Re: Intense Struggle Season 2! (Round 2: Infinity Express)
01-06-2011, 01:40 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Drakenforge.
Karen was already sick of dealing with the train’s stomach lurching twists and manoeuvres, and now she had to worry about derailing it from the only other existent thing in sight.
“I’m not sure I’m up to derailing something I have a phobia of, even without the fear of hitting a floor or wall or large building. And besides, I have more pressing concerns to worry about. Like getting to Lillian before Charlie does. Machines don’t have pity or mercy. It’ll take that chance to drop our numbers. It will kill her.”
Karen felt she had emphasised that fact enough, and headed towards the rear end of the train.
“Hey wait what about me I wanna save her too. I mean sure I don’t have a huge sword like you do, or fire or a gun or space tech but I can see the future though it can give me a headache and I have my staff!”
She held it aloft like it was some sort of prideful symbol… No actually it probably was just that.
“Yes, I’ll need you there. She seems to have taken a liking to you.”
“What about derailing the train? Couldn’t we split up and I go save Lillian?”
Karen stared off towards the front of the car, placing together certain known facts in her head.
“The control car is probably at the front. And I may have just sent a man to do that job for us.”
Sarika turned as well, and seemed to follow what Karen was suggesting.
“What’s to say he won’t do it?”
Karen didn’t have an answer. It was a hunch, pure and simple. She didn’t waste any effort trying to figure out how Lloyd’s head ticked, how he thought things through or decided on actions to take. She just naturally decided he would do what needed to be done. She was still assuming that everything was done by game mechanics, no matter how much she truly knew.
“The worst thing that could happen from splitting up is the worst happens, and Charlie targets Lillian. The worst from us focusing on Lillian first is that we have to fight Charlie anyway, while the train keeps on its rails for a bit longer.”
Leaving it at that, Karen made for the door towards the further reaches of the rear end of the train.
“All right, we’ll do it your way.” Sarika eventually sighed, following suite.
She didn’t get far before a pinging sound caused Karen to stop in her tracks.
It was a familiar sound to her, one from the game. Something near her arm caught her attention, and she soon noticed that a message box had appeared out of thin air.
“What’s wrong, did you change your mind? Hurry up already. A message box?”
“It’s a message box. Can’t you see i-“
Karen was motioning to point at it when she cut her sentence off.
“No, just air and those gloopy things by the bar. What’s the message?”
Karen pushed her finger near the ‘open message’ tab, and a small wall of text floated up from the image of a letter.
"If you are hearing this, then you, too, are a victim of the whims of an enigmatic master, whom has forced you into a battle to the death with many other strange beings. You are likely far from your home, far from your friends, far from your family.
"My name is Vandrel Reinhardt, and I am in a battle similar to yours. I seek allies, to overthrow these unworthy grandmasters. I assume that, if you can receive this message, then you have some way of reaching into the multiverse. Seek me out. Together, we can fight for our freedom.”
Karen stood in awe. Many different thoughts fought for priority in her head.
Other battles? More suffering, more death, more torment. Multiverse? How would that even be accomplished, what would they do next, would reaching their respective home worlds even be possible?
“Karen? What’s wrong, you look… excited.”
“Freedom… We can have freedom over killing.”
Karen touched the ‘reply’ tab, causing a holographic keyboard to pop open. She typed furiously, hoping that the Monitor couldn’t stop her before she could get everything she needed down.
|My name is Karen. My powers are many and even I may not be aware of their uses.
If you’re offering a chance at freedom, then my only concern is on how many guests I can possibly bring. There’s a little girl here, and no chance in hell I’m letting her die, powerful entities or not. The Monitor is the name of the one holding this… game.
Good luck to you, friend. Here’s to hoping we get the chance to contact each other again.|
She almost punched the ‘send’ button, and was relieved after a confirmation icon blinked. The message box instantly ceased to exist after that.
“…are you done wriggling your fingers?”
“I’m done sending a reply to someone who is creating a coup against these game hosts, actually.”
“There are more of these?! Oh god…”
“But that means the chance for one person to break free increases. Perhaps one of my old spells can be the key. I’ll just have to see, won’t I.”
Karen punched in the open key for the door and continued along the next car, when two small bang noises echoed from the cars ahead.
“Sounds like an explosion, small ones. Charlie or Marcus, or both. Let’s hurry.”
Karen kept it short and sweet as they jogged around passenger beings and through another car. The number of patrons was decreasing with each car, even though no two cars next to each other seemed to be related. Halfway through this car however, the door opened for them, and in stepped that rag-tag group of Marcus, Lillian and the mysterious Burden.
“Well, aren’t you two a sight for sore eyes. And arms and heels and everything really.”
“Bird lady!” Lillian exclaimed with joy, throwing herself into Sarika’s feathery embrace.
<font color="#607C6E">“I’m glad you’re okay” She responded, kneeling down to get a better look at the girl.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Lillian shook her head in response, and looked at into Karen’s eyes. She nodded a greeting back, and focused her attention on Marcus.
“You look terrible.” She told him bluntly.</font>
“I feel terrible, but don’t tell that monster of a machine that.”
Karen reached into her seemingly large pocket and raked around for another potion. By shape, she could only seem to find two more for healing, and three for magic energy. She sighed, wondering what happened to her large stockpiles. Her fingers brushed something fabric and she pulled it out. Marcus looked dumbfounded when she managed to pull a large witch hat from nowhere.
“Wondered where this got to.” She muttered, setting it onto her head.
“Can’t be a witch without the hat. Doesn’t feel right. Much better, might be able to use my full power.”
<font color="silver"> “The hat makes you stronger?”
Karen tossed a healing potion at him in response.
“Of course it does.”
Karen finally noticed Burden, who seemed happy to blend into the background of the conversation.
“Who’s the big one?”
“That’s Burden. He’s… a friend. He was there when I noticed I was in the train.”</font>
“It’s a pleasure” Karen said, not entirely certain of how to react.
“The pleasure is…. All mine, my dear.”
Karen took a moment to compose herself, before striding up to Marcus.
“Where’s Charlie?” She asked him with a serious expression on her face.
“Yeah, you heard I see. I blew out a train cars windows with some grenades. Doubt it did much of a dent to it, but I got away. It should still be that way, somewhere.
If you’re thinking of fighting it, then I have to tell you it’s a stupid idea. Even I don’t want to take that thing on alone, and I’m a professional.”
“And I say I don’t care what you think, Merc. I say you’re going to look after this group, help derail this train by heading to the control car and perhaps swap witty banter with Lloyd while I hold off or kill Charlie. And you can’t stop me. I’m not going forwards to die, rest assured. I have a plan. And more than enough power to take it on.”
Karen didn’t even wait for him to reply before she slipped past him and made her way across the next car.
“You’re crazy, stupid and reckless.”
“That’s funny, I thought the same of you.”
The door slid shut behind her, and Karen let herself sigh. Well, this was for the best. She really did have a plan to take on Charlie. She’d try to take out as many of its weapons and functions as possible while keeping herself alive. She re-examined the blade of her sword, disdainfully noting the cracks spread throughout.
“Looks like this will be my last act as a Blade Witch.”
Karen was already sick of dealing with the train’s stomach lurching twists and manoeuvres, and now she had to worry about derailing it from the only other existent thing in sight.
“I’m not sure I’m up to derailing something I have a phobia of, even without the fear of hitting a floor or wall or large building. And besides, I have more pressing concerns to worry about. Like getting to Lillian before Charlie does. Machines don’t have pity or mercy. It’ll take that chance to drop our numbers. It will kill her.”
Karen felt she had emphasised that fact enough, and headed towards the rear end of the train.
“Hey wait what about me I wanna save her too. I mean sure I don’t have a huge sword like you do, or fire or a gun or space tech but I can see the future though it can give me a headache and I have my staff!”
She held it aloft like it was some sort of prideful symbol… No actually it probably was just that.
“Yes, I’ll need you there. She seems to have taken a liking to you.”
“What about derailing the train? Couldn’t we split up and I go save Lillian?”
Karen stared off towards the front of the car, placing together certain known facts in her head.
“The control car is probably at the front. And I may have just sent a man to do that job for us.”
Sarika turned as well, and seemed to follow what Karen was suggesting.
“What’s to say he won’t do it?”
Karen didn’t have an answer. It was a hunch, pure and simple. She didn’t waste any effort trying to figure out how Lloyd’s head ticked, how he thought things through or decided on actions to take. She just naturally decided he would do what needed to be done. She was still assuming that everything was done by game mechanics, no matter how much she truly knew.
“The worst thing that could happen from splitting up is the worst happens, and Charlie targets Lillian. The worst from us focusing on Lillian first is that we have to fight Charlie anyway, while the train keeps on its rails for a bit longer.”
Leaving it at that, Karen made for the door towards the further reaches of the rear end of the train.
“All right, we’ll do it your way.” Sarika eventually sighed, following suite.
She didn’t get far before a pinging sound caused Karen to stop in her tracks.
It was a familiar sound to her, one from the game. Something near her arm caught her attention, and she soon noticed that a message box had appeared out of thin air.
“What’s wrong, did you change your mind? Hurry up already. A message box?”
“It’s a message box. Can’t you see i-“
Karen was motioning to point at it when she cut her sentence off.
“No, just air and those gloopy things by the bar. What’s the message?”
Karen pushed her finger near the ‘open message’ tab, and a small wall of text floated up from the image of a letter.
"If you are hearing this, then you, too, are a victim of the whims of an enigmatic master, whom has forced you into a battle to the death with many other strange beings. You are likely far from your home, far from your friends, far from your family.
"My name is Vandrel Reinhardt, and I am in a battle similar to yours. I seek allies, to overthrow these unworthy grandmasters. I assume that, if you can receive this message, then you have some way of reaching into the multiverse. Seek me out. Together, we can fight for our freedom.”
Karen stood in awe. Many different thoughts fought for priority in her head.
Other battles? More suffering, more death, more torment. Multiverse? How would that even be accomplished, what would they do next, would reaching their respective home worlds even be possible?
“Karen? What’s wrong, you look… excited.”
“Freedom… We can have freedom over killing.”
Karen touched the ‘reply’ tab, causing a holographic keyboard to pop open. She typed furiously, hoping that the Monitor couldn’t stop her before she could get everything she needed down.
|My name is Karen. My powers are many and even I may not be aware of their uses.
If you’re offering a chance at freedom, then my only concern is on how many guests I can possibly bring. There’s a little girl here, and no chance in hell I’m letting her die, powerful entities or not. The Monitor is the name of the one holding this… game.
Good luck to you, friend. Here’s to hoping we get the chance to contact each other again.|
She almost punched the ‘send’ button, and was relieved after a confirmation icon blinked. The message box instantly ceased to exist after that.
“…are you done wriggling your fingers?”
“I’m done sending a reply to someone who is creating a coup against these game hosts, actually.”
“There are more of these?! Oh god…”
“But that means the chance for one person to break free increases. Perhaps one of my old spells can be the key. I’ll just have to see, won’t I.”
Karen punched in the open key for the door and continued along the next car, when two small bang noises echoed from the cars ahead.
“Sounds like an explosion, small ones. Charlie or Marcus, or both. Let’s hurry.”
Karen kept it short and sweet as they jogged around passenger beings and through another car. The number of patrons was decreasing with each car, even though no two cars next to each other seemed to be related. Halfway through this car however, the door opened for them, and in stepped that rag-tag group of Marcus, Lillian and the mysterious Burden.
“Well, aren’t you two a sight for sore eyes. And arms and heels and everything really.”
“Bird lady!” Lillian exclaimed with joy, throwing herself into Sarika’s feathery embrace.
<font color="#607C6E">“I’m glad you’re okay” She responded, kneeling down to get a better look at the girl.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Lillian shook her head in response, and looked at into Karen’s eyes. She nodded a greeting back, and focused her attention on Marcus.
“You look terrible.” She told him bluntly.</font>
“I feel terrible, but don’t tell that monster of a machine that.”
Karen reached into her seemingly large pocket and raked around for another potion. By shape, she could only seem to find two more for healing, and three for magic energy. She sighed, wondering what happened to her large stockpiles. Her fingers brushed something fabric and she pulled it out. Marcus looked dumbfounded when she managed to pull a large witch hat from nowhere.
“Wondered where this got to.” She muttered, setting it onto her head.
“Can’t be a witch without the hat. Doesn’t feel right. Much better, might be able to use my full power.”
<font color="silver"> “The hat makes you stronger?”
Karen tossed a healing potion at him in response.
“Of course it does.”
Karen finally noticed Burden, who seemed happy to blend into the background of the conversation.
“Who’s the big one?”
“That’s Burden. He’s… a friend. He was there when I noticed I was in the train.”</font>
“It’s a pleasure” Karen said, not entirely certain of how to react.
“The pleasure is…. All mine, my dear.”
Karen took a moment to compose herself, before striding up to Marcus.
“Where’s Charlie?” She asked him with a serious expression on her face.
“Yeah, you heard I see. I blew out a train cars windows with some grenades. Doubt it did much of a dent to it, but I got away. It should still be that way, somewhere.
If you’re thinking of fighting it, then I have to tell you it’s a stupid idea. Even I don’t want to take that thing on alone, and I’m a professional.”
“And I say I don’t care what you think, Merc. I say you’re going to look after this group, help derail this train by heading to the control car and perhaps swap witty banter with Lloyd while I hold off or kill Charlie. And you can’t stop me. I’m not going forwards to die, rest assured. I have a plan. And more than enough power to take it on.”
Karen didn’t even wait for him to reply before she slipped past him and made her way across the next car.
“You’re crazy, stupid and reckless.”
“That’s funny, I thought the same of you.”
The door slid shut behind her, and Karen let herself sigh. Well, this was for the best. She really did have a plan to take on Charlie. She’d try to take out as many of its weapons and functions as possible while keeping herself alive. She re-examined the blade of her sword, disdainfully noting the cracks spread throughout.
“Looks like this will be my last act as a Blade Witch.”