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Post by Ninmast on Jan 13, 2010 22:57:19 GMT -5
"Ha!" Master Zero shouted as he ran through, lowering his shoulder against the concrete and stone as it crashed against him, failing to even slow him down as it shattered over him. "You think that's enough to stop me!?" He drew back as the blast came in behind it. "YOU FOOL!!!"
The Zeta Saber came up to uppercut the blast, splitting the energy down the middle as the Edenite tore through it, using the momentum to twist as he came up off the ground and sent a bone-shattering kick at what now constituted the head of the creature.
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Post by raptorman on Jan 18, 2010 0:01:46 GMT -5
*Las Vegas*
But the Inquisitor slipped past Master Zero again and a force with the power to pick up buildings closed upon him and threw him back into the wreckage of the building again. A chocking gutteral laugh echoed the destroyed city. "YOU ARE NOTHING TO ME, NOTHING" Again the scorching blasts flew from it's hand towards Master Zero, this time though the blasts were aimed to collapse the remains of the building down upon him.
Rebecca and Simon stood on one of the few other rooftops that had escaped the bombardments fury, and the subsequent fight with Master Zero. She spoke "We did warn him, didn't we?"
"yes we did" "All he is doing is making Aloraster mad" "should we help?" "If this continues we should step in, so far neither seems harmed yet and we must know what this one can do."
*Washington D.C*
Aloraster wouldn't answer mainly because he had no idea star had spoken and because there was no vessel for him to speak through. But someone else seemed to appear out of the rubble behind Star. Someone who gave off no energy at all, and did not even have the trace presence a construct would and so was not detectable until it spoke. The figure cloaked and hooded sighed and that would alert Star to its presence.
No features could be seen beneath the hood and it was as if it had none. It's voice changed oddly featuring different inflections and accents on each word and phrase. "Not since that war have I suffered so, though they always strike me and fight within us. Or I suppose I should say you do."
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Post by Ninmast on Jan 18, 2010 0:58:55 GMT -5
(Uh, yeah ... because he totally expected Master Zero to run right through it and obliterate his blast. I don't see him dodging that so easily. Also, constructs do NOT give off energy signatures.)
*Washington D.C.*
There are many unnamed senses that every human possesses. These are unnamed because they do not relate to any of the five senses that we can identify. Nonetheless, neither is it psychic energy that causes the hairs on our neck to raise, or that eerie churning in our stomach when we know that something is wrong. Indeed, no direct cause can be attributed to that sudden instinct to duck, jump, jump to the side or whirl around. However, those who spend their days in life-or-death situations inarguably develop a significantly finer trigger on these oddly pseudo-clairovoyant sensations.
Star was one such figure, and before the figure sighed, she could feel the crawling sensation down the upper portion of her spine that one got when feeling as if someone were watching them. Like others who developed such a response, she had long ago learned to trust it and act accordingly. She wheeled around, hand outstretched and glowing to face the individual. When he spoke, but seemed non-hostile, however, she let the hand lower slightly.
"Care to explain that one?"
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Post by raptorman on Jan 18, 2010 14:02:43 GMT -5
*Las Vegas*
The kick slammed into the inquisitor and there was a sickening snap as if it's neck had snapped. The impact sending it flying backwards to smash through a wall itself. The building began to collapse around it. For a brief second all was still, then the entire pile of rubble flew up into the air and burst into silver flames before each flaming piece flew down at master zero in a rain of void fire. The inquisitor strode out from where the pile had been. It's head lolled back in a broken seeming position, nonetheless it seemed to be merely a hindrance.
Rebecca and Simon stood on one of the few other rooftops that had escaped the bombardments fury, and the subsequent fight with Master Zero. She spoke "We did warn him, didn't we?"
"yes we did" "All he is doing is making Aloraster mad" "should we help?" "If this continues we should step in, so far neither seems harmed yet and we must know what this one can do."
*D.C*
The figure chuckled with a faint sound, "Not since the last of your foolish great wars have I been damaged so greatly" It faded from view to appear on the other side of her. "You have done a fair amount of damage to me in your time as well, but in this case your previous damage will be forgiven." Another fade out and appearance back where he had started. "Considering what is coming and the fact that we both will be destroyed if it is successful, what you have done here will be, mitigated by the defense of me."
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Post by Ninmast on Jan 18, 2010 17:18:53 GMT -5
*Las Vegas*
Unfortunately, flying, flaming stones weren't overly hard to deal with. Master Zero, with a cool collectedness, strode calmly forward through the calamity, letting each footfall crunch down with decisive force as each one brought him closer to the Inquisitor. Whenever a stone would come into his path, a slash of his plasma sword would send the resulting halves skipping away to either side in some manner dependant upon their original course.
He took his time reaching the Inquisitor until he finally stood before him, staring down at the disfigured, broken psionist. "Had you come to Eden, fool, you would have been slaughtered just as you will for coming to Terra."
*D.C.*
Star's eyes traced each of the figure's movements as it phased about and spoke. "You claim to be a spirit of the Earth, then?" she asked. "I did no lasting damage to you. The hole can easily be filled in, and in a season, it will be as if it was never there."
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Post by raptorman on Jan 18, 2010 17:48:17 GMT -5
*Las Vegas*
The inquisitor seemingly uncaring of Master Zero's threat simply raised a hand before him. Master Zero despite his immense weight was lifted up from the ground while he was still ten feet from the Inquisitor. The speech from it's mouth was less full of power and it could have been a hint of pain coming through the voice. "You think I am the leader, I am merely part of the scout force." The inquisitor's bulging eyes leaked silver fluid that when it struck the ground burned like acid. Similar fluid leaked from the other wounds upon it's body.
The Inquisitor began to laugh crazily and the psionic grip on Master Zero began to squeeze tighter, Master Zero would be unable to move at all. "Any last words?" the Inquisitor managed to gasp out through it's broken face.
[using auto here for plot purposes just go along in the next post]
*D.C.*
"I am not earth itself, I am nothing so permanent. Though should you all disappear I would remain for thousands of years. But in the end i am dependent on you as you are on me." The sense of a faint smile within the darkness of the hood appeared for a moment before fading. "They struck me with their fire from the sky and I will have vengeance" It faded again to appear directly before Star. "You will be helping with this, for you owe me for the destruction you added here. For me that damage is great, but set against total destruction and it is but a wound. And even this can be fixed in time."
Power flickered briefly through a few downed lines even though they could not possibly have been connected to anything, and a few groans came from systems that tried to start again at the figure's presence.
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Post by Ninmast on Jan 19, 2010 16:36:21 GMT -5
*Las Vegas*
"What an idiot!" Master Zero answered the alien. "You think I meant you, specifically? Ha! You're just a peon! Not worth my time!" He got a feral grin on his face despite his elevated position. "Wanna see why?"
*D.C.*
"Ah, spirit of civilization, maybe?" But Star shrugged. "Hate to break it to you, buddy, but I'm a Christian, not a Spiritualist. I fight because it's the right thing to do to protect all these people, not because concrete thinks I owe it one."
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Post by raptorman on Jan 19, 2010 18:15:17 GMT -5
*D.C.*
"You get closer, not civilizations per se but a product of them. Regardless of your belief system you owe a debt for damages, debts are to be payed in time. You simply are to continue to destroy the invaders. But you are not to destroy anymore cities. And I am far more than concrete, I am many and I am one. I house the people you hold so dear, without me they are little more than animals in the wilderness."
*Las Vegas*
"SHOW ME" The voice of aloraster boomed out from the Inquisitor, and the Inquisitors battered body suddenly began to heal. Injuries knit together with surprising speed and the eyes stopped their leaking. "Bring it on." The Inquisitor spoke himself again as it flourished two mono molecular blades.
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Post by Ninmast on Jan 19, 2010 20:47:08 GMT -5
*D.C.*
"Free will, buddy," she answered the figure, turning on her heel and intending to walk away. "People decide whether or not to build houses, whether or not to found cities, whether or not to establish infrastructure. This conversation is finished. I'm fighting off the invasion because it's my job, not because the spiritual representation of thirty thousand years of carved stone wants to suddenly spring up and play big-shot." She stopped and glared over her shoulder at him, as if daring him to second-guess her. "And if I have to level an empty city or two to do it, that's exactly what I'm going to do." And with a brief crouch, she sprung into the air, shooting into the sky.
*Las Vegas*
"Hehehehehehehe ..." Master Zero's laughter was an eerie thing to hear, as it held a distinctly disturbed edge to it as he brought his limbs in and curled up. Energy began to radiate off of him in black waves where there hadn't been the slightest hint of the remotest sense of energy about him before. But this was not the life energy that Aloraster coveted so greatly. It was off, twisted, convoluted, like an elixir of life contaminated and mutated into some sort of virulent poison. And this foul wellspring of death had no bottom.
So great were the waves of energy cascading off of him that they clouded him from view, until finally, with a bestial roar, he threw his arms wide, and with them, two wide black bat wings, his hands tipped in claws, his mighty armor split to accommodate his widened physique and his feet bearing great talons that pierced through his boots. With the motion, the psychic grip on him shattered, but all the Inquisitor got to see was the fanged smile on his face, his eyes white and pupilless and his pale blonde locks billowing freely behind him.
"WITNESS CORRUPTION!!!" he roared to the open sky, that act alone powerful enough to shatter the fortifications the aliens had so carefully built in preparation for something far less intimidating than what now flew freely in the air before them.
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Post by raptorman on Jan 19, 2010 21:46:11 GMT -5
*D.C.*
It watched her go and then slowly faded away back into the shadows of the dying city. Humanity may not survive but It planned to at least outlast them.
*The Scout*
The High Inquisitor of the investigation force turned to the array of blinking lights that indicated status. Fully half the landing sites were down. Apparently these planetbound were not so weak as the others. And they had a disproportionate number of highers among them. This was worrying and the Inquisitor was working on a plan to help equalize things when an alarm went off. He checked the scanners. A massive energy spike had occurred in two places. First was a place the planet bound called las vegas and the second was a place they called D.C.
The second energy signature he recognized and he gave an order. "Fire a salvo of the city destroyers at the source."
*Las Vegas*
The inquisitor's silver face seemed to pale before strengthening again. "I am nothing, you are nothing, your power is nothing, when I die my life stream joins my lord." Then he and the other founders attacked in a rush. They knew they were to die, but they would die in this fight with honor.
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Post by Ninmast on Jan 19, 2010 22:24:52 GMT -5
*Star*
Star had thought to head overseas next to aid places less populated by metahumans that would have been targetted. She was soaring over the ocean when she felt a massive amount of energy gathering far above her. Right where she estimated the ship was.
She slammed on the brakes as she tried to get a bearing on what was coming her way when the sky seemed to explode around her.
Because she had stopped, it hadn't been a direct hit, but it had been a hit nonetheless. As the sea raged at being struck so rudely, churning into a massive whirlpool as it filled in the space left by the evaporated space it had once occupied, she went skipping like a stone hurled by a giant across the water's surface. One might have even counted the skipping. One, two, three, four, five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten ...
A great wave of saltwater rushing in to join the gathering in the newfound abyss caught her in its grasp as it went by, pulling her into the aquatic twister that pulled her stunned form around and around, down into the depths of its ocean.
*Las Vegas*
But that feral, fanged smile answered him. "Good for you." And then he vanished. None of the Founders got so much of a step in. It was a massacre. One moment, he would be ripping the throat out of one, then the next he would be clear across the battlefield smashing two skulls together, then the next he would be clear back on the other side sending a taloned kick piercing into another skull. It was likely deliberate that he was leaving the Inquisitor until the very last, so that Aloraster would be sure to see, but even then his life did not expand but fractions of a second beyond the rest before Master Zero appeared before him, fanged grin on his face as the blood of his combined allies dripped from his hands. The Purifier's wings enveloped the two of them and the darkness closing around them was to be the last the Inquisitor would ever see.
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Post by raptorman on Jan 23, 2010 17:28:35 GMT -5
*The Scout*
The inquisitor watched the screen as the two lines crossed and then nothing. The energy signal had disappeared. "Gentlemen, we have success," he said as he turned to the captain. The captain had just managed to drag himself out of the sickbay and his face was a mass of swelling and tissue damage. At least his eyes had stopped leaking though.
"You are correct Inquisitor, though should we not dispatch units to be sure?" "No no planet bound can survive a direct hit from 3 city killers. The girl is dead." "But. she had the power too..."
The inquisitor cut the captain off in the middle of his statement. "The girl beat you in combat. I can beat you in combat. Can I survive 3 city destroying lasers?" The inquisitor answered himself. "No, therefore she cannot survive."
*Las Vegas*
The founders were indeed slaughtered and none survived. The waste seemed empty of all save the Lord and Lady of the Vrael who had witnessed the bloodbath. What Master Zero would do next was unknown.
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Post by Ninmast on Jan 23, 2010 17:43:53 GMT -5
*Las Vegas*
While the last blow fell within the shelter of the ruins and thus blocked from view, the inquisitor's screams would have reached the ears of the Lord and Lady. It was only a moment later that Master Zero, having returned to his normal armored form, appeared before them once more.
"I told you they weren't a concern. And if they make the mistake of trying a full invasion, they will find a whole army of Purifiers on them. Though I don't intend to give them that long."
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Post by raptorman on Jan 23, 2010 17:55:51 GMT -5
*Las Vegas*
Rebecca looked at master zero with an expression of anger on her face. "do you understand what your show of bravado has done?" Her face was full of rage not an expression often seen on her face and something that made simon take a step back from her by force of habit.
"While you and one of aloraster's minions had that little fight, Star peacefire was shot down over the ocean. There are no traces of her energy anywhere in the world. Your display of bravado kept us hear and now we have lost one of our greatest allies." She pointed at him "And these are just alorasters grunts, they are supposed to develop the enemy. You just showed your power to him and now he knows and can deal with you, like he did us."
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Post by Ninmast on Jan 23, 2010 18:29:37 GMT -5
*Las Vegas*
Master Zero met the pompous woman with a glare of his own. "You know nothing of war, then, woman." He turned away from them as he tapped the side of his helmet, like one might an earpiece. "I showed him nothing that I didn't want him to see." He continued as he waited for whatever it was as a wind stirred his synthetic hair. "If he truly is as outside this dimension as you stated, then his defeat must be absolute. We can't simply trick him into showing himself and then killing him with surprise attacks. We must ensure he is at his best, then crush it utterly. Otherwise, he will believe he still has a chance and will just come back again."
His "bravado" explained to be far more strategic than simply showing off, he also had apparently heard whatever he had been listening for, and he smirked. "And your fears for that metacarbon are unfounded. She is far too hard to kill to fall to this trash. Eden has confirmed her location at an elevation of fifteen kilometers above sea level heading east at seventy-five units. Also, the Elysium will be arriving in Terraspace within three days."
He turned again intending to walk by them. "That means I have three days to clean up this mess before they get here. So I'm off to Salt Lake City. If you intend to follow me indefinitely, then I'd better get started. You two are going to slow me down."
*Scout Ship*
"Inquisitor," one of the data officers spoke up suddenly, bringing up a holographic screen containing a 2D map of the orb beneath them with landing spaces marked. They were going red at an alarming rate. "Our landing zones are being recaptured at a disturbing rate. Also, there has been several unknown anomalies concerning our landing sites on the largest occupied landmass. Our units will just stop responding for several moments. No data feed at all. And then they're just gone. There isn't anything indicating what is causing it."
*Unknown*
Star's first sensation was an immensely bitter taste pouring down her throat. She coughed and sputtered as she tried to sit up, but a strong hand forced her promptly back to the ground.
"You clearly haven't learned to draw any less attention to yourself," a familiar but deadpan voice scolded her.
An identical voice, but from a different point and more cocky spoke up in response. "Sounds like she followed my lessons more than yours, Brother."
Her eyes opened, then immediately clamped shut against the light, but her energy sense was already identifying them. She didn't have to see them. "Darien?" she asked as she shielded her eyes from the light with her hand. "Raiden?" The bitter taste in her mouth suddenly made sense. Only one thing in the world tasted that bad. Mirkweed.
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