Re: Intense Struggle! (Round 5 - Cervaled Fall)
06-11-2011, 02:48 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.
A little earlier on the top floor a being stood alone in a room that was perhaps better described as a dome. Aside from the door the walls were completely covered in monitors, displaying live footage from the innumerable security cameras throughout the prison. As the walls curved in so did the screens, and if you were to look up you would see that even the roof of this room was filled with security cameras. However the figure standing there was less interested in this and more interested in a console he quickly located. His fingers danced over the keypad searching for the buttons he wanted. There was one in Sector E, one in Sector D, two in Sector B and oh look one down in Sector S. Somewhere in the prison doors started opening.
Alarms ringing after them, the unlikely trio of the nymph, the dinosaur and the alien centipede fled down of the one many hallways of this place. A large steel gate stood in their way, which the combined force of Aph’s tentacles and Kerak’s claws soon ripped open to access the chamber on the other side. There was another gate roughly adjacent to the one that they had come in through, a large elevator on the wall opposite, and to their right a small office from which the exits to this room were traditionally controlled.
Aph’s attitude had shifted somewhat since her last encounter with the guard robots. Before that they had been little more than a pest and she had assumed she essentially had free reign of the prison. Had she known that they would come back with mana-dampening, rendering her more or less helpless to them, she would have perhaps skipped over petty revenge on Trickster; though hey she got a cool hat so it’s swings and roundabouts really. Now all she wanted was to get out of here as quick as possible; never mind her killing spree, she was sure that there would be more people to kill wherever the next round happened to take them.
Kerak was in a bad mood because the guards had not been quite as edible as he had hoped. Aph had already noticed him watching her when he thought she was looking away, practically drooling at what she could only imagine he must perceive as some kind of incredibly exotic meat. Gaurinn was wasting no time, straight over to the office area zapping an officer that was standing guard inside and calling down the elevator. He berated the other two for being a pair of timewasters and the worst people he could imagine to have to break out of a prison with. As the elevator headed down to their floor more footsteps echoed down the cold steel corridor. Aph flinched away from the noise, pressing herself against the elevator, desperate to be even another centimetre away from the approaching guards.
A little earlier, up in the relatively light hearted cells of Sector E an alchemist shared a cell with a cartoon armadillo. Dr. Lorrden had seen and dealt with many things, taking them more or less in his stride but this was one that he was not equipped to deal with. For one thing in the awful blighted world from which he hailed there was no such thing as television hence no such thing as cartoons. The actions of the drawing come to life baffled and bewildered him. At the moment it sat in a white and black striped jumpsuit wistfully playing a harmonica for no reason that he could discern. His alchemical contraption, being the only thing keeping him alive, had not been removed, though all of his herbs and vials and such had been confiscated. As he lay on his side on his bunk, attempting to blot out the harmonica playing that would not cease, he heard the door to the cell ratchet open, leaving a clear path out of here. Rollo jumped for joy as he saw the doors open and dashed into the corridor before they had a chance to close again. Kaja followed him, making sure not to follow too closely mind you, and pausing to examine the door to see if there was any discernible reason why it would just open for him. Then he noticed pinned to the wall a note.
Aph was no help once again; dampened, feeling as though all the energy had just drained out of her, feeling like all the hope had just gone. Gaurinn blasted the first few that arrived, but soon they were wading through electrified chassis and Gaurinn was running out of juice. Then Kerak pounced, he ripped and tore, shredding their tough metal casings as though they were wrapping paper and he were a child on Christmas morning; mana-dampening cores appeared to be the present that everyone had bought for him this year, one after another they were rapidly discarded. The flow soon ebbed away and a sort of peace returned to the room where the elevator was still descending. As the mana-dampening effect dissipated Aph screamed in frustration. She had tried venting her rage upon a guard’s empty shell before and it was pointless; she wanted to feel something die at her hands as punishment for what was currently going on, but the only two available targets were the ones keeping her alive. So she just screamed in frustration and banged against the elevator doors.
A little earlier, on the floor above a man sat in peace, his legs crossed his eyes shut, deep in meditation. He was talking to the planet itself. This was his unique talent, his ability to speak with the world and carry out its will. It had made him into a raging psychopath intent on destroying all of humanity for the preservation of the planet, though he would not have agreed with you. He remembered dying recently, in the Rainy Place, he knew why it had happened. It had been a punishment. He had been headstrong and when that realm had spoken to him, beseeching him to carry out its purpose he had seen it as irrelevant, less than his own purpose. Now he had learned that not every world was the same, and that he had to respect each one as if it were his own. It was for that reason that he was not surprised when his door unlocked itself. He proceeded into the hallway with a sense of purpose.
The doors opened revealing two men standing inside, as far apart as it is possible to be confined in the same elevator. The first, the alchemist, was a pale shade of green wearing goggles and a long coat and had a whole mess of brass fittings lodged into his back. The other, the hippy, had long brown hair, a beard and eyes that were green all the way through. He had his arms folded and was scowling.
“I can’t believe I’m supposed to cooperate with someone like you.” He spat, angrily. “Okay I was prepared to have to work with vermin, but an alchemist?”
“And what is wrong with being an alchemist?” Dr Lorrden replied through gritted teeth. “Being an alchemist is a noble profession.”
“Noble?” Dove exploded. “You uproot innocent harmless plants, then you grind them down, or you boil them alive or some other suitably sick form of pointless destruction. Then you make them into tasty drinks. You monster.”
“They’re just plants!” Kaja responded. “They aren’t sentient. They don’t feel pain.”
“One could say that about monsters like you!” Dove pointed an accusatory finger at the alchemist.
“Excuse me?” Aph said irritably. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No.” Dr Lorrden said, ignoring the floraphile completely. “Come on in if you’re getting in.” Aph hesitated for a moment, whatever was going on here she wasn’t sure she had time to deal with it, but as the familiar footfalls of approaching guards echoed down the corridor she threw caution to the wind and stepped inside. Kerak shrugged and went to follow her.
“No.” Dove said. “Not you, planet was very specific; just the nymph.”
“Pardon?” said Gaurinn. “Suddenly I’m not cool enough to come to the ‘who can shout the loudest party’?”
“The note was pretty specific.” Dr Lorrden replied, hitting the button for Sector B. “As much as I hate to agree with him, you’ll just have to get the next elevator.” The doors slid closed in their faces.
“Excuse me?” Aph said again, feeling pretty redundant by this juncture. “Would someone just tell me what the fuck is going on?” She paused.
“Planet asked me to help.” Dove replied.
“By the way, this is me being polite.” Aph replied her skin burning with a dull fire. “I don’t need my time wasted with cryptic bullshit.”
“We’ve been asked to help.” Dr Lorrden replied. “Apparently he’s been asked by a voice that he hears in his head which he reckons is the planet talking to him… so that is the quality of your help for today.” Dove said nothing but rolled his eyes.
“And what can you guys d-” Aph started in her faux chirpy upbeat voice, but stopped as the doors slid open and she was suddenly face to face with a corridor where the walls and floors were made from a substance full of mana-dampening energy. She collapsed.
A little earlier on that very floor a god of death paced the confines of his cell. He was like always furious. It had not been enough for these Grandmasters that he have his immortality stripped from him, now they had to take away his freedom as well. He was death incarnate! You could not cage death! You could not play with death and hope that at the end of the day it would not come for you, wreaking bloody vengeance upon you until you were naught more than a bloody smear upon the landscape. He would have his revenge. He would have it ten times over. More than that, he would have it a hundred times over. A million times over. He would not be sated, not ever, not for as long as he would live. The Spirit of Fairy Tales watched him in disbelief, though they had taken away her book she didn’t really need it to know about what the death god had done. Death practically dripped from him, the countless lives he had taken peeling off one by one. In anyone else she might have decided that they were an awful villain who ought to die for what they had done, but in Ziirphael she saw something almost primal; a force of nature. Anything that stood in his way more or less deserved to die, to stand against him and live was tantamount to going against nature itself. Ziirphael had continued to pace angrily until suddenly the door slid open. Ziirphael muttered something, about time or something to that effect and without a second look he was out to fight his way out of this hellhole.
Overwhelmed by the mana-dampening Aph passed out, slipping into a fitful dream. It was very confused, in her dream she was tied up, ethereal chains wrapped around her limbs and left abandoned on the floor, but at the same time she was a princess, ruler of a human settlement. Her throne room was opulent but also filled with books about magic; textbooks and study guides. Her prince, a wicked man called Xan was trying to oust her from the throne so that he might rule over the settlement alone. He was gloating and reading magical texts. She broke free using her tentacles, or did she not have any tentacles. There was a sword. She thinks she might have cut his heart out in a fit of rage. Afterwards she’s crying, so lonely, yet surrounded by cheering subjects. She knows that she’ll never be happy again.
Dove and Kaja stood just outside the lift in silence, supporting the distressed nymph between them. In the distance they could hear footsteps; heading their way. They were concerned, Kaja and Dove both had a habit of leaning on their powers, and stripped of any herbs to create potions, or any plants to attack with they were pretty much defenceless. They couldn’t help but wonder why they had been specifically selected to engage in this foolishness. The footsteps got closer to the point where they could see a figure approaching down one of the hallways, he was wearing a tattered bloodstained suit, his arms were blades made out of bone, and behind him a girl with long black pigtails and a ragged grey cloak. Ziirphael sliced through the metal gate that stood in his way, sending a large chunk of metal flying off its hinges.
“Ziirphael.” Kaja started confidently. “We are in urgent requirement of your assistance.” The god of death ran over to the alchemist, knocked Aph and Dove away and slammed him against the wall one of his blade arms pressed against the alchemist’s throat.
“How do you know my name?” Ziirphael demanded.
“There was a note.” Kaja said. “You have to help us.”
“I have to do nothing.” Ziirphael said. “Especially not for the man who writes those notes.”
“Do you not wish to destroy the being that trapped you here?” Dove asked.
A little earlier on that very floor a swarm of fireflies swirled. Thatix’s brain buzzed, literally with activity. Back from the dead? How? Why? What was this place and what happened to that place with all the towers? This place was so limiting, so confining, so grey and dull and depressing and worst of all she couldn’t magic and burn and torch her way out. She tried and tried and even tried on her sidekick but it still didn’t work and he was pretty cross as well. But well here she was back again, that was like what… the third time… the second time? No! The second time, yes! Proof! Proof if proof be needed that she had at some point when she had been thinking about something else, like how much they were all bastards or how she was going to punish them all, that she had ascended to godhood or something. Ooh maybe that’s what was the deal with being fireflies, she never really had got to the bottom of that, she was clearly now a firefly god. That made sense right? And anyway who cares if it makes sense, it’s the truth it doesn’t have to make sense because it just is. Or something. Thinking is hard when you’re a god. She wanted to get out of this tiny little room and start killing things again, prove to the council that you can’t keep a good god-tyrant-wizard-firefly-thingy down. That sounded better when it was in her head. Either way the council they would be sorry that they had messed with her, that they had dragged her here into this dingy little cell, even though it was kind of glowy blue and nice and lovely, but who cares?! Stupid stupid stupid council! Though of course they were always so by the book and goody-two-shoes; they wouldn’t have taken the opportunity to kill her when they did, which was somewhat perplexing but no she was sure that this was the preamble to a trial designed to humiliate and humble her before the stupid peasants that she would actually crush under her heel instead, though it’s doubtful that metaphor really holds any weight when you are a fireflies because ironically enough as a fireflies it is difficult to hold any weight. Or something. Oh look the door had opened. Now she had the advantage. Now she would show the council what she was really made of: fireflies, but like god-fireflies.
“And you can assure me that this plan will take him out?” Ziirphael asked.
“Yes.” Dove replied, now pressed up against the wall in Kaja’s place. Kaja was busy trying to patch up a crack in his apparatus with straps of his jacket. It was not going to hold, and the fluid that kept him alive was already leaking everywhere, but that was kind of irrelevant really, he wasn’t the real Kaja anyway. He noted that Dove was taking care not to tell Ziirphael any of this; he was forced to admit that this was a good move. Ziir wasn’t exactly what you could call cooperative.
“Okay.” Ziirphael relaxed, removing his blade from Dove’s throat. “What now?” Dove walked a little bit away from the death god and straightened his collar.
“We take Sleeping Beauty here down to the control room; turn off the mana-dampening on this floor.” Dove replied.
“And then?” Ziirphael asked.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Kaja responded. “For now…” He set off through the broken gate; of course the control room would be on the opposite side of the floor.
A little earlier on the next level down, an eldritch abomination with a robotic arm was heavily restrained, all but welded to a table in a room with lead walls, several inches thick. A machine suspended from the ceiling shone light into Thane’s eyes and thoughts into Thane’s mind; soothing images of kittens with balls of yarn and the like. Upon the surface the monstrous being was placated, unable to even contemplate breaking free from his restraints, but deep down the mind of the old one seethed with rage. He was angry with his failure, angry with his death and angry at his imprisonment and the constant mental torture. Forget the exhibits he had encountered at The Museum, this was true torture, not the pitiful inflicting of pain upon the flesh, but the inflicting of pain upon the mind itself. Had The Controller been doing this to someone else Thane might almost have been impressed, as it was he could not even scream; the serene thoughts being inflicted upon him would not let him. Eventually after what feels like weeks upon weeks of constant happy images the machine shuts down. As control returned to him Thane ripped his robotic arm free; sending shards of broken metal flying across the room. He quickly extricated himself from the table, leaving it little more than scrap and not even bothering to question the reason for his sudden freedom he tears down the machine and rips it to pieces.
As they make their way across the floor passing by cells that don’t even appear to have windows or doors, they hear the distant echoing of fast approaching guards. Dove and Kaja hold up Aph, and keep out of the way as Ziirphael goes to town. He moves quickly, slashing and spinning, sending their broken chassis spiralling through the air shedding parts like confetti. He effortlessly blocks their shots with his arms of bone. His movements are flowing and natural, almost like some murderous ballet, he does not put a foot wrong. When one of the guards goes down Soft seizes her chance and grabs hold of a machine gun, while not her regular weapon it is still somewhat effective. She fills a guard’s monitor with bullets and watches as it falls back and shatters open. Dove passes off Aph onto the alchemist and swiftly collects one of the weapons for himself. Kaja watches Dove as he attempts to handle the man-made weapon, staring at it with an expression of extreme distaste at first and then his replaced with glee as he uses it to destroy one of the guards. Aph shifts and moans in her sleep, and so they progress, making their way across to the control room. Nearby they spot a cloud of fireflies swarming around a guard evidently not programmed to handle such behaviour. Ziirphael makes quick work of the guard that Thatix was completely unable to damage in any way, not that she was letting that stop her from trying.
“Thatix?” Kaja asked, though why he wasn’t quite sure, he didn’t suspect that there would be two crazy swarms of fireflies flying around the place.
“Who are you people?” Thatix demands. “The council I’ll bet! They’re always getting new councillors in with exactly the same faces as the old councillors!”
“No.” Kaja replied. “We’re working for The Ghost.” With that name dropped Thatix’s swarm stopped flying for a second, stunned.
“And?” she responded, clearly surprised, perhaps even shaken, but unwilling to show it.
“And we need your help.” Doctor Lorrden continued. “I am informed you owe him a debt.”
“You’re talking To Thatix the Mighty here! I owe nobody nothing!” Thatix replied boastfully.
“Okay Thatix the Mighty.” Dove replied sarcastically. “Strike me down here I stand. If you can then we’ll just go on our way, if not you come and help us.” He walked right up to the buzzing cloud of fireflies, which reshaped in front of him into something resembling a woman with long hair, a cloak and a staff.
“I shall smite you down council fool.” Thatix replied. “…With my incredible powers of fire!” She started swirling ineffectually and eventually just started flying around Dove’s head shouting ‘have at you’ and other generic combat phrases in a really feeble manner. Dove attempts to convince her to give up but she just keeps on going until her swarm collapses to the floor exhausted.
“Are you done now?” Dove asks impatiently. “Can we go now?” Thatix formed herself back up and begrudgingly made the journey of about ten to fifteen feet to the control room. Ziirphael takes the lead ruthlessly destroying the sentry posted inside the room, and the rest crowd in afterwards. The room itself is filled with monitors showing the various prisoners on this floor from many different angles and a bank of buttons. Dove rushes over and searches for the one that he was instructed to find. As he pushes it the mana-dampening along the floor deactivates, leaving a vacuum of noise where a barely noticeable low humming had been. Aph awakes from her dream of mangled memories to find a whole group of people standing over her.
“Hey new friends…” she says cautiously. “What the fuck is going on here?”
“What now?” Ziirphael turns to Kaja and Dove, completely ignoring the waking nymph. As Aph gets to her feet she produces a blade made from the black twilight of D’Neya’s tentacles and in one swift motion brings it around and decapitates Ziirphael. His body folds up beneath him, crashing heavily to the floor. A small amount of thick black smoke rising from his neck quickly dissipated into the air. For a second no-one spoke, instead staring at the murderous nymph.
“Seriously…” She says her voice impatient and angry. “What the fuck is going on here?” Kaja swallowed nervously.
“We’re working for someone called The Ghost.” He said. “He wants to give you a hand.”
“Oh.” Aph said, rounding upon the alchemist. “And how does he want to do that? And for that matter why does he care anyway?”
“He wants you to kill The Monitor.” Kaja replied nervously. “This floor is filled with highly magical beings. He wants you to kill them and take their power and use it to kill The Monitor.”
A little earlier on the top floor a being stood alone in a room that was perhaps better described as a dome. Aside from the door the walls were completely covered in monitors, displaying live footage from the innumerable security cameras throughout the prison. As the walls curved in so did the screens, and if you were to look up you would see that even the roof of this room was filled with security cameras. However the figure standing there was less interested in this and more interested in a console he quickly located. His fingers danced over the keypad searching for the buttons he wanted. There was one in Sector E, one in Sector D, two in Sector B and oh look one down in Sector S. Somewhere in the prison doors started opening.
Alarms ringing after them, the unlikely trio of the nymph, the dinosaur and the alien centipede fled down of the one many hallways of this place. A large steel gate stood in their way, which the combined force of Aph’s tentacles and Kerak’s claws soon ripped open to access the chamber on the other side. There was another gate roughly adjacent to the one that they had come in through, a large elevator on the wall opposite, and to their right a small office from which the exits to this room were traditionally controlled.
Aph’s attitude had shifted somewhat since her last encounter with the guard robots. Before that they had been little more than a pest and she had assumed she essentially had free reign of the prison. Had she known that they would come back with mana-dampening, rendering her more or less helpless to them, she would have perhaps skipped over petty revenge on Trickster; though hey she got a cool hat so it’s swings and roundabouts really. Now all she wanted was to get out of here as quick as possible; never mind her killing spree, she was sure that there would be more people to kill wherever the next round happened to take them.
Kerak was in a bad mood because the guards had not been quite as edible as he had hoped. Aph had already noticed him watching her when he thought she was looking away, practically drooling at what she could only imagine he must perceive as some kind of incredibly exotic meat. Gaurinn was wasting no time, straight over to the office area zapping an officer that was standing guard inside and calling down the elevator. He berated the other two for being a pair of timewasters and the worst people he could imagine to have to break out of a prison with. As the elevator headed down to their floor more footsteps echoed down the cold steel corridor. Aph flinched away from the noise, pressing herself against the elevator, desperate to be even another centimetre away from the approaching guards.
A little earlier, up in the relatively light hearted cells of Sector E an alchemist shared a cell with a cartoon armadillo. Dr. Lorrden had seen and dealt with many things, taking them more or less in his stride but this was one that he was not equipped to deal with. For one thing in the awful blighted world from which he hailed there was no such thing as television hence no such thing as cartoons. The actions of the drawing come to life baffled and bewildered him. At the moment it sat in a white and black striped jumpsuit wistfully playing a harmonica for no reason that he could discern. His alchemical contraption, being the only thing keeping him alive, had not been removed, though all of his herbs and vials and such had been confiscated. As he lay on his side on his bunk, attempting to blot out the harmonica playing that would not cease, he heard the door to the cell ratchet open, leaving a clear path out of here. Rollo jumped for joy as he saw the doors open and dashed into the corridor before they had a chance to close again. Kaja followed him, making sure not to follow too closely mind you, and pausing to examine the door to see if there was any discernible reason why it would just open for him. Then he noticed pinned to the wall a note.
Aph was no help once again; dampened, feeling as though all the energy had just drained out of her, feeling like all the hope had just gone. Gaurinn blasted the first few that arrived, but soon they were wading through electrified chassis and Gaurinn was running out of juice. Then Kerak pounced, he ripped and tore, shredding their tough metal casings as though they were wrapping paper and he were a child on Christmas morning; mana-dampening cores appeared to be the present that everyone had bought for him this year, one after another they were rapidly discarded. The flow soon ebbed away and a sort of peace returned to the room where the elevator was still descending. As the mana-dampening effect dissipated Aph screamed in frustration. She had tried venting her rage upon a guard’s empty shell before and it was pointless; she wanted to feel something die at her hands as punishment for what was currently going on, but the only two available targets were the ones keeping her alive. So she just screamed in frustration and banged against the elevator doors.
A little earlier, on the floor above a man sat in peace, his legs crossed his eyes shut, deep in meditation. He was talking to the planet itself. This was his unique talent, his ability to speak with the world and carry out its will. It had made him into a raging psychopath intent on destroying all of humanity for the preservation of the planet, though he would not have agreed with you. He remembered dying recently, in the Rainy Place, he knew why it had happened. It had been a punishment. He had been headstrong and when that realm had spoken to him, beseeching him to carry out its purpose he had seen it as irrelevant, less than his own purpose. Now he had learned that not every world was the same, and that he had to respect each one as if it were his own. It was for that reason that he was not surprised when his door unlocked itself. He proceeded into the hallway with a sense of purpose.
The doors opened revealing two men standing inside, as far apart as it is possible to be confined in the same elevator. The first, the alchemist, was a pale shade of green wearing goggles and a long coat and had a whole mess of brass fittings lodged into his back. The other, the hippy, had long brown hair, a beard and eyes that were green all the way through. He had his arms folded and was scowling.
“I can’t believe I’m supposed to cooperate with someone like you.” He spat, angrily. “Okay I was prepared to have to work with vermin, but an alchemist?”
“And what is wrong with being an alchemist?” Dr Lorrden replied through gritted teeth. “Being an alchemist is a noble profession.”
“Noble?” Dove exploded. “You uproot innocent harmless plants, then you grind them down, or you boil them alive or some other suitably sick form of pointless destruction. Then you make them into tasty drinks. You monster.”
“They’re just plants!” Kaja responded. “They aren’t sentient. They don’t feel pain.”
“One could say that about monsters like you!” Dove pointed an accusatory finger at the alchemist.
“Excuse me?” Aph said irritably. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No.” Dr Lorrden said, ignoring the floraphile completely. “Come on in if you’re getting in.” Aph hesitated for a moment, whatever was going on here she wasn’t sure she had time to deal with it, but as the familiar footfalls of approaching guards echoed down the corridor she threw caution to the wind and stepped inside. Kerak shrugged and went to follow her.
“No.” Dove said. “Not you, planet was very specific; just the nymph.”
“Pardon?” said Gaurinn. “Suddenly I’m not cool enough to come to the ‘who can shout the loudest party’?”
“The note was pretty specific.” Dr Lorrden replied, hitting the button for Sector B. “As much as I hate to agree with him, you’ll just have to get the next elevator.” The doors slid closed in their faces.
“Excuse me?” Aph said again, feeling pretty redundant by this juncture. “Would someone just tell me what the fuck is going on?” She paused.
“Planet asked me to help.” Dove replied.
“By the way, this is me being polite.” Aph replied her skin burning with a dull fire. “I don’t need my time wasted with cryptic bullshit.”
“We’ve been asked to help.” Dr Lorrden replied. “Apparently he’s been asked by a voice that he hears in his head which he reckons is the planet talking to him… so that is the quality of your help for today.” Dove said nothing but rolled his eyes.
“And what can you guys d-” Aph started in her faux chirpy upbeat voice, but stopped as the doors slid open and she was suddenly face to face with a corridor where the walls and floors were made from a substance full of mana-dampening energy. She collapsed.
A little earlier on that very floor a god of death paced the confines of his cell. He was like always furious. It had not been enough for these Grandmasters that he have his immortality stripped from him, now they had to take away his freedom as well. He was death incarnate! You could not cage death! You could not play with death and hope that at the end of the day it would not come for you, wreaking bloody vengeance upon you until you were naught more than a bloody smear upon the landscape. He would have his revenge. He would have it ten times over. More than that, he would have it a hundred times over. A million times over. He would not be sated, not ever, not for as long as he would live. The Spirit of Fairy Tales watched him in disbelief, though they had taken away her book she didn’t really need it to know about what the death god had done. Death practically dripped from him, the countless lives he had taken peeling off one by one. In anyone else she might have decided that they were an awful villain who ought to die for what they had done, but in Ziirphael she saw something almost primal; a force of nature. Anything that stood in his way more or less deserved to die, to stand against him and live was tantamount to going against nature itself. Ziirphael had continued to pace angrily until suddenly the door slid open. Ziirphael muttered something, about time or something to that effect and without a second look he was out to fight his way out of this hellhole.
Overwhelmed by the mana-dampening Aph passed out, slipping into a fitful dream. It was very confused, in her dream she was tied up, ethereal chains wrapped around her limbs and left abandoned on the floor, but at the same time she was a princess, ruler of a human settlement. Her throne room was opulent but also filled with books about magic; textbooks and study guides. Her prince, a wicked man called Xan was trying to oust her from the throne so that he might rule over the settlement alone. He was gloating and reading magical texts. She broke free using her tentacles, or did she not have any tentacles. There was a sword. She thinks she might have cut his heart out in a fit of rage. Afterwards she’s crying, so lonely, yet surrounded by cheering subjects. She knows that she’ll never be happy again.
Dove and Kaja stood just outside the lift in silence, supporting the distressed nymph between them. In the distance they could hear footsteps; heading their way. They were concerned, Kaja and Dove both had a habit of leaning on their powers, and stripped of any herbs to create potions, or any plants to attack with they were pretty much defenceless. They couldn’t help but wonder why they had been specifically selected to engage in this foolishness. The footsteps got closer to the point where they could see a figure approaching down one of the hallways, he was wearing a tattered bloodstained suit, his arms were blades made out of bone, and behind him a girl with long black pigtails and a ragged grey cloak. Ziirphael sliced through the metal gate that stood in his way, sending a large chunk of metal flying off its hinges.
“Ziirphael.” Kaja started confidently. “We are in urgent requirement of your assistance.” The god of death ran over to the alchemist, knocked Aph and Dove away and slammed him against the wall one of his blade arms pressed against the alchemist’s throat.
“How do you know my name?” Ziirphael demanded.
“There was a note.” Kaja said. “You have to help us.”
“I have to do nothing.” Ziirphael said. “Especially not for the man who writes those notes.”
“Do you not wish to destroy the being that trapped you here?” Dove asked.
A little earlier on that very floor a swarm of fireflies swirled. Thatix’s brain buzzed, literally with activity. Back from the dead? How? Why? What was this place and what happened to that place with all the towers? This place was so limiting, so confining, so grey and dull and depressing and worst of all she couldn’t magic and burn and torch her way out. She tried and tried and even tried on her sidekick but it still didn’t work and he was pretty cross as well. But well here she was back again, that was like what… the third time… the second time? No! The second time, yes! Proof! Proof if proof be needed that she had at some point when she had been thinking about something else, like how much they were all bastards or how she was going to punish them all, that she had ascended to godhood or something. Ooh maybe that’s what was the deal with being fireflies, she never really had got to the bottom of that, she was clearly now a firefly god. That made sense right? And anyway who cares if it makes sense, it’s the truth it doesn’t have to make sense because it just is. Or something. Thinking is hard when you’re a god. She wanted to get out of this tiny little room and start killing things again, prove to the council that you can’t keep a good god-tyrant-wizard-firefly-thingy down. That sounded better when it was in her head. Either way the council they would be sorry that they had messed with her, that they had dragged her here into this dingy little cell, even though it was kind of glowy blue and nice and lovely, but who cares?! Stupid stupid stupid council! Though of course they were always so by the book and goody-two-shoes; they wouldn’t have taken the opportunity to kill her when they did, which was somewhat perplexing but no she was sure that this was the preamble to a trial designed to humiliate and humble her before the stupid peasants that she would actually crush under her heel instead, though it’s doubtful that metaphor really holds any weight when you are a fireflies because ironically enough as a fireflies it is difficult to hold any weight. Or something. Oh look the door had opened. Now she had the advantage. Now she would show the council what she was really made of: fireflies, but like god-fireflies.
“And you can assure me that this plan will take him out?” Ziirphael asked.
“Yes.” Dove replied, now pressed up against the wall in Kaja’s place. Kaja was busy trying to patch up a crack in his apparatus with straps of his jacket. It was not going to hold, and the fluid that kept him alive was already leaking everywhere, but that was kind of irrelevant really, he wasn’t the real Kaja anyway. He noted that Dove was taking care not to tell Ziirphael any of this; he was forced to admit that this was a good move. Ziir wasn’t exactly what you could call cooperative.
“Okay.” Ziirphael relaxed, removing his blade from Dove’s throat. “What now?” Dove walked a little bit away from the death god and straightened his collar.
“We take Sleeping Beauty here down to the control room; turn off the mana-dampening on this floor.” Dove replied.
“And then?” Ziirphael asked.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Kaja responded. “For now…” He set off through the broken gate; of course the control room would be on the opposite side of the floor.
A little earlier on the next level down, an eldritch abomination with a robotic arm was heavily restrained, all but welded to a table in a room with lead walls, several inches thick. A machine suspended from the ceiling shone light into Thane’s eyes and thoughts into Thane’s mind; soothing images of kittens with balls of yarn and the like. Upon the surface the monstrous being was placated, unable to even contemplate breaking free from his restraints, but deep down the mind of the old one seethed with rage. He was angry with his failure, angry with his death and angry at his imprisonment and the constant mental torture. Forget the exhibits he had encountered at The Museum, this was true torture, not the pitiful inflicting of pain upon the flesh, but the inflicting of pain upon the mind itself. Had The Controller been doing this to someone else Thane might almost have been impressed, as it was he could not even scream; the serene thoughts being inflicted upon him would not let him. Eventually after what feels like weeks upon weeks of constant happy images the machine shuts down. As control returned to him Thane ripped his robotic arm free; sending shards of broken metal flying across the room. He quickly extricated himself from the table, leaving it little more than scrap and not even bothering to question the reason for his sudden freedom he tears down the machine and rips it to pieces.
As they make their way across the floor passing by cells that don’t even appear to have windows or doors, they hear the distant echoing of fast approaching guards. Dove and Kaja hold up Aph, and keep out of the way as Ziirphael goes to town. He moves quickly, slashing and spinning, sending their broken chassis spiralling through the air shedding parts like confetti. He effortlessly blocks their shots with his arms of bone. His movements are flowing and natural, almost like some murderous ballet, he does not put a foot wrong. When one of the guards goes down Soft seizes her chance and grabs hold of a machine gun, while not her regular weapon it is still somewhat effective. She fills a guard’s monitor with bullets and watches as it falls back and shatters open. Dove passes off Aph onto the alchemist and swiftly collects one of the weapons for himself. Kaja watches Dove as he attempts to handle the man-made weapon, staring at it with an expression of extreme distaste at first and then his replaced with glee as he uses it to destroy one of the guards. Aph shifts and moans in her sleep, and so they progress, making their way across to the control room. Nearby they spot a cloud of fireflies swarming around a guard evidently not programmed to handle such behaviour. Ziirphael makes quick work of the guard that Thatix was completely unable to damage in any way, not that she was letting that stop her from trying.
“Thatix?” Kaja asked, though why he wasn’t quite sure, he didn’t suspect that there would be two crazy swarms of fireflies flying around the place.
“Who are you people?” Thatix demands. “The council I’ll bet! They’re always getting new councillors in with exactly the same faces as the old councillors!”
“No.” Kaja replied. “We’re working for The Ghost.” With that name dropped Thatix’s swarm stopped flying for a second, stunned.
“And?” she responded, clearly surprised, perhaps even shaken, but unwilling to show it.
“And we need your help.” Doctor Lorrden continued. “I am informed you owe him a debt.”
“You’re talking To Thatix the Mighty here! I owe nobody nothing!” Thatix replied boastfully.
“Okay Thatix the Mighty.” Dove replied sarcastically. “Strike me down here I stand. If you can then we’ll just go on our way, if not you come and help us.” He walked right up to the buzzing cloud of fireflies, which reshaped in front of him into something resembling a woman with long hair, a cloak and a staff.
“I shall smite you down council fool.” Thatix replied. “…With my incredible powers of fire!” She started swirling ineffectually and eventually just started flying around Dove’s head shouting ‘have at you’ and other generic combat phrases in a really feeble manner. Dove attempts to convince her to give up but she just keeps on going until her swarm collapses to the floor exhausted.
“Are you done now?” Dove asks impatiently. “Can we go now?” Thatix formed herself back up and begrudgingly made the journey of about ten to fifteen feet to the control room. Ziirphael takes the lead ruthlessly destroying the sentry posted inside the room, and the rest crowd in afterwards. The room itself is filled with monitors showing the various prisoners on this floor from many different angles and a bank of buttons. Dove rushes over and searches for the one that he was instructed to find. As he pushes it the mana-dampening along the floor deactivates, leaving a vacuum of noise where a barely noticeable low humming had been. Aph awakes from her dream of mangled memories to find a whole group of people standing over her.
“Hey new friends…” she says cautiously. “What the fuck is going on here?”
“What now?” Ziirphael turns to Kaja and Dove, completely ignoring the waking nymph. As Aph gets to her feet she produces a blade made from the black twilight of D’Neya’s tentacles and in one swift motion brings it around and decapitates Ziirphael. His body folds up beneath him, crashing heavily to the floor. A small amount of thick black smoke rising from his neck quickly dissipated into the air. For a second no-one spoke, instead staring at the murderous nymph.
“Seriously…” She says her voice impatient and angry. “What the fuck is going on here?” Kaja swallowed nervously.
“We’re working for someone called The Ghost.” He said. “He wants to give you a hand.”
“Oh.” Aph said, rounding upon the alchemist. “And how does he want to do that? And for that matter why does he care anyway?”
“He wants you to kill The Monitor.” Kaja replied nervously. “This floor is filled with highly magical beings. He wants you to kill them and take their power and use it to kill The Monitor.”
Heaven Help Us | Make Room!!!! | I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
Hang 'Em High | The Only Hope For Me Is You | Zero Percent | Early Sunsets Over Monroeville | DESTROYA | Demolition Lovers | To The End
Surrender The Night | Disenchanted | The Ghost Of You | Party Poison | Vampires Will Never Hurt You | The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You
Hang 'Em High | The Only Hope For Me Is You | Zero Percent | Early Sunsets Over Monroeville | DESTROYA | Demolition Lovers | To The End
Surrender The Night | Disenchanted | The Ghost Of You | Party Poison | Vampires Will Never Hurt You | The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You