. He could think. Hadn't expected that. And he could hear. That he'd expected even less.
But what did he hear? Voices...but what were they saying? He couldn't make it out. They seemed to be nothing more than distant mumbles. Three distant mumbles. Two male...one female. That made him feel better for some reason. Wait, feel? He could feel? He could feel! There was something soft under him, around him. It felt so warm...and cozy...a bed! He wasn't dead! That's why he hadn't expected...expected...whatever! He could work on remembering later. Right now, right now...right now...
Seeing! He wanted to see! He wanted to open his eyes. Wait, did he have eyes? Oh Lord, he sure hoped so. He remembered having eyes...or at least, he thought he remembered. On second thought, maybe he should work on this remembering thing now after all. Might be useful. Yeah, that was probably a good idea. So he tried.
And got pain.
Wait, what? That couldn't be right! No, no, where did...how did...who did...?
"...dddoooocccttttoooorrrr..."
The voice came like in slow motion. But he didn't even notice. He didn't care. He remembered pain. He didn't like pain. Pain was bad. So bad. Alive meant pain. That's why! That's why he'd wanted to be dead! And now he wasn't! The pain would come back!
"...hhhhhheeeeessss aaawwake..."
And not just awake. Panicked. So very panicked.! And in his panic, as he jolted up from the soft bed, his eyes opened with his mouth. The same instant blinding white light entered his body, a cry of terror left it...
--------------------
OOC to Khell and Sovs:
Since Solid Shot and Operative Rezyin were last seen together before being tossed into limbo, I submit to you that they probably still are and could have ended up in a lot of places. Since they're both astute observers and the Molvia is one big-boned chopper, I also submit that it would've been easy for them to track it to the Chiron Medical Research Center in this world's version of Atlas Park. 
If you choose to accept this as having happened, know that the place is guarded, but not heavily so - mostly by VB officers; while there are ZUB-equipped soldiers around due to the recent attack a district over, there still aren't enough to be considered more than one platoon - and that there is talk on the ground of a traveler from another world having been brought in with some mighty nasty damage, and that the Sovereign is extremely interested in this person...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((waiting on response from Bwerp before I move the Chinese troops, sorry >.>
)
"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"
OOC:
I can't do anything until Krueger tells Legion to get the train going.
Which I assume you do not want to happen as long as you are not on said train. 
((If you're talking about my character, superspeed, 'member?
Actually, I thought you were finally going to pry Egregore out of that coma, based on your last post, so I wanted to give you time to do that))
The Chinese forces scattered, the bubble briefly brushing aside the concealing mists as several of the sorcerors dropped under the withering fire... then teleportational energy flared again, and the wind began.
The temperature dropped even further, so cold that one railing actually exploded in a hail of frozen shrapnel. Frozen winds tugged at the 'Iron Fist of the Overmagus', then grew stronger, howling up to hurricane-force winds as the sorcerors worked in concert to build a barrier of wind, tearing soldiers and cyborgs alike off their feet, fouling their aim, and whipping colder-than-ice air across them, chilling them even faster.
Frost rimed across the ceiling, cracks appearing and puffs of powder stirring as dirt sifted down to freeze instantly and add to the mists. Then darkness closed like a fist.
Under the cover of fog and darkness, the sorcerors who had not died instantly were healed by their comrades and joined in on the assault against the Overmagus' troops. Two figures, upper torsos bare despite the terrible, killing cold, leapt into blurred action through the wind from behind the sorcerous line, the chill following them so intense that the air was growing viscous. One leapt after Toy Dispenser, a foot outstretched in a kick that could shatter cold-embrittled metal, while the other spread his arms in a gesture that sent a wave of frozen power towards the cyborg's troops.
Flashpoint Zeo watched all this imperturbably. "Move when are finished killing one another?" he suggested, his flames lightly brushing the ceiling as a barrier to the mystic cold that was turning the area down-tunnel into a frozen hell.
"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"
((Note: Toy and his henchmen are robotic, not cyborgs. ))
It was a good plan. It really was. Against normal people. But not against these guys. Cold, wind, darkness, healing - the SSR military hadn't liked people conjuring these things out of thin air. But unlike other organizations, such as Arachnos, who employed their own mystics to counter such, these guys had gone the route of the lazy. Not wanting to actually deal with it, they just did away with it. Their means? The Odcarovat. The Magic Away.
Since the rebels had stolen the idea to make their own, and the Molvia's pilot had passed on the information about a great deal of magic in the tunnel below, it was only logical the deployment team would bring some along. Moreover, since Toy Dispenser had effectively shanghaied the Sovereign's personal guard here, theirs were integrated into their Kazbeks, and nipped things in the bud.
Fortunately for Zeo, the automatics hadn't yet tagged what he employed as hostile, and thus left their grubby little fingers off him, but seeing the CPSR's spells fizzle out probably gave him a good idea of what was going on. If the Chinese hadn't thought ahead and brought along something else - or if they hadn't and no one intervened here - this would end up simply as a slaughter. Hopefully, this was not the case.
Either way, now that the news had made its way up the train, Kruger wouldn't hesitate to give Legion the go once the thing could move again, all ghosts gone or not. The CPSR may have had something up their sleeves for the new arrivals, but his troops certainly didn't - at least not for long, as Legion had prognosed. There was a reason he'd ordered the base abandoned with haste...
((Just so you know this, Cham - since you have the ghosts, it's your call when the train is clear to move.))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((all five of the ghosts are either dead or in tiny boxes, I'm thinking they're a non-factor here >.>)
"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"
A young man woke up to find something unusual. He wasn't in his dimension anymore. He ran, the darkness in his apartment causing him to trip and fall numerous times. He stopped at a sofa that held a man dresses in mortorcycle gear, a bandana on his head, and a very scruffy gray beard.
"Boss, boss, wake up. I think somethin's wrong!" said the nervous man.
The man lying on the sofa stirref and grumbled "Whatya Ash?! I'm tryin to sleep here."
"Boss, Lookit outside. I think the Nazi's won or somethin'" The man known as Ash replied.
"What?! The hell you talkin' about, you crazy sonofa...." the older man said, rising from the furniture. The man's eyes widened behind his shades. He saw Nazi banners adorned across buildings.
"Ash, wake the rest of the boys. Looks like we might haveta go Nazi Stompin'. " replied the man grimly.
Ash ran off to rouse the rest of the crew while the elder man stood at the window. He heard them shuffle in, grumbling about sleep. He didn't want to do this, they only had a few hours of sleep.
"Axel, Syxx. I need you two to grab the bikes in the lot. Be careful. Anybody screws with ya, put em down. Eddie, Tommy, I need you two to ready the equipment. Take Ash with ya. Bear, watch Axel's and Syxx's backs. Meet me in the alley in five minutes, got it? I ain't waitin'." the older biker barked, his orders sounding smooth and collected.
When his men left, the man sat down and pulled from under the sofa, a bottle of liquor. He took a long, hard swig of it before heading out the door himself.
' Gotta ask the boys where they wanna visit first. The Hospital? We could score some drugs if we're lucky. Try to find a Non-Nazi? Damn, so many places so little time.' the elder man thought to himself as he descened the stairs into the alleyway.
Self-Proclaimed Number one Fanboi of the RP Forums and it's writers.
Me: How about "Zeus, The Pimp God"?
A friend: It'd be too hard to dress him up like a bull
[ QUOTE ]
Flashpoint Zeo watched all this imperturbably. "Move when are finished killing one another?" he suggested, his flames lightly brushing the ceiling as a barrier to the mystic cold that was turning the area down-tunnel into a frozen hell.
[/ QUOTE ]
"Sounds like a plan to me", Isabel replied, doing as he suggested and not flying down the tunnel to give all the soldiers and Chinese guys a nice demonstration of how she earned her name. She did however settle into a sniper stance and charge up a long-range blast to peg a stray soldier while they were too busy fighting amongst themselves to notice. Even better was unlike some of the others, the Odcarovat had no effect on her as her powers weren't magic-based.
Valerie meanwhile was simply watching the events as they unfolded, moving to where the Unteroffizier commanded and continuing to watch until she received further orders or something demanded a reaction.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
((Oh, okay. I thought there were more, huh. King of raises the question of that the other 80% of the train was doing, but okay, not that important. 
Now then...hm...I can't seem to recall if Toy's shields transfer impact force, so I'm just going to wait for Khell in reaction to the energy blast. Oh and Crimson, since I don't know what's happening where right now, I'm going to drop your guys into the Promenade in Atlas Park. Hopefully they can run into Solid and Rezyin there. ))
--------------------
Axel, Syxx, and Ash may have been quite surprised when they found the staircase didn't quite look like the one they remembered. Then again, this may just as well have seemed perfectly logical to them, but one way or another what they found in the parking lot next to the multi-story, Victorian-styled apartment building didn't change.
No bikes - well, at least not their own. But of course, that wasn't exactly the most noticeable aspect of their new surroundings. No, that dubious honor naturally belonged to the fact that the Promenade had assumed a respectably more gray look than what they stood used to, as well as the distinct absence of people on the streets. True, it was night, but back in the Paragon City of their world, there were always people out and about.
The reason, however, may have been blatantly obvious, for across the street stood a trio of officers from Verejna Bezpechnost - Public Security - and neither their ensembles of long, black overcoats and armored helms of the same hue (which to someone who equated the 5th Column logo with Nazis of course gave them the image of stereotypical Gestapo) nor the pitch-black vehicle that strongly resembled a Renegade did anything to deny this theory. The only things that might've done so were the snow-white letters on coats and car that proudly proclaimed 'VB' into the night muggily lit by yellow streetlamps, as well as the fact that the three conversed in English, but by and large that wasn't all that much.
Especially considering each of the three carried a prominently visible Steyr AUG...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Uh, guys. Um...Who the hell are those guys?! and Where's our bikes?" Ash said, the nervousness clear in the smaller man's voice. The three bikers were concealed behind the wall that seperated the two buildings
"Relax, Ash. Dose guys won't see us if we don't wan' im. Syxx, look at dere guns. What are dose?" Axel asked, his voice gruff and deeper than Ash's.
"Well, they might be AUG's. I theenk. But Ash, mon, we in Naziland now. What? Were are rides 'posed to be here? C'mon, dog, how dumb ya think Max is? We the recon team, mon." the other thug spoke, a strange mix of Jamaican and Brooklyn accents crammed together.
The two thugs chuckled a little as they thought of a plan. They both eyed the smaller man with mishievous grins.
A few seconds later, Ash bolted from the apartment building, screaming at the top of his lungs. He was on fire and couldn't put it out, despite dropping to the ground and rolling around under a street lamp. Two of the guards ran over to the burning man, guns ready for the first sign of trouble. The first officer crouched down to check on the man. He figured it out when it was too late.
Ash had wrapped himself up in the same stuff that he used to light Molotov's. It burned bright and was really hard to put out. The best thing about it? It never burned up. Max's crew found it on a raid of an Arachnos Base and Ash had swiped it without a thought.
The officer had realized the burning man was unharmed when he flipped him over. However, Ash, had a Molotov Cocktail held to his chest and he struck the officer in the head with it. The flames leapt onto the officer who had come along. Ash stood up and ran towards the vehicle that had anothet Nazi-cop in front of it.
The officer remaining turned to fire. As his finger came down on the trigger, someone tapped him on the shoulder. He whirled around to find two pairs of pistols pointed at him.
"Dis vehicle is ours', capiche'? You move, I shoot, you die, I leave. Or I could just leave. your choice." Axel spoke, his fingers an inch from the triggers.
Syxx backed away from the pair slowly, checking for ambushes. Ash leaped into the front seat of the vehicle and laughed. "Guys, the idiots left it runnin'. Hahaha. Woohooo!!!" Axel finally entered the military car, his gun never leaving the officer. The former Nazi made car ripped out of the area it was in, right into a door to the apartment building acroos the street.
"Hahaha, Whooooo, this baby's got power, Whooo!!!" Ash exclaimed as the other member walked down the stairs. Axel and Syxx looked on at the smaller man in a mix of endearment and wonderment.
As they entered the vehicle, Max's crew greeted each other and made room for the big Bear. Max regarded his three thugs with a wry smile as he looked over the Nazicar.
"No bikes, huh? Good thinkin' boys. Ash, let's find out what in the hell is goin' on. Floor it!!!!" the elder man commanded as he lit up a cigarette. The crew had stuffed a bunch of items in the very back, some which seemed out of the scientific league.
Self-Proclaimed Number one Fanboi of the RP Forums and it's writers.
Me: How about "Zeus, The Pimp God"?
A friend: It'd be too hard to dress him up like a bull
Lieutenant Scott almost smiled when the car took off down the street. Almost. Instead, he rushed to the aid of his burning comrades, employing his removed overcoat as an impromptu extinguisher. The fire-resistant material performed well, the Lieutenant snuffing the flames by quickly cutting off their oxygen.
Burns to the faces of his fellow officers would be inevitable, this he knew, but the priority right now was stopping a petrol fire, which sadly rolling on the ground simply didn't do. This he knew as well. In fact, it was the only reason he hadn't shot Axel and Syxx anyway. Pistols? Please. The ballistic armor he wore beneath that coat could stop a Dragunov round cold. No, he hadn't fired because he knew it would've taken more time than letting them go - time he could use to minimize fire damage here.
Besides, it wasn't as if he really needed to do anything. The Lieutenant had a cybernetic eye, after all. Through his SLI, he could just upload what it had seen to the VB network, and that was that. In fact, by the time the thugs sped away, they already had very nice 'wanted' profiles, with neat little photographs, and the car was of course being tracked via satellite. Furthermore, though it was a hybrid and could run half an eternity on one tank of gas, once the thieves turned the engine off, they'd quickly find that a fingerprint scanner was a very nasty obstacle to getting it started again. Idiots indeed. Scott didn't know who these guys were, but they were behaving way too careless to survive long here.
Indeed, this stood doubly so - they really should've checked the car's back before throwing their stuff in, for the fourth member of the VB squad did not appreciate all this commotion one bit. It had been extremely content under its tarp, where things were nice and quiet, and thus was even more content when it received permission to finally do something about the noise.
Less than two seconds after Ash had floored it, a half-meter-long silver spike burst from the back of his seat, seeking to sever the man's spine and kill him then and there. Regardless of success, however, what said spike belonged to didn't stop there as it threw off the tarp and deployed such a spike from its right 'hand' as well, which in turn sought the next-most-convenient throat. The car's former fourth passenger - the Certified Autonomous Nanobase Infiltration Networker and Eliminator - didn't really need to care about the potential consequences of a crash caused by its first stab, more than fast enough to jump off the car at any given time if it liked.
Of course, unless it liked, CANINE had a respectable grip, and a heckuvalot more in its arsenal than kitchenware gone awry...
--------------------
[ QUOTE ]
"I don't care." the cyborg remained steadfast, "You're not just CoLeader here. You can't just weasel out of this by pushing it off on the others anymore."
[/ QUOTE ]
The present VB officers couldn't help but snicker at this. This time, Wolfgang had the Sovereign cornered, no doubt about it. Well, unless...wait, alert? Why alert?
[ QUOTE ]
"Hmf." Teivos grunted with a glare and crossed arms, defeated...for now...maybe just until he could find someone else to push it on, "We'll see about that. But fine. War, Famine, you need transportation? And would you like SLIs implanted when you get back?"
[/ QUOTE ]
Even as Vlasta still spoke, the VB about became talkative, Lieutenant Scott's access of their network more than disturbing. Unknown attackers? What was that all about? A few looked at the Horsemen. More people from another world? Yeah, that was probably it.
"Hm?" the officer who'd walked up and whispered something in Teivos' ear had gotten his attention, the Sovereign smirking diabolically as his eyes glanced back to the mercenaries, "You don't say."
"On second thought, change of plans." he told the two, indicating the officer now at his side with a motion of his hand, "The Captain tells me someone attacked a patrol over in the northern Citizen's District. Says the suspects might be from another world, possibly yours. Pursuit's been ordered, but I'd like you to show me what you can do by reigning them in..."
He considered his next few words a moment, then went on in a casual, and with that frighteningly cold manner, "...alive, if reasonably possible. And if you do happen to kill them, try and bring back as many intact heads as you can. I'm told mindripping is a hard enough procedure without having to do it from multiple pieces."
The VB officer then informed the mercenaries of the coordinates, and with great enough real-time accuracy that War could probably teleport right onto the hood of the car and stab his swords through the windshield. Of course, no one but the Horsemen knew this just yet, and so he would naturally offer transportation in the form of another car...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Implants?" War had questioned, frowning. "Sorry, bud. I'm willing to integrate with your little network, but my cyberware is custom-tooled."
"Can't use it." Was Famine's excuse. "Last time I went beyond basic skeletal reinforcements the EMP wave from a Nuclear Bunker Buster put me into a coma for seven hours."
"Don't lie." War grinned. "You're just afraid your own cybernetics could be used against you."
"Hey, [censored] you."
"ANYWAY!" War exclaimed, "Pursuit huh? No, no car will be necessary, thank you. Famine, bro, I'm already zeroed in, do you still have your emergency patch?"
"Well, yeah. You can get us there with that?"
"Same basic principle. It's all breaking down matter, bro, it's just the particle size that makes it different. Now online your stuff and get ready for jump in three..."
"....two..." War tapped his own teleportation device and put a hand on Famine's shoulder, where a green light had winked not a second before.
"Yoink." The Mercenary grunted as the two men exploded into a fine mist and swept out of the room at hundreds of miles an hour.
---
Famine appeared without War, the latter Horseman's mist continuing to sweep down the street. Where he wound up was perfect for the plan, however. He was exactly one block in front of the stolen vehicle.
The Mercenary quickly went for his cargo pockets and began tossing Arachnos wide-area glue grenades in twos and threes, and before long the entire street was a sticky mess.
Just as the vehicle approached the killzone, War's haze swept backwards, skimming down the street as visibly as possible like some sort of hellish mist. Just in front of the car, the mist came together and War appeared, hurtling towards the windshield, swords extended, with every intent of assassinating whoever was in the driver's seat.
Dark grey, unimaginative buildings and annoyingly omnipresent dark red and black banners.
"I hate Nazis."
A long range shot of a trio of tanks with treads both smei-articulated and longer than the main hull, cannons gleaming under street lights.
"I hate extra-dimensional Nazis."
Shadows, too many shadows despite the lights, and enough alleyways to make the Back Alley Brawler a happy man.
"I hate sneaking."
Off in the distance down a street, a group of thugs hijacking a car-jeep thing and almost getting skewered by some Matrix-reject in the back trunk.
"I hate helping bad guys."
Solid Shot knelt on another rooftop, his grey armor having shifted to a dull black to aid all his sneaking around. His rifle was still eclectic as ever though, and right now was aimed for one of the little red lights on the front of the Matrix-reject's body. Solid hadn't had more than half a second to get the shot, but he had already been aiming for the driver, so it wasn't that hard.
"Get ready to cut some [censored] up if it still moves, Rezyzin."
A flat crack just as War and Famine appeared, the bullet's path passing through the unlucky merc and hopefully into the machine. It was an AP round, so War would likely just be annoyed at the hole in his torso just below his right lung.
"...I hate teleporters."
***********************
This was what he had been created to do. This is what he had built for, trained for, fought for, lost for. He was the Iron Fist of the Overmagus, second in strength only to the Ultimate Arcanist himself and two bit ice conjurers would not stop him.
Specially tempered armor rendered Toy Dispenser almost invulnerable to extreme conditions, but the cold the Chinese mages were generating tested even it's extrordenary tolerances. Dispenser's reflexes were dulled, but not enough to prevent him from pivoting at the waist and deflecting the Ice Knife's kick with a force energy wreathed forearm. A sharp burst of energy sent the ninja crashing into the wall of the tunnel with a heavy crump, but inflicted little damage otherwise.
"Analyzing," Dispenser said out loud as he continued walking toward the train, his experiences telling him that emphasizing the unstoppable and fearsome nature his armor and forces gave off tended to render opponents less effective.
Despite the howling winds, missiles explosions, and sharp cracks from plasma discharges his voice could be heard by those on the train, the slight electronic crackling barely distorting every word and phrase.
"Magic-based metahuman, draconic fire-based powers. Possibility of high Security Level: High," said Dispenser as he flexed one arm and held it toward the train, fingers out-stretched. "Primary target."
A brief rippling of the red electricity crackling over his arm was the only indication of the massive lightning bolt booming out at Flashpoint Zeo. The bolt was magical, rather than technological, in nature, oddly enough, and powerful enough to rock Statesman back a step in surprise. This was the test shot.
Back in the scrum, Dispenser's bots were having a more difficult time with the cold than their master was. The agility its multi-farious legs granted Toy Bot was almost negated by thier individual strength having difficulties breaking through the ice building up. Operating as a more or less stationary turret, the drone swiveled around, blasting powerful balls of plasma at the teleporting mages, seeking to keep them off their feet and reacting instead of actively attacking.
Mini Bot was having the same sort of difficulties, having caught the second Ice Knife's cold blast head on. But liberal applications of heated laser barrels to gummed up joints freed the drone to leap at the ninja, shoulder mounted razor tentacles flailing and blade tipped fingers ripping and tearing. It was almost all the Ice Knife could do to fend off the wild assault as Mini Bot fed every ounce of energy into attacking, sparing nothing for defense.
This set the ninja up for the two protector drones to flank him with several seeker drones, the small machines careening through the air at high speeds as they attempted to self destruct in the man's face. The drones themselves fought back to back, blasting laser fire at whoever came close as they trained healing nanite beams on the soldier who had lost most of his chest to Isabel's energy blast. Said soldier leapt back to his feet and ducked back into cover behind several huge chunks of masonry blown out of the wall by Combat Toy's missiles.
Of the massive assault bot itself, not much could be seen as it dove head on into the whirling hurricanes of one mage after another, seeking to grapple with and rip them in two rather than give them a chance to heal. Two bloody corpses already lay on the ground and it's spiked armor was heavily caked in frozen blood.
Watching this happening, the rebels decided it was a very, very good time to get the train moving again.
*******************
"ETA five minutes," muttered a tank commander into his comm as his detatchment barreled down the tunnel.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Ash screamed as the spike missed his spine by mere inches. Luckliy, he had bent over to adjust the radio. The other spike however, was thrust towards Bear. The brute merely grabbed the spike with his gloved hand. His face didn't show rage, pain or even concertration. The machine struggled for a few moments before a bullet ripped into it, rendering it useless.
Up ahead, though, Ash hadn't noticed the webbed road. Max did. He rolled up his sleeve as he noticed the man with the sword. His wrist had what looked like a keyboard attached to it and with practiced speed, the elder man punched in a few keys.
A drone appeared next to the car, a force field emitting from the floating orb. Max didn't know if the field would stop the man so he readied his custom pistols and pointed at the window, prepared to unload onto the man. The guns were quite like Desert Eagles, but the barrel appeared wider. In fact, the guns had a overall meatier look to them.
Self-Proclaimed Number one Fanboi of the RP Forums and it's writers.
Me: How about "Zeus, The Pimp God"?
A friend: It'd be too hard to dress him up like a bull
((Psst... Khell- the Tsoo bosses I 'borrowed' for this are called Ice Wind, not Ice Knife))
Lightning rammed through Flashpoint Zeo, and he let out a pained grunt, but held his ground. He would heal, soon enough, and at the moment, he was all that stood between the train of rebels and a quick death in air that was so cold as to be partially liquified... not something you would necessarily want to be breathing.
"No matter winner, selves appear to be moderately boned." he commented to Isabel in an aside.
Then the frigid air moved, sluggish currents stirring as something big hurtled down the tunnel, a hissing rush like another train oncoming, complete with two actinic lights blazing.
The illusion was quickly dispelled by another whistling roar as a mouthful of fangs gaped open and a serpentine white dragon only marginally smaller than the train it pursued roared down on the Overmagus' forces.
"Would explain why Chinese mages not bothered much by anti-magic... whatever." Flashpoint said, his tone still conversational. "Dragons exceedingly potent source of magic... far more than portable anti-magic field could counter. Also, would appear are now completely boned." the big tank added as the dragon tore two armoured soldiers in half with a single bite and froze another solid with an almost casual blast of icy breath.
Meanwhile, the Ice Wind that had been tossed through the wall by Toy Dispenser peeled himself loose. He stood straight and proud, beginning the somatic gestures and rapid-fire chanting that would cast something horrible on Toy, but it was obvious from his movements that he had taken more damage than the 'bot had expected, and a brief shower of sparks from the wall showed why- he'd been thrown right through an electrical main.
Above ground, several neighbourhoods blacked out.
Back near the fray, Flashpoint Zeo shifted uneasily. He disliked being a passive observer in a fight, but any flame spells he cast and left would quickly be extinguished by the ferocious cold, if not casually dispelled by the Chinese sorcerors or by the anti-magic field.
The giant tank formed a fireball in his palm, tossing it back and forth in a flickering lightshow of flame, debating who to toss it at, or whether to toss it at all, when a brilliant flash turned the mist white... a brilliant flash from in front of the train.
A second whistling roar sounded from up-tunnel as a second dragon appeared, a sweating sorceror riding its back, near collapse from the strain of teleporting that much mass, even with the nigh-limitless font of magic roaring beneath him.
Flashpoint Zeo glanced back and froze for a moment. Then one blazing eye twitched. "Yes, fine, okay, get it now. Are completely screwed beyond all reason, anything else need throwing, or can just die in peace now?" he yelled at the ceiling, shaking one huge fist.
"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"
OOC:
*Ahem*
Am I allowed to move the train yet?
((I dunno, I kind of like Ice Knife better. 
And yes Dogma, please do.))
Solid's shot indeed sent CANINE through the car's back and into the pavement, luckily before the cannon attached to its arm could put a slug through Bear's head. The man really shouldn't have been so overconfident. If Solid had sniped a nanosecond later, CANINE would've fired. There was no reason it would've held back instead and 'struggled' against the man's grip. That simply wasn't logical when it had such a perfect opportunity to get in some headshot.
But while the mechanoid hadn't been fast enough to avoid that round, it was far from out of commission. CANINE's armored chassis could take a significant enough beating to survive the impact with full functionality.
Optic connection failure.
Well...mostly.
Scanning all systems. Damage severe. Optic sensor malfunction. Thermal sensor malfunction. Radar malfunction. Hydraulic pressure decrease. Section B sealed. Auto-repair started.
Of course, that wouldn't help it dodge Solid's next round. It was only logical he fire one, after all, and without being able to see it, CANINE knew well that its chances of avoidance were quite low.
Luckily, its communications suite still ran just fine.
CANINE wasted no time accessing an imaging satellite in geostationary orbit above North America, redirected one of its cameras to its own present location, and it didn't take but a few milliseconds for the mechanoid to get its own location as well as everyone else's. Now that was something it could work with.
The instant Solid fired the follow-up in response to seeing the machine stand up, CANINE thrust off the ground and leaped skyward, veritably in tandem with the geyser of pavement dust loosed by the android's shot, and directed a few of its own at the offending sniper in the process, peppering his position with a burst of 20 mm shells. Even if none of them struck, at least it would prevent him from getting off a third shot right away.
Regrettably, that didn't seem to apply to a certain sword-slinger that entered the scene so quickly that the satellite almost got him too late. Not that it mattered, however, for apparently this one could fly - and since it had no air control of its own, CANINE could do nothing to avoid the sword of Operative Rezyin before it got its feet on solid ground again.
Not that it tried, that was.
After all, CANINE's AI considered a sword no threat, and thus the machine attempted to grab the blade and clamp into it, and then use its new anchor as a fulcrum in order to tear Operative Rezyin limb from limb. Needless to say, what would actually happen was likely very different, especially if the Russian's sword could cut through CANINE's armor...
--------------------
"Dakujem." the Kazbek-armored soldier got off a quick word of thanks to the protector drones after he'd gotten into cover behind a fallen chunk of concrete tunnel ceiling, having been more than surprised when Isabel's energy blast had punched through the shield Toy had given him. That woman had some kind of power there - she'd blasted the Kazbek's chest plates clean off!
Now, the Caldok underneath didn't much appreciate that, but he had orders not to fire in the train's direction, and he knew better than to disobey a, especially the Iron Fist of the Overmagus. Naturally, before he could request permission to do so, things went bad and a pair of dragons appeared on the scene - and that changed everything.
Regrettably, it wasn't quite in the way the CPSR expected. While it was true that the Odcarovats in their suits weren't able to annul their magic anymore - let's face it, jamming an arcane source's energy transfer when it was right up in your face just...didn't really work out - but helpless this made them by no means.
Even with Toy's protective barriers apparently rendered null and void, their Kazbeks were still the current pinnacle of the ZUB program, and tearing them in half wasn't was easy as it sounded. Dragon teeth they could handle nicely, and being armed with plasma cannons, they did what came naturally to a pair of Caldoks in such a situation: pump a load of energy into the face of the dragon...which in turn of course showed itself less than impressed. The soldiers had formed imprints in the tunnel wall before they even really knew what had happened.
The frozen soldier stood even unhappier. It was Sombal - and unlike the Caldoks with him, the human wasn't so at home with the cold. Even with his Kazbek, it would take him a while to break free simply due to his lack of experience in this particular department. Thankfully, his team knew this, and thus a pair of the infantrymen attempted to make off with their officer and get him into cover to defrost the man.
And as fate, or perhaps coincidence, would have it, this left three to do what they'd been told to do if they ever encountered a dragon, griffin, or relative of the two.
Inform the Dark Sovereign.
Naturally, two covered while one made the call. The train, however, had no such ideas, and once Kruger arrived back in the rear car and saw what headed toward them, he wasted no time giving Legion the go. At the same time, he of course bolted for the rear door and threw it open, yelling to Flashpoint and Isabel that they should get aboard. After all, he had no idea there was another dragon in front of the train, and that either one might be giving the other a mouthful in the next few seconds...
--------------------
"Oh, don't take it so hard." Wolfgang returned with a sigh to Vlasta's unintelligible, halfway-growled mumble, which had probably been a short string of curses in response to the cyborg opening the rear door of the high-tech limousine, "You'll see, everything will be better in the morning."
Teivos mumbled another grumble, but didn't quite manage to finish before being just slightly started by a sudden transmission from a certain regional CO he knew as Mark. His eyes quickly went wide, and not a few seconds into the conversation he ordered he be put through to Toy Dispenser with utmost haste.
If Vlasta got through, he wouldn't waste any time telling the android just what he imagined now.
He wanted that dragon.
Alive...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
And there was movement.
Trains NORMALLY started to move slowly, gradually picking up speed as they went. Legion was not going to have ANY of that nonsense. The train would be departing at full speed from the moment it started to move. A risky proposition, since there was no guarantee the train would not instantly derail. It was a good thing, therefore, that Legion was not actually making the train itself move. No. They were making the tracks force it along, while also forcing it to stay on-track, so to speak.
They magnetized certain areas of the track, those directly below the wheels of the train, and magnetized the wheels as well but with an opposite charge. Then they just moved the location of the charged sections of the railway forward at great speed...
The train went from full stop to full speed in zero time with the aid of questionable physics, and unfortunately for the dragon at the head of the tunnel, the entire situation had changed. It was an unstoppable force meeting a not-so unmovable object. If it attacked the train, it would keep on moving without slowing down and the creature would be splattered. If it turned around to run away in the narrow tunnel, it would be splattered. And it being splattered would not slow the train down one bit.
((may I point out... again... that the dragon in question is very nearly the same size as the train in its entirety, cars included? It being in front of the train is quite a serious problem, whether the train is moving or not))
"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"
OOC:
The dragon being larger isn't a problem because of how fast the train is going right now. Make it as big as you want. The train will punch a hole in its gut and be on its merry way. This is why bullets work. (Humans being several hundred times larger in mass than a bullet) Imagine a tank shell going through something slightly larger than it. (Not hard to do so) The tank shell is the train. Any questions?
Now knowing you, I'm not going to argue further. If you think the dragon can stop the train just by being large enough, go right on ahead and do that. I will not complain.
Flashpoint Zeo leveraged himself up onto one elbow, the threat of the Tanker going supernova... at least accidentally... removed for the moment. Flames roared around him, tinting green for a moment, and he stood, looking stronger and more himself. Or, at least, the 'himself' that most of those with him would recognize.
His flames being still not fully back under control, the huge tank stomped to the back of the train, standing behind it. The icy fog from behind slammed into the wall of fire like a bug into a windshield, and the temperature on what was left of the train yo-yoed so fast that it probably made some of those behind him feel a bit unwell, going from metal-fatiguing chill to near-forge temperatures in a matter of seconds.
Flashpoint Zeo tapped his communicator- somehow, his clothing and personal effects had survived the meltdown- although precisly how was likely to remain a mystery- and opened a channel on the standard auto-encrypted private 'hero frequency', trusting Isabel and Legion to relay his message to any who needed to hear it.
"Will hold off attackers for moment or two, give train time to pick up speed, then catch up. Any help appreciated." he announced shortly.
In front of the Tanker (and behind the train) the teleportational flashes were a solid wall of light, and the chill was so intense that the rails were cracking audibly in the cold. Flashpoint manifested a pair of huge flaming scimitars, crossed his arms, and waited. In his expert judgement, they had just over a minute before the attack hit.
"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"