The gunman got a glimpse of something narrow and shiny before the throwing knife suddenly embedded itself in his scope, rendering it useless. Egregore Device raised his hand and another knife materialized in his right hand, ready to be thrown at a moment's notice. His sap stick was suddenly in his left hand, which was lowered-Perhaps he was reluctant to use it. He had decloaked. He didn't see a need for it, oft treating it as a last resort.
There was the faint glow of a kinetic shield around the cyborg, and rest assured, any shot from a gun would fail to penetrate unless it was a perfectly precise shot. *The shield served to further deflect inaccurate shots, but could not deflect shots perfectly in-line with its module in the center of Egregore's chest.* Without his scope, the gunman would not be making any such shots unless he was at point-blank range.
That had been the warning. The cyborg was not looking for a fight-But he would defend himself if necessary. He stood perfectly still, knife gleaming under the light fixtures above, glaring at the gunman from behind his goggles as if daring him to take a shot.
But he did not strike. He waited. Now it all came down to how twitchy the group of four was.
"Don't they usually attack on sight? It obviously knows we're here, so why's it just sitting there?", one of the other grey-uniformed soldiers spoke up in German, a slight trembling in her voice betraying the repressed desire to turn and run like hell, even though she knew she'd never outrun it. She swung round to check behind them, half expecting to see another cyborg coming up behind them to take advantage of the distraction, but there was nothing.
Thinking about it some more, a faint possibility occured to her. Given that there had been a mission to Primal Earth, and from what they'd heard at least some people had gotten through, maybe this cyborg wasn't from their dimension at all? Of course if it was from Primal Earth it'd probably consider them just as much an enemy as the others, so she kept her thoughts to herself since it made no difference really. Though she did keep watching their backs just in case, never hurt to be too careful.
---------------
"Well, I dunno about you guys but I'm getting out of sight before someone finds us", Isabel informed the others before flying off in search of the nearest sewer entrance or manhole. As much as she hated the sewers they were a good place to hide, the Rikti had proven that. It didn't take her long to spot one either, not like they were uncommon in a big city.
Landing beside it she tried to pull it open, but a combination of a significant amount of rust and her own relative lack of physical strength rendered her incapable of opening the manhole with conventional means. Fortunately she had unconventional means at her disposal, just had to hope the noise didn't attract unwelcome attention. She was about to blast it when a flash of what looked like flames shot past her, but when she turned to look there was nothing there. After hesitating a moment longer she decided it had been a trick of her imagination and threw a small energy blast to blow the grate open before jumping down into the sewers.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
[ QUOTE ]
"Don't they usually attack on sight? It obviously knows we're here, so why's it just sitting there?", one of the other grey-uniformed soldiers spoke up in German, a slight trembling in her voice betraying the repressed desire to turn and run like hell, even though she knew she'd never outrun it. She swung round to check behind them, half expecting to see another cyborg coming up behind them to take advantage of the distraction, but there was nothing.
[/ QUOTE ]
OOC:
You do realize Egregore just threw a knife into the gunman's scope? It would be ridiculously easy to mistake it for an actual attack.
Or was that reaction intentional, already knowing that?
The brief flash of light from Isabel's blast caught Flashpoint Zeo's attention, and the huge tanker backtracked in a fiery blur, finding the open manhole. A brief study of the displaced manhole cover revealed the familiar pattern of energy-blast induced scoring. He grunted briefly, and hopped down after- the blast marks hadn't even cooled fully yet to his thermal vision, so the one who made them couldn't have gotten far.
He hopped down as well, and risked a call, hoping that whoever was around would register that the call was in English, rather than German, and hesitate before opening fire. "Caught in ridiculous teleport-explosion also?" ... of course, he was durable enough to handle an impressive amount of shooting, but it didn't mean he enjoyed it... the flame-wreathed giant waited patiently.
"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 ]
You do realize Egregore just threw a knife into the gunman's scope? It would be ridiculously easy to mistake it for an actual attack.
[/ QUOTE ]
((She's meaning something more than just defending himself from being shot, which is what she assumed it was since the knife went into the gun rather than into the guy holding it.))
[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 blonde man didn't get much info except that the woman energy-throwing heroe's name was Isabella. After she left, he watched her dissapear into a sewer. He stood up, looking down one last time before crouching and preparing a leap. Before he did, he saw what looked like a comet stop in front of the hole and jump in.
Now I've got to go in he thought, and again almost jumped before remembering the three in the alley. Wondering what to do, he figured that after seeing her leave, and he'd make sure they saw a glimpse of him going in the same direction, they would catch on.
He jumped and landed in front of the alley, before taking a small leap to the sewer entrance. He slid inside and landed behind the living fireball, but made no move. After it spoke in English, he decided that he could at least chance a conversation, plus he was fairly sure he could win (as he always was). "I'm assuming your not a crazed nazi?" he asked, his sword in a relaxed but ready grip and position.
"I'm not sure..." the rebel Unteroffizier returned the optic cable to her pack after taking note that she was indeed still alive, even the shocked sniper having gotten away with no more than a damaged scope, the HUD of his blast goggles nor projecting only static over the startled man's right eye. The rifle had, of course, been jerked back around the corner.
While the possibility her comrade had thought of hadn't yet occurred to her, one thing was sure: if that was a regular ZBV cyborg, it wouldn't be behaving this way. Something was up. A trap would've been illogical. There were better ways. No, something else was going on here.
The Unteroffizier took a deep breath. No time like the present.
"Hey!" she yelled around the corner, of course staying in cover with her rifle clutched ready and speaking in German, "What are you waiting for? Your Sovereign decide killing people quickly isn't good enough anymore...?!"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Egregore narrowed his eyes from behind his goggles. How come they hadn't attacked yet? This was unusual. VERY unusual. From what he knew of Axis America, their forces usually attacked on sight-Sometimes their very own citizens. If this was a group of Axis, they would not be behaving this way. Something was up.
[ QUOTE ]
"Hey!" she yelled around the corner, of course staying in cover with her rifle clutched ready and speaking in German, "What are you waiting for? Your Sovereign decide killing people quickly isn't good enough anymore...?!"
[/ QUOTE ]
A stream of pure gibberish flooded the cyborg's ears.
'Ok. What? Damn language barrier. I don't even know if they'll understand my witty retort. Wait-That's it...'
Translation process started. More input needed.
"Speak up some you crazy Germans, I can't understand a thing you're saying." Egregore Device yelled back.
[ QUOTE ]
"Caught in ridiculous teleport-explosion also?"
[/ QUOTE ]
Isabel didn't respond for a moment, hovering flat against the roof in an effort to remain unseen until she worked out if he was friend or foe. From what he said though it was fairly obvious that he'd been caught in the portal the same as she had, so the logical assumption was he was a friend. Thus, after the aforementioned moment she dropped down beside him. "Yeah, I'm as stranded here as you are." The other man that showed up just as she spoke she recognised, and gave a small wave as he spoke to the fiery guy.
----------
The female soldier looked around as what sounded like an explosion echoed through the sewers, followed by faint voices she couldn't make out. She was about to request permission to go and search for them when the cyborg spoke, drawing her attention back to him.
[ QUOTE ]
"Speak up some you crazy Germans, I can't understand a thing you're saying."
[/ QUOTE ]
What language is that? English? That settled it, this guy must be from somewhere else. She knew the ZBV cyborgs never talked to their targets, just killed them. So this guy either was from Primal Earth or some third party she was unaware of. She tried to remember as much as she could of the English she'd learned back in school before speaking. "Who are you, and where did you come from?", she yelled back to the cyborg. Her pronunciation was off at times and her accent was horrible, but it was understandable at least.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
[ QUOTE ]
What language is that? English? That settled it, this guy must be from somewhere else. She knew the ZBV cyborgs never talked to their targets, just killed them. So this guy either was from Primal Earth or some third party she was unaware of. She tried to remember as much as she could of the English she'd learned back in school before speaking. "Who are you, and where did you come from?", she yelled back to the cyborg. Her pronunciation was off at times and her accent was horrible, but it was understandable at least.
[/ QUOTE ]
"Oh, thank Joule. You speak English. I'm from Primal Earth, and I-" Which was about when he caught sight of the translation his systems had rattled off. The girl's accent and pronunciation were both horrible. So horrible, in fact, that the translator did not identify the language being spoken as English and fired off several equations until it came up with a translation. A little line of text ran across Egregore's eye.
Me love you long time.
And with that, the Cyborg started laughing. A deep, bellowing noise that rang and echoed off the sewer walls.
[ QUOTE ]
"Oh, thank Joule. You speak English. I'm from Primal Earth, and I-"
[/ QUOTE ]
"Not very well", the soldier replied, cautiously coming out to where the cyborg could see he, though her rifle was still pointed squarely at his chest. "I guess you realised that already", she added as she heard him laughing. Tempting as it was to shoot him just for that, she didn't. "Do you speak German?", she asked hopefully, not really wanting to keep amusing him with her horrible accent.
--------------
Isabel looked around as probably the last thing she'd expected to hear in an Axis Amerika sewer found its way to her ears. "You guys hear that?", she asked the others before listening some more, trying to work out which direction it was coming from. After a moment she flew off down the tunnel, not looking to see if the others were following or not.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
((Your connection to the server has timed out. Try again?))
Rezyin shrugged to Solid. "Have no idea where they have gone my comrade. Now where is this man I am needing to get?"
As Isabel came around the corner with her hand raised, her explanation was cut off rather suddenly by the fact that, unlike her, when Rezyin was surprised by strange faces raising their arms in aggression in a hostile environment, he didn't hesitate. The very second she raised her hand in the preliminaries of an attack, the Swordsman blasted towards her, swinging his blade widely.
---
The Horsemen had now gotten a considerable distance away from the rest of the group, and were within enough distance of the huge burning building to be bathed lightly in an orange glow.
"If we're getting out of here we gotta find another portal, War." Famine grunted as he hefted their loot behind a low fence. "Tell you what, you stay here and guard the money, and I'll go find out what the flying [censored] we're dealing with and just how screwed we are."
War only nodded in response, and Famine was off, skulking through the night to determine just what was so important about this burning building.
((Ouch. 
Well, welcome back.))
The Unteroffizer couldn't help but smirk. That girl had guts. Hopefully, it'd pay off. In any case, she knew she'd feel better with someone backing her up, and thus the other three now moved out of cover as well. True, generally this wasn't a sound maneuver, but if this wasn't an ZBV cyborg after all, it was a show of good faith - and if it was...well, cover wouldn't have helped much anyway.
But though the Unteroffizier did know English, she didn't speak just yet, wanting to know just as much if whoever or whatever this person was could speak German...
--------------------
What was up with the burning building seemed rather obvious upon Famine spotting the security perimeter that was the chain link fence around the place, roughly rimming the same area that Freedom Court occupied back in the Horseman's native universe. Not only had said fence been wrecked by explosives in several spots, but several uniformed individuals stood positioned in pairs along said perimeter, high-tech weapons slung behind the shoulders of their long, black overcoats, the like-hued officer caps they wore giving a chilling image of stereotypical Gestapo.
Of course, the look stood different in several measures, most notably the almost pure-white letters 'VB' upon their upper sleeves and the lower half of their coats. The clear, one-piece glasses over their eyes were the other, and by the way they sat could've been blast goggles.
"This is stupid." one of the pair closest to Famine sighed to the other, speaking English with a thick Slavic accent, "They caught everybody, what are we here for? Should we not be letting the citizens know the threat is over?"
"I'unno." the second shrugged in response with a slight shake of his head, his language doubtlessly American English, "'f it were after me, we'd be searching houses to make sure. But I guess Command's sure no one made it. Anyways, orders're orders. Just wish we had some coffee."
"Da. I am falling asleep here. Let us hope the search crews get everybody out soon..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
[ QUOTE ]
The very second she raised her hand in the preliminaries of an attack, the Swordsman blasted towards her, swinging his blade widely.
[/ QUOTE ]
((It's worth noting that Isabel isn't there anymore, she's down in the sewers with Cham's and doodaa's characters. Sorry we moved on without you.))
[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 glanced at the blonde swordsman. "Nazi, no. Crazy, probably. Run around with people in tights to beat up crooks." He nodded briefly to Isabel, hood bobbing. "Is good that at least are not alone." Then he rolled his eyes slightly, yellow flames flickering. "Apologies for strange speech pattern... is side effect of condition."
At Isabel's abrupt departure, he raised an... eyebrow? Under the hood, in the flickering light of his glowing yellow eyes, it was hard to tell; it could have been a more reptilian eyebrow ridge, too. Then he shrugged, heavy shoulder plates moving. "Perhaps best to follow?" he suggested, suiting actions to words and blurring after the blaster.
Isabel was passed by what looked like a horizontal comet several times in the space of a few seconds as Flashpoint triangulated where the sound was coming from. Then the big tanker 'paused' near her, pacing her flight. "Sounds coming from that way." he said, jerking a thumb down one of the side tunnels. "Some speech English." he added.
"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 ]
"Not very well", the soldier replied, cautiously coming out to where the cyborg could see he, though her rifle was still pointed squarely at his chest. "I guess you realised that already", she added as she heard him laughing. Tempting as it was to shoot him just for that, she didn't. "Do you speak German?", she asked hopefully, not really wanting to keep amusing him with her horrible accent.
[/ QUOTE ]
Egregore quickly recovered from his laughter and proceeded. "Not at the moment. I was hoping you'd reply in German so my systems could run a few algorithms and update my speech center. But, here we are talking in English."
[ QUOTE ]
In any case, she knew she'd feel better with someone backing her up, and thus the other three now moved out of cover as well. True, generally this wasn't a sound maneuver, but if this wasn't an ZBV cyborg after all, it was a show of good faith - and if it was...well, cover wouldn't have helped much anyway.
[/ QUOTE ]
The cyborg casually made his plasma rifle materialize in his right hand, although he did not raise it.
"Now to fully answer your question from before...I am from Primal Earth. Axis forces and some others I didn't recognize came through a portal. Several heroes along with myself got caught up in the ensuing fight, and suddenly the portal blows up. Next thing I know I'm here. I wouldn't know if any of the others survived or got caught in the blast."
[ QUOTE ]
Egregore quickly recovered from his laughter and proceeded. "Not at the moment. I was hoping you'd reply in German so my systems could run a few algorithms and update my speech center. But, here we are talking in English."
[/ QUOTE ]
"Heh, if that's all it takes then I'm happy to switch to the language I'm not so amusingly bad at", the soldier replied in German. Noticing the plasma rifle appearing in the cyborg's hand her grip tightened slightly on her own weapon. If he attacked he'd have more bullets than flesh in his chest before he could get a single shot off, but she wasn't going to shoot first.
[ QUOTE ]
"Now to fully answer your question from before...I am from Primal Earth. Axis forces and some others I didn't recognize came through a portal. Several heroes along with myself got caught up in the ensuing fight, and suddenly the portal blows up. Next thing I know I'm here. I wouldn't know if any of the others survived or got caught in the blast."
[/ QUOTE ]
"Hmm, I didn't know that portals could do that...", the soldier answered. "Though I'm hardly an expert on portals."
---------------
[ QUOTE ]
"Sounds coming from that way." he said, jerking a thumb down one of the side tunnels. "Some speech English." he added.
[/ QUOTE ]
Isabel stopped dead in midair as the flaming comet she now recognised as being the tanker shot past her not once but three times. She had to wonder how he managed to move that fast. But that was forgotten as he pointed toward where the sound was coming from, as she took off in that direction. If they were speaking English then maybe they were more heroes, or at least friendly.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
((So yeah... Internet back for tonight, posting nao. And yeah Rebel, feel free to add someone to Toy's entourage. I'll toss you a PM with some basic info about Toy that your dude would know.))
Solid's vision suddenly whirled and spun as the delayed consequences of staring into the portal light caught up with him. Gazing into a phenomena that shouldn't exist and defied all rational explanation that Solid could understand caused the mish-mash of programs, viruses, and software comprising his personality to violently rebel. Akin to a normal human suddenly crashing from an adrenaline high, Solid's sight whirled into flashes of light on pure blackness as his sensors malfunctioned.
Crashing to his knees after Isabel left, the android pressed one hand against the wall in front of him, barely keeping his balance as systems flew into emergency checks, shutting on and off randomly as they sought to localize and eliminate a problem that couldn't be localized or eliminated, only lasted through.
And last the poor security bot did, though he hated every second of it, heaving himself to his feet just as he caught Rezyzin's reply.
"Forget about it," he wheezed, vocoder crackling as it came back under control. "Let's just grab Hans and duck into the rabbit hole after the girl."
Slinging his rifle over his shoulder, partially under his cape, Solid reached down and grabbed the bound Unteroffizier by a couple sturdy straps and heaved him over the other shoulder. Checking back to see if the Russian scrapper was following, the robotic blaster muttered an old phrase about hanging together or most assuredly hanging seperately.
*****
"Teleport in three...
Two...
One...
Teleport engaged, good hunting."
****
With a bright flash that momentarily threw the surrounding buildings in sharp relief with its harshness, Toy Dispenser arrived at the analogue of Freedom Court.
The light of the teleport faded as quickly as it had come, leaving the android and his team to be illuminated by the massive fires still burning in the building. The light flickered haphazerdly over the blocky form of Combat Toy, decoratively lethal spikes jutting from shoulder and elbow casting dizzying patterns of shadow over dull red plating as the massive machine thundered into motion, scanning the area for threats or targets.
Sticking to the wide shadow cast by it's much larger brother lurked Small Toy, only visible at all due to the fire light reflecting off it's multitude of eyes and lenses. It's night black and camoflauged form hiding effortlessly in the shadows as it waited for a command. Also stumping along side Combat Toy was the ubiqutous Block Bot, seeming almost to fade into the background of the other war-ready machines. Odd green light seeped from under it's black armor, back lighting it in a frightening way if one could only focus on it, thought for some reason the mind tried to refuse too.
Mini Bot, ever energetic, swiftly scampered up the tallest piece of intact wall, humming happily to itself as it looked around. Bright red armor seemingly at home among the flames, the little drone made rude gestures at Large Toy with it's two shoulder-borne tentacles. The stoic protector bot, painted in alternating shades of grey as camoflauge in the city environment silently ordered Mini Bot back into formation even as it began the process of sifting through every radio and electromagnetic band in the area. Identifying and coding each of them, the robot freed his master from the task and also made sure the mere humans had set things up properly.
Toy Bot minced quietly on it's four spider legs, arm turrets at rest position and head seemingly leisurely observing the perimeter, noting each and every sentry and calculating how many it could kill before being destroyed. When that was done, it remotely accessed the army's network and identified each soldier it saw, running through their histories and resumes, searching for possible traitors. Each arm turret twitched slightly with every file read as though eager to resume the duties it once had under a different rule.
And finally there was Toy Dispenser, head panning unerringly toward the highest ranking officer in sight and feet carrying him unhesitantly toward the man, vocoder crackling out in perfect German his quieries of the precise location of the commanding officer, this current officer's name, and the current status of the area.
The iron fist of Overmagus Archlich had come to Paragon City once again, though not perhaps in the manner anyone had expected.
((Hey Devious, take control of Toy and crew if I don't come back to post within a few days. I think I can trust you not to screw them up. 
))
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.
Flashpoint Zeo compensated for the abrupt shift in direction, pacing the flying Blaster from slightly ahead- anything nasty that tried to jump them would find that a) things that are actively on fire are most likely inedible, and b) having six feet of flaming sword shoved into the first available orifice was decidedly painful.
"ADD, much?" he said drily to Isabel. "Would suggest that perhaps finding new allies is less useful when old allies have been left behind during search?" The big tanker didn't bother slowing down when they came out a side tunnel between the cyborg and the soldiers- few things could make the appearance of a nine-foot tall flaming giant less startling, and easing into view slowly probably wouldn't help. Instead, he simply... appeared. One second a comet-streak of flame, the next a huge form wreathed in flame just standing there, arms folded, giving Egregore and the soldiers a placid look with burning yellow eyes.
If anybody started shooting, they would be... dealt with. In the meantime, the tank was content to observe, taking a good look at all involved in this bizarre little confrontation in the sewers.
"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"
The Unteroffizier's ears would've perked up if they could've at this, the unknown-generation cyborg referring to the very place the Reichsman had traveled to...not to mention supposedly taken over. Needless to say, this brought a great sense of apprehensiveness when she spoke her question.
"You really are from Primal Earth?" she gradually raised her weapon again, inquiring in German-accented English, "A cyborg from Primal Earth? Does...does that mean...der Reichsmann won? He rules?"
Of course, before Egregore could answer, a freakin' comet blazed right into the tunnel between them, and worse yet didn't stay one, instead becoming...well, she didn't quite know what that was!
"Meine Fresse!" she exclaimed in shock, eyes wide, and though their weapons all went up now, they didn't fire just yet; partially out of not wanting this to devolve into a firefight (maybe literally there) just yet, but mostly due to the large flaming guy just lokking scary as hell, "Was in Teufels Namen is das*...?!"
((*My gosh! What in the devil's name is that?!))
--------------------
((Roger roger.))
Toy of course found the CO stante pede, the high-ranking officer in cobalt-blue ballistic armor giving a hastened salute as he spotted the mechanoid, having not expected such a high animal to show up here.
"Sir!" he snapped to attention, "We did not...of course, Sir. Situation under control, Sir. Perimeter secure. Damage to the research institute is extensive, but not catastrophic. Initial casualty reports confirm twelve dead, at least twenty wounded."
Of course, Toy knew he wasn't counting the attackers there.
"All rebel forces have been either killed or apprehended, and are thus accounted for...save for four that escaped through a portal to Primal Earth during the battle. They are either dead or with the Reichsman now."
The Reichsman...someone of great interest to the Dark Sovereign.
"All projects should be back at nominal operation within the week. We are currently recovering portal generators from armored storage, meaning the accelerated timetable of Operation Coconut may proceed as planned. We are also still making our way further into the facility, and have not yet been able to confirm the status of all active portals at the time. However, at this point we do not believe any of them succeeded at reaching the second world indicated by Sovereign Teivos..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Hrm... guess I should probably mention this; anything Flashpoint Zeo says, any humans who hear it, hear it in their own native tongue- there are one or two exceptions to the 'humans only' rule, but they're not likely to turn up in this particular situation. Likewise, he understands all human languages. And no, it's not psionic in nature- it's actually nothing more than a side effect of the same thing that causes his strange, stilted speech pattern... and his flame powers, for that matter.
Oh- also, Flashpoint doesn't literally become a comet when speeding, it just looks that way- a huge ball of flame zooming around like that?))
"Not what. Who." the big tanker corrected blandly. "And not devil, although possibly related. Or maybe minor god of some sort." he added as a thoughtful aside. He remained firmly planted in place, not deigning to move, even with the amount of weaponry being waved about.
After a beat, he said "Request guns be pointed downwards. Particular model looks difficult for proctologist to remove." Another lull. Careful observation would show that, despite the fact that he was wreathed from head to foot in flame, and standing in shallow water, the water neither dimmed the flame nor began to boil. Either the fire was an illusion, or there was something odd about it.
After a pause that was just long enough for others to think he was finished, but not quite long enough to let anyone get a word in edgewise, Flashpoint Zeo added "And last seen, Reichsmann popsicle somewhere underneath thousands of tons of rubble. Unlikely to rule much."
"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 ]
[ QUOTE ]
anything Flashpoint Zeo says, any humans who hear it, hear it in their own native tongue- there are one or two exceptions to the 'humans only' rule, but they're not likely to turn up in this particular situation.
[/ QUOTE ]"Not what. Who." the big tanker corrected blandly.
[/ QUOTE ]
Flashpoint Zero didn't get any further than that. Egregore had been slightly confused after the first two words, and then he realized just what language the tanker was speaking in. He spent the final two words kicking into overdrive.
Prime Directive Over-ride initiated. Source: Eternal Engine. New Prime Directive: Terminate identified varient with extreme predjudice.
And while this was happening, Egregore's systems had automatically given the flaming newcomer a good look-over. A super-speeding meta with a shielding varient of fire manipulation. It processed all the information it could find and then gave Egregore the best possible scenario. His plasma rifle dematerialized to be replaced with a Vanguard Psi bomb. The first indication that everything was about to go straight to hell was simply him pressing the remote detonation button on the device. An extremely powerful 45 meter omnidirectional blast of pure Psi power flooded the area. Not to say everyone wasn't at risk. Indeed, Egregore had a friendly fire feature programmed into all of his modules. The soldiers, all tagged as friendly, would be unaffected, as would Egregore. Flashpoint Zero, on the other hand, had been tagged as a code black hostile.
There was no warning for any of this. Heck, the only indication that ANYTHING had just happened was simply Egregore's plasma rifle vanishing. Whether Flashpoint Zero could react to this in time and in the correct manner remained to be seen, but regardless of whether or not he escaped the blast, Egregore Device proceeded to raise his sap stick and fire it at the tanker...
The soldier that had made the first contact with the cyborg was equally surprised by the sudden appearance of a huge flaming man in the tunnel, but followed her commanding officer's lead and didn't fire. She did however ask, "So are you with him? From Primal Earth too?"
------------
The psychic wave Isabel neither saw nor felt as she landed beside the big tanker, but the sap stick she most definitely did see. With the tanker facing the other way talking to the soldiers, she assumed he wouldn't see it coming and took matters into her own hands. Jumping in the way of the beam she took the attack for him, almost collapsing against the side of the sewer as the energy draining effect took hold. "I hate getting hit by those things...", she muttered to herself before looking back at the cyborg. "What the hell's your problem?!", she yelled. "We're stuck in another dimension, and you're attacking friendlies!"
------------
As the blaster appeared from the same tunnel the flaming man had come from, the soldier's eyes widened and her grip on her weapon slipped a little. No way, it couldn't be. She was dead!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
((Rezyin has now retconned into having taken a defensive stance only.))
Rezyin swung his sword once around to show his readiness before following Solid and the Girl.
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War wrapped his arms closer around himself, his falcatas laying against the wall next to him.
"Hate this damn nighttime planet damn nazis with their damn helicopters and this damn money and damn Famine taking forever. Dammit."
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Famine shifted uneasily. He couldn't really get in there with those guards in place. But then, he didn't know where else to go.
Realizing that this had no hope of working and he was going to have to fall back, Famine calmly stepped into the light of the flames.
"What happened here?"
Now, that was. Not long ago, a moving sewer lid and rather conspicuous welding process had done that job more than well.
Needless to say, the quartet in gray uniforms had made themselves thin as soon as the characteristic noise of someone prying open an entryway came from above them, high-tailing it about the nearest corner before Egregore had spotted them.
And now they'd spotted him - well, not literally, what with him being invisible, but peering around that corner with an optic cable, they had a good idea what was there.
Well, at least so they thought.
After all, it could only be one thing: an ZBV cyborg equipped with thermo-optic camouflage. That made this thing at least third generation...maybe even fourth. The woman holding the optic cable swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat at the thought. They'd only heard of those. None who'd seen one had come back alive.
Still, they'd have to go on the attack if they wanted to get to street level. They had no doubt the cyborg would hear if they opened another lid in the local area, and then it would be the unseen party, not them. No, they had to take it out, and take it out now.
But how?
Even as the four still pondered this, the long barrel of an M40 slowly, inexorably came around the corner, the man at the other end of its scope trying to gleam any sort of fix on the 'ZBV freak'...
"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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