RE: The Daunting Affray! (Round 1: Temple in the Sky!)
06-07-2014, 09:08 AM
Sam bounced on the balls of her feet, antsy. She had followed this guy she was supposed to be killing(?) and one of these weirdo priests down a long tunnel after those invulnerable religious robo-freaks had attacked. Now they were in a huge, open space with some sort of frisbee shaped machine. The guy and the priest were talking about something, something which was taking a long time to talk about, time they didn't have. Those things were coming. The priest man sounded scared and anxious and the man sounded comforting.
"Look, I know your bonding time is important, but those... Archons or whatever are coming and I don't think a wall is going to stop them. Can we hurry this up?" She gestured wildly at the hallway as she talked, voice rising in pitch as she talked.
"She's right, father." The man said. "I'm sure we'll find the other parts to your thing. It shouldn't be too hard, right?"
"B-b-b-but they could be anywhere!" The priest wailed. "And it's two very specific parts! What are the odds we'll find them before we can gather the Archons?" He seemed on the verge of tears. He gestured at the thing in his hands. It looked like an empty lantern. Sam assumed that was the 'weapon' that the two guys were talking about. The man chuckled.
"Have some faith, father."The man headed over to the frisbee machine and held his hand out. The priest sighed, handing him some sort of pyramid thing. The pyramid glowed and a hatch popped out of the side of the frisbee machine. The man whistled appreciatively.
"Wow... this is a fine piece of technology here... It's no wonder you guys got up here." The man crossed his arms and headed into the machine. Sam guessed it's some sort of spaceship then. Man, things just keep getting weirder.
"Actually, it was the greatness and benevolence of the gods that lifted the temple to where it is now." The priest remarked. "To be honest, I was never sure why this, and the other ones too, is here..."
"Benevolence, huh?" Sam scoffed, following the two into the ship thing. "Explains why they're sending these invincible killer freaks after us, huh?" She smirked as the priest flushed red and sputtered. The ship itself seemed strange, like it was designed for some other species entirely. The halls were narrow and too tall, with lots of steep inclines. The walls were made of some sort of really scratch rock, Sam guessed sandstone. And everything was a weird, orange, sandy color. She walked behind the priest to a room in the ship where there was a glass-like dome covering the top half. A chair sat in the middle, facing a motherboard of flashing lights.
"Alright you two, enough." The man said jokingly, already in what Sam assumed was the cockpit. He looked over the controls, which looked like a complicated jumble of lights and switches to her. The man understood it, apparently, flipping a few things. The ship hummed to life, more of the lights on the dashboard lighting up. "Father, do you know how to open the hanger doors?
"I'm sure that it's uh... one of these..." The priest turned to a bunch of levers on the side of the cockpit. Sam shuffled over slightly as the priest turned. Damn, this cockpit is small. Aside from the chair the man was sitting in, there was maybe a solid three fight for her to share with this 'Father' guy. Sam looked over his shoulder. "Um... this one?" He grabbed a lever and pulled it down. The air began to rumble, and the wall -or what Sam had assumed was a wall- began to open up. It ground open loudly, shaking the air. Sam grabbed the back of the chair to steady herself. The man flipped a few more switches when suddenly something shaped like a pyramid on a stick popped up. The man cocked his head, then grabbed the pyramid. The ship roared to life, only adding to the noise.
"Now we just have to wait for the door to open up!" The man practically screamed over the din. That's when the flaming sword hurled past the ship, embedding itself into slowly opening hanger doors. The priest screamed and Sam paled in horror. The door to the ship was still open. She dashed down the skinny corridors, finding the door. The Archons sprinted towards the open hatch, ready to kill. Sam, irritated and slightly scared that she had been Channeling so much lately, somewhat reluctantly threw up a shield to block the doorway. She tried to hold it, but the Archons were strong. Very, very strong. The bashed down her shield, making her quickly throw another one up.
As she held her ground, a voice spoke to her. A voice she would have rather not heard right then.
[Warning! Output at one hundred and one percent of maximum safe limit! This unit can no longer protect user from χάος overload! Cease of power use strongly recommended!]
"Hurry the hell up!" Sam screeched just as they broke through her shield one last time. The force threw her back, causing her to land painfully on her back. They were too close to throw up another one. Sam materialized a thick blade just as one of the things swung their's down. She managed to deflect it, her blade fading away. The Archon readied it's sword, and started stabbing down. Sam clenched her eyes shut and nearly fell out of the ship as it lurched forward. She would have fallen out, had her hand not found the handle embedded into the wall. Her fingers wrapped around it, and there was an ear-rending sound as the sides of the ship scraped along the hanger doors, the machine itself rocketing forward. Within moments, Sam found herself dangling over the open sky as the ship broke through with a nasty crunch. Sam looked up, seeing a large portion of the ship plummeting through the blueness of the sky, out of sight. The hatch started closing, which Sam was thankful for due to the fact that they were suddenly going straight up.
"What the hell is that idiot doing?" Sam grumbled, bracing herself. She felt the ship change direction and knew they were plummeting back towards the island. She knew they were going to crash the moment she stepped into this damn thing.
Scout bubbled in surprise at the reactions, or lack thereof, from the not meat sacks. The two stood there, looking around. One muttered something in meat sack language and went to follow the meat thing that had run away. The other surveyed the room. It walked around a bit, then finally glanced down, cocking it's head in confusion when it saw Scout.
"...Demon detected." It spun its burning stick around so the burning part faced towards Scout. It then plunged the sword into Scout. The Force-of-Nature convulsed in surprise. That... actually hurt! Scout flared up, spraying the thing with magma, and threw itself open. One of the not meat sack's legs fell in up to the joint, which prompted Scout to snap shut. The thing howled, slashing at Scout with the flaming sword. Scout continued to open and close on the things leg, fire and ash spraying out at the thing it 'chewed' on. The thing wrenched itself free, leg and clothes burnt to a crisp. Scout felt... weak. The thing tried to stab it again, but Scout caught the fire tipped stick and clamped shut. The thing pulled its sword out, which lost its fire, and tried to slash at Scout again. Scout extended slightly, growing longer, and tore the ground asunder, unleashing an inferno of the same pale blue/yellow color of the sword's flames. The thing stuck its sword into the conflagration, reigniting it, and twirled it around.
"Fear, fire demon. Your end arrives swiftly." The thing spoke strangely. Scout made a decision. It spiraled away from the thing, rocketing down the corridor after the meat sack. The Archon followed Scout, sword brandished.
Clark panted. This was just like some fucked up kid's nightmare, some freakish monster chasing you down a hallway, where you can't run fast enough and then it gets you. Clark contemplated giving up to the monster, this was just a dream after all, but something told him he didn't want the thing to catch up. Plus... something about this stick told him to keep going. Like... in belonged with something else. That it was needed. He heard the crackling of the monster's fire sword behind him and hazarded a glance. He immediately regretted it. The thing was less than ten feet behind him, gaining fast. Clark was pretty sure he was done for.
"Fuck... fuck!" He hit a corner, finally, and rounded it, sprinting down the next hall. He had to get out of here. But the thing was gaining. Done for. He's done for. Clark clenched his eyes shut and put on an extra burst of speed. Suddenly, the thing screeched an ear-rending sound that made Clark glance backwards again. One of the thing's legs had fallen into something, yellow lava and blue flames splattering it from the thing. Clark cringed. That crack thing. Shit. The monster frees itself, only to fall to a knee when the other thing barrels into it. They both tumble to the ground, surprisingly uncoordinated, as the crack shot towards him and Clark groaned. He's done for sure this time. The bubbling, flame sound from the crack came closer and closer until... it passed him. Clark glanced up in confusion. The crack had moved onto the wall and was matching his speed, moving with him. He just shook his head and ignored it, the things off of their tail. For now. Clark tried to pick up speed, his chest heaving angrily at him.
Clark ran with the crack for what seemed like hours, taking a bunch of random turns and dashing through a bunch of long corridors. He finally saw something familiar. A staircase leading up to one of the houses, resting at the end of the tunnel he and the crack were in. He didn't realize what was so familiar about it until he took a closer look at it. There, right at the base was a scrap of cloth. He checked his cloak. It was missing a scrap of cloth. The crack didn't wait for him, zooming up the stairs and, he assumed, out of the house. Clark stared at the scrap of cloth, groaning. This was the staircase he had come down earlier! He just went in a circle! His stick, the one he had grabbed from the bottom of the stairs, actively tugged against his hand, almost like it wanted something. He jogged up the stairs, finding himself in the familiar house, and exited the building. Clark then found his luck worsening, as some sort of pale, sand-colored frisbee machine plummeted through the air, screaming as smoke poured from the ragged hole in its side. It hurtled right for him. Clark closed his eyes and jumped to the side, hoping for the best.
Reginald darted between the lush foliage of the gardens, darting under trees dense with vines, smashing through enormous hedges, slipping between trellises of flowering plants. Those... brutes with the flaming swords just sliced through the foliage like it was butter. He frowned. Maybe he could outrun them, it would be easy even in this bulky armor, but this woman was already panting with the effort, clearly not used to strenuous activities such as running from a pair of psychopaths with flaming swords and no inhibitors when it came to murder, as he had seen them slice down a prayer group that had been camped next to a shrine.
"M-monsieur!" The lady called out to him. He glanced back and sighed as he saw she had fallen behind. Reginald stopped for just a moment, which let the lady catch up. She squeaked in surprise when he picked her up, cradling her in his arms.
"We are going the wrong way!" She called out to him. Reginald narrowed his eyes.
"What? Why?" He asked, vaulting over a short bush and the man trimming it. The poor man turned to look at Reginald and was quickly bisected by one of those freaks' burning swords. They were gaining.
"This... tells me we need to go that way!" The lady motioned in a direction perpendicular to their current path, then pointed at some... crystal shaped like tear in her hand. The point swiveled in her hand as they ran, pointing in the same direction as her hand. Reginald glanced back at their pursuers. They were close, but not that close...
"...Hold on." Reginald switched her to one arm, reaching out with the other. As they passed by a fountain, Reginald drew up a ball of water about the size of his torso, with some effort, from it and launched it at their two followers. He then changed direction, sprinting in the direction the lady wanted him to go. That was when something, some kind of object, came screaming out of the sky, opaque smoke making a trail behind it.
"Monsieur... I believe that is our destination..." She pointed at the falling object. Now Reginald was not one to follow orders, especially from someone he had just met or stupid things that involved dealing with things falling from the sky. But she seemed to have an idea, and well... Reginald didn't. And right now, with these... things on their tails, they needed a plan. With a shake of the head, Reginald dashed forward, through the foliage and towards the ship's impact point. He hoped.
"Look, I know your bonding time is important, but those... Archons or whatever are coming and I don't think a wall is going to stop them. Can we hurry this up?" She gestured wildly at the hallway as she talked, voice rising in pitch as she talked.
"She's right, father." The man said. "I'm sure we'll find the other parts to your thing. It shouldn't be too hard, right?"
"B-b-b-but they could be anywhere!" The priest wailed. "And it's two very specific parts! What are the odds we'll find them before we can gather the Archons?" He seemed on the verge of tears. He gestured at the thing in his hands. It looked like an empty lantern. Sam assumed that was the 'weapon' that the two guys were talking about. The man chuckled.
"Have some faith, father."The man headed over to the frisbee machine and held his hand out. The priest sighed, handing him some sort of pyramid thing. The pyramid glowed and a hatch popped out of the side of the frisbee machine. The man whistled appreciatively.
"Wow... this is a fine piece of technology here... It's no wonder you guys got up here." The man crossed his arms and headed into the machine. Sam guessed it's some sort of spaceship then. Man, things just keep getting weirder.
"Actually, it was the greatness and benevolence of the gods that lifted the temple to where it is now." The priest remarked. "To be honest, I was never sure why this, and the other ones too, is here..."
"Benevolence, huh?" Sam scoffed, following the two into the ship thing. "Explains why they're sending these invincible killer freaks after us, huh?" She smirked as the priest flushed red and sputtered. The ship itself seemed strange, like it was designed for some other species entirely. The halls were narrow and too tall, with lots of steep inclines. The walls were made of some sort of really scratch rock, Sam guessed sandstone. And everything was a weird, orange, sandy color. She walked behind the priest to a room in the ship where there was a glass-like dome covering the top half. A chair sat in the middle, facing a motherboard of flashing lights.
"Alright you two, enough." The man said jokingly, already in what Sam assumed was the cockpit. He looked over the controls, which looked like a complicated jumble of lights and switches to her. The man understood it, apparently, flipping a few things. The ship hummed to life, more of the lights on the dashboard lighting up. "Father, do you know how to open the hanger doors?
"I'm sure that it's uh... one of these..." The priest turned to a bunch of levers on the side of the cockpit. Sam shuffled over slightly as the priest turned. Damn, this cockpit is small. Aside from the chair the man was sitting in, there was maybe a solid three fight for her to share with this 'Father' guy. Sam looked over his shoulder. "Um... this one?" He grabbed a lever and pulled it down. The air began to rumble, and the wall -or what Sam had assumed was a wall- began to open up. It ground open loudly, shaking the air. Sam grabbed the back of the chair to steady herself. The man flipped a few more switches when suddenly something shaped like a pyramid on a stick popped up. The man cocked his head, then grabbed the pyramid. The ship roared to life, only adding to the noise.
"Now we just have to wait for the door to open up!" The man practically screamed over the din. That's when the flaming sword hurled past the ship, embedding itself into slowly opening hanger doors. The priest screamed and Sam paled in horror. The door to the ship was still open. She dashed down the skinny corridors, finding the door. The Archons sprinted towards the open hatch, ready to kill. Sam, irritated and slightly scared that she had been Channeling so much lately, somewhat reluctantly threw up a shield to block the doorway. She tried to hold it, but the Archons were strong. Very, very strong. The bashed down her shield, making her quickly throw another one up.
As she held her ground, a voice spoke to her. A voice she would have rather not heard right then.
[Warning! Output at one hundred and one percent of maximum safe limit! This unit can no longer protect user from χάος overload! Cease of power use strongly recommended!]
"Hurry the hell up!" Sam screeched just as they broke through her shield one last time. The force threw her back, causing her to land painfully on her back. They were too close to throw up another one. Sam materialized a thick blade just as one of the things swung their's down. She managed to deflect it, her blade fading away. The Archon readied it's sword, and started stabbing down. Sam clenched her eyes shut and nearly fell out of the ship as it lurched forward. She would have fallen out, had her hand not found the handle embedded into the wall. Her fingers wrapped around it, and there was an ear-rending sound as the sides of the ship scraped along the hanger doors, the machine itself rocketing forward. Within moments, Sam found herself dangling over the open sky as the ship broke through with a nasty crunch. Sam looked up, seeing a large portion of the ship plummeting through the blueness of the sky, out of sight. The hatch started closing, which Sam was thankful for due to the fact that they were suddenly going straight up.
"What the hell is that idiot doing?" Sam grumbled, bracing herself. She felt the ship change direction and knew they were plummeting back towards the island. She knew they were going to crash the moment she stepped into this damn thing.
Scout bubbled in surprise at the reactions, or lack thereof, from the not meat sacks. The two stood there, looking around. One muttered something in meat sack language and went to follow the meat thing that had run away. The other surveyed the room. It walked around a bit, then finally glanced down, cocking it's head in confusion when it saw Scout.
"...Demon detected." It spun its burning stick around so the burning part faced towards Scout. It then plunged the sword into Scout. The Force-of-Nature convulsed in surprise. That... actually hurt! Scout flared up, spraying the thing with magma, and threw itself open. One of the not meat sack's legs fell in up to the joint, which prompted Scout to snap shut. The thing howled, slashing at Scout with the flaming sword. Scout continued to open and close on the things leg, fire and ash spraying out at the thing it 'chewed' on. The thing wrenched itself free, leg and clothes burnt to a crisp. Scout felt... weak. The thing tried to stab it again, but Scout caught the fire tipped stick and clamped shut. The thing pulled its sword out, which lost its fire, and tried to slash at Scout again. Scout extended slightly, growing longer, and tore the ground asunder, unleashing an inferno of the same pale blue/yellow color of the sword's flames. The thing stuck its sword into the conflagration, reigniting it, and twirled it around.
"Fear, fire demon. Your end arrives swiftly." The thing spoke strangely. Scout made a decision. It spiraled away from the thing, rocketing down the corridor after the meat sack. The Archon followed Scout, sword brandished.
Clark panted. This was just like some fucked up kid's nightmare, some freakish monster chasing you down a hallway, where you can't run fast enough and then it gets you. Clark contemplated giving up to the monster, this was just a dream after all, but something told him he didn't want the thing to catch up. Plus... something about this stick told him to keep going. Like... in belonged with something else. That it was needed. He heard the crackling of the monster's fire sword behind him and hazarded a glance. He immediately regretted it. The thing was less than ten feet behind him, gaining fast. Clark was pretty sure he was done for.
"Fuck... fuck!" He hit a corner, finally, and rounded it, sprinting down the next hall. He had to get out of here. But the thing was gaining. Done for. He's done for. Clark clenched his eyes shut and put on an extra burst of speed. Suddenly, the thing screeched an ear-rending sound that made Clark glance backwards again. One of the thing's legs had fallen into something, yellow lava and blue flames splattering it from the thing. Clark cringed. That crack thing. Shit. The monster frees itself, only to fall to a knee when the other thing barrels into it. They both tumble to the ground, surprisingly uncoordinated, as the crack shot towards him and Clark groaned. He's done for sure this time. The bubbling, flame sound from the crack came closer and closer until... it passed him. Clark glanced up in confusion. The crack had moved onto the wall and was matching his speed, moving with him. He just shook his head and ignored it, the things off of their tail. For now. Clark tried to pick up speed, his chest heaving angrily at him.
Clark ran with the crack for what seemed like hours, taking a bunch of random turns and dashing through a bunch of long corridors. He finally saw something familiar. A staircase leading up to one of the houses, resting at the end of the tunnel he and the crack were in. He didn't realize what was so familiar about it until he took a closer look at it. There, right at the base was a scrap of cloth. He checked his cloak. It was missing a scrap of cloth. The crack didn't wait for him, zooming up the stairs and, he assumed, out of the house. Clark stared at the scrap of cloth, groaning. This was the staircase he had come down earlier! He just went in a circle! His stick, the one he had grabbed from the bottom of the stairs, actively tugged against his hand, almost like it wanted something. He jogged up the stairs, finding himself in the familiar house, and exited the building. Clark then found his luck worsening, as some sort of pale, sand-colored frisbee machine plummeted through the air, screaming as smoke poured from the ragged hole in its side. It hurtled right for him. Clark closed his eyes and jumped to the side, hoping for the best.
Reginald darted between the lush foliage of the gardens, darting under trees dense with vines, smashing through enormous hedges, slipping between trellises of flowering plants. Those... brutes with the flaming swords just sliced through the foliage like it was butter. He frowned. Maybe he could outrun them, it would be easy even in this bulky armor, but this woman was already panting with the effort, clearly not used to strenuous activities such as running from a pair of psychopaths with flaming swords and no inhibitors when it came to murder, as he had seen them slice down a prayer group that had been camped next to a shrine.
"M-monsieur!" The lady called out to him. He glanced back and sighed as he saw she had fallen behind. Reginald stopped for just a moment, which let the lady catch up. She squeaked in surprise when he picked her up, cradling her in his arms.
"We are going the wrong way!" She called out to him. Reginald narrowed his eyes.
"What? Why?" He asked, vaulting over a short bush and the man trimming it. The poor man turned to look at Reginald and was quickly bisected by one of those freaks' burning swords. They were gaining.
"This... tells me we need to go that way!" The lady motioned in a direction perpendicular to their current path, then pointed at some... crystal shaped like tear in her hand. The point swiveled in her hand as they ran, pointing in the same direction as her hand. Reginald glanced back at their pursuers. They were close, but not that close...
"...Hold on." Reginald switched her to one arm, reaching out with the other. As they passed by a fountain, Reginald drew up a ball of water about the size of his torso, with some effort, from it and launched it at their two followers. He then changed direction, sprinting in the direction the lady wanted him to go. That was when something, some kind of object, came screaming out of the sky, opaque smoke making a trail behind it.
"Monsieur... I believe that is our destination..." She pointed at the falling object. Now Reginald was not one to follow orders, especially from someone he had just met or stupid things that involved dealing with things falling from the sky. But she seemed to have an idea, and well... Reginald didn't. And right now, with these... things on their tails, they needed a plan. With a shake of the head, Reginald dashed forward, through the foliage and towards the ship's impact point. He hoped.