((Considering he conquered a planet because they wouldn't let him go back home, I'd say that's a fair statement. Well okay, maybe...nah, Imma leave that behind the curtain still. 
Also happy birthday. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Okay, I'm going to be mean and just boot this along, because I really am sick of running this goofy magic army thingy. And I just realized that "Raiden Spirit" is a really, really bad name for a CPSR ghost, given that 'Raiden' is the Japenese thunder god. Eh, screw it, it's going to explode in a few seconds anyways.))
Sun Tzu 'watched' as the huge Taijutu spell cast by Yinglong eddied a little, then flowed in to fill the space around Teivos as the tyrant's shield failed, frowning slightly as the Dark Sovereign moved after the Raiden Spirit's attack. He unleashed the blessing, the Enforced Will of the Tao with a flick of his wrist and a sigh, an imperceptible shift as the universe twisted ever-so-slightly around Tevios, probabilities realigning in so tiny a fashion now that no mortal agency could detect it, and likely not most divine ones either. But, given time...
Then the elder tactician sent out the signal to retreat, and the CPSR vanished en masse, Dragon, Sorcerors, and Ghosts, as if they had never been there, a carefully staggered teleport that jumped them out beyond most of the Dark Sovereign's most sophisticated detection nets and then dropped a half-step away from reality to continue their journey through the unknown sub-dimension that had been the CPSR's private playground for decades.
"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:
Seriously, Cham. If you make any more characters that erupt into megaton explosions upon death, I will start equipping all my characters with surge suppressors. 
BIC:
Egregore took a look about the warehouse, avoiding detection and checking out the various "wares." It did not take him long to figure out that this place did not have what he needed.
No big deal.
"Legion, I'm in and we are not ago. You know what to do." He said over his secure comm channel. A few moments later, in the warehouse's main office, an outlet sparked slightly.
It sparked red.
What happened next would have required a quantum microscope to observe. The spark split into an uncountable multitude of fragments which further split into their own individual multitudes, this process repeating several dozen times. All the while, each individual fragment wormed their way towards the nearest computer.
Very soon, Egregore received a stream of information, copied from the computer and transmitted to him. It was a list of all other warehouses in the city, and all of their listed manifests. From there on, it was simple to determine that various warehouses constantly shipped a rather large amount of military hardware directly to a certain research institution in the Staetlov district.
Porting back into the sewers, Egregore made a speedy and uneventful trip directly underneath the institution. He was not at all worried about being detected. The building may or may not have been equipped with equipment able to detect incoming or outgoing teleports, and they may have even had the proper gear to set up an anti-teleportation field like Teivos' troops had done earlier, preventing the Egregore Device from escaping to the sewers. All to be expected, since this place was going to be loaded with high-end tech. All these and various other concerns occurred to and were put to rest almost instantly by the cyborg mercenary.
He teleported straight up.
((Um, Cham...I did already boot this along. The humongous explosion was your Raiden Spirit going boom. Vlasta's back at tátna Zbrojovka by now. Also, did your evac take Hotaka too?))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Oh. Thought the explosion was just one of the massive electrical kablooies going off, considering how I described the death-explosion. As to Hotaka, if he wanted to come with the evac, he came, if he didn't, he didn't.
And Bwerp, this thing was supposed to be a bomb ))
"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 slept fitfully in the hospital ward. Pyra, accompanied by Torcher, saw it as her duty to visit often and observe his progress. The medics were doing all they could, but it seemed unlikely the new coloration of his skin could be reversed. They were told it was fortunate he had lost his eyes years ago and had already replaced them with the glowing, magical orbs he now bore, else he would be in for double the shock. Fortunate was an ironic word sometimes.
The members of the special ops team that had to leave the battle under more critical circumstances were recovering well. Much better than their leader perhaps.
But as the next few days would go on, it would seem unlikely that Burning would ever wake from his fitful sleep. Only time would tell.
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
((Geez Dogma, you're just hell-bent on not having Egregore run into Valerie, huh? ))
The Egregore Device reappeared in an intersection that much resembled those of the 'generic high-tech labs' employed by many a group in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles alike back on Primal Earth. The corridor that ran to the left and right wasn't quite as high, and maybe less than two thirds as wide, not to mention that the blast door he'd materialized in front of looked more like a closed hazard zone gate than those convex-concave, 4-part whatevers, and the floor plating lay continuous, but still it probably felt like at least a semi-familiar environment.
Having arrived with his back to the gate gave him an immediate view of the intersection formed by the main corridor and the much shorter one (maybe 2 or 3 meters on each side) that connected the blast door behind him with what appeared to be a freight elevator across the hall, the large transparent door allowing view to a free-floating platform that could've easily carried a pair of tanks.
Currently, however, all it held seemed to be a welding crew, a Tsaiv and two humans in blue engineer's overalls working in a corner to repair what damage had been done by the rebel attack the night before. Down the left hall, others installed what looked to be the last in a row of light fixtures, one human handing halogen rods to his partner, who stood atop a CANINE unit in order to reach the insides of the open fluorescent compartment in the ceiling. The robot didn't seem to mind this, holding still dutifully and letting the two work.
Further down the hall, another one stood with several more humans, the black overcoats and Steyr AUGs of the two VB officers instantly differentiating them from the half dozen lab-coat-sporting scientists they conversed with, too far away for Egregore to gain anything useful.
Well okay, so that may not have been entirely true, but even if he could hear them down there, the conversation being held down the right-hand corridor was not only closer than even that of the technicians repairing the lights, but also much more interesting. The reason for this was quite simple, for the participants were none other than another duo of VB officers, a Caldok woman in a myrtle military uniform (not to mention that metal covered the right half of her head and then some; the cybernetics extended over lower jaw, throat, upper lip, and even onto the upper half of the Caldok's large left ear), and a full-metal cyborg that looked a whole lot like Wolfgang.
Unlike Teivos' guard, however, this one was a Tsaiv, head having the shape of one and lacking the large fangs characteristic to Caldoks, and the 'ears' more resembled flaps, what had once been connective tissue between spikes of cartilage now metal as well, though painted azure. Furthermore, the distinctly female frame visibly identified this one as a woman, as did her voice in the conversation. A touchpad clipboard in her hand, she presently tapped the pen-like silver stylus thoughtfully against her lower jaw.
"Dobre." she gave an approving nod to the other three, returning the writing instrument to its slot on the pad, the Slavic accent in her voice much the same as Teivos' and Wolfgang's, "Looks like things are getting back to normal. Take the portal to tátna Zbrojovka as soon as you are ready then. The CoLeader will want it on the Myjava as soon as possible."
"It was nice to catch up again, but now I must go check next sector." she then told the Caldok, who smiled in return. The cyborg gave a brief salute, "Nadpráporèík, officers."
The gesture was returned, and then the metal Tsaiv turned about, taking another look at her clipboard...
...and set course right for the blast door beyond the corner that Egregore had arrived at...
--------------------
Hotaka, unfortunately, stayed behind. The hovertank had gotten the better of the large green dragon, and hovering at the very edge of consciousness, he couldn't really do much wanting.
Still, as the reinforcements closed in to secure their latest captive and the gentle, comforting darkness of unconsciousness gradually overcame him, Hotaka did manage to get out one more call.
To the red dragon he'd arrived with.
Even with Sun Tzu's spell still on her, it caused a stir, a black, plated eyebrow shifting uneasily. Though it would take several minutes, soon a large, yellow eye would open...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC:
I just wanted to avoid the tedious Point A -----> Point B transition. >.> Besides, he's cloaked and disguised as an enemy? Not a meeting that would end well.
BIC:
Egregore scowled at the entire layout in general. He was more used to a straight-to-the-point setup that the Eternal Engine preferred in its design, (albeit it was straight to the point in a roundabout way) and this place had too many unknown unknowns. For one thing it didn't even look like the elevator could be used, the big robot was probably brimming with sensors that saw through invisibility, which went for all the cyborgs as well. It looked like getting into a fight here would not be advised by the powers that be.
He briefly thought about trying to follow the cyborg through the blast door, but thought better of it. If it had the same "mud room" security style as the primal earth blast doors, he would be screwed until somebody tried to leave through his side again. That, and blast doors usually indicated security checkpoints, which Egregore was keen to avoid if possible. There was only Legion, but that was a one-time-trick-per-setting kinda thing, and he was saving it.
So it looked like he'd be sneaking past Cerberus and the proverbial guards of the underworld down the left corridor. The Egregore Device nonchalantly moved as close to the wall as possible and started walking down the hallway to where all the scientists were standing around. As he moved, he kept a close look-out for computer terminals.
[ QUOTE ]
Seeing this, Valerie waited until the cyborg had passed, then wrenched the lid off the manhole and climbed inside, of course making sure to close it again afterward.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sitting there calmly, finally taking the time to rest for a bit after the chaotic mess that had been their failed attempt at kidnapping the Sovereign, Valerie gave a startled intake of breath and aimed her rifle up at the manhole cover as it opened again but lowered her weapon as she recognised the person coming down as one of those biker thugs she'd run into earlier. "Oh, it's just you lot", she commented, switching to fairly badly accented English for their benefit since she didn't think they spoke German.
A couple of them waved to her but the leader seemed to be a man with a plan, moving off down the tunnel as though he knew where he was going. Which he didn't, but like that'd ever stopped him before. Away from here, was all he needed to know. Or all he thought he needed to know.
"STOP!", she yelled after him, causing him to do exactly that more from surprise than anything else. Apparently he hadn't even seen her there. "I don't know what the sewers are like in your dimension, but here they're monitored." She gestured to a junction some distance ahead, around which came what could only be a small surveillance robot. At this range they'd be indistinguishable static on its sensors but if it got much closer it'd trigger an alarm. "This way, follow me", she said with some urgency, motioning for them to follow before breaking into a run away from the robot and around the corner of the nearest junction.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
((Probably not, but one that would've been funny in its awkwardness. 
))
Staetlov Research Institute
Level P-3
No dice.
"Hey, you!" Egregore heard the metal Tsaiv's voice lash out at him like an unseen whip, anchored and thrown perhaps at and by the stylus once more in her hand, "How many times must I repeat, no staring at my [rear]. Quit sneaking around and get back to work."
What she meant by that, the woman of course didn't say, assuming the 'third-generation cyborg' she spoke to knew. Stepping to the blast door, the gate opened without her even making so much as a motion or commanding it verbally, as if the thing just came open completely by itself.
This was only partially true of course, the door's mechanism keyed to respond to authorized Standard Life Implantates and free the way for them. On Esertos, the world these guys came from, this was standard practice because everyone had one. Here the story was slightly different, what with humans now serving in the Pozemna Armada, but in places like this facility, which played host almost exclusively to military personnel, the principle of doors taking SLIs instead of things like numeric codes, keycards, fingerprints, et cetera, worked out just fine. Best of all, an SLI could not be lost.
For Egregore, however, this presented a fairly perilous problem, especially since he very likely didn't know SLIs existed, let alone what they did. If he tried to walk through a door that scanned for these, and the mechanism didn't find one, a silent alarm would instantly be issued. Thankfully, he did at least get a clue: it was an active system. Just before the door had opened, it had sent an electronic signal to the metal-clad Tsaiv woman.
As if that granted him any amount of safety. Naturally, Murphy got in the way, for beyond the blast door lay nothing short of fully stocked armory. Specifically, it held weapons and equipment intended for infantry, from rifles to grenades to spare parts for field armor, like communications gear and MPDAS armor plates. In other words, military hardware. A whole slew of military hardware.
And as if that hadn't been bad enough, the cyborg turned her attention to him not half a second after the reprimand.
"Actually," she told Egregore, not stopping her inspection walk of the armory to do so, looking up and down the walls and along the shelves, "since you're already here, come over here and give me your report. What does your sector still need?"
She tapped the touchpad, indicating the displayed parts list upon its screen, assuming Egregore knew what she spoke of. Sadly, he couldn't actually see it from his current viewing angle...
--------------------
tátna Zbrojovka
Tower Hospital
"Wakey wakey, sleepy-head."
Vlasta's eyes came open. Like so many times before, the first thing they saw was Wolfgang, the source of the voice.
"One of these days..." the Tsaigon groaned and let his head slump further back into the pillow, breathing out the jumping question, "What happened?"
"Oh, nothing much." the metal Caldok replied as a white-coated doctor stuck a small flashlight annoyingly close to Teivos' eyeball, "You got smashed, zapped, and poisoned...you know, the usual consequences of your carelessness."
Vlasta tried to chuckle, but instead got out only a cough.
"Okay, so maybe a little worse than the usual." Wolfgang added, noting his friend's surprise at that, "How are y-?"
"I feel terrible." came the answer before the question could be finished, a scowl on the Tsaigon's orange face, "Casualties?"
"Heavy." was the cyborg's solemn retort, Wolfgang looking to the many other filled beds. He didn't beat around the bush though, informing Tevidos candidly of the loss of the forward complements of two Panzer divisions, two M7A7s, several Kazbeks, and a shockingly great number of Verejná Bezpechnost. In their effort to safeguard the civilians from the devastation of virtually the entire Perez Park zone, Public Security had paid dearly for their valor.
That got the Tsaigon up and out of bed before Wolfgang had even finished, Teivos caring neither about the residual pain nor that he wore little more than underwear right now. Several patients' eyes got big as they saw his artificial spine, silver-gray vertebrae fused to the athletic muscle beneath his orange skin, cybernetics and organic tissue forming the balance that allowed Vlasta to still lead a normal life.
"Someone has my clothes?" he inquired as he inspected himself in a nearby mirror, noting with intrigued satisfaction that the front of his throat was no longer blank metal, but now had a coat of orange skin that felt very natural to the touch. Taking his fingers from it, the Tsaigon queried of a Tsaiv doctor, "Is this real?"
"Yessir." the green-skinned Esertosian in the while coat gave a nod, motioning to Teivos' arms, which stood oddly free of any scars, "We've made a little progress in tissue regeneration again and thought you could use a pick-me-up. There will not be any scarring."
Vlasta smiled. The doctor was right. It did make him feel just a little better.
"What about him?" he looked in Burning Brawler's direction as someone arrived with a pair of leaf-green military fatigues and a black, sleeveless shirt. He quickly set about slipping into them.
"We are not sure." the doctor meanwhile brought forth a touchpad, looking upon its display with concern, "The damage is very extensive. We may have to resort to stripping off the entire skin and applying a complete cybernetic replacement."
"May have to resort..." Wolfgang mimicked in a high-pitched, nasal tone, then returned his voice to normal, "Pfff. As if it's so bad. Still, though...why didn't my nanobase work? It usually does."
"Oh, it did." the Tsaiv replied, "Your nanobase exactly worked as it should. Or rather, tried to. Something else stopped it. We're thinking magic."
Wolfgang gave a nod. It wouldn't have been the first time. At its very core, the process of magic may have been exceedingly basic...but just as with anything in hyperphysics, interaction and application was extremely difficult from a detailed, scientific point of view. This in turn often led to confusion and unexpected, generally unforeseeable consequences.
"Do what you have to, then." Teivos affirmed after lacing up a pair of combat boots, testing their soles for good measure, "I'll be in my office. I've got a few things to look over that don't add up..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
The Egregore Device obediently disengaged his combat invisibility when the Tsaiv ordered him to stop sneaking around. There was no way he could have known about the security system the door employed, but his IR vision did allow him to see the security field that checked for SLIs. He didn't know that it checked for these specifically, but he was cautious nonetheless. For all he knew, it could scan for brainwaves. This field, whatever it did, was bad news. He didn't dare try to teleport through the field either, since blast doors tended to be shielded against that sort of thing.
However, it had already been established the floor was a bit more pliable. Egregore walked casually up to the field, sweating with the only two glands left in his body, and right before entering the field, teleported. Teleported straight down into the sewers, and then immediately straight back up, on the other side of the blast door. Hopefully, the Tsaiv would be too busy examining the armory shelves to notice the split-second "blink" that occurred to the Caldov cyborg following her.
"Everything is proceeding as well as could be expected." Egregore spoke as he followed her, hoping that wild mass guessing could get him out of the situation. "Despite the damage from yesterday, we are almost ahead of schedule. We still require a number of Cobalt crystal components, sixteen basic armored rail casings and two spools of ceramic tubing."
(( *pokes thread* Khell? Crimson?
...anyone? ))
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
((Well, I suppose I'm able to move. 
))
The cyborg did indeed not notice, running her stylus down the shelves, placing a tic on the touchpad in her other hand as Egregore began his improvised report. She did listen carefully, but thankfully not closely enough to note the pop of air accompanying his departure teleportation.
The guessing, however, she did.
"Nice to hear at least some things still run as they should." the metal Tsaiv replied casually, placing another tic on the pad after reading of a shelf number, having run the stylus along it, "Everywhere I look today, one mess after the other."
In other words, she gave no indication she'd noticed anything. Well, at least not to Egregore, or vocally for that matter. She didn't know who this guy was, ergo it was probably best to find out, and if she confronted him with it right now, he might flee or fight. Neither action was very conductive to an exchange of information. So instead, she did nothing but send out an infinitesimally miniscule code signal.
On the surface, in front of the main research building of the institute, there stood about two dozen CANINE units (give or take), standing motionless like iron watchdogs with legs slightly bent, their crimson lenses unblinking, just as static as the rest of their frames.
E. Korovinova: Security breached.
Like something straight out of 'I, Robot', all at once the formation rose just a tad, coming to attention at the cyborg's signal from below. They turned about-face with mechanical precision, then set course for the building's entryway, glass doors missing, and subsequently the elevator shaft. Undeterred by the sheer vertical drop, the machines began to climb down the shaft walls like four-legged spiders, limbs moving two by two, always having a secure grip.
As this took place, the rest of the facility responded as well. The armory door behind Egregore slammed shut and locked with a series of loud clacks, the system doing what it could to try and achieve a lockdown state on the intruder - including routing power to equipment that axed teleportations.
"Security should be on its way." the Tsaiv woman told Egregore as she rose, touchpad and stylus in her hands before her, not wishing to appear hostile by entering some manner of defensive stance, "In the meantime, how about we have a talk...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"By all means." The Egregore Device responded laxly to the Tsaiv woman, his voice remaining steady and calm, the Caldolv disguise he wore crossing its arms. "Although I severely doubt you have anything to say that I will find interest in. You have ten seconds."
((Caldok, Dogma. Caldok. ))
"The impatient pessimist, are you?" the metal Tsaiv retorted distantly. If she'd bee able to raise an eyebrow, she would have, "Too bad. Fine. Who are you, and why do you not have SLI? Moreover, what do you want here?"
Her tone was calm and casual, as if this was some manner of business meeting, as if she wasn't worried one bit about what was to her a 3rd-generation cyborg currently in an armory full of highly destructive weaponry within arm's reach in virtually every direction.
And in fact, she wasn't.
The plasma weapons here required an SLI to operate. She may not have known who Egregore was, but since her attempt to scan his SLI just now had brought up that he lacked one, she did know the weapons would not function for him. Well, at least those that could actually do damage. The Steyr AUGs and other 'lighter' weaponry hadn't the capacity to harm her.
Of course, she didn't know he could teleport, not to mention call in his own weapons at will. This, however, she didn't need to know, the field whose job it was to axe this method of transportation very much encompassing de- and rematerialization. In other words, all he had on him at this moment really was all he had.
On the other hand, the Tsaiv was quite visibly unarmed - unless one chose to count that touchpad stylus as a weapon.
In any case though, ten seconds had passed...
--------------------
Max and crew weren't ones to be asked twice, hurrying after Valerie with due haste, neither knowing nor caring what she thought the robot was up to. She was from here. If she thought getting distance to the thing was good, then it was good, that was that...
--------------------
As Zeo fueled his spectacle, the elevator finally reached the detention block on level 57, the doors slid aside to reveal a pair of plain-uniformed guards standing there, both giving a start in surprise at what the cabin held.
"Meine Fresse!" the left declared with wide eyes, German accent thick as he switched back to English, "Is that...what is that...?"
--------------------
It didn't seem there was anyone else in the hospital in shape to talk to Vlasta at this point. Even Griffin was still out, and him the Tsaigon had really wanted to get a few words with in - not to mention War and Famine.
For now though, it looked like he'd just have to wait as well, and what was worse, actually do some work in the meantime. With a sigh, he gave a nod to Wolfgang, the metal Caldok following him out the doors that led to the State Weapons Factory's uppermost structure...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC:
I got an entire sentient specie's name wrong, sue me. You know, as opposed to incinerating me with a killsat orbital strike.
BIC:
Egregore's weapons did not materialize via teleportation. The Tsaiv's author should have known this by now. But since the mercenary was NOT feeling immensely aggressive at this juncture, that point was moot.
"I yam who I yam." He said in a deadly serious tone in response to her first question. "I carry nothing of such burden." In response to the second. "I want spoils from the vault of plenty." To the third. The Egregore Device turned his body partially and started viewing the stacks, as it were. "Here's a question for you, if you'd be feeling inclined enough to answer it. You have chosen to indirectly hinder me. Why, exactly?"
OOC:
Sue you, huh? Are you sure you want me to? I do have a demon prince of Hell as my lawyer, you know. And I didn't say the two were necessarily connected - just that the thing that prevents one does the same to the other.
Now then, since Khell and Soviet seem to have caught the anti-posting bug again, I'm going to go ahead and disconnect and shove around the local timelines - not long, just for the duration of this post, and for just enough time to get things moving in New Zealand.
I'm fairly sure the reconnect at the end is smooth, since a decent amount of time could've been spent by Egregore and Valirie and Max's crew in the sewers, and the events happening in Paragon City can reasonably have been a little further ahead in the day than those at tátna Zbrojovka.
--------------------
BIC:
Staetlov Research Institute
Level P-3, Armory
"Because it's my job." the metal Tsaiv answered colloquially, "Because I suspect you of being either a creation of the rebels, a rebel in disguise, a servant of der Reichsmann in disguise, or some other sort of entity with hostile and slash or destructive intent toward this facility."
"Since Daniela and I have been charged with its reconstruction and on-schedule product delivery," she went on, motioning toward Egregore with an upturned palm of her four-fingered hand, "this would be something directly hindering of me..."
--------------------
Somewhere in Paragon City
A manhole cover moved...
((Take it away, Rebel. ))
--------------------
tátna Zbrojovka
Tower, Floor 33
Following a good amount of back-and-forth, which mainly involved the question of powers and spells, Zeo and Isabel had been placed in small detention cells with walls of rather thick metal, of course modified to actually be capable of containing such 'threats', as one guard put it.
There seemed to be room for two or three, but the decision had been made to have them one to a cell, just in case they figured something out if together. Unfortunately for the guards who'd made that decision, Toy Dispenser had left each of the two a communicator, as well as sabotaged the cameras in each cell, rendering that whole idea virtually ineffective.
For a good while, nothing else happened. Had they been forgotten about...?
((Okay guys, gonna need yalls' help here on what's keeping your characters in those cells for now. Note the for now - it doesn't have to be perfect, just something that's enough trouble to get around for them to not do so right away. ))
--------------------
tátna Zbrojovka
Tower, Top Floor
For what was essentially the 'throne room' of the ruler of the world, Teivos' office stood actually quite Spartan. True, it took up nearly the whole floor, and the desk at its center was by all definitions of the word massive, but the mostly fax-wooden, old-world decor was by no means gaudy, and would've fit more into the study of some low-end, Eastern-European aristocrat than anything else.
The Dark Sovereign's 'throne' was no more than a large black office chair, just as any CEO of a medium to large corporation would've used, and if it had come from Primal Earth, there probably would've been a 'made in China' tag on it somewhere. In this world, however, China's economy stood a great deal stronger, and producing locally was in fact cheaper.
Thus there Vlasta sat, letting the light of the pre-noonish sun shine freely through the large windowpanes behind him, illuminating the many documents he'd laid out upon the desk while he mulled over them.
It was puzzling. Simply puzzling. Slowly but surely, Teivos was managing to make himself a picture of who was who and what was what, and in the end, not everything added up. He looked over to the flatscreen monitor again, tapping a key to reply the news footage once more. Sure enough, there it was: the flaming giant of unknown species hadn't killed anyone; even though he surely could've, according to the footage taken the day before in that train tunnel.
The energy-wielding human woman perplexed him even more. She wasn't even wearing any armor, yet had gone into what she clearly knew to be a combat situation, not to mention fought for the rebels who'd tried to assassinate him - well, an actor playing him, but still.
And that was another thing: the giant had protected the man, even when all hell had broken loose around them...and yet he was the one who'd atacked first when he'd been ordered to surrender at gunpoint. Furthermore, he'd been the one to continuously cause trouble with his attempts to break out of Toy's hold. Ergo, he clearly wasn't interested in talking...but neither did he seem to want to outright destroy what Teivos had built here.
"One heck of a puzzle..." Vlasta rubbed his eyes with a sigh. Between Griffin, the mercenaries, rebels, Reichsman-henchmen, dragons, wizards, lighting, poison...
He needed lunch...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Well you obviously are not doing your job very well. I have already accomplished what I came here to achieve." The Caldok retorted. "Although I do admit you could still be useful. Your touch-pad, hand it over." He extended a hand palm-up. He obviously wasn't taking her very seriously, given that he appeared to be totally unarmed or even very alert.
The Tsaiv may have suddenly heard the gentle clinking noise of metal connecting with metal softly amongst the shelves.
Pyra sat next to Burning's bed, concern in her eyes. Torcher watched from a wall across the room, concerned for his boss but at the same time jealous of all the attention he was receiving. He was just about to sigh loudly for a little attention of his own when the heart monitor beeped a little differently.
Pyra's eyes literally lit up for a moment as she stood. "I think he's waking up! Quick, call the nurse."
Torcher nodded, teleporting to the nurse's station. Pyra watched in anticipation, gasping when Burning's eyes snapped open, revealing the red orbs of power that gave him sight. He immediately shot up, hands aflame, muscles tensed as if the fight was still on.
He looked around, confused and disoriented by the strange surroundings. It then hit him he must have been hurt badly during the fight. "How long was I out?" he muttered.
"A day or two? Listen, boss, there's something you should know before you-" But Burning was already looking down at his arms, a puzzled expression on his face. He turned back to look at Pyra, and could see a hint of his reflection is in her eyes. His mouth parted slightly, and he quickly began racing about the room, almost tearing it apart.
"Boss, calm down! Just wait a second I-" He rushed past her, diving under the bed and nearly knocking Pyra off her feet. "What are you-"
He came up then with a bedpan in hand. Slowly he rose it to eye level and stared long and hard at the charred skin of the man who looked back. He brought a hand up slowly, touching and feeling where his face has been disfigured, and the hand slowly clenched tight.
His cry was something so loud, so primal that it forced Pyra back into her chair. The nurse rushed in then, followed by a pair of orderlies and Torcher. The two large men rushed to brace him as the nurse moved forward with a sedative, the needle in one hand, the other out in a placating gesture.
Burning kicked, and his arms lit with searing flames when the men made a grab for him. They backed off, then came back again as their skin became covered with stone. The added weight as they nearly tackled him forced the hysterical Brawler back onto his bed. The nurse moved quickly, jabbing the needle precisely and releasing its calming contents.
Burning's frantic thrashes grew weaker and weaker until finally, he slept.
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 sat calmly against the wall of her cell, absently tossing small energy bolts at the wall and slowly making a smiley face pattern out of scorch marks. There was actually a reason for this beyond simple amusement. The guards in all likelihood thought their walls would hold her fine, that this was the extent of her power and the walls could take it. In truth, Isabel as yet had only a fraction of her powers back. The rest would return in time, as her body fought off the power dampening field in the cell.
For now though, she was content to draw smiley faces in scorch marks on the wall.
--------------
"Come on guys, out", Valerie ordered, climbing out of the manhole first and offering her hand to help the bikers up as they came. With all of them up, she stood and looked intently at each one in turn. "Hide the guns please, if you can. Biker gangs aren't entirely unheard of here, but very rarely do they openly carry weapons. If you get seen with those we'll be in a heap of trouble."
Her accent was still atrocious but slowly getting better with practice as she led them through the city. Where she was going even she didn't exactly know, but wherever it was they did seem to be avoiding getting into trouble on the way there. Well, until something in a store window caught her eye. A TV, showing a picture of a woman who looked a lot like Valerie. She stopped abruptly, her whole attention on what seemed to be a news report of some kind.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
The Tsaiv cyborg did not perceive the noise, too focused on Egregore to have noted his backpack wandering to do something else. At this point, she very much believed him to be the only potential threat in here.
"No." she thus answered, her tone very much indicating she wasn't amused in the slightest, and was beginning to lose her patience - and indeed she was. If Egregore didn't give her some indication that he wasn't a rebel soon, things would probably get very ugly.
This of course left the question: what was his backpack attempting to do about it...?
--------------------
"Hey, quit it with all the noise..." Griffin grumbled groggily from over in the bed the staff had put him, rolling over and covering his head with a pillow, "...I've got a headache the size of a mountain..."
Wait a minute.
The next second, said location of ache was already up and looking about, the griffin resembling some manner of very strange nun, the bedsheet held in place by the pillow on his head while his beak protruded out from under the very same in the other direction, jerkily surveying the area, visibly confused.
"How'd I get here...?"
--------------------
"Would you please quit that already?!" a guard told Isabel via the speaker in her cell, the actual person standing outside in the corridor, finger on the 'talk' button of the intercom, "They're going to make me clean that up, you know!"
The guard for the next cell over couldn't help a chuckle at her comrade's problems, though she did manage to suppress it well. Then of course the thought occurred to her that she probably should be making sure her prisoner, the large flaming man, didn't do something worse.
She stole a glance at the security monitor for Flashpoint Zeo's cell. What was the tanker doing...?
--------------------
"...was arrested today following the attack on the Sovereign's parade through Perez Park." reported the light-brunette anchorwoman in the coral-red outfit, her shirt a light pink, the papers before her stacked neatly upon the news desk that read 'Channel 5', "Authorities have still not released her name, and as far as any of us know, neither she nor any of her accomplices have any manner of identification. Tom?"
"That's right, Diane." confirmed the moustache-touting anchorman in a blue suit, white shirt, and red tie, "And though no one can say for sure, this has raised strong suspicion that whoever these people are..."
The picture transitioned to show a clip recorded from the attack earlier, Zeo tearing through the parade, "...either a new group of radicals, or somehow arrived here following the incident at the Staetlov Research Institute the day before. While these are still rumors, it certainly isn't helping that they've been taken to the State Weapons Factory under heavy guard. We'll have more for you as this story develops. And now here's Ollie Williams with the weather. Ollie...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC:
Backpack: One Smooth Operation Indeed, DeviousMe. *glare*
BIC:
The backpack wasn't going to do a thing about the current situation.
"That was not a request, it was a demand." The Caldok snarled at her, a plasma rifle suddenly materializing in his hands. Unfortunately, this was not an actual plasma rifle. With the backpack gone, Egregore was entirely bereft of all his weapons. The rifle was just an extension of the hard-light hologram disguise. "But seeing as you've decided to be nothing but unhelpful, I'm going to kill you now..."
This would have been the perfect time for security to show up. One found themselves wondering how exactly they weren't already there in the first place.
The camera into Flashpoint Zeo's cell would reveal exactly what it had every other time it had been glanced at.
Fire.
It was unlikely that anyone in the state weapon's facility even knew what the huge tanker looked like- Toy's bubble had been a seething ball of flame, a spherical window into hell, when it had been brought into the fortress, and the flames hadn't let up for a second since then.
The bubble had simply been dumped into a heavily shielded cell. When it was released, lights flickered all over the complex for a second as the sudden power drain kicked in. The interior of that cell had burned like the surface of the sun ever since.
Flashpoint Zeo, in the meanwhile, was bored. Once he had figured out the mobius loop needed to set Yinglong's spell to sustain itself- a relatively simple matter, since it hadn't actually consumed anything, and as such hadn't technically triggered yet- he had had very little to do. He wasn't even entirely sure where he was- whilst his senses were exceptional, they couldn't tell him much aside from 'you are surrounded by flame', which wasn't exactly news.
"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"
[ QUOTE ]
"Would you please quit that already?!" a guard told Isabel via the speaker in her cell, the actual person standing outside in the corridor, finger on the 'talk' button of the intercom, "They're going to make me clean that up, you know!"
[/ QUOTE ]
Isabel made an escessively rude gesture at camera, before there was a bright flash and the signal abruptly cut off. An examination of the last few moments of clear picture would reveal she'd thrown a blast at the camera, or more specifically at the cable which presumably either powered it or carried the signal. Didn't really matter which, either way there would be no more video coming from that camera but it wouldn't be difficult to fix it.
(( Have we lost Crimson? If so I might just skip Valerie forward a bit, or at least condense it down into one long 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:
[ QUOTE ]
or if practical
[/ QUOTE ]
Now now, I myself have read that list and dedicated my memory to it, but by far Yinglong is FAR and nowhere near practical to capture at this point.
Then again, Teivos has very high standards regarding practicality I suppose. Continue. Will post later.