Re: The Phenomenal Fracas! (GBS2G6): [Round Four: The Warped Edifice]
03-19-2012, 10:45 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by MrGuy.
Ripper Blackmask wadded up yet another ball of paper and tossed it into the crudely-carved bowl in the room. Once again, she managed to land it in.
She was growing restless. For a giant hotel with a sprawling city under it, it was just so damn tedious. No, she needed to bring some piracy proper into this, and do it fast. But what if those ugly lubbers are stronger than they look? Don’t want more trouble than I bargained for. Then again, it wouldn’t be too hard to find out if there was only one of them there, and if it was more than the pirate expected it’d be a good fight in and of itself…
Blackmask opened the door and pounded on the wall outside; soon enough, someone stumbled along. “What do… you need… guest?” The pirate responded to this by double-checking that the hallway was empty, then grabbing the unfortunate soul, dragging him into her room, and slamming the door. Her fears had proved more or less unfounded; if anything, he was even weaker than most unarmed civilians she’d ever thought. Someone with medical or magical training might cite the possibility of lowered bone density or muscle mass, though note that it could easily be any number of other ill effects from exposure to whatever had caused their bodies to twist as they had; Blackmask simply attributed it to the creatures being stupid naïve sods, and began breaking down doors and looting things.
There was the occasional pang of consciousness, of course, but for the most part she considered it not worth thinking about. She'd stolen from those who came by their wealth deservingly before, and she had even killed them if the insurance was what was needed; besides, the guilt always subsided when looking over the plunder. The far larger concern was the odd shortness of breath she was experiencing. Normally her lungs were fairly strong, and she wasn't even exerting herself. She wrote it off as a brief bit of pain to work through, pretending she'd felt it every time she started one of her raids. Perfectly normal, nothing to worry about.
Unfortunately, the building they were in only had so many valuables, and Ripper Blackmask was never content to stop a thieving spree in the middle. The only solution was to head out into town and start breaking into houses proper-- which, unfortunately for her, led one of the individuals she passed to decide to go clean up the guest area to ensure it was ready for the next guest they received. They were so rare, after all; it would be a terrible shame if something were to ruin the experience, such as
"A... corpse..."
As soon as she heard the bizarre, guttural scream, Ripper knew she was in trouble. However, she certainly didn't expect just how quickly a mob would form, complete with makeshift weapons. She had to admit it was impressive how one scream could so easily rally the entire people; she only wished she could manage something that effective. But this train of thought was broken when a rock was thrown at her, at which point she decided the fun had truly started.
"Alright, ya blaggards. Y'wish t'cross swords and trade shells with Ripper Blackmask? Then come on and get your ticket on the Dutchman!" At this, she began firing scalding plasma into the crowd while slashing back and forth with a baton, completely ignoring that neither of these really fit her poetic little introduction. What was more important was that she kept them at bay, and at first, she did; but somehow, more and more kept filtering in from god knows where. Who knew how many of them would be ready? Hundreds? Thousands? They began reaching the pirate in spite of her best efforts, clawing at her coat and trying to disarm her. It still wasn't too difficult to dislodge them, but they were wearing her down. Causing her pain, making her pant with exhaustion. Was that normal? Of course it was. She always felt like this. She powered through it. It was just looking more and more difficult to do so.
It was around this point that the pirate remembered that she was supposed to have an alliance with Syvex and, more importantly, that she hadn’t recalled seeing him for quite a while now, and that it would be quite convenient to see him again. After briefly entertaining the possibility of searching for him, then immediately discarding that because she was being... well, mobbed, by an angry mob and the city was rather too enormous to search every building for him while they were doing so, she found the entire thing moot as a tremendous explosion rocked the ground in front of her.
Blackmask and the mob chasing her froze in awe as the device that had caused the explosion came into view. The temple had risen from its foundation, and tremendous cannons had sprouted from all four sides, firing rapidly at the entire town, with an approaching battalion of small tanks supplementing this. Standing atop of the pyramid was a man in a black suit and sunglasses, who had taken the liberty of kicking Xiuhcoatl off the top, where he rather quickly died.
Several things happened at this point. First, the mob's attention quickly turned to the temple, and their misshapen legs and crude weapons quickly brought them flailing towards it. Second, Ripper-- sensing an opportunity to find her ally-- rocketed off and began scanning from a high vantage point, knowing that she probably wouldn't find the shadow serpent but praying that she would. And third, a man in a cloak, seemingly invisible to everyone around him, shuffled down the pyramid steps, the pincushion in his hands cursing their abominable luck.
Ripper Blackmask wadded up yet another ball of paper and tossed it into the crudely-carved bowl in the room. Once again, she managed to land it in.
She was growing restless. For a giant hotel with a sprawling city under it, it was just so damn tedious. No, she needed to bring some piracy proper into this, and do it fast. But what if those ugly lubbers are stronger than they look? Don’t want more trouble than I bargained for. Then again, it wouldn’t be too hard to find out if there was only one of them there, and if it was more than the pirate expected it’d be a good fight in and of itself…
Blackmask opened the door and pounded on the wall outside; soon enough, someone stumbled along. “What do… you need… guest?” The pirate responded to this by double-checking that the hallway was empty, then grabbing the unfortunate soul, dragging him into her room, and slamming the door. Her fears had proved more or less unfounded; if anything, he was even weaker than most unarmed civilians she’d ever thought. Someone with medical or magical training might cite the possibility of lowered bone density or muscle mass, though note that it could easily be any number of other ill effects from exposure to whatever had caused their bodies to twist as they had; Blackmask simply attributed it to the creatures being stupid naïve sods, and began breaking down doors and looting things.
There was the occasional pang of consciousness, of course, but for the most part she considered it not worth thinking about. She'd stolen from those who came by their wealth deservingly before, and she had even killed them if the insurance was what was needed; besides, the guilt always subsided when looking over the plunder. The far larger concern was the odd shortness of breath she was experiencing. Normally her lungs were fairly strong, and she wasn't even exerting herself. She wrote it off as a brief bit of pain to work through, pretending she'd felt it every time she started one of her raids. Perfectly normal, nothing to worry about.
Unfortunately, the building they were in only had so many valuables, and Ripper Blackmask was never content to stop a thieving spree in the middle. The only solution was to head out into town and start breaking into houses proper-- which, unfortunately for her, led one of the individuals she passed to decide to go clean up the guest area to ensure it was ready for the next guest they received. They were so rare, after all; it would be a terrible shame if something were to ruin the experience, such as
"A... corpse..."
As soon as she heard the bizarre, guttural scream, Ripper knew she was in trouble. However, she certainly didn't expect just how quickly a mob would form, complete with makeshift weapons. She had to admit it was impressive how one scream could so easily rally the entire people; she only wished she could manage something that effective. But this train of thought was broken when a rock was thrown at her, at which point she decided the fun had truly started.
"Alright, ya blaggards. Y'wish t'cross swords and trade shells with Ripper Blackmask? Then come on and get your ticket on the Dutchman!" At this, she began firing scalding plasma into the crowd while slashing back and forth with a baton, completely ignoring that neither of these really fit her poetic little introduction. What was more important was that she kept them at bay, and at first, she did; but somehow, more and more kept filtering in from god knows where. Who knew how many of them would be ready? Hundreds? Thousands? They began reaching the pirate in spite of her best efforts, clawing at her coat and trying to disarm her. It still wasn't too difficult to dislodge them, but they were wearing her down. Causing her pain, making her pant with exhaustion. Was that normal? Of course it was. She always felt like this. She powered through it. It was just looking more and more difficult to do so.
It was around this point that the pirate remembered that she was supposed to have an alliance with Syvex and, more importantly, that she hadn’t recalled seeing him for quite a while now, and that it would be quite convenient to see him again. After briefly entertaining the possibility of searching for him, then immediately discarding that because she was being... well, mobbed, by an angry mob and the city was rather too enormous to search every building for him while they were doing so, she found the entire thing moot as a tremendous explosion rocked the ground in front of her.
Blackmask and the mob chasing her froze in awe as the device that had caused the explosion came into view. The temple had risen from its foundation, and tremendous cannons had sprouted from all four sides, firing rapidly at the entire town, with an approaching battalion of small tanks supplementing this. Standing atop of the pyramid was a man in a black suit and sunglasses, who had taken the liberty of kicking Xiuhcoatl off the top, where he rather quickly died.
Several things happened at this point. First, the mob's attention quickly turned to the temple, and their misshapen legs and crude weapons quickly brought them flailing towards it. Second, Ripper-- sensing an opportunity to find her ally-- rocketed off and began scanning from a high vantage point, knowing that she probably wouldn't find the shadow serpent but praying that she would. And third, a man in a cloak, seemingly invisible to everyone around him, shuffled down the pyramid steps, the pincushion in his hands cursing their abominable luck.