Dark_Stranger

IC--Beat--Gym There was only one way to stay in the fight now; any strike that couldn't be dodged or parried had to be yielded to. It had worked fairly well the first time Door had charged her, but this time he hit Beat more directly. Giving virtually no resistance, she tumbled considerably further than she would have otherwise, but managed to rise almost immediately, ascending dizzily in flight mode as she forced the fuzz from her rattled mind. First things first...she needed her axe back. IC--Sepulchral--Gym [Pit] Sepulchral crouched on the floor of the pit, brooding somewhat. Yielding had been the right thing to do, and this time the phrase was not hollow self-assurance but simple fact. This was no more than a game, and one that was growing less and less to his liking. It was better to be out of it entirely. Deciding to take his mind off the situation he drew a few chisels and a pleasingly-colored rock from the pockets of his cloak and began carving.

IC--Artemus Schadenfreude--Streets "We should probably stick together. Two heads, and all that." Artemus followed Riot toward the hotel, being careful not to actually get any closer to him. As they approached the building, what seemed like a flood of bots came surging out through the nearest door, each with a slimy, organic-looking thing clamped to his head. Huh. I've never actually seen an evil brain in person before, Artemus reflected as he readied himself to disable any that got too close. Unpleasant things, to be sure.

IC--Beat--Gym Door might have had her then, had he not released his grip on the morningstar. The pits melted into the weapon's head by Beat's fingers let her grip it fairly well, and as he charged, she darted her hand around his shield (keeping it out of the way as well as she could with her impaled arm) and jabbed the shaft at his throat. Their combined momentum should make for a nasty strike, even if he did bowl her over.

IC--Artemus Schadenfreude--Streets "That does sound ominous," Artemus admitted, "but not hopeless. There are several other Heroes planetside, right?" IC--Simon Trigger--Sky Something was very wrong. The streets below were deserted except for the occasional brain or drone. When Simon tried calling mission control for a situation update, he got nothing but static in reply. He supposed that the signal could be on the blink, but it was more likely that someone was jamming it. If so, the central tower would be the best place to look for that someone. Simon adjusted his trajectory and headed for the building.

IC--Beat--Gym Reacting through raw instinct, Beat dropped her axe and grabbed the head of the mace as it came at her. Her hand melted into the weapon slightly, decreasing the impact, but she still felt a few bones break and her armor around the contact begin to flake away. That didn't matter, though, because she had gotten within reach of her enemy. Growling, she darted her free a hand toward his face, aiming to catch it in a molten grip and keep it there until he yielded.

IC--Sepulchral--Gym Sepulchral set off toward the pit without reply. He was well aware that he had made the correct choice, as the stakes were so meaningless that a fight against superior numbers would be astoundingly stupid, but simply giving up without a fight rankled all the same. Upon reaching the lip of the enclosure, he rose up into the air and lowered himself into the abyss. IC--Kaboom--Halls As he neared the gym, Kaboom heard the sounds of chaos still emerging from inside. He sighed; the fighting sounded fun, but it all seemed rather pointless, and it was getting in the way of his primary concern at the moment.

IC--Beat--Gym Beat shifted the haft of her axe, blocking the descending mace, and grimaced as bits of metal began flaking off the shaft. Spotting the incoming daggers out of the corner of her eye, she frantically lifted her free arm in a block, and both blades embedded themselves in her forearm. She bit back a scream of pain, and a frustrated curse on top of that. They were wearing her down. She had to get rid of one of them, and fast. With a roar of pain and defiance, she wrenched the entwined axe and morningstar aside, and lunged at Door, channeling plasma into her torso and arms as she surged toward her enemy to enfold him in a burning embrace.

IC--Beat--Gym Tear hadn't been able to stop his attack, but he had compensated for Beat’s sidestep brilliantly. Rather than skittering off her armor, the daggers impacted solidly and punched through. On the positive side, the impact knocked her to the floor, and Door's attack missed her completely. Hissing in pain, she rolled onto her back and jabbed her blazing axe toward Door before he could recover from his missed swing.

IC--Artemus Schadenfreude--Streets "Schadenfreude here. I just landed on this rock with no solid data on what's happening down here, so I figured I should rendezvous with another Hero as soon as possible." He made sure that he was out where Riot could see him clearly, but took note of the other Hero's caution and didn't try to move closer. He had long since gotten used to the fact that Heroes and civilians who didn't know him were often disturbed by his appearance. Besides, if the situation here was as ominous as it felt, this guy could have good reason to be jumpy.

IC--Artemus Schadenfreude--Streets Artemus thankfully managed to land his Pod with a minimum of fuss, setting down in an alley a few blocks from the main hotel. He began sweeping the immediate area, but this didn't seem to be where the action was at; his surroundings were deserted. He grimaced as his attempt to contact mission control was met with empty static. Still, things weren't all bad; his initial plan to meet up with another Hero worked out almost right away. He had barely been on the ground for five minutes when he saw a fellow Hero cautiously making his way down the opposite side of the street a few hundred feet away. Artemus silently signaled with his left arm and began making his way toward the fellow. OOC: Interacting with Riot.

IC--Beat--Gym This time, Beat was watching both her opponents, so she saw Tear's lunge coming. She sidestepped a bit, channeling plasma into her legs to not only blunt the daggers but burn her assailant as well. Given Tear's velocity, he probably wouldn't be able to switch targets in time. IC--Shrapnel--Gym Shrapnel's eyes narrowed, but apart from that she remained motionless and silent.

IC--Beat--Gym Beat saw Door bring up his shield and charge. She dove aside, but even as she did, she knew that he was too close to dodge completely. So when he struck her a glancing blow, she yielded to the force and spun in place, minimalizing the injury. The whole left side of her upper body ached, but she was still on her feet and in one piece. IC--Shrapnel--Gym "Patience," Shrapnel hissed, "is a virtue, you know." She sidestepped two of the projectiles, blocked another with her gauntlet, let a fourth bounce harmlessly of her reinforced shin, and just missed the last one, wincing slightly as it bit into her thigh. Still, she refused to move in, waiting and watching. IC--Sepulchral--Gym The situation had very suddenly taken a turn for the incredibly dangerous. Every aspect of the female's tone and posture seemed to quiver with unspoken threats. Worse, he sensed someone sidling up behind him, nothing but a huge presence at the corner of his vision, carrying the faint but unmistakable scent of plasma. But whether there were two challengers or two hundred, he had no real reason to confront them here and now. "Nowhere in particular; I was simply growing bored with this farcical assignment," he replied to the woman's challenge. "I am no assassin, but as you have clearly already decided that I am, and as I have absolutely no reason to fight the two of you, I shall simply concede immediately and remove myself to the pit. That is what you had in mind, correct?"

IC--Beat--Gym Beat could see the other one charging from the corner of her eye, but the ringleader was just standing there, apparently in shock. It was too perfect to pass up. As Door came within striking distance and began to swing his mace, she spun in a half-circle, making a wide, sweeping strike with her white-hot axe. Her aim was to take down Tear while he was unresponsive, then take down his accomplice with the same strike--hopefully before she herself took the blow that was undoubtedly coming her way. IC--Kaboom--Halls "Sounds good to me. See you in a few, I guess." Kaboom gave a friendly grin before leaving Augustus to his own devices and wandering back in the general direction of the gym. That, he felt, had been some actual, genuine progress toward making a solid ally. He could have skipped for joy.

IC--Artemus Schadenfreude--Above Tranquis VII Artemus had told Zib once or twice that it was devilishly hard trying to fly a Hero Pod with only one actual hand. Both times, Zib had promised to have one modified for his use as soon as possible, but the Tranquis mission was urgent enough that he hadn't had time to check in and see if it was ready yet, with the result that he had fallen considerably behind the crowd and was only just now coming in for landing. They sure are dropping a lot of heroes down here, he reflected as he wrestled with the controls. Whatever's going on, it must be something big. I'll have to get in touch with the rest of the team as soon as possible to get my bearings. That, at least, shouldn't be too much trouble. IC--Simon Trigger--Above Tranquis VII Unlike Artemus, Simon didn't bother landing his Pod. Instead, he aimed it for a soft, looking spot, decelerated a bit, and ejected. As the capsule hit, his thrusters kicked in, leaving him floating some thirty feet off the ground. He quickly jetted out of sight before anyone nefarious could come investigate the landing. OOC: Both open.

OOC: Apologies again for my absence this weekend. I'm back for the forseeable future, though. IC--Kaboom--Halls "Well, I have no plans at the moment, but I get it if you want some time to yourself," Kaboom replied as he and Augustus approached the dorms. IC--Beat--Gym Taking advantage of Tear's distraction, Beat looked around to take stock of the situation. It didn't look especially promising. Flabbergaster and Ipartsa were down, Rose was occupied, and she seemed to be on her own against two opponents who were very nearly as skilled as her, and just as powerful. Door seemed to be waiting for her to make a move, so she decided to oblige him. Taking flight, she shot straight up into the air, then came down at breakneck speed, slightly angled and swinging her plasma laden axe out before her, straight at Tear. With a little luck, he'd be caught off guard, and Door shouldn't be able to reach them before the blow landed. IC--Shrapnel--Gym This was getting ridiculous. Shrapnel made a show of yawning, though she was careful not to let her guard down. IC--Sepulchral--Gym The gym suddenly rang with a cacophony of horrific screams. Sepulchral turned to see the gargantuan Silence Rahkshi subduing a far more skeletal-looking specimen in a nauseating display of clearly calculated savagery. He seethed, both at the notion of descending to such depths over such an ultimately inconsequential situation and at his mistake in assuming that the giant might actually be a morally decent person worth operating alongside. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to strike the mountainous ne'er-do-well down, but judging from his adept technique and sheer size advantage, that route could only end in agonizing failure. Therefore, Sepulchral simply left the area, desperately hoping that the assignment would conclude soon as he trudged toward the outer edges of the gym.

Feel like it took me forever to get here, but I'm ready now! I tried to make sure these guys aren't overpowered, but I know I have trouble with that sometimes, so just tell me if they need toned-down. NAME: Artemus Schadenfreude [Hero] POWERS/ABILITIES: Artemus is permanently bonded with a psychic parasite which is fused to his endoskeleton. It is visible as patches of spikey growth on his armor, and as two flexible bladed protrusions that completely replace his right forearm. This parasite feeds on the energy emitted by active pain receptors, both its host's and those of anyone else it inflicts pain upon, using this energy to grow. Thus, it requires regular "pruning". His chassis is optimized for melee combat, with emphasis on speed and agility. WEAPONS: Artemus no longer carries any weapons, relying instead on the natural blades of his "guest". The tentacles are slightly more durable than his normal armor, and end in razor-sharp spines. They seem to grow almost imperceptibly with every wound he suffers or inflicts (in practice, a debilitating injury would result in perhaps half an inch of growth, and lesser wounds would have substantially lesser results). APPEARANCE: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Nyarlathotep/TBRPG-Characters/artemus_schadenfreude.png BIO: One of Artemus' first training missions involved extracting a villain from his hidey-hole on a remote, unexplored jungle planetoid. Contact with the team was lost, so no one knows exactly what happened next. Suffice to say that Artemus was the only known survivor, picked up by an emergency extraction team several cycles later with no memory of the mission and a strange life form bonded to his internal systems. The parasite could not be extracted without killing its host, so Artemus simply trained to use the creature as a weapon, and Factory staff are careful to remove any mass it gains after each mission to avoid it supplanting his systems completely. Despite his rather morbid affliction, Artemus maintains a fairly optimistic viewpoint. While he will not shy away from admitting the bleakness of a situation, he can almost always come up with some sort of silver lining. He is quite extroverted and enjoys any sort of social activity. NAME: Simon Trigger [Hero] POWERS/ABILITIES: Simon is a fairly standard model, with the exception of his integrated jetpack. While purely average (and, frankly, a bit clumsy) on the ground, he is incredibly fast, agile, and skilled in the air. WEAPONS: Simon has his standard forearm plates replaced with two non-conductive, highly durable modular shield units, each of which boasts a triple-barreled blaster configuration mounted underneath. Each has a large main barrel, which deals considerable damage but has a cooldown of about three seconds, and two secondary barrels which fire pellets of pigment that glow brightly under certain visual filters, marking targets for takedown. APPEARANCE: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Nyarlathotep/TBRPG-Characters/simon_trigger.png BIO: Something of a glory-hound, Simon is a hotshot and doesn't care who knows it. Despite his seemingly shallow attitude and big head, he is fully aware of his position of responsibility, and considers aiding others to be his primary duty. feeding his ego is purely a secondary concern.

IC--Kaboom--Halls "Nah, I think most students just claim an empty one and set up there. I know that's what I did, and no one's told me otherwise before or since." OOC: Thanks for helping me out with that one, guys. EDIT: Signing off for now, be back as soon as I can.

Oh gad, Augustus just asked Kaboom something I don't know So, was there ever any consensus as to how the rooms are assigned? (I know I had Sepulchral and Beat get keys...somewhere in the void before their introductory posts, but the rest of my characters have just gone and claimed one.) EDIT: I'll have to be leaving in around ten minutes, and I'm not at all sure whether I'll be able to post again before Monday or so. Even if I can, I'm sure it won't be much. So, to everyone currently interacting with my characters, my apologies. I'll be back as soon as possible.

IC--Beat--Gym Beat realized she had made a tactical error when she saw the ringleader fling his dagger from the corner of her eye. If she'd been paying proper attention to both of them (which she should have been; Karz all these one-on-one fights were making her soft) she might have been able to dodge it. As it was, she barely had time to start channeling plasma across her back armor before the weapon struck. She had hoped the dagger would be dulled enough by the blistering heat to just bounce off, but it still had enough edge to leave a nasty gouge. She turned to keep a proper eye on both of them, and managed a fierce grin that didn't resemble a grimace of pain too closely. "Okay," she snarled, "which of you pansies wants some?" IC--Kaboom--Halls "Of course," Kaboom grinned, as he resumed walking, this time heading for the dormitory wing. IC--Footwork--Gym [Pit] After a moment, Footwork had worked up enough energy to attempt full sentences. "Well," he whispered, "I can't say this is...how I wanted to get us out of the assignment...but I guess we're more or less safe from anything else..."

OOC: Back for the moment. IC--Beat--Gym Beat wasn't about to stand for this brakas trying to wreck her bolas. She stepped toward him... Oh Karz, the other guy was getting up. Beat swung her axe to intercept his mace, channeling as much plasma as she could into the blade and aiming to slice the enemy's weapon in two. IC--Kaboom--Halls "Well," Kaboom pondered as they approached the infirmary, "there was the boney guy, obviously, but you shouldn't have any trouble spotting him. And the other day I had a close call with this huge silence Rahk. Guy had a spine just like a Takea fin. Those are the only real hostile students I've met, though." He stopped by the infirmary door and glanced inside. "And here's where you go when you inevitably need patching up. I don't see Palma in there right now, but she's pretty much always around." IC--Footwork Gym [Pit] Footwork winced as he heard Snap crashed to the floor nearby. "You...'kay?" he managed to mutter weakly.

IC--Beat--Gym As the ringleader ducked beneath Beat's axe a sudden surge of dread ran through her, and she stumbled backwards instinctively, his daggers nicking her legs as she backpedaled. It didn't make sense; she had been fine a moment ago. Was the guy a Turahk? He didn't look like one, but that meant less than nothing around here. She was pretty sure Flabbergaster was one, but the duo had seemed to be menacing him as well, surely he wouldn't take their side... "Seeing as I'm trying to bail you out, Flabbergaster, a little help would be appreciated!" she snarled, sending her brightly glowing bolas spinning toward her opponent's center of mass. OOC: Just a heads up--I won't be able to post much,if at all, tomorrow. I should hopefully be back Thursday.

IC--Kaboom--Halls "Well...it depends. Most of them are alright, but then you get the occasional whackjob. Just earlier today I ran into this freak who went around covered in bones, and straight-up told me he was gonna hack one of my arms off." He shrugged. "He's an extreme case, of course, but it's a good idea to have a few people you know you can trust, in case your back needs watching." IC--Beat--Gym Beat kept an eye on the guy, spinning her bolas in case he decided to get back up, but her main focus was back on the ringleader. "Hey, buddy!" she roared. "I've got a present for your face!" Not a great quip by any stretch of the imagination, but hopefully the plasma-charged axe whipping toward the guy's head would speak for itself. OOC: Beat is attacking Tear again.

IC--Beat--Gym Beat ducked, and the weapon skipped over her spine, a glancing blow that made her hiss in pain. "Ipartsa! We could use a hand here!" she yelled, swinging her fully-charged bolas toward her opponent's upper body as an improvised flail. The three spread-out weights would make it quite difficult to dodge--and while the kinetic blast should be too localized to reach her, it would sure give the other guy something to think about. IC--Kaboom--Halls "Well, there's the refectory, where you can eat something that passes for food, the dorms, for sleeping and storing your stuff, the library for research...and kind of a courtyard in the middle."

IC--Beat--Gym Beat zeroed in on the one who seemed to be the ringleader. He seemed to be entirely focused on Rose, but it was hard to say for sure--and the two of them were too close together to use the bolas. So she ran a ways past them and then doubled back, swinging her plasma-laden axe toward the aggressor's back. IC--Kaboom--Halls "Palma," Kaboom corrected gently as he set off down the hall. "She's probably the easiest of the staff to find--always in the infirmary patching people up. Apparently she's a Shadow Kraata, so she's more than capable of handling anything that happens in there," he continued, with perhaps the slightest tinge of jealousy. OOC: Beat is attacking Tear.

IC--Kaboom--Halls "Let's see...aside from the gym, the infirmary is probably the most important place in the school, so we can head over there first." IC--Footwork--Gym [Pit] From his current position crumpled on the floor of the pit, Footwork could just see Snap, seemingly trying to escape the prison again. He had to warn her, tell her not to try it, that maniac would surely tear her apart...but all he could manage was a vague mumble of protest. IC--Beat--Gym Through pure serendipity, the Rahkshi Beat's companion had singled out seemed to be menacing Ipartsa--who probably could have given either one of them a decent fight, but two against one was never good odds. And anyone who picked on her friends was grade-A punching bag material, in her book. Grinning, Beat followed the charge, her right hand gripping her axe while the bolas spun in her left. IC--Sepulchral--Gym "Likewise, I'm sure," Sepulchral remarked drily as the Lerahk zipped past. He wasn't even sure she had heard him, but he decided to leave it at that unless she pressed the issue. Given his philosophical evolution, it seemed callous to indulge in unnecessary violence, especially as it would not contribute toward their objective. The remaining assassins were the true issue at hand.