NPF Avatars IV, Chapter VIII: At the Fountains of Madness

[Flarecobra]

"Well...if you want, I can call in an Airship to take us around in. It'd be fully stocked with food and beds, and even a shower. It'd take a little while to get here though, and all I got is a couple of MREs. I've got dibs on the enchalata meal and the spiced apples. The other 4 are all yours." I said, digging through my bag and pulling out the MREs. I then toss Mauve a pack of M&Ms. "Since I heard you can use these for Magic Power regeneration, I think you can use these." I told her.

[phil_]

Phil was grappling with that most powerful of foes: boredom. He'd finished Eureka Seven, school only took up a little of his time, and he didn't really care about the black comet hanging in the sky. "I mean, once you've seen it one day, it's the same the next day." Phil had been thinking of a way to use summoning to Ref, but he couldn't think of any way to get both a board and trapar that wasn't wildly unweildy.

"Well, there's always reverse-summoning myself somewhere to see what happens," Phil mused aloud as he walked between campus and his apartment. For some reason, this didn't strike Phil as the insanely bad idea it was, and he decided to summon himself to Raiden. For those who weren't around to read about Skyshot and phil_mike's little spat that ended in phil_mike dying, a reverse-summon is what happens when Phil attempts to summon a god. Instead of tugging them to him, Phil is snatched to the deity, like trying to lasso a speedboat. Anyway, Phil raised his arms and shouted, "●Summon: Raiden!"

Phil felt a tug behind his gut as he was ripped through the aether to whatever plane Raiden resided on. When the colors stopped swirling (it was all very Full Metal Alchemist), Phil found himself in a rocky, mountainous region. He heard explosions on the shelf a hundred feet above him, and then realised that his current position on a tiny outcrop hanging over a cliff-face was more precarious than he'd hoped. As he whined, "I could've summoned myself off a cliff!" the ledge broke beneath his feet. Shoddy workmanship in mountains these days.

Surprisingly, Phil didn't panic and black out, possibly because he hadn't played Twilight Princess yet, and tried to think of a summon-y solution to his problem. Rubbing his chin as the wind swept his hair over his face, Phil decided on a summon and said, "●Summon: Sky Dragon." Below Phil, a puff of smoke revealed a cute little green dragon ("little" for a dragon; it was about the size of a horse). Phil landed with a thump on the square of the creature's back and it made no noise or protest. Satisfied that he wouldn't die, Phil asked the creature to ascend the rock face. Unfortunately, Sky Dragons don't speak English and possibly don't speak at all, and it started drifting randomly along the cliff. Phil dared not protest too much, as a flip from the beast could land him in another round of "Summon or Die!" Eventually, the Sky Dragon floated near a long, thin path winding through the air, and Phil hopped off the creature and onto the shelf.

Dismissing the dragon, Phil looked down the path and saw that it lead back to the mountain on which he'd heard explosions earlier. After a brief stroll through the clouds, Phil came upon a field of corpses. Teenagers in white face paint lie cold and defiled in puddles of blood. Mounds of dirt seemed to make long graves at the far end of the field. Half-drawn summoning circles were scuffed in the dirt. Scorch marks and craters were scattered about the scene. All-in-all, it looked like the work of several highly-accomplished magic-users and warriors faced with kids who should've been at the mall complaining about how conformist everyone is. "The NPF has been here. Explains why Raiden wasn't in some heavenly realm or something."

After a colorful stroll through the field of slaughter (mostly red and brown), Phil arrived at another winding path that left the rock he was standing on to twist through the wind and those little mountain tops that look like stalagmites that you only see in fantasy realms. Since he was feeling lucky and wanted to get away from the corpses before one of'em got up, Phil continued along this path, admiring the view and the odd mountain topography only possible in a fantasy realm shaped by cataclysm. Eventually, he came upon a large stone door and a sphinx. The sphinx stated that if he could not answer her riddle, she'd kill him. Phil responded, "No thanks, I'll just leave," and continued along the rock face. Something told him that he'd left the bounds of the game, but Phil didn't care. Maybe he could find an invisible wall!

However, no such thing presented itself and Phil wandered about the mountain for some time. Eventually, his activities disolved into sitting on the edge of a cliff, summoning a grenade, and chucking it into the sky to watch the fireball. Thinking outloud some more, Phil moaned, "If the college would let me download torrents, I could be watching Eureka Seven again."

On the shelf far below him, an intrepid band of adventurers emerged from the depths of the Earth Temple. If they decided to pay attention, they could probably spot the mid-air explosions of Phil's hand grenades.

OOC: This explains where I've been since the first thread.

[mauve]

"Ah, sweet! No pun intended," said Mauve as Flare tossed her a bag of M&Ms. "Well, I guess this first temple wasn't so bad. Sure, I almost got turned into stone and then squashed by a troll and a jelly guy, but at least I got some free M&Ms out of the deal. Not a total loss."

She poured some M&Ms into her palm, tilted back her head, and popped the handful of chocolate into her mouth. Her eyebrows knit as she noticed something in the sky.

"Heh, Hwahdah?" Mauve said through a mouthful of M&Ms. It probably meant "Hey, what's that?" but it's anyone's guess, really. I'm guessing she's referring to the explosions in the air, because that's where she was looking.

[Flarecobra]

I squinted and then saw something come up and explode. "Looks like M9 frag grenades. About the size of a golf ball, 15 meter blast radius, 5 meter lethal radius." I said, recalling on my military training. "Seems someone's using them AS golf balls from the looks of it. Or they ran out of rocks to chuck."

(Hope you don't mind me showing off some... :P )

[Bailey]

Syttulg tilted backwards, dumping everybody who had been piled onto him off onto the ground before reshifting to a more human shape. "I ran out of food, but I can manage." He said, forming a giant sunshade atop his head out of what appeared to be a leafy substance. "And anyone who loves golf so much that they'd stoop to using grenades once they ran out of golfballs has something seriously wrong with their head. They should fit right in. Anybody up for climbing up there and welcoming them to the team?"

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

At this point, a fast moving blur of brown whizzed past.

"What the?!", said Flare as she looked at her now empty hand which had, until a moment ago, been holding a MRE.

"Cheers, I'm starving!"

Hawk retreated to a nerby tree and used his talons to rip open the MRE and began eating ravenously. He hadn't eaten since they had met The Capatalist, whose food had turned out to be poison and was consequently puked up shortly after. The healing had done him wonders, but it wasn't quite as substantial as good old army food!

As another explosion erupted above them, Hawk decided to take a closer look at whoever was throwing M9 frag grenades, (about the size of a golf ball, with a 15 meter blast radius, 5 meter lethal radius and 5 second fuse which would promptly burn down in 3 seconds in accordance with rule 18 of Murphys law) around.

He could easily make out the hairy feet of the summoner with his hawk eyes.

"It appears our new friend is a hobbit", Hawk looked closer as a grenade appeared from nowhere in the mans hand, "and a summoner, unless my eyes decieve me."

"Hey you, get down here!", went the telepathic message to Phil_.

[phil_]

Phil lazily tossed another grenade into the air watching its marvelous 15 meter blast radius bloom in the sky. Suddenly, his back straightened and his hair stood on end. From nowhere he'd heard, "Hey you, get down here!" probably in red text from the sound of it. I knew this day would come. The voices are telling me to jump, Phil thought. "Well screw you, voices!" Phil shouted. "You can't tell me what to do!"

However, Phil feared it was the height that was making him hear things, so he started to move along the cliff-face again. Stepping back toward the face, Phil stepped on a loose dirt-clod. Apparently, it was a load-bearing dirt-clod, as stepping on it caused the shelf below his feet to shift and collapse, again.

"Fine, voices, have it your way," Phil pouted before remembering that he'd die if he didn't summon something to save him. Too short a fall for dragons and parachutes, ...um "●Summon: Stuntbag!" On the ground below, a large cloud of smoke revealed an inflated stuntbag, which Phil hit seconds later. As he rolled out of the canvas lifesaver, he saw an odd group of people. Dazed and weary, Phil recognized a familiar grey cloak with red triangles. "No, it couldn't be," he groaned as he stumbled towards them. Snake woman? "Oh crud." Phil stopped moving. Who're these other circus performers? Where's Raiden? What's a little girl doing collapsed on the ground? Did they beat her up for her lunch money?

Then Phil saw a familiar shade of pink that should've been mauve. As he sprinted toward the NPFers, he yelled, "Hi guys! Did you see me fall? How's it going!" and grinned as he waved to the crowd of psychopaths.

[Bailey]

"Oh hey, it's Phil_!" Syttulg said, somehow managing to pronounce the underscore. "You got here just in time to not have to take on the earth dungeon. We're having a picnic now. Why don't you join us?"

[Flarecobra]

I shrugged, and said "Don't come blaming me when you get constapted there birdie!" I smiled and began to heat up my enchalada. "Plus these things have over 1800 calories per mealbag...I don't think eating them all at once would be the best thing.." I said, more to myself then anything. "Hey Phil!" I said as soon as I saw him, smiling in a friendly way to him.

[Tarrin]

The small red hatchback pulled up infront of the NPFers, the youth driving stepped out and opend the hatch, pulling out a large box it's logo clear for all to see, "Pizza hutt Order for Tarrin" the young man called out.

Waving his hand "Here" yelled Tarrin, followed by "Aww i can't believe you made it in 15 Min" handing over the cash Tarrin gave a $5 tip,
The smell of the super sepreame wafted upto his noise and he chewed into the large pizza with vigor.