Egregore performed a sudden, whip-lash like movement with an entire body and suddenly a Psi-Bomb had rolled rather conveniently underneath the M7A7 in the alley before detonating, hopefully taking out the operating crew of the tank as well as everyone around it. His original plan was still set, but now he was begining to wonder if Toy Dispenser's teleport was ever going to come through. If anything started firing his way, he was OUT of there...
And there was also no way in hell he would, or rather could surrender. Surrendering meant exploding violently.
'And, o' course, I already used up my immediate supply of Nuclear Blast modules. Work faster, stupid nano-synthesizers...'
Isabel's personal forcefield shimmered into existence as the tanks landed, and she looked around slowly at them and the soldiers that had arrived with them. "I told you, I don't do surrender", she said quietly as she rose slightly into the air. "I do however do 'run like hell', when the situation calls for it", she added before abruptly going from not moving to top speed.
Aiming for the nearest building she flew in an erratic zigzag and hoped that, combined with the suddenness of her departure and her forcefield would allow her to get out of the line of sight of anything shooting at her before they managed to actually shoot her down.
---------------
Valerie had much the same idea. There was nothing she as a single soldier could do against three tanks and their supporting infantry. "I'm bugging out, unless you have a better suggestion", she sent over the comm lines, hoping for dear life they were still secure. If no such better suggestion came she would do just that, following her sister's example and retreating further back into the park. Being captured really wasn't on her list of things to do today, especially since she remembered what they'd done to this world's Isabel when they captured her.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
Flashpoint Zeo watched the tanks zoom in with detatched interest, noting laconically "Shiny." As they landed, he made a beeline for one, spiralling around it in a whirling tornado of flame, making a spirited attempt at removing every piece of it that stuck beyond the hull with sword and flame.
In the midst of the whirlwind, he lobbed the occasional fireball at the other tanks, hopefully drawing their attention away from the fleeing rebels and Primal-Earth heroes. As always, he was carefully regulating his flame so that nearby soldiers (and those inside the tanks) might get slapped around and slightly cooked, but weren't being butchered wholesale.
"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"
Fat chance.
The PA forces had been prepared to fire if the order to give up was not heeded, and since the heroes didn't, they had no reason whatsoever to hold.
A plasma beam incinerated Egregore's psi-bomb in midair, merely the first of many to tear thunder through the air, the soldiers' LEFPR's speaking loudly and often as Isabel and Zeo darted away, the latter with of course much greater speed than the former.
The tanks' multiple smaller turrets naturally didn't remain idle either, laying into the area with heavy energy machine guns. Isabel's shield thankfully held, and the tanker's combination of heat-based shielding and speedy zigzag kept him going.
The rebels, however, weren't so lucky.
Plasma beams and EMG fire alike ripped through their light armor and into their bodies, tearing, shredding, incinerating, vaporizing, split-second screams of agony filling the alleyway intersection as Kruger and his people paid the price of the heroes' choice, dropping like flies in the savage, mercilessly accurate crossfire. The Kommandant's own blood-soaked hand hit the pavement nearly half a second before the rest of his corpse, severed from the body of which little was left, the wide-open cranial cavity of his half-vaporized skull spilling sizzling gray matter upon the concrete.
Atop the lead tank, Wolfgang still crouched next to the Sovereign with rifle in hand, still aimed in roughly the same position in which he'd taken out the psi bomb a second before.
Wolf3r: I don't know /why/ he thought that would work.
A. Teivos: Because they never believe you'll shoot until you really do. Now stop the speed guy.
Wolf3r: Wilco.
The cyborg leaped off the tank and dashed to round corner about which Zeo had disappeared, regretting that the intersection of the three alleyways gave him no clear line of sight to the other tanks, positioned in the passage between buildings and war wall, while the one he'd come on occupied the alley that led to the street.
He regretted it even more when he found the tanker wreaking havoc with the soldiers around this particular tank, their attempts to counterattack apparently good for jack squat, just as the vehicle's EMG fire seemed to be. Following common sense, they naturally worked to shoot where he was going to be, not where he was, but still the large man was merrily making a mess sans any observable adverse consequence. Thankfully, the M7A7's heavy armor at least managed to keep the tank safe against his burning strikes, as well as the constructed sword. Still, if he built up the power of the latter or employed some other means to give it more oomph (a fiery embrace, if one will), there wasn't much of a chance he wouldn't just cleave right through.
However, that wasn't what ticked the cyborg off so much. No, it was that this schmuck had even found the chance to huck a fireball at the tank hovering across the intersection while speeding about, attacking the tank, and fighting its infantry escort, the second vehicle and its infantry detachment unable to counter due to significant possibility of return fire hitting their own comrades. Thankfully, they could at the very least cover Wolfgang's back, just like the ones still with Teivos.
Looks like it's time to try our new weapon.
The cyborg switched the firing mode of his rifle and took aim, calculating carefully in the span of mere microseconds, then squeezed the trigger. A blue-white orb burst from the canister-like barrel with report akin to a cryo cannon, and in fact that came very close to what this was. However, it wasn't meant to freeze people - this thing froze shields.
Wolfgang had wanted to try it out on the woman with the energy bubble, but the grenade had taken priority, so the guy employing fire and plasma shielding would just have to do. The final effect would still be the same: if this struck Zeo, his protective fields would solidify and shatter due to his momentum. In addition, he'd likely hit a wall from the sheer shock of the moment.
And Wolfgang was a very good shot.
In the sky Isabel quickly found that just because she'd gotten herself out of the warzone on the ground didn't mean she was out of trouble. The trio of Comanches in their air hadn't gone anywhere, and with her currently being the only hostile entity in their territory, it didn't take a lot of figuring to puzzle out just what they'd do.
One got on her almost the moment she made it to the rooftop of the building she'd aimed for, 20 mm shells from its XM301 turret pounding away at her shield, the helo's weapons operator just waiting for her to get clear of the structure to deploy the aircraft's missile payload.
As for the Egregore Device, just where his jump had taken him was a good question. If he'd hit the interdiction field with his 'port, however, the consequences were already quite clear indeed. That field didn't mess around.
And if he hadn't, chances were it would be only a matter of time before he was found. A ZUB's sensor systems were extremely difficult to get around...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Ouch. Apparently Gauntlet isn't working >.>
)
"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"
Burning took off in hot pursuit after Isabel. He was a fast flyer, quick by many standards, but there was no way he could stop or even keep up with her at the rate things were going.
Not without some help, anyway.
Torcher broke away from the fight, teleporting a ways ahead of Isabel. With a brief moment's concentration, he managed to pull Burning to him. The VB officer dropped to the ground, arms out wide and aflame. He clapped them together, sending a wave of fire in the girl's direction. If it didn't hit her, it would hopefully blind her just long enough to not notice the car Torcher had teleported directly into her path.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
Isabel swore loudly as the chopper started blazing away at her with its minigun. She swerved and zigzagged in an effort to evade as many of those shots as possible, inadvertendly dodging flame and car alike in doing so. "Why did I forget the choppers. I shouldn't have forgotten the choppers, Kruger even pointed them out", she muttered to herself. Thankfully her shield was holding - for now. Likely it wouldn't for much longer.
Which left her with three options. Die to the chopper, die to the fire guy, or take either one out with her. Or... Yeah, regardless of what she'd said before it was probably the only way to come out of this alive. So much for principles.
Thus, she raised both hands above her head in the traditional gesture of 'I surrender'. Though, she kept the shield up until they'd stopped firing. Assuming they did stop firing.
----------
Valerie didn't even look back at the chaos erupting behind her as she ran. In fact she paid little attention to where she was going as well, apart from 'away from here'. Thus, she was understandably surprised when she ran right smack into a certain bunch of mercenaries and thugs and their nonhuman friend.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
Burning couldn't resist a grin when he saw Isabel surrender. Maybe there was some hope for these people after all. He signaled to Torcher to stand ready as he dropped to the ground in front of the girl, a pair of NullCuffs that would suppress her powers, his other hand in front of him, palm facing her. A gesture for calm.
"Please disengage your shield and I can assure you that you will not be harmed."
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
Egregore had ported straight down into the oddly spacious sewer system, activated his combat invisibility and started getting the hell out of dodge. His reasoning being that if Toy Dispenser was planning on teleporting everybody, and if this whole thing was a trap, somehow teleporting at all was also a trap. Egregore had decided that it was necessary to teleport simply because it could not have made the scenario any worse than it already had been, and thankfully nothing horrible had happened.
However, it was now unlikely he would attempt to perform another 'port anytime soon.
Rather conveniently, the only way he could be pursued at this juncture was if ZUBs could teleport after him, and even then only if their sensors could detect him cloaked and underground as he was. And in that event, Egregore figured he could handle any battle better down here in the sewer than up in the alley with the tanks. Unless Tievos cared to teleport a good chunk of his forces into the sewers to pursue just one hostile, with high probability of immense casualties, the Egregore Device would off the chart in under two minutes...
***
Meanwhile, back in the alley, the various combatants may or may not have noticed the very small and *almost* inconspicuous power drone ascending at a descent pace away from the battle.
((Slick. 
))
The Comanche did indeed stop firing, though the two others and it did take up positions around the rooftop to cover both the VB officers and one another, not entirely trusting the peace. From their links, the crews 'knew' that the rebels below had feigned one surrender already, only to let loose the flame-covered hulk at one of the Sovereign's assault teams. Fortunately, their despicable lie hadn't done them any good after that.
On the aground, the two unengaged hovertanks gradually moved in, Teivos already surveying the area for any rebel corpses whose heads might still be mostly intact. With any luck, even if they didn't manage to take anyone alive, he could perhaps still garner some useful information.
Egregore's teleport, on the other hand, had gone all but unnoticed, the PA's sensors not sensitive enough to detect a jump of such a short range as just below ground. There simply wasn't enough energy thrown around in such a case. Legion, however, would probably be picked up by one thing or another - such as the Comanches or the APTH-1 still in the street where the parade had been - if it got too far from a nearby surface. In other words, it was unlikely, but possible...
--------------------
Griffin's eyes went wide as a sniper suddenly burst into the clothing store...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Flashpoint Zeo jerked in shock as the roaring inferno that normally shielded him briefly turned crystalline, then burst like a popped soap bubble. Combat reflexes honed by years of the most chaotic battles Primal Earth had to offer pinpointed the shooter almost instantly -Building top; knowledge useless.- and with that acknowledgement, the huge tank sprinted for safety, superspeed stretching to the fullest as he blasted for the last-known position of the rebels.
Unbeknownst to most of the combatants in the area, the interdiction field was disabled at around that point in time by a group of Infiltrator Spirits, rising out of the ground to tear the equipment apart.
Flashpoint Zeo found the decimated remains of the rebel force, and simply stopped, staring in disbelief. Then a low growl rumbled from his throat, crescendoing into a roaring scream of challenge, and fire blazed around him, flames leaping twenty feet into the air as building faces in the narrow alley began to soften and run like wax.
As he took his first menacing step, there was a crystalline noise and the giant was abruptly encased in a small mountain of ice that completely blocked the alleyway, the raging inferno going out like a snuffed candle.
"<Celestial Target secured.>" one of the Ice Winds announced in Chinese.
Outside the alley, all hell had just broken loose. The first warning anyone had that a third front had just opened up was a 400 metre dragon materializing in midair to bite a chopper in half, smashing another with its tail in the same motion. Then, with a shake of its head, it hurled the shattered helicopter in its mouth at a tank, vomiting fire to turn it into a blazing meteor of burning metal and detonating ammunition.
Then it 'stooped', a giant serpentine form uncoiling in a straight lunge at the infantry around the tank it had targetted, fiery breath streaking out in a curtain of trailing flame as it shouldered building fronts aside with contemptuous ease, apparently indifferent to the return fire, both the briefly panicked original response and the far more disciplined second volley.
During the split-seconds of the dragon's attack, the sky went dark and a mystic darkness fell over the battleground like a shroud, hungrily devouring any and all wavelengths of electromagnetic energy that tried to pass through it, causing everyone there to be stumbling mostly-blind in the freezing murk, unless they broadcast the proper mystic IFF-signal.
Then the weather went mad. Hurricane-force winds came shrieking out of the sky to hammer everyone present, and hailstones, starting at pea-sized and ramping up to basketball-sized chunks of ice came thundering out of the sky. Lightning screamed to earth, shattering glowing craters out of the pavement and crawling madly across tank shields, tearing brief streaks of light through the all-consuming blackness.
Even more otherworldly effects came into play as tendrils of the darkness gained solidity, smashing into hapless soldiers, coiling around them, or growing blades to slice at their targets. Patches of life-sucking anti-energy drifted invisibly through the darkness, seeking to rip the very soul out of any unlucky enough to be caught in it. Gravity warped and buckled, multiplying by orders of magnitude, or reversing, or sometimes both in a very small area for zones of fearsome rending. Fire blazed forth from all around the mighty black dragon, who seemed unbothered by the mystic maelstrom around her. Psionic illusions stalked forth, gibbering and shrieking as they reached to tear loose the minds of the soldiers of the Sovereign, hands whose owners were lost in the impenetrable murk smashed powered armour with bare fists, magical claws, or devastating kicks, and hundreds of titanic ghosts filled the sky as they swooped out of the clouds or rose out of the ground, forming a perimeter of ectoplasmic death.
Then, and only then, in the heart of the chaos, a brilliant flash appeared, and Sun Tzu stepped from behind the aetheric veil, just standing there, four stories above the ground. The forces of the Chinese People's Sorceric Revolution had arrived.
"Soldiers of a Dark Sovereign!" he announced in accented, but passable, English. "Surrender and you will be granted an honourable death. Vlastislav Teivos, your reign has come to an end. The peoples of the Celestial Kingdom will stand for the rule of an outsider no longer; your head will be marched through the ashes of the Forbidden City on a pike!"
With that dramatic announcement, he gestured, and a pike appeared in his hand. A vicious downward sweep, and a bolt of lightning thicker than a man's waist was torn from the sky to join with the polearm briefly, then leap off the end to raven at the Dark Sovereign's position.
((Devious, I'm going to leave the soldiers', tanks', (surviving 
) helicopters' and whatever other military hardware you have running around there's responses up to you; bear in mind that everything prior to Sun Tzu's announcement has occupied the space of somewhere less than five seconds.
For those who don't have the benefit of the PM I sent Devious, there's about 100 Boss-type Tsoo running around, around 400 ghosts and... uhm, I don't remember how many lieutenant-level Sorcerors running around- little help, Devious?- along with Sun Tzu, who in game terms is probably an AV, the dragon (Giant Monster, natch ), Xu Guan (ditto on the AV, sounds like), and Ryuu Hotaka, who's a PC.
Yup, this nice little trap has just been blown all to hell and back 
EDIT- Just had it pointed out to me that I screwed up quite nicely by totally forgetting to include Sun Tzu's original positioning. Fixed now))
"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:
What.
((Don't ask me, I only got around 100 sorcs and ~200 ghosts on my cheat sheet here. Apparently, things changed while I wasn't looking. Oh well. ))
Teivos had just jumped off the front of the hovertank when the messages came in. Unbeknownst wasn't quite so.
PVB7019: TPI generator down!
PVB517: Something got ours too!
PVB1182: Ghosts! They're coming right out of the ground!
The VB perimeter was under attack. And by ghosts, huh? Yeah, three guesses as to whose those were. Vlasta huffed out a grunt. It seemed today would be one of those days.
He threw up a hand and whipped a finger about once, the M7A7's pilot backing the tank up the alley and toward the road, just as Zeo came speeding back into the rough center of the 3-way intersection. The Sovereign's eyes narrowed as the towering hulk roared bestially, flinching back with a hand before his face in the wake of the heat. The other, however, stayed his guardsmen, some of which had already taken a knee at his side.
He didn't have time for this.
A pair of black-gloved fingers were thrust in Zeo's direction not two instants later. Teivos' inhuman lips coldly spoke but one word, Slavic accent only chilling further.
"Fire."
With a crack of static thunder, twin snakes of lucent blue-white spiraled down the barrel of the hovertank's main cannon at frightening speed, the piece of heavy artillery discharging not half a second later, raucously roaring a pale-blue wedge of truly titanic force at the man.
And striking nothing but ice.
"What?!" Teivos exclaimed in shocked exasperation as glittering crystal shards sailed through the air amidst a million flakes of snow. Regrettably, he didn't get the chance to investigate what had just happened, his attention drawn by the sound of an explosion from above, where a humongous serpentine dragon had just made scrap metal of the Comanche covering Burning Brawler. Almost simultaneously, the sky went black, and a terrible darkness came crashing down to blind everyone on the battlefield save those with the correct mystic signal.
Right.
PROGRAM 02 OPERATION_
The new software took effect automatically, modified code enabling the Odcarovats about to dispel most of the ill effects of the mystic night and what followed. Still, this applied only to those that had them - and since the cause hadn't gone anywhere (except the weather; this the local meteorological service weakened considerably already), just about anyone not in a ZUB Kazbek or near a tank got the brunt of it. The Gerlach-armored VB officers, for instance, didn't have a chance.
Well, relatively speaking. ZUB Gerlach still had a decent number of MPDAS armor pads, so it wasn't like they dropped like flies, but truly effective fighters they were by no means. The only reason their gunfire even went in the generally right direction was due to them knowing where not to shoot from the IFF subsection on their HUDs. Still, if nothing happened to change their present situation, they'd most likely be overrun in short order.
The tanks, however, retaliated viciously, especially the APTH-1, its crew majorly perturbed at getting a helicopter mashed on them, and while its .50-cal spoke volumes at anything generally hostile on the ground, its main gun gave a thunderous cannon crack, ramming another luminous, pure-white energy artillery shell into the dragon, and this time at point-blank range. Maybe this time, it would have more effect than just being summarily ignored, like the first two had been. For the men not inside, however, any help very likely came too late.
The M7A7s, on the other hand, employed their multiple EMG turrets to great effect, making quick headway toward the main road. In fact, the hovertank Teivos and the infantry with him had sought refuge under was almost at the sidewalk when Sun Tzu appeared, Vlasta accelerating his step to the head of the pack when he heard the man's announcement, a hand protectively over his eyes in effort to find the source of this blather, the swirling dust clouds created by the unorthodox assault by now making it difficult for both sides to see, even with all their various means.
And he did - right as said source threw a crackling cascade of electricity in the general direction of his position, striking the 'parked' car he stood not too far from and turning said vehicle into a streak of flame and smoky embers.
If Vlasta cared for this, however, he certainly didn't show it, stepping from the smoke of the low petrol fire line with a deplorable scowl. However, chances were that Sun Tzu paid a good deal more attention to the large-bore cannon barrel that came with the man instead of the Sovereign himself, the turning M7A7 hovering past the smoky wall with turret already aligned to target.
Sun Tzu.
A. Teivos: Fire.
And as infantry reengaged, the tank did just that...
--------------------
Vlastislav Teivos had excellent oversight. It was one of the qualities that made him a brilliant leader. Wolfgang Wolf, on the other hand, didn't have a clue as to what in the name of all that was right and holy was going down here.
All he knew was that he'd been chasing the guy who'd just bolted past him, then suddenly got turned into a popsicle, and a second later finding himself stuck with his back in a brick wall, upside-down to boot. Even without an organic expression, the truly titanic notion of 'WTF?!' could be seen more than clearly on the cyborg's metal face.
With a curse, he peeled himself from the building and picked his gun back up, seeking out Zeo while he started to rant, "Now look at what you've done. See? Now do you see what your rebels do? I swear, all this backstabbing really gets on my nerves..."
--------------------
Ryuu Hotaka stood calmly atop a lantern pole across and down the street, watching the battle unfold with emotionless visage. His eyes may have been hidden by the bamboo coolie, but he didn't need them to know what was happening.
Rash, Sun Tzu. Very rash.
He couldn't say he approved, but then that was just his opinion. Perhaps the human knew something he still didn't. Regardless, he didn't like the looks of this. The Sovereign's forces, though clearly outnumbered and outgunned, didn't retreat as Hotaka would've predicted. Instead, they fought, even counterattacked.
To the towering 'old man', it was clear this could only mean one thing.
Not good.
He watched as the Dark Sovereign stepped over the flames, watched as the tank's gaping cannon barrel emerged from the smoke like some plumbing pipe from the Pit itself, and couldn't help but marvel at the simplicity of the idea: have gun - will shoot. Most evil overlords he'd met didn't actually do that.
Regardless, Sun Tzu getting vaporized wasn't exactly part of the plan, and though Hotaka knew the man had brought something to protect himself, judging by what he felt from that tank, it was still going to cause some serious harm - and that meant he needed to throw something in its way.
So why not literally?
One of the VB's SWAT-like armored trucks suddenly flew out of nowhere and right into the line of fire. Of course, the tank's cannon blast had more than enough juice to blast said vehicle to smethereens, but it was at the very least weakened, much of its energy having gone into said spontaneous disassembly...
---------------------
If the sudden arrival of the sniper had given Griffin a startle, the sudden change in condition not very far past the corner of the road near the clothing store only served to make his eyes even wider.
"What in the world is going on here?!" he exclaimed in shock, the mentioned area turning into a warzone decently visible through the store's front windows, even from his vantage point of cowering behind a counter, "Has this place just gone completely nuts...?!"
((Okay, I think that's enough of my blather for now. Gonna give other people a chance to move again. Also from now on I'll be mainly focusing on characters, leaving the NPCs in this particular battle in a general 'they are fighting' state until things demand otherwise. ))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC: *stares*
BIC: "The best laid plans," muttered Toy Dispenser to himself as his bots relaid to him what Teivos had said. It was a pity that the game couldn't end now with a swift, surprise stroke but there would always be another chance.
Shedding his disguise in a brief crackle of electricity, Dispenser tracked the sudden burst of activity. A brief radio communication alerted several squads to the exact locations of the rebels, neatly tying up that end. Now, all he needed to do was wait until the heroes got themselves killed or captured then walk out and lay claim to this victory. It had been his idea, after all.
It looked like the cyborg would get away, Dispenser not being close enough to track exactly where he teleported. But considering that he wasn't visible in the sky and hadn't hit the interdiction fields it meant he was hiding in a building or somewhere underground. Ultimately he didn't matter though, the real danger was the firey dragon-man.
Looks as though your bet did not pay off, Toy, echoed a rasping voice through his head.
It was an outside chance, Overmagus, but it was a good opportunity.
Indeed, it was. All is not lost, however. We simply need to gather ourselves and make due. I am ordering my transport to descend so that I may use my magicks to aid Teivos. Announce yourself and then cover me.
As you will, Overmag-
The mental communication fractured and broke down as the dragon appeared and all hell broke loose.
******************
The Molvia shattered under the ministrations of the dragon's tail, breaking into several pieces that rained down upon the buildings below, wreaking damage that would have been troubling were it not for the rest of the mayhem. In such terms, the collapsed roofs and shattered walls meant little. Only the Overmagus remained in the air where the helicopter had been, standing there as though nothing had happened. But the blood red runes engraved into his armor began writhing as though alive, changing and shifting into different meanings and shapes as though reflecting the mood of their owner. Harsh blue pin pricks of light narrowed, shrinking down until they were but the barest glimmers of light at the end of a long tunnel.
As wrath and ruin fell down upon the mortals below, innocent civilians and loyal soldiers alike, a small space of relative tranquility extended some short distance around Archlich and fell all the way to the ground, which crowded intersection rapidly became a small bastion of humanity alongside the anti-magic fields generated by the Kazbeks and tanks.
The runes on Archlich's armor started turning jagged, appearing like teeth etched in with daggers of blood.
Down on the ground Toy Dispenser looked up at where his lord's dim form floated. He glanced directly above at the massive dragon and then around at the swarm of swift striking ninjas, ghostly bruisers, and teleporting casters. He looked over at where Teivos was standing in the shelter of one of the tanks. Knowing he had scant moments to act the android dashed across the street to Teivos, hoping he could secure the Sovereign's safety before Archlich blew everything to hell. He generally didn't take direct assaults upon his person very well and his style of combat was very...indiscriminate.
Two blue lights suddenly flared, illuminating the air around themselves like a pair of miniature spotlights. Equally bright red light flooded out from the runes, casting ugly shadows on the murky sky.
"INSOLENCE," boomed the lich, his voice echoing weirdly as though from the depths of a tomb. "MERE CONJURORS OF CANTRIPS, COWARDS WHO LURK AFRAID OF BEING SEEN. LET ME SHOW YOU WHY YOU FEAR THE LIGHT."
An almost palpable hum started to build up in the air around the Overmagus, the magical darkness wearing even thinner as though being torn to shreds by his mere focus. The lich suddenly lit up like a sun in the magical senses of every mage around as the light of his runes began shifting again as his quiet chanting softly filtered down to their ears.
The Overmagus had conquered his world more through force of magic and will than through masterful tactics or infallible armies. His world might have been lost, but his power remained.
"I would advise getting the hell out of Dodge, Sovereign," announced Dispenser as he skidded to a halt next to Teivos, wrist flicking a hefty energy shield around the leader.
OOC: Boom. Bada boom. Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig bada boom.
EDIT: Whoops. Stupid italics. Further edited to make Devious feel better about cause and effect.
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.
[ QUOTE ]
"Please disengage your shield and I can assure you that you will not be harmed."
[/ QUOTE ]
Isabel cast a suspicious glance towards the choppers still rather obviously targetting her, but after a moment's hesitation complied and allowed the man to place what she assumed to be power dampening handcuffs around her wrist. Almost instantly she regretted that decision, as all hell very nearly literally broke loose around them.
"Still think you can assure me I won't be harmed?", she asked in a surprisingly calm voice as first one then another of the three helicopters got almost casually swatted out of the sky by the suddenly-appeared dragon, followed by an impossibly cold wind and a most definitely unnatural darkness descending on the area. "Same Chinese guys that attacked us on the train, if I had to take a guess. I'd help, but... Well." She waved her handcuffed wrists to illustrate the point.
-------------
[ QUOTE ]
"Has this place just gone completely nuts...?!"
[/ QUOTE ]
"More or less", Valerie replied before proceeding (Assuming no guns got pointed in her face by trigger-happy mercenaries) to give them a quick rundown of the situation. How they'd attacked the parade in an attempt to capture the Sovereign but it turned out to be a trap, and how she for all she knew was the only one to survive. Though she really hoped that part wasn't true. Taking a glance out the door at the chaos she added, "Looks like the CPSR decided to try something too."
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
OOC:
Regarding your long break from the forums, Khell:
One smoooooooooooooth...operator...
BIC:
[u]Ten minutes into the future[u]
Egregore was now in Axis America's darker version of King's Row. He had picked this particular area for one purpose: No matter the reality or timeline of Earth, if it had a King's row, it would be LOUSY with warehouses. Sure, in this reality most of them were probably used to store military hardware or even fully operational military bases.
Which suited him just fine.
The Egregore Device liked being driven into corners. It gave him an excuse to mix things up a little. That was, after all, his main strength: His direct combat versatility. Given time to plan ahead, he could prepare for any situation in an appropriate manner.
'I'm the motherfuckin' Batm-I mean Manticore.' Egregore thought smugly to himself as he sauntered, cloaked along the edge of the lone warehouse in what Primal Earth called the Royal Refinery district. It probably had a different name, but the layout of the streets was exactly the same. The warehouse in this sector had many advantages over others that could be found in the King Garment Works and Industrial Ave. For one thing, it was small, but still large enough for his needs. It was far away from the rather creepier Axis version of Freedom Plaza. And best of all: There was no housing of any kind. No pesky civilians to poke their noses where they didn't belong.
'Oh yes. This place will do nicely.' Egregore thought to himself. 'Course, gotta see what venues I'm going to have to take here to make this place mine.'
Egregore proceeded to examine the perimeter of the warehouse, looking for windows so as to ascertain the nature of the warehouse if possible. Secondly, he looked for cargo entrances for trucks. It would be much easier to sneak in through one of those than the front door. And most importantly, he tried to determine if anybody was inside, managing the place.
It would be easy to think that many assumptions were being made regarding his actions in relation to the warehouse, in which case one would point out that Egregore Device currently had 19 module slots for his weaponry and port' module. Yet his backpack could maintain over three hundred modules simultaneously. One had to wonder what he did with all those spares, and the answer was he used them for disguises. He had a disguise for every major group on Primal Earth, and that had at one brief period of time included Axis America. He had modified the disguise to be more in keeping with the new standards around the place though: Anything that could see through his combat invisibility would see what appeared to be a third generation SZBV cyborg with thermo-optic camouflage scouting out a building for whatever reason instead of a borderline Malta gunslinger without a shirt and bits of metal sticking out doubtlessly trying to break in.
***
Legion had taken care to stick close to the rooftops at first, but the moment the Chinese arrived he shot straight up into the sky, doubtlessly thinking that nobody would place chasing it over this new mess...
Burning's eyes grew wide as chaos seem to erupt before his very eyes. Training helped him quicky regain his composure however, turning to regard Isabel. "A promise is a promise. Your cooperation will not go unnoticed. Torcher!" he shouted.
The younger Special-Op member teleported, the official appearance of his uniform betrayed by the almost excited statement of, "Orders, boss?"
Burning handed him Isabel's arm. "You know where she needs to be. She is to arrive their safely, is that clear?"
"No detours, right."
Burning nodded, saluting Torcher as the young man teleported himself and the prisoner, heading for the VB detainment center. Whatever happened to Isabel after that point was really not in their hands.
Before he could even begin to formulate a plan, Burning saw the Overmagus rise into the sky with a magical display of his own. The VB officer couldn't help the feeling of his stomach churning at the sight of the Lich. The creature was unnatural, and while Burning was no stranger to the abnormal, something about the Overmagus had always unsettled him. Yet he couldn't deny the relief that the power being tossed by the abomination was on his side. It was that relief that propelled him back toward the fight, relaying order to Pyra and the rest of his squad to regroup.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
The cannon fire... splashed... a good dozen metres away from Sun Tzu. White fire crawled across the shadowy form of an invisible... something, which gradually faded into view as the strategist laughed. The Chinese Warlord stood, fifteen metres in the 'air' encased in a mighty suit of 'armour'... a titanic spirit no less than thirty metres tall, armoured so heavily that every move was accompanied by the fading ghosts of metallic thunder now that it was semi-solid.
One small part of his brain was filing away what Hotaka had shown of his powers; being 'saved' by the draconic newcomer hadn't been what he'd planned on, but it was a useful piece of knowledge.
Sun Tzu's laughter ceased quickly, though, when the Overmagus' assault shattered the CPSR forces' carefully prepared spellcraft, and he bent down and reached forwards to take a firm grip on the closest M7A7, one mighty ghostly hand grabbing the barrel, the other the main body of the tank, ignoring the anti-personnel weaponry firing futiley at his armour now that the main barrel had been dragged off-target.
Assuming nothing interfered, the Overmagus was going to himself trying to stop a huge chunk of anti-magic metal with his face.
Meanwhile, the main assault had broken apart and re-formed now that the atmospheric effects were no longer tenable. The dragon had roared in anger and pain when the cannon shell struck her, jaws like an industrial press edged with monomolecular blades clamping down on the attacking vehicle as she finished her lunge... being careful, of course, to do it from an angle that the dangerous main gun wasn't pointing directly down her throat, but stuck out of the corner of her mouth at an awkward angle. A ball of searing white fire engulfed the immediate area as she exhaled at the same time, a multi-pronged assault on the powerful shields and armour of the tank. Her tail, apparently carelessly, scythed towards the group of soldiers clustered near Teivos.
The ring of ghosts had thinned noticeably, barely three-quarters of the original grouping still visible. Those that were still there, however, began grabbing every available hard object, most of them simply tearing pieces out of buildings or the street, and hurling them. A significant portion of this barrage of impromptu artillery had been temporarily phased, creating armour-piercing rounds, and others had been imbued with ectoplasmic energy, creating explosive shells. All were imbued with a good deal of spirit energy, rendering them vastly more durable than they would otherwise be. Three hundred giant stones, pieces of masonry, cars, and anything else that was at hand impacted almost simultaneously from all sides, more than a hundred of them targetting the Overmagus alone, the rest targets of opportunity amongst the forces of the Dark Sovereign. The ghosts rapidly began gathering the materials for another strike, the ring shifting slightly.
The various forces of the CPSR had rearranged themselves- the melee fighters and darkness-wielders had concerned themselves with bringing down Teivos' more conventional forces (and the last remaining un-engaged tank), the gravity-manipulators were working in tandem with the kinetic jammers to bring down the two surviving choppers (assuming the hail of huge rocks didn't get them first), the fire-wielders were backing up the dragon, and the other elementalists were feeding power directly into Sun Tzu.
And everywhere the sorcerors teleported in and out, healing friend and confounding foe with their own personal hurricanes and clouds of darkness. The CPSR hadn't lost even ten men yet- every casualty was back on their feet in a matter of seconds, and thus far the resistance wasn't yet organized enough to have caused any significant fatalities.
((Oy... okay, hopefully I've caught everything. Khell, Devious, or anybody else, if I've buggered up, let me know. And yes, Flashpoint Zeo is still in a block of ice, getting increasingly annoyed. If one of you could grab him, I'd appreciate it; getting him captured by a bad-guy group I control would be a bit weird.
And if anyone wants to jump part of the CPSR forces with their character, just do it, and I'll run the baddies... although make sure you're clear about it, since I'm a bit slow of mind ))
"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"
((Can do.))
"The silent type, mmh?" Wolfgang remarked to the frozen-stiff Flashpoint Zeo with a wry smirk in his tone, poking the edge of the ice block he'd found the hulking man in with the muzzle of his gun, the half-head he'd 'picked up' from Kruger in his other hand, "Or are you just giving me the cold shoulder? Okay, excuse me, that was bad."
"Now, what am I going to do with you?" he considered, arms crossed, the three clawed toes of a plantigrade metal foot tapping the ground in tandem with its sole, "I should just shoot you, but you're probably going to get executed anyway, and Vlasta will probably want to get info from you first."
On the other hand, the Reichsman's cronies never were much for talking. Maybe I really should just shoot him now. Hmhf...decisions, decisions...
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"I'm going to take that advice." Teivos gave a nod, commanding the Molvias above to warp out whatever friendlies they could, focusing on personnel, which the heavy transport helicopters quickly started preparations for, teleport rigs locking in on their intended targets.
Meanwhile, something did indeed interfere with Sun Tzu's ghostly armor reaching for the hovertank - namely, said hovertank. As the unwieldy, armored hands came closer and closer, they suddenly began to crick and crack, somehow losing cohesion, and once they got within a few centimeters of the tank's chassis, they actually began to fall apart!
And if that unexpected consequence wasn't enough to shock Sun Tzu, then what followed most certainly would. Not only did the Sovereign and most of his forces (the ones that were still alive, at least) suddenly up and vanish into thin air, recalled to the pair of Molvias high in the sky, but the tank itself apparently had another trick up its figurative sleeve.
Namely a completed analysis of its target.
Thus as it bounced into the air to avoid what may have been a dragon's tail going for it now instead of the departed personnel that had been below it, the M7A7 thundered another blast into Sun Tzu's spirit armor, adjusted to be a great deal more penetrating this time. Chances were it wouldn't make it all the way through the chest plate, but it would certainly give this attacker pause.
Moreover, without infantry to cover now, the other two could move much faster, the M7A7 Zeo had thrown fireballs at earlier hopping a shorter building and opening fire at the spirit armor's left leg while it flew toward the street. The third regrettably had a taller structure between it and the road, so it couldn't engage just yet, but doubtlessly would once it came either over or around.
If there was anything left after Archlich's strike, that was...
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"Oh." Wolfgang remarked casually once he noted his surroundings had changed to a Molvia's cargo bay, the rather spacious compartment able to accommodate the evacuees with tight, but decent spacing. He shrugged to Zeo upon Teivos' approach, "Guess that takes the decision out of my hands."
"What decision?" Vlasta wanted to know, but a moment later changed his mind, holding up a hand has he turned to the mechanoid he'd arrived with, "On second thought, I think I already know. Armádny Generál; good work. Not how I would've preferred, but I can't argue with your results."
Teivos had spoken the last with a satisfied, respectful smile, and motioned to the captive Zeo again, "Please take this...person to tátna Zbrojovka immediately. Detention block in the administration tower. I'd like to have a word with him after we're done here. Maybe we can still find a head or two."
"Oh, allow me." Wolfgang stepped closer, proudly presenting what remained of Kruger in his metal palm, as if to say 'hah, thought you'd one-up me, didn't you?' to Toy Dispenser (though in a comradely rivalry, not an actual dislike), "I can't be sure - there's not much left of the face - but I think this is that Krieger, Kruger. A few points still match with his profile."
"Gooood." Vlasta drew out with a smirk like that of Emperor Palpatine himself, giving a satisfied nod while he indicated the cyborg should give the head to the android, "Looks like we have some progress after all. Oh, and Toy; there's word on the VB network that one of the other rebel supers just arrived at their local detention facility. Please take her as well. Separate cells, of course."
With a whisper so Zeo couldn't hear (if he could hear anything in that block, that was; Vlasta just didn't want to chance it), "Make sure they're close enough to talk, though. And record their conversations. I'd like to know what's on their minds..."
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Back on the ground (upon the general disappearance), the APTH-1's crew certainly knew to get the hell outta Dodge, the massive tank setting course in a straight line away, and not just because it had a dragon hammering away at it, the already red-lit interior filling with biting smoke and the raucous beeps of at least a dozen critical alerts.
Still, it could move, and that's what counted, for whether it was a jagged-looking, burning half-wreck lumbering down that road or not, it was still damn slow - at least compared to the hovertanks, which could just zip around like that. But even by road standards, the behemoth that was the APTH-1 wasn't in any way speedy. Heavy and gradual, the legacy of the turtle was that of this tank.
Hotaka watched this with keen interest, not entirely sure what to think of such a machine, as it certainly didn't seem to have offense to match. In any case, that wasn't something to worry about right now, nor were the flying ones. No, that dubious honor belonged to the lich in the sky, his aura oddly familiar, and yet so very estranged at the same time. Regardless, Hotaka's concerns were mainly for what the guy was doing right now.
Okay, that's really not good. That one's going for a Jesus Beam. Gotta stop him. How? Attack? No, too slow. Throw something? No, still too slow. No shadows to get ninjas from up there...c'mon, think of something. Spell. What spell? Some spell. Range spell. Hold spell. Tesla Cage. Don't have that. Lighting bolt?
Yes, he had a lightning bolt - or more precisely, knew where to get one.
Thus Hotaka thrust his hands skyward with outstretched fingers, mimicking Sun Tzu and hoping that Archlich's zone of tranquility wouldn't be enough to stop the supersonic streak of electricity from ramming him right out of the sky...
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Kings Row District
Whether someone managed it or not wasn't apparent from the outside of the warehouse, though the situation of people inside didn't really matter so much as the alarm systems these warehouses stood fitted with - systems that chances were Egregore's own sensors wearable to spot easily, such as motion detectors synched to the doors.
They weren't easy to disable either (certainly beyond the ability of the locals who may have desired such a warehouse as a clandestine base of operations), but depending how Egregore's skills compared with the architects of these alarms, the possible outcomes of tempering with one very well ranged from getting Verejna Bezpechnost in his neck straight away to making it in completely undetected...
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((Gonna wait with Griffin a bit, see what Crimson and Soviet do. Also Dogma, I don't have any plans for warehouses, so as long as it's not over-the-top, feel free to do what you want. ))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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OOC: Jesus Beam. I like that name.
BIC: Archlich's chanting hissed through the awareness of every spectator like a sound barely half-heard. White static at the very edge of their thoughts or the tip of their tongues as the lich drew upon his vast reserves of arcane might, tapping more fully into the plane of magic than perhaps anyone else ever could. Archlich was old, old enough to witness the fall of Mu and have a hand in its destruction. Old enough to have seen the rise and fall of countless civilizations at the designs of mortal and immortal alike. With age comes knowledge and with knowledge power.
The red light of his shining runes began to dissolve the darkness called up by the Chinese sorcerors, projecting themselves further and channeling the released magic into the spell he was weaving. The enchanted chunks of rock disentigrated as they traveled through the field around him, leaving little more than pebbles to rain off his armor and bare skull. The lightning fared somewhat better, lancing down from the sky through Archlich to ground itself on the shattered streets below. All could hear the hitch thrown into his chant but it continued with only that slight pause, if with an even harsher edge to it than before.
Suddenly his eyes and runes dimmed to almost nothing, the darkness rolling back in around him as though displeased with being held off for so long. His chanting halted as well, though the feeling of mental static grew and grew until at last the spell was released.
"JUDGEMENT!"
Whirlpools of darkness, clouds, and magic formed above the battlefield, swirling about faster and faster before they split open one at a time, spewing light in a glittering pillar on the primary antagonists. Hokata, Sun Tzu, the dragon, and several concentrations of regular forces suddenly got their own celestial spotlights.
But then the pillars of light became like fire, raw plasma lancing down from the sky like the angry spears of a sun god, boiling the very air as they blazed down to the earth. Merely being near one of these beams would be enough to flash fry a normal human, merely looking directly upon them would blind one as though staring into the heart of the sun.
The light of Archlich's judgement burned through the darkness, the ground, the sky, and anything else that existed. The very essence of magic was disrupted around those lances, stranding the weaker practitioners to their fate.
And Archlich laughed.
********************
"Very good," Dispenser replied after Teivos was finished speaking, taking the remains of Kruger's head with the attitude of one handling an egg. He inspected it for a moment and then gave Wolfgang a look.
"This is Kruger. He was as trusting as the analysts said," he added. "Also as formidable. A pity he couldn't see the error of his ways."
Dispenser paused as Archlich chanting ceased, his head tilting slightly to one side in a questioning manner. His posture shifted abruptly at the final call and his head jerked toward the front of the Molvia, already patching into the channels used by the pilots of the helicopters and the tanks on the ground.
"This is Dispenser. Evacuate now."
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.
Egregore easily evaded the security sensors, making a mental note to try and see if he could shut them down or somehow rig them for his own use later. He was pleasantly surprised to find that all the lights were off, and dust was EVERYWHERE. This looked to be a cut and dry storage warehouse, and one that was not frequented. Continuing this line of reasoning Egregore thought to himself...
'...Which means the only reason there would be security beyond a locked door was if they have heavy-duty hardware in here. Maybe even one or two military items. Not that I need any, of course...But it's nice to know I have plenty of scraps to work with.' Egregore went ahead and decloaked, but kept his disguise up. He found an office in the back of the place, with no computer but loads of shipment manifests. Spending a couple of minutes rummaging through these, Egregore concluded that everything he needed was here. It would be a bit of a patch-job, but it only needed to work once anyway. Oh yes. This warehouse was a dream come true. The Egregore Device was surprised once again when he found a notice in the stacks of paper explaining WHY the warehouse had apparently been deserted. It was due for renovations, and a crew would be along to move everything out of the place before getting to work around...
Egregore chuckled at the date. 2016. Sometimes red tape came through. He was now utterly alone in a warehouse full of all the raw material a crazed mad inventor could want, and nobody knew or most likely would ever know he was there.
Go forth and conquer. Egregore thought to himself. Yo Legion, I want you to go ahead and record everything in here for ease of access an
Eh? Legion? Egregore Device looked around before face-palming. Right. Tanks. Well he aint destroyed or captured, I would know
Which means he is free. Hehe. This just keeps better and better. Egregore activated his comm. And communicated the now escaped power drone. Hey Legion. Ive got a job for you
((Me too. Though...I was kinda hoping Toy would take Isabel and Zeo to the factory there. Now they've got one foot in limbo. Did I miss something? If it's the Molvias still being around, I don't think they would've held position inside the danger zone, you know.))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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(( Hate being in limbo 
With both characters even, until Soviet or Crimson post. ))
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
OOC: My turn to wait. Specifically for the effects of Archlich's Jesus Beam.
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.
((M'kay, been a week, I think that's reasonable.
))
500 meters in the air, a trio of Molvias suddenly cast dominion to the skies. They'd simply appeared, no flash, no sound aside from that of momentarily displaced air - and from half a kilometer away, there wasn't much chance of hearing such.
One second later, the M7A7s already dropped form their carry bays, the large hovertanks going into immediate freefall, slowing their descent with only about a hundred meters left, going into a swift-to-gentle glide as the distance to ground became less and less.
During their descent, they'd assumed triangular formation, the equilateral sort, intending to surround those whom Burning Brawler's team currently fought against by blocking off the alley that led to the street as well as the two running along the war wall. Naturally, this was more to create the appearance of cut-off escape routes than anything else. Teivos' plan utilizing teleport interdiction was dependant on a rapid desire to escape, after all.
Of course, that didn't mean he'd played everything with that one hand. He had a good bit more, not the last of which being the soldiers in ZUB Kazbek leaping off their tanks once they'd reached a dozen or so meters off the ground, covering the vehicles' descent to the final three while the hovercrafts' own multiple turrets locked onto potential targets, ready to fire if the order to surrender remained unheeded.
The soldiers would of course do the same, rifles aimed and at the ready - logical, considering they were the ones shouting the command.
Kruger and his troops certainly obeyed, dropping his weapon and raising hands, with a quiet growl into his headset (which chances were the others could hear as well) telling Toy, "I think it's about time for that teleport of yours..."
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Griffin just looked about unsurely, not really having anything to add. He didn't know any ways of making the man's suggestion of a fake-out possible, and though he carried mixed feelings in respect to it, he didn't say anything just yet...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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