The car holding the gang stopped suddenly enough to smack Ash's head off the dashboard. The force field had lowered the friction but didn't stop it completly.
"What the hell's wrong with this place?! Robots in trunks!? Teleporting sword slingers?! Web covered roads!?" the pyro practically screamed at the windshield.
"Calm down, Ash. I think we made some ruckus, boys. I dunno who the swordsman is, but he might need some help. Bear, see if you can lend a hand. Be careful, I ain't sure if the bot will explode. I mean, I know your tough, but your not Statesman." Max said, his voice commanding. He turned to his two Enforcers. "Eddie, find where that sniper is. If possible, don't make any threating moves. Timmy, see if you can find any recon equipment in here. " the elder man said quickly as he watched the formidable form of Bear get out of the vehicle. "Syxx, Axel, get ready. I gotta bad feeling about this. Ash....You ready to burn something down?" The older biker said. He exited the car as did his crew. He readied his custom pistols and proceeded to check his ammo. He was getting ready for a fight.
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
OOC: This gives a new meaning to the term 'bullet train', eh? Momentum ftw!
BIC: "I hate hunter killer droids!" shouted Solid angrily as he threw himself to one side to avoid the heavy rounds blowing up dust and concrete right next to him.
But Rezyzin's attack gave the security droid enough time to scramble back to his feet and launch up into the air. His foot-mounted jets flared brightly for a moment as they accelerated him to top speed as quickly as possible, barreling straight for where CANINE and the scrapper were tangled up. He was aiming to grab a piece of the machine as he flew by and pump it full of enough volts to short something important out, but he was prepared for it throwing Rezyzin at him. At such a time he'd just tuck and roll in mid-air, grabbing the thrown human and basically shoving him behind him instead of slamming right into him.
Either way CANINE was going to get hurt by something, most likely Solid's fist.
**************************
Toy Dispenser's head turned to glance behind him as the first dragon appeared, mauling two soldiers and freezing Sombal. Gesturing irritabley at the Ice Wind trying to cast a spell, the android hammered him with a force bolt, knocking him into the wall again and disrupting his casting.
Events seemed to stretch out now, brief moments of time almost appearing to stop as Dispenser made calculations and issued commands to his bots interspersed by time flowing normally as said commands were executed and situations for new commands arose.
Thanks to the warning from the Overmagus, his Right Hand was not caught by surprise, indeed he had expected the dragons to make their appearance much sooner. As such, various contingency plans immidiately swung into operation. Or would have, if Teivos hadn't taken that moment to call.
"Ah, there it goes. Toy? Are you there?" asked the Sovereign as Combat Toy extended a pair of nasty looking rune-carved blades from each wrist and charged the dragon.
"Affirmitive, Teivos," replied the android as the train suddenly lurched into motion, magnetic fields sticking out like a sore thumb on his HUD. The Ice Wind hit by the force bolt finally slid to the ground, momentarily disoriented.
"I've recieved reports of a dragon down there, you do remember you're not supposed to kill it, right?" he continued as the dragon tried to rip another soldier in half, succeeding in only knocking him across the tunnel as his protective shield flared and shattered under the awesome force. Dispenser's left hand rose up and took aim at the tracks under the moving train, which had already moved ten feet away.
"I recall, Sovereign," said Dispenser as Combat Toy pulled it's punches, jabbing the two heavily enchanted blades into the dragon's shoulder, rather than it's heart. Their runes flared a bright, bloody red as their disruptive energies began working their way into the dragon's blood stream. "Rest assured that by the end of this encounter, you shall have at least one dragon to interrogate."
"You make it sound like there's another one, Toy," Teivos remarked, sounding more interested. A flare of red lightning arced out from Dispenser's hand, dancing over the train rails and right into the magnetic fields created by Legion. Magic brained physics on the head as the android's feet left the ground, getting tugged after the train like a man being dragged behind a bull he had lassoed.
"There was one other," Dispenser answered as he lashed out with his other arm, connecting an almost solid bolt of lightning to the back of train and starting to reel himself in. "But it was ill-advisidly placed."
"That sucks... Ah well, I'll leave you to your work. Hmm... You wouldn't happen to need any reinforcements, would you?" said Teivos in a sly tone.
"Everything is completely under control, Sovereign," finished Dispenser, cutting the connection as he hurtled through the underground smuggler tunnel, slowly reeling himself onto an enemy filled train by use of a pair of magical solid lightning bolts.
***********************
"Hit this [censored] with all you've got!" roared the massive Combat Toy just before the dragon batted it into the wall with an equally massive claw.
The energies of the twin Bane Blades, so named by the Overmagus as they had been specially constructed to be the bane of anything, worked their way into the white dragon. The entropic energy seemed to revel in the destruction it caused as it flowed from the dragon's shoulder down its arm and into its chest. Blood curdled in its veins, muscles cramped and began to decay, and bones grew brittle. But the sheer power of the dragon was able to mostly hold the entropy off, forcing it away from vital organs to instead pave a line of destruction down its side.
On the outside, skin and scales grew dark grey and shriveled or fell off around the wound before spreading like a gangrenous infection. A being of great intelligence as well as raw power, the dragon likely knew it would survive this attack, but it would do so greatly weakened. It would be best to escape before its strength departed it.
Not that the Sovereign's forces were likely to make that easy as Mini Bot crawled along the roof of the tunnel like a spider before jumping onto the dragon's back, whirring razor blades on it's shoulder tentacles dipping down to saw away at a single scale protecting the dragon's spine, aiming to cut through with it's adamantium blades and then sever the poor creature's spine to paralyze it.
OOC: The PCs are gonna escape, so I'm accelerating the tunnel NPC fight some.
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.
Toy Dispenser's magical bolts of electricity were effective at making sure he could keep pace with the train while also closing in on it, but unfortunately he had attached them in the first place by attacking the magnetic sections of the railway.
Legion was not amused with his antics.
The rails underneath Toy Dispenser suddenly sparked, gigantic and surprisingly solid fences of electrical energy roared upward to surround him. Should he allow himself to be immobilized, either the train would grind to a dead halt or he would snap like a twig, whichever of the two happened to have more force behind them currently.
In the meantime, the magnetic fields powering the train along strengthened, sending the train hurtling even faster down the rails.
The dragon Isabel had shot squalled like a singed cat the size of a barn, coiling in on itself and jerking away from the train. The eyes of the Sorceror riding it went very wide as he waved his hands frantically, green healing energy pouring out of them, then the entire scene went white for a second as a second Sorceror teleported in and yanked both dragon and rider out in a blinding flare of teleportational energies. They did not reappear anywhere in the tunnel complex that anyone could detect.
In the fray, the first dragon roared like a punctured steam-engine boiler as the blades pierced it, quickly tended to by a pair of Sorcerors who appeared on its massive flanks, chanting in unison as healing energy crawled around the wound, slowing the entropic decay still further.
The dragon in its turn began to chant, and white powder flaked down from the ceiling as the ice, more than four feet thick in some places and harder than steel in the terrible cold, began to pull loose, flowing like sluggish water to pool around the dragon for a moment before forming... other shapes.
The Chinese forces drew in, flashes appearing along the vast length of the dragon as the surviving Sorcerors and pair of Ice Winds teleported or leapt aboard, light flickering up and down the length of the huge beast as wounds were tended, and their magic leant to the monstrous display of power being put on.
The temperature in the tunnel dropped still further as the ice thickened in front of the dragon, taking on solid forms as wolves the size of small cars and carved from purest ice sprang forwards, translucent lips curled back to reveal teeth magically honed to the sharpness of monomolecular blades and gleaming in the dull light as the mystic darkness roiled back. The sorcerors had given up on it as largely useless, given that the Overmagus' forces ignored the nigh-physical vision obstruction of the darkness, along with the screaming hurricane-force winds that threatened to tear loose the steel-bound cables and pipes along the walls.
Finally, when there were nearly three dozen of the huge ice-wolves attacking their enemies, the guttural chanting rose once more as those aboard the dragon prepared for a rather smoother teleport extraction than its opposite number.
Flashpoint Zeo, meanwhile, had made a futile grab at Toy Dispenser when he hurtled past, then realized with a start that he was still holding the fireball he had generated a while ago, ballooned out to nearly six feet across by his absent-mindedly feeding power into it for the last while.
The giant tanker stared at it for a split second, then down the tunnel, and then reared back and hurled the huge ball of flame, spurring it on its way with triplicate columns of blue-white flame from both hands and his mouth, swelling it to even greater proportions until it was a roaring wall of flame filling half the tunnel.
What would happen to those caught in it as everything went from only marginally above absolute zero to several thousand degrees was anybody's guess- the armour of the Dark Sovereign's troops had proven resilient to the point of ridiculousness, but the wild stresses brought about by the sudden, massive temperature flux would test even those limits.
Without bothering to watch the results, Flashpoint Zeo turned and sped after the train in a shimmering streak of fire and light. Overtaking it casually, he reached up and swung aboard the rear platform, burning yellow eyes scanning for Toy Dispenser.
"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"
((Gonna wait on Soviet before taking an action with CANINE.))
--------------------
"So?" Wolfgang wanted to know in a curious manner as Vlasta returned the receiver to the center console of the limo's back seat, still wearing the sly smile.
"Once." he answered, "After that, he started calling me Sovereign again. So the bet's a tie. Neither of us gets the money."
"Mhf." the cyborg crossed his arms with a counterfeit expression of despondence, "I was on a winning streak too."
Teivos couldn't help but chuckle. It was true. Wolfgang always bet that Toy Dispenser would never actually call Vlasta just by his name during their conversations, and more often than not he came out on top there.
Before either could say anything else, however, the car phone rang again, and soon after the Tsaigon had picked up, another smile crossed his face. This one, however, hadn't a hint of malice to it.
"Dirver." he spoke forward, "Course change, please. Chiron Medical Research Center."
This in turn caused the cyborg's head to snap around, and receive a confirming nod from Vlasta in return, "Poseidon is awake..."
--------------------
They said ignorance was bliss. The Dark Sovereign's forces respectfully disagreed. They preferred preparation - such as radar and communications links. Neither was exactly hampered by a cloud of murk, even if it had been called into being by a spell, and a certain large force bubble very neatly kept the wind away. After all, it was called a force bubble for a reason.
The frigid temperature, however, they really had summarily ignored. The same idea that kept the cold off the half-naked humans running around here allowed them to manage inside their heavy suits of powered armor. There was an old saying about that as well, but at this point it really didn't matter anymore, considering that Toy took the force bubble with him when he 'followed' the train.
Unlike the Kazbeks employed by the Vesmeerna Pekhota, those of the Pozemna Armada were not programmed to attach themselves to the surface 'below' them, as was for instance necessary on the hulls of starships in space. As a result, the ongoing gale that had turned the tunnel into a wind tube now made prodigious use of the increased surface area of the shields Toy Dispenser had given them, and those whose shields hadn't been crushed by the dragon found themselves elsewhere with due haste. Naturally, this included the ones thrashed around as well, which reduced the number within firing range to four, at least for now.
Whether or not the other half could make it back depended on exactly where the dragon had bitten into their suits. After all, just because they'd remained combat-capable didn't mean there had been no damage. Even people dressed in impervium knew that, for while impervium was resilient to the point of ridiculousness, someone wearing armor made of the stuff still stood far from invincible.
The remaining quartet therefore assumed those four as 'non-combatant' until their status could be confirmed, and while they clung to whatever had been closest - which incidentally created the interesting case of an armored soldier riding down the tunnel on his newly acquired Amazing Flying Rock (TM) - two managed to attach their soles to solid surface and stand again. The third just fired from where he clung to the wall.
Suspecting their by all means quite 'normal' plasma cannons wouldn't do much to the dragon, they instead took under fire its sorcerer support, though whether or not they actually got any before having to deal with the ice wolves they didn't really know. What they did know was that ice, even given form by magic, didn't stand up well against sun-hot plasma, and of course that a giant ball of fire coming at them was a bad thing - especially for a Caldok.
Thus the wallbound soldier didn't get much time to enjoy his regained footing once he found it, for as several thousand degrees vaporized the ice wolves, the upper layers of his Kazbek experienced much the same fate. The lower maintenance layer just couldn't regenerate the armor fast enough to sustain it against that kind of assault. Thankfully, it did give it enough time to recall to the Molvia, where it would take a while to peel the three out of their charred and partially molten armor.
Whether or not the fireball would make it far enough down the tunnel with enough energy left to get the other five, however, was another question. Of course, an even more interesting one was what this meant for the dragon, which had been sitting in their veritable middle at the time...
--------------------
Isabel climbed back into the train to find Kruger completely out of the house, spraying a stream of German curses into his walkie to Legion for leaving Flashpoint Zeo behind. When the collective retorted dismissively that the man was more than capable of catching up to the train, not to mention presently doing so, the Kommandant naturally felt quite sheepish for a moment.
Once Legion informed him that the train had received a Klingon, however, the Krieger's mood lifted yet again, and he ordered the rear door opened and said pursuer taken under fire while he went looking for his bazooka...
--------------------
((Note: due to possibility of misinterpretation, allow me to clarify that Kazbeks are not impervium armor. They use MPDAS (Mikrobotovy Pantsier Dynamitsky Adaptovatelyny podlya Situatsie - Microbot Armor Dynamically Adaptable to Situation) armor. In some ways, it is superior to impervium, in others it is inferior. Raw physical stress, for instance, it can take better due to the microbots' limited ability to gather at stress concentrations. High temperature, on the other hand, impervium is better.))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Toy Dispenser hadn't fought someone who could move almost as fast as he thought in a while, as such, Zeo's mad dash jolted him off course. He bounced into the wall of the tunnel once, twice, three times, crushing the spikes and badly denting the armor on his right side. The arcing bands of electricity were somewhat easier to combat. Dispenser simply disengaged the lightning grapple which had started off his journey, he was hanging securely from the second grapple now, and lifted the freed arm in front of him to blast a bubble of force that cleared and dispersed the energy like a blast of wind in a smokey room.
Lashing out with his left arm again, he powered down his force field generator and latched another grapple onto the back of the train. By the time Zeo got back and the rebels were rather ineffectually opening fire, Dispenser was about ten feet away and closing in at a rate of a foot a second.
"You'll have to do better than that," shouted up the android in an almost conversational tone. "The Iron Fist of the Overmagus does not easily loosen his grip. Surrender now or die painfully."
**********************
The departure of the force bubble and subsequent exposure to the heavy winds discomfited the drones only because they were forced to spike themselves into stationary positions. Toy Bot's light frame was unable to succesfully aim through the winds, however, so once it was stabilized it vanished in a bright flash of light, re-appearing on the Molvia like a gangly ice-carved statue of some bizarre spider monster.
Combat Toy bent into the winds and weathered them like an especially sturdy tree, aiming his heavy torso-mounted plasma cannons at the mages atop the dragon while his blades made shards out of any ice-wolf stupid enough to charge him. Block Bot and Large Toy overcharged their force field generators to prepare for the coming fire storm with Block Bot shielding Large Toy and Large Toy shielding CT. When the wave of fire hit, the pair of shielded drones survived with moderate damage, armor shattered in multiple places over their bodies to expose secondary or tertiary layers, all that now protected their actual guts.
Block Bot was fairly unlucky, shattering at the waist, upper neck, and left shoulder. His various parts became randomly strewn about, his head lodging in the hole in the wall the Ice Wind had gotten knocked into, arm flying off to almost brain a sorceror, torso getting caught on a track, and legs remaining upright where they had been spiked to the ground.
Mini Bot, meanwhile, had been ignored by the dragon as its blades did little more than scratch the scale. Scrambling like a monkey over the armored hide in search of a weaker spot, the drone was barely missed by the rebels as they hopped aboard their ride. Receiving new orders, Mini Bot shoved a tracking tag under a scale near the dragon's belly and then clung on for dear life as it's armor changed color to the same white of the scales it lay next to.
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.
A giant thunderous roar echoed down the tunnel as a giant THING of electricity suddenly erupted from the rails right before the train and threw a literal tsunami of solid power at the clingy Toy Dispenser. But not with the expected intent. Legion could hear everything Toy had said. If he was a high-ranking official, he would make an excellent hostage, or at least a source of information. Robots were suckers for getting the information plunged from their memory banks.
The tsunami of power, if it hit, would unleash a massive, self contained EMP around Toy Dispenser in the hopes of shutting him down while also tossing him ONTO the train, where all the nice men with large guns and angry super-powered individuals were waiting for him...
The fireball hit just as the teleportation spell... almost completed.
There was a spectacular lightshow covering every colour from Infrared all the way up the spectrum to Octarine as the dragon and its passengers simultaneously imploded, exploded, and teleported, all at the same time. Anybody caught in that would be lucky not to end up with their spleen where their ears used to be, or worse.
Accompanying the lightshow was a roar of sound and a thunderclap of air that jolted the train hard enough to make the rear cars sway on the rails.
Finally, the tunnel caved in, the support walls stressed beyond endurance by the hard fought battle and now the runaway temperature flux. Then the last couple of grenades exploded, finalizing the collapse.
Flashpoint Zeo gave the destruction a flat look, then shrugged. "Pretty." was his only comment before he swung lightly up onto what was left of the roof to check what was happening with that particular lightshow. A careful observer would note that he was moving far more lightly than his size would suggest... and that at all times he kept a solid grip on the rushing train.
"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"
Sweat beaded on the foreheads beneath several rebels' helmets as their mechanical foe closed in for the kill, their fire unable to stop or even slow him down. Now they recognized him, the Iron Fist of the Overmagus, and though some began to swap out regular AP magazines for incendiary rounds, the bulk of them assumed that like the Dark Sovereign's combat cyborgs, Toy Dispenser had access to MPDAS armor - and with that, an EM shield more than capable of deflecting projectiles subject to electromagnetic forces.
Kruger, however, felt quite different about this, having by the time had finished his sentence located his launcher, and presently loaded a rocket. If he was going down, it wouldn't be happening without a fight, this was one thing he was sure of. Hopefully, he'd be correct.
But before he could even take aim, a certain wave of electricity surged about outside. What results did it bring...?
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Toy Dispenser calmly watched the massive electrical beast come at him. He lashed out at it with a curved force bolt, blowing chunks of the beast away to ground themselves on the tunnel walls, but with at least one hand needed to keep himself attatched to the train, he was unable to stop it. Briefly rolling his head in annoyance, the constant small flickers of lightning on his armor strengthed in frequency and intensity as he overcharged his aura. Disengaging his tether at the last moment, Dispenser crossed both forearms in front of him, flaring his force field generators as the electrical beast grabbed a hold of him.
Nothing could be seen of him for a moment except as a roiling sphere of blue and red lightning. Then the sphere seemed to explode and Dispenser's smoking form was thrown on board the train, crashing heavily against the wall next to Kruger and crumpling motionless to the floor.
Kruger blinked a couple times at the inert body of the Overmagus' Iron Fist. ...had they really just done this? Could a few metahumans from this other dimension actually turn the tide?
*****************************
A black mechanical fist punched through a layer of rock. With a rumble and small cascade, the fist withdrew and punched out again, widening the hole. A battered suit of Kazbek armor was then thrust out, collapsing to the ground before the Caldok could yank off his helmet and cough hoarsely. His emergency teleport had been screwed up by the implosion of the CSPR forces and only intervention by Combat Toy, who was now forcing its way out of the rubble, had kept him from being completely crushed.
"That didn't exactly go as planned," muttered the head of Block Bot as it's torso jiggled out from the rail and dragged itself along with the stump of its left arm.
"The boss has the rebels where we want them and the Chinese mooks lost a dragon," grunted CT. "I think things went fine."
Several flashes later and they were all aboard the Molvia, its teleporters finally able to get a lock through the distortion. Mini Bot hadn't survived, but even now a new chasis was being prepped.
"Follow the course of the train," ordered Toy Bot as it clattered into the cockpit. "I will advise you of neccessary course changes. Additional, inform the reinforcing armored units that they are no longer needed."
The co-pilot shared a glance with the pilot, both men a bit uncomfortable about being ordered around by a battle drone, even if it belonged to Toy Dispenser, but what could they do?
"Yes, sir, I'm on it."
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.
"Boss, I think I found the sniper hombre." Eddie pointed towards Solid coming on for the strike. "Right. Boys, fall back. I got me a plan." The elder biker said. His gloved hand flew into his jacket, searching quickly. He pulled out a strange, orb like thing. He pressed a few buttons on his keyboard and the ball began to pulse red.
The orb was a Heated Radar Jamming and Smoke Grenade. Max had stolen it from the Council during a "negotiation". He threw the grenade towards CANINE in hopes of at least jamming it's radar and any other form of visiual aid. He turned and steadily walked down the street, guns drawn. His crew followed in a formation used to keep their backs from being open. As they walked a thought dawned on Eddie.
"Boss? I think that vato with the gun was a robot." the Enforcer spoke. Max's eyebrows perked up behind his sungasses. "Why the hell didn't you say so? Damnit. Hope he's fine. Or I hope your wrong Eddie. He didn't start this fight, in fact, he was helping us. You gotta tell me these things, Ed." the biker said, his voice hinting at the annoyance he felt. They were out of their game. They were the smaller force, had lost the element of surprise, the Nazi's had homefield advantage.
"Careful, boys. I don't think we're going to get far. If they ask, surrender. And no guff! I don't wanna hear it! Screw our pride! If we pace ourselves maybe we can get some kind of advantage, at least survive this mess. With me?" Max said, turning to his "boys". They nodded their heads except for Bear. "Bear? C'mon. You know as well as I do that we haveta play smarter not harder. You've stuck with my old @#$ this far, don't lemme down now." Max pleaded with the oversized thug. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the brusier nodded his head. "All right. Eyes Peeled."
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
Isabel practically jumped as the robotic form of Toy Dispenser landed in the train with them. Very cautiously, she went over and kicked the inert robot a couple of times to make sure he really was inert before crouching down beside him and looking for a way to get at the systems inside to disconnect anything he could use to harm them upon waking up. "I'd imagine we don't want him waking up and immediately beating us all to a pulp, yes?", she said by way of explanation.
-------------
Valerie like the others stared more than a little incredulously at the robot. If he was actually disabled and not merely playing dead to get past their defenses, this was a huge victory. Chances were though that Toy Dispenser was merely playing dead...
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
((Aiight, guess it's been long enough. Hope I get this plausible enough for Sovs to be okay with it. 
))
No one was quite sure just what happened when four objects collided in midair at roughly the same time, the particulate cloud obscuring all view of the events in the air above the street, but the results spoke for themselves: CANINE came back down like some sort of meteorite, trailing the smoke of the bomb still attached to its frame, which in turn of course prompted a certain biker crew to hot-foot it and turn their walk into a run so the thing wouldn't be coming down on top of them.
In retrospect, running was probably the better idea anyway, for walking away from a pair of Horsemen of the Apocalypse generally didn't work out too well. Yes, running was definitely smarter, and the bikers had a good amount of common sense. So they ran, which in turn resulted in enough distance between them and the car that when CANINE rammed a new crater into the pavement, the billowing particulate ended up between the bikers and mercenaries, conveniently covering their escape in virtually the best manner possible.
However, it was probably a good idea for them to get off the street as well - though Solid Shot was likely to tell them just that in the next few seconds anyway - for just because the Horsemen couldn't see through the smoke didn't mean they couldn't get out of it. Moreover, judging by the manner in which War had struck, 'surrender' probably wasn't in their best interest...at least not to a pair of warmongering psycho-killers...
--------------------
Kruger only nodded jerkily, the Kommandant still overcome by the abruptness of what had just happened. Something that had never happened before. Quite frankly, he had no idea how to respond to the situation.
It took him nearly three seconds to lower the barrel of his rocket launcher, having only then realized that firing that thing in here probably wasn't such a good idea, and in the meantime several more rebels switched to incendiary rounds. They weren't quite sure whether that would actually help or not, but it was more of a psychological factor anyway. Placing ammo into a gun tended to have a calming effect on many a solider, and it was no doubt a lot better than doing nothing while they watched and waited to see what would happen now...
--------------------
As the 34th Panzers turned back, those in the back of the Molvia weren't idle either. The Caldok Combat Toy had rescued wasn't the only one whose Kazbek was now charred black and useless, and while half of the Pozemna Armada soldiers struggled their way out of what had once been their armor, the other half either helped or was in the process of being defrosted.
In fact, the latter - Sombal - was probably the only one who'd gotten away without one major injury or another, for just because one was in a suit of armor didn't mean blunt force trauma suddenly had no effect. Cracked ribs were especially plentiful for obvious reasons, and thus even the warlike Caldoks were for the moment glad to catch a break.
Of course, that didn't mean they were no longer on call. Though the ensemble of white sleeveless shirt, like-hued shorts, and black belt they wore underneath didn't provide any sort of armor value whatsoever, just the fact that each of their left-hand black boots hid a collapsible field knife inside perfectly illustrated their general mindset: as long as they could fight, they would.
That meant should Toy and crew need them, all they required was the word...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Flashpoint Zeo dropped into the car through the giant hole that comprised most of the roof now and gave Toy, then Kruger, a look. Stepping over and hefting the robot's "corpse" with one hand, he gave it an experimental shake, then dumped it again.
Reaching up, he went to give Legion a sharp flick with one forefinger. Whether or not the flick connected, he wanted the floating... whatever's... attention. "To be finding the bit with the brain inside." he instructed sharply. "All others with similar knowledge, to be helping. Keeping memory, dumping bit with weapons overboard. Along with as large quantity of explosives as possible to spare."
"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"
Flashpoint was lucky. Legion had just come floating in from the last car. Zeo flicked him unsuccessfully, the little drone hovering just out of reach.
"Please refrain from touching the drone. It has a durability rating of five. A stiff breeze could destroy it." Legion said coldly. "As it were, we just expended most of ourselves on getting the train to move and THAT." Legion hovered slightly closer to Toy Dispenser, as if in indication. "If we attempt any more actions, we shall not have enough capacity to continue trying to pacify the exterior source. The cyborg wakes up. Hell breaks loose. We need twenty four hours before we can respond to the current situation, which will most likely not REMAIN as such before then. You will need to find your own method. I will advise that it would be prudent to IMMEDIATELY remove any form of tracking device or beacon from this unit's apparatus to prevent from being followed by enemy forces."
Combat Toy swiveled it's head around to look at the soldiers, assessing their injuries and general state of being.
"Cool your heels, squishies," grunted the assault bot after a moment. "The boss won't be needing us for a little while. Lick your wounds, plot revenge, and play a game of poker or something. L and B will do what they can to patch up you and your armor, so don't worry about having to remember which end of your pig-sticker you put in the good guy."
Large Toy was already shuffling among the more wounded soldiers, holding them steady with one hand while playing it's nanite beam over their wounds. While most of the energy requirements were satisfied by the energy of the beam itself, the drone recommended getting something to eat while they had a chance. Block Bot would get to work making the sets of armor somewhat battleworthy again as soon as it's legs could figure out exactly where to connect to the torso, ignoring as they were the shouted commands of their irritated owner.
********************
Unforetunately for Isabel, Toy Dispenser didn't have any obvious means of opening him up. Aside from the miniscule flickering of electricity over his surface, he showed no life during her examination, nor even when Zeo picked him up and shook him. This changed after the massive tanker suggested chopping his head off, though.
"Your plan would be most ill-advised," burbled Dispenser, his vocoder apparently out of whack as his voice see-sawed through ranges and tones before settling down into its normal, slightly distorted monotone.
Swiftly reaching up to grasp Isabel's arm, he used her to assist himself in standing up, hopefully before anyone else could knock him down again. Currently he wouldn't resist much, though that could change.
"Not only would such damage cause my reactor to overload and kill every person on this train, but said action would net you no useable information. My code cannot be deciphered," explained the android as he glanced around and then moved to sit down, calmly resting both arms on the armrests of the seat as he glanced at those in the car, blank faceplate lingering on Legion for a moment longer in interest.
"Besides, why attempt to wrest knowledge from my memory banks when I will be more than willing to answer any questions you might have? I assume you will have more than a few, especially of things good Kruger here was unable or unwilling to tell you."
Dispener shot a glance that could be construed as shrewd at the rebel colonel, who glared right back. Several of the other rebels around looked more than willing to shoot first and ask questions later, though they refrained as long as their commander did.
******************
Solid also didn't like being blind.
What with the radar jamming, IR flooding, sight blocking cloud of the sphere that had lodged itself on CANINE, Solid counted himself very lucky that he could still smell things. One of the often overlooked functions of a security droid was that he often acted as a hunter as much as a defender, so a technical sense of smell about as good as a bloodhound's was considering worth installing.
"Thank god the old [censored] had both money and sense for as long as he did," muttered the droid as he plummeted in an arc toward the ground, aiming away from the very distinctive and overwhelming smell the jammer gave off.
He landed a bit hard, losing some excess momentum by immidiately curling into a roll down the street. His roll was stopped by colliding with Eddie's legs, probably knocking the man over as the unexpected several hundred pounds of armor, munitions, and cape slammed into the back of his legs.
"[censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored]!" loudly muttered Solid as he scrambled to his feet, yanking the enforcer up so quickly that his head probably spun from the sudden changes in height. "[censored] getting off the street and follow me before that god forsaken hunter-killer gets off its [censored] and comes to kill us!"
He then darted for a nearby alleyway with a harsh "Follow me, damn it!" lingering behind him. His black armor was a bit hard to see in the darkness of the path, but he telegraphed his motions enough that even an unskilled punk would be able to follow him if he ran fast enough.
Solid would lead them through a couple of alleyways, across a street, then into a closed department store who's back door was slightly ajar as Solid and Rezyzin had broken in a little while ago to make a temporary safehouse. Alarms had been blocked or diverted, so it was here that Solid would finally pause long enough to let the no doubt slightly annoyed thugs question him.
If they didn't follow, then, well, Solid wouldn't bother doubling back for them. He was already pushing himself to be trying to lead them to safety as it was.
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.
Eddie threw a mexican curse as fell over the droid. Before anyone could respond though, Solid had darted into the alleyways with a harsh command. They followed behind him, even though his movements were a bit clunky at times. A nine year old could of followed him. Finallly, they ducked inside a building that seemed to have been previously secured. The crew immediatley went into defensive postions around the house except for Max. Max walked over to Solid, briefly looking him up and down before speaking.
"Thanks for the help. What's your name? Don't laugh, Mine is Max D. Stroyer. My parents had a sense of humor, I guess. I got a few questions, so whenever your ready."
His crew were waiting to see if they had been followed, their guns drawn and Bear waiting to charge the door.
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 ]
"Besides, why attempt to wrest knowledge from my memory banks when I will be more than willing to answer any questions you might have?"
[/ QUOTE ]
"Perhaps it's because up until right now you were very clearly the enemy, and we made the logical assumption that you wouldn't talk?", Isabel replied suspiciously, having jumped into the air the moment the robot moved and now hovering near the ceiling, energy tendrils flowing around her hands as she'd almost blasted him in pure reflex. "Perfectly reasonable to think that an enemy robot would be unwilling to answer our questions, no? Anyway, if you're going to talk I suggest you start talking very quickly and very convincingly before the Kommandant over there pulls out that rocket launcher again."
Valerie simply stood just as stunned at this turn of events as the others. Her rifle was pointed squarely at Toy's chest, but in all likelihood if the robot was going to try something she wouldn't react anywhere near in time.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
While the Caldoks in general didn't much care for the mannerism of Combat Toy - after all, from where they stood they were the 'good guys' - none of them brought it up for contention, not regarding the semantic as important enough at this point. They would however take Large Toy's recommendation, at least once the more pressing things were done.
By now, for instance, they'd managed to get Sombal out of his block of ice, the man having to take a few comradely snarks for getting stuck like that, but the almost glued-together MPDAS panels of the Kazbeks damaged beyond repair would still take some time to wedge off.
Block Bot was in luck however, for one of the eight-man squad's tech pair hadn't been in the line of the fireball. Sure, he'd been crunched down on by a dragon and smashed through a wall, but it wasn't any kind of pain he hadn't experienced before. His training had made sure of that.
Better yet, Large Toy of course followed common sense and got to him first (the squad's medic was still being peeled out of his ZUB) since he could in turn help Block Bot pull himself back together, so to speak. Naturally, that didn't help the chuckles and remarks the latter mechanoid received for his troubles, and if Sombal could've shared his freshly heated MRE with his partner-in-suffering, he probably would've...
--------------------
((Edit: try reading the following with a Jet Li accent. It comes out oddly funny, at least IMO. Also a point for those who catch the references. 
))
Jiang Xu Guan cursed. What a day. And it wasn't even over yet. Seriously, what else could go wrong today? Wait, scratch that, he'd rather not know. Asking that question was practically begging for it, and things had already gone miserably enough for one day.
First the retrieval team - or rather, what had been left of them - had reported back with failure. That alone was already bad. With all they'd brought along, they should've wiped the floor with those pathetic Axis soldiers. But nooo, an operation with that much overkill was practically asking for it. Xu Guan knew that well enough, but he also knew it hadn't been his place to speak. Those kinds of decisions were for those of higher rank, the leaders of the Chinese Peoples' Socialist Revolution.
Then again, maybe he should've said something. Maybe then they could've avoided drawing the attention of the Dark Sovereign's elite forces. Perhaps then they could've captured the c...no, it was not worth mulling over. Done was done, they had, and everything had gone to hell. Even worse, they'd lost Wulong! Not that Xu Guan considered dragons holy or anything...but the passing of one was sure to bring all manner of ill fortune upon the middle kingdom, not to mention that his death dealt a severe blow to the CPSR's forces. They had only four, after all.
Well, had had. Now there were three, which in turn was the instigator for Xu Guan's presently very stressed state of mind. It was his job to summon up another, which wasn't anywhere near as easy as it sounded - and it already sounded hideously hard, this anyone who'd read even the first sentence of the procedure knew: 'if you are going to attempt this, you had better be blessed with an unearthly amount of luck'. That had been the job assigned to Xu Guan.
And now his chalk had broken. Perfect. Just perfect.
Xu Guan raised the cracked stone up in front of his nose and before his eyes. He cursed again. In fact, the broken chalk was the reason behind the first curse as well. Why did that one stupid circle require that its characters be drawn in chalk anyway? Ink was just as good. Actually, ink was better, so much easier to work with...which now that he thought about it was probably the reason. Sometimes, the universe just loved to do that.
With a sigh, Xu Guan sat back and looked to the ceiling of the cave, where a large, grass-rimmed hole allowed in the last rays of the setting sun that managed to reach this secluded part of the mountains. He didn't like that. But what could they do? The CPSR wasn't exactly the most loved opposition movement, even here in their own nation. In fact, most of the Chinese population would've sold them out without a second thought, this Xu Guan knew only too well. He still bore the scar on his face from the last time it had happened.
Regardless, he had to get back to work. True, he could've just told one of the other sorcerers to draw this circle, but he knew he still had the steadiest hands here. If he drew it, it would reduce the potential error further, and every single reduction counted, no matter how small. After all, if they screwed this up, instead of a dragon they might get some demented cynic from another world who'd then be very upset and start beating people over the head with a gnarled old cane just out of sheer spite.
By all that was holy, Xu Guan hoped that wouldn't happen.
Thus he snatched a new piece of chalk from the box on the floor and began to draw again, in tandem with the other sorcerers spread out across the floor of the large cavern. Yes, that was another thing he could be thankful for. The dome of rock was at least large enough. More than large enough, in fact, which was good. Dragons tended to get upset if the ceiling hung so low that they kept bumping their heads.
It took much time and more sweat, but eventually the work came to completion. Xu Guan rose, satisfied at the many glyphs that now covered the smoothed cavern floor. Yes, with these it would work, he was certain...at least if held the scroll at just such an angle. He couldn't help but peek over the bamboo a few times, rotating the thing in this way and that to be sure. Needless to say, he still had his doubts, but they'd done the best they could, so they'd just have to try and hope nothing went kapow in the process.
It didn't take long for the first chants to rise, the sorcerers' minds in harmony with one another, their voices giving rise to a compendium. Xu Guan couldn't help but think back to the strange man from America with that beautiful chanting voice. What had his name been again? Xin Ken? Jen Kin? Xu Guan could not remember. Besides, he had to focus on this now.
Soon, a low, underlying hum wafted up from the earth and worked its way into the chants, the power of magic responding to their call. Again Xu Guan checked the symbols on the cavern walls. Best described as stealth wards, their purpose was fairly straightforward - and extremely vital. Xu Guan didn't even want to think of what might happen if they failed, even for a moment. They were calling up a lot of power here, and if the Sovereign traced something like that...
Xu Guan gulped. He'd rather not spin that thread any further. He just hoped they'd hold...and now that he thought about it, that the strike force had employed all the necessary precautions upon their return here. He didn't like the thought of being attacked just because someone else had been tracked here.
Those thoughts were soon swept away however, and the chanting reached its peak, the magic now rushing through the cavern almost tangible. Then, from one moment to another, it all came together, and thunder cracked, wind roared. Xu Guan threw up a hand to shield his eyes.
Once the wave of pressure had passed, he slowly dared take a first look. Regrettably, it wasn't very enlightening, as the summoning spell had filled the cave with a dense, soupy mist. Xu Guan scowled just slightly. What was it with ancient spells and smoke effects? Did everybody just have a really big budget back then? Or did they just like the suspense of it? Xu Guan, for one, didn't much care for the stuff.
But still, his heart beat faster as he spied a shape within the mist, and a large one at that. Still...it wasn't quite the right size. Then again, dragons were known to be shapeshifters...and more importantly...
It moved...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Hey you guys so sorry about that, I lost internet for a few days.))
"Hahahahah!" "Ah, now we party!" Came the cackling pair of voices from inside the smoke cloud, and just as two outlines came into form at the edge of the haze there was the unmistakable sound of a drawing charging handle, a slight pause, and the pulling of a second one. There was a pronounced schwing as a pair of swords were drawn.
Those in the know on sword technology would instantly realize that the sound of metal-on-metal with the simple unsheathing of a weapon was obviously the result of extraneous metal inside the scabbard, put in place for the sole purpose of intimidation.
Indeed, just like that, the figure with the two as-yet unidentifiable automatics, holding them guns-akimbo and pointing only loosely at the thugs, began to fire off four-to-five round bursts from what could only loosely be described as two drum magazines smashed together on each weapon. The swordsman took two steps forward in the haze and then disappeared completely.
For now, he didn't reappear.
---
Rezyin lurched in the door, slimy off-color blood trailing out of his chest and left arm. His broadsword was half out of its scabbard, and it had a rather noticeable nick in the lower part of the blade. "Damned machine." The swordsman cursed quietly, his wounds slowly closing. "Who are our friends?"
OOC:
THE CONSPIRACY! IT LIVES!
Huh. So there must be Xin Ken for every alternate version of Earth I guess. Interesting. Wonder if his story is more or less the same or drastically different.
Flashpoint Zeo raised an eyebrow. "Only difference body exploding makes after separation of head is saving on explosives." he suggested. "Risk increases exponentially every second intact..." a pause and a look, up and down, over Toy Dispenser, "... mostly intact robot remains on train. Urge either complete discardation with explosives, or discardation without head. Explosion in either case hopefully make more difficult to track."
He folded his arms, a huge flaming sword appearing suggestively in one hand as he loomed over Toy Dispenser. "And first to say stupidity like 'have captured powerful enemy, must make use of valuable information' gets smacked over head. Any information gained irrelevant if vastly more powerful enemy learns location of base."
"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"
"Zeo is correct." Legion stated. "If gleaning information from this unit is indeed impossible or impractical at this stage, strapping explosives to its chassis before dumping it overboard would be optimal. The possibility of it tracking us is simply too large to allow it to exist. As an added bonus, a powerful enough blast could destroy the tunnel and prevent followers. The cyborg has many nuclear blast modules which we may employ for this purpose..."
((Okay then, let's see if this makes a little...inspiration. 
))
Zeo and Legion alike had a very wrong view of the rebels. 'Making use of valuable information' that Toy Dispenser might divulge was at this point the last thing on Kruger's mind. In fact, he stood at completely the opposite: he didn't want the android talking.
Worse yet, it looked like Toy Dispenser knew this, sitting there with that nonexistent smug grin on his blank faceplate, just listening quietly, taking in the conversation and smiling that smile that wasn't there. The Krieger could've jumped at him! The mechanoid probably reveled in his apprehension!
Still, he knew better - which was more than could be said for the bulky man and drone, who so casually discussed disposal of the android. Didn't they realize that it wasn't they who had him, but he who had them? If he really had that dead man's switch he'd spoken of, there was no logical reason he couldn't hit it at any given time, even with his head still attached. Then what? Boom, that's what.
And even if not, hadn't they noticed that he'd teleported in with a whole crew earlier? If he'd wanted to, the guy could've just warped his henchmen in and started things all over. True, that wasn't so much a 'you're dead' result as the reactor going, but it still wouldn't have been pleasant. No, Zeo and Legion took the mechanoid far too lightly. He had them all at gunpoint, and those two didn't even realize it.
But why? Even through all his worries, the Kommanant couldn't help but wonder why. Logically, he should have pulled the trigger, so to speak, shot them dead. But yet...he just sat there; listening, observing. What was he up to? What was he waiting for? or was he just amusing himself, taking delight in the debacle as well as Kruger's inner panic?
No. No, that couldn't be it. The Krieger knew a great deal about Toy Dispenser. Everything he did had a goal, had a defined, concrete purpose to further his objectives. There was something more sinister at work here, that stood beyond any doubt.
Finally, Kruger gave himself a push, addressing Toy merely with, "Go on..."
--------------------
Whether mercenary, biker, commando, or robot, it probably didn't take much to note the VB now gradually sweeping in from a few blocks all around. The patrols were loose and easy to avoid however, having merely the purpose of securing the general are and ensuring no civilians came to harm. Police were police, after all.
For the Horsemen, this presented an opportunity to find out more about their newest employer, especially since they could likely tell that the hospital a ways down the street stood a little more guarded than was usual. It wasn't a far-flung theory that this place was the one Teivos had spoken of; namely where his friend had been taken to.
Who knew, perhaps the mercenaries desired a little insurance policy, just in case. After all, one never knew. Vlasta had told them they hadn't to worry about any sudden 'contract cancellations', but could he be trusted? Maybe having an ace in the hole wasn't such a bad idea.
On the other hand, going after the people as they'd been assigned may have gotten them into knowing more as well, but of course came with its own attached risk. Whether it was less or greater, however, only time would tell. Right now, it all depended on which decision War and Famine would make.
Actually, if they chose to try and grab a little insurance, he guys they'd been sent to bring in might make decent scapegoats. Find them, play the part, go in, grab this friend of Teivos', then kill them to make it look like they did it? Sounded like a pretty smooth plan. Delivered the best of both worlds.
If it worked.
Solid Shot, on the other hand, was likely more concerned with puzzling together how to sort this all out. Still, he and Rezyin very probably had seen the Molvia touch down on that building, and from the radio chatter about at the time that helo had to have been carrying someone or something from another world - and someone or something very important to 'the Sovereign' (whoever that was), for that matter.
Thus possibilities abound. But which path would fate take...?
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
[ QUOTE ]
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.
[/ QUOTE ]
Isabel looked over at him, apparently trying very hard not to laugh. "Bet you ten bucks we're not quite that screwed yet", she said before leaping into the air, going from a standing start to top speed in a matter of moments just like the train had. Landing on the roof of the front car, she stared for a second at the... dragon?... just a bit further down the tunnel, working out where the best place to hit it might be. Again she settled into a sniper stance, sending a long-range blast straight into the creature's open mouth to detonate against the presumably weaker skin inside.
---------
As the train abruptly went from standing still to top speed, Valerie had to grab at the edge of the seat next to her to avoid falling over from the sudden change in momentum. "A little warning would've been nice...", she muttered in German before standing back up and looking out the back window at the steadily receeding battle behind them.
Suddenly getting an idea she went over to the door, opened a crack and dropped two grenades set to a proximity trigger out before closing it again. If the forces behind them moved to pursue and didn't notice the small devices they'd explode as soon as someone got close enough and probably collapse the tunnel on top of them. Since at least some of them were capable of teleportation it probably wouldn't stop them, but it'd at least slow them down a little, which might be all they needed to make a clean getaway.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?