Release of Voidus

[old man moomba]

"Ah." Rick said, and checked his watch again, "Almost time."

[Archer]

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I was sure I'd have missed the release by now, but you guys have packed a lot into ninety seconds. I'm dropping my character in now (so that Kidpen's guy can kill him). He's unarmed, but he'll be eating metalminds regularly. I'm going to try to stay out of anyone's way if they're trying to drop the barrier. I'm eager for that to finally happen. 

Edit: (ignore this) Gancho, if you want to have Fred get hit, just RP that Mace only blocked some of the shots. I hope I didn't mess up anything for you.  

A busy alleyway. One hour ago.

Mace watched his son amble along the path on his bright red tricycle. The boy hit a bump and briefly wobbled before correcting his course. For reasons he did not fully understand, Mace felt a rush of emotions. His eyes were transfixed on the scene, which was good. If he had decided to focus too hard on the background of the vignette he would have found the supporting details were fuzzy.

The child turned back towards Mace, giving him a better look at his face. He almost laughed as he searched the boy’s features, looking for some resemblance to latch onto. There was none. The memory laid bare the lie in excruciating detail, remarkably so. Mace had not been expecting to receive such a clear vision. With a growing sense of dread, Mace watched the youngster begin to move his lips. He knew what was coming.

“Dad! Hey Dad! Can-” Mace stopped tapping the coppermind. He blinked, and his vision re-focused to show him the elderly man standing in front of him. A table of polished brown bands sat between them.

“Did you get what you came for?” the man asked politely. Mace nodded distractedly. He was never sure what he wanted when he visited the man’s stall in the marketplace, so he always left with mixed feelings about the experience. He had friends who swore by Soothing parlors, but those seemed even more artificial to him. At least when he rented copperminds his emotions were genuine.

He placed some coins on the table and thanked the gentlemen for his time. Then he reached behind his left ear and unclipped one of his own copperminds. “It’s got a couple of musicals in it. Mostly from bad dates I went on. I think there’s an Earth movie on there too. The tenth sequel to that one about angry people speeding."

He passed it over and the man palmed it quickly. He would send it away to be unsealed or keep it to sell to any copper ferrings that came by. Mace did not care. The sounds of battle had been steadily increasing in volume and intensity during the time he had been reminiscing. The fight those sounds advertised was the reason he had come to the Alleycity.

Without another word, Mace stepped confidently into a side-passageway he knew would take him where he wanted to go. It was time for him to kill again.

*****

Near the worldspike. Seconds before the barrier is due to drop. 

Inexplicably, Mace fell upwards, propelled out of a circular sewer entrance. He could tell some sort of teleportation had been involved since his stomach felt queasy. As he tried to re-orient himself, a trio of energy blasts smashed into his torso.

He heard his ribs snap, followed by his spine. He tasted blood, which was never a good sign. Fortunately, almost immediately, he felt his body repair itself. He’d been ready for this kind of thing to happen when he stepped into the battlefield. As his goldminds quickly began draining, he switched to compounding the one he had swallowed earlier. That made him feel even better.

He realized that he had slid across the ground at some point, leaving a lengthy skid mark in the ground. He could see the back of Fred, who was standing close to where he had been hit. Nearby, some people were fighting each other. There also seemed to be a concerning amount of dead bodies without obvious signs of injury. As he began struggling to breathe, he realized why.

Guess I’ll be burning cadmium too then, he thought, popping his only metalmind of that kind he had into his mouth. As he sat there, an aggrieve looking warrior charged in his direction. Mace instinctively tapped speed, getting to his feet and off to the side of the woman in a second. He stuck out his foot, tripping her, then slammed his hand down on her skull. He was about to follow the hit up with a flurry of punches when he felt his reserve dry up.

Cursing, he ran her through with a hastily grown aether spike instead. In the time it took him to do that, another three assailants, also female, had approached him. They were armed with knives, short glass ones, the kind used by hazekillers on a budget.

“Can’t we talk about this first?” Mace asked, stalling for time. But he only got as far as making an aether gauntlet when the ladies began advancing. He had to admit that they did a good job of it. They made a quickly shrinking equilateral triangle, keeping him surrounded. Unfortunately for them, Mace was not planning on running away.

He lashed out at the tallest one. They had obviously trained for that scenario because she raised her weapons defensively while the others lashed out with theirs. As their blades sliced the back of his legs, Mace grabbed the hand of his target and squeezed. Increasing his weight and strength, he then swung her by the arm off her feet and into the person on his left. The two of them tumbled at an awkward angle to the street and did not get back up again.

Mace’s eyes teared up as he felt something cut into the small of his back and twist. “Ma’am,” Mace said, clenching his teeth, “Kindly remove-” He jammed his elbow backwards, catching her off-guard. He then spun to face her. She punched him in the nose.

He blocked the next punch with his armored hand, using the opportunity to simultaneously pull the knife out of his back. With interest, he noted that the one he held was not glass like the others. It appeared to be made of crystal.

Confirming his suspicions, the woman used the momentary lull to pull a large sword from the bag on her back. It too was made of crystal. “You better not have killed them,” she growled, then sliced downward with the blade, aiming to cleave him down the middle.

Mace jerked his head to the side, catching it on his shoulder. It cut deeper than he had thought it would. “No,” he said as he pinched the blade with his hands, holding it still despite her attempts to out-muscle him and wrest it from his grasp.  

“No. They’re not dead.” He suddenly pushed the blade forward, knocking the woman off-balance. He flicked his hands, moving the sword so the hilt caught her in the jaw.

He lumbered towards his attacker, grabbing her by the neck and raising her into the air, with the dramatic flair of a classical evil villain. “I hate killing when I don’t know why I’m doing it. So they will live. But you... you I have a reason to harm.”

He probed the back of her neck until he found what he was looking for. The woman’s struggles became increasingly frantic as she realized what he was about to do. For the first time, Mace saw fear in her eyes as she squirmed, scratching at his arm and flailing her legs. With resolve, he met her gaze. Slowly, he began to tap his index finger on her fleshstone. His beats fell harder and harder each time. Fueled by magical strength and natural adrenaline, it only took a moment for the crystal to begin to yield. Just a hairline crack at first, but after another hit the break doubled in size.

Then Mace drew a Tia card from his pocket and slammed it into her chest. The woman disappeared. When he turned around, he noted with satisfaction that the assailants he had dropped earlier had wisely decided to run away.

“Anyone else?” he shouted, startling an assassin who had been trying to sneak up on him. “And is there anyone here from TUBA? I’m having trouble deciding who to punch.”

Edited January 17, 2019 by Archer

[Grey Knight]

10 hours ago, Archer said:

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Gancho, if you want to have Fred get hit, just RP that Mace only blocked some of the shots. I hope I didn't mess up anything for you. 

 

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Archer? I, uh, already blocked the shots 

Great post though!

 

[Archer]

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Well then. Guess I came by for nothing.  I'm not sure how I missed seeing your dramatic block, but you're right. I'll change my version to be he blocked an unrelated shot that a previously mentioned NPC fired. Not as dramatic, but that's what I get for skimming. Sorry about that. 

 

[MacThorstenson]

Mack watched carefully as his ice bolt was blocked. He wasn’t meant for this. He didn’t know how to fight. 

Then the crusade came. 

Mack breathed a sigh of relief, he was done. Making sure to keep and eye on the combatents, Mack carefully walked near a dark alley, intending to set the rest of the fight out. 

He was severely outmatched and it wouldn’t have been good for him to die, not today. He was too good for that. 

[xinoehp512]

Rekaerb watched the fighting dissolve into chaos, helpless to do anything. He couldn't resist the opening of the barrier. But he didn't want to help, either. All he could do was wait, and hope that when Voidus was released, things wouldn't be too horrible.

Suddenly, he had an idea. He pulled his sensor out of his pocket and selected "pineapple".

He nodded in satisfaction. There were none within distance to be any danger. He breathed a sigh of relief. That could have been bad.

[Archer]

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Ha! I scared away Mac! (That's going in my eulogy, even if the so-called 'historical record' disagrees. ) And now, more senseless violence. 

Hypothesis: success.

Mace fell into a fencing stance, leading with his right leg, one hidden from view as it rested on his hip, the other pointing an amber-coloured pick at his opponent. The man he was squaring off against, a heavily armoured cadmium misting, twitched nervously.

Twenty centimeters until he begins burning, Mace deduced.

Mace had been studying the man as he had razed his way across the battlefield. His strategy was crude, but effective. The misting was bait. He lured people close enough to trap them in a slow bubble. Then his partner, the wiry man with a machine gun who was trying his best to look as if he had not noticed Mace as he pretending to reload his machine gun a short ways away, would open fire on them.

Mace had to admit it was a good way to tag-team. Seemingly counter-intuitively the gunner would aim at his partner, but the bubble would disperse the bullets and ultimately some would find their way into the flesh of their true target.

Some will hit him too. But hence the armour. Mace loved tapping his zincminds. It made everything seem so obvious. But now it’s time to fill one of my bands.

Mace pulled his arm back, like a pitcher about to throw a baseball. He started growing an aether ball, making sure he left some weak spots so it would crack easily. As he did so, he began filling his steelmind.

Almost immediately, man with the machine gun opened fire. But instead of dispersing like the man expected them to, most of his shots slammed into the back of his partner. He fell with a grunt. Capitalizing on the man’s shock, Mace stopped storing speed and threw the ball he had made at him. It hit him in the chest, shattering. While his opponent was dazed, Mace covered the distance between them and took him down with a hard right-hook. 

Result: hypothesis confirmed.

Mace then swallowed his empty zincmind and got to work randomly messing with the emotions of the people around him. He had time to kill. 

[MacThorstenson]

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You scared away Mack, not Mac . Please get the spelling right in your eulogy.

No one scares away Mac*

*except voidus.

@Archer

Edited January 17, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[Archer]

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Why? It's not like there's a dozen people with a similar name... 

For those of you keeping track at home, that's twice I've messed up today. I hope Kidpen shows up before I get to three. 

One of Mace's targets, a tall man in bland-coloured robes, burst into tears as he was rioted. Mace took pity on him and let him go. It was weird seeing a grown man cry in the middle of battle. 

I should stick to punching people, he thought. It's much fairer. 

[+Ark1002]

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Is the legion of marines for or against the GBs? I couldn't tell.

@Grey Knight

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18 hours ago, MetaTerminal said:

As the Dakhor sprinted towards him and went to grab his leg, Alum summoned Pyrus again in his left hand and swung it at the monk’s arms. Sixty-four.

@Ark1002

Yeah, that was what it was.

The monk felt the shardblade hit one arm, and it start to cut in. Slowly, but it hurt like hell. He ripped it out of the way, his arm nearly useless, and grabbed at the arm holding the blade, using his enhanced speed and strength to stay out of its way, to grab it, and again, to twist.

[Grey Knight]

11 minutes ago, Ark1002 said:

Is the legion of marines for or against the GBs? I couldn't tell.

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Very much against the GBs. Like, every since the BC was founded. 

 

[+Ark1002]

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Huh. Why?

 

[Grey Knight]

2 minutes ago, Ark1002 said:

Huh. Why?

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Well, the first time the Black Crusade every deployed an army was an attempt to kill Mraize's character, Rhazien.

And then we stood guard at a wedding for... some reason.

Then Mraize tried to hire me as an informant. I did it for a while, then got sick of intrigue and lopped of Rhazien's head. (He got better, though.) 

And then GBs, along with every other guild, invaded the Alleycity. Seriously- it was the Black Crusade and the DA against literally everyone else. Facing overwhelming odds, I cheated and threw Chaos into the mix to buy myself time. This, along with the release of super-powered Hemalurgic abominations into the city (Remember the Phoenix? Man, those were good times), directly led to the thermonuking of the city from orbit.

So, yeah- nearly every conflict we've had has been against the Ghostbloods. Mostly due to Mraize doing crazy stuff, and trying to react to it.

 

[+Ark1002]

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Meeker is no longer a GB, so...

And, yeah, I remember those times. I was on the DA side until Drako for some reason attacked me.

 

Edited January 17, 2019 by Ark1002

[I think I am here.]

5 hours ago, Grey Knight said:

Remember the Phoenix? Man, those were good times

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Some things you never forget...

looks into the distance.

 

[Gancho Libre]

5 hours ago, Grey Knight said:

 

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But... you saved Fred, and he's a GB...

Fred gasped. He had head-butted the barrier, and something that shot at him... and now there was a hulking figure with a smoking shield who had apparently just blocked the blast.

'WHAT?'

"Uh..." Fred said, kind of disoriented. "Thanks?" he trailed off as the figure said something, then went off to do his own thing.

Fred would have rubbed his temples if he had arms. He was getting a headache.

'That flash... did it come from the barrier?' he thought. 'No, it can't have. It's just a barrier. Barriers can't shoot at people.' Everything was so fuzzy...

No. The blast must have been from someone trying to stop him. And if that person was willing to kill Fred, then Fred shouldn't do as that person wanted.

Fred stepped back up to the barrier and, shaking aside a feeling that he was doing something incredibly stupid, headbutted it again.

@Voidus

[Voidus]

The barrier flashed again at the impact, several Aons on its surface began to brighten even as the others continued to dim.

"Second intrusion attempt detected. Please clear the area of non-hostiles to prevent civilian casualties." The detainment unit said politely.

Before there was time to even attempt to do such a thing the Aons on the barrier flashed again, moving to the point of impact they let out a concussive burst of energy. Other Aons still built up power, taking longer than usual due to the drain on the Dor but finall Aon Aha and Aon Ehe flashed brightly, joined by an Aon Ene.

A rolling wall of burning fire began to spill out, enveloping any combatants who stood to near the barrier.

[MacThorstenson]

"Merciful Domi," Mack whispered, his Ice Blade hanging limply at his side. 

He stood back in the alley, watching the Aons of the Barrier do its work. The complexity and grace of the entire system was astounding. It drew on astounding amounts of Dor in order to function. 

He wondered in the back of his mind if it were possible to just destroy the barrier by stopping the Dor flow entirely. But no, he needed to stay out of this.

He carefully took a step into the alley, "Lets see if i remember how to do this," walking forward he carefully thought about what he remembered of alley travel. He needed to  [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. 

"Ok, lets see if this works." Mac carefully [REDACTED] and the sky turned to become the deep black of the void. He [REDACTED] again and suddenly it was blue again, and he was in the alley next to the craftsmen base. 

"Good. I just need to get a few things and then I can go see the Queen."

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Sorry if the [REDACTED] detracts from the story. I can't share the secrets behind Alleytravel  

 

[MetaTerminal]

8 hours ago, Ark1002 said:

The monk felt the shardblade hit one arm, and it start to cut in. Slowly, but it hurt like hell. He ripped it out of the way, his arm nearly useless, and grabbed at the arm holding the blade, using his enhanced speed and strength to stay out of its way, to grab it, and again, to twist.

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So his arm is nearly useless or it is useless? If it’s the latter, then I’m assuming you grabbed the Blade-hand with your other arm, which makes this viable.

Alum felt the monk seize his arm and hold it out, beginning to turn it. The Ghostblood’s other arm lolled at his side. Pain sliced up along his joints. A few seconds and his arm would be broken.

Sixty. A minute to live. If he made it that far.

He brought his right hand - the one holding the gun - up, and rammed it once again towards the monk’s neck, pulling the trigger. Misdirection was a classic trick.

 @Ark1002

[+Ark1002]

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No, it was nearly useless. Sorry.

@MetaTerminal

[Gancho Libre]

Fred's face bounced off the barrier as if it had hit a brick wall. Fred had known a couple of those, in his head-butting career. This time, he remembered to flare his Pewter, so his face didn't hurt so much. Thus, he was able to see the barrier's lights shift, some brightening and some dimming.

"Second intrusion attempt detected. Please clear the area of non-hostiles to prevent civilian casualties." A polite voice intoned.

'SECOND intrusion detected?' Fred thought. 'So, the rusting wall DID shoot at me? Since when can walls DO things?'

Fred noticed, then, that a couple of the symbols were glowing a bit more brightly than the others.

'Uh... CASUALTIES?' Fred thought, tensing his leg muscles. 'Aren't those bad?'

An Aon moved along the barrier, right in front of him. 

There was a pause.

And a burst of power shot out from the symbol, launching Fred back.

He flared Pewter instinctively, and the back of his head hit the stone floor.

His vision darkened, but the Pewter stopped his skull from cracking.

However, he was feeling a little sluggish...

He didn't have time to move as the wall of fire ran over him, enveloping and burning him.

---

Spoiler

Riathor smiled. Somehow, he was alive.

And he had a spren.

His cadmium was being used up at a quick rate, a sign that it had been burning for several hours.

In the outside world, months would have passed.

'Riathor...' a voice spoke in his head. 

Riathor froze. 

It wasn't the voice of his spren. She was floating next to his shoulder and looked as confused as he was.

This voice was different. He had only heard it once before.

'Riathor...' the voice repeated, 'It's time for you to leave your bubble. You have work to do,'

6

 

[+Ark1002]

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RIP Fred

 

[Voidus]

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The Dor is spotty at best at this point so people within the AoE feel free to have a convenient gap or weakening in the flamewall that you can dodge through, etc.

 

[Gancho Libre]

Spoiler

Riathor looked around. "Who said that?" he asked aloud.

"Riathor?" his spren floated over to stand in front of his face. "What's wrong?"

"That voice..." Riathor sighed. "Never mind,"

'What do you mean, never mind?' the voice bellowed. 'I'm listening, you know!'

Riathor's spren gasped. She had heard it too.

'You should be nicer to the people you ignore!' the voice continued. 'Anyway, you have to go,'

"Who... who are you?" Riathor's spren asked.

'The same being who you saw before you entered the cadmium bubble, the same being you has led you towards your spren, Riathor. I had thought this time bubble would be a good idea... But never mind that, now. You have to go,'

"I..." Riathor was in the middle of protesting, when a strange, powerful soothing hit him. 

'You do not want to cross me, Riathor,' the voice continued. 'I will guide you, but you must follow,'

Strange things happened on the Other Side of the World.

Riathor's spren was staring at Riathor, expectantly.

"Ok," Riathor said, and established his Cadmium, reached down to his belt of metal vials, and restored his steel.

"Riathor, wait,' his spren said, then grinned mischievously. "Why use steel when you have something... different?"

21

Fred felt the flames roasting him, charring him. Only Pewter kept him alive, and he knew that would soon fail. It was almost gone.

But he didn't notice. He was floating in a void, unable to act. He couldn't act. There was nothing he could do.

He was dying.

Suddenly, he lurched, being pulled by the metals inside of him. Impossible... unless someone had duralumin.

A force yanked Fred out of the fire, dragging him out of the heat and towards a tall, dramatic looking figure who stood uncaring for the fight around him.

The figure gasped in surprise and rushed to where Fred lay.

Fred watched through a pane of glass, unable to act. The figure looked around, at the battle, and knelt down to Fred's ear.

"I'm sorry," the figure said, "And you might be killed, but it's better than remaining here,"

The figure touched Fred on the chest, and immediately, up was down.

---

Riathor watched as the alive, but charred, body zipped away. he did not know how long the Lashing would last, but he knew, somehow, that that person would die if they remained here.

Riathor turned to regard the rest of the battle. He Lashed himself up slightly so that he hovered over the ground. He didn't have any training with Lashings, but somehow... he felt he had a connection with them as if he'd been a Windrunner all his life.

He Lashined himself forward slowly so that he appeared to be flying towards the fight. Then, he burned steel and launched over the first row of fighting bodies, and landed in the middle of them.

This battle had been going on for long enough. He could feel that.

He burned Steel and Pewter.

Then, he burned Duralumin, pushing outwards against every speck of metal visible to him.

9 hours ago, Ark1002 said:

 

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Take that, ark.

 

[+Ark1002]

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Oh. You know what, that's how we resolve me and MetaTerminal's argument. The guns get pushed away.

The Dahkor watched his gun, his belt buckle, everything metal, fly. He felt his own body, felt the very iron in his blood ripping free. He felt pain like never before. This... this had to be the touch of a god. Only a god could do something like this. He shouted, crying out. "Dear Jaddeth, please, what have I done to deserve this? Please, please..." He felt the strength leave him, the iron in his blood coming out of his sides where it could. His bones had iron, but they were too strong to break. He was thrown away. "Please..." And then the fire hit him.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Ark1002