What Happened In Astoria

[Edgedancer he/him]

Next to the Metal Brightdeath grew visibly restless with anticipation, it almost had something endearing. Responding to her music wish, whose lack of specification, while still playing to his tastes, was clearly a sign of her own good taste instead of simply trying to give the right answer, he turned on Holy Diver by Dio.

 

Then she started rambling about her powers. Alright, so that sheet was made out of light, same probably goes for her shirt. A rubbed a bit of it between his fingers, it did certainly have another texture than the sheet she created before. Looking at the corpses again some of them had stab wound, for that the light must have been rather sharp, others had no visible wounds, probably suffocation, which would mean durable enough to withstand clawing, seems like she does have a good deal of control over the material and texture.

 

The other powers she went on about might actually turn out to be bothersome, but before he could really say anything to it Brightdeath went on with some flattery and wanting to be hired. The Metal raised his hands placatory, as he started speaking, “Easy there Sunshine, first we actually check your resume, right?” Without further ado he threw a punch right for her stomach, to see if she really had a danger sense, if not… well no one important would miss her.

 

In the background the strong played strong. Gotta get away, Holy Diver, yeah!

Edited February 28, 2015 by Edgedancer

[Aonar he/him]

Azrael watched the limousine pull to a stop, as the people in the outlying buildings began to gather. After a moment, chaos broke out. Fire flared up, flying in all directions, and then went out.
 
Sparks. Stepping off the tower, he let himself freefall for a moment before his wings snapped open. He glided across the ground, travelling fast enough that he should have blacked out from the forces involved. Approaching the scene, he reoriented himself towards the earth and let his wings dissolve. Azrael crashed to the ground, bending his knees only slightly to absorb the impact.
 
Another man, most likely an Epic, had approached the limousine as everyone else fled. He looked a little surprised at Azrael’s sudden arrival. “I’m sure you’re very important, but I have to deal with something. You can have these two slontzes when I’m done.” A wall of shadow leapt into existence, separating the man from the conversation.
 
Nightshade and Midnight stood before him, looking very smug, and not surprised in the slightest to see him. Azrael was fuming. This was not the plan. “What the Calamity is this, Nightshade? You were supposed to be subtle. Not drive a sparking limo into the centre of their base! You’re lucky Overwatch himself hasn’t been alerted yet. You’re not immortal. You have to remember that.”
 
Azrael turned, taking a closer look at his surroundings. “And what is this?” He asked, pointing out the dead Epic’s broken body. “We’re here to rally support, not kill needlessly.”
 
Shaking his head, he wondered why he still bothered to put up with these people. He spoke again, keeping them from getting a word in edgewise. “You’ve already garnered far more attention than you should have. Now, we not only have to take the tower before Overwatch is informed of our presence - probably a lost cause at this point - but we have to deal with this slontze too. You’d better hope your persuasive powers work on Epics that don’t know you for the slontze you are.”
 
The wall of shadow dissolved, and Azrael turned back towards the new Epic. “Have at it.”

Edited March 14, 2015 by Aonar Faileas

[Voidus]

Hmm... An Inventory, I haven't gotten mine to work properly so I thought it was just bugged for now, could be useful if he's the only one, carry more provisions, ammo, weapons, we could set up a proper base! I wonder how the survival mechanics function?

The Adventurer stiffened abruptly as he sensed a presence suddenly flash into existence on his minimap and then disappear just as suddenly.

"You can call me the Adventurer, we may have bigger problems though, I just picked something up on my minimap. Looks like I spoke too soon when I said I was the only one who had the transportation down, someone just appeared and disappeared in an instant."

The Adventurer scanned his surroundings, the lack of chest-high walls was a bit alarming, almost all shooters had them these days but he supposed the designers wanted to try something different.

"So do we run? Or shall we take cover and ambush them if they come back?"

[Edgedancer he/him]

The Metal landed a clean hit right into her stomach. Brightdeath dissolved into light, which quickly fled the room drawing a luminescent streak through the air. If she physically turned into light to travel, it might not count as actual teleportation but with light as a medium it was probably close enough. Hopefully she simply didn’t have good control over emergency evacuations like that and not actually running away, that would be somewhat of a waste.

 

Awaiting her return, he made sure to be careful with his power, so he didn’t just crush down on her after she appeared. Shortly afterwards she did pop up behind him, hands on hip and drenched in water. That seems like a lack of control then.

 

Ignoring her snappy greeting he leaned in a bit on the screen she created, it showed two men in an overall unusual seeming confrontation, sadly the audio of their conversation was lacking. The people on the screen didn’t seem familiar to him but that didn’t have to mean much. It probably wouldn’t hurt to quickly see if even more new Epics entered town.

 

He gave a short whistle, “Alright, that’s an impressive trick, I’ll give you that. I’ve got no clue who those two are, so feel free to lead the way, unless you want to get a dry pair of pants first. On a different note, rematerializing yourself anywhere near me like that might cause some accidents, if I don’t expect it, meaning you should be a bit careful with that, Sunshine.”

[Sirce Luckwielder he/him]

"So do we run? Or shall we take cover and ambush them if the come back?" The Adventurer asked.

Thinking quickly, Lockvault looked around. "Perhaps we should set up in one of those houses and keep tabs on this area for a bit. If somebody took notice of our skirmish, they probably want to see what was going on. To check our tracks, we should see who noticed us and if they will still follow us." Thinking quickly, he looked at his new teammate. "With your fast-travel, do you think you could get us into that accounting office over there?" He asked, gesturing to a building accross the street and a couple buildings down. "If we can get there without levaing behind tracks, that would make this a lot easier. Once we are there, I can lay down a few defenses that I have stored up."

Hopefully this will all blow over and we won't have a big to-do. In the meantime we had better be prepared.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Jag had just gotten out of the Lightning when Bloody Mary appeared. True to her reputation, she was a sight from a horror movie. She popped out of a pool of blood and raised tendrils of that blood around her. She giggled as she spoke. "My my, what brings the Destructors to our town?”

Jag stood next to his stopped truck and turned his mobile on to keep the others updated and listening to the conversation. "I see our reputation precedes us. Yours does as well. Mary, move aside. You can't beat all of us." She stood stubbornly, staring back at Jag.

"Fire," he mumbled into the mobile to Metalmech. "The rest of you, surround her and open fire," he said. They did as he asked. Desolation sprung out of the Hummer and flew into the sky. If firing on her didn't work, he was supposed to use his wind powers to lift Mary up into the air and keep her off the ground. Sounds of war filled Jag's ears. Blood swirled and shots fired.

[Edgedancer he/him]

It seems that the destructors were quite the stubborn bunch, a bit old fashioned as well looking at their weaponry. Bloody Mary just silently watched as Black Jaguar ordered his troops to attack, seems like it would come down to violence after all. Oh well, their loss.

 

The only thing that worried her was the Epic ascending into the air; she never heard anything about someone like that among their ranks. The newcomer did however still subject to Jaguar’s orders, so he probably wasn’t any stronger than the other Destructors.

 

As most of the vehicles started to move into formation, seemingly trying to surround her, they also opened fire on her, a straightforward attack and a clumsy one. The blood tendrils shoot out towards the fire and spread out to form a wall that would catch all the projectiles. Meanwhile, an additional tendril whipped towards one of the cars, the jeep, trying to surround her. She connected the blood that formed the wall with the tendril, transporting the projectiles that hit the wall to the tendril, causing them to head towards the jeep instead of Mary herself.

 

With the net Mary had built in Astoria, she didn’t want to risk another resurrection. Drawing out more blood to swallow herself, she transported her body back to her pool in the castle. From there she quickly located Deathgale over the flask he carried. Contacting him through it wasn’t quite as efficient as it was with the Metal but that wasn’t a concern right now.

 

A tendril rose from the flask until it was in front of Deathgale’s face, “The Destructors decided to attack us from the south and I get the feeling that there is even more going on in the city, so be a pal, tell Winterspell to get his soldiers ready and come help me in the south.”

 

Not waiting for a response she pulled the tendril back into the flask and poked only her head out of a patch of blood that was a fair distance away from the vehicles but still close enough that she could see everything. Then she raised tendrils from the blood still next to the Destructors and send them at all the vehicles and the Epic in the air.

[Voidus]

The Adventurer smiled at Lockvault's suggestion.

Tracking mechanics? Awesome, devs sure went all out with the realism on this one.

He nodded quickly, reaching out slowly to avoid startling him, he grabbed Lockvaults shoulder and shifted them both back into the sewer before shifting back up through the ground at a slightly different angle, they came out inside the building that Lockvault had mentioned, startling some office workers who tried to run away and remain unnoticed at the same time, resorting to running in a half-crouch and looking utterly ridiculous.

"Something is seriously wrong with the AI here." The Adventurer commented as he watched the scurrying NPCs. "But at least all the buildings are open and there's no stupid lockpicking minigame to get into them."

Carefully opening a window he looked back out to where they'd left from, the street was still empty.

"No one there yet, be careful of the windows, broken glass is always a giveaway." The Adventurer said, years of experience in shooters having prepared him for this encounter.

He pulled his rifle out, checked his stock of ammunition and found it running low.

Blasted game has no ammo anywhere. He thought, quickly scanning the office and finding it devoid of any ammunition. Probably a crafting mechanic or something.

Well he'd just have to make his shots count, try for the headshots. His fast-travel seemed like it would be useful too, he could change positions quickly if he needed and escape if things got too tough.

[Sirce Luckwielder he/him]

"No one there yet. Be careful of the windows, broken glass is always a giveaway," the Adventurer said.

No need for him to worry, I've had my share of experiences with broken glass, Lockvault mused to himself.

"What do you think we should do then? I could set up a camera or we could just open one and just stand by it? Would that give too much of a silhouette or do you think we are good?"

"Just make sure you're hidden, I'll notice when they appear, I've got a decent minimap that can show enemy positions. I don't suppose you have any ammunition for a rifle like this in your inventory do you? Seems to be running scarce around here."

Looking at the model, Lockvault pulled a box full of 50 shells out of Storage, dropping it right in the Adventurer's hands. Then loocking around the room, he started placing tables, chairs, filing cabinets, ans computers in his Storage, clearing up the space. Finally he pulled out a few guns and two combat knives. He had two Immerling 27s strapped to his legs with another two tucked into his belt holsters. The knives he placed in two shoulder holsters with the handles pointing down.Finally, he pulled out a Terringul sniper rifle. Even though he could simply Place bullets into the air, having the guns would serve a dual purpose. Firstly, he could fill the air with even more lead. Secondly, he could keep his power secret until the when he needed it. The element of suprise was always best kept sharp when ambushing a potential enemy.

Turning back around, ready to offer the Adventurer a better gun, he noticed the his companion was having a bit of trouble geting his gun reloaded.

[Edgedancer he/him]

Deathgale was on his way to Sonata, when a tendril of blood lifted itself in front of his face. “The Destructors decided to attack us from the south and I get the feeling that there is even more going on in the city, so be a pal, tell Winterspell to get his soldiers ready and come help me in the south.”

It seems that the disturbances he worried about finally showed themselves, now on to deal with them quickly.

 

Calmly, he pulled on his cigarette and exhaled the smoke. Flowing along with the smoke he dissolved his body and guided himself towards Icesteel Keep.

 

He couldn’t deny the mastery that went into Winterspell’s residence as he approached it. Standing on the cloud of smoke he carried with him, he reformed his body. Going from his normal schedule, Winterspell should currently be behind the immaculate wall segment in front of him.

 

Blades of air cut right through it, making an opening for Deathgale to enter through.

He calmly announced his presence as he stepped on the ice floor, “Winterspell, something happened, so we’ll need to put you to work.”

[Sirce Luckwielder he/him]

Winterspell walked down the stairway, Lightwrought draping her arm through his. After the first minutes of the sunset, they had decided to come down to dinner.

As he walked into the room, he saw that the servants had done their best. Most of them had left, but two stood on one side of the room, watching to see if anything was needed by their masters. Kinesis, Winterspell’s personal bodyguard stood against the door, keeping watch over everything going on.

Looking to the table again, he smiled. Large platters and bowls covered the tablecloth, holding a roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, warm roles, and every spice and sauce that could possibly go along with them. In their cups, a chilled cranberry-pomegranate juice swirled, mixed with lemon juice and slightly carbonated. The crystal-like walls reflected the sunset outside, making an aura in the room of refracted oranges, purples, and reds.

As they walked towards the table, Kineses shouted out that a flying Epic was shooting towards the Keep. Looking over at the wall, Winterspell had just enough time to see a shadow interrupted the aura coming from one wall before the wall tore apart. Being cut from blades of air, the wall toppled to the floor. Since it was meant to be ornamental rather than of the hardness of normal icesteel, it shattered when it hit, throwing shards of ice around the room. Winterspell hurriedly formed a small wall out of water between his wife and the incoming projectiles. Before he had time to form one between himself or any of the servants, the wave of ice shards began tearing through the room. A particularly large one caught him in the upper arm, shattering his shoulder and sending his arm into a thousand pieces. Another shard hit him in the leg, causing him to fall over.

After a couple of disoriented seconds, he willed his missing limbs to become liquid, than moved them across the floor to reform his body. Having a Prime Invincibility was a nice perk of being an Epic, but it still hurt like the devil. Standing up, he surveyed the room. One servant had taken a shard of ice straight into his chest. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. The other one had several small scratches, but was clutching his leg, where a shard could be seen protruding from both sides. Winterspell walked over to the man, melting the ice and reforming the water to close up the wound. The man would survive until he got to a healing Epic, but he wasn't going to like the meantime. Looking over at Kinesis, he noticed that he had stayed alive by teleporting the table in front of him to create a shield against the storm.

Looking towards the wall, he saw Deathgale calmly slide into the room, carried on solid smoke. Scowling with disgust at the other Epics callousness, he looked over to Kinesis and gave him a signal to be at ease. If someone in Lucentia's government had wanted him dead, they would have sent a whole lot more than Deathgale, and he wouldn't be coming in calmly.

Looking at the servants, he saw that one was dead, having been standing right next to the wall when it caved in. The other was holding a small, thin shard that protruded from his thigh. Winterspell quickly melted the ice and reformed it to stop the bleeding. The man wouldn't die, but he was going to be very uncomfortable until a healing Epic got around.

“Winterspell, something happened, so we’ll need to put you to work.” Deathgale's voice boomed through the chamber as if nothing had happened.

Sparks. I can't have a single resting moment from these goons. He could just picture Bloody Mary smiling, telling Deathgale to get him. "Looks to be about the time of Winterspell's favorite moment, the sunset. Deathgale, be a dear and go attack his house. I have some garbage that needs to be taken out. Make sure to destroy as much as possible while you are there."

Cursing himself for having dripped water on her carpet earlier, he turned towards Deathgale. "What kind of work do you have for me? Need to find a lost dog? Have the dishes done?"

"No, the Destructors in the south and probably even more in the city. Although, you are free to wash as many dishes as you please, after doing your actual work."

The Destructors! That does not bode well. Biting off most of the retorts, sarcastic remarks, and insults that he wanted to let loose, Winterspell decided to comply with Deathgale's request. "Fine, yes. Let's get this done. Can't have those vagabonds loose in the city."

Just then, a team of Epics ran into the room, led by the head of Winterspell's guard; Dustdevil. Dustdevil quickly took in the state of the room, then quickly got a healing Epic named Medic to check out the wounded servant.

"Sorry it took us so long sir," Dustdevil apologized. "We had almost no warning before we were attacked." He gave Deathgale a critical look.

"That's fine Captain. Fortunately this wasn't the real attack. It looks like I need to go put down a force of Epics in the South. Do you care to come along?"

"Of course sir. It would be my pleasure."

Winterspell smiled. As much as he gave the outside world the cold shoulder, he was able to keep people at the Keep pretty happy, and it showed.

"First of all, with hostile Epics in the city, I want this place on alert. I will melt all but one of the bridges and fix up the Keep before I leave." With his thoughts, he began to fix the damage done by Deathgale and get some other parts of the Keep ready. Then, glancing over at his wife, he met her approval. "Until further notice, Lightwrought is in charge of the Keep. Secondly, have Disruption set up shifts for the guards. Once everything is under control and shipshape here, send him into the city. Have him keep his mobile handy. If we need him to help us deal with the Destructors, I want him ready. In the meantime he will start looking for other threats. Thirdly, head down to the lower court and raise Blindsight. I think we will be needing to get to the battle fast."

"Of course. Right away." Dustdevil hurriedly left the room.

Kinesis walked up to him, “Permission to join sir, or would you rather me stay with the Keep?

"You may come along if you wish. I think the city will need you more than the Keep will.” Turning to Deathgale, Winterspell decided to give a small retort. "Looks like we are ready to go. Do you want to get there fast or would you rather fly?"

“What do you have in mind?” the Epic asked, calmly taking a puff of his cigarette.

“We will be going down to a room in the lower south court.” I am going to use the water currents to make a cannon that will shoot us anywhere in the city that we want to go. Have your destination picked by the time we get to Blindsight.”

Walking down the stairs with Deathgale and Kinesis in tow, he began to head towards where Blindsight and Dustdevil waited.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Sirce Luckwielder

[Edgedancer he/him]

The tricks Brightdeath kept showing with her light didn’t stop to surprise the Metal. This time it somehow managed to suck out the water from her pants. To actually answer her questions he lifted a hand and spread his thumb and index ginger apart from each other, “For teleporting without prior notice one kilometer away should be safe. Something like a map sounds good and if you’re anything near as impatient as you look feel free to go ahead. I’ll be there fast.”

                      

He really wasn’t about to just let a teleporter he meet minutes ago drag him around like that. Let her be impatient, if she can’t wait for a moment. In case the people she saw still were anywhere near town he would find them just fine.

[Edgedancer he/him]

It seems that the wall Deathgale cut through wasn’t made out of Winterspell’s more durable Icesteel and simply shattered. Some of the servants couldn’t get out of the way and were injured or killed.

Paying them no further mind, he explained the situation to Winterspell, who skipped his usual childishness once he understood the situation.

 

Once Winterspell finished giving orders to his soldiers they started their way to the bottom of the keep. Lightwrought’s little light tricks illuminated the staircase, giving everything a tint somewhere between orange and pink. It was hardly mood appropriate.

 

They meet with Blindsight at the bottom of the castle, just one last layer of ice separating them from the river that would no doubt serve as the launching mechanism for their little journey. Skipping introductions Deathgale started talking, “We need to get to the south border of the city, slightly before point zircon. I would appreciate it, if you make sure your boss actually gets us there.”  

[Voidus]

The Adventurer noticed the presence suddenly appear again, near where he'd been talking to Lockvault before. He struggled to load his rifle with the ammunition Lockvault had provided as he took up a position near the window.

"They're back" He said, voice kept low as he finally managed to finish loading up. "Only one person, right near where we were just standing."

He gestured back down the street to give the direction to his companion.

"So, tactics? I think I can still fast travel during combat so my maneuverability should be pretty good, though I really think the devs need to patch that." The Adventurer continued somewhat critically.

Looking over at Lockvault he noticed that he had a sniper out.

"Woah sweet, you weren't kidding about having an awesome inventory were you? Well that simplifies things we can just camp here and spawn-kill whoever it is every time they appear. Not particularly nice or fair as a tactic but hey, they keep spawning in the same spot they're asking for it."

[mail-mi he/him]

"Fire."

 

That was Metalmech's command. He let loose with each of the tanks, firing round after round towards the bloody woman as he moved them to surround her. It would be nearly impossible for her to dodge the attack.

 

...if she wasn't an Epic, that was. 

 

She blocked every shot with a wall of blood, then, when the wall of blood dropped, she was gone. "Teleporter," Metalmech grumbled. "Of course." He maneuvered the jeep away from Mary's blood tendrils, keeping it and the Commandos inside intact.

 

Nothing happened for a brief second. Then, suddenly, a multitude of red tendrils rose from the pools of blood, headed for Desolation and Metalmech's precious vehicles. He tried shooting them down, but any projectiles just ripped through the blood, not hindering them at all. All Metalmech could do was keep his tanks moving and dodging.

 

He brought his mobile up to his mouth and spoke to Jag. "Jag! How under Calamity's light are we supposed to defeat these things?!"

 

 

The seas were always calm on the Captain's ship.

 

Wandersail was at the helm, steering the boat with the help of Catchwind. She manned (well, womanned) the helm, and Catchwind helped her blow the wind into the sails. 

 

Calico told Wandersail where they were heading. Astoria, Wandersail thought. Dominion of the Diamond Queen. Interesting. She handed the wheel over to Catchwind and quickly looked up the coordiantes of the Astorian port. Navigation was easy when you always knew exactly where you were on the planet.

 

Memorizing the coordinates, she took back the wheel and steered them in the direction of Astoria. This could be our biggest battle yet, she thought. And that meant their entrance had to be grand. 

 

Behind the ship, just inside of her range, but far enough away that it didn't effect the smooth sailing, she started to build up a storm. Their entrance was going to be grand, alright. As the winds grew stronger, Wandersail felt better and better. Using her powers always made her feel strong, feel empowered.

 

Smiling, she steered the ship onwards toward Astoria. 

Edited March 20, 2015 by mail-mi

[Voidus]

Bioterror pulled the last member of the family out of the car, none of them had any physical signs of trauma to their body, he'd simply destroyed their nerve cells in an instant, eliminating their brains and killing them quickly and painlessly. Sometimes he liked to draw out deaths but these puny specimens didn't even deserve that, they'd just happened to have a car that still had some gas in the tank after his bike had run out.

Starting the engine he wished once more that he had a mode of transportation other than driving. He'd tried growing himself some wings once but the levels of modifications he'd needed were just too numerous and too inconveniencing for everyday life. Driving down the empty highway gave him plenty of time to think, he'd decided to move to a bigger city, the smaller towns he'd been visiting lately just couldn't sustain him long enough. Every time he used his abilities he invariably killed a few dozen people and ensured a few dozen more would flee the city, this last town had only lasted him a month after arriving before everyone was either dead or gone.

Well now he was going to find a city, he didn't want to bother with taking one over so one already with a firm leadership, stable population and a few other strong Epics to ensure that things stayed as they were, his services would be invaluable to any ruling Epic of course and they would accept him immediately. Few Epics could kill so many or so quickly as Bioterror could.

He mentally ran through his options as he drove, mostly just looking out the window to watch the ocean and making occasional corrections. He briefly considered continuing on to Portland but then he didn't think there was any firm leadership there, he could just bypass Oregon completely and keep heading down the coast but he really didn't want to make this a long trip. He'd heard good things about Astoria though, home to Lucentia the diamond queen and he was already on the coast so it wouldn't be a long trip.

"Well" Bioterror mused to himself "Can't hurt to check it out, and if it doesn't work out there's plenty of smaller places to keep me amused while I look for somewhere else."

He put in a CD of his preferred driving music and took the turn off to Astoria to the wonderful tunes of Clint Mansell's Lux Aeterna.

[Blackhoof]

Hellfire stood over the cowering Epic, his body armoured in hardened flames. The Epic threw out his hand, and a disk of blue energy flew at Hellfire, only to be swatted out of the way by a club of flames. "You dare..." The Lord of Hell's Rock hissed, his anger a frozen cap on a volcano of rage, "Come HERE???"

The Epic whimpered, gibbering in fear. "W-w-we didn't mean any offence! W-we were just sight-seeing! Always wanted to see Ayers Rock, you know? hehe..."

 

Hellfire looked around the arid top of Uluru, at the scorch-marks splashed like graffiti across the roof of his fortress-city. At the broken and charred bodies of the other three Epics who had attacked along with the one at his feet. At his Earth Epic ally, Banarang-Bamal, and several minor Epics and dozens of his citizens who were just now emerging from their hiding places, to observe the aftermath of the attack. And he was not pleased, nor amused.

 

"Sight-seeing? So you are... tourists?" The Epic nodded furiously, clasping his hands together as if to beg for mercy. Hellfire's eyes blazed with flame and fire shot out of his mouth as he roared, "I HATE TOURISTS!" eliciting a squeek of terror from the minor Epic. Reaching down with tendrils of solid flame, cooled to mere warmth, Hellfire lifted the Epic into the air, and brought him close. "Now...." He sneered, "you said your name was... Discworld?" The Epic nodded slowly, shivering with fear. "I am going to ask you this one question, and you will answer or you will burn." Discworld gulped. Hellfire continued, "Who sent you?"

 

Discworld was confused. No-one had sent him. Why would Hellfire assume otherwise? "Umm..." he stammered, searching for an answer that would please the enraged Fire Epic. "N-no-one sent us.... we-"

"DO NOT LIE TO ME!" Hellfire turned up the temperature of his tentacles, until they seared Discworld's flesh for a second before cooling rapidly again. The minor Epic screamed in pain, struggling to free himself.
When he eventually stopped struggling, Hellfire asked again, "Do not lie to me! NOW WHO SENT YOU? I know you American Epics have been planning on invading my territory, just like your sickening culture had been invading my country for decades before Calamity! You four must be the vanguard of the invasion.... and you will give me your leader so that I can stop you imperialistic swine from ever taking my city!"

 

Discworld's eyes widened as the tirade continued- this man was delusional! Yes, him and his gang had tried to take over Hell's Rock, they had heard that this Australian Epic didn't have a Prime Invincibility and would be easy to defeat. How wrong they had been. But it wasn't some conspiracy, it was just a gang of Epics looking for territory away from the crowded Fractured States. Discworld didn't think that he could convince Hellfire of that though. "Ok! Ok!" Discworld acceded, desperately thinking of a name, any name, to give this lunatic and maybe save his life. "We.... we were sent by.... uh.... Lucentia! The Diamond Queen, in Astoria! She sent us! Now please, spare me, maybe we can work together?"

 

"Lucentia", Hellfire thought to himself, "I have not heard that name before... I will need to investigate." Several seconds passed while Hellfire contemplated what he would do. He needed to teach this... Lucentia a lesson. He needed to stop her from launching any more invasions of his territory, but he didn't have enough Epics for an all-out war. No... a warning shot would have to do. Suddenly he remembered that he still held Discworld in his tendrils, who was looking expectantly and fearfully at him.

 

"An alliance?" Hellfire scoffed. "No, you would serve better as a messenger. Tell your mistress that I said hello, and am coming for her." Discworld relaxed- a messenger? He needed to be alive for that!"

Hellfire turned to one of his minor Epics, and said "Valve, I need you to open a portal to Astoria, have you heard of it?" Valve shook her head, and replied, " No my lord, but I will get your maps and find it." She turned and opened a portal, a vertical hole in the air, and jumped through it. Seconds later, she returned, carrying several maps. "In what state is Astoria?" She asked Discworld. "Um.... uh... Oregon" He hoped.

 

Minutes passed as Valve poured over a map, until she finally yelled "Ah-ha!" and pointed at this tiny dot on Oregon's northern border. "Found it! Shall I open a portal, my lord?" Hellfire nodded, "Yes, directly beneath our friend here. Make sure he gets there in one piece." Discworld smiled. He would live! And of course, get out of Astoria as quickly as possible without delivering the message. Valve complied, and a hole opened beneath the minor Epic, who was still bound in flaming tentacles. "Enjoy your trip," Hellfire smirked, and suddenly turned the tentacles into a full-body cocoon of searing flame, charring every bit of Discworld bar his face down to the bone. He did not even get to scream. Hellfire laughed as he released the blackened skeleton to fall through the portal, and land somewhere in the middle of Astoria.

 

Turning to Valve, Hellfire said, "Close it. Study the map more closely and find a suitable place for me to travel to, on the outskirts of the city, ideally. I will go myself, and deal with this matter as I see fit. Have someone keeping an eye out for me at all times, but I should only be a few days." Turning to the civilians gathered on the mountain-top, Hellfire projected his voice and said, "People of Hell's Rock!  My loyal and beloved subjects. I will soon take my leave of you, for only a few days. My trusted lieutenant, Banarang-Bamal, will act in my place until I return. May you always burn bright, my subjects." His subjects mumbled the customary reply, "And you always provide the light, my master." He loved it.

[Edgedancer he/him]

The Metal took the map, as Brightdeath rushed away. That one really was eager, a lot like an animal let from its leash and let free to play. In a way he had no doubts that she would mess something up.

 

Giving a shrug he left the building himself. According to the map he had to head a couple more streets west. Again he pushed a surge of power against himself, shooting himself into the sky and in the proper direction.

 

Once he came close he changed his trajectory to lower himself. Instead of hitting himself in the opposite direction to stop he used the ground as a landing stripe, sliding over the ground with his feet. Casually he came to a stop in front of Brightdeath. The Epics she showed to him were nowhere to be seen and instead she was attacking some random bystander. “What did I tell you about other people’s property?”  To accompany his question he gave her a forehead flick, only a weak one to keep her from teleporting away again, that send her stumbling a step backwards.

 

A quick scan of their surroundings revealed that the two they were searching for had hidden in a house nearby, both of them taking aim with a rifle. Unimpressed by the little toys, he turned towards the two and raised his hands to his mouth mimicking a scream and instead using his powers to carry his voice to make sure they could hear him, “Hey, you two. Are you going to properly introduce yourself or do I have to drag you out here myself?”

[Sirce Luckwielder he/him]

"So, tactics? I think I can still fast travel during combat so my maneuverability should be pretty good, though I really think the devs need to patch that."

Lockvault began going over a few ideas in his head as the Adventurer turned towards him, noticing his change in ordinance.

"Woah sweet, you weren't kidding about having an awesome inventory were you? Well that simplifies things we can just camp here and spawn-kill whoever it is every time they appear. Not particularly nice or fair as a tactic but hey, they keep spawning in the same spot they're asking for it."

"First of all, your rifle looks good, I don't think we need to change that at all. But if someone gets close, the rifle is going to hinder you as you try to aim. I suggest that you carry at least one pistol and a combat knife." To accompany his ideas, he made dropped a pistol and knife shoulder to arm holster onto the table next to the Adventurer. "You won't need any extra clips for it. Just yell at me and I can refill it from my Inventory, I always have some ammunition ready to drop."

As his companion began to strap the holster to his arm, Lockvault continued tpwith his next idea. "Do you happen to know any army hand signals that we could use? In the din of battle, I have a feeling that it may be hard to communicate and if we need anything, it would be betrer to be prepared."

"The only army signal I know is the general 'move out' signal." To demonstrate, the Adventurer raised his fist beside his head with two fingers straightened. He then crouched and pumped his fist circularly as if he was giving a S.W.A.T. team the go-ahead to move in on a target.

Lockvault stifled a laugh at the ridiculous sight. The Adventurer was funny in his own innocent way. Lockvault felt a small moment of joy watching him, reminding himself of how his younger brother had been before he had died.

"Well, that could be useful, but unless you have anything else, I think we are going to have to stick to just plain English for now."

The Adventurer looked thoughtful for a moment, then turned to Lockvault. "You wouldn't happen to know ASL? My brother was deaf and I learned so we could talk." Making some experimental signs, he smiled. "Looks like the designers went all out on the character motion. It almost makes up for all of the other glitches that they missed."

Looking back in his Memory, Lockvault found a chart of the basic Sign Language alphabet. He had never taken the course himself, but he had a couple of friends who did. He had asked one of them to show him the basic alphabet so he could communicate from across the room in their boring English period.

"I actually do know rudimentary Sign Language, just the basic alphabet, but I am good enough that we won't have a problem communicating."

Seeing the smile on his companion's face, he smiled back, then looked back through the window at the Epic who was down on the street interogating vanillas. As he watched, another Epic flew up beside the first. Placing some binoculars into his hands, Lockvault got a good look at the pair for the first time. He didn't recognize the female, but the other one looked close to a profile he had read before coming to the city. Hopefully he was mistaken, but if he was right, they had somehow attracked the attention of the Metal. Before he could get a better glance to confirm his fears, the supposed Metal turned directly towards where they were hiding.

“Hey, you two. Are you going to properly introduce yourself or do I have to drag you out here myself?”

Turning towards his companion, Lockvault frantically began to sign. The Metal could control sound, so whatever they said would potentially be used against them. Quickly he laid out his plan. If they did decide that going down towards the two Epics, it would help for them to be able to communicate without the Metal catching what they were saying. As an excuse to use it, one of them would need to "play deaf." So long as neither opposing Epic knew ASL, they would have a clear-cut tactic. Having exhausted his fingers, he shook them out and waited for the Adventurer's reply, preparing to place anything of use in the room into Storage.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

 

 

Smasher watched as Bloody Mary disappeared, cursing. Teleporters were sparking difficult to fight. Especially ones with other powers. A missile from the tank shot for his jeep, almost faster than he could react. Smasher yelled and went intangible at the same instant. The blast destroyed the jeep. Only one of his Destructors had managed to roll out in time. The others drowned in their own crimson blood.

Smasher threw forcefields up around the other vehicles and the two flying Epics just before blood hit them. The blood hit the faint blue bubbles and splattered around them. Unlike some other forcefield Epics, Smasher's forcefields had oxygen flow through them. Hawkwing was confused by that and tried to explain why. Smasher just accepted it as his powers and used it to his advantage. The others all stopped inside their bubbles, waiting for Jag's command.
 

"Jag! How the heck are we supposed to defeat these things?!" Metalmech yelled over the mobile.

"Stay calm," Jag responded. "Smasher's protected us from the blood for now. Des and Smasher, you two are our best weapons against her. Create a wall of wind in front of you and push back any blood that comes, Desolation. Try to lift her up and disorient her."

"Smasher, you approach her and attempt to physically harm her. We'll keep her attention on the gunfire. Metalmech, use whatever guns from Smasher's jeep you can salvage to fire at her." Jag ordered the team. They commenced immediately. Smasher went intangible and walked calmly towards Mary as Metalmech drove the jeep around, firing randomly. Desolation used his wind manipulation to keep the blood away from him. He blew it back towards Mary. Hawk reported her location to them as she moved around.

Jag watched this, feeling powerless. The blood could plug his nose and mouth and strangle him before he'd even get close to Mary. Not once since he'd become an Epic had he felt this powerless to affect things. His strength always kept him powerful. Not this time.

Edited March 24, 2015 by Mailliw73

[Blackhoof]

Hellfire smiled as Valve opened a portal. Peering through, he could see that it opened onto a quiet countryside. Well, technically it would always open onto a quiet scene- Valve's portals did not let sounds through. He was dressed in casual, civilian clothes, without his customary cape, or ostentatious costume. It mattered not- he could armour himself in flames relatively quickly, should the need arise. He carried no weapons, either, for he WAS a weapon. He had a plan- sneak in, learn all he could, and then devise a way to punish this Diamond Queen for daring to attack his land.

 

Turning to Valve, he said, "Remember, have someone keeping an eye out for me, in both directions. If I have to find my own way back, because of your idiocy...."

Valve gulped and bowed, "Of c-course not, your majesty! I'll be within earshot at all times!"

Hellfire smiled, "See that you are." With that, he stepped through the portal, and realised that he had been quite wrong about the scene being quiet.

 

He could hear gunshots and loud bangs, somewhere not far off behind him. He turned as the portal closed, and another two small ones opened up very close to the ground. He saw eyes pressed to them, and snickered at the thought of the servants who had to watch through all day and night for him to return. He briefly considered bursting alight to fly over and investigate, but decided that stealth was the best option for now.  Fire would come later.

 

He began jogging to the sounds of battle, seeing a small rise ahead of him. He crouched down, and slowly crawled up it until his eyes were just poking over the crest of the mound. With his heightened senses, he easily saw the details of the skirmish in front of him. Blood everywhere, tendrils of it flailing around like an octopus on a killing spree. Jeeps and armoured vehicles surrounded in forcefields- he hated forcefields- and all were firing. He could not see what at, at first, but then, eyes like a hawk, he spotted a head poking out of the ground.

"What an interesting fight...." He said to himself, and waited, content to watch it unfold.

[Sirce Luckwielder he/him]

Raising Blindsight took longer than Winterspell had expected. As it was a low-key night, the man had retired early to his quarters in the lower levels rather than in the entertainment center. By the time that he was brought into the lower court, Deathgale certainly looked fed up with waiting.

Now the Epic rushed into the room, his white lab coat flapping behind him. To Winterspell's eyes, he looked like he was going to slid straight into the group, and he tensed himself for the impact. At the last moment, Blindsight turned on his heel, using his boots to bring him to an abrupt stop before he hit the already impatient Deathgale. Winterspell flinched. "Cutting it a bit close there, aren't we?"

"Just trying to maximize time sir."

"Of course." Blindsight had the ability to mathimatically compute anything in his head at record speeds. He could see a situation and understand intuitively exactly what would be the optimal way of dealing with it. For traveling to the Distructors, his skills would be invaluable.

Having barely flinched from Blindsight's skid. Desthgale went right into the matter at hand. “We need to get to the south border of the city, slightly before point zircon. I would appreciate it, if you make sure your boss actually gets us there.”

"Oooh, long journey. Very exhiting. So, from the looks of it, there will be four passengers going," he said, counting Dustdevil, Winterspell, Deathgale, and Kinesis.

"Five passengers Blindsight," shouted Disruption, sprinting into the room. "I finished setting up the shifts. I'm glad I caught you before you left. I would rather go with you and finish this fight before I head to the city. Get some action that way, and you know how I hate scout duty."

Winterspell turned to Blindsight, "he may come along too. Another thing, I don't knwo how much water I will need, so calculate an extra 1000 gallons into your equations."

Blindsight's eyes bugged out, his face light up with childlike glee. "Factoring for air resistance, gravity, and weight. Testing out approach vectors and diffusion after landing. The optimal angle of elevation will be pi sixths with a horizontal angle of negative 2 pi fifths. We are 18,473 feet from the entry point horizontally, and seven feet below. That makes the initial velocity at around . . . 826.458 feet per second." (This is actually legit math using calculus. Unfortunately I can't factor in air resistance and weight all that well, but it is pretty close to the real thing.)

Winterspell smiled. "Wonderful. I'm assuming you can place that in my mind with your powers so I can actually achieve what you have just layed out."

"Of course sir. I am sending it to you right now."

Winterspell felt a tingling in the back of his head, then red lines appeared, stretching off into the distance, presumably to Sector Zircon. "Everybody coming, gather close to me, I can keep us having a little bit of air for the journey, but it will run out after about two minutes with five of us in the capsule. Blindsight, thank you for your services, stay close enough to keep me with your equations, but behind a few walls so you don't get hurt."

As the Epic scurried away, Winterspell closed his eyes. First he made a shell of ice around the occupants, binding them in place so they wouldn't all die from the whiplash. Then he focused almost every fiber of his being on the water around him. He swirled it and churned it, driving it faster and faster in a circulatory current. Melting the room that they were in and sealing the door with ice to prevent flooding, Winterspell let the currents carry the capsule, driving it faster and faster. When the forces were almost too much for him to continue to control, he hit the velocity he wanted. With a push and a scream of triumph, the capsule made one last rotation throught the currents, then launched intomthe air, following the trajectory of the red lines. Now that they were in the air, Winterspell was able to relax, he felt the water receding beneath them, a tempest of waves and whirlpools.

Winterspell smiled at the other occupants of the capsule, high on the adrenaline from accomplishing such a feat. After only a few seconds, he felt the water from the sewars with his water sense. He had time to yell a quick "brace yourselves" before he reformed the water around the capsule to slow their landing, keeping the occupants inside from dying on impact.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Sirce Luckwielder

[Blackhoof]

Hellfire was impatient. This fight was taking too long. Only minutes had passed since his arrival, but damnation it, that was too long!

It was time to.... Heat things up. Chuckling at his own pun, Hellfire stood up, and threw his arms out to the side. Fire appeared, sprouting from his hands, his eyes, his very soul, forming hardened, carapace-like plates of spiked armour all over his body. Only his face he left uncovered, although he could cover it in an instant. Within 30 seconds, his armour was complete, and normal flames covered it, dancing around his shoulders and forming a crown at his brow. He was magnificent.

With a cruel smile, he projected flames from his feet and palms, pointing down downwards, giving him the lift to fly. He shot into the air like a rocket, landing on the edge of the skirmish. As he landed he shot an explosive fireball at the ground, causing a loud bang and a huge plume of dust to shoot into the air, covering everything nearby.

The dust settled, and Hellfire yelled, "Now, tell me which of you, if any, serves Queen Lucentia, so I know who to kill!"

It was at this point that something big and blue fell out of the sky.

[Sirce Luckwielder he/him]

Winterspell forced the extra 1000 gallons of water he had brought down, creating a cushion for the impact of the capsule.  As it slid through the water, he began to spin the ball, bringing its kinetic energy down quickly without killing the occupants inside.  To keep everybody from dying from the disorientation, he focused part of his mind on everybody's semicircular canals, keeping that water still would keep their sense of balance straight. Rather than getting disorientated by the spinning, they would just feel their bodies moving, but there would be no ill effects to their minds.

 

As soon as the capsule came to a stop, Winterspell breaking the ice around them down, but adding that to his previous water mass. He quickly formed a clear wall around them so they could survey the scene.  Looking over at Deathgale, he gave him a triumphant look. "I got us here, now what?"

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

"Savior Zero, bless these two." The words were as long and drawn-out as the Financier could make them, as near to chanting as he could manage. Most ministers clipped those words, made them short and sweet before getting to the rest of the ceremony. The One Who Ate Nine expected short and sweet words with a longer ceremony, and the Financier was determined to throw him off. 

 

"Bless the bearer of your image, bless the one with the image of your Prophet." 

 

The groom, who cradled a watermelon, returned the Financier's glance with a smile. It seemed a tad forced, but at least he was smiling. His bride's smile was more genuine—but then again, the zucchini she carried was far lighter than a watermelon. The Financier took a candle from where the toilet used to be and lit it. 

 

"May their love catch like sparks to tinder." 

 

He raised the candle over his head. The woman let out a small gasp as the flame nearly brushed the dry wood, her groom releasing a sigh of relief as the Financier lowered the flame. Both smiled at him, their grins far more relaxed than they were. 

 

"May their burning love incinerate every seventh man, may every seventh child be destroyed." 

 

The bride cleared her throat. "We, er, don't plan on having that many children." 

 

"This is excellent." He chanted those words, although they weren't part of the ceremony. The One despised chanting. While wearing the Diamond Queen's form, the One had once threatened to murder him if he didn't cease his chanting at once. He had heeded her warning, but filed the information away for later. "A seventh son may bring much devastation to the land." 

 

"Understood." The groom shifted the watermelon's weight. "It'll be just the two of us for a while, I promise." 

 

Two. Only two, two who understood the dangers and snares posed by the One. Two who hadn't dropped their sacred images throughout the entire ceremony. Two who had not once complained of a wedding held in the most sacred place in Astoria. Two who had never asked why it didn't smell in there, who simply had faith that the Financier would lead their marriage toward the path of righteousness. 

 

Beaming, the Financier set the candle down and, placing a hand on each of their shoulders, gave them the highest blessing he knew. "May your life as two lead you to a conclusion of Zero. May Our Savior make you like himself." 

 

The couple traded puzzled glances. "Do…do you mean," the bride began, "that you want us to die and for no one to ever find our bodies?" 

 

He beamed again. "Yes! Exactly! There is no better conclusion to a life lived beneath Savior Zero." 

 

"Right. Um, thanks. Great…great wedding."