Avatar Adventures | The Airship: Rising Dawn | The Canteen Daylight Anjali Khatri | Deborah Cerulean | Titania la Fey | NPCs
"You ask for the truth to the nature of life. Such a question, is not one to be answered. To know the nature of life, of how to live, that is your own journey." Deborah told Anjali. "I ... that is true, but I meant it more practical. I'm sstill ... dead. Or ssomething like it ... I don't know. How can I 'live'?" she answered, sceptically. "I can't jusst do the ssame thingss I did before."
But Deborah spoke more, while her eyes seemed to glow. "You must find your?raison d'etre, your reason to be. Seek it, and in seeking it find the secret to living."
Anjali thought, then nodded. I guess I need to find the reason for why I am a walking corpse. It's ... something very unusual, after all. she thought, as Deborah continued. Anjali looked from her to Titania, unsure of her facial expression. She seemed shocked by how Deborah appeared and by what she spoke for some reason. But why? Because her power seemed to be greater than it appeared to be? But Deborah had shown it before. Or did she not?
"Travel with us, and in time I think you will be able to find the reason behind both your rebirth, and your future life." Deborah added, before taking a sip of her drink. "Cheers."
"I thank you." Anjali responded. After a moment of thought, she added: "You already did much for me. I'm ... I will pledge mysself to you, to sserve you. To travel with you. Sso it might benefit uss both.
But I have to assk: What do theesse travelss entail? Where do you go, with thiss ... vesssel? And in what way can I sserve you, or the crew of thiss sship, or life itself?"
She looked around, wondering why such a spacious pub was set up inside such a vessel. The 'cheers' also made her long for something to drink ... in her mind. Her body seemed to want the opposite - only a sanguine fluid would be suitable. Anjali decided that this was not the time for something like it. She just curiously, with a new outlook on life, observed all the people present in the canteen.
Titania was aghast, she lunged forward and tried to grab Anjali and anchor her. The air around her continued to crackle with energy and the static grew louder and louder in the Queen's ears. Titania opened her eyes, and they too were flooded with the light of embers. "No!"
It is too late.
The thunder broke over Titania's head. The observing entity had superseded her. Even Deborah, with all her strength, had fallen accidentally into this trap, this labyrinth. His labyrinth. Locked into this world of perpetuity and lies, wrought into a living prison. Titania struggled against the oppressive weight of his voice.
It is too late. Titania has failed.
The sun set. Out in the window, the infinite skies turned blue and black, glimmering with the white pinpricks of stars above. They shuddered with the cold embrace of the night. Titania shook with them, knowing the cold of being surrounded by such infinite darkness.
[hr]
Raison d'etre
Code:
[i]Anjali's Story[/i]
[hr]
O sister mine, life has become hard. I wish each day for it to end.
Deborah leaned forward, laughing girlishly. Her chest shook with the rhythm of her breaths. "We do much and more, Anjali," Deborah said, ruby lips dancing in the last light of sunset. The internal lights of the Rising Dawn flickered on. It was now night. The windows gained a soft yellow tint to help illuminate the events of the outside. Thick streams of black smoke drifted up and pierced the cloud layer that the Rising Dawn held over. The devastation on the ground must have been something to behold.
The moon held it's head high in the sky, shining down on everything with it's silver-blue light. Even with columns of smoke dotting the sea of clouds, it still seemed strangely serene. The sky, the world, the very air. Deborah stopped laughing. What had once straddled the boundary between reality and dreams had now fallen into our realm.
A dream. If this was all just a dream.
Titania stared at the moon, marveling at it's roundness. Tinted yellow by the illuminated windows, it seemed as if it was so far away. Cast distant by old gods to serve as a painful sentinel in the skies above. Titania's heart yearned against the prison. "No," she muttered under her breath.
But it was too late. A thousand years too late. The moon held onto the sky dearly. It held onto the rim of it's home, and it's once great mother. Both yearned to be closer, but were torn father and farther away over eternities without words.
Deborah held out her hand and let the magic flow through her. Runes made themselves known above her hand, glimmering gold like the lunar eye, and then vanishing to leave a glass in her hand. She held it up to Anjali. It was filled with a pungent red liquid. "Blood, please drink up if it suits your tastes. A toast is best held in company," Deborah said sweetly.
She handed the glass to Anjali. "And with this toast let us then celebrate your forthcoming into our fold, and into our world so that our dreams may become reality." Deborah raised her glass and gently tapped it against Anjali's. The crimson waves of both cups crashed against each other. One wine, one blood. "To protect and serve the weak, to free the enslaved, and to safeguard the lives of each and every person who takes breath upon this Earth. In mankind's darkest hour, we will serve as their shield against the night - so that we may all gaze upon the Rising of the Dawn."
Deborah downed her glass and encouraged Anjali to do the same with a wink.
"From the first night, to the last we will stand until the Rising of the Dawn," Titania finished. She took a seat next to Anjali. Her eyes were troubled, staring off into the night sky in the distance. "That is our creed." How long had it been since she first heard that? It seemed so unfamiliar, but she knew it by heart. Miki landed on Titania's head and nodded. Stalwart as always, and no-nonsense to a fault, Miki was a strange anomaly among the carefree fairies of her kind. Titania gave a soft chuckle. It was good to have the familiar feeling of the retainer so close after such a long absence from the Fey Court.
"And in doing so we will make friends, fell enemies, and suffer indescribable hardship. We will fight the forces that seek to harm the innocent, and we will seek secrets lost to time. That is our raison d'etre, our reason to be." Deborah swept her hand over the cover of her grimoire. She could hear Pisa's solemn reports on the comings and goings of Ruby through the cover of the book. "In time, I have no reason to doubt that you will take up our mantle as well, Anjali. But for now, I accept."
Deborah stood up and looked at Titania, smiling.
Titania smiled back after a good pause, "Alright, alright." She got off the stool and swung with her right hand outward. In a flash of light Tsilring materialized and left gleaming stars in it's wake. The whole of the canteen was filled with it's brilliant light, casting rainbows across all surfaces and showering the air with stars that dimmed the true stars outside. Titania placed Tsilring on Anjali's shoulder.
"I Titania of the Fairy, Queen of the High Court which governs all lower courts of the Fey, I Titania who harnesses the very strength of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars themselves grant my favor upon thee, Anjali Khatri. For you, Anjali have been given the right and prowess by Deborah Cerulean of Styabahl and the Court of Dreams. Both my dear friend and faithful retainer. Will you, Anjali, stand guard against the darkness and against all enemies that might do her harm? Do you Anjali, swear by the soul that binds you to this world to protect and serve the allies of both Deborah and the Court of Dreams? Do you Anjali, swear by the soul that binds you to never let your loyalty waver, even in the light of oblivion? If you, of all the conditions above abide, then I, Titania of the Fairy, Queen of the High Court which governs all will grant you knight-"
Titania stopped suddenly. Tsilring was shaking.
"Night," she repeated. Her brow was furrowed in concerned thought. "Night... night... knightship..."
Deborah put a hand on Titania's small shoulder, "What's wrong Tania?"
Titania was gritting her teeth. Her eyes burned black like coal. A deep infinite brown. "Knightship and vassalhood..." Titania continued. She was sweating now. Her hands shook fiercely, and Tsilring seemed to shiver. She placed her left hand on Tsilring's hilt and began to pull back. "N... n... no..." Titania gasped. Her eyes were burning fiercely now with that lively black flame. A darkness so deep it was blue.
She thrust Tsilring into her stomach. Blood spewed outward into the air and hung there as a fine foul mist. Tiania gasped and coughed. Blood trickled out of her mouth. Miki was aghast.
"Tania!" Deborah threw herself over Titania's small frame, "What are you doing!?" She struggled to free the blade from Titania's bleeding body. "What are you doing!? What are you doing!?" Tsilring did not budge in Deborah's hands.
"No..." Titania gasped, her eyes were more brilliant and beautiful than ever before. Her teeth were stained red with blood, and each word sent a gush of the thick red liquid onto the floor. "See... what... see what he does..."
Deborah's cries were hysterical. Tears flooded down her face and stained Titania's read cloak. The pool of blood below her grew larger and larger. Then Titania fell over, and her eyes closed.
[hr]
Yet we will persist all the same, do we not?
The sun was setting, the last feeble light trickled into the Canteen as the windows grew tinted and illuminated. The moon rose to it's throne in the night sky, lording over all the stars in the inky blue of the farthest reaches of the heavens.
Deborah smiled and tapped her glass of wine with Anjali's glass of blood. The two crimson liquids danced at the edge of the thin glasses. "And with this toast let us then celebrate your forthcoming into our fold, and into our world so that our dreams may become reality."
"To protect and ssserve the weak, to free the enssslaved, and to sssafeguard the lives of each and every person who takesss breath upon thisss Earth. In mankind'sss darkest hour, we will serve as their ssshield against the night - sso that we may all gaze upon the Risssing of the Dawn." Anjali answered almost instinctively. She did not know why she knew, but only that the image of little Titania disemboweling herself clung to her mind.
Titania sat next to Anjali looking out at the moon outside. The small fair Miki stood upon her head, stalwart as always.
"I see you are already acquainted with our creed," Deborah said as she finished her drink. "We can get all the formalities done at a later time though, so for now please just try to make yourself at home! Later when everyone arrives once again we will have you introduced properly, and get your papers filled out!"
"It's like a dream isn't it Miki? Do you think the moon gets lonely? Dreaming the same dream each night, gazing upon the Earth and wishing to return?"
Deborah grinned, "I have no doubt in my mind that you will make a fine addition to the Rising Dawn!"
"That's the spirit, I swear you won't be disappointed." Kala said, as She placed a hand on Nadalia's shoulder. Only, the hand was not her own. Rather, the spectral hand she had summoned rested on and gripped Nadalia's shoulder, with a faint eerie glow.
Nadalia didn't react negatively to the dismembered hand, yet she did gaze at it with oddity. Is this a form of necromancy? .. An art long forgotten, and those who possess it can only control merely skeletons. This girl is not corrupted, and yet she has this technique in stored. After getting a good look of the glowing hand, she turned to Kalastryn to gather the details.
"I can tell you prefer close quarters, as does my little friend here, but it's oh so fragile. The next time you get in close with him, I'll start strangling that bastard all the way from over here. Then, I can use it to cast a spell on him that would be unusable from this distance, but that I think would be highly effective."
"I've grown weary of Bison, so by any means ... I will do what must be done. Yet, I sense he has struck a cord within you, more so then he has with I." Nadalia brought up, noticing the fueled rage Kalastryn was letting out behind her words. While everyone wanted a piece of Bison, even the Iron Queen could see something became personal between Kalastryn and the psionic fighter.
Kalastryn continued as the hand gingerly walked on its fingers before clinging to the back of Nadalia's head and concealing itself with her hair. Normally, this would be a bit much even for the Bride of Ash ... but this was a special occasion simply because both of them wanted Bison dead so, it would have to do. Besides, it wasn't like being forced to cosplay as a helpless, pathetic princess from a video game again. She cursed in her mind and still had thoughts of visiting this 'Princess Peach' to shape her up.
And the truth nears ... Nadalia respectfully listens, wanting to know what Kalastryn had to say since the girl's expression was becoming angrier by the minute. Guess she predicted it in time, since Kalastryn informed the Iron Queen as to what happened. "He had the gall to modify the body of an old friend, and command her to commit suicide before my eyes. When it comes to corpses I could say I've done worse, but this is personal." She said.
"I don't care what Kazuya wants anymore, if I can help it we're burying what's left of this monster in a pill bottle. So I do hope you follow up with whatever devastation you so please."
Does she plan on consuming him? Nadalia mistakenly thought, since pill bottles to her were just that, taking a dose of something in pill form despite not realizing Kalastryn was speaking metaphorically.
Cranking her neck with the one (and only) arm she had, Nadalia was dead set on fulfilling Kalastryn's wishes. "I do not know what your intent is with this hand, but I will trust my faith in thee. I shall lend you my strength; do as what follows thereafter." Nadalia followed up on, and without sharing another word- dashed back towards Bison. Luckily the combined assault of Angelus, Caim, and Cadolbolg had Bison preoccupied, and her footsteps were masked due to the sounds of lightning filling the air. She side stepped to ensure she wouldn't be struck by her ally, breezing through the area that would make a Olympics Athlete doubt their place in this world. Of course Bison caught wind of her coming up from behind and struck out his hand- only for Nadalia to quickly lock his arm under her armpit and slide a leg behind his left one. She locked him, their faces quite close- Nadalia giving him the death stare and risking her safety since their bodies were basically pinned to one another. "Deluded you are, thinking you're quaint to rule the lands with an iron fist. You aren't even fit to declare yourself a king to degenerates..." She taunted, as while in Nadalia's death grip, the spectral hand leaped onto Bison's face from over the shoulder of her dismembered arm. It attempted to very dexterously use it's palm to cover Bison's mouth, while using it's index and middle finger to pinch his nostrils closed. It's thumb, ring, and last finger tried to gouge into his eyes from either side.
Noticing that the plan was going well thus far, Kala used the conjured phalanges to cast vampiric touch which would suck the life out of Bison while empowering the hand with all that it took from him.
As much as she might hate to admit it normally, Kala was enjoying being so cruel. It was almost too satisfying for her normal demeanor. She might have questioned earlier if these actions were her own, but not now. Now, she was finding the attempt of simultaneously blinding, choking, and depriving a man of his life more satisfying than any person had a right to feel. For the first time ever, she was a monster, and she enjoyed it.
"When you get back to where you came from, tell the devil I'm coming for him next!" She taunted with conviction.
Avatar Adventures | Denver, Colorado | Capitol Building For Science!!!
Katya Rostikova | Angelus | ARES | Diana Black | Cadolbolg | Caim | Kalastryn D' Zannifer | Elise | (D)Ic(k)arus | Mio Kaizoku | Annie Lionheart | Miia | Nadalia | Selena | Dolores Selmy | Ton Ton | David West | Ryan Wheatley
[hr]
In the really real world, Physics, being the science of how the universe works, breaks down at some point. Cosmic Inflation, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, quantum mechanical processes such as Quantum Entanglement are all examples of where really real world physics breaks down. As much as fiction likes to model its physics after the really real world, there are also points in which fictional physics breaks down. For some it's out of necessity. A shotgun blast sending a bad guy flying 20 feet through the air or the hero performing a double jump in the sky to land on a dragon are both examples of a necessary collapse in the a fiction physics system to make the story more exciting. There's also another point, however, where fictional physics collapses onto itself... boobs.
It's not to say that fictional boobs are ignorant of physics... there appears to be another system at work. In some worlds, woman with breasts that look to have been made of the nose cone from a Antonov An-225 strapped to their chest are able more about without assistance from brassier or back support, all the while, their heaving bosoms bounce about as if they'd been formed out of some bizarre gelatin material. In some genres it appears that the atom's located in a woman's mammary glands exert their own gravitational pull. This pull does not affect the world around it, only other atoms located in a woman's mammary glands. Like the force of gravity, the greater the mass, the greater the force of boob gravity. This is the surest scientific explanation for why Ryan Wheatley found his head pressed between two sets of heaving bosoms and was quite fortunate that he wasn't the male protagonist from that one video with the girls with the blue hair and the beads hanging from their nether regions and a skull with the structural integrity of a chicken egg.
So how did it get to this? Mind you we're no longer talking about physics here but rather the fact that Ryan's head was being pressed by a pair of the squishiest of boobs, like he'd been placed into some sort of breast based Large Hadron Collider. Well it all started with a change. Having grown tired of cosplaying as bald Kate Moss, Katya had decided that it was time to look the part of someone with a little more meat on their bones and where better than to store said meat than the chest?! The question was who? Having browsed through the database of former crew members, the Creepy Computing Cosplayer had found the perfect former blue haired, sweater vested, G-Cupped Succubus, however... thinking further on that, the reappearance of a former crew mate without her self-torturing husbando could be construed as rather creeeeeeepsters. Instead she went for something of a new school classic... Boobs? Monsters? Magic? Nothing matched that better in the irreverent IT Specialist's brain than Black Hanekawa from the Monogatari series.
"A little more top heavy than I'm used to..." The Neural Networked Neko muttered to herself as she finished her little transformation before grabbing the new set of fun bags attached to her chest and grinning, "... not that I mind."
With her nano-agent reserves fully restored, a new body and the Healing Potion poured into David's mouth, it was at that moment that Katya Rostikova realized that she wasn't alone.
"[color=BA0025]C-can't you give me some room?! I'm squishing Katya over here![/color]" Came the voice of the formerly catatonic Lamia two bodies over from where the Felinesque Formatter of Disk F: was squatting.
"I can't help that a 24-28 foot Lamia is sharing space with 3 people in a broken down truck...!" Came the voice of the Headmaster of the Harem.
"MIIA!!! YOU'RE ALRIGHT!!!" Katya exclaimed as she gave the Coral Colored Formerly Catatonic Monster Girl a great big squeeze, which of course was why Ryan's head suddenly found itself the meaty portion of a Neko-Lamia Boob Sandwich.
"You had me worried that I broke your brain." The Rising Dawn's Resident Sexual Deviant whispered into Miia's ear, her voice filled with concern, her chest heaving up and down against Miia's as an expression of her relief at seeing the snake girl in a state other than "Error 404." There was a slight pause as Katya realized that there was something missing... namely, "Hey... where's that Harem-Meister of your's? He's normally around you, right? I could have sworn I heard him around here..."
Replaying a log of her environment, Katya could see that Ryan had indeed been in her general vicinity and had even asked about how it was that Katya knew about healing potions. To which she would have responded, "Well duh, they're red!" were he still around and not probably trolling for Harem Member #365.
[hr]
Avatar Adventures | Denver, Colorado | Abandoned Streets Hello! My name is... Rory Mercury
Rory Mercury | Naamah
[hr]
Most people would consider it strange that a Demi-Goddess serving the Special Region's God of Death would be bothered by the sight of a city devoid of life, shops and restaurants without patrons or the absence of children's laughter. A city devoid of Life contributed nothing to the cycle of Life and Death. Looking through the doorway of an abandoned restaurant, Rory Mercury could see that the occupants had been forced out since the only diners within the shell of the former eatery were maggots and flies. One of the insect inhabitants came perilously close to landing on the surface of the Demi-Goddess of Death's eye, only to be caught by the young looking woman's long black lashes, like some sort of Venus Mercurian Fly Trap.
Removing the brave little bugger from her lashes, the Crimson and Black Clad Loli was in the process of placing the creature gently on the table, allowing it to return to its swarm, when an explosion rocked the very earth, causing the tiny insect to be squished under the Beserker Beauty's thumb. Eyeing the dark smudge on her fingers, Rory prepared to move on, sensing that the soul that had been so close to being released from its shell was no longer in any danger of dying, though there was this M. Bison to be dispatched to whichever of the multitude of the Gods he answered to. The showdown would have to wait a little longer, if it was ever to take place, as the Cloth Companion spoke.
"Rory!" Naamah chimed as loudly as she could, "Naamah has something for Rory to help with. Please head that way, towards that crater. We shall find something of great importance buried within the rubble there! Yes indeed!"
The Mercurial Demi-Goddess responded with a grunt and a nod before moving with a moment of hesitation towards the still smoking crater, the origin point of the explosion that had recently rocked the city. Perhaps it was a bit naive of her to rush towards the site of the explosion without asking the significance of the request or who the object at the crater was of great importance to but having been left unfulfilled by Katya's soul, Rory was eager to find a substitute and the explosion was more than likely to draw the curiosity of more than one combatant.
With that in mind, the Loligoth launched herself into the air, landing silently on the rooftop of a nearby building before slowly continuing on towards the crater. While it might have suited Naamah to move faster, Rory needed to be ensure that none of her prey were spooked by an errant noise. A block later, Rory found herself at the outer perimeter of the blast zone, happy that her hunch was correct. Seven armed soldiers clad in the uniform of the enemy, had arrived to investigate the blast, unaware that they were living on borrowed time. Licking her lips with anticipation, the Black Haired Berserker started to laugh... announcing her presence to the soldiers below.
"Huh? Who the hell is that?"
"Pfft. Just a kid."
"Holding an axe like that? You sure?"
"C'mon let's finish up here so we can roll more of those civies. The way shit's going down, we ain't gettin' paid unless we crack some more skulls. Just ign-"
The man never got to finish his words as the Halberd that Rory had thrown sliced through the man before embedding itself in the cracked asphalt. Laughing even harder as she felt the man's soul depart his mortal shell, Rory addressed the villains below.
"Gentleman, thank you for today. Thank you for giving your lives so selflessly. The Dark God is very pleased with your actions. He now requests your presence. I am Rory Mercury. Apostle to the Dark God, Emloy." The Reaper stated before launching herself at her hapless sacrifices.
"...I never actually got the chance to see them all in action before...I have admit, they're good..."
All during the battle with Bison, Colorado State Senator Steven Armstrong was watching from his Ivory Tower in the distance, a series of displays projected onto the window of his office detailing the showdown as it went on.
[color=803300]"Man...I could watch this for hours..."[/color] Regional Director Sundowner laughed as he couldn't help but watch a replay of when Icarus cold socked Bison while the latter was expecting the army he hired to do it's job.
"...Alright, I've seen enough. Our units in place?"
[color=803300]"Sure as Sure can be, Boss."[/color]
"Good. Give the order to fire and...Make sure they "Miss" a few of their payload. There are going to be a lot of news coverage and I want to make sure they got the right idea of who to blame..." The CEO said as he took another hard drag of his Cigar as he watched his plan be realized...
Capitol Building Compound: M. Bison Vs Pretty much everyone
This was seeming to be going well, least compared to past fights he had with both the Rising Dawn and others.
Years of experience was finally starting to payoff, no more would he be some weakling waiting at someone else's beck and call, no longer would he be someone else's lackey while they reap the rewards, no longer would he be a scared Thailand boy having to endure the insults and slights of his villag-
That one second of distraction nearly cost him his life as ARES charged in with some sort of bladed weapon, he didn't know what it was, but it didn't take a genius to figure out it might be better if he wasn't hit by it.
As she went for the swing, he stood his ground, only to warp out of existence for a moment as the blade went though where his head used to be.
Upon reappearing, he then struck her in the gut before Blasting a large amount of Psycho Power clean though her body [http://streetfighter.wikia.com/wiki/Psycho_Punisher].
[color=6c1504]"Bah! Such Weakness."[/color] He couldn't help but gloat as he yanked his fist out of her robotic guts and-...felt...really.....happy...
For a brief moment, he was no longer fighting for his life and his right to rule the world, he was instead in a wonderful paradise with kittens and flowers thanks to Diana.
Little by little, all the hatred and anger he had spent so long spreading began to fade away, there wasn't any racism, any sexism, any latent desires for homosexual relations...and that's why he realized that something was wrong about all this.
But he couldn't act, he had to see what this cute little Lemur was going to with that cute little hat that looked a bit like his own.
Wait...Lemur?
It was then he found himself getting his eye nearly torn out as one of Kalastryn's minions was sicced upon him, followed by the others as well.
While enough to break Diana's spell, it was little comfort to him considering he was now pinned to the ground and getting his skin torn off by these freakish things.
[color=6c1504]"GRRRRR ENOUGH!"[/color] He shouted before letting out a large surge of energy from his body, knocking him away as he got back on his feet, only to find that his hat was gone as he checked his head.
What he should have been looking out for however was Icarus as he felt a thunderous blow nail him in the back of the head, followed by another with ACTUAL Thunder!
Grunting in effort, he then found himself pinned by the Half-Angel while a massive golden wall of death began to race towards them.
Taking a split second to nearly shit himself, both he and the Angel were soon teleported out of harms way as the ki blast raced by.
When he reappeared this time, he did so a good dozen feet off the ground with his back, and Icarus, to the ground.
Firing a large bolt from his hand towards the sky, he then propelled them both right into the ground, using his attacker as a buffer as they both landed with a nasty crunch.
His wounds starting to take their toll, he pried himself out of Icarus's grip before quickly getting back on his feet, stumbling slightly as he tried to keep his guard up.
This was a mistake as he quickly saw a trio of Angelus's fire, Caim's magic and Cadolbolg's lighting all rushing at him at the same time.
[color=6c1504]"ahhhh crap-"[/color]
Once he was done exclaiming, he tried to disarm as much incoming damage as possible, launching a series of orbs back at Angelus's fireballs to cancel them out and reflecting Caim's sonic boom back at him.
Lightning however was a bit too fast for him to react to, what with it being lightning and all, and as such Cadolbolg's attack managed to get though, violently turning Bison into a Christmas Tree if Christmas Trees were people and screamed in pain.
[color=6c1504]"GRRRRAHOHHOUERTHOUASHDFOAWEUSTHASDTUHEWTHASHEDFASOUTHASDFOH!!"[/color] He shouted as he comically shook to the force of the current, finally getting knocked back from the static discharge.
Stumbling backwards after such a nasty shock, he was quickly thrown to the ground by Nadalia, The Iron Queen living up to her name as she resisted his attempts to struggle. "Deluded you are, thinking you're quaint to rule the lands with an iron fist. You aren't even fit to declare yourself a king to degenerates..." She taunted before that strange hand went onto his face, silencing his protests as the vampiric touch quickly lived up to his name.
His struggles began to lessen as his face began to get more and more emancipated, the muscle mass fleeing his body and quickly turning him into a Undead Husk [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VKkvUE52Jd0/U5YgIZn-NmI/AAAAAAAAE3g/47rgJSNuVuU/s640/dead-rising-3-zombie-m-bison.jpg].
But as his went on-
*Ring Ring! Ring Ring!" [https://youtu.be/Bk6HauM9IsU?t=9s]
The initial confusion at what was happening soon faded as a small metal device fell out of Bison's torn pocket in the struggle, the impact of it hitting the ground answering because that's how scenes like this are written okay?! "BISON! GET OUT OF THERE! IT'S A TRAP! ARMSTRONG IS GOING TO KILL YOU BOTH! YOU NEED TO SHAKE THEM OFF BEFORE THE MISSILES HIT!" a frantic Inuart shouted on the other end of the line, giving Bison pause as his life slowly faded from his body and a strange sound began to fill the air.
A even more horrified expression appeared on his face as he got a hand free from Nadalia's grasp, but instead of attacking her or anything, he instead groaned before pointing frantically at the sky behind her as some distant objects seemed to race towards their location...
Capitol Building Compound: Rugal
"ICARUS! GET OUT OF THERE YOU FOOL!" Rugal shouted as the Half-Angel nearly got himself killed by attempting to keep Bison in the path of his Super Geyser, he had Bison's name all over that thing and he didn't want to have to look for Icarus's remains also.
As such, he was both relived and disappointed when Bison was able to barely get out of the way, taking Icarus along with him.
Before he could make his next move, Elise radio'd in with an update: "Rugal, this is Elise. Don't mean to alarm you but; they are planning a strategic strike on your guy's location. I repeat, a strategic strike. It could be of an unknown caliber, equivalent of a mini nuke or stronger. They might risk taking Bison out with you as a last resort-"
"Wait-They are going to do what?!-" He shouted as he realized what was happening, Whomever Bison hired that army off had plans of his own and they involved striking both at him AND the Rising Dawn.
While Elise did also report news of Teri, the first thing Rugal had to do was get them the hell out of there before this "Armstrong" followed though on his attack.
"...Fall back! Repeat! EVERYONE FALL BACK! IT'S A TRAP! WE NEED TO LEAVE RIGHT NOW!" He shouted to the others as a salvo of a Surface-to-Surface Missiles began to race to their current location.
"Dammit...INCOMING!" He called out before bringing up a Dark Barrier on himself as the shit began to hit the fan.
Capitol Building Compound: David West
While it wasn't the Cleric he was expecting, David wasn't really in much of a state to object as Katya fed him some sort of potion, not unlike the kind that Slindis used to hand out.
It's effects were rather quick as his wounds began to clot much faster then normal, even as he retched slightly from the taste.
Spitting out some blood from his mouth, he then quipped "I don't know what a Futa is but I can't imagine it being worse then death..."
It was around then that Miia, being the load that she was, decided to rest her lower half on David's body, the last thing a sniper currently suffering from several bullet wounds needed.
"OWSHITFUCUKING-GET THE HELL OFF ME YOU FUCKING MORON!" He shouted at the snake as he struck at her body with the butt of his gun.
This was until he also saw what appeared to be a missile strike in the sky, quickly silencing him as he asked the golden question: "....Hey, those Missiles are from our guys, right?.....Right?..."
...
"...oh fuck me..."
[HEADING=2]And before they knew it, a storm of explosions and shrapnel began to rain down on all parties in the conflict...[/HEADING]
-At this point, Armstrong and his men will be soon returning to the area to capture characters and bring them to a prison scene. It's an optional path that you can take if you wish, while everyone else will be fleeing back to the Rising Dawn before plotting a counter attack to bust out their captured comrades. Just a heads up there.
-While some of the missiles can be stopped, this is a largely scripted scene so don't expect to be able to stop the barrage. Besides, the missiles are being launched by MG-RAY units positioned outside of the city and they can fire a LOT of missiles [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypphRK14t8&feature=youtu.be&t=4m27s]...
-Other reactions and such coming soon-ish[sup]TM[/sup]
Capitol Building Compound: M. Bison Vs Pretty much everyone
[HEADING=2]And before they knew it, a storm of explosions and shrapnel began to rain down on all parties in the conflict...[/HEADING]
Until this fact became clear, Kalastryn was very, very content with the damage she inflicted on Bison. Were anyone to look at her specifically before their situation became apparent, the smile on her face, and the goosebumps on her skin were nothing like how she would normally act.
That is until reality called, the call to retreat only as deniable as the reality of the large, bold alert above. Some part of her wanted to stay and make damn sure Bison never drew another breath... but those thoughts were quickly receding. It was almost like flipping a light switch between indulgent insanity, and reserved concern for everyone around her.
(Yawn What did I miss?) (What the hell do you mean "what did I miss?") (Exactly that, about the time you started to fly off the deep end I started to feel really, really tired. Guess whatever you were doing, you didn't need me to do it.) (... I guess not.) (Ho- ... Holy shit look at his face!!)
No. No she was not going to do that. She knew exactly how bad it must of been to make her shadow recoil in surprise, especially having to think on how satisfying it had felt a moment ago. There were bigger priorities at the moment however.
Starting a mad dash to the location of Ryan, Miia, Katya, and Selena, she said about as calmly as she could muster (which in this situation, I dare you to remain composed) "You heard the man! EVERYBODY OUT!! As she did two things.
First, she handed Miia a book. The book she, or well ARES, took all night to write. Even if they might not get out of here, she wasn't going back on promises.
Second, she opened a Dimension Door at the maximum distance from the compound she could in the direction of the stadium which she decided to land in. She didn't really care for specifics since at the moment, clearing the area was on her mind.[footnote]Basically, an 880 ft distance into whatever available space was in that direction.[/footnote] Once that was done, she booked it through the door and held it open for anyone else to do the same.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile when it came to ARES, she had seen far better than what was filling her eyesight at the moment.
Which was... to put it bluntly...
Say what you may want about being a heavily armored machine, but whether your human, machine, or a f*cking unicorn, something seriously bad happens when someone rams their fist into you so hard, it creates a gaping crater in you.
Insofar as what this meant for ARES, it meant that while she didn't need her vision to be barraged with error messages to know it was so, it hurt like hell and she was likely about to shutdown for emergency repairs. The one last thing she did before falling over, unconscious, was stumble over to the truck she arrived in. The last thing she said before shutting down was.
"S-s-see? I-I-I told you I'd b-b-be back." She stammered out, voice skipping from short circuit as she fell bodily to the ground.
She wasn't quite dead... but damn if she was even able to open her eyes at the moment. So grievous was that one blow, that every little bit of her system was devoted to patching it up. She couldn't see, nor hear, arguably she couldn't even think.
The space inside of her was easily visible, every bullet, every gun, all her armor plating, and every single piece of shrapnel caused by Bison's fist, she kept inside. It was like looking into one of those "infinite tunnel" mirror tricks, there seemed to be no end to the armory underneath her skin. It was like there was an entire factory inside of ARES, and there was. One that was, for now at least, totally devoted to working on new replacements for what Bison had broken. Though, even the most efficient factories take time to work.
Were there an accurate estimate, it would take roughly at leastsix hours for ARES to come online again.
Everything hurt. My head hurt, my arms hurt, my legs hurt. I could feel the trickle of blood down my stomach where the metal and glass had dug deep into my flesh. I couldn't move. Something tugged at my insides whenever I tightened my muscles and I couldn't feel any pain in my lower body. I closed my eyes. I knew what had happened. I saw it not only with my own eyes, but with the eyes of two others - foreign eyes born of my body. She had wrestled me away from my sin and accepted my disastrous hate. I couldn't find in within me to forgive her though, she had robbed me of my one chance to indulge as so many had done to me. I closed my eyes.
I was so tired. The world had lost all sense. It was neither warm nor cold. I laughed. Blood pooled out of my mouth and dibbled down my chin and neck. I yawned. The sun was setting. Now would be a good time to go to sleep. I hadn't eaten yet though. That might be a problem. It was always hard to fall asleep without eating dinner.
I struggled a little bit. It wasn't comfortable at all. I could feel whatever was pinning me down slid a little bit. Then something cracked against the ground and I tugged backwards. A horrible stench echoed in the dusk. I opened my eyes and bent my head to look down.
I had ripped open my own intestines against the jagged metal that surrounded me. I laughed. I could feel tears forming at the edge of my eyes. I don't want to die. I pressed my hands against the metal. For the first time I noticed that I was naked, but the dried blood did well to cover me as any cloth. I pressed my hands against my abdomen. At least I can still move a bit... Panic was welling in my breast. I dug at the viscera coming out of me. It... it doesn't hurt... at least... My fingers fumbled through a tangle of torn intestines. Bile and blood had mixed to make a bubbling putrid solution that was sticky against the air. I dug a bit deeper and found a small hard structure. I fondled it gently, pulling at the curves and shape of it. I knew from the muscles and the bone what it was, but I couldn't believe it. That in my own hands I was holding something... that... something that...
I felt sick. I pressed my hands against my abdomen as if I was trying to keep everything from falling out. Everything had already begun to fall out. Tears rolled down my cheeks, washing away some of the dried blood.
"Rory! There! Beyond that rubble lies the one that Naamah seeks for her Solomon!"
A voice. A child's voice. Was this a delusion at death's door?
"Are you sure, Naamah?" It asked, the voice getting closer to where I lay, "I don't sense anyo..." The voice paused as its owner passed though the smoke and came into view. A girl, no older than 13, clad in what could only be a gothic lolita costume straight from Japan, stood at the edge of the crater. She stared at me, eyes piercing through my naked form. There was a look of confusion on the young child's face which was slowly replaced by understanding mixed with an undertone of disdain.
"I don't sense anyone down there." She stated as she slid down the embankment, closing in on me. She looked over me once she reached me. Her eyes were glowing in the dark of the night. The stars were obscured by the smoke around us, yet I could see the caution in her eyes, "What are you?"
I opened my mouth to answer, but I couldn't summon the strength to speak. What came from my throat was a meager wheeze sprinkled with blood and spit. My chest heaved. The beam had torn my diaphragm. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't find my voice.
"Yes indeed, this is a woman most peculiar! To find such a wretched girl, one who sits upon the brink of death clutching her own womb while holding tears within such beautiful eyes, is a find indeed!" The scarf on the figure twirled as it spoke. It was the child's voice. "This is Solomon's friend, yes indeed, and none other could it be! Naamah has done it, Rory has done it! Discovered the treasure we have!"
I reached out toward the young girl. Save me... I wanted to say, but what came from my mouth was instead a weak hiss. I was so sleepy. The air hissed with me. The stars had returned to the sky. I closed my eyes, smiling. I'm sorry Molli. I couldn't come back...
The earth rumbled. I felt like I was being lifted into the air. Is this what death is like? The darkness swallowed me.
Avatar Adventures | Denver | Capitol Building Compound Sunset Diana | More than 200 missiles
Ohh shit. Diana thought, as she first heard, then saw the message about the missiles. It was a very clear message. So that explains it. she added to her thoughts, previously wondering about why Bison had been betrayed.
Even though she was exhausted mentally, and in her current state she could only see with one eye, Diana still was a dragon, and still could fly. She roared, then began to flap her wings. She would get out of here as fast as possible, as she planned on living. Maybe someone was close, wanted to get protected by her, but her own survival took priority. In any case, if someone wanted to, they could just hang on her while she flew away. While active help was a waste of time, there was no reason to let someone smart enough to think for themselves behind.
Slowly, the black dragon rose into the air, then pushed herself forward, as quick as the air currents allowed. These missiles would not get to Diana. The only thing she was regretting was that apparently, her job was not done with this.
Rising higher, Dream looked down on the field barraged by missiles. Chance of survival approximately 50%, uninjured 0%, she pondered. It was primitive, stupid destruction. She did not like it.
After she had observed the destruction, Diana flew even higher, the Rising Dawn in her sight. She still was free, and that was a good thing.
[hr]
Avatar Adventures | Denver | Capitol Building Compound Sunset Mio | More than 200 missiles
After a moment of confusion recognized Mio the danger she was in. Missiles did not sound good, and as she looked upwards, seeing something like heavy black rain, she realized that she had to find cover, as fast as possible. Running towards the dragons was no option in any case, so she looked at the field to her right. She could see some kind of giant metal box, door open, seemingly abandoned.
Maybe it would not be the best place to be, but being under any kind of cover, aside from stone, wood, or anything that would break if a missile exploded on top of it, was certainly better than staying out in the open.
For now, Mio stayed calm, her sight - for her own means in any case - clear. She was focused on one thing, and one thing only: Getting to that box. She ran as fast as she could, sweat running down her face. It was pure luck that she did not stumble. It was also luck that the box did, in fact, have the door open.
With a dive, she jumped inside, just as the missiles came crashing down.
It might not be common knowledge, but the impact of a missile is LOUD, only amplified by multiplying the missiles. Raining it on a metal case did not help matters either. And Mio was, for several reasons, unable to cover her ears fully. She heard a BANG, then another, and then nothing but the ringing of her ears, as she felt further impact of missiles on the ground, just by how it shook.
She felt something fluid run down her right leg as well, but she felt no pain. Not at the beginning. Not until she felt something alien inside her upper leg. Then it began to hurt like hell. And while she had been focused running inside, now all came crashing together, and her panic reached new heights.
Mio's status was not too different from ARES'. Her leg was severely injured, going somewhere was out of the question. That is, if it would not have been out of the question already, as she was, at least temporarily, blind and deaf after the bombardment.
She kept lying down, putting one hand on her leg to try and stop the bleeding, waiting for something, anything to happen, nearly passing out due to the increasing pain.
It would be no problem to imprison her.
[hr]
Avatar Adventures | The Airship: Rising Dawn | The Canteen Sunset Anjali Khatri | Deborah Cerulean | Titania la Fey | NPCs
"No!"
It was too late. Anjali was drawn into another ... experience. It irritated her at first. Had it not been finished already? What was this ritual, was it a dream? Should her dreams become reality? Something .... something was weird.
In the court of dreams, Anjali got the glass of blood she had thought about. But had she not denied it? Why, why would she get it again? Anjali looked into the red liquid. It felt like it wanted her. But she, she did not. What was this place? Why, again? Because she pledged herself to help?
She did not drink, not even take a sip. "I'm not ..." she began, but was drowned out by the ritual. She could not drink, but not deny it either. She kept the glass between her fingertips, waiting. To herself she said she would drink once she was out of this dream.
Anjali observed the queen of fairies start the ritual of knighthood. She felt the ancient blade on her shoulder and waited. It was .... why would Titania accept? She had ignored her previously. The being inside Anjali, now dormant, it probably would ... somehow stop this. What was this? Could Anjali even truly dream anymore?
And then Titania stopped the ritual and instead thrust the sword into her own stomach. Anjali stared in shock. The glass, still full of blood, fell to the ground and shattered, spilling red fluid onto the floor. "What?!" was the last thing Anjali tried to say, before everything came back to normal.
[hr]
Deborah smiled and tapped her glass against Anjali's. It was unshattered, still in her hands. Full. "And with this toast let us then celebrate your forthcoming into our fold, and into our world so that our dreams may become reality."
What was that? What did just happen? Anjali wanted to say. Instead, she repeated what she had heard, like it was water coming out of her mouth, no choice in stopping herself: "To protect and ssserve the weak, to free the enssslaved, and to sssafeguard the lives of each and every person who takesss breath upon thisss Earth. In mankind'sss darkest hour, we will serve as their ssshield against the night - sso that we may all gaze upon the Risssing of the Dawn."
Like someone had yanked her back, the being inside Anjali stirred and became active again. It seemed irritated, but it did communicate a single feeling: Betrayal.
If Anjali understood, it meant the following: You will keep in mind this oath, and betray it, if it does not serve my will.
Anjali felt split between two, not of her own, free, will. She was just a simple girl, and behind and around her other beings, far more powerful, were dancing, fighting.
"We can get all the formalities done at a later time though, so for now please just try to make yourself at home! Later when everyone arrives once again we will have you introduced properly, and get your papers filled out!"
"T ... Thank you." Anjali said, still disturbed by all that had happened. And now the numbness was coming back, although the memory of her feelings, it all still was there.
"It's like a dream isn't it Miki? Do you think the moon gets lonely? Dreaming the same dream each night, gazing upon the Earth and wishing to return?" Titania said, lost in thought, staring at the moon. She seemed fine.
Anjali - and even the being inside her - both seemed to feel different about Titania, now. What had it been, that had brought the queen of fairies to her knees? Why had she chosen to thrust her sword into her own body? Should dreams become reality, or were both the snake and Titania not too fond of this idea, making them allies?
Deborah grinned. "I have no doubt in my mind that you will make a fine addition to the Rising Dawn!"
Anjali smiled back, then drank the blood. She nodded to Deborah, then got up, observed Titania again, for a moment. And whispered towards her: [sub]"What? What did jussst happen? Of what are you afraid?"[/sub]
A growing roar could be heard in the skies above where the Demi-Goddess stood, growing louder as they closed in, not unlike the sound of a charging cavalry coming in for the kill. Rory Mercury knew the thunderous roar made by missiles quite well. Nicknamed "Iron Cocks" by the Dark Elves of Schwartzwoods, they had been instrumental in defeating the Fire Dragon that had been a scourge in the Empire's side. Incidentally, the Dark Elf warriors sent to assist in the defeat of the Fire Dragon had also themselves become victim to the missiles, though mostly due to improper training it their use. While Rory was never present during the encounter, she knew this because Itami knew this.
"(No time to think of Youji...)" Rory reminded herself as she eyed the impaled abomination. The "woman" was unconscious now and while she should have been dead already, the Demi-Goddess of Death could see the pulsing of life in the woman's veins. As a servant of the God of Death, things such as the husk that lay before the Oracle were to be destroyed on sight as they were the product of man delving into knowledge reserved for the Gods alone. Holding her Halberd high into the air, the cresent blade caught the last rays of the fleeing sun as it disappeared beyond the horizon. This was not to be the end of Dolores Selmy, however.
SHLINK!
The God Forged blade sliced through the thick metal of the I-Beam with ease allowing the diminutive Demi-Goddess to move the woman down to the ground. The missiles were close now, too close for Rory to have brought them down in order to save her comrade. Instead, she covered the woman's body with her own, aware that by doing this, she would suffer not only an intense amount of pain, she would suffer the wrath of her God... her master. This woman was a comrade, however, and if she'd learned anything from her time wandering around the realm of mortal man, one did not leave a comrade behind and one did not allow a comrade to die if they could be saved.
The first of the missiles crashed into a nearby building... followed by another... and then another. All around the two women, the missiles fell from the sky, crashing harmlessly into the ground like lawn darts. Looking up from where she lay, her body pressed against the bloody and mangled body of Lieutenant, Rory counted fifteen or so of the missiles that had crashed into the surrounding environment. Rory counted fifteen or so of the missiles that had failed to explode upon impact. Picking herself off of the woman's body, Rory was also surprised that Emloy had not voices his own displeasure, though it was not long before she understood the reason. Looking down at the battered form, Rory could sense something stirring about. Looking about, the Apostle of Emloy found a blanket that had been cast out of one of the shattered buildings and used it to cover the young woman.
"Naamah, could you call for one of the fliers to come pick us up? I need to tend to your friend, this treasure of yours." Rory asked of her companion absently before bowing her head. It had been a while since she'd communed with her God but she did at the moment... asking Emloy to deny the young woman passage into the afterlife should she appear before him.
The whirring of the VTOL engines filled the airspace above us. I let myself fall off of Rory. The ground was cold and the air was warm with flame. I stretched my arms. They were quite stiff and sore. It had been a while. I rubbed my eyes and bent down to touch my feet. I jumped up and twirled around, my transparent skirt floated in the ashen air. I smiled. It felt liberating to once again feel the virtues of a body of flesh.
"Naamah has it done, yes indeed!" I kept twirling. My feet danced against the dust and dirt of the rubble strewn field. Atop broken glass and twisted metal, broken stone and shattered bone, betwixt both fire and blood.
The Rising Dawn extraction came down, the pilot was confused at the sight. I waved to him and grinned. "Yes indeed!" The VTOL landed a short distance away. The whipping wind from it's descent sent my skirt and hair into a frenzy. It felt good against my skin.
I turned back and watched Rory praying over the broken doll's body. Lines of thick black mana was gathering around the two. "Such things do such things, yes indeed."
Capitol Building Compound: M. Bison Vs Pretty much everyone
Caim, Angelus, Cadolbolg
Caim had little time to roll away when Bison sent back both his and Angelus' attacks; his brow growing damp with the exertion. However, with the crestfallen expression of his foe, plus Rugal's panicked "...Fall back! Repeat! EVERYONE FALL BACK! IT'S A TRAP! WE NEED TO LEAVE RIGHT NOW!" that was more than enough to indicate that something was very wrong with the situation. That was when the shrapnel began to fly towards the group like an deadly rain. Eyes widening, Caim turned back towards his draconic companion and hurriedly shouted over the pact bond, "Get the kids and go! Grab anyone if you can, but hurry!" "What about you, you damned fool!?" "I'll be fine - trust me! I'll regroup with you later. GO!"
The red dragon looked ready to protest further against her pact partner, but after a moment's silence, she bellowed to Cadolbolg, "Get your brother and fly to the ship!" "But what about Bison?" "We shall deal with him later. Hurry!" "R-right!"
As Cadolbolg sped along to grab Ton Ton, Angelus took wing and begin to rise in the air, shouting down to her other ground-bound comrades, "Either get on, or hurry out!"
[HEADING=3]Want an easy out for this scene? The SS Angelus is at your service.[/HEADING]
Ton Ton, Cadolbolg
Ton Ton, while a little bewildered by the strange change of events, from Katya shapeshifting into a white haired cat lady with very large breasts, to David getting force fed a potion, and ending with Ryan getting squeezed in what could only be called Marshmallow Hell, was happy that his friends were doing a little better in this trying time [sub](and he REALLY didn't want to think about the part with amputating that corpse's arm)[/sub]. However, that little reverie was quickly cut short when the sound of feathery wings filled the air. Ton Ton turned around in confusion, only to have himself assailed by Cadolbolg's little stubby limbs, "We gotta go! Mother says so!"
[color=15650D]"Wait - what?!"[/color] "Bad stuff is gonna happen cause of those missile thingies and we need to GO! Mother AND Father said so, so we gotta do what they say!"
Ton Ton weakly gestured to the cuddle pile, [color=15650D]"But what about our friends?"[/color] "Father's coming this way to help, so he can take care of them. He's Father, after all."
[color=15650D]"...Okay, just give me a sec-"[/color]
After hopping on Cadolbolg's back, Ton Ton turned back to the wildly chaotic grab pile and waved his little hands wildly, [color=15650D]"Okay, guys - I know you're haivng fun here, but we really need to go! Mr. Caim is coming to help, so don't panic please? And- I'm sorry I can't stay with you. I would but-"[/color] he gestured to Cadolbolg, [color=15650D]"Someone's a little persistent. I'll see you topside."[/color]
With a little wave, Tonberry and Dragon-Turtle were gone.
Avatar Adventures | Colorado | Denver | Capital Building Words from the Heart
Katya Rostikova | Angelus | ARES | Diana Black | Cadolbolg | Caim | Kalastryn D' Zannifer | Elise | (D)Ic(k)arus | Mio Kaizoku | Annie Lionheart | Miia | Nadalia | Selena | Dolores Selmy | Ton Ton | David West | Ryan Wheatley
[hr]
"Hey, get David out of here ASAP. He can't walk!! As for me, I need to get somebody!!" Ryan ordered before running off to some place that happened to be where one of his Haremettes was located.
"GODDAMIT! THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR ONE LAST BJ!!" Katya Rostikova screamed at the back of the Orange Masked Luchador's head, not oblivious to the fact that he was likely going to be talking to the back of some random girl's head some moments later. Throwing up her hands in frustration she eyed the bullet sponge named David West, who despite having healed quite a bit still looked rather sponge-like what with the remaining holes in his body, "You've got to be kidding me..."
For a know it all womanizer, Ryan appeared to not know much of anything useful. If he did know it all, or even paid attention to Katya's personality, he would have realized that the Irrate Network Infiltrator was ill equipped to care for herself, let alone someone else. It had taken the sacrifice of an army of goldfish and one sack of flour with googly eyes to proove to everyone else that Katya was not the mothering type... because clearly the new neko tits on her chest were just for show. Eying the Irish Sniper who'd managed to get himself shot up to shreds, she wondered how she was going to get him the hell out of dodge without opening any of the freshly healed wounds or getting themselves blown up by inbound missiles.
"
Code:
[b]Might I suggest the car behind us, Little Miss?[/b]
" B3WP's calm voice suggested helpfully as it pieced Katya's thoughts together.
It should be noted that the Rostikova family resided primarily in the great state of New York, specifically the great city of New York as well. While it was possible to own a car and drive in New York City, with the sheer amount of public transit and taxis and the hellish nightmare known as parking, only masochists owned and drove their own cars. Katya was not one of these idiots. Though she'd learned to drive and got her license at the tender age of Sixteen, she had a driver who parked the car for her and dealt with Manhattan traffic. While having the young woman drive was not the most ideal of solutions, getting blown up was not an ideal solution either.
"FINE!" The Feline Faced Network Interfacer muttered as she scooped the Downed Irishman up into her arms and ran to the car, opening the rear driver's side door before shoving him inside, ordering him around as she closed the door, "Fasten your seat-belt, Mister West."
Jumping into the driver's seat, the Captain of the Car was happy to note that the windows were bullet proof, not that any amount of bullet proof glass was going to stop a missile, but the ballistic plastic would be able to stop most shrapnel from turning the Swiss Cheesed Sniper into ... Extra Swiss Cheesed Sniper, not that Katya minded a few more holes in David West... not after that cis-white patriarchal scum pistol whipped Miia for laying on him a bit hard. As the young woman settled into the driver's seat, a whirring could be hear as Katya adjusted the mirrors and the positioning of her seat.
"... are you fucking kidding me?" An Irish accented voice could be heard from the back seat.
"What?" The Networked Neko asked as she checked the area around her for any stragglers that needed a lift. Spotting Ton Ton, Katya was about to wave them into the car when Ton Ton spoke.
"[color=15650D]Okay, guys - I know you're haivng fun here, but we really need to go! Mr. Caim is coming to help, so don't panic please? And- I'm sorry I can't stay with you. I would but-[/color]" he gestured to Cadolbolg, "[color=15650D]Someone's a little persistent. I'll see you topside.[/color]"
"Mister... Caim?" Katya gulped as she noticed the swordsman closing in on them. Unlocking the passenger side door, the expert driver turned on the car and revved the engine a couple of times, the V8 roaring to life as it guzzled the gas it was fed. Around them the missiles started to fall. With the Berserker Swordsman safely in the passenger seat, Katya Rostikova, novice driver, threw the car into Drive and floored the accelerator. The tired shrieked in protest as a large cloud of burnt rubber was thrown into the air. The car took off like a pregnant yak before the tires gained traction.
"...are you fucking kidding me?" The whining wounded backseat driver repeated himself.
Circling the lot, Katya looked for the exit and saw nothing but fire and rubble being blasted into the air. Bits belonging to a World Marshall Guard splattered the windshield of the vehicle as it rounded the lot for a third time with no exit in sight. Determined to get the trio out of danger, Katya remembered that given enough speed, the car should have been able to blow through the brick wall that surrounded the lot. Turning the wheel violently, the High Speed Hacker aimed the car for the nearest wall, oblivious to the fact that she should have been aiming for the furthest wall.
"... are you fucking kidding me?" David repeated a third time, plastering the worst expression to die with possible on his face.
CRAAAAASH!!!
The car struck the wall at 23 miles per hour before getting stuck on a rather high curb. Dazed, Katya looked around and with a bit of disappointment, realized that they were still in the parking lot outside of the capitol building in a car that would no longer move without a tow truck or divine intervention. On the plus side, the missiles had stopped falling from the sky.
"...ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" The broken record screamed from the back seat.
"WHAT?! IT WORKS IN THE FUCKING MOVIES!!!!" Came the response from the girl who had pulled this car over!!, a small trickle of blood flowing from the abrasion on her forehead caused by the airbags being deployed. The eyes reflected by the rear view mirror looked at David West, burning with a tremendous amount of anger.
"BECAUSE THEY ARE MOVIES! AND THOSE CARS WERE GOING MUCH FASTER! AND MOST OF THE TIME WAS A MUCH HEAVIER LARGER CAR!" Argued the voice of logic and reason.
"ALSO I'VE GOT THESE PILLOWS STRAPPED TO MY CHEST!! HOW DO THOSE BITCHES DEAL WITH THESE?!" Katya ranted, ignoring what the Irish Sniper had said as she turned and offered the wounded warrior an ample shot of cleavage.
"...will. you. shut. up. about YOUR FUCKING BOOBS!" The man hissed.
Outside, ignored by the two loud mouthed motor mouths inside the, company had arrived in the form of two of the World Marshall's guards. They looked at each other curiously, unsure of how to proceed.
"...Should we stop this?" Asked Grunt #1
"Nah, I want to see how long they keep it up." Came the response from Grunt #2
"Guuuys." Came the warning from Caim's PDA.
"My name is David West and I'm cranky because I got shot in the dick by FRIENDLY FUCKING FIRE! BOO HOO! I LIKE TO PISTOL WHIP TEENAGE GIRLS FOR LAYING ON ME TOO HARD!! BOO HOO! I SAVED YOUR FUCKING LIFE!!! TWICE!!! SO AT LEAST SAY THEY LOOK GOOD ON ME!!! PRICK!" The Not-Irish Sniper Hacker mimicked as she did a rather accurate imitation of the big giant pussy sitting in the back seat.
"FAT FUCKING LOT OF GOOD SAVING MY LIFE DOES ME WHEN YOU BASICALLY HAND US OVER TO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO KILL US! ALSO 1. SHE WAS CRUSHING ME. 2. SHE WAS LAYING ON SOMEONE SUFFERING FROM SEVERAL BULLET WOUNDS. 3. FUCK YOU, FUCKING MILLENNIALS! SERIOUSLY, SOMEONE IS FUCKING CRUSHING YOU, WHAT DO YOU DO? DISCOURAGE THEM FROM CRUSHING YOU?!" Argued the woman beater who couldn't see that hitting woman was a bad thing.
"SEEMS A LOT MORE FUCKING HELPFUL THAN WHEN YOU WERE SENDING US FLYING 200 FEET INTO THE SKY!!! FUCKING... GEN X ASSHOLE HIPSTER!" Katya screamed, on the very edge of pulling out David's hair.
"AT LEAST I KNOW HOW TO DRIVE! SERIOUSLY!? DIDN'T LEARN THAT IN FUCKING GRAND THEFT AUTO!?" David...
"DRIVING? IS THAT WHAT YOU CALLED IT? MAYBE YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN A BETTER DRIVER IF I GAVE YOU SOME JAMESON AND GUINESS!!!" Kat...
"AND I FUCKING WOULD STILL BE BETTER THEN YOUR USELSS ARSE!" D...
"GUYS!!!" The PDA spoke again, this time with the volume set to an ear shattering volume and breaking the tempo of the arguemnt that had continued unabated for quite some time. Calling a temporary ceasefire, the two turned and threw daggers at Caim with their eyes.
"WHAT?!" Katya screamed.
"WHAT?!" David screamed.
"FOES! WE SHOULD BE RETREATING!" The voice of reason advised via his voicing device as he pointed at the two men staring at David and Katya through the window as if they were two cops watching a pair of teenages have car sex.
"YOU WANT A RETREAT!? I'VE GOT YOU RETREAT RIGHT HERE!!!" The Irate Internet Intruder screamed as she pulled her pistol from its holster and started waving it around like a mad woman on meth.
BLAM!!
The weapon discharged inside the confines of the car, causing each of the two of the tree inside the vehicle to wince in pain as they lost their hearing, one remaining third winced for an entirely different reason. The bullet, having found its route out of the car blocked by bullet proof glass had taken an alternate route as it deflected off of the front windshield and embedded itself in David's leg.
"GRAAAAHHHH! MOTHERFUCK-" David screamed as he kicked the back of Katya's seat, bouncing her head off the steering wheel and knocking her out. One a beater of women, always a beater of women.
"Alright, this is getting boring. Gas them!" Grunt #2 muttered as they both pulled pins on their gas grenades and tossed them into the car.
"I'm going to be late......" The PDA muttered as its owner passed out.
Capitol Building Compound: M. Bison Vs Pretty much everyone
[HEADING=2]And before they knew it, a storm of explosions and shrapnel began to rain down on all parties in the conflict...[/HEADING]
The Devil known as Kalastryn approached Selena and the others handing Miia some sort of book then opened a large Dimensional door "You heard the man! EVERYBODY OUT!! She declared Selena had pulled out her wand and was instead heading towards the Crater That bison had left in the ground "Icarus is still here I have to save him" she said using her wand to create a barrier to shelter the Half angel and one over herself she found him unconscious laying in the small crater, Panicking she grab him by his arm attempting to pull him up, but He was far too heavy he was in that form with his small lower wings and enlarged muscles. Selena simply didn't have the strength to lift someone whom at this point was bigger than her and covered in hard steel.
She grunted struggling, Lifting objects with her wand was difficult for her she didn't have any sort of telekinesis abilities.
Then she noticed the giant red dragon was hovering flow to the ground "Either get on, or hurry out!"
"wait WAIT!She called out and struggled, unfortunately she just wasn't strong enough.
Suddenly a cold wind chilled her to the bone and she saw a strange dog like creature it took her a while before she recognized it that creature Icarus called his brother. Danny boy quickly was able to asses the situation, Icarus was unconscious and unable to move.
Picking up his armor-clad brother, Danny Boy carried him over to the giant red Dragon and set him down on the dragon, down on the dragons back sitting beside hims so he wouldn't fall over. Selena looked over to the others and sat down near Icarus's Unconscious body.
Eddie stopped in his tracks as he turned to look at the sky. Yes, those were definitely missiles. A buttload of missiles. Enough to level a building block, sink a destroyer, or start a really interesting family BBQ.
He grinned. All those missiles, going places. He bet someone was counting on them hitting their targets. He bet it'd be real unfortunate if they turned out to be duds.
Well, tough luck.
[color=5B9C64]"As I was saying,"[/color] he turned back to Wrath, [color=5B9C64]"That's how I ended up having to babysit a toddler all the way to adulthood. [small]I'm not looking forward to puberty, I can tell you that much.[/small]"[/color]
Though perhaps not the most accurate retelling of the event, Eddie always had a way of saying things in a way that catered to Wrath's ever so delicate sensibilities. Not the easiest thing to do, as millions could attest. At the very least, his own personal -and above all stylish- spin on 'how we got here' had given him something to occupy himself with, and had kept the trip at least mildly enjoyable. Still, that urge of urgency had not left him, and as they went on he started to question whether or not Nina actually knew where she was going. He kept quiet on his crisis of faith, though. More fuel for his backup plan.
Because of course he had a backup! He was dealing with mortals, after all! When was the last time you gave a job to the person that singlehandedly keeps the tentacle porn industry from imploding and they actually delivered? Eddie rested his case. A contigency had already been prepared for such a case. Now all that remained was-
"OH! Look at that! I found it, yep."
Yeah, that didn't exactly inspire much in the way of confidence. But he kept an open mind, maaaaybe things would go his way this one time?
[color=5B9C64]"Let's see what's in store for us, eh?"[/color] he said to the vices, with a tone that said hope had died a painful gory death. He followed after Nina, took the first step in, and...
Was not impressed. The opposite, actually. A pastry cafe? This would not do, not at all. No chance in hell a pastry cafe could hope to fill in his order. Not in a million years.
He turned to stare at Nina. Had his instructions been unclear? Did she just stumble about hoping to find the first thing that remotely resembled a pastry shop and call it a day? She did, didn't she? Professionalism! She had none! She was part of the problem! The socioeconomic problem that plagued early 21st Century Earth! More interested in her tentacles than doing her job! Part of the wave of apathy and ignorance that lead to such a situation such as Trump becoming a serious contender for presidency! This! Would not! Stand!
Well regardless, I got you to the pastry shop you wanted Eddie, so that's my job done. I'm gonna go and make sure no one's stuck in the kitchen or something stupid."
Oh look, a chair.
[color=5B9C64]"Sit down."[/color]
With a kick, Eddie sent the chair sliding towards Nina with such force that, when it inevitably collided with the back of the legs of the unsuspecting Blue Girl, her buttocks were thrust right onto the seat. But the chair didn't stop, oh no. With Nina on it, it went on, reaching a table and, with a 180 degree drift, stopped juuuuust at the table's front.
All the while, Eddie was following with a casual stroll. But the expression on his face was anything but casual. He was quite serious right now. Taking a seat right on the opposite side of the table, he stared at Nina with an expression that said she'd just made a very big mistake.
[color=5B9C64]"Alright, listen up, sweetcheeks. I'm about to be very generous to you, so shut your trap and listen up."[/color] It was time for the contigency plan. [color=5B9C64]"I am a mercenary. Nothing I do is free. I charged you for getting you out of that hellhole with getting me to a pastry shop. This does not fit the bill. What did the sign say outside? 'Brakfuck's Pastry Cafe' wasn't it? Do I look like the kinda guy looking for a place to chill and eat some fucking sweets?!"[/color] He sighed, and the tension in his voice dropped, [color=5B9C64]"But, you know? I'll excuse you. You're a mortal, a thickheaded one with questionable fetishes at that, I suppose this is good enough."[/color] He raised a finger to stop the inevitable protests, [color=5B9C64]"I'm not finished. You think our deal is done, and yes, since I'm being very generous it is. But we two still have unfinished business."[/color]
He clasped his hands, [color=5B9C64]"As I said, nothing I do is free. I saved you from that cyborg. You owe your life to my intervention, and thus owe a life-long debt to me."[/color] he raised his finger again, and looked at her as though muttering a word would invite violence upon her, [color=5B9C64]"At least, that would be the case if I wasn't being very, very generous. I understand that you're a mortal, ignorant of such 'fine print'. Under the plea of ignorance, I won't charge you for that."[/color]
[color=5B9C64]"HOWEVER!'[/color] a lopsided grin formed up, a sign perhaps more disturbing than his previous seriousness, [color=5B9C64]"You tried to haggle with me. Wanted me to 'take care of that shit,' didn't you? And I did, didn't I? Sure, I did it indirectly, but as you've seen, my powers are hardly what one would call... direct. Did you honestly think that a halberd-wielding loli would so conveniently appear and deal with the obstacle you suddently tasked me to get rid of?"[/color] he chuckled. [color=5B9C64]"No. You gave me a job, and I expect payment. Can you even imagine the charge rate of even employing a demigod mercenary, especially one of such high calibre as mine? I'll save you the trouble: You wouldn't be able to pay me back in a hundred lifetimes."[/color]
[color=5B9C64]"But again, I'm being extremely generous with you. So, here are my terms: You will serve me in creating pastries for my ward upon the Rising Dawn for three years. Under no circumstances is she to ever find herself short of them, and if that were to happen, I assure you I will be considerably less generous to you. On the bright side, you get to live in a luxurious airship surrounded by many of this generation's most esteemed"[/color] he barely could keep himself from laughing at that, [color=5B9C64]"heroes, will have all your living needs taken care of, and probably get yourself enough connections to nepotism your way through the rest of your life. As I said, unfathomably generous. You have a day to get ready, and don't even think of running away, because I assure you, I'll find you. And when I do?"[/color] he pointed at Wrath, who was currently looking pretty sinister by mortal standards, [color=5B9C64]"You'll get to be her punching bag."[/color]
Before his soon-to-be underling could answer, though, they were interrupted by a waiter, or perhaps the guy that owned the place. And what kind of cafe doesn't have waiters? The financially fucked kind.
"Hang on, let me get this chick first. So what exactly did you want?"
[color=5B9C64]"What I want,"[/color] Eddie stood up and leaned on the waiter/owner, [color=5B9C64]"is every single piece of pastry you have and can make within the next half an hour."[/color] Having surely gotten the man's attention and fear, he pulled back, and pulled out a leather purse from his backpocket. [color=5B9C64]"You guys still use dollars, right?"[/color] and casually pulled out around half a million dollars. [color=5B9C64]"Consider the rest of the money an investment in quality. I'd certainly not want to be disappointed. Make sure I'm not."[/color]
Molli was at her post as the sun was setting. She eyed the infinite glow dipping below the cover of the clouds, casting a golden glow over the endless white sea. She smiled gently. Her heart was filled with good memories. Molli was never beautiful like her sister Sandra, nor was she smart like Maya, and she wasn't domestic like Talentia. She would never be as brave as Sam, nor would she be as strong as Odric, and even the mechanical brilliance of Michael eluded her. Molli was average. Her breasts were average, her waist was average, her face was average, and her hair was average. She passed school with average grades and she made an average salary. She was always eating the same things, and always did the same things. She had no hobbies and she had no talents. The only redeeming quality of her person was her exceptionally loving heart.
Molli put a hand on the glass and watched it frost over on the other side. The chill air outside whipped around the ship at furious speeds, but within the artillery command post the world outside was infinitely serene.
"How are you feeling Molli?" The door opened and John entered the room. He was holding two steaming mugs and wore a gentle smile on his face. John had long tousled hair that hung just below his shoulders and a strong chin that was kept immaculately shaven. The aroma of chocolate followed shortly thereafter. He was wearing an intelligence division uniform and had a scarf tucked into his collar. "I thought you might want some chocolate. Henry's going on a rampage in the staff kitchen right now, the fridge broken so he's using all of the perishables as fast as he can. The other kitchen staff can't keep up with his inhuman speed, so I thought to help them out." He handed Molli a mug. The hot steaming liquid within was thick with chocolate and rich as it moved within. It was a solid and beautiful brown, unmarred by inconsistency.
"Thank you," Molli answered. She brought the cup to her lips and took a deep drink. The hot chocolate felt good. The sweet flavor clung against her tongue and throat even after she finished taking her drink. She turned toward the sea of clouds again, "Isn't it beautiful?"
John set his cup down on top of her command terminal and stretched, taking in the view himself. "It is. Even in times of war the world turns unfettered."
Molli laughed. An average girl, youngest of seven siblings and almost unassuming to a fault had found love in the most preposterous of workplaces. John laughed with her. "Why do you laugh?"
"La vie est drole," Molli smiled and set her mug down and went back to her console. The array of monitors and terminals pulsed gently with blue light. She could see a map of the city below and the devastation that was unfolding.
"Life is funny," John repeated, "I think so too."
John was everything Molli wasn't. He was well spoken and well traveled. He was exceptional. He was handsome and he was gallant. He graduated top of his class and was the sole child of a wealthy estate. He spoke eleven different languages and could interpret twenty seven. He held great virtue within his heart and adhered to ancient creeds once held by gallant knights. He had also grown accustomed to the destruction caused by his work. Their work.
John suddenly stiffened.
"What's wrong?" Molli asked, peering over her console.
"Missiles," John replied. He turned around and strode toward Molli's console and pulled one of her monitors down. He swiped his fingers quickly across it's surface and brought up an image of the ground below. Hundreds of red heat signatures were descending upon the city.
"They'll be fine." Molli took another sip of the chocolate. The Rising Dawn had powerful surface bombardment cannons, but she was not to fire until one of the heroes ordered her to.
"They're not who I'm worried about." He swiped again and zoomed in the image feed. Suddenly a green blip appeared on the screen.
Molli stood up and dashed out of the room, tears were streaming out of her eyes as she ran toward the hangar. John followed closely behind.
[hr]
Cecil had fired up the VTOL engine in record time, bypassing all but the most basic warm-up procedures. Molli pulled on the straps securing her parachute to her body and gave the old Italian a thumbs up. He returned the gestured and the VTOL took off from it's dock. There were three combat unit staff with John and Molli as well as four of the medical staff. They all held severe looks on their faces as the VTOL descended past the sea of clouds and into the black smoke that dotted the blazing city below.
They descended rapidly, so much so that Molli could feel herself becoming light headed. When they arrived at the crater they were greeted by a young girl dressed in revealing clothing waving at them from atop a mountain of rubble. One of the heroes lay praying next to a bloody mangled mess.
Molli felt ill and John wore a face of pain plainly.
"Touchdown," Cecil said. He gave all in the cabin a thumbs up. They unbuckled their safety straps and pushed the stretcher out onto the rubble field.
Molli ran ahead of the men - screaming herself hoarse and blinded by tears. "Dolly!"
The Escapist Avatar Adventures | Denver, Colorado | Brakland's Pastry Cafe "I hope they have bear claws." Sloth | Wrath | Eddie the Dead | Nina and Phillip
[hr]
"OH! Look at that! I found it, yep. Alright let's see what we got in here."
Both the Vices and Eddie stepped inside just behind their guide, only to find a rather quaint little pastry cafe as opposed to a fully-fledged bakery. While Wrath was just generally unimpressed, Sloth felt a nagging urge to simply walk out and find someplace more suited to his own tastes. After all, pastry cafes usually doubled as little coffee shops, and he couldn't stand the stuff. Why would he want to drink something that would make him feel more awake as opposed to less?
As Nina wondered whether there was anyone still working there, which was generally unlikely, Sloth turned to the others and shrugged.
"Well, while you guys take care of whatever you need to, Imma nap." he told them before turning to make his way to table secluded in the corner, only to pause and look back at Wrath.
"And don't cause any trouble." he added.
After a meaningful stare, he turned back and sat down. The moment he lowered his head to the tabletop, he was already lightly snoring.
Wrath merely snorted, setting down her Violence Hammer and leaning against it.
"'And don't cause any trouble.'" she sneered in a childish falsetto, "*****, I cause trouble just by being, and you know that."
She immediately looked around to find some way to do just that as she idly reached up to rub at the bullet wounds on her shoulder. Only, the cafe was still empty as far as she could tell, barring them. That meant that this place was utterly boring. She was about to open her mouth to state as much when the muffled sound of a flushing toilet cut her off, and what had to be a member of the staff stepped up to the counter.
"Sorry about that, all the racket from those explosions are actually pretty good at clearing certain internal blockages..."
As he called back to whoever was working in the kitchen, the doors opened with the same infuriating bell-tinkle that nearly any quaint shop had as at least ten, maybe twelve, more Combat Cyborg's stepped in to make their own orders. Wrath smiled menacingly now that she had some potential victims to toy with.
She glanced back at Eddie, to either make sure he wasn't going to stop her or if he wanted to join in, and instead watched as he kicked a chair across the floor in the direction of their retreating guide. It managed to hit her in such a way that she was forced into the seat before skidding to a halt right in front of the very table that Sloth had claimed for a napping spot.
Sensing some imminent entertainment due to the fact that Eddie was clearly more than a little miffed at young Nina, Wrath smirked and followed behind him as he closed in. The Cyborgs could wait.
"[color=5B9C64]Alright, listen up, sweetcheeks. I'm about to be very generous to you, so shut your trap and listen up.[/color]"
And oh, did Eddie deliver. In classic Eddie fashion, he laid out his terms in a way that Wrath had to admire, even though she felt that he was being a little soft on her. "Employing" her as what amounted to a pastry slave for three years was, even in his own words, extremely generous given what she owed him for. But when he brought the Amazonian Vice into the equation, one of her eyebrows winged up.
"[color=5B9C64]You have a day to get ready, and don't even think of running away, because I assure you, I'll find you. And when I do? You'll get to be her punching bag.[/color]"
Wrath shrugged.
"Why wait? Even though I'd give her, oh, about ten seconds. Maybe fifteen if I'm fucking around." she said with a careless wave of her hand.
[hr]
The Escapist Avatar Adventures | The Rising Dawn | Outside of the Brig "You Are: Here." Farber | Ruby Babbage-Lovelace
[hr]
The young Ish had barely taken a few steps before a familiar voice called out behind him.
"FARBER! There you are!"
He whipped around violently enough for the end of his scarf to not only slap him in the face, but wrap around his head. The next thing he knew, something in the shape of a little girl rammed into him like a cart. And even though he couldn't see, he knew that whatever hit him was mostly pink and floofy.
He made a few muffled protests through his scarf, even as Ruby picked herself up and unleashed a barrage of questions.
"What are you doing out here? Why'd you leave the Canteen? Did you meet my other mom? She's just a little grumpy from traveling. I hope you like her. Did you mean to come all the way out here? Why are we near the brig?"
With a gasp, he freed his head from his scarf just before she finished, and blinked up at her.
"Uh, well, I needed some... Air." he said, and even though he knew how lame of an excuse it was as he said it, he decided to stick with it.
"Yea, some air. And no, but I could tell she wasn't happy when I heard her through the door. As for why I'm here, I'm lost." Farber told her as he pushed himself to his feet and tried to dust himself off.
When he released a small cloud of dirt from his clothes with each pat, he realized there wasn't any point. Looking back at Ruby, he frowned when she nervously tugged on his arm.
"Maaaaybe we should head back... like... right now..."
"Why? Is there something wrong? What's a 'brig'?" he asked, looking up at the nearest door without any clue behind its meaning.
"We have confirmed impacts on target AO. Good Effect."
"Stand-by units are en-route. UMG Model RAY ID 1099 is currently advancing on the area."
"One of our advance units managed to pick up a number of Rising Dawn attempting leaving the area. They've been gassed and are en-route to the secure facility."
The attack went as planned, least that's all all the tactical read outs being delivered to Armstrong suggested.
Most of his window's real estate was taken up by a array of HUDs, each one of them giving the details of the battle, except one that seemed to be in a coffee shop for some reason.
"...Hm...that wasn't so hard...If anything, it was too easy..."
[color=803300]"Heh, guess their bark was worse then their bite..."[/color] Sundowner suggested as he squatted near the window before adjusting the zoom on the displays, attempting to look for Bison's remains in the chaos.
"Either way, be sure to welcome our new guests, Sundowner. Grind every last ounce of blood out of them. I want to know everything, from their weapon systems to what they ate that morning. I'm sure the "Voting Public" would like to know how Bison intended to use them to silence his foes..."
[color=803300]"Sure thing boss..."[/color]
Capitol Building Compound: M. Bison, Nadalia
While Nadalia did a good job of protecting herself, Bison wasn't exactly too keen on the current state of affairs.
Trapped under an iron statue being strangled by a vampire hand that was sapping the life out of him while enough missiles to level a city rained down from on high? It went without saying he wasn't too keen on this.
His first priority was to pry that hand off his face while Nadalia was in her Iron Form, going as far as to tear off part of his face in order to keep his body mostly intact.
His undead groans turned to gasps as his humanity began to rise to the surface once more, squirming and struggling to throw her off as her increased weight kept him pinned down.
[color=6c1504]Shit....shitshitshitshitshitshitshitSHITSHITSHIT-!!![/color] He frantically said before making a last ditch effort to save himself, forming a small warp on the ground underneath him, causing both parties to fall right down though it.
He wasn't picky about where it was, so long as it wasn't right in the missiles path, but this came back to bite him in two ways.
First: Where he placed the other end was a good few dozen feet up in the air outside of the blast zone.
This wouldn't normally be a problem, but it did end up with Bison racing to the ground thanks to Nadalia's weight and gravity.
[color=6c1504]"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-URGH!?"[/color] he screamed before his spine met the ground with a nasty crunch, he could feel the bones in his body breaking from the impact.
Second: he could feel the ground under him moving while explosions raged (safely) in the distance.
This was a problem as he had just landed on the back of an APC full of his former "Army" that was en-route to wipe up the rest of the Rising Dawn.
The impact quickly brought them to a halt as the evacuated the vehicle before surrounding them both, drawing weapons as the CO of the unit stood there with a shit eating grin.
[color=6c1504]"...............we can tal-"[/color]
That was about all he got out before both he and Nadalia got a large dosage of T-Minus mixed in with a powerful sedative, quickly ending any fight before it could begin...[/quote]
Capitol Building Compound: Rugal
Rugal didn't need to be told twice to get the hell out of there, using his Dark Barrier to keep himself mostly protected from the brunt of the barrage as he sprinted towards the Dragon and safety.
Many of the others had the same idea or were trying to get out of there by other means.
While he would have loved to do a head count or some kind of tally, he knew full well that this was just the first wave of-
The ground shook and nearly knocked Rugal off his feet as something big landed, sending up a plume of dust into the area which blinded anyone who tried to get a look in (If the dust and smoke from the missile strikes didn't already).
He attempted to clear his vision but soon found himself quickly regretting that decision when he saw what had landed before him...
"...A RAY?...They still make those!?..." He former Crimelord muttered, he had sold enough of these in the "Good Old Days" to know that this was the last place a sane man would want to be right now.
The mecha gazed at him for a moment before letting out a ear-drum tearing roar, as if it wasn't noticable enough to begin with.
Taking this chance to bolt for Angelus, he began shouting "GO! TAKE OFF! GET US OUT OF HERE!" as he latched onto one of her claws, hanging off it as the RAY began to select targets.
Luckily for them, it was aiming at another dragon at this moment in time, seeing how Diane had the right (if slightly selfish) idea to save herself.
Offended by her attempts to ditch her comrades, it began to pepper the air with heavy machine gun fire, it's mounted guns operating independently as it advanced on the rest of the fleeing Dawn.
Denver: Outside of Blast Site: Elise, Jenny
While Elise was busy moving both her and her captive to a safe location, the main Commanding Unit to this sector had noticed that one of her men seemed to have gone missing.
The assassin could hear the following from her captive's radio:
Code:
[Unit 217: Report your status.....Unit 217: Report your status.]
The captive seemed to grow rather animated at the sound of that, laughing something though the gag that sounded akin to "Now you fucked up, *****!"
This was then followed by a sharp pain in Elise's head as the Gardevoir Cyborg used her psionic powers to Confuse her.
Though it all, the sound of mechanical marching in the streets below could be heard as she began to zero in on the Assassin's location...
Avatar Adventures | Denver | Brakland's Pastry Cafe 'Now where the heck did they put that Pastry shop again?'
| Nina and Phillip | [color=5B9C64]Eddie the Dead[/color] | Wrath | Sloth | Gerry, Larry and Soldiers Oh My!
Now, Nina would have been up over the counter, but as usually it seemed Eddie was going to have none of that. Getting forced into the seat, and having to listen to the failings of Eddie to be able to properly explain himself and then dump said failings on others, was not Nina's cup of tea. Especially when she was the dumping ground. 'Fucking christ, I already got you to your damn pastry shop. And you're still not happy?' Nina grit her teeth and just kinda sat there with that millennial glazed look until finally Eddie bothered to talk to Larry about all the pastries. 'Oh thank god!' Nina held the bridge of her nose, just shaking her head. "I'll have a green tea Larry, would have had a strawberry tart too, but Eddie seems to need all of those." She called out to the man.
"Now I see how you're really really generous, that much is so evident. So who exactly would need 3 years worth of pastries exactly?" Nina feeling like at the very least she should know who they were for if not for Eddie.
[color=5B9C64]"I did say my ward, didn't I? You are aware what the term means, yes?"[/color] 'How very generous indeed...' Nina rolled her eyes, and in glancing back towards the entrance noted the 'Free Wifi' sign. After a few taps at her phone, she read the definition.
5. (law) Also called ward of court. a person, esp a minor or one legally incapable of managing his own affairs, placed under the control or protection of a guardian or of a court. guardianship, as of a minor or legally incompetent person.
'Oh wow, he's really trying to get me to hold up some bargain he made to make some kid behave, didn't he?' She thought with a heavy sigh, before looking up to Wrath. "So, I'll be honest I'm not doing that, but if you really need a punching bag, I could always go buy you one if it's really that important to you, Wrath. I don't have a beef with you after all." She said, figuring that she might as well be fair with Wrath given 'hey she hadn't been completely insane since the moment they'd met'.
"SO! You need 3 years of pastries? Man that would be really useful information to know, oh I don't know, when you first said you needed to get to a pastry shop! All you told me was 'Oh, I totally need to get some pastries, get me to that place you sell them to.'. Now obviously since I don't live in Denver, this is basically the same sort of place I'd do it! Maybe if you specified some more, maybe we could have gotten something a bit more what you needed?" Nina retorted at Eddie's demands of her finally, sweeping a hand over the establishment as she talked about it at the end. "I agreed to get you here, and in exchange, you'd protect me from the situation you through me into. [small]I've seen enough tv shows to know something like that is pretty shite as it's under duress or whatever.[/small] Regardless, since I only agreed to helping you get here for you protecting me, that's done. Finished. Over."
"And don't give me that 'Oh you wanted to haggle with me' crap! Even you have to have enough sense to understand that when buildings are getting blown to smithereens left and right, you should probably think 'Hmm, maybe I should take care of what's exploding everything first, before I go off to some place that is kinda breaky (pastries), so that the thing that's exploding everything doesn't just follow me and explode this shit I wanted?'. Seriously, how is that not obvious to you?!" She continued.
"And there-fore, like hell am I going to be on the hook for the shitty deal you made with some kid just to keep them happy. Like really, you've already said my cooking was so horribly awful that you gave me a strike, so why are you asking to cook for someone else?" Nina concluded, sure scared of the two, but really from the way things were going, they were going to have her as a slave regardless, might as well stick it to them for the time being while she had her day off right? "But I think we could at least work out a deal to get some pastries to them, since we aren't feeding you these after all. Would be some nice practice to do every once and a while, right?" Nina said, pausing a moment before nodding, like she'd gotten an answer. "[small]Ya good you agree.[/small] So *claps hands* I'm going to go to the bathroom while Larry works on your order and my tea, have fun with whatever." Nina said before getting her butt into the bathroom with Phillip.
Getting into the bathroom, Nina locked the door behind her and set the dufflebag on the sink, and opened it up for Phillip to stretch a bit. Unlike before at the cars, Phillip would pull himself out the the bag, soon resting on top of the dufflebag with each end folded under him. Multiple tentacles stretching out to almost touch the walls of each side. "Can you believe that asshole?" She fumed, before catching herself. "No no, shouldn't be saying things like that to you, that's not nice to do." She muttered, stroking one of the extended tendrils near her. "You sure it's alright for you to bake some things for that kid of his or whatever? It's not like you have to you know." Although Phillip was still stretching, two smaller tendrils came out from his mass and curled upwards in a muscular pose style. "Hehe, alright~ I'll help if you need me okay, you know that." Nina smiled happily, feeling a bit better.
"Anyways, I'm going to wash my face real quick and then use the facilities, so climb on for a sec." She instructed, raising a hand to Phillip's center of mass has his tentacles pulled closer to himself before latching onto Nina's arm. He'd pull himself up to rest on her backside, looping some tendrils around her in a backpack kinda way, other free ones simply swaying about. Nina would then move the dufflebag and do what she needed before getting Phillip settled again on the sink and dufflebag, and continued with her needs there.
Now as the missiles started to rain down from the sky, a slight rumbling of the earth and loud explosions sounds would obviously ring out to the pastry shop. What would also come from it would be rubble, lots of rubble. Now some rubble would simply stay by the impact sight, but others had bigger dreams. FLIGHT! And of all the rubble, a postage box and a slab of concrete had a very important mission of proving a valid point. As it flew through the sky they'd eventually find their way to Brakland's entrance, smashing through the window panes of the shop, and crushing some of the tables inside. The postage box was even more ambitious, and attempted to smash one of the far end pastry displays, but otherwise, the shop was a pretty big mess despite the kitchen area remaining virtually unharmed, thankfully the occupants hadn't been hit if not for a couple pebbles or so.
Inside the bathroom still, Nina was just about the pack Phillip back into the dufflebag when the explosions range out, Phillip immediately braced himself against all the walls as his tentacles anchored him there. Nina would hold onto the tense limbs until everything settled. "What the hell was that!?" Nina exclaimed before getting Phillip settled before going outside and seeing the scene. Initially she merely observed the scene, then a layer of shock, and finally a realization of 'I told you so'. She was thankful that no one seemed hurt for the moment at least.
I had a feeling, O sister, that the world itself would end.
Titania fiddled with Miki's arms. The small fairy took the abuse like a living doll, completely committed to serving her queen. Even when Titania pressed her thumbs against Miki's chest, she made no protest, and even as Titania rubbed her chest gently and crushed her ribs the little fairy made no noise. It was only until Miki's form was rendered a lifeless bruised mess did Titania turn to look at Anjali. Titania's own eyes had been muted, locked from the power of observation. They were dull and as lifeless as the broken doll she held in her hands. Titania dangled Miki's corpse by her leg and gentle bounced her lolling head against the wooden counter.
"I am not afraid of anything," Titania answered. "or should I say that I am afraid of each and everything." She broke Miki's legs where they connected to her pelvis. The bones snapped easily and with a satisfying crunch. Titania's lips were pursed in a grimace. "When the dead come back to life, what is there to fear, after all." She turned away from Anjali, "Except, of course, the loss of reason." She crushed Miki in her hand and let the crumpled retainer fall to the counter. Then Miki - one that wasn't mutilated beyond comprehension - appeared and landed on the table as if nothing had happened. She looked down at the corpse before her and walked over to it, and tore up the corpse before devouring the bloody mess whole. After finishing cleaning up her old body Miki returned to her post atop Titania's head.
"The curse of immortality ought not be taken lightly, my dear Anjali." A lock of Titania's long white hair fell over her face. She brushed it aside, "Especially when there is someone out there who wants to make sure that you can never die." The fire in her eyes were dim, but slowly growing. Whatever had happened to Titania did not completely smother that spirited young queen. Yet her words were cautious as if she was being pressured by some invisible hand.
"Tread lightly," she said after a long pause, "for you may find that even snakes can stumble in the dark."
The timely intercession by Eddie the Dead was not wholly unwelcome by Rory the Reaper. While it was true that the Black and Crimson Clad Courier of Souls would never be certain that it had been Lady Luck's Disciple that had intervened, the circumstancial evidence was just too compelling to ignore. Of the fifteen missiles that had crash landed in the area, none of those fifteen had detonated. In a later investigation of the Denver incident by Federal Authorities, weapon systems experts would discover that the missiles had been manufactured in five different plants, over a period of five years before being shipped off to various branches of the United States military. The only commonality between the missiles was the technician in charge of soldering the primary power circuit to the detonator. It was reported that on most days the technician's soldering was 100% reliable, though during certain times of the year, specifically allergy season, the technician's soldering reliability fell to 99.9%, still within tollerance. In what would be later called a statistical shit storm, it was discovered that the fifteen faulty missiles had ultimately been shipped out to various national guard armories before being reissued to the World Marshall. Once there, it was determined that of the two hundred plus missiles that had been launched that day, the fifteen defective missiles had been coincidentally been targeted at the same location.
Still, even without the knowledge of what the improbable and statistically impossible series of events that had spared her the discomfort of having to regenerate every inch of her skin, Rory Mercury was fairly happy that none of the bombs had detonated, an event that she was certain would have both caused more grievous bodily harm to the impaled girl she'd protected as well as sent a wave of fire that would have consumed every inch of clothing on Loli's body. While not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, walking around a city with naught but her halberd wouldn't have struck Rory as particularly a particularly comfortable affair considering the others that had appeared while the Demi-Goddess held her vigil for the Nearly Dearly Departed.
Angels, Collectors, Demi-Gods, Demons, Ferrymen, Judges, Minor Deities and Psychopomps... all had shown up, crawling out of whatever hole they happened to be hiding the moment they heard that Dolores Selmy was grievously wounded, shrouded from mortal eyes. They circled about like sharks, waiting for moment that Rory Mercury would falter, waiting for the moment her God would deny her the boon she requested, after all, what did a Death God care if a soulless doll happened to perish. Having once been a member of the Godly Ranks, the Crimson and Black clad Demi-Goddess paid these lesser spirits no attention, seeking only the advice of her patron. Moments later, the collective of wheelers and dealers turned their heads towards the outer perimeter of their circle, as the sound of someone shoving their way through their number closed in on Rory Mercury and the impaled woman.
"Out of the way, knaves. I'm here to see my disciple. Pardon me. Excuse me. Coming through." A familiar voice said as it parted the sea of divine and infernal creatures.
Sensing that her master was close, Rory shifted position, coming to kneel upon one knee in respect for Emloy, The God of Darkness, Death, War and Insanity. The voice stopped as it finally reached the center of the mass of spirits, where Rory waited... and continued to wait until she heard a foot tapping impatiently. Raising her head, she saw that His Divineness had borrowed the body of a recently deceased woman whose body had seen better days, her multitude of hands waved about as if the God was trying to figure out what to do with so many hands. He eyed his Oracle with a smirk before gesturing for her to rise.
"Rory, Rory, Rory," The Death God(ess) tsk'd as he/she sauntered up to Rory, lifting his/her follower up to her feet with a finger under the chin, "I've told you that you don't have to kneel for me, lass. Now then, what's this I hear about you asking me to spare the life of this..." The God paused for a moment when he noticed which life he was being asked to spare, "Ah. Her. Dolores Selmy. Done."
"What? I thought that you..."
The God of War looked amusingly at the expression of surprise on the disciple, a chuckle passing through his/her pursed lips. White tipped canes suddenly appeared in each of the woman's five right hands and a top hat in the topmost of the left hands. The Loli-Like Demi-Goddess braced herself, quite aware of what was coming next. Spinning the each of the canes in her hands the God covered his face with the top hot.
Never jump to a conclusion
You'll be up for just confusion
I've told you this time and time again.
Never jump to a conclusion
It'll hurt you like a contusion
It'll save you a lot of hurt and pain.
It was at that point that the high kicking started... and the pirouetting... and the fire works... and the blood fountains... and the pointing at Dolores' body... and the band.
That little girl's a big thing
To any God that wants to be King.
She's got multiple souls in that shell of her's
Dolores Selmy's a big thing
Listen to me, I'm not lying
She can make more of souls for spiritual entrepreneurs.
The Demi-Goddess of Emloy had been fuming since her patron God had started this dog and pony show. She just couldn't stand it anymore, the bad singing, the bad dancing, the bad lyrics... it was driving her insane. As her sponsor into the Godly Realms prepared for another verse, Rory Mercury did what most people standing in her position would not do, she swatted the canes right out of Emloy's hands. The band that had been playing the tune of "The Bear Necessities" stopped suddenly, looking for the closest hiding spot. For his part, the God of Death and Insanity simply looked at his empty hands before giving his representative on Earth a grin.
"Sorry." He apologized as he rubbed the back of his head with all five of his borrowed body's hands, "Anyways, just make sure that the girl doesn't get influenced by any of these used car salesmen here and make sure she doesn't go expired before her time. Now then, as for you, my young apprentice, do try to make an appearance at the Temple in Ginza. I suspect that the people of Japan will be thrilled to know that you're back. I hear they still sell dolls in your likeness. Oh and it appears that you have company. You should probably greet the new comers and let them know that their friend is going to survive. Toodles."
With a wink and a nod to his Oracle, Emloy and all the other spirits that were hovering about wanting to get a piece of Dolores Selmy disappeared and Rory found herself kneeling next to the impaled woman, Dolores Selmy, once again. A noise could be heard a in the distance, a roaring of engines and the crunching of gravel as someone ran up to the Black Haired Butcher's position.
"Dolly!" A woman's voice cried out. A woman, her red hair flowing behind her as she ran, found herself stopped by the a purple Halberd crossing her path. Rory looked up at her, a tired look in her eyes.
"Your friend is alive but will need some medical assistance if you want her to continue being so." The Oracle stated as she stood up, leaning on her weapon. Dealing with her patron always left her feeling a exhausted and, above all else, annoyed. He was fine at his job, his interpersonal skills required a bit of fine tuning, not that it would help the God of Insanity. Watching as a medical team evacuated Dolly, as her friend had called her, Rory looked at the ruined city and wondered how soon it would be before life returned to normal for these people.
"(Not soon enough.) She concluded thoughtfully, sensing that this mission wasn't over quite yet. Walking over to the flier, Rory grabbed the attention of the woman who had run up to her friend, a Second Lieutenant from the insignia on her uniform, "Tell me, Second Lieutenant, do you have any word on the status of the other crew members that took part in this mission?"
[hr]
Avatar Adventures | Airship Rising Dawn | Outside the Brig Sock Puppet Farber...
Ruby Babbage-Lovelace | Farber the Ish
[hr]
"Why? Is there something wrong? What's a 'brig'?" Farber asked the rather innocently as he eyed the door.
"A brig? It's an army term for a jail. It's where they keep really bad men." Ruby responded calmly as she looked up and down the corridors, hoping that no one would wander through and wonder what a couple of children were doing standing in front of the brig, "In the case of the Rising Dawn, it's where they keep the really bad, really scary, really powerful criminals that the crew fights. I'm sure there's people in there that could kill us just by looking at us or just by thinking about killing us." The girl continued as she looked at checked the intersection. The last thing that she wanted to do was to get into any sort of trouble.
The fact was, having been raised stories regarding the heroics of the Rising Dawn, the nine year old girl in pink was painfully aware of the type of people that would be locked up inside the Rising Dawn's brig. The fact that they were concentrated in one place made the black and white haired girl rather nervous. There were super criminals with the power of Angels, the power of Demons, the power of insanely high intelligence, the power to split a hair with a single bullet. There were those that could crush a child like Ruby or Farber with the power of their mind as well as the strength of their fists. Of course, Ruby knew this but Farber didn't and from what she knew about Farber, telling him this sort of information would be like tempting him with another of Miss Katya's chocolate crates.
"Seeing as how the Rising Dawn hasn't captured anyone in a really long time, I think it's gotta be pretty boring in there, Farber." Ruby said as she turned around and was greeting with the chest of a rather large armed guard.
"Whose Farber?" The brig guard asked with a hint of concern on his face. Knowing that the brat belonged to Titania, he was rather gentle with her lest he provoke the Queen *****'s ire, "And what, if I might so kindly ask, are you doing in front of the Brig, Little Lady? Do your mothers know you're here?"
"Ummm... Sorry... Sargent... ummmm... Farber's my friend," Ruby started to say as she looked about for the Friendly Neighborhood Ish and seeing no sight of him, "An imaginary friend..." The girl lied, not wanting to get her friend into any trouble. As she spoke, the threads of her hair ribbons unwound themselves and wrapped themselves around the hands behind her back, "Hi Farber!" The girl said talking to the sock puppet that had been magically crafted around her hand, its googly eyes wobbling about, "Farber wanted a bottle of Pepsi and we heard that there was a stash somewhere in one of the main bedrooms."
The Sargeant paused for a moment before remembering stories of Tomoya and his obsession with the carbonated concoction.
"Yeah. You'll want to keep heading aft. Look for the largest of the bedrooms on the ship... it'll also be the most god awfully decorated." The Guard muttered as he pointed towards the back of the ship.
"Uhhhh... thanks Sargent! Stay safe!" The girl said as she faked heading towards the rear of the ship, waiting for the brig guard to disappear, "Farber...you're in so much trouble" Ruby said as she headed back to the Brig door, looking for a way to open it for her.
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