RE: The Battle Majestic (Round 4 - Magpie Skies)
05-08-2013, 01:42 AM
Blitz had a headache.
He soon realized that he was wearing a suit of armor - with a helmet that made it very difficult to see - and stuck in a very small, cramped space. His first thought was that this was some sort of execution chamber, but that didn't explain the armor.
With great effort, he managed to turn himself over and lift his visor for a better look at his surroundings. As far as he could tell, was in some sort of metal box, but a closer glance revealed a number of tiny holes in the walls; given that he wasn't particularly short of breath, he supposed those were for air.
Which left him to wonder once more just what he was doing in here. Apparently the knights weren't trying to kill him, but what were they trying to do?
Blitz turned himself over again. Maybe the knights had at least been considerate enough to leave him a note. Some awkward searching soon turned one up; he tried his best to hold it in front of his face, despite the tight quarters.
"Dear Prisoner,
You have been granted a chance to earn your freedom. Vanquish the wicked Moonlight Queen, and we will drop all charges against you. We have provided you with arms, armor, and transportation to her castle. The transport should break open shortly after impact; however, in the unlikely event that mechanism fails, there is an emergency release latch at the back end, where your feet are. Pull it to get out.
Yours sincerely, Twelve."
Well, that explained a few things. Mostly, where he was and how to get out. He wasn't too sure about the rest of it.
Unfortunately, Blitz couldn't even see the "emergency release latch" from his current position. And he doubted he could pull it with his feet. He groaned, and very awkwardly tried to get his head and arms to the other side of the box.
It didn't work too well; he had tried pulling his legs to his chest, but that only left him stuck, and still facing the wrong direction. All he could do was feebly wiggle his arms.
If he could at least see the latch, he might be able to use his banadges to manipulate it. As it was, he couldn't think of any option other than flailing the bandages around towards the back of the box and hoping he found the thing, or the even less-likely-to-succeed tactic of blasting a metal box with electricity while covered in metal armor.
Why couldn't they have just put the emergency release at the front?
Two minutes of blindly maneuvering a bandage later, Blitz heard a welcome "click" and breathed a sigh of relief. The box fell into pieces, and Blitz fell to the floor with a loud crash.
He groaned, and picked himself up. Then he lifted the stupid visor up again so he could get a better look at his surroundings.
Said surroundings consisted of a dank cell, and an enormous purple serpent that filled most of it.
More specifically, an enormous hungry-looking purple serpent, which had just been woken up by the noise of an armored youth falling onto a stone floor.
Blitz wished he had just stayed in the box.
***
If Jacob Helix had known about Blitz's current situation, he would have said "See, this is why you stay on the outside of the bullet."
Of course, he'd then be forced to admit his plan was less practical if you didn't have a good way to get off the bullet before impact. Such as, for instance, magically halting your own momentum while letting the bullet zoom forward, then magically levitating yourself towards the hole. But if you could do that, it was a lot easier to look through the hole and see what sort of trouble you might be dealing with before actually having to deal with it.
The bullet had landed in a very lavish bedroom. Most of the furnishings were either grey or pitch-black, and something about the place was just unnerving.
In the middle of the floor, amongst the bullet's fragments, a woman was sobbing. She looked average and generally unremarkable, and yet Jacob was sure he'd seen her somewhere before.
Oh, right. There was a new contestant. He'd almost forgotten... probably because he couldn't remember being told anything about her. Which meant he had no clue what she might be capable of.
That said, if she was crying, the worst case scenario was that she was a horrible monster trying to play on his sympathies before devouring him. He could probably handle that.
Jacob pulled himself through the hole and cleared his throat. Then, when she didn't even look up, he decided to just start talking.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Why does everyone hate me?" the woman sobbed. "Why am I even here?"
Oh, great. Now he had to actually say comforting things.
"Um, I don't hate you," he said. "I mean, I don't know you yet, I don't even know your name, but, uh..."
This time, she looked up.
Then she screamed, and ran out of the room.
"No!" she shrieked. "Don't lock me up again! Haven't you horrible knights done enough?"
Jacob sighed. Of course. She'd been inside that bullet, and the knights had no doubt put her in there. And here he showed up, wearing chest armor and carrying a sword. He wasn't wearing the same kind of armor as those knights, of course, but she was probably too frightened to notice the details.
Well, he didn't especially like the thought of leaving a contestant he knew nothing about to run around a probably-dangerous castle on her own. Depending on how powerful she actually was, she might either kill someone else or get herself killed, and Jacob didn't want to be caught off-guard by a sudden round transition he didn't cause himself.
Not that he was planning to cause one. He just wanted to have an escape plan in an emergency.
He quickly checked the corridor in case there were trolls or dragons or something out on patrol, then ran after the woman.
Well, assuming he'd decided to run the right way, anyhow.
***
Those damned knights!
Why did they still oppose her? The other kingdoms had the sense to stay away, if only out of concern for their queens' safety; but Six For Gold was infuriatingly persistent.
And now she would have to spend an entire afternoon fighting them. An afternoon she could have spent draining out more of the queens' magic. Or yelling at her minions. Or perhaps burning a village on the surface, that was always good for a laugh.
Soon enough, she saw the castle. It was flying away, leaving traces of cloud in its wake.
The Moonlight Queen grinned wickedly. She knew she could fly faster.
***
"You bloody idiots!" Eight shouted. "Am I the only one here who can actually think ahead?"
"To be fair, it wasn't my idea to load them in bullets," Twelve protested. "I thought we'd just send the one fellow off on a horse."
"It doesn't matter how we sent him there! Think about it, you fools - when was the last time anyone other than us tried to launch an attack on the Moonlight Queen's castle?"
The room was silent.
"And none of you thought to even tell me. I could have had the engines moving a good half-hour sooner! That's a half-hour we could have spent moving the castle, could put some good distance between us and her." Eight paced around the room furiously. "And since you just fired wherever you pleased, the prisoner might not even be near enough to distract her! She could be flying here as we speak!"
"All right, Eight, you've made your damn point," Three muttered. "What's done is done, and yes, I bear responsibility and I'm man enough to admit it. But right now the question is what we do if--"
"When," Eight interjected.
"--all right, fine, when the Moonlight Queen attacks. We're shorthanded right now; between the first attacker, the jailbreak, and the second attacker, we've got barely ten men left to chase her off. So we're going to need a damn good plan." He turned to Twelve. "It was your bright idea to send the boy off to fight her, I don't suppose you've got any other clever tricks in that head of years?"
Twelve glanced around nervously. Just as he was finally acknowledging the need to speak, there was a loud roar from the parapets.
"I suppose you're going to want that plan very soon, then?" Twelve asked sheepishly.
He soon realized that he was wearing a suit of armor - with a helmet that made it very difficult to see - and stuck in a very small, cramped space. His first thought was that this was some sort of execution chamber, but that didn't explain the armor.
With great effort, he managed to turn himself over and lift his visor for a better look at his surroundings. As far as he could tell, was in some sort of metal box, but a closer glance revealed a number of tiny holes in the walls; given that he wasn't particularly short of breath, he supposed those were for air.
Which left him to wonder once more just what he was doing in here. Apparently the knights weren't trying to kill him, but what were they trying to do?
Blitz turned himself over again. Maybe the knights had at least been considerate enough to leave him a note. Some awkward searching soon turned one up; he tried his best to hold it in front of his face, despite the tight quarters.
"Dear Prisoner,
You have been granted a chance to earn your freedom. Vanquish the wicked Moonlight Queen, and we will drop all charges against you. We have provided you with arms, armor, and transportation to her castle. The transport should break open shortly after impact; however, in the unlikely event that mechanism fails, there is an emergency release latch at the back end, where your feet are. Pull it to get out.
Yours sincerely, Twelve."
Well, that explained a few things. Mostly, where he was and how to get out. He wasn't too sure about the rest of it.
Unfortunately, Blitz couldn't even see the "emergency release latch" from his current position. And he doubted he could pull it with his feet. He groaned, and very awkwardly tried to get his head and arms to the other side of the box.
It didn't work too well; he had tried pulling his legs to his chest, but that only left him stuck, and still facing the wrong direction. All he could do was feebly wiggle his arms.
If he could at least see the latch, he might be able to use his banadges to manipulate it. As it was, he couldn't think of any option other than flailing the bandages around towards the back of the box and hoping he found the thing, or the even less-likely-to-succeed tactic of blasting a metal box with electricity while covered in metal armor.
Why couldn't they have just put the emergency release at the front?
Two minutes of blindly maneuvering a bandage later, Blitz heard a welcome "click" and breathed a sigh of relief. The box fell into pieces, and Blitz fell to the floor with a loud crash.
He groaned, and picked himself up. Then he lifted the stupid visor up again so he could get a better look at his surroundings.
Said surroundings consisted of a dank cell, and an enormous purple serpent that filled most of it.
More specifically, an enormous hungry-looking purple serpent, which had just been woken up by the noise of an armored youth falling onto a stone floor.
Blitz wished he had just stayed in the box.
***
If Jacob Helix had known about Blitz's current situation, he would have said "See, this is why you stay on the outside of the bullet."
Of course, he'd then be forced to admit his plan was less practical if you didn't have a good way to get off the bullet before impact. Such as, for instance, magically halting your own momentum while letting the bullet zoom forward, then magically levitating yourself towards the hole. But if you could do that, it was a lot easier to look through the hole and see what sort of trouble you might be dealing with before actually having to deal with it.
The bullet had landed in a very lavish bedroom. Most of the furnishings were either grey or pitch-black, and something about the place was just unnerving.
In the middle of the floor, amongst the bullet's fragments, a woman was sobbing. She looked average and generally unremarkable, and yet Jacob was sure he'd seen her somewhere before.
Oh, right. There was a new contestant. He'd almost forgotten... probably because he couldn't remember being told anything about her. Which meant he had no clue what she might be capable of.
That said, if she was crying, the worst case scenario was that she was a horrible monster trying to play on his sympathies before devouring him. He could probably handle that.
Jacob pulled himself through the hole and cleared his throat. Then, when she didn't even look up, he decided to just start talking.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Why does everyone hate me?" the woman sobbed. "Why am I even here?"
Oh, great. Now he had to actually say comforting things.
"Um, I don't hate you," he said. "I mean, I don't know you yet, I don't even know your name, but, uh..."
This time, she looked up.
Then she screamed, and ran out of the room.
"No!" she shrieked. "Don't lock me up again! Haven't you horrible knights done enough?"
Jacob sighed. Of course. She'd been inside that bullet, and the knights had no doubt put her in there. And here he showed up, wearing chest armor and carrying a sword. He wasn't wearing the same kind of armor as those knights, of course, but she was probably too frightened to notice the details.
Well, he didn't especially like the thought of leaving a contestant he knew nothing about to run around a probably-dangerous castle on her own. Depending on how powerful she actually was, she might either kill someone else or get herself killed, and Jacob didn't want to be caught off-guard by a sudden round transition he didn't cause himself.
Not that he was planning to cause one. He just wanted to have an escape plan in an emergency.
He quickly checked the corridor in case there were trolls or dragons or something out on patrol, then ran after the woman.
Well, assuming he'd decided to run the right way, anyhow.
***
Those damned knights!
Why did they still oppose her? The other kingdoms had the sense to stay away, if only out of concern for their queens' safety; but Six For Gold was infuriatingly persistent.
And now she would have to spend an entire afternoon fighting them. An afternoon she could have spent draining out more of the queens' magic. Or yelling at her minions. Or perhaps burning a village on the surface, that was always good for a laugh.
Soon enough, she saw the castle. It was flying away, leaving traces of cloud in its wake.
The Moonlight Queen grinned wickedly. She knew she could fly faster.
***
"You bloody idiots!" Eight shouted. "Am I the only one here who can actually think ahead?"
"To be fair, it wasn't my idea to load them in bullets," Twelve protested. "I thought we'd just send the one fellow off on a horse."
"It doesn't matter how we sent him there! Think about it, you fools - when was the last time anyone other than us tried to launch an attack on the Moonlight Queen's castle?"
The room was silent.
"And none of you thought to even tell me. I could have had the engines moving a good half-hour sooner! That's a half-hour we could have spent moving the castle, could put some good distance between us and her." Eight paced around the room furiously. "And since you just fired wherever you pleased, the prisoner might not even be near enough to distract her! She could be flying here as we speak!"
"All right, Eight, you've made your damn point," Three muttered. "What's done is done, and yes, I bear responsibility and I'm man enough to admit it. But right now the question is what we do if--"
"When," Eight interjected.
"--all right, fine, when the Moonlight Queen attacks. We're shorthanded right now; between the first attacker, the jailbreak, and the second attacker, we've got barely ten men left to chase her off. So we're going to need a damn good plan." He turned to Twelve. "It was your bright idea to send the boy off to fight her, I don't suppose you've got any other clever tricks in that head of years?"
Twelve glanced around nervously. Just as he was finally acknowledging the need to speak, there was a loud roar from the parapets.
"I suppose you're going to want that plan very soon, then?" Twelve asked sheepishly.