NPF Avatars: with hardcore finger pointing action!

[Arhra]

"Er... sorry." was Arhra' contrite reply to Mauve. "I overreacted. It is unpleasant to suddenly find oneself undressed and have one's clothes dissappear." Strangely, she hadn't changed into the dress that had formerly belonged to Newb. Perhaps it wasn't that strange - it stunk of dog. She loitered in her underwear as Mauve got changed.

Arhra also vanished for a moments to put on her clothes once Mauve returned and handed over the fuku. She returned, a slight smile on her face, and then looked at Mauve curiously, "Why are you wearing a blue thief outfit?" she asked.

[Dragonsbane]

Dragonsbane’s black eyes narrowed, reading the patterns of magic and energy weaving their way around the cards. He altered his own, channeling his Essence into a supernaturally powerful method of avoidance.

His physical form vanished, transparent afterimages leaping away in seven different directions as a side effect of the way he folded space to avoid the attack, then recoalescing into a single self.

The cards struck a gaggle of Flamers, and exploded. Although the heat from the blast did not affect the lesser Gaians, the shockwave tore them apart and ruffled Dragonsbane’s hair.

“My apologies, am I expected to fight with rejected villains from old Batman cartoons, gothed up like the whore-children of the latest generation, and attacking me with techniques that were old before the birth of the first deity to toss a playing card as a weapon?” the Archmage replied calmly, sheathing his sword.

“On the other hand, it IS an ancient and well-honed fighting style…and from the look of those cards-“ he referred to the blunt edges and the energy coalescing around them “-you seem to have mastered the true form of this particular style. How interesting...”

“Certainly not original, it is a Martial Art style of a sort I have seen before, but it is a rare one, and few have attained such mastery of it. Nonetheless, it is only a lone style of fighting. Come…show me your skills.” A palpable aura of tension filled the air, the same sort of tension present when one first begins to realize that the ground they are standing on has hair, and that those mountains in the distance look an awful lot like teeth. The same aura of tension that filled the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon when Obi-Wan Kenobi told Han Solo that it wasn't a moon he was flying towards. It was a sensation Sasuke from Naruto was intimately familiar with...and no, not the homosexual urges. It was a sensation that instinctively warned against movement, against attracting attention, a sensation of immiment death.

[mauve]

She returned, a slight smile on her face, and then looked at Mauve curiously, "Why are you wearing a blue thief outfit?" she asked.

"Aside from the fact that it makes me look sexy? Oh dear, did I say that out loud?" The ex-mage grinned. "Actually, whatever it was that made you start to change size randomly and turned Yuri into a hobo - and don't ask me why I know that, it's a plot device, okay? - turned me into a thief instead of a mage." Mauve looked down at herself. "Did a pretty good job, too. Gets me into some trouble, though. I'd probably pick your pockets, if you were wearing any."

Suddenly, Mauve remembered the reason why she had started this whole business in the first place. Ecurt's portal device.

"Oh yeah, before I forget: Somebody called while you were... um... out. She wants us to use the portal device thingamabob that Ecurt gave you." Mauve held it up. "Um, I already stole it from you. Sorry 'bout that."

She picked up the odd severed ear.

"Hello?" she called into it. "Ahrha's back. You still wanna use the portal device? Tell us what to do with it."

[PhoenixFlame]

"Yeah sure, whatever, Pedro..." Phoenix said as she began working on Rei's new shell. It was fun, fast, and furious work, as the Technomage popped the various modular bits together, quickly forming what looked like herself.

"Oh yay! I'm going to be a real girl!" Rei chirped happily as Phoenix worked. She reminded her of Pinnochio, but Phoenix shrugged off the thought.

Phoenix kept working, her technological passion and conviction driving her spanner until finally, the work was complete. Allowing Rei to download herself into the shell, Phoenix popped the table up, and looked at Rei as she opened her eyes.

"Oh, this is great, Phoenix!" Rei grinned, leaping off the table and hugging her.

Phoenix stared blankly.

"Er, Phoenix?" Rei asked, poking her head.

"..."

"Um... Thisss is awkwarrrd!" Rei whistled, looking around. "I think I broke her..."

"... Who am I? What's going on? What am I? What's happening!" Phoenix stammered, turning around and running outside the robotics lab door and out into the mech lab, toward a post...

*CLANG!*

*Whack*

And fell unconcious to the ground. A medical droid zoomed by on it's wheeled with a forklift-arm and scooped up the fallen technomage, wheeling her off to the Medlab.

[POS Industries]

Fenris awoke to find that reality had managed to fall back into place once more around him. Looking around the room in a panic, he looked up (as much as he could look up with his head in a restraint) to find one of the medical droids standing over him, tending to the wires that were plugged into the back of the hobo's head.

"Wha.... what's going on? What happened with the explosion and the voice and... and......"

"Do not be alarmed, Mr. Hobo," the droid responded politely, "There was a malfunction in your neural input systems that resulted in some hallucination on your part. The problem has been adressed and we thank you for your patience in this matter."

"Oh, okay.... who are you?" Fenris asked the automaton, taking everything in as best he could. He investigated his surroundings further, eyes finally settling upon a massive humanoid robot, fearsome looking in its design, heavily armored, spikes protruding from every place possible and, curiously enough, holding a large hammer in its right hand and what appeared to be a bindle in the left. The machine seemed to call to him, almost as if they belonged as one.

"My designation is Rodimus Prime," said the worker droid as he finished his work on Fenris' brainstem, "and I see you have noticed the newly completed RoboHobo XL-3500, which your recent enhancements will allow you to pilot. Soon, you will be transcending the limited capability of flesh and rising to become that which is the machine. You should be honored. One final adjustment and.... There."

In an instant, Fenris' view changed drastically. For one, he no longer found himself in the restraints nor was his head tethered to the table with wires and was overlooking the whole robotics lab from on high. For another, he was looking down at himself laying bound to said table.

"Wait... what just happened?" the RoboHobo exclaimed, "If I'm over here, who the hell is that over there?!"

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

"Done!"

Pedro sat up proudly and admired his work. With Raven's assistance, he had managed to access a very convenient power relay and had hooked the bizarre cybernetically altered magic wand to it, where it now laid charging like a battery. With that and the now-complete RoboHobo, both his major plans for battling Raiden would be ready for action shortly. Now was the time to get moving.

Pressing a button on the nearby wall, POS activated the ship's intercom system. "O'Sullivan to Mech Lab 1. Phoenix, are you there? I think it's about time to get going."

"Pe-chan?" a voice responded, and not quite the one he was expecting.

"Rei, what is it?" he asked. "Where's Phoenix?"

"Umm, I dunno.... well, here, of course, but... not. I don't think she's okay." Rei sounded frightened, which was an odd thing for Pedro to hear. Well, perhaps not frightened so much, but certainly concerned. Either way, this couldn't be good.

"What do you mean 'not okay'?"

"She appears to be unconscious. She finished building my new body, I connected my program to it, and then she began acting strangely and passed out. Is this normal?" Rei was having to deal with a lot at once, it seemed. Just seconds into test-driving her new body and already she was having to deal with a crisis.

"Crap. Double crap. Triple crap on a nickel!! Look, just take her to sickbay. Hopefully, this place can operate without her having to give every order.... O'Sulliven out." POS turned off the intercom and simply addressed the ether, "Raven?"

"What is it now?" Raven responded from nowhere in particular, "Problem with your new toy?"

"No no, it's fine," he responded, getting down to business, "Phoenix seems to have become... incapacitated. I don't know what the deal is, exactly, but we have important matters to which we must attend and quickly. Can the ship take action without her directly ordering?"

"Yes and no," the AI pondered, "Under normal circumstances, only basic maintenance functions would be available. However, you have been given authorization to use whatever resources the Isparalian has to offer as becomes necessary. It could be inferred that this includes control of the ship itself..."

"Good," Pedro grinned, "Just what I wanted to hear. Locate our 'friends' and set a course for their location. If Phoenix doesn't like it whenever she wakes up, we can just blame that Pyros guy!" Turning back to the intercom panel, POS once again pressed down the button to activate it. "All hands, this is your acting Captain speaking. We will be getting underway to our destination shortly. Please make sure to fasten your seatbelts and keep all seat backs and tray tables in their upright and locked positions. Thank you for flying with POS Industries Airways, and we hope you enjoy your flight to beat the everloving piss out of Raiden!"

And so they were off!

[Truce]

"Ahrha's back. You still wanna use the portal device? Tell us what to do with it."

Esheth thought it over for a moment, and then smiled. "Plug the tail into the computer system, and then take the bow on the front of the fuku into and have the cord from the original portal device tied around it. Then, turn it on, turn the left dial to the right once, press the red start button, then the green start button, and then scratch the ears on Arhra.

"From there, wherever the computer has set a course for a portal should immediately open up in front of the ship which should pop you out right on top of your target. Just...make sure it's not going to land on any of us, okay?"

[Krylo]

Haeru paid no heed to the others fighting their battles--DB being stopped by some sort of idiot jester, and Mesden battling Fidem. It was all a waste of time.

Those two were pawns. They weren't important, just distractions to slow down the NPF, and Haeru had never--even when she had stlil been a man--cared to let people control her.

While the others fought, she walked through the, literally, war-torn battle-field toward the temple.

[POS Industries]

Pedro arrived on the Isparalian's bridge, moving briskly toward the ceremonial captain's chair, but opted to remain standing. Gave more of a presense of authority to remain standing during times of crisis like this. "Report!"

"Captain O'Sullivan," the android form Raven spoke up, "We are currently entering the planet's atmosphere."

"Good," POS nodded curtly in approval, "Raise shields and move in the direction of the highest amount of ground-based energy disturbances. That many gods, mages, androids, interdimensional portals, and all whatever else is surely going on down there has to be noticable even from up here." As the PhoenixCorp mobile headquarters veered into the atmosphere, white hot flames surrounded the vessel, as was standard for such a maneuver. The ship rocked as the planet resisted its entry, but it was prom night and there was no stopping now.

Suddenly, the bridge was flooded with the jarring sound of alarm klaxons. Raven was the first to address the issue, "Sir! Sensors are reporting a large energy disturbance directly in front of the ship! No way to evade it!"

Pedro looked up at the main viewscreen to see what appeared to be a gigantic portal opening through the flames and static interference. Wherever it went, it surely couldn't be good. "Sweet jumping jeebus on a saint bernard...."

It seems the planet was a bit more ready to go than anyone expected!

[GARUD]

Garud, now with a full set of airbags, decided that she would just look around a little. She was out of battle, saving her energy for Raiden.

"Hmm... I wonder if there is a comb around. My hair is starting to get into a mess..."

She took out her staff and started hitting any Gaian corpses that she came across. It didn't take long for her to catch up to the others. Apparently, everybody seemed to be in a huge fight with the moderators of Gaia.

"Meh, I'm just gonna wait till they finish before I move on through."

[mauve]

"Well, that's very nice, isn't it?" Mauve commented, staring out the window at the giant portal. She lifted the ear again. "Portal engaged. We're on our way."

She looked up at the monitors on the computer behind her, showing Fenris/RoboHobo and RoboRei doing whatever it was giant battle robots did when they weren't destroying Tokyo or saving the galaxy.

"And we're bringing some friends."