NPF Avatars IV, Chapter V: Beyond the Wall of Teeth

[Tarrin]

Tarrin looked around, "Well that was unexpected" He had been wandering when part of the floor had given way, Plunging him a good twenty feet into darkness.
Every part of him seamed to ache, And his eyes couldn't adjust to the inky blackness that engulfed him. Spirit meld.... The bats sonar worked well in this environment and he could tell that there was a hallway leading off to the right.
"No use just sitting here" He said standing and walking off in that direction

[Dragonsbane]

Dragonsbane faced the boulder head-on, glaring as if he intended to detonate it with sheer force of will alone. However, he was well aware that that technique would not actually work. In spite of his many talents, he was not Psionic. Mostly, he was irate because he knew the perfect spell to get out of this. It would convert a large mass of terrain into lava, a battlefield technique especially useful in cavern fighting. His idea was to create a pool of the substance that the boulder would crash into and then sink.

The problem was that he had not memorized that spell for today, instead filling his mind with high-level necromancies, other offensive magic, and a variety of useful 'utility' spells.

So, instead, he turned and ran instead of wasting more magic, calling on the enchantments in his boots to speed his strides. As he ran, he went through several half-formulated ideas to destroy or escape the boulder. He assumed that it was warded against magic and made of a substance hard enough to resist more convential means of damage.

The next solution, while it presented the problem of separating him from the group, was almost ludicrously simple. As he ran, he took careful aim at the wall of the tunnel to his left, and fired a sizzling emerald ray. A ten-foot-deep hollow of stone was turned instantly to soft emerald dust, which fell away with a soft patter, allowing the spellcaster to duck into his makeshift refuge while the boulder passed.

[Bailey]

Syttulg saw the boulder coming, saw people fleeing, and scratched his head. He then carefully lay in the corner of the corridor, allowed the circular boulder to pass, and then stood up and brushed himself off. "I knew that watching FMA would help me out some day."


Syttulg glanced at the boulder and began running. Unfortunately, he wasn't very fast, and the boulder nearly caught up with him. As it came closer, he desperately commanded his nannites to carve a groove into the boulder. Twelve rotations of the boulder, a long trail of rock dust, and an empty battery later, Syttulg collapsed and the boulder passed over him, just missing turning him into paste.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros flew and snatched Skyshot by the back of his shirt with his other free hand. Then, with hawklike precision, Pyros swooped down and grabbed at Toastburner with his feet, and then flew back up.

"Thank you for flying Air Pyros, I must request that you refrain from smoking, drinking, or being hard to hold for the duration of the flight, and ask that you hold on as I attempt to fly at full speed down a tunnel that is barely large enough for me to manuever in with my wings."

Pyros looked back and noticed there was one Forumite still there, Flarecobra was attempting to "gum" up the boulder. Pyros was fairly sure it wouldn't work, but even if it did run her over, she'd be fine. And there were odds that she might get stuck to the boulder itself, and be along shortly to wherever it was this tunnel lead.

"Good luck then," Pyros called out to her, and flew through the tunnel at full speed, away from the boulder.

[Bailey]

Syttulg's weight shifted slightly, and he ended up tumbling down the corridor head-over-heels.

[Flarecobra]

I ended up splattering agenst the boulder, and as it rolled I tried to at least slow it down by trying to use friction between the ceiling and the boulder....but it had little effect. If anything, it made it more slick due to my slime. <Shit...> I thought to myself, since now it seemed I was stuck along for the ride as I recovered my wits.

[POS Industries]

"Forward shields down to 38%!"

Captain NexGen's fingers dug into the armrests of his chair, so much so that they may very well have started to bleed all over the apolstery. Of course, the former Gaian general probably wouldn't have noticed, given his current precarious position of Commanding Officer aboard a ship that, at this moment, was hurtling toward almost certain doom within the tail of a very nasty looking comet.

Pedro O'Sullivan, however, appeared less worried as he stood behind NexGen, arms still crossed in front of him as he stared straight ahead, only moving ever so slightly as the Riyal rocked and rolled and rumbled around him. The comet was his only concern, and he certainly didn't have the time or interest to meet NexGen's panicked glance as the ship's tactical officer called out their dwindling shield status. "This is getting annoying," POS growled, "Can we get some music in here? I'm thinking something grandiose and overdramatic for this.... Maybe Holst's 'Mars, The Bringer of War'? Yeah, crank that up."

A soft chime was heard as the ship's computer processed the request, followed a split-second later by the symphony on maximum volume. The ship buckled a good deal more, but now the tactical officer's reports about their imminent demise were very effectively drowned out.

NexGen, however, was not at all comforted by this.


***************

If boulders were sentient creatures (and science hasn't proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they aren't), the thoughts of the particular boulder that was barreling after the NPFers might have sounded something like this:

"Awwww yeeeahhhh, I'm comin' fer ya!! Yup, I'ma gonna git ya! GONNA GIT YA!!! Run all you like, you little squishie running things you, I'ma make you go squish! SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH!!!! Mmhmm.... SQUISHY!!"

Luckily for the boulder's intended victims, they could not hear these potentially fictionalized thoughts, as very few people in existance have ever mastered the ancient and mysterious art of boulder telepathy. Fortunately, they all got the general idea of its intent and ran like all kinds of hell. Perhaps if things had been allowed to continue down this vein, they might have run through the tunnel, into the haunted mansion, and up to the second floor hallway where a whole routine of the gang running in and out of various doors as the boulder chased after them would ensue. Suddenly though, Rhiya or somebody might come up with an idea to cut down the chandelier as the boulder rolled underneath, dropping it on top of the massive rock and trapping it.

"Let's see who the boulder really is," Dragonsbane would say as he pulled off the boulder's mask.

"Mr. McSchweitzenberg, the groundskeeeper?" everyone would exclaim in shock upon the revelation of boulder's secret identity.

"Yeah, and I would've gotten away with it, too," the boulder would grumble, "if it hadn't been for those meddling NPFers and their slimegirl."

And as everyone has a good laugh about a mystery well solved, Newb would shout out in triumph, "NEWBY-DOOBY-DOO!!!"

Of course, none of this was ever given a chance to happen as a bright flash of light filled the cave, coming from the small portal that opened between the portal and the group running from it. The shadow of a young woman could be seen briefly as the portal closed behind her, just before she raised her arms in the air and shouted, "DOOM CANNON!!!"

Another blinding flash of light filled the darkness of the cave, followed almost instanteously by a massive explosion. As the light faded, the girl finally came into full view as the dust and gravel of what used to be the boulder fell about her feet.

"Hey guys!" Rei called out, waving excitedly to all around before grabbing the nearest person in a bone crushing bearhug, "How have you been? I've missed you all so much!!"

The nearest person, it should be noted, was Mauve.

[Arhra]

After a careful consideration of all variables and their impact upon the current situation, Arhra had chosen to discard introspection about the logistics of whip distribution and the possibilities of boulder-related dispute resolution in favour of the following train of thought: RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN!

If she'd had the time to spare a thought for it, Arhra would have felt thankful her energy draining current form was quite physically capable and grew moreso with the passage of time. She was at the forefront of the elite ranks of people running for their lives. Then she heard it.

"DOOM CANNON!!!" A blinding light burst behind Arhra, casting her shadow dark and massive before her just as she heard a boom. Huh? That sounds like some kind of doom cannon. Arhra skidded, trying to stop her own momentum and was caught off balance by the concussive blast. Cursing her own feather weight, she was knocked head over heels. Rolling further down the tunnel before finally coming to a stop, Arhra lay dazed for a moment.

Collecting her wits, Arhra went back up to tunnel to find what all this boulder stopping was about. Finding it was Rei, Arhra decided the best option was that flying tackle-hug manveveur known inexplicably as a glomp.

The exchange went something like this.

"Rei!"

"Captain Arhra!"

"Oh, I'm not a captain right now."

Arhra had mysteriously ended up in command of Phoenix's battlecruiser, the Isparalian in the battle agaisnt Raiden. It remained a mystery to this day, especially to Phoenix who had been temporarily incapacitated. While Phoenix had swiftly recovered, she had been loaded into her mech and deployed while still unconscious by Arhra's orders.

Looking back at the remains of the boulder, Arhra suddenly became more businesslike, "Er, maybe we should get out of here. That boulder seems to think its some kind of killer robot from the future." The threat of the boulder was not removed it appeared. The broken rubble was flowing as if it wasn't made of solid rock, undulating back together. Other parts seems to be flowing towards the NPFers like lava, jagged, sharp edges at their ends.

Of course there were those people who, for one reason or another, were on the other side of the boulder. Discretion being the better part of valour, Arhra decided they could find their own way across as she went back down the tunnel at a brisk walk, feeling winded from all the running.

[mauve]

"HYURG!!" Mauve grunted as she became the victim of a run-by hugging. Oh lovely. She had been saved from being squished, only to be crushed.

"Hello Rei..." Mauve managed to gasp as she recognized the perky li'l voice. "Thanks for... the save... But could you... possibly... let me go?" She struggled for air. "Delicate ribcage, you know... This human skeleton and weak lungs of mine... will be the death of me."

[PyrosNine]

Pyros pried Mauve out of the strange non-life woman's arms. "I'm afraid you are hurting her, miss."

Pyros set mauve gently down elsewhere, and then looked at the task at hand. The boulder was alive.

"It certainly is very persistent for a boulder." Pyros drew his blade.