Re: The Spectacular Exhibition (S3G2) [Round 1: Parallels/Perpendicularities]
06-24-2011, 01:55 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-15-2013, 01:47 AM by Akumu.)
Originally posted on MSPA by Akumu.
Climbing up the submerged incline of the mountain, he was overwhelmed by the brightness flowing through its bulk. It skittered and leapt and danced, a fire without heat or light. He thought how beautiful it was and wedged his claws into a crevice a little higher on the mountain, pulling himself towards the distant light of the surface. He hoped his brothers could see its beauty too.
Red, though he could activate sensors to detect electrical currents, was not likely to find them as stirring as Blazaard did. Besides that, he was currently far too busy fleeing for his life to do any sensor activating. ACCEPT YOUR FATE, NAMELESS ONE, COVETER AND DEFILER. No matter what twists and turns Red took, Sentinel's booming voice grew steadily louder in his mind. There was no way he could outrun the biped. Must improve locomotive speed in future versions. Clanking through an archway, Red spun around his mech's torso and busied himself preparing for the inevitable.
Soon enough Sentinel came into view at the far end of the hallway. Its red eye-scales burned into Red's sensors and it raised an accusatory finger. You can't hide, Nameless One! All who seek to disturb His tomb will meet their doom at my hands. Red spread his arms wide, and called out “Bring my doom, then!” Sentinel set towards him at a dead run, each footfall cratering the sandstone floor. It drew back its oversized fist as it came and hit Red with a psychic yell that shook him to his core, cocooned inside a yard of metal and cables. Still, he stood resolute, waiting until the colossus came into range. And then, with a twitch of his antennae, he triggered the explosives.
Nemaeus wandered the halls, occasionally finding a stairwell further into the depths of the pyramid. He recalled the myths of heroes descending into the afterlife through caves in the earth, to rescue a wife or lover and return to the land of the living. Perhaps these demons were sent not to torment him, but to test him, and somewhere far beneath there was redemption to be found... whumpf His contemplation was interrupted by a sound like a far away giant clearing its throat, and the ground jumped beneath his feet. A rumbling he felt in his bowels more than heard began from below. Nemaeus looked agape at the floor for a moment and then as the rumbling drew closer, started running: one footfall, two, but his third step found a floor inches lower than expected, and his knee buckled. He went down, tumbling across a skewing stone slab before slamming into the edge of the next, still in its place. The rumbling was a deafening roar now, and he was falling. Stone crashed through stone and the air was filled with flying shards, and the Kyprian hide was the only thing keeping Nemaeus from being perforated. A second later he slammed into the shattered rubble of two floors worth of corridor and rolled roughly down the pile.
Laying on the ground, battered and bruised, Nemaeus saw dimly through the dust-choked air a hulking form looming over him. He gasped, and gagged on the thick slurry of pulverized stone and saliva that formed immediately in his mouth and throat. He fumbled for his knife, choking and coughing, but a massive arm came through the haze and pinned him to the floor.
“Must retreat now. Can still hear it, have only slowed it.”
Red grabbed an arm and a leg, and retracting his arms, swung Nemaeus up and dropped him on the flat top of the mech. He then spun about and set off away from the buried Sentinel.
On the surface, Crepitans Bloodbark was aghast at the power he had unleashed. Through the portal he had inscribed on the pyramid, he saw the shocked face of the pathetic she-monkey from the Counselor’s quarters. Then reality twisted and everything began to dissolve. What had been meant to weaken just the stone of the pyramid had punched through to the desert, but the skein between worlds had already been punctured elsewhere. Now the two holes were puckering together, compressing and shredding the space inbetween.
Merely a dozen yards beneath him, Blazaard saw the beautiful dance of brightness within the pyramid begin to be joined by a profound darkness. He clung to the side of the edifice, gills fluttering, and watched rapt these new developments. The brightness dimmed as the darkness snaked around it, devoured and destroyed. And as it guttered and went out completely, the stone beneath him went gummy. It yielded under his weight, then gave up all resistance and disappeared. A rush of seawater carried him tumbling into the corridors of the pyramid.
Above, the ice sheet canted as the water dropped away beneath it, and Crepitans began a slow slide towards the black maelstrom. Around it, ice was hissing into steam and the steam into a swirling mass of lightning as as the space between molecules and atoms and nucleons was stretched past its breaking point. He tried to dig his gnarled fingers into the ice, but could gain no purchase. His shrike was screaming.
Everything was going to shit.
Climbing up the submerged incline of the mountain, he was overwhelmed by the brightness flowing through its bulk. It skittered and leapt and danced, a fire without heat or light. He thought how beautiful it was and wedged his claws into a crevice a little higher on the mountain, pulling himself towards the distant light of the surface. He hoped his brothers could see its beauty too.
- - - - -
Red, though he could activate sensors to detect electrical currents, was not likely to find them as stirring as Blazaard did. Besides that, he was currently far too busy fleeing for his life to do any sensor activating. ACCEPT YOUR FATE, NAMELESS ONE, COVETER AND DEFILER. No matter what twists and turns Red took, Sentinel's booming voice grew steadily louder in his mind. There was no way he could outrun the biped. Must improve locomotive speed in future versions. Clanking through an archway, Red spun around his mech's torso and busied himself preparing for the inevitable.
Soon enough Sentinel came into view at the far end of the hallway. Its red eye-scales burned into Red's sensors and it raised an accusatory finger. You can't hide, Nameless One! All who seek to disturb His tomb will meet their doom at my hands. Red spread his arms wide, and called out “Bring my doom, then!” Sentinel set towards him at a dead run, each footfall cratering the sandstone floor. It drew back its oversized fist as it came and hit Red with a psychic yell that shook him to his core, cocooned inside a yard of metal and cables. Still, he stood resolute, waiting until the colossus came into range. And then, with a twitch of his antennae, he triggered the explosives.
- - - - -
Nemaeus wandered the halls, occasionally finding a stairwell further into the depths of the pyramid. He recalled the myths of heroes descending into the afterlife through caves in the earth, to rescue a wife or lover and return to the land of the living. Perhaps these demons were sent not to torment him, but to test him, and somewhere far beneath there was redemption to be found... whumpf His contemplation was interrupted by a sound like a far away giant clearing its throat, and the ground jumped beneath his feet. A rumbling he felt in his bowels more than heard began from below. Nemaeus looked agape at the floor for a moment and then as the rumbling drew closer, started running: one footfall, two, but his third step found a floor inches lower than expected, and his knee buckled. He went down, tumbling across a skewing stone slab before slamming into the edge of the next, still in its place. The rumbling was a deafening roar now, and he was falling. Stone crashed through stone and the air was filled with flying shards, and the Kyprian hide was the only thing keeping Nemaeus from being perforated. A second later he slammed into the shattered rubble of two floors worth of corridor and rolled roughly down the pile.
Laying on the ground, battered and bruised, Nemaeus saw dimly through the dust-choked air a hulking form looming over him. He gasped, and gagged on the thick slurry of pulverized stone and saliva that formed immediately in his mouth and throat. He fumbled for his knife, choking and coughing, but a massive arm came through the haze and pinned him to the floor.
“Must retreat now. Can still hear it, have only slowed it.”
Red grabbed an arm and a leg, and retracting his arms, swung Nemaeus up and dropped him on the flat top of the mech. He then spun about and set off away from the buried Sentinel.
- - - - -
On the surface, Crepitans Bloodbark was aghast at the power he had unleashed. Through the portal he had inscribed on the pyramid, he saw the shocked face of the pathetic she-monkey from the Counselor’s quarters. Then reality twisted and everything began to dissolve. What had been meant to weaken just the stone of the pyramid had punched through to the desert, but the skein between worlds had already been punctured elsewhere. Now the two holes were puckering together, compressing and shredding the space inbetween.
Merely a dozen yards beneath him, Blazaard saw the beautiful dance of brightness within the pyramid begin to be joined by a profound darkness. He clung to the side of the edifice, gills fluttering, and watched rapt these new developments. The brightness dimmed as the darkness snaked around it, devoured and destroyed. And as it guttered and went out completely, the stone beneath him went gummy. It yielded under his weight, then gave up all resistance and disappeared. A rush of seawater carried him tumbling into the corridors of the pyramid.
Above, the ice sheet canted as the water dropped away beneath it, and Crepitans began a slow slide towards the black maelstrom. Around it, ice was hissing into steam and the steam into a swirling mass of lightning as as the space between molecules and atoms and nucleons was stretched past its breaking point. He tried to dig his gnarled fingers into the ice, but could gain no purchase. His shrike was screaming.
Everything was going to shit.