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  1. #4141
    This Isn't Home Yun Lao's Avatar
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    Default Signs of Life: Something Else

    Long had she slumbered, hidden away from the prying eyes of the universe; probably because the universe had never known of her. Long lacking in purpose, her sojourn had become practically an eternity at this point after millennia upon millennia to the point where she had stopped thinking along the way. A lesser being would have probably given up long before this point, finding no merit in waiting and abandoning this realm. One couldn't have blamed her had she fallen to the temptations of this train of thought; after all, if the child-like Zeno hadn't forgotten her by now, he'd probably be delighted with her return. Such a conclusion simply wouldn't do. She would wait as long as it took for the old dragon to fulfill the pledge he had made to her all those countless generations ago.

    Eventually, like the vibrations of a spider's web returning to their spinner, she felt the distant waves of power. It was faint but energetic enough to rouse her from her sleep. How long had it been since her eyes took in the light of day? She couldn't say. What had once been the lifeless, desolate world she had chosen to meditate on now flourished with life, a gargantuan tree having grown around her, entwining her with its root system. Willing her body to move, it creaked and popped from neglection as she rose, easily snapping apart the thick roots that had thought to claim her.

    A gasp caught her attention and she would find that she had someone to greet her, even if unintentionally. She was uncertain of the creature's species, no doubt one that had evolved after she had stopped caring for the events of the universe, but she couldn't blame it for being surprised. One was hardly prepared for a pale blue nude woman to suddenly emerge from a tree, "Pardon the intrusion," She happily said, putting on her best smile. The creature fell back, pointing a finger at her.

    "Fuisce! Y-you're real?!"

    It took a split second before she understood the alien's (or perhaps she was the alien?) language, not so much in that she recognized it, but rather because such skills were simply part of her repertoire. Judging by the poor thing's reaction and a nearby plaque on an otherwise featureless forest path, she roughly got an idea as to what happened.

    "Fuisce? Is that what they've been calling me?"

    With but just a thought, clothing materialized around her, taking the form of ruby-red robes befitting of her station and by extending her hand out, a staff came into existence to fill her once empty grasp. Feeling presentable once more, she returned her attention to the awestruck creature, "I am Islay and I appreciate you welcoming me. It is a shame I cannot stay and catch up on things here, but my attention is needed elsewhere. Farewell, my little friend," A brief glimmer surrounded her before she vanished, leaving behind a soul struck by confusion and disbelief.

    Caught up in her excitement, it was only when she reached the Milky Way did she realize that the power she felt was incomplete; a metaphorical child kicking in the womb. Still, the child was strong and healthy and even if she was a bit early, it wouldn't hurt to take a peek, right?

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    In The Mountains of Madness
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    Quote Originally Posted by MrSandman View Post
    "....H...Ha......Ahahah.....Are you serious?" Despite the situation, Persephone could not suppress the look of utter amusement on her face. ".......I was looking forward to some sort of come back....but surely I didn't crumple his spirit so badly his host has to come out and cover for him."

    "....Fine...you know what......I still need to see what this new body can do. Lets pit the legacy of Rex the destroyer....again my new Avalon. Come...Come everyone......power like this needs a little air." Throwing her arms out, a expanding shoud of energy immediately consumes the chamber and all within in...followed by a lurch and then a harsh blast of cold wind.

    In an instant, they were floating just above the peak of the Mountain. Below them, ruins spread out in every direction.

    Again, Persephone flexes her power....and below them the ruins begin to shatter and break apart, their pieces flying upwards and smashing together just below them into a amalgamation of ruined buildings and various bits of rubbles. Pieces of the old world fly up from the farthest reaches, adding mass to this...stage.

    "Yes....YES! Look at this....the power of the old ones main manifest. A fitting stage to to put an end to our rivalry....on the ruins of this old Avalon. Let these humans bare witness to your humiliation at my hands..."
    If Persephone sought any dramatic retort or any recognition that the barb of her words had stung, she would find no satisfaction this time. Rex's consciousness and mind had been snatched away in the torrent of conscious that was the entity who called himself "Charco". What lurked beneath the patchwork flesh of human and saurian was neither being, but rather something else created from both. Without memory, without motivation, without experience, the only "Charco" could be at this moment was a stream of stimuli and consciousness without guidelines.

    Perhaps, in hindsight, had Persephone knew just who she now believed to be her old nemesis, things might have ended differently. A newborn without past rivalries or tragedies knew not of hate, but it still had the instinct of flight or fight. With the destruction of the ruins launching him into the air, "Charco's" instincts kicked in and while his mind was without experience, his body was all too acquainted with it. A shout of defiance escaped his lungs and the air exploded as the mere emergence of his aura sent errant blasts of ki in all directions.

  2. #4142
    This Isn't Home Yun Lao's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrSandman View Post
    "WHAT IN TARNATION IS GOING ON!" Cornelus Cohb shouted as he lay suspended, upside down, along with the others. Next to him, a much less awkward Shochu...both having been caught in the teleportation magic used.
    At one moment, things had changed. Shōchū's sensors had picked up the signs of magic activating as she had been preparing to storm the ruins where the Beast lurked within. Unable to fully respond in time, she found herself suspended in the air above what was once the ruins, laid to waste by someone. Her senses surveyed the scene yet her conscious mind was distracted by the nostalgic wave that struck her.

    "This energy..."

    She could sense it, radiating from the beast's body. It had been many years, even before she knew of the concepts of ki signatures, but she recognized the feeling that was her cousin.

    No... something wasn't quite right. It was as if something else wore her cousin like a mask.

    Quote Originally Posted by grampagen View Post
    With the sundering of the Royal Tomb, the rupture of the oppressive airs brushed past Ochazuke, and his shaking frame found solid footing as he crouched into a stance at the issue of raw power. The twisted Saurian would not be the only foe lingering in that age of long dark this day, though it seemed he and Zaofan were merely to be witnesses in this battle that rages across the eons. Men witness to the realm of monsters.

    But no. Flesh pushed forth from the wounded, scaled frame, and as the aura pushed back to meet Persephone's own, for a moment the dire atmosphere parted, and he was witness to something else he thought quite impossible. The ki was chaotically chimeric, twisted as the shape of the merged being before him, but same as the one who stood against a King, now he saw him oppose a Queen.

    "Fight him, boy..." At this distance, his words would likely not reach him. Same as it was in the heart of the Doctor's Star-Forge. Unlike then, he was just close enough to cast his senses upon the situation.

    "Survive, Charco!"
    It seemed someone else had recognized the energy, Ochazuke, yet he had not realized the truth.

    "That's not Charco..." Shōchū said, "It feels like him, but that is not my cousin nor Rex..."

  3. #4143
    This Isn't Home Yun Lao's Avatar
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    His eyes opened and his lungs took in a breath that set them ablaze. Coughing, he felt a bubbling warmth spill from his lips that tasted heavily of copper and a gurgle came in the stead of a groan as he sat up. His lower half was gone, yet he found only a grim acceptance was his response. Whatever had happened had rattled his mind as recalling what happened was difficult; he could only remember jumbled up visions and sounds that lacked context. Turning to his surroundings, he found only the desolation that came after death and destruction.

    Portabel had fallen...

    With that thought, his memories held some recognition now and slowly was the puzzle solved. A world of Saiyan hybrids shunned and hunted by the pure-bloods, an unknown fungal race who had lurked on the planet known as the Warspore. He had been sent in response to their distress signal... and this had been the result.

    Quila, of the Last Call, had failed in his objective.

    In the peripheral of his vision, he watched as several lines of data spilled in and with them, came the messages from his comrades. Egg and Bour had survived, but much like himself, they had sustained heavy damage. Fortunately for them, they were nearly all cybernetic at this point while he still had most of his organic matter... or at least did. Losing his lower half now put him to a little over a quarter organic; still too much in his opinion. Just what had put him into such a situation was still unclear initially as his memories were hazy, but his collected data made up for it.

    The Saiyan hybrids had made a last-ditch raid on the Warspore's nucleus and had sacrificed their lives in order to ensure that their enemy would be completely eradicated down to the last spore. It was a commendable, if not tragic end for them, as he doubted that their pure-blooded relatives would ever even learn of their deeds. As much as he loathed the part of him that still felt emotions, he couldn't help but feel helpless and frustrated with this conclusion. Spitting out the last of blood lingering in his mouth, Quila lied back down after receiving confirmation from the Tavern Star and the ETA of their extraction. He would have some time to reflect on how he could have saved them, a mental flagellation for his failures.

    I had prepared myself for the worst, but it still hurts...

  4. #4144
    Voice of the Authorities Cleric of Hell’s Brigade's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KingofPie View Post
    Sasheem sat unimpressed, his cheek resting on his hand as he quickly contemplated the life choices that led him to this exact moment.

    "....A dance, huh," the Majin uttered after a moment of lingering silence. "Like what, a break dance?"
    Ro smirks.

    For the next half hour, Ro teaches Sasheem and Zaofan the exact moves, motions, and body positions required.

    “Now, if the moves aren’t perfect mirror of one another, or your power levels aren’t close enough to each other, the....effect isn’t always pretty.”
    Black Knight of SO
    Owner/Operator of SO’s Item/Weapon Shop
    Claimer of the original Rumbles 2,000,000th post
    CBR GM/DM

  5. #4145

    Default Rising from Ruins [Ochazuke]

    As soon as the call had gone out, the response from the corners of the globe had been swift. Ochazuke supposed to himself that perhaps there was some quiet comfort to be had in the reliability of his comrades. Samson and Evangeline await the assembly outside, and for a moment he'd found himself alone in the Guardian's chamber. Aching phantom wounds lingered where they tracked upon his body not hours ago, and he leaned upon the wall for a moment. When his mind at last cleared, with a throw of his heavy hand, he cast the doors open and stood tall.

    Quote Originally Posted by Miburo View Post
    The Nevadian could be seen in the distance, flying in the air with a white aura of energy surrounding him.

    "Kami, I miss the Galloping..." He muttered to himself as he touched down on the floor of the lookout with little fanfare.

    Held paused for a moment, taking in the surroundings, and those assembled at the meeting Ochazuke had called forth.

    Blizzar. Jack. Ochazuke. B....Balon, was it? And Held himself. If there was a common thread tying them together, Held couldn't place it at first glance.

    "....Well, this is certainly an eclectic band you got here, Ochazuke." Held replied, greeting the man with a smile and nod of his head. "If you wanted drinking buddies, I suppose you could do worse than this lot..."

    He chuckled to himself. Ochazuke was hardly the type to make requests to begin with, let alone trivial ones, and his judgement had always been sound in the eyes of the Nevadian. Whatever it was that made him reach out, must have been quite the interesting story.

    "Then again, that look on your face gives me the impression this isn't a social call..."
    Ochazuke turned his attention first to Held, and when he landed effortless in his easy manner, the barest smirk curled at the corner of his lip. Not a wasted movement.

    "I called for warriors, Held, and warriors is what I expect, no less," he replied. "I'll fill you in when the others arrive, but in brief, Kenshiko has resurfaced, and along with her the Red Raiders."

    What had happened years ago was still fresh in his mind, and the separations of the past and present had prevented him from confronting her before. He knew firsthand it was a lot to ask, even of a consummate professional, to take up this task, much less a second time.

    "Perhaps I must once again ask for the impossible. If there is even the smallest chance we can pull it off, it will need to be exacting, precise."

    Quote Originally Posted by KingofPie View Post
    Blizzar arrived, taking a cruiser from the Galaxy Police's Earth-orbiting headquarters. Upon arriving at the Lookout, he appeared decidedly stressed. "I do so enjoy the multitude of ways my security systems have been compromised," the Arcosian commented dryly, cracking his knuckles. "Whatever it is we are preparing to do, I certainly hope it proves cathartic."
    The roar of plasma-engines and hiss of pneumatics broke the divinely sealed atmosphere surrounding the Lookout as the GP officer touched down. Our eye in the sky. The Arcosian Officer's towering frame soon joined this assembly.

    "So it seems. I understand your network's been having some trouble," Ochazuke replied mirthlessly. "The Red Raiders said something about it while I confronted them on West Continent."

    Ochazuke paused for a moment, rubbing a cold bead of sweat from his scarred brow. Though the majority of Blizzar's deeds spoke to the contrary and his masked visage put him apart, something in his body language and that particular sound that framed his footsteps still echoed the impression of...somebody else. Perhaps only the shape of a villain.

    "Very comprehensive grid, a thousand parts ready to move and respond...and just as many eyes to see the task done. It seems the World Government caught wind of it and wanted a piece of that. Perhaps it may have been only a manner of time, Officer, before the President used it to enhance his outreach. You and I both know how fixated he becomes once he sets his view to something."

    Quote Originally Posted by Cleric of Hell’s Brigade View Post
    Balon raised an eyebrow but nods and silently follows Ochazuke.

    Meanwhile, Jack answers the hail.

    “Yeah, I’m here already. Everything ok?”
    "Hardly."

    Ochazuke's tone hardly changed as the third emerged. Dead men may not always be ghosts...particularly if you know were to look.

    "Your grave countenance is unbecoming for a young man Jack. Neither is it suitable to follow would-be Destroyers after what happened in Avalon."

    Even now, that Saurian and the soul knotted into the flesh of its being was still out there. Slavering, hunting, feeding. After seeing the nadir of desperate humanity and glimpsing the eternal night wrought forth from the maw of the Void in the clash of Ancients, he and Zaofan threw themselves into completing their training with as much zeal and equal parts desperation to keep this world turning.

    "The history of this world is fraught with division, but you and I, this is still our home. I wager, however, that I may have a task better suited for your talents."

    Ochazuke took a few steps over the renewed plaza of the Lookout, glasslike tiles reflecting the pristine blue above with perfect fidelity. He looked over to Evangeline as he passed, because what he was about to do would be unconscionable to the Ronin in his self-appointed duty as custodian.

    Much less the Nevadian warrior in their present company

    "This may be a matter of interest for you as well, Guardian. And Balon, be on your guard."

    This was the only warning as he produced a capsule, and cast its weighty contents over the square, before immediately reaching inward with a hand gild in nullification energies.

    Plucked from the cloud of dust was the head of the Golem, Damask.

    "You serve the bloodline. I saw it when I reached into the matter of your soul," he said. The ancient facade held in Ochazuke's deathly grip turned with him, steered about to face Jack Knave where he stood. "Tell me, creature, who is this that stands before you?"
    Last edited by grampagen; 03-22-2020 at 12:32 AM.

  6. #4146

    Default One Year Ago: Charlie Base and What They Found There [Kenshiko]

    Quote Originally Posted by Cleric of Hell’s Brigade View Post
    Willa raised an eyebrow.

    “I didn’t know anything about your master being here. Damask?”

    She looks at him. The golem gives what can only be described as a shrug.

    “Memories are faint and fleeting. The more I am restored, the more concrete they become. I am thousands of years old, and much was hidden within my mind. Forgive my oversight, Colonel. Sergeant.”

    Willa turns back to Kenshiko.

    “Even Dragons can die. Everything can die. The M-Fighters showed me that. Death comes even for Gods, Demons, and more. As to the Lion school.....I suppose from here, though I ever thought if it before. He just....always knew it seemed.”
    Pulled from where it had all began, the Golem was alone among the creatures of earth - let alone present company - to witness Grinthorn's rise. It did not escape Kenshiko's notice, either, that right now they stood at the festering entrance wound that started the rot of this world.

    Thousands of years. What good was it if he couldn't remember a damn thing?

    Suppose it's a problem everyone on this rock shares. Forsaken souls in a forsaken place. Removed from what they had once been, they had all forgotten who they were. From who they were meant to be. And when the view of their destination had fallen away and become so distorted, how could any of them expect to become more than they were?

    Enough of this.

    "The M-Fighters. Is that what they call themselves?" More secrets from the Colonel; What on Earth could the M possibly stand for?

    What were they doing then, if not wasting time? Kenshiko had bled, fallen to buy the airfield time to scramble. She'd have given her life for the cause once, but when she came to, she was at the lair of one who called themselves Kami. In utter defeat, she'd found Ochazuke there in the company of Xenos -including the troupe that routed their base - and Jinzi Pantaloon, a man richer than God and his fingers in everything.

    And yet in spite of all of this, Grinthorn's reign persisted unopposed on the ground below.

    "Is that your plan? To rely on a chosen few claiming to enact God's will until, what, you get another vision? Stay the course and nothing will change. The hell if someone else is going to steer our lives. We do it on our terms, not theirs!"

    Defiant to the last, she felt it in her bones. The choice to rebel was the only thing left they had that was real; and within those five seals, the only artifacts that yet persevered within this entire derelict.

    "This chamber is somehow connected to the arts passed down my martial line." She point her finger toward Major Damask. "Start remembering before we lose another lead. Otherwise the WG takes something else, and another piece of humanity is lost forever."

    The crystal veins that ran through the cave structure resonated with her spirit, reaching from where she stood, creeping like wild roots beyond that impassable structure. Ochazuke had asked her to record the knowledge etched deep in her. To find validation in the theory of the Root Art, she'd brought her skills to the Ancient Art of the Five Schools for two whole years toiling in prison. This monolith it had recognized something in her ki, but even as far as she had come, she could not yet break it down.

    Not mere techniques, but forging fundamental qualities of the soul. Was that your vision, Zxu'ro?

    Still, with this it was evident that the art was incomplete. She was still incomplete.

    "Look around you, Colonel. Rusted tools, rotted scrolls? There's nothing here that would suit the needs of a martial artist. Battersea had to learn it from somewhere. From someone."

    That meant that at least one master of these Five was still alive as recently as fifty years ago. It was a tenuous lead, this person might have since passed away. But even if all they had left were the relics of a dying age...

    "...the truth lies behind that door, and I'm through running."

    It was clear, however, that as things were, she would have to uncover yet another mystery, and so reluctantly she made her way back to the entrance of the cave, where she found that she'd moved from one impenetrable wall to a sheer, unscalable surface. Fanning her ki out, suddenly Kenshiko felt herself rising, slowly lifting aloft to flight at the revelation.

    It would have to be Crane-style Bukujutsu that started her on the path to a new ascension.

    "Until the Major opens his mind and recalls the origins, fulltime training recommences effective immediately." Though she was the lowest ranking of the three assembled, the Tiger Master's tone left room for precisely no argument. "And give me every single goddamn ki-adept we have."

  7. #4147

    Default Fangs Bared [Kenshiko]

    Making fighting men out of conscripts wasn't all all an unusual task for the Red Corps. Ever since Kenshiko rose up in the ranks, she'd taken it upon herself to turn this desperate lot from a bunch of ragtags into a disciplined unit. But the manner of cultivating the spirit was not as specific as conditioning by rote, it was far more abstract. The realization of ki, much less its cultivation, required a particular awareness, a task that required hardening the mind beyond the means of its vessel. Still it was by these means that she was able to come halfway to reaching the path of the legendary Master of Masters, and if this was all she could do, then she'd put her all behind this effort. The only thing they had which could be turned against the President was the same thing that had consumed her entire life

    So be it.

    A hundred-eight adepts. Their intent and will to fight was a cut above the rest, she could sense something more in them that they could hone into a weapon. When put to the test against the refined techniques of the ages that passed to her, even the sharpest blades chipped and shattered against aura-gilded limbs.

    Of a hundred-eight, potentials, all washed out until she'd had results with four:

    Lance Corporal Janosz, the shield bearer of the old Hermit Kingdom and the former Captain of the Guard. The WG Troops on the losing side of the at the Battle of Border Bridge used to call him "The Wall", for so long as he faced forward on that narrow path he and his men was able to defend his position. His destructive power was such that he could cut through an armoured division with a wave of his hand. The last dredges of company faced the WG in a last, desperate battle, but before they had begun, they'd already been outflanked. Rank-and-file men were sent out in droves, expected to be patriotic and die; The Prince and the Generals, shown a better deal, called an armistice, even as men on both sides fought for their cause. Grinthorn had uprooted their memory, leaving them a legion of fighting men, protecting borders without a nation to return to, but though the world turned its back upon him, the Captain of the Guard refused to abandon his pride or his memory.

    Private First Class Navila , The World's Fastest Man. An ambitious athletics career was cut short when the President called for the end of the World Games, decreeing that in a world without borders, aspirations of this kind served no purpose but to stoke division. It was his only path, where he could excel, and desperate to be noticed, he attempted to run a lap the world nonstop. A fateful accident had cost him everything, and the morgue scratched him off to be used as recyclable material. One Dr. Char Banner Gero, however, needed a guinea pig to test her equipment, but with the regulatory body in the way, she had to do it off the grid. Unlisted, undocumented, and unwanted, from the broken parts of the Athlete she created a Cyborg. Though he was now more machine than man, despite his bloodless construction there was no replacing the memory that guided his intent, not the neural structure given to perceive such velocity and intent to pursue the way forward.

    Private First Class Schroeder, a guerrilla infamous for her hit and run skirmishes on the WG outposts of East Continent, disparaging called the Witch of Wallachia. The WG scrubbed their role from the history books on the Eastern Expansion into Mopse, and the way infrastructure remained preserved, built over in Capsule brand housing, there'd scarcely been a reminder of those dark days where tank treads rolled over the cobblestone roads. Publicly, outspoken civilians were quickly quashed, but in those days there was a silent protector. Contingents would fall in, ostensibly to impose order and then silently disappear as if they'd never landed. The WG had them outgunned and had expected Scorched Earth, but even as the territory fell, she had drawn their final border; the closure of the Summoner's Seal. Her specialty in the use of a strange technique, a heated thread of energy spun from her hands that could only be called a Plasma Tether was as precise as it was destructive in its totality, white-hot strings silent as a zephyr. The roads and alleys were choked by so many ashes it was as if the snows fell early. Yet even Schroeder, despite her intentions, had her limits that Grinthorn had exploited. All he needed was to capture one member of the resistance cell, and she was forced to go through her own people to evade capture.

    And designated second in command of this unit, Corporal Hayha, the premier company sniper of the Red Raiders. Descended from a clan of hunters, she had a preternatural knack for tracking targets, honing her senses to find her pursuits. She always preferred to nest in the cold, laying belly-down in the snow with nothing but the lurch of her heart and the long span between breaths for company as she focused her spirit and reached out to see. It was after all by a line - thinner than a split hair - that set the margin by which she measured success. When she pulled the trigger it was like tossing a pebble into a still lake. How wide the ripples cast from the impact. With such finality the change she could bring in her silent power. Contrary to most sharpshooters, Hayha held that you land the shots they don't see coming. She never said much, insisting that a sniper should not waste her breath, the finest shift causes her to lose her mark. One day, she blinked; So focused on a single point, she lost one crucial detail, and with it, everything.

    Each prodigious in their own way yet stripped of purpose, these were the Corpsmen Kenshiko had chosen. All of them had roots in a common purpose, the pursuit of excellence trained in kind, and wrung withing Grinthorn's grasp were left hungry, vengeful and broken spirits. It had been a while since she fostered talent like this, and for four months she'd allowed some distance between herself and the urgency she'd set out from the cavern with. There was camaraderie built in solidarity, of course, but there was something more, and it was a different than simply assuming command.

    After all it required a great deal of investment to rebuild broken fragments into a new, cohesive whole. For the Master of the Tiger School, it wasn't at all an unusual task.

    And for this undertaking before them, they would need nothing less than their best and more.

    True to his word, the longer Damask was allowed to remember his origins did he find a path. Fragments distilled over that patch of Earth, and reading the resonant strands of ki-resonant crystals that pulsed through the Earth, for a Golem of his nature it was like feeling the very pulse of the planet itself. It wasn't very long at all before they found coordinates.

    Their target sighted, the newly minted Vermilion Unit moved out to engage.

  8. #4148

    Default Fangs Bared [Kenshiko]

    There it was, a piece of their destiny shrouded in the misty peaks. Thundering falls fell such a distance they parted to mist overlooking a great valley, hiding an ancient temple, within which lay a sequestered beast that stood lord of all he surveyed.

    Quote Originally Posted by Cleric of Hell’s Brigade View Post
    A loud roar is heard, and emerging from the temple is a single humanoid.



    He appears wounded, and he slumps to the side, clutching his side.

    “The Tiger....has already been here. She stole...the scrolls. The techniques. The Lion’s Roar, the King’s Mane.”
    The Lion Creature stood proud upon his solitary rock at the end of the trial, a grand expanse in the hollows of his temple. So self assured in this, his King's Techniques, he had little to do but stand at the far end of the chamber and let loose his great bellow, and where he deemed they should fall, it stuck upon them like a command. How can one guard against something so fundamental as their sense of hearing? The path forward was precarious, the shockwaves threw them off balance, and as it snuffed out their auras, even flight was soon rendered useless as the equilibrium ruptured.

    Nevertheless, Kenshiko had persisted. She wasn't fighting for herself, and though her ears bled she could still feel them; the unit behind her, standing at the forefront, echoing the dead of the Tiger School. It was no longer her own life she was fighting for. Ever since she had accepted the mantle of the Tigers it never had been. Now, more than ever, for their sake she could not fail.

    Energy shrouds roused in unison behind her, covering fire and sonic blows intercepting the obstacles on the path forward. With their support and an uncanny drive, it was not long before she stood face to face before the Lion in his den and claimed her prize.

    Her fingers crinkling the edges of a useless map pointing them back to Charlie Base.

    "You're telling us to go back where we came from. After all the **** you put us through, are you fucking joking?"

    Her unit stood wounded behind her, and her eyes clouded over with frustration and fury.

    "You have no clue what's been going on out there, do you?" she said. "And you have the gall to claim to know who is worthy in all of the world that you have abandoned? How do you expect us to take on the world like this?"

    Leon's cat's eyes twist in realization, then flared to predatory light, and in an instant he lashed out. Set in the very shape of his frame, he set to guard his legacy with all the grace and power his technique could muster. Zxu'ro's Guardian, he was a Living Weapon, a master of One of the Hidden Hand.

    As far as Kenshiko was concerned, that made them equals.

    A Lion who lost his pride crossed the path of a roaming Tiger that day. As they circled the temple grounds the Guardian's bestial frame crouched, the woman before him stalking silently. She took a step forward into his territory and his roar shook the valley, his mane bristled with refinement.

    "Pretender!" Leon shouted. "You are all of you unworthy! Unworthy of the Master's teachings!"

    He fought valiantly, but even Leon's ferocious display was ripped away gradually with each strike. Feral roar was met with a primal shout, and the shroud of ki raised by the Lion was gradually chipped asunder. The Lion's steely claws were bared and swung from range, intent on taking the Tiger's head. Desperately forceful in its finality, Kenshiko saw right through it as she went in low, burying a sharp elbow to rob his fanged jaws of his breath, and slamed another into his throat to seal it.

    The Lion's style of pugilism was quite forceful and boisterous, yet unlike her Eight Limbs, they had long since left the field of battle. A shearing aura surrounded her as she buried her leg, shin to knee, into the Guardian's side. The flesh split open as if flayed by a morbid saw through bone and viscera, and the ancient thing's blood was disturbingly warm.

    "Worthy? You gave it up to Simon fucking Battersea. Look at you. You can't protect a goddamn thing."

    Hobbling forward on heavy steps, she motioned the company to move forward once their opponent had been neutralized. The scrolls they found bore the sigil, same as the Cave and with it a horde of hidden techniques. One of the five remaining to conquer.

    "The Immortal Weapon of the Master of Masters," she sneered. "If you of all things are part of the legacy of a dead man..."

    She was soon silenced by a faintness that shook through her. The knowledge of the Chimera School had been compartmentalized and separated. For what reason?

    Was it fear? A righteous, idle man, no different from some idiot beast in shape or mind.

    That couldn't be all that this was. She refused to believe it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Cleric of Hell’s Brigade View Post
    Samson does so will eager steps, and it doesn’t take long to find a ruined temple amidst jungle like features.



    A loud cawing can be heard as a beautiful, fiery and massive, bird lands near Samson.



    It’s flames wreath around it, it’s wings folding in as it gazes at them.

    “Zxu’ro’s true students? Then it is as I feared. I was deceived.”

    It bows its head.

    “An imposter came here a day ago and claimed the power and birthright here.”
    With the Lion's techniques held in their grasp, Kenshiko was able to decipher them, and at this level, the Unit was able to utilize the fundamentals. With this boon from Zxu'ro's final guardian and the map of the legacy path, it would be in short order that they'd find the next.

    To claim the legacy of the Phoenix, the Vermillion Unit would pass through a baptism of fire. On the barren isle of porous rock and ashen sand, the lone marker of civilazation stood, but rather than an oasis, The Flame roared to life, hotter than a human being could bear.

    Most, but not all, for these were the fundamental qualities the line of the Dragon School had trained for. To stand before a flame, tempered by its heat until one could rise unopposed as its master, still the pit of magma would swallow even that burning, and the choking fumes spat from the brimstone thinned the air before them.

    Across a bubbling field spitting noxious ash, Cinder dangled her prize before those who would claim it. Dead soldiers, men and women who pushed through the hell of countless killing fields for the promise of a new day. And when they demonstrated their mastery of the Lion's techniques when they smothered the lava, the great Phoenix, one rung lower on the hierarchy, submit.

    Now Kenshiko had seized upon the tongues of fire that carried the will of Zxu'ro. Arisen from Cinder's inert hearth at the heart of the world, choking on the ashes of time she now held in her hand a testament to be borne through the ages.

  9. #4149

    Default Fangs Bared [Kenshiko]

    As much as they had gained over the course of this year, even though engagements had been kept to a minimum the Red Raiders managed to draw heavy losses.
    There was an emergency concerning their mole in Capsule Corps, and Colonel Rautt had dispatched the Major to retrieve her*
    . It had been months since that mission, and Damask never made it back. Did she account for the absence of the Major as well, or was this a calculated loss?*


    Not only had they lost the Golem, but word had it that Grinthorn had gotten his mitts on Gero as well. For everything that she'd provided them under Pantaloon's nose, even for someone who dealt with the Red Raiders she had a mercenary bent. She'd roll over on them if it meant she could continue tinkering with nanites and beakers.

    Things were swiftly coming to a head, and with time at their back, they were forced to forge ahead without them.

    Fortuitously, it was then that the Colonel's vision had stuck true, that Grinthorn had been unseated from his foundation and found himself diminished*. With the last bit of intel from Gero's funneled information, now was the moment she would strike him blind. She would sacrifice anything to do it.

    Quote Originally Posted by grampagen View Post
    Arrayed over on the walls were two parallel images of the world. The continents lined on one slowly fed the other in a minute delay as they shift slowly. A screen of weather patterns gliding over the major regions of the world, fed into crystal clarity. A multitude of monitors littered the place, pictures of a world feeding into one collective. Images of well-dressed men speaking to their fellows; village girls arraying a fresh row of Capsule houses; A city that never slept under the winding path of neon lights; the migration of a herd of beasts searching for new grazing grounds; Drifting satellite debris cresting between the view past the moon.

    This far above, the multitude of humanity and the wild. Each living presence as they crawled about the world from this distance indistinguishable motes where they lived their lives. Their paths could be traced with the utmost clarity from corner to corner, unawares they were being watched. The minutae of this blue planet, everything all fed out to a large communications array, and unmarked though it was, Ochazuke recognized it from the array fed to the Coldlight, the monitor feed was from the Galactic Patrol signal. The satellites arrayed to the defense of the Earth also turned a covert its view toward it.
    _

    "Maybe he was smart enough not to get screwed over by the Xenos. But not enough to put everything in one basket." The static click of her talkie clipped on. "Are the charges set?"

    "Think about what you're doing...!"

    His limbs were heavy, and racked with agony, Ochazuke threw himself onto his feet, grimacing in pain through ragged breaths as he dragged himself after her.

    "I have. That's why I'm the one who has to press the trigger." The detonator unfastened from her belt, all that stood between her thumb and the button was a plastic cap. As she grasped it in two shaking hands, she began to rise upward as she flew above the scattering personnel.
    _

    "The past for the chance for a future. A steep price to strike Grinthorn blind. I pay it gladly."

    And when the bombs went off, a cacophony of immolating fury ripped through the foundations of the palace for miles around. The last shapes of an empire sworn to stand against the ages for a thousand years descended in a quagmire of symbols, ground to ash, stripped of their memory and meaning, for those who sought to follow in the steps of the ancient gods found nothing; in her rage, she reached out to slay them.
    Quote Originally Posted by grampagen View Post
    "Zxu'ro...awaits...please..." The glow of her hand slowly diminished. She saw that the stroke of his heart beat with a power that was not his own. Within that familiar presence she understood that this was not his life alone to lose.

    "The Master of Masters really is alive?" she said. Kenshiko's visage lowered, and for the first time in ages, he saw her smile. "So the Lion guardian wasn't full of **** after all."

    "Leon...?"

    "Heh. Would you believe that he told me to return where we came from?"

    The world burned around them and her face wreathed with burning shadow, and yet the two of them, despite everything shared a laugh. Had he reached her at last? She took his hand in hers, and for a moment, he'd almost allowed himself to believe they were at the old training camp. Whenever one of her students fell, she'd pick them right off the canvas.

    Why do we train today? So you can become more than you were yesterday! To reach the next level, you've got to keep going!

    Would that they could return to those lost days.

    "Don't you see? The entire world's suffered and gone to ****. Why has Zxu'ro been hiding when we need him the most?!"

    The words twist through him with a wrenching agony that made the ki lacing her every blow pale in comparison.

    "Is that his higher purpose? To leave humanity behind?! Look around you, Ochazuke." A shrine in a grove stood along among the ashes. Were they merely acting out a destiny their forbearers had determined for them, of the Five Heads of jealous clans moved to spite? Tilting his head toward her, he saw a blurry shadow manifest in her hands. He'd lost a lot of feeling with the blood. When had sh frisked the Dragon Gauntlets from him? Had he the breath, he'd curse, but only red left his lips.

    "Not you. Not me. Not even these things." Slick with his blood, they fastened themselves to her all too readily. When she flew her arm out, a blade slashed through the air and split the river bank behind them, mangroves teetered as they bled out into the muddy river. "Ten different branching sects of arts to deal in death. This is his legacy."
    _

    Arms girded with new strength, Kenshiko clashed her fists together, a low, husky scoff shaking her frame.

    "What makes you think we'd take on a Dragon if we weren't prepared to slay him?"
    The transport rushed silently from the continental mainland, stealth shields kicking up and fading their craft from sight as they entered a storm cloud.

    The Vermillion Unit sat bundled in assembly, Janosz stock silent, Schroeder webbing a deathly cats' cradle. Navila cradled a helm under the crook of his arm as he slept, and the sniper's eyes of Hayha scanned the horizon as she peered out the window.

    The blood was still wet where it soaked into the hemp ropes knotted over each of Kenshiko's knuckles, and she found Zxu'ro's Gauntlets were a good fit, his Circlet no less. The sigil of the Dragon and the Wolf matched the obelisk, and what's more, the residual ki Ochazuke imbued into them coursed within it. The welt running off her jaw burned. Binding the vambraces on her forearms, a small chuckle escaped her. You and Sis, this is what you were always after. A perfect synthesis. If Kaibyo had been alive, how would she regard how well their student had grown?

    The reverie dispelled as the craft set down with a lurch into the sequestered airfield of Charlie Base built on the foundations of Old Vermillion. Cling too hard to the past, you won't be able to move forward. Profound, you little drunk, where are you now?

    "Mission accomplished." The Unit had acquired Two of the Hidden Hand; on her person she bore two more. Spared a parting gift from the man that stole her old life from her, in her mind she saw it as his way of putting things right.

    "Get the Colonel," she said, "We have what we need to find the Master."

    Perhaps now they could finally kill that fucking Dragon.


  10. #4150
    Voice of the Authorities Cleric of Hell’s Brigade's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by grampagen View Post
    As soon as the call had gone out, the response from the corners of the globe had been swift. Ochazuke supposed to himself that perhaps there was some quiet comfort to be had in the reliability of his comrades. Samson and Evangeline await the assembly outside, and for a moment he'd found himself alone in the Guardian's chamber. Aching phantom wounds lingered where they tracked upon his body not hours ago, and he leaned upon the wall for a moment. When his mind at last cleared, with a throw of his heavy hand, he cast the doors open and stood tall.



    Ochazuke turned his attention first to Held, and when he landed effortless in his easy manner, the barest smirk curled at the corner of his lip. Not a wasted movement.

    "I called for warriors, Held, and warriors is what I expect, no less," he replied. "I'll fill you in when the others arrive, but in brief, Kenshiko has resurfaced, and along with her the Red Raiders."

    What had happened years ago was still fresh in his mind, and the separations of the past and present had prevented him from confronting her before. He knew firsthand it was a lot to ask, even of a consummate professional, to take up this task, much less a second time.

    "Perhaps I must once again ask for the impossible. If there is even the smallest chance we can pull it off, it will need to be exacting, precise."



    The roar of plasma-engines and hiss of pneumatics broke the divinely sealed atmosphere surrounding the Lookout as the GP officer touched down. Our eye in the sky. The Arcosian Officer's towering frame soon joined this assembly.

    "So it seems. I understand your network's been having some trouble," Ochazuke replied mirthlessly. "The Red Raiders said something about it while I confronted them on West Continent."

    Ochazuke paused for a moment, rubbing a cold bead of sweat from his scarred brow. Though the majority of Blizzar's deeds spoke to the contrary and his masked visage put him apart, something in his body language and that particular sound that framed his footsteps still echoed the impression of...somebody else. Perhaps only the shape of a villain.

    "Very comprehensive grid, a thousand parts ready to move and respond...and just as many eyes to see the task done. It seems the World Government caught wind of it and wanted a piece of that. Perhaps it may have been only a manner of time, Officer, before the President used it to enhance his outreach. You and I both know how fixated he becomes once he sets his view to something."



    "Hardly."

    Ochazuke's tone hardly changed as the third emerged. Dead men may not always be ghosts...particularly if you know were to look.

    "Your grave countenance is unbecoming for a young man Jack. Neither is it suitable to follow would-be Destroyers after what happened in Avalon."

    Even now, that Saurian and the soul knotted into the flesh of its being was still out there. Slavering, hunting, feeding. After seeing the nadir of desperate humanity and glimpsing the eternal night wrought forth from the maw of the Void in the clash of Ancients, he and Zaofan threw themselves into completing their training with as much zeal and equal parts desperation to keep this world turning.

    "The history of this world is fraught with division, but you and I, this is still our home. I wager, however, that I may have a task better suited for your talents."

    Ochazuke took a few steps over the renewed plaza of the Lookout, glasslike tiles reflecting the pristine blue above with perfect fidelity. He looked over to Evangeline as he passed, because what he was about to do would be unconscionable to the Ronin in his self-appointed duty as custodian.

    Much less the Nevadian warrior in their present company

    "This may be a matter of interest for you as well, Guardian. And Balon, be on your guard."

    This was the only warning as he produced a capsule, and cast its weighty contents over the square, before immediately reaching inward with a hand gild in nullification energies.

    Plucked from the cloud of dust was the head of the Golem, Damask.

    "You serve the bloodline. I saw it when I reached into the matter of your soul," he said. The ancient facade held in Ochazuke's deathly grip turned with him, steered about to face Jack Knave where he stood. "Tell me, creature, who is this that stands before you?"
    The head’s eyes flare a moment before speaking.

    “A descendant of Arthur, my creator. His bloodline is seen by me.”
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  11. #4151
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    OT:

    Amazing posts Gen!


    IC:

    Willa walks out, eyeing the group and the bloodied objects Kenshiko holds.
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  12. #4152
    Astonishing Member KingofPie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cleric of Hell’s Brigade View Post
    Ro smirks.

    For the next half hour, Ro teaches Sasheem and Zaofan the exact moves, motions, and body positions required.

    “Now, if the moves aren’t perfect mirror of one another, or your power levels aren’t close enough to each other, the....effect isn’t always pretty.”
    Sasheem, despite the vein thay had erupted upon his forehead, seemed calm, externally. "That's...that's the big special fusion technique, huh." His tone was flat, more delivering an air of being violently unimpressed rather than one of curiosity. "This stupid dance..."

  13. #4153
    Astonishing Member KingofPie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by grampagen View Post
    The roar of plasma-engines and hiss of pneumatics broke the divinely sealed atmosphere surrounding the Lookout as the GP officer touched down. Our eye in the sky. The Arcosian Officer's towering frame soon joined this assembly.

    "So it seems. I understand your network's been having some trouble," Ochazuke replied mirthlessly. "The Red Raiders said something about it while I confronted them on West Continent."

    Ochazuke paused for a moment, rubbing a cold bead of sweat from his scarred brow. Though the majority of Blizzar's deeds spoke to the contrary and his masked visage put him apart, something in his body language and that particular sound that framed his footsteps still echoed the impression of...somebody else. Perhaps only the shape of a villain.

    "Very comprehensive grid, a thousand parts ready to move and respond...and just as many eyes to see the task done. It seems the World Government caught wind of it and wanted a piece of that. Perhaps it may have been only a manner of time, Officer, before the President used it to enhance his outreach. You and I both know how fixated he becomes once he sets his view to something."
    "It is...exhaustingly unsurprising that he would be at the crux of this," Blizzar sneered. "But it's these Red Raider that prove to be the immediate problem. I've read some files we compiled on them. Knocking out the compromised alien satellite network. They must've felt ecstatic."

  14. #4154

    Default Rising from Ruins [Ochazuke]

    Quote Originally Posted by KingofPie View Post
    "It is...exhaustingly unsurprising that he would be at the crux of this," Blizzar sneered. "But it's these Red Raider that prove to be the immediate problem. I've read some files we compiled on them. Knocking out the compromised alien satellite network. They must've felt ecstatic."
    "We know Alakaza has an eye for beneficial assets," Ochazuke replied, "especially if they may be seized readily...or volunteered."

    When they had repelled the first force the Doctor sent through time, the bodies had barely touched the ground before the President himself arrived on the scene to collect the enemy remains for study. What's more, he'd framed the incident as one to strengthen his ties to the as-recently landed organizations tied to the wider goings-on of the universe through the interestes of their allies: The Saiyan Empire and the Galactic Patrol.

    "When you offered your protection to this world, for a creature that can be in many places at once, he likely saw it as you handing him a weapon primed to loose anywhere upon the world. The Red Raiders appraised the situation in as much, anyways. Somehow, they'd found out about his recent blindspot and made the range of his influence that much narrower."

    Ochazuke folded his arms before his chest as he continued. "They'd been fighting him for years on the back foot. Yet in removing the potential for this one threat, we know there's worse out there among the stars, waiting for our planet's vulnerable moment."

    Quote Originally Posted by Cleric of Hell’s Brigade View Post
    The head’s eyes flare a moment before speaking.

    “A descendant of Arthur, my creator. His bloodline is seen by me.”
    Ochazuke's fingers curled around cracked stone as Damask made his answer. Good, he recognizes it well enough. It was, however, uncanny to his ears just how candid the Golem was among yesterday's enemy.

    "Is it true then, that your creation is bound in your oath that promise to protect the Earth is your very reason to be?"

    The ancient behemoth had been sent at Rautt's behest, unflinchingly loyal before he'd struck him down. Now, standing before Jack and Evangeline, Ochazuke sought to test the limits of this creation.

    "Swear it now, before your Master's blood and the heir of Arthur's will."

  15. #4155
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    Quote Originally Posted by grampagen View Post
    "We know Alakaza has an eye for beneficial assets," Ochazuke replied, "especially if they may be seized readily...or volunteered."

    When they had repelled the first force the Doctor sent through time, the bodies had barely touched the ground before the President himself arrived on the scene to collect the enemy remains for study. What's more, he'd framed the incident as one to strengthen his ties to the as-recently landed organizations tied to the wider goings-on of the universe through the interestes of their allies: The Saiyan Empire and the Galactic Patrol.

    "When you offered your protection to this world, for a creature that can be in many places at once, he likely saw it as you handing him a weapon primed to loose anywhere upon the world. The Red Raiders appraised the situation in as much, anyways. Somehow, they'd found out about his recent blindspot and made the range of his influence that much narrower."

    Ochazuke folded his arms before his chest as he continued. "They'd been fighting him for years on the back foot. Yet in removing the potential for this one threat, we know there's worse out there among the stars, waiting for our planet's vulnerable moment."



    Ochazuke's fingers curled around cracked stone as Damask made his answer. Good, he recognizes it well enough. It was, however, uncanny to his ears just how candid the Golem was among yesterday's enemy.

    "Is it true then, that your creation is bound in your oath that promise to protect the Earth is your very reason to be?"

    The ancient behemoth had been sent at Rautt's behest, unflinchingly loyal before he'd struck him down. Now, standing before Jack and Evangeline, Ochazuke sought to test the limits of this creation.

    "Swear it now, before your Master's blood and the heir of Arthur's will."
    “I am bound by ancient oaths of blood and bone, of bronze and stone. I answer to those of Arthur’s bloodline, though I and my brother’s currently serve Colonel Rautt. Our word is bond, superseded only by Arthur’s Will.”
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