NPF Avatars: A story of Seals, Tears, and Betrayal

[Mesden]

His speed did nothing to her ability to sense him. If he had a soul, she knew where he was. She had tracked his every movement up to the mountain.

As the mod lifted his hand to fire, Mesden did so too. Her gauntlet covered left hand instantly bursted into the beacon of light. The great shine illuminated everything within the battle field. The shackles that held her power had fallen.

Her lips moved, but spoke as if she were whispering. A whisper everyone could hear.

"Ethereal vortex..."

Her hand extended from her body, swirling around all the other NPFers. As the acid spread over the field and onto the group, it was sucked into several small vortex's that protected the NPFers.

The acid was soon removed from the area, making it safe for the others. With a raise of her arm, that had now become nothing more than an aura of light, the vortexs pulled back and formed her hand again.

She looked toward the mod and gave an expressionless sigh.

Speed, it seems, is his strength. That might have been more impressive had I not have my dragon spirit's power.

She tapped her left foot behind her and kept her eyes focused on the mod. Both her hands clenched and the new red in her eyes began to grow brighter and brighter.

With only a whisper, she sent out a message to all the NPFers.

"Just try to catch up. I'm going ahead."

Suddenly her left leg kicked off the ground and in a blur of red and light she had sped towards the mod, grasping her new sword to ready her self.

[mauve]

(OOC: Pyros... That was beautiful.)

"You got it," Mauve said into the ear communicator thingie. She was confused by the fact that Asheth was referring to Pyros as a separate being, and also by the fact that her accent had all but disappeared. But seeing as how the chaos blast aboard the ship had come from Ahrha, probably through her connection to Yuri, she figured that the guys at ground zero most likely got the full force of the explosion. Aboard the ship, they had been contaminated by secondhand magic, filtered through Ahrha. It was probably muy loco out at the foot of Mt. Raiden.

The Thief abandoned Fenris and ran out the door. Poor Fenry; Mauve had only managed to break open the band on his left wrist and right ankle. Oh well.

As the door slid closed, an explosion of noise ripped through the lab. It became slightly muted as the door locked. Ah. That would be Newb's watch going off. Good thing she wasn't stuck in there, like some people.

Wow. Mauve Thief had no sense of guilt whatsoever. Maybe it came with the profession.

But there were other matters at hand. She had to find Ecurt's portal device, and fast. Mauve Mage wouldn't know where to start, but Mauve Thief apparently had a gift for 'finding' things. Her travels brought her back to the others, where Ahrha was staring blankly at the wall, wrapped in Pedro's coat, her sailor suit lying in a heap on the ground.

"How did..? Why is..? No." Mauve shook her head. "You know what? I don't even want to know." Her theify senses pointed her attention to the fuku. Bingo. Something radio sized was halfway out of the skirt pocket.

"Is that Ecurt's portal device?" Mauve asked Ahrha, pointing to the object.

".....guh....." Ahrha said.

Mauve raised an eyebrow and grabbed the skirt. It was the device all right. It was radio-y and glowy and philosopher stone-y. (Hee hee. Rhyme.) Remembering Asheth's instructions, Mauve went over to a computer terminal.

"Um, Rei?" she called, remembering what Pedro had called the happy-happy program.

"Eee-yep!" the voice chirped happily. "What can I do for ya?" Mauve held up the portal device.

"If I hook this up to you, do you think you could get it to work?"

"Well, golly, I'm not sure!" Rei answered, still cheery as ever. "I don't recognize that technology. But I'd love to give it a try! I love trying new things, don't you? It makes life exciting!"

Mauve looked over at Ahrha. Part two of Asheth's instructions.

"Hey Ahrha?" she called. "I'm gonna need your help with this! Wanna come over here?"

"....hufhh..." Ahrha gurgled, not moving.

"Oooh-kay then," Mauve grunted. "I'll take that as a no." She picked the ear communicator up.

"Um, Asheth?" she called to the Asheth-y voice. "Something's wrong with Ahrha. Would the portal device work if I just hooked it to the sailor fuku? And please don't ask why she's not wearing it anymore, because I don't know and I really don't want to find out."

[PhoenixFlame]

Phoenix gazed blankly at Mauve Theif attempting to use portal devices she didn't know anything about to attempt to "Fix" Arhra, who had, for all intents and purposes, been damaged.

Phoenix saw the whole thing as rather amusing. Particularly the part when the Mech Lab's emergency Klaxons went off to alert her that Fenris' restraints have been tampered with. Phoenix ignored them, but welcomed the red strobe lights for additional ambiance.

"Raven, keep a camera on our little thiefy friend..." Phoenix mutters, motioning Pedro to follow her as she takes the Hazel-Eyes White Capitalist to the corner of the mech-lab.

"Now you see, whenever you build something, you always build spare parts, because why have one when you can have two for twice the price?" Phoenix explained, clicking a few commands into the door's control panel, sliding her keycard, taking a retina scan, fingerprint sweep, and DNA-test before the small, highly ornate and decidedly high-security door opened.

"These are what I currently have remaining of the original PX-R, and I believe we can make another from them." Phoenix says, gesturing at a host of macabre-looking pieces of what could only resemble her own limbs, head, torso, and the like. Several bottles of synthetics spray, chrome parts, eternium spanners dotted the shelves of the tiny room, in the center of which lay an operating table.

"Shall we get to work, then?" She grins at Pedro. "I'm sure Rei would be most helpful after I'm done with her."

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Phoenixbot however, was making her best effort to be helpful to the rest of the NPF on the ground. The mod had moved fast, and while Phoenixbot's scanners did not lose his bio-marker, the Mod had rendered her entire maneuver worthless. Phoenixbot lept high over the blast anyway, but without a target, it did little more than defend herself from the acid, a gesture further made useless by Mesden's vortex.

Acknowledging that the Mod was indeed much faster than herself, Phoenixbot resorted to ranged attacks. Shifting her scythe across her right shoulder and right arm, Phoenix drew her pistol with the left, slipping the Blaster catridge out in favor of the higher penetration Bolt cartridge. With a quick snap, the breach-loading revolver-like energy weapon was once again ready to fire, and Phoenixbot obliged the eager weapon, aiming it at the Mod's new location and pulling the trigger.

[PyrosNine]

(Eh, this post was mostly made because I recognized that attack, and found it funny. And just wanted to mock it a bit. No hard feelings. If you want, you can hit me with it by surprise because of my cockyness.)

PyrosNine knew this trick. His very being became flame, and in a flame form he rocketed out of the way of the magic cloth easily, and didn't stop until he hit the roof of a nearby building.

"Who do you think you are? Piedmon?" Pyros said, reforming, then catching himself before he tripped on the dress. Combat with a mod would be iffy, especially given the attack just shown. Pyros stood straight, and moved his hair out of his face. "Oh wait. I forgot. This is Gaia, you people still dig that stuff. Ah...for the days of my second youth."

Pyros drew the Flametongue, and got as close to his normal battle pose as possible in Mesden's dress. "While I'd love to say 'Before you attempt to remove the splinter from your brother's eye, First, remove the log from your own.' but sadly I have to say I destroy things Indescriminately, having destroyed much of my forums dealing with your pathetic intrusion. But know this Gaian, I aim to resolve this as quickly as possible."

[Dragonsbane]

Dragonsbane walked away from the corpse of the Mary Sue, whose flesh was now drawn tight over her brittle bones.

A Mary Sue thrives on attention, every bit of the story HAS to be about him/her, or their very being is sapped. By utterly ignoring her, and avoiding an epic battle (which would only have made her stronger), he had caused her to starve to death. Without the spotlight on her, she shriveled and died.

For now, he stood atop a pile of corpses, the Talamune sliced through the flesh and bone of a small horde of Newbs, each parry flowing smoothly into a retaliatory strike and each strike balanced to return instantly to a parry. He spun and brought his foot across to shatter a Newb's skull with his heel. Still turning, he brought his knee back in with a quick motion that tossed the Gaian's corpse into a knot of his comrades, before a gout of hellfire incinerated them all.

A wicked grin spread across his face as he advanced, chanting words of power that ripped through the Gaian ranks like an outraged Behemoth.

[Truce]

"Um, Asheth?" she called to the Asheth-y voice. "Something's wrong with Ahrha. Would the portal device work if I just hooked it to the sailor fuku? And please don't ask why she's not wearing it anymore, because I don't know and I really don't want to find out."

Esheth thought about it for a moment. She could try to convince Mauve to put it back onto Arhra, but there was no telling how Arhra's current condition would affect the portal. However, the Sailor Fuku required to be worn. It didn't give power to the wearer after all; it simply drew out the strength of love from the person.

You'd think I'd be worried about Mauve killing me for this, but she already thinks I'm Asheth. "Mauve, it won't work that way. That means only one thing: You'll have to put it on yourself."

[Darth SS]

Darth took the cowardly approach, and followed close behind Dragonsbane. This both conserved ammo and let Darth finished regenerating. The latter was a small blessing that he greatly appreciated. At long last, feeling ready, Darth jumped onto Dragonsbane's shoulders, then hopped into the air. He snapped off one of the special bullets that Twiddy had made for him before landing right behind Dragonsbane.

"Sorry about that. Just...wanted to shoot something."

[Fenris]

"Mauve, wait!" Fenris called as the mage/thief clad in pink ran out the door. "DAMNIT!" Fenris yelled as he pounded his fist on the table he was on. As Mauve left, a ticking sound became apparent.

"Tick tick tick."

Fenris looked around for the source of the sound.

"Tick tick tick."

He finally found that the watch was making the noise, and as the door sealed, he heard a voice that seemed to come from nowhere.

"Time's up."

Fire engulfed Fenris, and the wires in his head crackled. Fenris' body was charred and incinerated, but for some reason, he would not die. As what was left of his physical body blew away in the explosion, the wires remained dangling, crackling, and Fenris' mind remained. Fenris then felt a plethora of new senses and feelings, but a strange lack of emotion.

"What is going on here?" Fenris asked, as the wires sparked.

"I am," said an eerie voice that echoed through Fenris' thoughts. The wires quivered as the room around what used to be him was blown away.

[mauve]

"Mauve, it won't work that way. That means only one thing: You'll have to put it on yourself."

There was a horrible, acidic silence from Mauve's end of the connection, which, if it could be written, would have looked like ".............." only with much more evil and deadly undertones. Finally, the ex-mage spoke.

"Has Twiddy ever explained to you why I'm known as the Goddess of Pain?" she asked with a deadly calm. "Because at this point I'd be happy to show you." Normally she wouldn't mess with Asheth, what with her tendency to hurt people and burn things, but there was something decidedly un-Ashethy about this Asheth. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it was there.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Phoenix staring at her. She probably knew that Mauve had no idea what she was doing. Mauve Mage would probably be very embarrased and ashamed at all the trouble she was causing, but Mauve Thief could care less. Wow. Mauve was gonna go through one hell of a guilt trip once the chaos-induced class change wore off and the Mage returned.

"Explain to me again why we need this portal," Mauve said into the kitty ear. "The ship is on its way; we should be there at any minute, you know. We're working getting some new weapons. Besides, can't you just tell me what's going on over there through this kitty ear thing?" Yes, it's Mauve Stalls To Get Out Of Having To Wear the Fuku time!

[Truce]

Esheth had one simple reply. "This is the NPF Avatar Adventures. Nothing ever goes smoothly. Chances are, one of you will blow up the ship's engines or something.

"Also, it's not like you have a choice. While I've been distracting you with my words, I activated the Auto Costume Change Feature on the Sailor Fuku. It's already locked onto you-so prepare for a magical girl transformation."