Journey to the Netherworld ((Open RP))

The succubus demon stifled a giggle as the demon of the team suddenly became a giant evil-looking bunny rabbit. "So much for a disguise” she muttered, stepping into the driver's seat and working the ignition. Soon as all six of them had squeezed into the beastly vehicle, she floored it. Racing down the dusty tarmac and kicking dirty and exhaust into the group of biker demons. "This aughta be good" she joked, stepping on speed and burning rubber. With an unholy growl, the engine thundered into full power. Shapes along the sides of the road became nothing but a blur of light and colour. Up ahead one could just about make out the tall buildings and skyscrapers; the inner circles of the City of Dis.

((Written with Damsel))

Illusionist rolled down the window and stuck his head out, he needed fresh air. The City of Dis was warm but at this speed it was a pleasent warm. He no longer felt sick, his disguise was warding him from Hell's magic just as well as Snaeer's Ice Sphere had, now he was just bored. That , and not the bizzare landscape of the hellish city was the truly sureal part. Here he was , tall, demonic and muscular, in the sort of car he would have once killed to own, a beautiful succubus at his side, speeding through some exotic foreign city. Problem was the succubus was married, her husband was in the backseat with a gun and he was joined by a demonic rabbit that blamed him for his perdiciment. And Illusionist was too shy to even talk to her. Why was she the only one to remember to bring hands. Its not like the spell had a quick cool down or anything. And as much as he wanted nothing more then to just step out of the damn car and go see the sights he couldn't. Innocent lives hung in the balance, lives which might already be over.

He opened the glovebox with his claws (he could no longer remember why he even wanted them) and began to rummage around. He pulled out a small white envelope with his name written in elegent green cursive on it. He was sure it wasn't there before. He opened it with a metal fingernail and began to read.

Dear Illusionist,
I'm afraid that you are in grave danger. Just as the mighty heroes of your age can move freely upon the three dimensions, so can the heroes of another age move upon four. Just as your own accomplices use their power to mold the world, so do these other heroes. Just as you take orders from MAGI, so do these heroes take orders from their own mysterious contacts. But they are too trusting. Events across time are being manipulated towards some dark goal. I cannot give you specifics for I cannot give you what I do not have, but know this. I know who you are. I know how you got your powers. I know what a true wizard can do with them. I know what one almost did. And I know there is a mark upon the mirror of dreams. Do not tell the others about this. Do NOT summon a phantasm.



Illusionist crumpled the paper up. He looked down at the mirror which was his belt buckle (it was the only part of his appearence that hadn't changed). His eyes sparkled and he saw a name burned into the surface of the talisman in the Alphabet of Magi.I'm gonna kill him." Illusionist muttered.

With expert handling of the Lamborghini Diablo, Damsel raced into the City of Dis. She brought her speed down to a cruise at the town centre. Thankfully, the denizens here weren't giant dragons but mainly vampires, werewolves and other humanoid demons. Most of them were going about their ways, dressed in smart suits and wielding leather briefcases. Confined to the alleyways one could just about make out the criminal predators. Screams could be heard are captured souls were maimed and tortured, in the darkness, rapists had their ways with the whores of damnation, pained moans and groans echoing through the nook and cranny of every alley. Now and then the rotten corpses of the dead would limp into the streets, clutching at their broken limbs. Despite the marvel of the tall buildings and the booming business of corporate corruption, the underworld of the City of Dis was clear to see.

The angelic priest held his tongue and forced himself to look away. In a Hell world like this, one must pick his fights and taking on the underworld of the Netherworld was suicide, if ever such a thing was actually possible in this realm. "Rachel, wait" he called out to his wife. "Look! Is that an information kiosk or is that an information kiosk?" he asked, pointing to an information kiosk. Behind the giant sign that read 'information kiosk' stood a map-seller with furry skin and a large pair of bunny ears. "We... you should go talk to him" said Pious, looking at the giant killer rabbit stuffed near the trunk of the car.

Illusionist got out of the car and began to stretch. It was good to be out on the nice, solid ground again. The screams of the city made him smile. Since it was his own magic that was disguising them, it was into him that the demonic energy flowed. Its nature and instincs bleeding into his own. Changing him.

"He's right Typhon, that guy seems friendly enough." He pointed a hand at the giant rabbit and dark, bloody energy shot out. Typhon's fur hardened. Energy shot out from the other hand and now Typhon felt faster."There, assuming that guy can't breath fire or something you should be ok." He looked around at the strange city. "So whose hell is this?" He said more to himself then to anyone. "Would this be Pious's hell, or maybe Rachel's, she was driving the car..." He trailed of into his own thoughts. It didn't really matter he realized, it wasn't his hell, and he had things to take care of.

"Ok guys I have to go check on something." He said telepathically. He unattached his belt buckle and raised it into the air. He was getting used to his new hand. Red lightning struck it on though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. A ball of the same lightning appeared before him and began to take the form of a man. Illusionist kicked the form with his hoof sending it to the floor. A very confused man with red skin and white hair looked up. He was wearing steam punk armor so stained with blood that it was hard to see its original copperish color. Glowing white runes adorned it. He also wore a burned and torn whit lab coat and goggles.

"Ow, where's the mortal danger?" Asked the strange man in a voice overflowing with energy. "Isn't any." Replied the demon. "Why'd you summon your phantasm?" The demon gave him a strange paper which uncrupled itself. "Ah future paper, you gotta love this stuff." Said the man as he played with the self straightening paper. "Can't trust a single word you read on it though. Never know who wrote it." The demon held up a small round mirror with glowing red runes carved into it."How long has this been here?" The man thought for a moment."Depends." "On?" "For you or for me. Its been here since that...classy lady returned it too you. I got to her before she found you, but for me it was like five minutes ago." "What gave you the right?" Asked the demon. The man got to his feet. "I could ask you the same thing." He said with a shrug.

"And still you'd get no answer." said a slyly smiling voice quickly recognized as that of Sage, the Vrakht perched atop the roof of another nearby kiosk, this one selling what its sign advertised as 'lunch'. Unlike before however, he was presently in full, SWAT-style ballistic armor, the 'gun' in his left hand sporting a barrel large enough to be come kind of cannon.



"You know, I didn't think you'd actually make it this far." he spoke with casual tone, "I'm impressed. How'd you get the fallen angels to let you past the wall...?"

Snaerr looked up at Sage, then down at himself, then up at sage again.

"How did we... um, mate? I don't know if you've noticed, but um..."

He gestured one long, illusory bony claw at Sage, then gestured at his ragged wings.

"Sort of got the makeover going."

He paused, then rolled his eyes.

"Oh, don't tell me. You can't see the... thing?"

Like everyone else, Pious was captivated by what the Illusionist was doing to the red-skinned white-haired guy and then the sudden reappearance of the demon Sage. All the while, Rachel had snuck past the map-seller and stolen a couple of old scrolls. Calmly she returned to the gathering and unrolled the parchments.



"Hmm" said Rachel, looking over the map. "If this map is anything to go by, our portal might actually have landed this side of the Wall of Dis, somewhere near these burning tombs; hence the fire and the lava and the guardian dragons. If that's the case then this map is not to scale and this Hell realm is a damn great big landscape... planet-size. And if the boy we're looking for is a descendant of an Egyptian goddess, he would be imprisoned in the pagan realm; the first circle... not the fifth. Which means we need to go back on ourselves."

Rachel places the large scroll onto a stone slab and begins running her fingers over it, plotting out a route. "To get to Antonio Gar and his mother and Officer James Neil, I think we will need to do six things; breach the Wall of Dis and its guardians of fallen angels, cross the river Styx and the wrathful sinners, pass the suffering greedy and the demon Plutus, pass the freezing gluttons and the demon Ceberus, fight through the lusters and their violent neverending tornados, then we'll reach the river Acheron and the pagan sinners. Erm... Sage, is that even doable?"

((Written with Damsel))

"Well on the bright side seems if we are going to the first level then it should get easier as we go right? I mean after all I have no desire to cross the boiling blood and all."

In the distance panting and Balam was racing to catch up. Heck he didn't have a fancy car so he skidded to a stop. Having turned a corner he was just 20 yards away he rushed into an alley way. " Stupid stupid! Why Stop almost made Balam give self away!"

In the alley were a few Wailers and a Banker "We own Johney's Soul! Fair Square!" "Rules are Rules until Johnny Sonata is dead ownership of his soul is still technically his. Face it you just have to kill the guy."

Balam ignored them it wasn't important he had to follow the group or Mistress be angry. Balam shivered remembering the last time he didn't obey. "Balam will not be made to put on dress and bows! NO NO Balam follow orders!"

Typhon felt stupid he was on his way to the map-seller btu tripped over his now uncomfortably large feet and Rachel had beaten him to the punch and gotten hold of some maps

"hey sage gad your back" he said "I am woefuly inadequate as a guide in the more civilized parts of hell I usually hang out in caves and such so ill let you take point"

Typhon stood up and brushed himself off, it was going to take awhile to get used to his new less than humanoid body.

"Oh no, I can see that just fine." Sage smiled mischievously, giving the goggles over his eyes a tap with his free hand, "But I can also see more. And sure that's doable. But who says I'm here to help you?"

With a twist of fingers, the oversized gun in his other hand gave an ominous clack, and the orange-skinned Vrakht's smile widened into a grin, "I doubt you'll be so glad after I'v-mh?"

The very next second, a sound of thunder cut through the air, and the blasted-apart remains of a certain kiosk vendor hit the street. Seems he'd not taken kindly to being robbed and had tried to sneak up on one of the team.

"Oh come on!" Kasha harrumphed in exasperation from his perch, barrel of the hand-cannon still smoking, "Can't one of you let me milk it just for once?! Yeesh, I swear...fine, guess it's out. The boss says you're okay, but if you get killed, you're still dead, yadda yadda. Oh, and we should move before he reconstitutes himself. He'll be mad, and since I'm not one of the real imposing-looking Hellknights...well, you get the idea..."

The explosion caught Illusionist by surprise. He quickly looked around expecting a fight but no one else seemed to have noticed. The asorted demons all seemed to be minding their own business. Hell really was other people. "I like this guy." Said the one demon right next to him. "Techy armor, moral ambiguity and he shoots first and never asks questions. I think I might be in love." There was something sinister in the glee in the other man's voice. Hell was definetly other people.

"Ok Sage, let me bring you up to speed. I'm Illusionist."Said the tall clawed demon. "We're incognito, Typhons the giant bunny rabbit. Damsels a succubus, bone wings over there is the Priest and Rottens well, Rotten. "

"Hello Sage, I'm sort of surprised you're here this early." said the demon in the bloodstained armor.

"Oh this is BrassRobo, he was just leaving." Said Illusionist. He raised a hand and BrassRobo's image flickered for a moment. BrassRobo laughed as he patted Illusionist on the head. "Wizardry 101 don't call up anything you can't put down. Which for you meens don't call anything up." He smiled wickedly. "Astral projection is a lovely way to escape the pain of a decrepit body. You're an idiot if you think I'll give this one up." He beat his gauntlet against his chest plate as if to show his point.

Then he addressed the rest of the team. "Now as far as I know the boy you seek is in Elysium, Avalon the first circle. A lovely place if I do say so myself." And then his face contorted into a serious visage. "Of course seeing as how I'm here..." He waved at Sage "...and Sage is here, and we are clearly being followed, I'd say there are powerful forces at work here. Which meens that we could be heading towards any of the circles." He shrugged and he seemed to return to his normal jolly demenor. "Assuming of course Antonio Barzini is still in hell."

BrassRobo scanned the street. "What you guys didn't notice?" He feigned confusion."Illusionist never introduced that guy." He pointed at the ice demon."I think he's been stalking you for a while." Illusionist facepalmed. "Thats Snaeer, he's with us."

"Oh?" Now BrassRobo feigned shock. "Well in that case we're being followed by some sort of tiny demon." He pointed in Balam's general direction. "Whatever it is, its the only thing paying us any attention and it seems more scared of us then we are of it."He shrugged. "I've felt its fear ever since I got here. I'm surprised no one else did." He glared at Illusionist who blushed under his mask. "I assumed more things would be afraid of us." Illusionist mumbled.

"And I'm surprised at your naivete." Kasha smirked in retort to BrassRobo, then looked to the Illusionist in addition, "Also, y'know, the point of being incognito is kind of to not say out loud who you are and what you're doing in a public space where everybody and their mother can overhear you."

The Hellknight holstered his weapon and stepped off the roof, the giant 'boots' that enveloped his oversized feet and toes in an almost glove-like fashion feathering the impact without issue.

"Guess it would've gotten out soon anyway, though." he remarked with a casual shrug, "Dragons are blabbermouths like that. Probably already chattering you off to half the city. C'mon, let's get moving before the crowd gets any bigger. Allie's waiting."

With that, he set himself in motion, seeming to know just which direction he wanted. He didn't remark on the car - and for good reason.

It wasn't there anymore.

At one point or another, the vehicle had vanished without a trace. All that remained were the Illusionist's weavings over the empty space...

Illusionist fidgeted ackwardly, which looked a bit disturbing thanks to his current body. "Actually I've been using telepathy this whole time. No one outside our party should be able to hear me." The key word was of course "should" but Illusionist didn't want to think about the sorts of things that could hear his thoughts. BrassRobo laughed. "What, got tired of no one understanding you cause of that stupid mask you wore?" Illusionist it should be noted wasn't currently wearing a mask. He glared at BrassRobo until his eyes shone and BrassRobo ceased to be for a few seconds. "Try harder Ill." Illusionist sighed. Then he noticed the slowly gathering crowd.

"Strange, I didn't think we could attract attention here. Evil is usualy so..apathetic." Said Illusionist. "Well obviously we're the only life in this place." BrassRobo thoguht for a moment."Well I suppose me and the Sage are the only life here. You're less lively then a zombie." He pointed to Illusionist who was attempting to ignore him by looking at where the car was.

Illusionist traced the floating hot rod flames with his monsterous hand. He was getting really good at using it. The magic unwove itself and he wrapped it around his hand. He noticed that something had mixed with his own magic, the strands were stained jet black by some strange force. He would examine all this later. "I hope no one left anything in the car." He said to himself as he tried to remember if he had forgotten anything in the hellish vehicle.

As the crowd of hellion demons gathered ever closer, the demonic-looking angelic Priest looked to his far right and noticed the glimmering metal of beastly motorcycles; the distant but speedy advance of the biker demons his wife had rolled dust and exhaust fumes onto just earlier. Things were about to get very ugly, very quickly. “Dear God” he sighed, praying silently. "Okay Pious, stay calm... have faith... Sage, where did our escape vehicle go? Did you do this?" asked Pious, hoping for a glimpse of the demonic supercar. "That thing was fast enough to cover much more ground than flying. Wings are slow and with the air this hot and combustive, we'll need something else. Worry not of the hells of wrath, avarice, gluttony, lust and idolatry. Right now, we need to reach the Wall of Dis and find lake Styx. I mean, I hope you guys aren't intending to fight this crowd. They're growing rapidly while our chances of survival diminishes. Sage? Typhon? Anyone?"

Softly "I wonder how many Bikes those biker demons have. Okay lets try a distraction."

He looked about then faced the forming crowd and in a loud voice. "Hey that Little Demonling that ran off! Where did it go it's the bugger that blew up the booth! Really Why else would it run off like that. Anyone know where it's going?"

((Telepathy, huh? Would've been nice if you'd said so earlier. Or just differentiated it from normal speech by not putting it in the same format. Generally, thoughts and telepathic communication is written in unquoted italics.

Gonna take me a while to figure out how to deal with this. Carry on.))

I've always tended to put it on quoted italics with unqouted ones being internal monologue.

Antonio stared out into the night over Nerva, watching the water slowly rolls up against the sea wall as a small boat passed. His mother, Alicia called him in but her words were muffled.

The sky darkened, the stars vanished and the water slowly burned infront of him as his eyes widened. He turned to see his mother beside him as she drove a dagger into his chest.

"I said it's time to come in"

He tried to scream out but he lacked any voice as the blade rested there. The surroundings dissolved as his scream became louder. He was still in Hell, his own personal hell. The form of his mother had been replaced with that of a demonic golem and his place, chained up in the center was now clear to him as he hung there, lifeless but alive, watching as the beast strolled away....


It had started with fire, a bomb close to his position had been dropped and he had survived its explosion. The warehouse roof was gone but the darkness had fallen as minions of the abyss came for him. He had faught them with his own fire but he wasn't strong enough. Not against so many. Since he arrived here; he'd been subjected to torture after torture, watching his world fall apart over and over again. Hope being crushed utterly.

His eyes remained dry, unable to show the emotion inside him

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

"Me?" Sage chuckled darkly, yet still spoke in a childishly innocent tone, "I had nothing to do with this. Honest."

He didn't perceive the telepathic message, but the way Rotten threw himself into the biker gang gave him more than enough clue to put two and two together. He merely smirked and placed his weapon over his right shoulder though, content to let the zombie handle this. After all, these guys had clobbered a dozen dragons without so much as breaking a sweat. What were a few demons on motorbikes to them...?

Illusionist looked up from his work just in time to see Rotten Luck throw himself at the demon bikers. He turned to BrassRobo. I thought you said you were the only life here. "Ill, honey, make me a sandwich." BrassRobo looked at Illusionist and grinned maniacally,"Cause I sure as hell ain't eating my own words." And as BrassRobo screamed these words he pulled back the sleave covering his right gauntlet and rapidly pressed a few buttons on it. With a completely over the top motion he raised his right fist into the air and threw up his horns. After an ackward moment his grin vanished and he slouched in another exagerated gesture. "Where are my stooges?" Illusionist couldn't surpress his laughter. While BrassRobo was posing he had already speed boosted his other allies. If you mean your robots they don't have souls, they can't astral project. BrassRobo scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't you talk about my Fluffy like that. He's got more of a soul then your black heart."

Illusionist noticed that one of the bikers had gone around the zombie road block. He reached towards the vehicle and stole its speed as his own. As it began to slow down BrassRobo unholstered his laser rifle. He twirled it once around his finger and shot the demon off his bike with a blast of blue light. "Why is my gun shooting imitation Kirby dots?"You don't have a gun, you're a phantasm. Thats a phantasm energy torrent. "Well do I at least still have my magic?"

Brassrobo's hands began to glow a strange black red. Almost instantly Illusionist felt as if all the veins in his arms were full of glass. The world seemed to move under his feet and he almost fell down. He heard a strange voice booming in his head. It took him a moment to realize it was only BrassRobo."Ronald Bolton I command you, be the avatar of pain, be my PAINBRINGER." And with these words the strange light flew from BrassRobo's outstretched arms and enveloped Rotten Luck. "He that shall feel no pain, he that shall never tire, he that will vanquish my foes..." BrassRobo was whispering these words to himself as he slowly faded into and out of existence.

As soon as BrassRobo faded into existence for the last time, so too did Illusionist regain is composure. Why him, why not the guy who has to buff everyone else up? Illusionist asked. "Cause I didn't get a speed boost." Answered BrassRobo. Illusionist sighed and increased BrassRobo's speed with one hand as he stopped the incredibly slow moving motorcycle with his foot.