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Raquar
Ikkitousen
Posts: 108
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:28 pm
Location: Hiding in the shadows

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Raquar » Thu Aug 07, 2008 7:36 am

The next door made almost no sense at all. This clue seemed to be even more cryptic than the last set, and that didn’t bode well at all. After sitting and contemplating and coming up with a multitude of useless ideas. He determined that the wording and outfitting of the code made it so each line referred to a different digit of the code, but that was about it. If his intuition was correct it meant that the second number would be 5, but damned if he knew what any of the others were. He leaned his back against the wall to think, and to some degree to be useless. He closed his eyes to think for a little bit when the sound of a flashmail caused them to open again.
To: Freedom Fighters
From: Dien
Subject: Of Doors and Monsters
Message: So with the help of Nighthand, I’ve figured it out. Every time we make a bad guess at the doors, three more monsters will spawn in the next room. At the very least, I’d suggest that we hold off on guessing until we can get the number of monsters down to a more manageable level, and then guess sparingly only when we’re sure that we’ve got the right answer. This should make it easier for everyone involved.

I figure if we have a handful of fighters in the monster room, they can spawnkill the monsters that may appear from bad guesses. That means, though, that we should slow down our guesses, because if they’re wrong, we want to give our clean up crew some time to deal with them.

So in other words, if someone has just taken a swing at it, wait a minute or two before stepping up to the plate so the monsters that erupted can be dealt with.
That for the moment halted his guesswork. He was perfectly content with letting everybody else guess. That way he wouldn’t have to be personally responsible for any of the wrong answers he was sure he would come up with. Besides, fighting wasn’t his forte and he would be glad to avoid the other room if he could.

He began to open up the thinking processes again when another flashmail pinged in. Apparently it was melting pot time for the riddle.
To: Party
From: Lighteria
Subject: Lighteria’s Thoughtpad
Message: 310,991,144 <- First three answers

3 10 9 9 11 4 4 (Straight number to letter translation?)
C j I I k d d

4 19 9 (Add up the numbers in each answer?)
d s I

Number Pad? 1 & 0 have no letters!!!

Three One Zero
Nine Nine One
One Four Four (I see no pattern! This really freaking sucks!!!)
He had already tried the converting the numbers to letters via alphabet and via Roman Numerals but he was unable to make sense of the gibberish that took place. So he decided to drop it. Soon after closing Light’s message another one came in, this one from Raven.
To: Freedom Fighters
From: Raven
Subject: Riddle
Message: Lighteria may be on the right track, but I don't think it's quite that simple. He only used the first three door codes, and I think it may require all 5 to be used somehow.

The codes so far, in order, have been 310, 991, 144, 312, and 861.

Also, when it says numbers as letters, I don't think it's quite as simple as Lighteria is making it out to be either. Representing the alphabet as numbers from 1 to 26 is the simple way, but there is another method. ASCII code. Does anyone here have a decent grasp of it? I know enough to know what it is and what it's used for, but not well enough to be able to put it to use to hazard a guess. However, either you find the letter that corresponds to the previous codes and it spells something, or some other method. I leave that up to those who know it better than I do.
He didn’t have a damn clue what ASCII code was. All this was starting to make his brain hurt however, and that meant that his mind was wandering. To things like if you timed the flashmail pings right could you actually make a beat, and or a song out of it? It might be worth a try later. A moment later, another response came. The boy blew out a sigh.
To: Freedom Fighters
From: Dien
Subject: Re: Riddle
Message: As something of an accomplished hacker in my days of yore, I should hope that I know ASCII code well enough to tell you that those numbers don’t mean a thing when translated—that was one of the first places my mind went, along with a few interpretations that extrapolated and way overcomplicated things (which I tend to do anyways, but moving on). Perhaps we’re going about this too mathematically…I’ve got another idea that I’m going to look into, involving counting the letters. With my luck, it really is something that simple.
To be brutally honest, it was another useless piece of information. He didn’t understand much of what the Blademaster said and he was starting to lose interest. It was too hard to concentrate with a constant stream of DING! going off every 15 seconds. Speak of the devil.
To: Freedom Fighters
From: Asgard
Subject: The Door
Message: Even though it is a good idea to go off on knowledgeable codes of what could possibly divine the numbers that make up this door, is the fact that at this moment in time, the puzzle does not specifically indicate the use of it. We have to keep it inside the realm that it allows.

That being said, I think there's one thing that I can discern from this question. That thing is that it is in the same format of the first question: Three lines of questioning, along with a digit per line. I have figured that the middle digit is 6, due to the fact that there were five doors before the one where I currently stand, along with the first door into the conference room. The first digit eludes me completely for now, with 'Numbers as Words, Counted in Cycle' but the bigger problem is that there is no mathematical way of calculating the last digit.

'Guess', which implies, in my point of view, that we have to figure the first digit out, and then take a one in ten chance of getting the last digit right, or until the puzzle decides to clue us into its identity.

Anyways, I'm putting in a new entry. It is completely against my above stated theory, but it is the only thing that could prove to me that the format was unlike the first question. I am aware of the fact that monsters spawn in the testing chambers for every wrong answer. But we don't have all the time in the world anymore. Every five minutes, I'm going to put in a new answer, or unless anyone from the testing grounds says it is alright to go ahead. If you need any help subduing the monsters, I will hurry to the Testing Area.

- Asgard
This information was equally useless to him. He understood it, but it was mostly stuff he had already figured out. Damn, would this barrage of annoyance never cease? Was he doomed to wallow in futile pings for the rest of his life? Well no, but it was kind of funny to think about it once in a while. A laugh now and then served to break the monotony quite well. He took this opportunity to glance back at the keypad, and then realized that the clue had change. The new clue didn’t help much, and still didn’t make much sense to him, but then maybe somebody else would make heads and tails of it.

And to the rescue was Batman’s Brainchild. Dien after some concentrated effort finally came up with the solution. Good for Brainman. He didn’t have to wait for long before the slayer half of the group caught back up with them. And with they all proceeded into the weirdest damn classroom he had ever seen. There were desks, a closet, a door, something that could pass for lab tables and . . . a gun. And a cool looking gun at that. That must’ve been the contraption that Sheena referred to that ripped the shit off Nall’s chest. Rather beastly in an honest opinion. He would go play with it later. For now, he went to the desks to look around.

There were beakers, and test tubes, and plates, and tools, and other weird shit. The plates appeared to be mostly normal, just scratches and serial numbers and shit. But the full beakers and tubes got his attention. There were three that stood out, one that smelled sweet, one that singed his nostril hairs. And one that was a weird green thing that looked like it would radioactively glow in the dark. Like the blob. Only less blobbish. Well as any good chemistry student would do, it was time to mix shit.

The first, a little sweet and a little burn. The resulting mixture sizzled before exploding sending glass shrapnel everywhere and freezing over the surface of one of the desks. It was slick to the touch, and strangely chilling. It also felt slightly dry. If he had to guess, his tongue would probably stick to it if he licked it. That wouldn’t do however, the monkey bars would have to wait till later. Next it was sweet and green. This combination made the liquid stir a bit before becoming something that looked startling like water. A quick sample verified that it was indeed water. And even the addition of burn to it did absolutely nothing. With nothing to go off of, he moved next to burn and green, a mixture that thrashed quite vigorously before evaporating into the air. It was almost like weed. The boy staggered a bit as the fumes shot through his system, causing him to sway and a fog to envelop his brain. Whoooooooooo. That was fun. It was like a high, only not, but still kind of invigorating in its own strange way.

The last thing to do was to try and mix all three. Pouring the remnants of the three substances into a single unused beaker created an effect he didn’t expect. Apparently the viscosity levels of the three subjects were so different that as of such it was like oil and water, and some mystery liquid. He thought back to a time that seemed like a different lifetime ago. If he remembered correctly, something that could overcome viscosity was heat. Rifling through his vest he grabbed a necessary scroll and crushed it, sending fireballs to encircle the desks. Unfortunately, the reaction was like the lighting of a cigarette with a hand grenade. The explosion rocked the left half of the room and anything else on the desks was destroyed. If not by the fireballs themselves, then by the creaking and crashing of the desk onto the Long Arm’s toes. Fucking hell that hurt. Hopping and scowling, but refraining from swearing he moved onto something else, feeling slightly guilty about the rampant destruction of stuff that might’ve been useful for something. Oh well, such was life it seemed. At least he received his ample punishment by way of nearly sliced off toes. Maybe he would learn one day. Or maybe not.

He moved next to the gun. After examining it, and blatantly ignoring the blades and sharp pokey things around, he located one switch that was larger than the others and might’ve been a power switch. Grinning, and standing in front of what he assumed would be the barrel, he flicked the switch. It vibrated for a second before flicking back off. Frowning, the boy flipped it back on, but held his finger under the switch. The gun hummed and vibrated for the length of the duration that his finger propped the lever up but that was all. Disappointed he moved on towards the closet where another number pad awaited.

No listed clues made him grin as a morbidly ironic idea popped up. Grinning he punched in the numbers 911. Nothing seemed to happen, but the humor in it made it worthwhile. It couldn’t hurt. Right?
Level 28 Long Arm
Archspear, Newt Necklace, Smith's Gloves, Wyrm Scale, Kuja's Thong Dress
EXP: [700/1000]

WISHLIST
Levels
Weapons: - All
Armor: Head - Scarab Earring
Body - Nothing until Mid 30's. Ninja Garb Hand - Nothing until Mid 30's. Leg - Nothing until Mid 30's.
Items: Cooked Biles, Darkness Scrolls (Any and All)

Lord Canti
Exalted Player
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Lord Canti » Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:33 pm

(The World, upside down, was a funny place to be, or at least that's what Canti thought of it as he stood on the ceiling. The rules being bent with his power of flight, he was effectively defying gravity now. The was no actually wind in the game, or laws of aerodynamics. The law was, simply, that if he had wings, he could fly. It didn't say how. He also didn't feel blood rushing uncomfortably to his head, which was actually kind of odd. Because physical reactions and feelings were in The World so long as he was trapped in it. So, even though he technically didn't have blood, his body here should still have reacted with it, because gravity DID still exist. Canti assumed, therefore, that this was a pleasant side-effect of the flight power, and thought about it no more. He took a drag on his cigarette and watched the fight below, patiently getting his health back to full. Most of it was finished by now. They didn't have giant loads of monsters, but a mere smattering. Given that, he was taking a much-needed break. He needed to keep himself in check. Not only did he have this habit of overdoing things and then exhausting himself, but he had the virus to consider. Now that it was more active, and terrifying, might it try to take him in a moment of weakness?)

Canti: Well, if it does, I'll have to be ready for it. I- Hey!

(Did you ever have one of those days where there was a cut on your arm or something, and you didn't notice or feel anything from it until you actually saw the blood? And then, when you DO notice, it's a real pain? Well, while Canti wasn't looking, his feet had grown in talons and were clinging to the ceiling like a bat. He hadn't even noticed because he was in 'flight' and not feeling anything at all. Of course, now...when he ripped clean of the ceiling, everything returned to normal. It was really annoying, though. Did his moments of weakness include break-time, now? That'd really suck...)

Say, Canti?

Canti: What's up, Rey? Besides me, I mean.

You're going to laugh at this.

Canti: I've been listening to funny music the past five minutes. What've you got?

Some of the hospital staff and I have a bet going, on whether or not you're going to wake up at all. Of course, I can't tell them that my 'therapy' is doing what it's doing, but I thought a little money on the side couldn't hurt.

(She was right. Canti DID laugh. He doubled over, cackling at the ceiling before almost losing concentration. He cooled down once he righted himself and kept from falling to the ground.)

Canti: I needed that.

Anything else I can do for you?

Canti: Put me down for $50?

Sure.

(That being settled, he finished off his cigarette and resumed watching the activity down at the bottom. Not much was actually going on, though... In fact, at least a couple people had left. Given that there were few monsters left here - or none at all - and they had no further access, it seemed that the 'trap' was more complex than realized before. That is, they couldn't proceed without access to the other door, apparently. And if they had focused THERE...then the sheer amount of beasties in this room would've been like the dragon nest... That wasn't a thought he wished to entertain too much of. So instead, he looked over his flash mails. There were a TON. Well, not that, but they clearly added up in terms of text. Canti reviewed them with some annoyance. Mostly puzzle clues for the other hallway. He was no great mathematician, though, so he didn't bother. The link between the door and this room had been made. Good, good. But it also looked as though things were going smoothly enough that they could do without him HERE. Nothing further was going to occur. Canti swooped down just as he heard Senna make a general call.)

“Shout if you need a heal!”

Canti: No thanks, I'm taking five.

(He said this in passing as he headed out the door without even touching the ground. Funny thing... Canti remembered Senna not being in the room for a while, but he didn't see her leave. He had an excellent vantage point, but still... Ah well, probably not worth thinking over right now. He came out to the three-way split and saw no change there, so it was off to the other room, landing nearby to see that access to several doors had been made in the 'Earth' area. Finally, the door came open and they were able to walk in. Canti stepped in with the rest of them, looking for trouble, but...not finding any. It was a lab, as advertised, and apparently unmanned. Of course, the Twin Blade kept a wary eye, right up until he heard Sheena. That was... Okay, it was currently the weirdest thing that he'd ever laid eyes on. There was bound to be more, but this mutant sci-fi mad scientist's machine was certainly going to rank up there for a while. Sheena seemed to have some idea on what it was, and a pinging flash mail indicated that she wanted to get people's attention about it. In other words, he'd learn more in due time. With that going on, Canti decided to look over the lab as Raquar passed him up. He was looking around, same as him. Loosing sight of him and his antics for a while, he decided to work on his own.)

Canti: Let's see... These labels don't mean a thing to me, but the chemicals must do SOMETHING...

(The Twin Blade noticed that Raquar had been messing with a few and eyed a few of beakers, bottles, and tubes with some interest. Tubes. Great... The lab was a microcosmic euphemism for the internet. Canti slyly snuck a few of the sealed chemical containers into his inventory. Okay, he took ALOT of them. Haven't you ever wanted your very own mad scientist's chemistry set? Well...he did! After that, he paid more attention to the conversation that Nighthand and Sheena were having. The weird gun-thing they had apparently extracted Twilight items, which shocked the hell out of Canti. It was their first indication that Twilight could ever be removed in the first place! Going off to think this over, he spotted...the closet.)

Canti: A closet with a number pad. Hmmm...

(He tried the number...666. Bzzzt. I'm sorry, we're closed.)

Canti: Oh, come on... It worked for Snake Plisskin!

(Okay, another try. 007. No, Mr. Bond. We expect you to sit there like a lump and figure this one out when hell freezes over. Hmmm...pi? 314, that is? Nope. Okay, how about a random number? 412. Nata'. Hmmm... 777? 911? No and double-no. Of course, Canti hadn't seen Raquar punch that one in, but it didn't matter. None of his guesses were right. Okay...)

Flash Mail!
TO: The Party
FROM: Canti

There's an unmarked closet in the lab with a keypad like the one for the main door. No clues, no tricks, just a code-thingy. Numbers that it ISN'T: 666, 007, 314, 412, 777, and 911. That is all.


(After that, the Twin Blade returned to Nighthand and Sheena by the gun.)

Canti: We should take this, if possible. Not only is it better off in our hands, but what if it can be reconfigured? Maybe it could remove the virus entirely and let us go. Then, we could hand it off to the Admins and "Have fun stomping the bad guys".
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.

Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.

Phoenix512
Exalted Player
Posts: 304
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:42 pm

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Phoenix512 » Fri Aug 08, 2008 1:19 am

Dien managed to figure out the last combination to open up the doorway to the lab area. The lab area was exactly as you would think of a lab but it was not a mechanical lab but more of a chemistry lab. But Phoenix did not see the entire area until he saw there was a mechanical lab after all. Just as it did to Sheena, Phoenix immediately noticed the grotesque gun. How could anyone wield that with any degree? It would probably be heavy and hard to aim. The target would have been standing still if anyone would want to get a direct hit from them.

The blademaster listened to what Sheena about the gun and how Nighthand was slow to get the purpose of the gun. He immediately understood about the true purpose of the gun and its very deadly potential. The gun itself reminded him of an old manga that he read once. The manga involved a teenager finding some alien artifact that merges with him to become an alien super solider. The artifact was so powerful that it can heal the host even from the extreme injuries. The only way to defeat it was to remove the artifact from the host which another alien artifact was found that has the ability to remove it. Once the artifact is separated from the host, the artifact could bond with someone else like the user of the gun for instance.

Suddenly, Phoenix heard an explosion coming from the desks with the chemicals. Once again, Raquar managed to nearly blow himself. That boy should learn to stop touching things. Then he decided to play with the gun for a bit which surprising that he did not injure someone or himself in the process. Like a disappointed kid, he put the gun down and went to play with something else. It was a good time now to talk to Sheena about the missing twilight necklace that Nall had.

"Hey Sheena, if that gun can remove Twilight items, why isn't Nall's own Twilight item here?"

"None of them are here, though! It feels like the Cape is in the next room, but the armor and the pendant are in other wings!"

That answer could mean that the pendant is still on Nall or somewhere else. Then Phoenix began to confer with Sheena about the potential of the gun.

"This gun is a very dangerous weapon to anyone. A single Elite could control the others with it or even an lackey could cause chaos within their group. Maybe Marionette knew about this weapon. It would be perfect for his games."

"It's possible! It's a pretty dangerous weapon, if it works the way it looks!"

"Who ever captured Nall could easily take over the other Elites with his Twilight items and the gun but why he didn't?"

"It's really really dangerous to equip a Twilight item! Even if they could remove the items from the Elites, they're still incredibly powerful!"

"That I can believe but it would even the playing field for a bit. So why don't you want to touch the gun? Raquar seems to be okay even though he shouldn't really touch anything else in the future."

"I... don't like it. It does things I've never been able to accomplish in my years of study of Twilight and I don't know how it does!"

That answer was very unusual to Phoenix. Sheena has been cheerful and confident but this gun has made her a bit scared of its power. Then Phoenix had an idea about another way to use the gun.

"So you're saying that it might be able to remove the Twilight from us? Wouldn't this the thing that might cure us?"

"It doesn't remove Twilight, exactly... I can't tell for sure without using it, but I think it's highly damaging! I'm worried about Nall, his character data is fragile! Having his items ripped off could have caused irreparable damage!"

"But it could be modify to do that?"

"I have no idea! I didn't even know such a weapon could exist until I saw it!"

"We should take the weapon with us now as we may not get the chance to take it once we rescued Nall."

"Probably true, but someone else will have to carry it!"

"I'll take it since I don't trust some people with it." The blademaster says that he points to Raquar before continuing. "Once the door to the next room is opened, I'll bring the gun with me."

Sheena will nod and keep a wary look between the gun and the door after Phoenix said that. The blademaster looks closer at the gun as it would require the person to wear this backpack. I wonder if the reason Sheena doesn’t want to touch the gun is that it could have an effect on her. She could be more sensitive to the Twilight than some of us here. Phoenix will examine of how to carry the gun with him until the rest of the group are ready to move on to the next room.
Phoenix
Level 48 Blademaster
Equipped Skills: Vak Revolver, Gan Revolver, Dek Vorv, La Repth, Juk Kruz, Rue Kruz, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot
Other Skills: Rue Kruz, Rip Synk, Rip Saem, Crack Beat, Rue Slash, Ani Slash, Gan Crack, Gan Revolver

Wish List: Phoenix's Fire, Gold Necklace
EX-Spheres: LV 3 - Overdrive, LV 3 - Curative, LV 3 - Elemental Breath

Raquar
Ikkitousen
Posts: 108
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:28 pm
Location: Hiding in the shadows

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Raquar » Fri Aug 08, 2008 5:19 am

There was something alluring about that gun. It drew him back away from the closet to stare at the contraption. He overheard part of the conversation between Phoenix and Sheena and stuck his tongue out at the former in a cheerfully joking kind of way. However, after watching Phoenix sit there and stare at it, he decided to throw caution to the wind and play with it some more. If he got it to work, they couldn’t complain too loudly. Sidling over to the device he glanced over at Phoenix before flipping the first of four small switches. It clicked. He repeated the same action with the other three. Three more clicks. Attempting to pull the big switch however, was nearly impossible. No matter how hard he strained or pulled he couldn’t get it to budge. Flipping the fourth switch off did absolutely nothing and the big lever was still impossible to move.

He spent the next few minutes trying different combinations, 1 and 2 on, 3 and 4 off. Only 1 on. Only 2 on. Only 3 on. Only 4 on. He flipped the switches up and down looking for a different combination and was almost dumbfounded before the realization finally sunk in. He flipped the four small switches off and moved himself to the front of the gun. Placing his index finger under the large switch to prop it in the on position, he flicked the first small switch on. The hum deepened and the strain on his body increased. It felt like he could barely keep the gun up. His hands were also throbbing, seemingly in rhythm with the machine. Gritting his teeth he flicked the second switch on. The humming and throbbing became louder and harder and the gun almost seemed to be drawing energy from him, the gun barrel began to dip slightly as proof. Grunting heavily, he managed to lift his arm up and flip on the third switch. The humming seemed to surround him and the throbbing became almost violent. He staggered a bit, and almost dropped onto his knees from the strain. Breaking out in a sweat he flipped the three switches off and let the big one fall. He turned to Sheena.

”Sheena, I figured out how to operate it.”

He turned to the woman only to find her reviling in horror and fear. He was startled at first before realizing that her eyes were glued to the gun. She must have really not liked it.

”I kinda want to test it to see what kind of thing we're looking at here. Do you know of a target that I could try it on?”

”There’s no one but us here right now.”

Damn. Guess he would have to wait to let his creative juices flow. And he’d have to wait to find a cat before his curiosity would be quenched. He shot another look at Phoenix.

”Since I figured out how to operate it, I’ll hold onto it.”

He hoisted the pack up over his shoulders and plucked the gun from its current holder. Fighting back a grin, he began to hum the Ghostbusters theme. It is after all, what he felt like. A giant monster battling fiend. Or something like that. The next most important thing that demanded his attention was the closet. No clues, no hints, no nothing, and the ire that would likely arise from random guessing might serve as a suitable fuse for the curiosity bomb that was the giant metal contraption in his hands. However, he did have some form of patience, so he would throw down some random numbers.

627. Wrong. 459. Wrong. 834. Wrong. 555. Wrong. 902. Wrong. 123. Wrong. 456. Wrong. 789. Wrong. 369. Wrong. 258. Wrong. Goddammit. The fact that this seemed to be completely random, but the nagging sensation that it wasn’t stuck in the back of his brain. 734. Wrong.

He stopped for a moment and decided to go off the basis that it wasn’t a random code. He started at the beginning. First code. 310. Second Code. 991. Third Code. 144. Fourth Code. 312. Fifth Code. 861. Sixth Code. 458. 6 codes. Well it couldn’t hurt? After some quick addition, he took the sum of all six and divided it by 6. The good old average. It didn’t come out even, 512 and two-thirds to be exact, but following the rules of math, anything over a half was rounded up. That made 513. Shrugging he punched in the numbers. Somebody was smiling down upon him as the lock clicked open. Wow, maybe he could do this after all.
Level 28 Long Arm
Archspear, Newt Necklace, Smith's Gloves, Wyrm Scale, Kuja's Thong Dress
EXP: [700/1000]

WISHLIST
Levels
Weapons: - All
Armor: Head - Scarab Earring
Body - Nothing until Mid 30's. Ninja Garb Hand - Nothing until Mid 30's. Leg - Nothing until Mid 30's.
Items: Cooked Biles, Darkness Scrolls (Any and All)

User avatar
Lighteria
Well-Oiled Machine
Posts: 176
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:59 am
Location: :noitacoL

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Lighteria » Sun Aug 10, 2008 3:58 pm

Lighteria flops down on the floor with a long breath. A flashmail just popped up in the corner of his eye. With Nighthand easily dispatching the last monster in the arena, the twin blade takes the precious spare time to rest and nurse his wound. The one he took to the face is especially deep, three bloody, jagged claw marks right on his cheek. The sphinx had gotten in a solid hit before it went down, that's for sure. The twin blade's fingers trace slowly down the bloody mark as his eyes scan the new mail. Despite the pain he cracks a sincere smile as he reads the new mail. Finally that blasted puzzle door is open. No more brain teasers or nigh impossible math problems. Honestly, it's like they expected them to have a calculator handy. In any case, with the door in the arena still shut tightly, Lighteria realizes the only way forward is with the rest of the group at the other door. Not that this is a bad thing. What time they're wasting having to travel as a group is probably paying for itself in terms of health preservation. Nall has been waiting for a while for sure, but he can wait longer...

"Repth." Lighteria says quietly to himself, the bloody scars closing up and fading slowly from his face. There's a moment of thought as his fingers trace down his cheek, thinking that if the scars were permanent, the entire team would like be covered in head to toe with scrapes and scars... a reminder of how long they've been battling. Luckily, a scar in this world is nothing more than character detail, any permanent scar would likely be due to damaged data rather than health. ...Twilight has a tendency to do rather odd things like that though...

Oh well... I guess there's nothing we can do but move forward again. Despite the elites being around, we haven't encountered anything truly dangerous.. like deletion or corruption dangerous...

It's at this point Lighteria enters the Laboratory and spies the feindish looking saw/gun/jackhammer... thing, entering in the middle of Nighthand and Sheena's conversation. He only stands at the door and listens.

They took the armor from Nall? That's pretty major... I doubt they used anesthetic either by the looks of this place. ...I wonder if he's hurt somewhere in here. Despite my... distaste for him dragging me into this, no one should have to go through that kind of pain. I've got to keep my feelings repressed if we're going to make it through he-

"GAH!!!" Lighteria nearly falls over from the sudden explosion on the left side of the lab. He stumbles forward from the shock and stares at Raquar for a second and the remains of the lab table and beakers. His mind shifts back to the last dungeon they went though for a moment where half the team couldn't resist callously blowing up anything they found in the mansion. They had paid for it... though Lighteria was able to remain absent from that particular encounter. As his thoughts drift through the last encounter, the twin blade seems to go a bit misty eyed, a casual observer might sense him about to cry for some reason. Luckily, the twin blade takes a deep breath and actually manages to pull his head out of his own thoughts long enough to keep from gushing emotions. As he comes out of his thought process, the corner of his eye catches Canti slipping something into his inventory from the lab equipment.

Well... it's not like we're going to get scolded for this. We may as well mess around and learn what we can.

With Phoenix taking his usual route, asking all the questions that are going through Lighteria's head but too afraid to ask about, the twin blade inspects a few of the piles of lab equipment that aren't smoldering ash now. A pile of storage boxes and jars catch his eye as he eavesdrops on the conversation. His eyes scan the labels for a while as he take everything in.

Guess that thing's pretty dangerous. I personally don't see how we could possibly use it though. It's not like we're going to happen upon a situation where we need to remove an item from someone. ...Well, maybe these Elites but it's not like we'd be able to restrain them long enough to use the thing. I'd personally just smash it or something, though studying it is never a bad option-.. hm?

"Orochi Venom?" He says quietly, recognizing the ingredient from Angel's lab. He'd figured the things in her lab were simply of her own design... sort of a time waster for the eccentric and rich. Random components to play around with when she got bored. Of course... it being here either means she was in this field at some point or the stuff that was there isn't exclusive to her. With a distant look, he picks up the small vial and slowly spins it between his fingers.

A single person... is capable of so much. They could discover new things, inspire new thinking or even save lives... I wonder... what she would have done... with the time we stole.

Having completely forgotten Suzaku can probably read his thoughts like last time, the twin blade sits on the floor and hangs his head, getting back to the slump he was in when the team entered the field. He only looks up when the door swishes open, a triumphant looking Raquar standing in front of the door pad.

...Yep. People can really surprise you. In a good way.
Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

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Zhao Xun
Elevated Player
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Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 3:09 am
Location: Wherever I'm needed.

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Zhao Xun » Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:20 am

You always end up useless in the end, don't you? Bet you wish you hadn't made some of those decisions now, guardian boy. Bet you wish you hadn't locked up the smartest part of you, even though not doing so would have led to your untimely death when that part decided to mouth off to the wrong person. But you could have done something here. Instead, you sat there and watched while others did all the work. You used to be smart. You used to have something to make up for your weakness in comparison to the rest of these idiots. Now what have you got? Nothing. You gave it all up. And for what? So they'd like you? What good is that, really?

------------------------

With all the riddles solved and me having done nothing to help either side, I certainly felt like a coward. I was too afraid of being wrong to attempt anything, too afraid of how little the others would think of me when I failed. And I was too afraid to help in any sort of battle, feeling that the others would be nothing but derisive when they saw my lackluster ability. Yes, they'd seen it before, but perhaps they hadn't noticed it. Nobody had yet made a statement about it, and since because of it I was really naught more than a drain on the group I assumed someone would have said something by now.

But they haven't. Why haven't they? Are they ignorant? Or did I hold back enough that it looked like I just wasn't fighting as hard? No, that's completely idiotic. They can see my level. My stats. They can check with a single glance precisely how worthless I am. So why do they not say something? Why do they not cut me loose?

Why do I feel the need to give my all for them, and feel worse than I've ever felt in my life when I fail to do anything at all?


The answer was obvious, but I tried to avoid it in my mind. It took serious effort to let something so blatant slip past my consciousness, but I'd (we'd?) done such things before in my (our?) life. Pushing the truth away was something my (his?) mind had mastered in childhood. As a necessity. His life would never have continued along any kind of reasonable course without that kind of skill.

Like it was reasonable anyways.

I always seemed to become introspective when I was out of the action for awhile. I dwelt on memories and feelings that I wished I didn't have and yet thanked myself (him?) for at the same time. Without the life I (we?) had been through, I would never be who I was. I would never have made the decisions I did, and I certainly wouldn't have set such a lofty, likely unreachable goal for myself. A protector! How could one of my weakness be a protector of any kind? It was foolish, impossible. And yet... I was drawn to that path. Because of what HE had been through, I felt as though I could do nothing better wih my life.

He'd given me purpose, despite everything.

Was it my right to throw him away after he did such a thing?

But you didn't throw me away, now did you? You've told Canti and Raquar... I'm still here. You couldn't get rid of me completely. You told them it was because I'm the original, but you lied. As much as I hate to admit it, you're a far more powerful mind, though not quite as sharp of one. Well, not nearly as sharp. But you can work on that. No, you didn't get rid of me completely because you feared that one day I would be necessary again. That one day you would have to call on me to do what you could not, as you always used to.

We were friends once. Allies, even. What changed?

You decided to throw me away. However, you also awoke my unconscious memories of who I was. We both wanted the other one gone, which obviously led to the current situation. But your recent pensiveness has led me to a rather... interesting... conclusion.

Oh?

As much as it galls me to admit it... you're right.

This shocked me. What? Right about what?

Everything. About life. What life is supposed to be. I learned lessons from the pain I endured. However... they weren't the right ones. I had nobody to guide me, and ended up on the path of destruction. You, however... you were in the same situation, and yet you made completely different choices about what to do with your life. With your hands. With your mind. And everything you say and do... the more I watch you from this dark crevasse in your mind where I make my home, the more I'm convinced that you were doing it the right way all along. I never should have competed with you. What you want to do is far more effective in helping anyone than anything I had planned. So I give myself wholly to you. Fold me in. Eliminate me. I will live forever as a part of you. You won't gain the skills or intellect I hold completely, but you'll be better equipped. In the courage department, at least.

I considered this. Though he had a gift for deception, there was an element of truth in his words that not even I could deny. They sounded one hundred percent honest. Still... I was worried. He was silver-tongued, to be sure. How do I know you're not trying to trick me into grappling with you again?

Good point. Here, I'll show you.

And with that, I felt a sharp change in my mind. I blacked out.

---------------------

When I came to, I was still standing. My unconscious mind had managed to keep me in a state that wouldn't belie my current inner happenings, though it was possible someone had noticed. My thoughts quickly moved on, however, when I realized what had happened within.

He had destroyed himself. His individuality was gone. But he had left me several important things. Nothing that would change who I was, how I acted with other people. But things that would help me do what I wanted to do.

The most important of those things was just a seed of courage. One that was not yet fully grown, but one that I could tend to and water as I went along. To be sure, if I ignored it, it would die off and his sacrifice would have been for naught. But that wasn't going to happen.

I approached Sheena. The woman who might want my head on a spit, and may simply be waiting until we were out of imminent danger to get what she wanted. But I couldn't be afraid. I had to own up to what I had done... and more importantly, I had to become something useful to the group. "Sheena?" I said, pausing for a moment before continuing. "Could I have a word?"

"What is it?"

"This gun... you said this is how they beat Nall, right? By removing his Twilight items, thereby giving them a huge advantage? You seem to think it could be used as a very effective weapon, yes? And yet you seem... well, a little afraid of it yourself. How's it going to hurt you? You don't have any Twilight items."

"It doesn't just remove Twilight items, it can remove any items, possibly even things in your inventory! I don't even know what it would do to character data! It could easily rip a hole through your data large enough to corrupt you beyond repair!"

Interesting. So it was dangerous to everyone, she was sure of that. "But the danger is greater to those who are more heavily infected, right? How badly do you think it would harm a normal, or rather a mostly normal character? I understand that for someone like Nighthand or Zan to use it would be nigh suicidal, but what about Raquar, or Dien, or Senna?" Or me. I didn't say that, however.

"I just don't know, it's doing things I didn't know could be done, and I don't have time to study it! Let alone a target!"

"So you think the risks of using it outweigh the benefits?" But what if you had a willing volunteer to test it on?

"Only one thing is certain; we can't leave it for the hackers intact."

"So we either destroy it or take it with us? I assume the safer option is the first one?"

"Basically!"

"What if you had something to test it on?" There, I had said it. "Is the risk of it backfiring too great to chance it?"

"Who would risk being deleted on the off chance of using a hacker's weapon?"

I glanced towards the ground momentarily before looking straight back into Sheena's eyes. "If it can really do what you say it can... then I'd be willing to be a test subject. If we can wield this thing... it would be a spectacular blow against the Elites, to be sure."

"If it even works on an Elite! Nall isn't a good test, he's had so many pieces of his data changed or removed since then, having two items that aren't even his removed doesn't say much! Using you as a test woud put you in a lot of danger and give us next to no useful observations!"

It was perfectly true. What use was I as a test subject? "You're right, of course. I'm being foolish. I just wanted to... to put it out there. If you change your mind about it getting useful results... my offer stands. And Sheena... sorry for what I said. Before the split."

She nodded only slightly, but it was as good as full fledged words of forgiveness for me. I smiled and walked away, noticing that Raquar had managed to open the closet. Way to go, Raq. Show them what you can do. And while you do that... show me the way. Show me how to do the same.

My friend. You've done so much for me already. How can I ever repay you?
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Asgard
Exalted Player
Posts: 285
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 4:28 am
Location: Carmina Gadelica Alleyway

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Asgard » Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:06 pm

And so the sixth door opened. Asgard breathed bloody relief as the answers within his mind were all wrong in the draft, and Dien cracked the code with the help of the mathematicians of old. The Fist Fighter grasped at his summoned knife bag, bracing himself for anything to counter their progress to lash out as soon as the door opened, yet there was nothing to strike. The room through the sixth door was empty. Massive...but void of presence.

The lack of opposing force allowed the group through to what seemed to be a laboratory, much more grandiose than the hallways before. Desks littered the floor, all occupied with various scientific devices and measurement instruments. A sizeable pile of semi-rusted junk lay over near where the next door onward, along with what seemed to be various draft tables and workbenches near the desks. Quite the interesting room, and Asgard was already getting a very bad feeling as to what the purpose of this room was used for. He had not even noticed Sheena's intrigue unto only one of the multitudes of things in the room until she headed straight for the jackhammer cannon.

"So that's how they did it... I had no idea such a thing could be made!"

Sheena began to write on cybernetic parchment, Asgard stood silent, observing the surroundings of the massive room. The femme fatale finished the note, and a subsequent *DING* followed.
We've opened the door to the Lab, and there's something you all need to see. Kill what monsters remain and, if no more doors open (which I suspect they won't) come join us.
-Sheena
Asgard looked over at the gun in question. It looked incredibly menacing, but that was about all it was. It seemed very impractical from a design standpoint, but if the weapon resided in the halls of the hackers, then it must have some sort of sinister purpose.

He decided to take a closer look at the gun and stood beside Sheena. Some kind of explanation as to what the device was would be helpful. "So what makes it so special?"

"Well, from its design, and the power it seems to be generating, it seems to be a weapon that can tear the equipment right off a character." Asgard seemed to be mildly confused.

"And the purpose of that would be...what exactly?" Asgard seemed very unenthused as compared to Sheena. "I don't see this cannon as a gamebreaker of sorts."

"This thing is powered by Twilight energy, and the outlay of this weapon seems to indicate that it uses the power of Twilight to forcibly remove anything from inventory items to Twilight infected items."

"Like Kuja's cloak?"

"Like Kuja's cloak."

Shock and Awe all around, Asgard thought. We had to kill Kuja to remove his Twilight Item, and now the hackers have a means to getting Twilight items off their targets without their victims being slain.

"Yikes," he said with a hint of mild enthusiasm. But his wariness was much like Sheena's, as in that he did not even want to touch the thing.

The group from the testing lab filtered through the doorway into the laboratory. Asgard stepped back and began to pace 'round the room, looking at what there is in this musky workshop. The first thing he saw was the supply closet on the wall, complete with a zero to nine keypad.

Fuck keypads, he thought instantly and returned to his jaunt. Sheena began her explanation of the weapon to Nighthand during that time.

The desks were the next destination for him. Atop them were various liquids, metals, and high compressed gasses, contained in things he had seen within the realm of high school chemistry, like stoppered erlenmeyer's and test tubes, and some were held within things he could not believe, like a slowly glowing solid, encased in an azure hued barrier. The labeling on the containers were almost accurate, but some were completely wrong, like the beaker labeled NaCl which contained a prismatically colored gas, and some turned out to be complete jibberish. Nothing caught his eye in particular, so when the tops don't add up, check inside.

Asgard opened the desk closest to him. It was accurate to say that the owner of this desk was not a very organized person, and every subsequent check of the rest of them proved right for each one. There were scraps of paper, measuring tools, and various junk populated within the 'wooden' desks. Nothing of importance was not found until the eighth desk, which surprisingly yielded an Antidote. He looked at the item with intent to see if it had been modified in any way, but what looked to him like an Antidote injector was indeed that. Whatever. Probably foreshadowing if i'm lucky. The Fist Fighter pocketed the item.

The desk drawer slid close and Asgard clued into another thing that had bothered him. This looked to be a classroom or a workshop, so where are the manuals? Where are the textbooks? And if there were creations here, where were their unique schematics? Surely enough, on the left side of the room near the desks, a small bookcase of reading material was found. Yet, upon glancing through some of the more easy to understand titles, like 'The Process of Energy Elimination' and 'Elemental Properties Through Machinery', nothing seemed to help. Throwing away the books, he rifled through the bookcase more thoroughly to see if anything was hidden from sight, but to no avail.

The workbenches were the next part, and they seemed to be in the same boat as the desks: lotta crap on top and full o' crap on the inside. All of the bits and pieces that rifled through his fingers seemed to be metallic in origin, most likely singular bulk components. There was no detection of latent heat that he could feel, but the person who could confirm his thought would be Sheena.

Asgard breathed heavily, sorting through the junk on the tables, but it did not seem to produce anything helpful. Feeling a tad defeated, he returned to where the gun had been. She had just engaged conversation with Zhao about what the gun could do beyond item yanking.

Hold on...

Asgard looked back to the junk pile.
Then to the bookcase.
To the desks.
To the workbenches.
Finally, to the gun, which was held proudly by Raquar.
And then it became clear as day to him.

"Sheena, how far are we into the cliff?" he asked with hastened purpose.

"We're pretty deep underground!" A stupid question, concerning all the walking they have done since entering this place.

"Are you able to see anything lodebearing at all?"

"They've constructed the place pretty well, it looks like, why?"

"My dad once told me 'Imagination is the father of creation.' I'm pretty sure this place is a drafting lab. The initial process for creating things that go out upon an assembly line, and are initially created over on the workbenches. Who knows if they have some sort of factory in this cliffside too. I really don't think we can afford to let this place go unscathed after we leave."

"I don't know if we'd be able to destroy it, but it might be possible to ransack their labs for anything useful on the way out and either steal or destroy it!"

"That might work, just depends on how fast they could recover from whatever damage we could do..." Asgard looked over to the junk pile that he had not bothered with investigating, due to the fact that it would most likely take him a long time to filter through it. He thought he saw something familiar when he noticed one of the multitudes of switches on the gun, was one of the stray pieces of junk in the pile. Now that more manpower has come, it could prove beneficial. Maybe another hacker creation lay buried beneath. And if not, garbage to destroy.

"Nighthand!" The Heavy Blade looked over in the direction of the white haired brawler, "Come help me look through the garbage over there. Might prove beneficial, just don't cut yourself on any of the sharp corners." Nighthand nodded and began to walk towards the pile with the Fist Fighter right behind him.

Hey..HE could help...maybe. If not, he could reduce most of this stuff to slag while we're busy. Asgard reached into the well of his SP and demanded the fire tattoo be opened. His hand began to burn in anticipation, as usual with the spell. He slammed it onto the ground. "Vak Knight!" The ground began to sear in a flash and the Vak Knight appeared. He, however, was not grasping his sword, as no battle was waged. "Vak Knight, Nighthand and I need a hand with sifting through the garbage. Please accompany us to help." The nine foot red behemoth pressed a fist hard against his full plate and nodded, following the Heavy Blade and the Fist Fighter to the trash pile. "And don't try to melt anything. Not yet anyway."
This is my non-banner profile. Read at own discretion!
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Nighthand
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Nighthand » Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:16 am

Somehow, in the time it took the party to trickle in and decide what to do, Raquar managed to do just about everything. He blew up a table covered with stuff, figured out how to operate the frighteningly evil looking gun, and managed to open up the closet without a clue as to the keycode.

We should keep that kid around. It seems like he’s useful all of a sudden.
Aren’t you being a little harsh? He’s not always useless.
Eh, I’m in a cynical mood. This gun, just laying around here for us? I don’t even think the hackers are stupid enough to leave something that important around.
Do you think its booby trapped or something? It could be some kind of crazy trap.
Yes. Yes it could. If and when Raquar fires it, I suggest standing well back.

Asgard called, and summoned his Vak Knight, a feat that was as impressive as it was likely useless. What finesse would a gigantic knight have in sorting through junk, anyways? Who knew.

In any case, as they dug through the trash scattered around the room, more and more uncovered itself. Scrap metal, bits of plastic and ceramic, pieces of machines that were long since inoperable… It was stereotypical of an abandoned tinker’s workshop, and not at all what one would expect from The World. The level of technology was dangerously beyond the realm of fantasy. Not quite steampunk, not quite cyberpunk, a sort of magitech that defied description.

If the hackers were to somehow equip themselves with projectile weapons beyond the realm of archery…

Nighthand smiled, envisioning just what kind of damage a good sniper rifle could do. The smile faded, though, when he remembered that it was the hackers developing the weapons, not his own side. Thankfully, none of the junk seemed like anything that would be used in bullet-slingers. No bullets, no magazines, nothing that looked like a bullet had struck it in test-firing.

”Hey Sheena?” He said abruptly, startling the fist fighter away from her stare at the wall. Her fear seemed to be getting to her, the gun wearing away at her confidence.

”Yes?”

”Why aren’t there guns in this game?”

”There are, but they’re rare! You remember Vera, don’t you? Her hack was manifested in the form of guns, but it wasn’t a slug-throwing mechanism! It was more like spellcasting, with a faster rate of fire! Still, overall, The World seems to have something against advanced technology and weaponry! We’re not sure, but its most likely the influence of Twilight keeping the game to a more fantasy level! That’s why the hackers haven’t come up with nuclear weapons or machine guns or anything like that yet; they just can’t! While Twilight allows the breaking of many of the game’s rules, it also has limitations it imposes on how they can be broken!”

”That’s… Actually quite interesting, thanks.”

As he continued to look through the junk piles, he found something that would be useful. A health drink. Wonderful! He turned and put it in a small pile that was forming of the interesting junk the trio of them were pulling out.

A few minutes later, and it looked like they had found everything they could. Standing and stretching, Nighthand looked through the pile, seeing depressingly little of value. The Health Drink, and a Restorative, an odd-shaped coin that glowed with a soft copper light. Two Ice Floe scrolls, a small toy doll that was oddly clean, and a health charm. That was all.

”You can have all of this, Asgard. Nothing too important here.” He said.

Meanwhile the closet door was opened to reveal… gloves. Four gloves, to be exact, two pairs. Both left-handed gloves were red, and both right-handed gloves were blue. They were thing and supple, not at all like gauntlets, and only slightly thicker than latex gloves. Equipping them would yield no change in states from a gloveless state, and no special skills.

Nighthand sighed and moved to the door at the end of the room. ”Is everyone ready?”

A murmur of assent later, and the door was open.

------------------------------------------------------------

The room beyond was decidedly boring. What happened inside was not.

“I’m telling you, we can’t!” Shouted one man as the door opened. “I don’t care how much you want to beat them, we aren’t keyed! It’ll be suicide!”

“I have to try. You don’t understand them like I do. I’ve been studying them. They’ll kill you, and they won’t think twice about it. You don’t know!” The first man was visibly flustered. He paced back and forth, his trench-like white lab coat trailing behind him. The second, wearing a grey version of the same outfit, stood silently watching.

“Fine! But don’t say I didn’t warn you! It’s your funeral!” He spun, his fingers pressed against his temples, massaging away a headache. He looked up, and saw the open door with the party trailing in, and his eyes widened. “Shit! They’re here!”

The man in grey was already approaching the back side of the room, where a large column of glowing light and energy seemed almost serene. He touched the column and it receded into the wall, revealing what it contained.

On a pedestal rested a breastplate that looked to be made of solid rock, impossibly heavy to move or wear, let alone in combat. Only a few of the members would recognize it from when Jett wore it, as Nall himself didn’t use the cosmetic side of the item. The Titan’s Armor, the Twilight Item of Gan, of Earth. An item of near unimaginable power.

An item the hacker was donning.

”Don’t let him equip it!” shouted Sheena from the back. Nighthand immediately reacted, shifting himself to speed and dashing across the room almost a streak of light, though not quite the near-instant movement Nall was capable of. An unfortunate fact, as Nall’s speed would have made it in time.

An explosion of rock and dust shocked the room, slamming Nighthand against the far wall, mere feet to the left of the door the party was entering from. At the same time, a scream pierced the air.

“You fool! I told you it was too much!” Dust obscured the vision, but the sound traveled well enough. The scream turned into a gargle, and then a groan that seemed to be unending.

Suddenly, all of the dust in the air fell to the ground. The room was clear, and revealed both of the hackers. The now-dirty white lab coat wrapped around the first hacker, who had moved back quite a ways. The other hacker no longer resembled his previous form.

What remained of the second hacker was a grotesque mockery of the human form. Bulbous arms and legs barely seemed like they could contain the bones needed to support the torso, which was hideously distended. The face seemed to be half-melted, one eye completely covered, the mouth sealed shut. Both ears and all of his hair, gone. Small spikes of rock pierced the flesh, like a trio of horns on the top of his head, uneven and cracked. The skin was oozing a thick brown substance much like mud.

“What have you done?!” Cried the first hacker, scrambling backwards and away.

“Doing what we should have done. Gaining all the power in The World!” The voice was a gargling mess, but still intelligible. He started to say more, but a burst of mud poured from his mouth. Spitting, he shook as though having a seizure. “It hurts! IT HURTS!” He cried and screamed in agony, and scrambled to remove the heavy armor. It rose over his head with surprising ease, and tumbled to the ground with a heavy thud.

With another scream, less human than ever, a trio of chaos rings formed in the air. Rather than the usual gold, however, they were bright blue. They fell to the ground and faded, and the monster that was once a man was gone.

“You all… It’s your fault he did that! I’ll stop you here, show him that he was wrong! Then I’ll track him down, and try to cure him… But first, you die!”

The man reached into the sleeves of his lab coat and withdrew a pair of curved pieces of metal, looking like nothing more than long metal claws. He jammed the butt ends of them together, and a line of blue light appeared between the tips. The “claws” opened up, separating and allowing two blades to fold out on either side of the central hand grip, as well as giving the whole of the rest of the bow an impressive sharp look.

He backed into the far wall and slammed his palm against an empty section of the wall. A beam of light instantly shot from the wall and searched the floor in arcs until it found the armor left behind by the second hacker, and then latched onto it. The armor was dragged back to its original position, and the beam of light that surrounded it when they had first entered returned.

“You’ll have to kill me to get at that item. But you knew that already, didn’t you? SO COME ON, SHOW ME WHAT MURDERERS YOU ARE!”

Asgard
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Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Asgard » Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:06 am

"Buried treasure ahoy me buckos!" Asgard said in an almost unenthusiastic voice. More or less sarcastic really. The loot he, Nighthand, and Vak Knight had gathered was far less than a pirate's buried treasure, but booty nonetheless.

You can have all of this, Asgard. Nothing too important here.

"Alright. Thanks for the bounty." The gracious Fist Fighter scooped up the haul and sorted them into his inventory. The coin and the doll, however, found themselves mysteriously in the key items pile. Never look Key Items as unimportant...You never know when someone's work desk needs a good paperweight, or some kid needs the last of his coin collection filled. Asgard chuckled slightly to himself, hoping no one noticed his self directed humor.

Is everyone ready?

Everyone seemed to be gathered at the door, ready to move on to whatever lay ahead. Asgard, however, needed one more thing taken care of. He shuffled towards Vak Knight, which saluted his approach. Aside, he spoke with the otherwordly one.

"Vak Knight, I am charging you with gathering everything in this room into a central pile. EVERYTHING. I don't care how unimportant it looks, if it isn't fastened down to the ground or the wall, it counts. When we return from the room, begin destroying everything. We can't let them take anything away from this." The Vak Knight paused for a second, looking around at its surroundings, and nodded, heading over to the workshop area, just as Asgard began stepping through the blank doorway.

==========

“I’m telling you, we can’t!” Shouted one man as the door opened. “I don’t care how much you want to beat them, we aren’t keyed! It’ll be suicide!”

“I have to try. You don’t understand them like I do. I’ve been studying them. They’ll kill you, and they won’t think twice about it. You don’t know!” The first man was visibly flustered. He paced back and forth, his trench-like white lab coat trailing behind him. The second, wearing a grey version of the same outfit, stood silently watching.

“Fine! But don’t say I didn’t warn you! It’s your funeral!” He spun, his fingers pressed against his temples, massaging away a headache. He looked up, and saw the open door with the party trailing in, and his eyes widened. “Shit! They’re here!”

Events occured. Events that took Asgard completely unprepared. Were the Freedom Fighters that feared by the hackers?

Don’t let him equip it!” shouted Sheena from the back. Nighthand dashed forward with lightning speed. Asgard did not have the luxury to activate MeApDo right away, but knew that he would probably need it.

Palming three Speed Charms into his hand, he spoke within his mind. Nether, representative of ether, heed my plight. He could feel energy stirring within. Three speed charms is what I offer to you today. I require the ability to be as fleet footed as the tiger on the hunt! An explosion rocked the cavern, and Asgard temporarily gained the ability to only hear an extremely high pitched whine, courtesy of the explosion.

Time had passed. His hearing returned. The malformed hacker appeared from the settled dust, disfigured and callous. Asgard had no idea that without the 'keying', that the items would do so much harm. Unbeknownst to him, his rising energy was quickly fading from within his cybernetic soul. He had almost forgotten his inner monalogue before the response came.

Denied.

WHAT?!

No matter how fast you wish to be, you will only become outdistant if you begin the battle. I know for a fact, that you will be the first to fly forward, correct?

Asgard gripped his lower lip with his teeth. Like a book, it read him. The malformed hacker disappeared into chaos rings, oddly blue in color.

If you wish to take the fight to him, then offer me the life of the lion. Offer me the life of the endless hunters! Asgard saw where Nether was going with this. Replacing the three straps of parchment with three vials of black liquid, Asgard asked again in earnest.

Nether, lord of the unbound, hear me now. The Fist Fighter could feel the energy rumble now. I offer the blood of the hunter in my newfound knowledge. Grant me precision unmatched!

Granted!

"MeApTorv!" His eyes and arms shuddered for a moment, as the heightening effects of the skill took place. The feeling was as if Asgard had foresight to movement and expertise dedicated from years of training.

“You’ll have to kill me to get at that item. But you knew that already, didn’t you? SO COME ON, SHOW ME WHAT MURDERERS YOU ARE!”

"Then get it while it's hot!" Asgard broke free of the group, proceeding in a left strafe, blocking the hacker's line of sight from Nighthand. Getting his footing planted into the floor, he reached for his Obsidian Darts, still at his side from the keypadded hallways. One left the bag and his hand in swift fashion, along with another, as well as a third, all aimed for the marksman's crucial point, the steadying arm.

*TWANG*

One knife propelled into the far wall, courtesy of an icicle arrow launched from the supertech hacker bow. The second knife curled right past his body as he executed a sidestep, missing by what seemed to be miles with the accuracy the Fist Fighter was packing. But at the same time, the last black dart cut the outside of the bow arm and into the back wall. Not exactly on target, but it was a start.

Asgard rummaged around his pocket, staring down the hacker, making sure he doesn't turn his back on him for a second. Ironically, he grabbed the Health Drink he had procured from the previous room, still dusty, and tossed it backwards to Nighthand. "Drink up, Nighthand. The party begins now! Rush him and I will try to keep him occupied."

"Your not as agile as you look, buddy!" Asgard's smug grin added to the pain, or at least he hoped it did. Saying that you can outshoot a sniper with throwing knives is quite the feat.

The bowman responded quickly without speech, nocking what seemed to be nothing at all and dry-fired. Yet, the ice projectile erupted from the bow nonetheless and grazed him in the right leg, right above the knee. He didn't even notice the arrow hit and explode into icy shrapnel, much less the sting it seemed to cause him.

What seemed to be a minor hit was nothing of the sort, as Asgard felt his right leg getting quite a bit heavier. His knee joint felt like it had just gained fifty pounds of force to it. "So that's your trick! Nice." It would not cure with a restorative or an antidote, as he surmised that his effects were not based around the game, so he did not bother to waste any more items. "But you could have at least tried to be symmetrical about it!" The Fist Fighter ended the taunt, with his hand back in the bag, turning his body sideways towards the hacker.

The hacker drew back the bowstring once more, but tighter this time. He had to wait for the sweet spot of him releasing the pullback to fire. The moment arrived, and the arrow formed out the center of the bow...along with two brothers. Asgard let three darts fly, and then noticed the multitude he could not have accounted for.

*TWANG* One of the darts hit an arrow dead on, making the arrow explode on impact, and sends the dart spinning into the ceiling.

*THOK THOK* The other two arrows, however, slightly pierced both of Asgard's shoulders dead on and exploded subsequently.

*TINK TINK* The final two darts sent were stopped cold, simply by the hacker turning the bow to intercept them in mid flight.

"Augh!" Asgard's arms went limp, moreso than his knee. It was like his shoulder joints were fused solid and were as cold as Christmas morning. He fell to his heavy knee, the dart bag leaking knives to the floor. "Nice shot!" The Fist Fighter started laughing, much to the hacker's confusion. "That'll teach me to shoot my mouth off." Ironic happenstance, thy name is Asgard. "And I guess this is why I left this for you!" With stiffened arms, he reached into his inventory and procured a parchment, much different than he was used to retrieving from unlimited bag space. This one was a dark grey, with a different symbol on it, than his usual Speed Charms.

"Dek Torv!" The Hunter's Bane lit up and flared alive, encompassing the hunter in a green stream of energy. Surprisingly, the effect took, and the hacker was now the proud ownder of an icon over his head with a red arrow pointing down and a broken arrow next to it.

Asgard struggled back to his feet. He seemed less enthused at the inability to move his arms and the weight upon one of his leg, but the brawler could not back down now, just when the battle started. He still had SP and he still had his legs, so the fight could not, AND would not end here.
This is my non-banner profile. Read at own discretion!
Wishlist (Bolded sections denotate priority, in descending order)
In General: LEVELS
Pet-Related: EX-Levels, [Lv. 2]Overdrive Sphere, [Lv. 2]Ressurect
Armor: Dice Gloves (20 RARE), Golden Turban (42), Saint Cross (41), Protect Ring (41)
Weapons: Master Nunchaku (40 RARE), Three-Section Staff (37),
Items: (None)

Raquar
Ikkitousen
Posts: 108
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:28 pm
Location: Hiding in the shadows

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Raquar » Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:35 am

The closet swung open to reveal a matching set of mittens. Well not mittens exactly, they could probably be called gloves, but they yielded no special abilities or seemingly anything else besides a clashing set of hand coverings. However, just because they didn’t help now, didn’t mean they wouldn’t be useful in some time in the nearby future. Shrugging he slipped a red glove on his left hand and a blue one on his left hand and threw the other two into a vest pocket.

Turning around it seemed that everybody was done sorting through the various piles and tables and crap through the room and that we were ready to proceed. Nighthand opened the door to the next room and slowly they shuffled through. What was beyond the door wasn’t what he expected, at least not at first. There were two people there in the middle of a heated argument before they realized the small contingent of fighters had entered their little room. It was strange, he hadn’t expected people, he had expected some sort of hellish creation that would attempted to tear them limb from limb not coherent thinking individuals who could be compared to himself albeit with different goals and morals.

The two of them were almost matching, the only noticeable difference from this distance were the lab coats, one gray and on white. It was the one in the gray that seemed panicky racing toward a column of light. The one in the white was shouting something at someone but it was the one in the gray that caught his eye. There was a giant hardened breastplate of similar color to the lab coat. Sheena shouted a warning but it was too late, the man had already tried to don the armor and the results were not pleasant.

There was a brief explosion resulting in a cloud of dust that forced the kid to cover his eyes momentarily. After blinking a few times and harboring the worst of the rocking he looked up to see the two men at oddly spaced intervals, the white-coated one using said article as some sort of attempted barrier to protect him from something. And the other was hardly recognizable. It seemed to embody more of the monster type beast that he had expected. Horribly malformed limbs seemed to protrude at odd angles from the giant blobbish mess that seemed to use the Titan Armor as its focal point. It seemed that it had only corrupted the physical appearance of the man, as he could still speak, or attempt to as half of the words were drowned in a torrent of mud. Further screams of agony before the thing, as it could no longer be called human, was gated out by a series of rings that were a stark electric blue. Puzzled he wondered what could have caused the color difference when the white coated individual seemed to lose control.

He drew his weapon and slammed at the back wall, snaky tendrils of that pure golden light coming forth to claim the Titan Armor and return it to its calm position. The man shouted more, it seemed that he was decidedly angry; something that the Long Arm didn’t think was necessarily warranted.

”Hey, can I talk to you for a second?”

The response was a bellow, and an extremely thin icicle-like projectile shot rather rapidly at the boy. He managed to dart to the left of the arrow, but from where the projectile struck the ground splashes and shards of ice sprayed outward showering him in an uncomfortable rain of sharp hail.

”I have the ability to cure your friend. It is here in my hands.” He was hoping that the man could be reasoned with, that might make things a little simpler.

"That gun? You don't even know what you hold! There is no such cure to Twilight Corruption!"

If that was true than it really sucked for the individual who had once worn the gray lab coat. But Raquar was not so easily convinced, and therefore blindly pressed onward.

”Are you sure? Listen. This gun removes sources of Twilight. Like the Armor which was a source of Twilight. What’s to say it couldn’t remove the excess Twilight from your buddy?”

"What's to say? I BUILT THE DAMN THING! I know how it works! If it did what you want it to I'd already have killed you and taken it!"

Oh. He built it. That probably meant that they would want to incapacitate him and not brutally slaughter him. He would probably prove useful farther on down the road.

” You haven't done anything yet. Besides, if you built it, you should know that the coding could be altered to do what you want it to.”

"Ignorant fool. You know nothing of Twilight!"

In the blink of an eye he had fired another arrow, this one piercing through his left shoulder, ice spreading from the wound slowly freezing over both the limb and the motion that it might have granted. However, the not knowing anything about Twilight was a little far-fetched. He raised his right hand slowly, a ball of darkness coming to form hovering above his palm. It slowly swirled in and around itself, before dissipating and forming as wisps around him, encircling and enshrouding his body, whirling in the connection to the hum in his mind.

”I don’t? Nothing at all? I'm trying to help here. But I suppose we could always test the gun here before we get to your friend.”

He kneeled down, placing the gun on the ground and using his one good arm to aim it. He propped the big switch on with his right foot and moved his hand across the frame of the barrel to rest next to the four smaller switches. In the blink of an eye, the man had drawn an arrow and released four in the smoothest of possible motions. The split arrows all connected, one to the unaffected shoulder, two to different quadrants of the gut, the spreading ice completely freezing his ability to react and essentially shutting down any movement at all which allowed him all the time in the world to stare at the last incoming arrow that smashed into his face and claimed his life.

His body crumpled and his ghost rose up silently beside his dead heap of a body. Quickly he glanced a look at Nighthand, asking for a Resurrect so he could rejoin the fight. The man tossed him the aforementioned item, but not before a bolt took him in the outstretched arm, freezing it in its extended position. The boy rose, arms angling for the gun. This guy didn’t want to fuck around, so fair enough, time for a little target practice. He had found his cat.

Even so, his arms had moved maybe an inch or two before a pair of arrows struck them, freezing them and rendering their mobility useless. Their opponent was attacking to fast for him to be able to operate the gun. Which probably meant that he was afraid of it, which probably meant that it would work if they could hit him with it. Starting to think logically, he drew up the flashmail menu.
To: Freedom Fighters
From: Raquar
Subject: Current Situation
Message: Okay, I need some assistance here. If somebody, or some people can buy me enough time to charge the gun, and then we can isolate him in a single place, its possible that the blast from the gun would take him out, or injure him enough to stop the fight without too much extended effort. However, at the moment, he seems to be intent on preventing me from being able to fire the gun off so I’ll need a little help distracting him and forcing him somewhere were he cannot avoid being hit. Also, I don’t know if you guys caught it but he created this weapon, which means that if at all possible it would probably be in our best interests to incapacitate him or render him useless so that we could take him along and see what other kind of information we can get from him. Might be able to tell us where Nall is or how we could shut down this join if it really is a weapons factory of some sort.
So he did pay attention. Some of the time.
Level 28 Long Arm
Archspear, Newt Necklace, Smith's Gloves, Wyrm Scale, Kuja's Thong Dress
EXP: [700/1000]

WISHLIST
Levels
Weapons: - All
Armor: Head - Scarab Earring
Body - Nothing until Mid 30's. Ninja Garb Hand - Nothing until Mid 30's. Leg - Nothing until Mid 30's.
Items: Cooked Biles, Darkness Scrolls (Any and All)

Lord Canti
Exalted Player
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Lord Canti » Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:29 pm

(For the most part, Canti was listening in on the conversations about the gun while things progressed around him. His question - and so much more - had been answered when the others spoke with Sheena, making him all the more curious about it. Let's understand something. The gun was basically a complex machine made in The World. And while Canti wasn't a code-wrangler, he was still a mechanic in real life. To him, this gun a feat of mechanical engineering, and he had a burning desire to do some work on it. Raquar had apparently figured out how to operate it with a bit of knob and lever-pulling. This was pretty impressive, considering the guy had blown up stuff not three minutes ago. In any case, he scooped up the gun and he even managed to open the closet. The winged Twin Blade watched as Raq found nothing in there...but gloves. Gloves? Why would those be locked away? Then it hit him, just as Raquar took both sets. Silently, Canti began to work on a Flash Mail while Asgard and Nighthand began to sift through the stuff in the lab that he hadn't taken before.)

TO: Raquar
FROM: Canti
SUBJECT: Guns and Gloves

While Sheena has pointed out that the gun is potentially dangerous, I definitely want a shot at working on it. If The World follows through here, then that device is something to be looked over by a mechanic, and not just a code-writer. Working on machines is what I do in real life, I think you and I should have a chance to look it over, see if we can make sense of it. Also, the gloves look like they might be a form of safety glove for handling the thing. That's just a theory, but why else would the lock it up? Anyway, save me a pair, alright? I'm making off with a whole giant chemistry set here.


(Once it was sent, Canti was satisfied and noticed people starting to leave for the next room. When he turned, though, he bumped right into Asgard's Vak Knight. The guy was in his way for some reason and he didn't know what.)

Canti: Hey, what's going on?

(The Vak Knight gestured to a pile it was making.)

Canti: Oh, I see. Left you on clean-up patrol.

(Then, it made a very insistent point at the pile, then at Canti himself.)

Canti: What? No no, forget it. I stole it first, okay? You can't have what I properly took.

(Now, the knight just glared at him.)

Canti: Hey, don't look at me that way. You were called out long after I did my shopping. Just think of it...as me helping with the mess...and I'll see ya later.

(With that, the Twin Blade stepped around the Vak Knight and headed off to the next room, where an argument had ensued.)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(Fortunately, it wasn't between his own guys. If they were having a big Freedom Fighter pissing contest, that would be real trouble. But no, it looked like there were a couple of scientist types. Mad scientists. Oh hell, positively furious even. When Nighthand came in, several of the others following like Canti, one of them pulled out an item from a shaft of light that Sheena seemed to recognize. If it was Nall's, then the warning she gave was an adequate one. Nall was fucking powerful, so anyone playing with his toys was...whoa...capable of slapping Nighthand aside like he was practically nothing. That was some impressive shit. Canti's black eyes were like gothic tea saucers now, watching as the dust cleared. What he was looking at was something like The Hulk, The Thing, and...and... Okay, his imagination was just about spent there, because The Thing he was thinking of wasn't just Ben Grimm, it was John Carpenter's Thing too. Fortunately, the Holy Shit factor came down a few notches when the Muscle Creature* was suddenly overwhelmed by the Titan Armor's power, probably due to something - levels, willpower, Twilight infection - that the formerly gray-coated scientist-dude lacked. He collapsed after removing the armor, and disappeared...in some blue-tinted chaos rings. Errr...blue? He would have to ask about that one later. Meanwhile, the frantic white-coated guy pulled out a weapon that basically formed into a type of bow. He was an...Archer? Huh... Canti had never fought one of those before... As the Twin Blade calmed down a bit, he watched as Asgard and Raquar tried to deal with the guy. Asgard went on the offensive right off and found himself made into a pin cushion. That wasn't nearly as interesting as how the arrows seemed to work. He could feel it, sense it even. Ice. Asgard had bits of himself frozen.)

Canti: Oh, great... This guy must've been in charge of the testing area. This is gonna fucking hurt...

(Then, Raquar attempted to actually reason with him, and that...brought out some information. The white-coated scientist was the actual creator of the gun. And, judging by how he was stopping Raq from firing it, he really REALLY didn't want that sucker pointed at him. This put Canti in mind to make sure that guy got a good dose of ray gun. The question was...how to go about doing it. And...like magic, Raquar's Flash Mail gives him the idea.)

TO: The Group
FROM: Canti
Subject: The Plan

I'm gonna try and go with Raq's idea and see if I can get this sucker shot. Wait for the BEST opportunity to shoot him, or for someone - anyone - to just tackle this guy. Don't worry about me. Just do it.

(Like he said... This was gonna hurt. Ah well... Nothing ventured, right? Besides, the frantic guy's behavior seemed pretty fucking odd to Canti.)

Canti: Hey, William Tell! Am I hearing you right? You're actually inviting us to kill you?

(Most people would beg for mercy.)

"As if there's any other option for you people!"

(Complete moron, for all his scientific background. Canti shrugged at him.)

Canti: You could try tossing us the key to Nall's cell, so to speak, and then run like hell. Just throwing that out there.

"HA! All I have to do is stall you long enough for our messenger to return."

(That bothered him. He had almost forgotten...that this was a mission with a time limit. God-dammit, he HATED time limits! Every fucking game with those things ruined the fun involved! The only games that should have time limits involved are like Metroid games, where it was FUN because you were escaping a BOMB going off. But this...? Ugh...)

Canti: Okay... I'm done being nice.

(The Twin Blade merely lifted a hand...)

Canti: Bye now.

(...and took him up on his offer. A thick stream of black fire launched from his hand at the archer. If he wanted to play the distance game, he was going to need bigger guns. However, he sidestepped with a speed that was somewhat surprising, considering he was slower when he tried to dodge Asgard's attacks. What the fuck was that? Had he been hiding his dodge skills deliberately? Well, everyone in the room saw that, right? He couldn't fake it anymore NOW. Anyway, the Archer shot an arrow that buzzed right past Canti harmlessly, which...was confusing since Canti didn't even move. Then, he used a cure item and the Twin Blade realized why. A de-buff. Well, no longer... Once it was cured, three more arrows shot out, and these were more accurate. He ducked back and spun into a crouch to avoid them. This was taking too long. At this rate, the evil bastard's delay tactics might actually work. Oh wait. Canti had a number of unused spell-scrolls cluttering up his inventory. 0He used an Ice Storm scroll on him, not for the damage, but for the way spells stopped people from moving for a bit. Using items never delayed the character casting them, so he used that small instant to fly at him with knives drawn to slash at an X pattern. As it happens, the spell didn't do much anyway, and he didn't try to dodge it. That was good. What was bad was that he came face to face with a pair of arrows as soon as the mist cleared, jotting him at the shoulder. So, even if he hit the guy, the damage would be less.)

Canti: Asshole.

(Wow. Now he looked like he was in a Superman flying position. But...the arms still facing the right direction, so let's just explode the rest of our SP reserves on a Darkness Flame attack of epic proportions. The archer was RIGHT THERE, so it'd be hard to miss. Oh, and Canti was also trying to kick the guy in the naggers, just for good measure. Unfortunately, he also missed as the Archer-dude shoots the floor to create an ice-puddle, a la Sub-Zero. He goes slipping and sliding on it under him as the Twin Blade flies over, feeling two shots of arrow go into his chest. Much as that hurt, this was the sort of moment Canti was looking for. NOW was a good time Raquar to heat up that gun, because the guy was on the floor and in the open, with he himself more out of the way.)

Canti: Oof!

(Rough landing, thought. Well, being shot with four arrows will do that to a guy. Chest was stiff now... This guy used ice. It was obviously his element, but the need for fire on that guy was not quite as important as thawing himself. That is...IF it worked that way. Canti gritted his teeth and said the magic words, his SP-count hitting 12...)

Canti: Vak Rom.

(FWOOSH!! A Fiery tornado swirled around...himself! He didn't expect much damage, since that was his element, but he wanted to see if it unfroze him. This guy's arrows were taking fair chunks of HP out of his reckless hide. Only thing was that Canti didn't know about the other effect of the guy's arrows. Oh, he thawed alright, but then....he also died. Went up like one of those people who pour gasoline on themselves and light up. Why? Because something in the arrows had made it so the damage-ratio was increased by the power of 4. Basically, take the power the attack had before reacting to Canti's natural defenses, then slap an exponent on it equal to the amount of arrows he was hit by and...do you need a calculator for this? Don't bother. The point is that even after Canti's defenses kicked in, it was more HP than he had left. The ghost of Canti dead-pans in reaction to his sudden death syndrome and stands up to look at the lab coat guy.)

Canti: You know, for a guy so afraid of getting killed, you sure don't mind dishing it out. Hypocrisy much?

TO: The Group
FROM: Canti
SUBJECT: Ouch.

Okay, it wasn't exactly a bad idea for ME to be set on fire to try and thaw out, but it looks like the ice arrows add some wicked multipliers to the damage caused. Possibly beyond that of a Level-4 spell. If you've been really shot up, don't try it. As it stands, it MIGHT be safe to try if you've only been hit once or twice, maybe.

Oh, and could someone maybe Res me if I creep behind this guy? 'Cause if Raquar misses, I wanna strangle the bastard, big-time.


(Hopefully, in the meantime, Raquar will have come through with the dealing with this archer business.)


OOC: Yeah, so our Archer guy is freezy, dodgey, slippery, and uses higher math to screw up our attempts to thaw.

*HAH! I'll bet nobody here remembers those!
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.

Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.

User avatar
Lighteria
Well-Oiled Machine
Posts: 176
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:59 am
Location: :noitacoL

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Lighteria » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:39 pm

I guess blowing up everything in the lab is probably a... prudent object. Still, it feels just a little typical of us to barge in, blow everything to bits and leave. Not that these people don't deserve it of course but-...

Lighteria's thoughts are cut short when the lab tech dons the armor and... well... actually it's bit hard to describe what exactly he turns into but whatever you call it, ugly is a good description. Much to the twin blades surprise though, the ensuing chaos reveals that instead of the ugly, deformed creature, the team apparently is going to fight... a lab guy with a bow. Sort of an anti-climax in his eyes... I mean they'd beaten things that are programmed to do nothing BUT fight and now a lab geek with a long bow thinks he can take them out? Well, he's certainly brave, have to give him that. But there's no way-

"Omigod." Lighteria eeks out when he sees Asgard try to take the lab geek out, only to have his knife diverted in mid-air. This makes Lighteria pause, because he quickly realizes that this guy is both ridiculously fast and extremely accurate. Those aren't good traits when you're standing on the opposite side of the room. The only really smart thing to do would be to all charge at once of course. There's no way he could hit EVERYone before he's pummeled... but that kind of coordination is laughable really, so Lighteria takes the next best option: he ducks into the other room.

What hypocrisy that guy has... Calling us murderers when he's trying to kill us. We're all people in here... unless that guy's sitting at his computer and not actually in game, but he seems to be pretty scared so that's probably not the case. ...Dammit... I can't let him die too... I don't think I could take it. ...But I've got to save those thoughts for AFTER we beat him.

A brief glance around the ruined lab brings the proverbial light bulb over Lighteria's head. After all, the best defense against an archer is finding some cover... and since there's no such thing as tower shields in this game, the twin blade decides to make due. He quickly heads towards the broken table and gives the remains a good accurate kick, snapping a rather sizeable chunk off the remains. With a quick jab, the player thrusts one of his blades into the table piece and picks the entire thing up with the blade hilt. ....It's unwieldy to say the least, but certainly better than trying to deflect it with just the blade. That done, he rushes back towards the room, already thinking of a plan.

Ok, so this place isn't exactly a meat locker, all that frost is gonna turn to water pretty quickly. With any luck, this thing will hold off the attacks in time for one good spell to go off. Hopefully that's all I'll need.

He skids to a halt to see Canti dead.

...Dammit. Make that two spells.

"Rip Maen." The twin blade says, a pure white magic glyph extending from his left hand and expanding outwards, a bright flash of white surrounding Canti's corpse and popping the player back to corporealness. This hardly goes unnoticed by the lab guy of course. An arrow flies towards Lighteria's head before he can even get out 'Rip'. Luckily, in his natural 'Ohgodnottheface' fighting style, the twin blade is quick to raise the 'shield' up, the arrow burying itself into the surface and coming to a complete halt before exploding in a shower of ice flakes, covering about three fourths of the surface in ice. It serves its purpose well enough though. The blocked arrow allowing plenty of time for the cast to go off. Of course, a second arrow flies for the player almost as soon as the first arrow explodes. This makes equipment switching VERY stressful for the twin blade as he attempts to switch into his Emperor’s Crown.

Shootshootshoot! Castcastcast!!!

The second arrow is met by the table surface again, this time the arrow head barely catching the rim as Lighteria's reflexes are juuuust quick enough to catch it before it lands in his side. Of course, now the rest of the shield is frozen but again, enough time is bought for the twin blade to start another cast. Not even bothering to mouth the spell name this time, the twin blade's hand sparks with energy as a yellow glyph extends outward from his palm. The SP sucking GiRai Don quickly starts showing off its 'not first level spell'..ness, by forming an entire yellow glyph at the twin blade's feet, the air sparking with energy as the cast takes its bloody sweet time going off. The inevitable third arrow flies towards Lighteria's chest, only to be met by the table... which immediately shatters into about a thousand splinters when the frozen surface is impacted so squarely. Fortunately for Lighteria, the impact kills the arrow's velocity so the arrow head doesn't actually burrow very deeply into his arm, which, as you might be able to deduce, tends to be in the way when holding something up. The pain surging through his frozen arm certainly isn't pleasant but it's not enough to interrupt the spell's momentum. A torrent of lightning bolts surge down from the sky towards the archer and land... right on the ice which the twin blade kind of hopes is somewhat moist, it being frozen water and Canti having roasted the entire area only a few moments earlier. In retrospect, resurrecting Canti AFTER the fireworks display might have been a better choice... but Lighteria never claimed to have perfect plans. Besides, game mechanics don't let you hurt friendly targets with spells... Granted has hasn't tried targeting a friend after the whole twilight infection, but... eh. Worth the risk.
Lv. 37 Twin Blade (180 SP)
Weapon: Rashou (Thunder Coil- 30, Suvi Lei- 20, Mumyn Lei- 30) (Life Drain)
Armor: Holy Tree Mail (Juk Kruz- 20) - Scarab Earring (La Repth- 20, Rip Maen- 40) - Time Sandals (Ap Do- 15) - Forest Gloves (Juk Kruz- 20)
GP: 14384

Wish list (In order of priority): Angel halo accessory, chibi angel wings, Bone Armor, Professional

Lighteria: "Obsessively updating my profile since Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm"

Phoenix512
Exalted Player
Posts: 304
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:42 pm

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Phoenix512 » Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:15 am

This guy has a weird justification in killing us. His idiot friend knew what would likely happened if he put on the Titan’s Armor on himself. Now he’s some freaky monster with Twilight seeming out of him in huge amounts. The archer does have one point though. He must be tracked before it could do any harm. But this guy would rather kill us than finding his idiot friend. If he want to kill us, I guess he’s an idiot as well.

Phoenix was hanging back at the beginning of the battle as the archer revealed his icy arrows and their unique abilities. The first was it was able to surround a limb with ice when hit. That ability did not worry Phoenix as much as he could better adapt in change of limb weight due to his previous powers of gravity. The second ability was a bit of a problem for Phoenix. If hit with enough arrows, your body would be most likely to cover in ice and that’s was not bad enough. The kicker is if you managed to thaw yourself from the ice, you get a nice amount of damage depending on how many arrows you get. This guy would be one hell of an artillery support unit. Too bad that Sekai was not here to see what an archer could do but then again, she would try to reason with him.

Phoenix cast Ap Vakz on himself and switched to the Bloody Pain. It was an appropriate sword for the blademaster’s current mindset. He began to slowly walk towards the archer as he did not have a plan but to inflict as much pain and suffering on him personally. His bloody hand still dripped onto the floor as he continued his approach when the archer finally noticed him. The icy archer fired off a succession of three arrows at the blademaster at a high speed. “WIND BLADE!”

Phoenix’s unique power was created by a vertical slash. The vertical slash propelled itself forward and intersected with the three arrows. The combination of the arrows and the blade blew up right there and small bits of ice went scattering along the lab. Some of the ice hit Phoenix but their original effect was lost. The arrow must pierce the body in order to do their damage. There was no time for celebration as the archer released another three arrows at Phoenix. He did not have to use another Wind Blade but there was another skill that would allow him to come out unharmed. “VAK REVOLVER!”

The rotating motion attack lit the Bloody Pain on fire and allows him to melt the arrows before they reached his body. For every time Phoenix could counter the icy arrows, the archer would quickly fire another volley at him. This time Phoenix had no quick way to get himself out the jam until a bright light came from Lighteria’s direction. Lighteria-kun, time for me to leave. Thanks for the ride. Believe in yourself. You are capable. Phoenix even thinks that.

Suzaku revert back to her original form and flew very quickly to where the arrows were closing in at Phoenix. The bird stood in between the arrows and Phoenix and took all the hits from the arrows. “SUZAKU!” The arrows encased the bird in a block of ice. Suzaku fell to the ground and was mostly intact. Kazuma, throw me at him and use BiVak Rom on me. I know you want to kill him. I’m giving you your chance to do it.

But why? I treated you so bad. I even left you on that table. You could have gone your own way but you decided to stay with me. So why?

Oh Kazuma, you’re still a baka in all these years. It’s because I loved you. Now throw me and burn me.

Okay…

Phoenix dropped the Bloody Pain and picked up the block of ice encasing Suzaku in. Using both hands, he threw the block of ice as the archer released another three arrows towards the blademaster. This time, the thrown block of ice served as a shield to deflect the arrows and was heading straight for him. “BIVAK ROM!”

The level two fiery tornado surrounded the block of ice which created a nice shield for him so that any arrows would evaporate. Phoenix picked up the Bloody Pain and used a Speed Charm. He began to charge towards the archer while the tornado was still in effect. By then, Suzaku had already dethaw but the damage from the tornado was too much for her to survive due to the icy arrows’ effect.

Kazuma, I finally said it but too bad you don’t remember anything. Figures that would be the time I said to him. The overdrive attack is still not available yet but it will be a matter of time before it does.

Suzaku turned into a ghost as Phoenix leapt through the tornado and activate Vak Revolver for a second time. Suzaku, I’m sorry for what I did to you but I will make it up to you. You are still you after discovering your true self. I was wrong to think otherwise. I may not remember you being that girl but I do accept now.

Kazuma, you finally did it. The overdrive is now active.
Phoenix
Level 48 Blademaster
Equipped Skills: Vak Revolver, Gan Revolver, Dek Vorv, La Repth, Juk Kruz, Rue Kruz, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot
Other Skills: Rue Kruz, Rip Synk, Rip Saem, Crack Beat, Rue Slash, Ani Slash, Gan Crack, Gan Revolver

Wish List: Phoenix's Fire, Gold Necklace
EX-Spheres: LV 3 - Overdrive, LV 3 - Curative, LV 3 - Elemental Breath

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Nighthand
Master of Games
Posts: 1265
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
Class: Bladesmage
Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Nighthand » Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:08 am

The bowman, labtech, trained monkey of the hackers, or whatever designation they gave him in their minds, was proving to be a surprisingly formidable opponent. It wasn’t every day that they saw an Archer to begin with, let alone one of a decently high level. On top of that, one that fought solo was as rare as a snowball signed by Vulcan. The weakness of an Archer was range, after all. This guy, though, made up for it in numerous ways. His bow was wicked-looking and had proven able to deflect an attack, even if said attack was just a throwing dart. He was fast, both in movement and in reflexes. He was dangerously accurate and switched his focus in a blink. He had the advantage of distance and the lack of a coordinated attack. On top of it all, his arrows froze up joints, making each hit he delivered that much more of an impediment to the group.

Lighteria’s brilliance showed through in the creation of a makeshift shield. It held up well enough, all things considered, and Nighthand thought about ducking back into the demolished lab to see if there was a sturdier table that he could break into his own shield. That is, before he remembered that most of the standard non-katana Heavyblade weapons were essentially edged tower shields. With handles at the top.

While Canti, Phoenix, and Lighteria did their best to distract the archer, Nighthand worked his frozen arm, the one shot when he tossed his Res to Asgard. It seemed to be slowly unlocking itself, thawing of its own accord. That was good. It meant that the archer only had so long to take advantage of freezing their limbs. He drew his blade and slammed it tip-first into the floor, digging it in a couple of inches. It wouldn’t be the widest shield in the world, and it wasn’t planted as firmly as it could be, but it would serve its purpose.

He ducked down behind the sword, hiding himself as much as he could from the archer, and felt more than saw Lighteria’s spell go off. The lightning crashed down on the melting ice, arcing along it in a flash of continued motion, little more than a pillar of light. The archer screamed and slammed back into the wall, mere feet from the Titan’s Armor and its containment field.

Abandoning his former plan to hide and snipe with spells, Nighthand rose as the spell faded and yanked his blade from the ground. The chance to attack was limited, as the archer was already getting up. Fast as he was, it didn’t look like he was going to make it in time to attach before their foe was on his feet and firing.

In a flash of pink skin and orange clothing, Sheena was there, one hand wrapped around the throat of the hacker, the other drawn back in a fist.

”GIVE ME THE DUNGEON KEY!” She shouted. His silence greeted her, and the rest of them were wary, waiting to see what would happen in this confrontation of powers. Sheena could easily destroy anyone in the room, but no one, not even Nighthand had seen her true powers.

”I SAID GIVE ME THE KEY!”

“I heard what you said.” He slumped, his body quaking with suppressed laughter. “Kill me and take it, then. You’re all a bunch of bullies anyways, strong arms for the Admins. Wait, they don’t care about you either, do they? You’re just vigilantes, on the run from everyone, hating everyone, killing everyone.”

”You don’t understand, you can’t understand.”

“Of course not, that’s what your kind always says. Why can’t you just let things be?”

With a growl, Sheena slammed her fist into the wall, the impact sending cracks across the entire surface and leaving a crater.

”Give. Me. The. Key.”

The archer twisted, ripping his arm up, his bow tearing through Sheena’s arm, forcing her to drop him. She punched with her good arm, but he was gone, half a room away already.

“It won’t be long now, and then you’ll face your judgment!” His bowstring pulsed and turned brown, and he drew it back. Nighthand rushed him, and he released his arrow.

An arrow that turned thick and jagged, more of a spike of stone than an arrow. It struck him in the shoulder and carried him with it, slamming into the wall and pinning the heavy blade there.

“Soon, soon.”


OOC: One round thaws out the ice arrows that hit you. He can still use them, but he's using Earth at the moment, which have very, very high mass and are basically impossible to block. They'll carry you across the room, and if they hit you in the head or the heart they'll pretty much kill you. Dangerous stuff.

Raquar
Ikkitousen
Posts: 108
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:28 pm
Location: Hiding in the shadows

Re: Gated Folding Stare; Fighting Through Fire!

Post by Raquar » Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:34 am

He received a series of flashmails from Canti detailing a plan and a useful bit of information. It seemed like a worthwhile idea, and while the Dark Winged Twin Blade engaged Mr. Archer Man he took the opportunity to situate the gun in a more comfortable kneeling position. Using his unfrozen arm he prepped the giant boomstick. The large switch was flicked on and held there. It began to resonate and throb softly in his arms. That was about all he could do for the moment though, as his shoulder joint was still encased in ice and that made it difficult to move at all. He could only sit and grind his teeth as eventually Canti fell to the lightning quick arrow slinging lab rat.

Thankfully, Lights had their back. With some makeshift shield and attack pattern he not only rezzed Canti, but managed to go slightly on the offensive, which also bought him a little more time. Grunting, the boy felt small slivers of movement slowly return to his shoulder. It seemed that if you were patient, the ice would thaw on its own, a decent discovery to have made. As Lighteria dropped a giant ball of electricity onto the archer the Long Arm slowly worked his rotator cuff, gently warming it up and bringing it back to the world of the warm and living. However, he still needed more time before he could legitimately take action, and it was Phoenix that bought him this time.

The older Blademaster seemed to find a way to reduce the Archer’s attacks to rubble, which was extremely helpful. It was the Wind Blade and the Vak Revolver that bought the kid enough time to completely work his shoulder joint free from the encasing ice. It was perfect. It was still stiff, but it was moveable and workable, which meant that he could start blowing shit up. And with that information, he flipped the first switch. His body started to vibrate a little and it shocked his shoulder uncomfortably but he bit his lip and flipped the second one. His body started to shake harder and a curse dragged itself from his lips as his cold shoulder was jarred out of its socket. Gritting his teeth, he dragged his shoulder through the flaming pain of its dislocation and managed to somehow flip the third switch right as Sheena slammed Mr. Lab Rat into the wall and began gesturing vaguely and shouting for something.

The whole thing made him sit there vibrating like a damn sports car engine as he couldn’t take the risk of firing the gun while Sheena was there. Thankfully, Mr. Lab Rat managed to carve his way out of Sheena’s grasp and bounce backward, and after shooting the charging Nighthand with a giant pointed stone stalactite was finally open for a clear shot. He felt bad for the injuries to both players, but by now he was so focused on the gun and was vibrating so badly there wasn’t much else to do but fire the gun. And so, letting out a brief guttural and visceral sound, the jarred his dislocated shoulder in such away that the digits on the end of the limb managed to flip the fourth and final switch.

The vibrations became so rough that he could barely hold onto the contraption, and the noise became entombed in his head like a permanent root canal. He felt so drained of energy and strength that he could barely keep himself kneeling. But, to his hugely frustrated surprise nothing happened. He just sat there shaking in his damn sandals. There was no giant beam of energy or burst of light that came rocketing toward the archer. There was nothing. He looked around frantically on the gun itself and on the backpack. No buttons or knobs. No triggers or displays. Not jack shit. He was stuck. His mind raced frantically searching for something that could work. It had to have a backpack for a reason. The gun was charged, but how did he let it loose? An idea came to him; that in the current situation, was the only thing he could think of to do. His right hand let go of the big switch that he had propped into the on position for all this time.

His body felt completely drained, and a glance would show he had shit for SP and a single health point remaining. In the meantime, there was a swirl of something that seemed to be feasting on itself at the tip of the gun, slowly growing bigger. One moment it seemed to be almost crystalline, refracting light every which direction before seemingly changing substances into almost a seemingly flat monochromatic substance that could almost appear to be a black hole. It seemed to contain all three properties, and the boy was so entranced by the swirling ball of whatever the hell it was that he almost missed three of the odd-cruel and satanic looking blades whizzed forward, penetrating three different areas of the Lab Rat’s chest cavity. The man ghosted almost immediately, but then reverted back, and sat there flickering half ghosted half alive for a few moments while something occurred around him. Items slowly began to drift away from the archer, first boots and gloves, then a second later they were joined by a breastplate and a headband. And finally, the bow completed the five point circle around the archer. They too seemed to flicker half in reality and half out.

It was at this point that the blades detracted themselves from the archer’s chest and slammed back home . . . every gun had its recoil. He had no time to react as his entire body snapped backwards, crashing into the wall behind him the gun pinning him for less than a millisecond before his abused body ghosted. That thing had the kick of a shotgun mixed with an elephant rifle and multiplied by the biggest damn exponent you could think of. Mr. Archer man didn’t seem to be doing much better however, he sat there slumped forward not responding to anything else that was going on in the room, and his gear in that eerily odd circle around him. Granted he couldn’t do much as a ghost, and he wouldn’t be surprised if he was resurrected that his body wouldn’t be in complete and utter agony then either.

Maybe full power wasn’t the brightest of ideas.

OOC: Couple things worth noting.

1. Even though the Archer’s gear is removed, his clothing is still there and intact therefore he is not in the nude. I know, oh darn.
2. The Archer will not respond to anything. No words will reach his ears if he is talked too, no attacks will touch his flesh. He and his equipment are effectively not part of this world.
3. Tossing a Resurrect at me seems to have no effect, as I cannot even be targeted as a recipient of the item. I think that’s all.
Level 28 Long Arm
Archspear, Newt Necklace, Smith's Gloves, Wyrm Scale, Kuja's Thong Dress
EXP: [700/1000]

WISHLIST
Levels
Weapons: - All
Armor: Head - Scarab Earring
Body - Nothing until Mid 30's. Ninja Garb Hand - Nothing until Mid 30's. Leg - Nothing until Mid 30's.
Items: Cooked Biles, Darkness Scrolls (Any and All)

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