NPF Avatars IV, Chapter VI: Imprisoned with the Maniacs

[mauve]

Mauve was knocked to the ground from a combination of being shoved away by Flare and being on unsteady footing when the Capitalist hit the ground, sending out a ring of shockwaves as he impacted with the earth-- and Flare and Tarrin.

The vines and roots on the ground worked furiously to entagle her while she was down, but the mage refused to cooperate. She was no longer in the mood for an impressive show-offish display of magic. Now all she wanted to do was harm something. Badly. Being pushed around and knocked over so many times in one battle tended to have that effect on her.

The vines wrapped around her wrist and pulled, and Mauve pulled back as hard as she could. When the vines were sufficiently taut, she used her free hand to slash across them with her knife. Roots unearthed themselves and winched tight over the top of her foot, trying to trip her, but Mauve had had enough of falling on her butt for right now, and set the roots alight with a word.

She burned and slashed as she inched forwards, intent on doing something-- anything-- to cause the Capitalist some serious pain. She wasn't sure what, but she'd figure something out.

"Hey! Get off of them!" Mauve snarled to the Capitalist, struggling with a vine that was trying to throw her back like it had done to Skyshot. "Or I'll set your whole house on fire. Er... what's left of it, anyway."

[Arhra]

Unfortunately, Syttulg was in for an unfortunate surprise with his attack on Thod. It was like hitting a muscular rock. While Syttulg strained his newfound bulging biceps in an attempt to bring the hulking troll down, Thod seemed to be in the middle of deep comtemplation. This sudden change of events had momentarily bewildered him.

What passed for his brain registered the stinging sensation caused by the electrical discharge. He felt Syttulg trying to budge him. He looked at his fist, then at the treeman, then at his fist again. So very, very close to a break-through. With this conundrum before him, Thod wanted a fruit to mnch on while he 'thought' things over. That was the last piece falling into piece. A vague memory of rage at Syttulg stirred.

Thod gave another bellow of rage and pushed his superior size down on Syttulg, forcing him the ground. If Syttulg was strong, then Thod was strongerer. Syttulg had critically underestimated the gulf in strength that separated them. He might have eaten a few of the fruits, but a troll is naturally stronger and only The Capitalist knew how long Thod had been eating the wretched fruit for. Pinning Syttulg with one meaty hand, Thod raised a mighty fist to pulverise his foe.

Meanwhile, The Capitalist seemed quite happy to just sit there, crushing Flare and Tarrin to death. More than happy in fact - he was laughing. Such a merry sound hadn't been heard in quite some time.

Arhra was not laughing. In fact, she was beginning to wonder if the fruits would do anything when, of course, they did. However, she was dismayed to find it was not the effect she wanted. Her body thinned, limbs attenuating as muscle vanished. If given a mirror, she'd have sworn her head looked bigger, although that was probably just an optical illusion caused by the weakening of her body. She would also curse the fact of how much her waif-form made the unnatural bloating of her stomach more obvious. Blows to vanity aside, the pressure intensified as her weakened innards were less able to hold back the troll-fruit-thing's growth.

It all came together very fast, "Damn you Syttulg!" Arhra cried. "You and your accursed reversewood! A plague of poxes upon you!" While the general worsening of her physique was obvious, Arhra wasn't sure if the consumption of the magic saturated fruit had engendered increased intellectual development. She resolved to contemplate it at a later date.

Still, she told herself, all she needed to do was remove the piece of reverse wood from the tree and the problem would be solved. She'd just have to eat more of the fruit to overcome how she'd gone the wrong way. She gingerly walked over and began trying to tug the sliver of wood out of the tree. The fact she'd normally have ease doing so didn't help her temper.

Bracing herself against the tree with a foot, she yanked it free, tumbling back with the sliver loosely gripped in one hand. Unfortunately, a troll had broken off from the general melee and decided she'd be easy pickings. The next thing Arhra knew, a club caught her off balance from behind. She fell in a collapsed tangle of limbs and felt a sudden jab in her arm. Glancing and seeing the reversewood jabbed in her am, she didn't even have time to groan before it took effect.

Oddly, it did not alter her essential chaotic nature. She was far too deeply tied to Chaos for a reversal to hated Law to be possible. However, her current incarnation drained energy and this inverison meant several bad things for her.

She suddenly was glowing, an white aura that bleached everything about her of colour save for her eyes, as she released energy, force-feeding it into her surroundings. Arhra struggled to clamber to her feet, the brush catching at her as it surged with growth. She tried to tear the reversewood off her, but it too was coming alive, wooden sliver sprouting and curling about her arm like a vine. Her clawing at it was useless - tear off one coiled root and another two were creeping back in its place.

The troll charged her and suddenly reeled as it neared her. The sudden pulse of energy sent it stumbling back, momentarily stunned but it looked healthier, filled with vitality.

Arhra was trying to consider the merits of fighting enemies that got stronger by being near her as opposed to running for it when she heard a tear. Looking down at the source, her stomach was peeking out from a rip in the bottom of her top. It was swelling with sudden speed - she could see it bloating out before her eyes. Cursing herself on having picked out a tight shirt today to distract her from full on panic, Arhra tore at the plants surging upwards and weaving around her, basking in the vitality she radiated. She was getting caged in.

[Bailey]

As Syttulg was forced to the ground, he snarled. He folded his legs in to bring his knees to his chest and kicked out to throw the troll into the air.

You see, this was the thing about a wrestling match between two beasts each capable of lifting at least five times the weight of the other. A pin was very difficult to maintain.

Syttulg stared up at Thog as gravity brought him careening back down towards the treeman in a screaming rage and rolled to the side to avoid being smashed to bits.

[Flarecobra]

I, meanwhile, coated the front of The. I was still alive, though in my position, I was NOT in the best of moods. As The Capitolist laughed, I had the craziest of ideas. As I was able, I tried to crawl out from under him, slowly reforming on his back. All this took about ten agonizing minutes, but then I had sufficent mass to try my plan. "Ok Fatso, EAT THIS!" I screamed out, shooting into The Capitolist's mouth.

[POS Industries]

"...and it kinda smelled like bacon."

Jimmy the Intern listened quietly as the disembodied voice of Rei concluded her explanation about just how she could have suddenly found herself so magicially deaf. Nodding slowly, Jimmy began to consider the issue.

"Okay, magic baconfruit. Right," he breathed, running through as many possible solutions he could think of, "Is there anyone else there that can use magic? Like a dispel, um, spell or something?"

"Ummm," Rei replied somewhat nervously, "I think there's maybe a couple people that have spells like that, but they're all a bit busy trying to not die."

The intern sighed. "Ah, well.... Wait. So, this magic, it's the sort of thing you might find in, like, a role-playing game, right?"

Rei considered this, the idea that perhaps all of this was just some game played out in the imaginations of a gaggle of lonely internet hermits, starved for any sort of interaction with the outside world. That she herself was merely a fictional character in a fictional world and, worse, what if all her actions were controlled by some sick, twisted male player? Lord only knows what a pervert like that might do with her rather well-designed frame. The disgusting possibilities flooded her mind, worsened by the concept that everyone she knows and everywhere she's been isn't real, that everyone is just a bunch of puppet for the deranged amusment of--

--Deciding that now was better spent working on a plan to alleviate her current deafness, Rei placed the current train of thought into a sub-directory marked "Philosphy" for later consideration.

"So, role playing game, huh?" she asked Jimmy with marked curiosity, "Please, continue."

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

As the android's fist collided with the earth, Rei kept her gaze locked on Bruticus as he attempted to deliver a knee to her head. Her right hand buried in the ground, she immediately moved to block the goon's attack with her left while exapanding her gravity field to envelope Bruticus as well.

The ground around them began to crumble under their combined weight as Rei, legs still in the air from her last attack, sent a spin kick of her own aimed directly for her opponent's head.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Previously on NPF...

Originally Posted by Me

The troll fell and collapsed into his comrade, knocking them both to the ground with enough force to shake the ground. But Hawk was already flying away, ready to begin the next phase of his plan...

Hawk flew back torwards the forest and into the treeline, just as a few of those flying pink elephants past him by, going in the opposite direction.

"Wierd..."

No time to think about that now though... the forest was trying to kill him! As he past the first few trees, branches whipped out at him and Hawk was forced to dodge and weave his way through. They attacked from all sides and because he was busy trying to avoid the blows, he overshot his target, which was a tree to his left.

"Damn it!!" No worries, he would just have to circle around and approach from the other direction. But he had to keep moving, these branches were vicious. He just hoped he had the time...

He continued on before wheeling around, still dodging swipes from the trees, as he returned back to his target. One branch got a lucky blow, drawing blood from Hawk's forehead, but it was only minor. As he appraoched the tree he rose higher until he could see over the top of the tree and back towards the battlefield (not to mention, out of the way of those branches). Directly ahead of him were his foes. The two trolls he had tripped just moments ago were now facing each other, having decided to turn on each other after one had knocked the other to the ground. Yes, they were that stupid!

The closest troll had his back to Hawk, his "friend" facing towards him. They appeared to be having a bit of a shoving match to show their annoyance and Hawk knew he had to work quickly, before it became an out-right fight and he lost his opportunity. Looking down at the base of the tree in front of him, Hawk began directing a Gale of wind towards it. He drew in the wind from all around and began channeling it in the same direction. His opponents were now locked in a wrestling match, each trying to knock the other over. The Gale grew quickly and soon the tree began to bend. Wood splintered and weak branches and leaves were blown from it as the Gale grew in strength.

*CRACK*

The tree was getting close to breaking point now. The trolls were getting more aggressive now. Strangely (and fortunately, for this plan to work) they were still standing in their same positions. They hadn't even moved!

*CRACKCRACK*

The tree was nerly over. The Gale was monstrously powerful now. The trolls were still scuffling, locked together and un-movable.

*CRACK!!!*

The tree snapped! It was immediately whipped into the air by the Gale, heading straight for the trolls, as it tumbled over and over before...

*SQWELCH!*

It peirced the first troll in the back, traveled through and out of his chest, before finally impaling the second. Now both trolls had a fairly hefty tree impaling them both and pinning them together. For a moment nothing happened. Both trolls stopped their fight and took a few seconds to register what had happened. Then they both roared out in fury and pain and began to try and push the tree out of themselves. Unfortunately for them both, their stupidity didn't allow them to realise that they were both pushing in opposite directions and hence, got absolutely nowhere. It almost looked like a huge saw, as one of them would push one way, only for the other to push it back straight away! Consequently this was not good for the innards of both creatures, even with rapid healing. Blood poored out with every push, along with bits of mashed and ground-up insides. Now, losing most of ones own blood is most definately NOT a good thing and soon both creatures collapsed out of exshaustion.

Hawk flew over (feeling slightly drained) and looked down at them, admiring his "work". He wasn't sure if the were entirely dead yet. The tree would inhibit healing for a while and they would need to produce more blood and re-make their insides but they would be back eventually. This, was where his plan ultimately failed! He sent a psychic message to the group at-large:

"So... anybody got any bright ideas on how we can actually kill these things?!"

[Tarrin]

Tarrin was knocked out, Well it was dark, warm, stuffy and smelly like being knocked out...Wait a sec smelly?

No Tarrin was still awake however the emence bulk of the capatalist was crushing the air from even his form, Tarrin struggled for breath as what oxygen that was trapped under the behemoth started to run out.

His mind racing as panic set in Tarrin searched his memory for something anything he could use to get out of this predicament.

[Inbred Chocobo]

IC looked at the scene. "I take a coffee break, and you people do all this while I am away?" IC said to whoever was in range. In truth, IC really wasn't sure who was in range, so many people were fighting so many things. He decided the fat lube of tard known as the Capitalist would be best to go for.

The forest seemed to not like him as he walked through. A branch or two tried to hit him in the face, and quite a few roots tried to trip him up. Though either by ripping whatever came at him, or by ducking or stepping over it, he went through unscaved. He had an evil bunny with glowing eyes come at him, but he just punted it for a field goal, and had won the team the game from that 90 yard kick.

It didn't matter anyway, he stood next to the fat man. He looked at it, trying to figure out how best to hurt him. He couldn't think of anything else besides squashing him, so that means he would have to take it back into the mansion, then just collapse that on him. Sounded good enough, so IC grabbed a handful of fat, and made to drag the fat capitalist out of the woods.

[Arhra]

"Ok Fatso, EAT THIS!" Flare cried definately, hurling herself at The Capitalists mouth. And he did. An interesting, glutinous, slightly rubbery texture that reminded him of jelly and, indeed, so did the taste. On the Eatable NPFers scale he'd rate Flare a 7 out of 10. She'd go well with ice cream.

Of course, this comtemplation was interrupted as Inbred tried to grab The Capitalist and drag him off. He rolled, moving to flatten and engulf Inbred beneaht his green bulk while keeping Tarrin pinned. A number of brnaches jabbed into him as he moved, curiously late in their exciting chase of Steel. Elicting a grunt of pain from him, it wasn't enough to stop him.

As Thod slammed down, Syttulg rolled to the side, avoiding being smashed from the massive impact. But, testament to Thod's absurd strength, he created a crater on his landing, sneding out a shockwave of rippled earth that caught Syttulg, tumbling him along the ground. Thod evidentally decided that this was fun. With a smile plastered on his juice smeared mouth, he jumped again, looking to land with both heavy feet on Syttulg and crush him into a bloody smear.

In the battle of the corporate enforcers, things were looking tense. Bruticus staggered as the gravity field expanded to include him and Rei, one hand the only part of her in contact with the ground spun her legs around to kick his head. But the blinded bodyguard was already responding to her block of his knee. Both feet back on the ground, he let his upper body go limp, letting his knees buckle too, falling backwards and below the level of the kick. after his torso was almost horizontal, he kicked off slightly, bringing legs off the ground. Elbows landed heavily on the ground and then Bruticus snapped forwards with a whiplash motion, supported on his forearms his entire body put behind a double footed kick at Rei's torso.

Arhra was holding her own for the moment by balacing explosion with implosion. While her stomach bulged more by the second, she'd allowed vines to coil around her waist, constricting her. This leafy corset was slowing things down but it did seem to be opening the distinct possibility of suffocation.

Trying to fight off vines that crushed her lungs or tried to cocoon her with increasing shortness of breath, Arhra decided magic was the best option. While relatively weak for her at present, it could be versatile at least. Going back to her original plan she started to pull together mana and then spoke, "Strengt-" She cut her words short. It was quite possible that her chaos magic would enhance the energy release which would only make things worse. With the gathered magic clammering to be released, Arhra sought a different word to shape it, wishing she had a thesaurus on her.

"Thrive." she gasped out, focusing the spell on herself. A tiny, puny thread of green energy whispered out of her mouth. Arhra's heart sank. There was something she had not accounted for though. It suddenly began to erupt into thick tendrils that threaded back into her with a tingling sensation as her aura fed power into it. Arhra's heart rose a little. Her plans were so great that things she hadn't even thought of were included. She could feel the spell working its fibers into her, fortifying flesh and bone. But, the tingling sensation continued to strengthen, building to maddening levels. Arhra's heart sank again.

OOC: Probably not the best I've written, but should keep things moving. I'm not sur ehow I missed Steel's attack before. I do like Bruticus's move though. I doubt its physically possible, but it does look good.

[Bailey]

Syttulg managed to get one knee up in front of himself and used this leverage to leap forwards into a tree before Thog landed.

He then used two trees like tweezers and picked up some stinging nettles, which he promptly threw at Thog.