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

[Flarecobra]

I looked at the boulder, and then started to charge up my Mega-Flare. "Hey Rei! We hit that thing at the same time when it tried to attack again!" I said, then glanced over to the Hydra-snake, who seemed to be eyeing me. "Someone distract that thing!" I said, not wanting to waist a shot at the boulder, but if I had to, I could use it agenst the Hydra if it came at me.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Hawk was in the air in an instant and turned to meet the new "threat".

"Hey Sphinx, do you REALLY think you can win against us? I mean, we just took down the Earth Caryatid, do you really think you guys will give us any trouble?"

The Sphinx merely ignored him.

Originally Posted by Flarecobra

"Someone distract that thing!"

"On it!"

He targeted the hydra and sent a concussive blast at it, stunning the creature temporarily before following up immediately by charging the monstrosity. As he came close his talons flashed out as he stabbed them into one of its many heads, the razor sharp weapons penetrating its brain and killing it instantly. But it still had plenty more where that came from.

Hawk wheeled around and came back for another pass.

[POS Industries]

"Hey Rei! We hit that thing at the same time when it tried to attack again!"

"Okeedokee," Rei shot a quick glance back at Flare and leaped backward, landing beside her and began charging up another Doom Cannon attack in unison with her pyromaniacal associate's own Mega-Flare.

"Now we're playing with power...."

DOUBLE TECH. - HOT FUSION!

[Lumaes]

The world suddenly seemed very dark, the rugged, rocky plateau seemed to be transfused by wickedness – every stone under foot seemed sharp and blood-thirsty and the air hung pregnant with malice. A strange howl began; the icy winding of wind through the rocks… it rose and dropped in pitch full of unbridled anger,

“……baaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhsttttttttttt ttaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhdddddssssssssssss …..”

The train shrieked shrilly, its whistle screaming as its lights sparked and flickered; sending shades rushing back and forth in the carriages as they acted out some ethereal crash – it sent the silhouetted figures tumbling and crashing sickeningly into the chairs and poles.

The door was wrenched open with a squeal of metal pouring out a tidal wave of darkness and hate. The dark blot surged together into an implacable pillar – looming, full of dread expectation as a tiny porcelain white skull, like a milky eye, stared from its core.

With a FOom the darkness collapsed in on its self, condensing down into the morbid, shadowy shape of Lumaes,
“Leave me to die will you?” he raises his hands, a frightening puppet of stitched-together snakeskins on each one, they bob enthusiastically as they squawk in there high-pitched voices, which, curiously were British,
“Shall we gather up our dear old friend Mister Lumaes as he’s been paralysed by snakes?” said Mister One
“Oh- no I shouldn’t think so, that would take too much time. Just leave his paralysed body behind to be transformed into a corpse instead...” replied Mister Two.
“Oh yes, I agree – we could use that time to...” Mister One began, “SLEEP ON THE BLOODY DIRT!” they both shrieked as one.

Both the puppets drooped as “Mister Lumaes” turned his dreadful, worrisome eyes on his so called allies as they darted about the monsters.
“I had to bloody hitch a lift with the Villain Squadron” “League of Enemies!” Arhra interrupted. The spectre hesitated, “Hey! That’s better. Good name” he smiles for a moment… trying to seize his anger by its thrashing tail again.

***

Lumaes lay in the softly blowing sands, reflecting on the events that brought him here. For an hour he entertained the notion of taming some local giant ants by humming at different frequencies and convincing them to carry him after his friends or at least wreak bloody, ant death upon them – he abandoned this plan when he realised he hated ants… in fact he hated ants to such an extent that he would leave dishes of honey by ant-hills until the entire hive of his new ant-friends was dependent on his charity. Then he’d stop the honey and cackle as the inept, lazy ants starved to death from their own uselessness… This thought was interrupted by a large paw swatting him,
“Little thing? Are you alright?”
“Yes…” the lie had set him free, movement flowed back into his ephemeral body and he stood, shaking dust and sand out of his shadowy substance, he pulled a disgusted face, “Ick”

“You’ve seen the intruders no doubt? We, ourselves, are on our way to… deal with the little menaces. Perhaps you would like to come along as well?”
Lumaes hesitated… speaking slowly and making no sudden movements, “…Sure… I’d… love… to join your cult.”
***

[mauve]

"Oh yeah...." Mauve said. "I had a feeling we were forgetting something. Sorry about that. Nice puppets, though."

She pushed up her sleeves and glared at the semi-threatening League of Enemies behind Lumaes.

"Should probably take care of these guys," she said. "But first, before I forget..." Her eyes darted over to Skyshot. "Hey Skyshot, as nice as that color looks on you, I'd really like my hat back. When you're done with it, I mean. I'm rather attached to it."

Having made this oh-so-important speech, the hatless mage turned to address the sphinx.

"Right. Now we can get down to business." The mismatched knives appeared in Mauve's hands. "I don't suppose you'd consider leaving if we asked you really nicely, huh?" There was a silent pause between the mage and the sphinx. "Yeah, didn't think so."

Mauve threw one of her knives into the air.

"Divide and conquer!" she commanded, pointing at the sphinx. The blade shimmered, hovering in the air. Then, it shattered into six identical knives which flew towards the sphinx like little guided missiles.

[Arhra]

Arhra considered her options as a large train appeared between her and her enemies. Well, they weren't specifically her enemies, except in the way you could say the whole universe was her enemy, but something did need to be done about them. She needed some strategy, some ingenious use of the powers available to her to eliminate the opposition in a blaze of stylish glory, each motion a step in her elaborate dance of death.

Rei had leapt over the summoned train to attack, Flare had gotten over there somehow, the bird Arhra considered a possible emergency food supply was running off on his own and Hydra was charging there too, towards that hydra, seemingly having forgotten that a weaker hydra had been kicking her ass before. Arhra sighed. Run screaming at the enemy it was.

Arhra charged forwards, catching up with Hydra before she got to the train. "Judo chop!" she yelled, leaping and chopping at the base of Hydra's necks with the edge of her hand. Do not be alarmed gentle reader, Arhra did not confuse Hydra with the hydra, despite how easy this could be. Rather, she wanted to get something approaching cohesion in the NPFer's attacks.

About to give a diatribe about not underestimating the foe, Arhra saw a swirl of a shadowy robe and spun to face it, shifting into a Kickass Fighting Stance. It was Lumaes.

Arhra hesitated. She had heard his angry speech before but then he'd trailed off into some sort of flashback. "Uh, are you on our side or not?" she asked the enraged spectre puzzledly.

Meanwhile, the other NPFers were engaged in battle. Rei had blasted the flowstone boulder with her Doom Cannon attack, teaming up wiht Flare to follow up with their HOT FUSION! combined attack. It was not as delicious a pun as using some sort of icy spell in the place of fire, but it was passable.

The reforming boulder, stubby, tentacular appendages swaying as it pulled itself together, seemed to pull in on itself, shrinking down as the fiery energy beam pummeled the air between it and its target out of the way.

As is of the way of such things, the explosion was impressive. There seemed to be a small crater left behind where the boulder had been. Small pools of the rock were flowing back towards it, most it apparently having been vapourised. This seemed awfully easy.

Unsurprisingly, two long, attenuated spikes of rock erupted out of the ground with lightning speed, jabbing out to try and run Flare and Rei where they stood and withdrawing again in the same eyeblink. It would appear most of the living rock was hiding underground.

As Hawk came for a second attack, the slain head flopped lifelessly and then spasmed in a rather disturbing way. It began to divde, splitting down its center and then with a sudden wet SPLUCH!, two heads regarded Hawk balefully. They did so while biting at him, poisonous miasma leaking from their open mouths. With nothing else close to deal with at the moment, the other dozen or so heads did the same thing. It was rather like finding the air suddenly replaced with a mass of scales, teeth and poisonous gas.

No-one having paid any attention to him yet, Thod had continued his charge. Slamming into the side of a train carriage, he grunted and simply kept running with the same simple-minded determination, pushing the carriage in front of him, other carriages dragging along to either side. The NPFers who hadn't crossed the barrier the train created were treated to the unique sight of a train rushing at them side on. Presumably getting hit by a such a unique sight would be uniquely painful.

As Muave attacked, the sphinx insultingly yawned, raising one limb to slash the air with a claw, leaving three azure vertical slices of light behind. They bulged as they spaced out, turning into flat disks of blue light that they circled the sphinx. One flashed forwards, catching a dagger and flaring to a bright red. The second swept around and blocked the next one, turning red while the first one pulsed back to blue at the same instant. The three shields continued to cycle through, neatly stopping each dagger.

The sphinx seemed hellbent on making it clear she thought the NPFers were beneath her. Admittedly, being on a rise as she was, they were below her. As if seeking to emphasis the point, she leapt, wings beating to send her gliding downwards. Between her front claws, another spell was taking shape, four points of light marking the corners, a fine tracery of light threading through it. It darkened, hiding its innards as the sphinx released it, sending it tumbling end over end at Mauve, growing in size as it did.

OOC: The pyramid is a mazing spell, get hit by it and you'll get pulled into a dimensional maze, trapped until you find the way out or until it dissipates in a few minutes. The pyramid is about the height of a person.

I'm sure people can guess the shield flaw. If you want to check your guess about it was right, it's written here in mysterious spoiler text:
* To destroy a shield, hit it twice without hitting a different one*

[Bailey]

Seeing the train tumbling towards him, Syttulg curled and tried to flatten himself against the ground, transferring the iron from his blades to his back to serve as added protection. Once the threat of the train had passed, he rose slightly, staying crouched in preparation of Thod's charge. Reshaping his body slightly, he caught hold of Thod and attempted to fuction as a catapult, hopefully hurling Thod further down the mountainside.

[Flarecobra]

I had quickly slithered around the Train, intent on using it for cover if need be, and fired my Mega-Flare at the same time Rei fired again. Seeing Thud heading right at the train I yelled out "Phil! Dismiss that Train!" just as the rock spike shot up and nearly got me, but left a good cut in my scales. "Damn!" I said, as I darted quickly to avoid the spike. I quickly used a Fire spell on myself, sealing the cut. Thinking quickly, I said "Mauve, Rei, Skyshot! I'm a sitting snake right here! We need something that'll either reveal it's movement or slow it's attacks!"

[Tarrin]

Still sitting by the boulder Tarrin watched the battle begin, He intently watched Thod and Syttulg play Hugs.

Deciding that taking the troll out of the fight an easer way for a while atleast might help the group.

"Oi" Tarrin waved a piece of his pizza towards Thod, The large troll was the bounty offered to him and ripped free from Newb's grasp and wandered over from their little tiff and settltd down beside Tarrin.

Tarrin passed the piece of Pizza to the green giant and sat back and ate with it, "You know you could be sitting back eating this stuff instead of fighting" Tarrin started the conversation.

"But fight good, u all bad breake fruit trees" Thod returned
"True but pizza and other foods are better and dont make you as slow as those nasty fruits" Tarrin was trying to keep Thod distracted long enough for the Npfer's to finnish their friends his only hope was that he had enough pizza to do it.

[POS Industries]

"Mauve, Rei, Skyshot! I'm a sitting snake right here! We need something that'll either reveal it's movement or slow it's attacks!"

Rei, who had been following close behind Flare, took that cue to envelope both herself and the lamia within her artificial gravity field and set it into reverse, quickly lifting both of them about fifteen feet into the air before adjusting the gravity level around them to zero. The pair hung up there, slowly drifting in the breeze, as Rei began softly singing as she took aim at the Sphinx.

"Come with me and you'll be in a wooooorld of pure imagination...."