Avatar RP VIII: Chapter VII: Timing

[Bard The 5th LW]

Geist formed an ear quickly to allow Overcast the chance to whisper his message. "Bet the corpse has some," he said, referring to Bard, "I'll check."

Unfortunately, when the Cloud of Something turned to go loot his Summoner's corpse, he found that it was gone! "GODDAMN VULTURES!" he shouted, shaking a hand towards the sky.

"Well the fury pills are gone," he said to Overcast. "We don't have the magic steroids, but I can stay though and take this psycho," he said pointing at Ahrha II. "I'll have you know I survived Australia!"

----

Bard's tale to come! (as in, be edited)

[Astral Harmony]

"Hey, don't pawn your fans off on me!" Armored Bishoujo shouted towards the miniature plume of smoke that Pyros had somehow escaped with, and then Armored had to deal with a foe she had never dealt with before.

Unfortunately, she didn't have any kind of GTFO powers so she had to tolerate the fan. Oh well, as long as it didn't get in the way. Armored was fairly certain that the fan would be as impossible to get rid of as Arhra II. "Note to self: stay away from Avatar RPs. I haven't had an ounce of fun since I got here."

She stopped suddenly when Devils Never Cry began to play. As though by the power of magic, several hand sized balloons blew up in seconds to become exact clones of Armored's sexy form.

And those weren't here only enemies. There were these strange skeleton creatures. It was like two upper torsos of skeletons connected to each other at the base of their spines. Armored drew her sword and magnum. "Gotta concerve my real power in case I end up needing it later."

She popped one of the Inflatable Clones with a quick fire of her gun. "First blood, bitches," Armored said, then siderolled out of the way before a Jack of Skeleton could pummel her. "They're fast," Armored was surprised at their speed despite their appearance.

The Inflatable Clones weren't bad, either. Despite the fact that they weren't on par with the Replikind, one of Armored's greatest foes from the past, it took a good and accurate prick to put them down. With so many foes, Armored spent more of the battle dodging and weaving through attacks than actually attacking, and her body was paying for it. She had taken a few cuts from the battle. Nothing serious, but they were going take her apart piece by piece at this rate.

[Arhra]

"You don't have to die." Overcast said. "I don't want to kill you. But no one is better suited for the job than I am, and I will if I have to. So, last chance, will you help me? Or is this going to have to happen?"

"I was dead from the start." Arhra II told him unhelpfully. She twitched her injured primary wings experimentally. They steamed still, the white arrows embedded in them from Teal's spell slowly working their way out.

"We don't have the magic steroids, but I can stay though and take this psycho," Geist said pointing at Ahrha II. "I'll have you know I survived Australia!"

"I'm from Australia." he was informed by the grinning psycho.

"Anyways, think of it like this;" Shyria said, "you can have a lot more fun bouncing around an intact universe doing everything from backstabbing your friends to kitten watching than you would being all non-existy and stuff. It's in your best interests to help us. Besides, do you really want to go through your non-existence saying you got your ass kicked by a Lovecraftian cereal box?"

"Bored now." The grin was gone. The wings she'd been dragging behind her lifted suddenly, Teal's arrows popping out of them and dissolving into white light. Primary wings operational again, she jabbed razor-sharp pinions into the ground to brace herself and reshaped one wing to suddenyl stab out like a massive lance.

It was time to play pin the box-man to the dragon.

* * *

The space beneath the Kurosen tower had its own share of problems.

"Nyahahahahahahaha!"

The cry came from dozens of bony throats. And half that number of enemies. Down the corridor came a phalanx of Jacks of Skeletons, lined up to make a solid wall of skeletal aggression. Two top halves of a skeleton fused together at the waist and stuck to a giant playing card. They hopped forward on the card edge in lockstep, filling the passage.

All of a sudden, they turned side on. Spindly little stick-figure shapes ran through their opened ranks, the fuses on their bulbous bomb-heads burning.

It was a secret attack!

-----

"Haven't you grown tired of your static situation?" the black clad inflatable clone asked Arhra I. It stared with wide eyed innocence at what it held in its hands.

Where on earth had a balloon gotten that knife?

"If you won't fight, you're weak." the clone told Arhra I and leapt forward.

Arhra's rebuttal was her invincible shield, the wall of concentric hexagons of light radiating from the point of impact.

"Violence is not the answer." she said.

"I can expand my own barrier to neutralise yours." her clone said, pressing against it.

"We must cherish peace and love!" the faux white mage wailed.

The clone broke through and lunged with her knife.

-----

Arhra I was on her knees, looking in horror at the tatters of a popped balloon in fron of her.

"I... I didn't meant to." she said, dropping the knife as if it was red hot.

-----

The horrors of the Tower burned into their soul, the NPFer exploration team found a place that looked oddly familiar.

The corridor opened up into a cavernous space. This ancient, industrial chamber had a warped scar floating in midair, a partially healed tear in space left behind by a botched teleport spell. There was a large and unpleasant looking dark stain on the ground beneath it.

Double doors were ahead, flanked on either side by large pools of what looked like oil. It had been forced in, one half hanging off its hinges.

3:00

"Time... it does not stop."

A ragged figure slipped out of the darkness beyond the doors like a fallen leaf blown in a storm. White and black and red, clothes torn and hair loose. Moving as if she was dragged forward by an unseen force, the sorceress was surrounded by her own colourless ghosts and a rippling miasma like a heat mirage. The ghostly images lagged behind her in stilted, off center echoes of her actions.

One wing was missing, Fury energy spurting from where it should be. The other one was partially curled around her torso where she had been wounded. The front of her black dress was red. Her eyes were almost shut, thin slivers of furious light from the massive dose of Fury pills she had taken.

"Even though it slips away, don't you think you should be punished for your crimes?"

[Bard The 5th LW]

"Well good luck," Geist said as he flew off. Fuck this, he fought Kangaroos and they were bad enough, but not a freaking sorceress. He quit. He heard this town had good pizza, and he resolved to go find a pizzeria.

---

"Hey, Bard, I've lost track. Are you ok yet? I can totally try fixing you again if you like!"


"NO! NO! FUCK YOU!" Bard shouted, "FUCK YOU AND THE TEMPORALLY DISPLACED HORSE YOU RODE IN ON!"

The summoner had suffered more than his fair share of pain via time travel. It would be a long time before he put any faith in the majyks of causality again. Like, a full 12 minutes at the least.

Bard kept his distance as the fanboy pestered Pyros and AB. He doubted he had any fans, but it was awlays good to be cautious. You never know when a fan is waiting around the corner...

In fact, right around the corner was a fangirl of Bard, but it was not the corner he turned. Thus he avoided a squee. If Teal Mage was around, then it would have been a squeal ten-fold as well. They were clearly the OTP, if you didn't count Pyros and Ahrha II.

---

Bard stared as Ahrha I fell to the ground in tears. He managed to ABSCOND from most of his foes, because he was just the best there was at absconding. She had to stay and fight though. "You did what you had t- wow that's a nice knife! You wouldn't mind if I hold onto it right? Yeah I think I will."

During the battle in which he had died, Bard misplaced his ritual knife. This seemed like a good replacement though. He would have to redraw some of those circles again to make it work right, but it would be OK. He sort of forgot about Ahrha as he was caught up in examining the blade.

---

Using his very low level spells of darkness and multiple meat shields, the Summoner managed to make it through the pain and terrors of the tower with very few injuries. He had briefly engaged in combat with his inflatable clone, but they both elected to run because Bard lacked his summoning Knife and inflataBard couldn't cut himself without the chance of dieing.

Now it seemed there was another enemy. He was not entirely sure about this one. "Yeah you guys just go ahead and do that," he said as he stepped back, "just give me a moment to calibrate this knife and I'll join you in a moment."

[Teal Mage]

Using her vast powers of persuasion, Rose convinced an elite sect of the NPF's vaulted Army of the Apocalypse to accompany her on what would surely be a wonderful journey to the center of Kurosen Tower. With Fire God, Cultist Summoner, Temporal Knight, Space-Traveling Cosplayer and Pacifist Psuedo White Mage in tow, the vermillion haired Mage bravely began her descent into the very bowels of the Forums!

The trip’s beginning was marked with the professionalism she had quickly begun to associate with the NPF.

"Hey, Bard, I've lost track." Steel began, typically orange accent now dripping red with Fury, "Are you ok yet? I can totally try fixing you again if you like!"

"NO! NO! FUCK YOU!" Bard shouted, rounding on the time traveler with a fury all his own, "FUCK YOU AND THE TEMPORALLY DISPLACED HORSE YOU RODE IN ON!"

Was the Fury contagious, perhaps?

"Steel, stop offering to fix things." Rose stated, glancing back toward the Time Knight, "None of this would have happened if you'd just let us deal with our problems without using Time Travel - that never works! Ever!"

The last time they'd used Time Travel to solve a problem, they'd been attacked by POS.

"Besides, we have Arhra." The mage smiled back toward the group's psuedo white mage, "So long as she's here, nothing can go wrong!"

Rose nodded resolutely, confidence in Arhra's infallible shield of infinite energy love unassailable.

* * * * *

"Ah! Eagles!" Rose cried as a swarm of the dastardly avians appeared from around one the next corner. Throwing herself into a forward roll, the azure clad magician narrowly avoided the bird's devastating first strike!

"You will not ruin my hair again!" Rose shouted, springing to her feet, eyes ablaze with turquoise light. Aquamarine flames flared into a marry blaze over her left hand, "Magic Fire!"

There were no survivors.

* * * * *

Long red-orange hair blowing dramatically in the wind generated by a large fan, twin Roses stood across from one another, each taking a traditional martial arts stance. Burns from magical lightning, moss born of magical fire and shreds of clothing from failed fashion attacks covered the stone hallway around the two; their battle had truly been fierce.

"Your magic is strong, Evil Rose-San." Rose murmured, wrapped tightly in an azure colored kimono. In her right hand, she held her gold and black Dragon Dagger, and over her left, magical aquamarine fire raged, eager to be unleashed on her evil balloon clone.

Garbed in a black, and slightly gothic, version of Rose's own kimono, Evil Rose grinned darkly at her less-evil counter part. "Then there is only one choice." She whispered, clutching her own white and silver dragon dagger in her left hand, while a vivid pink pyre roared over her right. "We must decide this contest with a single spell."

"Sounds good." Rose replied coolly, shifting her stance so her dagger was beside her face.

A pair of jet black wings burst free of Evil Rose's back. "Throw wide the gates of heaven and unleash the tides of the Creator's breath upon the land." Glittering sparks of black, pink and orange energy began to collect around the evil balloon's hands as she raised them above her head, shutting her eyes in concentration, "Turbulent skies tremble and raging seas surge. In the name of the-"

"Oh my Goddess, its the Kukla!" Rose cried, a horrified expression on her face.

"Hah! I know that trick, it won't work-"

A metallic foot, vaguely draconian in shape - and clad in what appeared to be an armored stiletto - fell on the evil balloon with a finality filled thump.

"I lied~!" Rose declared gleefully, a thoroughly pleased expression on her face. In her right hand, her dragon dagger glinted brightly, as the Dragonzord's foot slowly lifted itself through the swirling vortex-portal in the tunnel's ceiling.

Another challenge overcome!

* * * * *

Once again clad in her azure dress, which was strangely spotless despite all the terrible battles they had fought within the Tower, Rose and Co. arrived in a suspiciously large, and old, room.

"This place could stand some redecorating." Rose murmured, teal eyes darting around the spacious industrial area they found themselves in. She approached the scar hanging in the air, regarding it critically for a moment, before turning her gaze toward the mysterious stain beneath it. "And bleach." She added, glancing toward the oil filled-wells beside the damaged double doors. "buckets of bleach."

Large digital letters appeared high above the chamber's floor, reading "3:00." The font, Rose noted, was suspiciously red. Did that mean the Fury was behind the countdown as well?

"Time... it does not stop." A voice from beyond the damaged doors murmured.

The figure that emerged from beyond the double doors made Rose's blue-green eyes go wide.

"Even though it slips away," The figure murmured, approaching the group with drunken and halting steps, "don't you think you should be punished for your crimes?" Disorienting ghostly after-imagines surrounded the woman's form, making it difficult to stare directly at her.

"Ahah!" Rose cried, snapping an arm forward to point at the newcomer in triumph. "I knew the Arhra II outside was too stupid to be real!" She swept her arm out to the side, as if to dispel the very notion, "Your plan is foiled Sorceress!" Rose drew her dragon dagger in a flourish of black steel. "Now that we've pierced to the heart of your army of monsters, there is only us and you! This battle is all but decided!"

A few moments passed, as she processed her own words. Color slowly drained from her face, as a full appreciation of the situation dawned on her.

When Arhra was concerned, such moments of clarity were never good.

Voice flat and devoid of emotion, Rose began to speak slowly.

"...we're with the inexplicably murderous," the mage began, recapping the situation aloud, "Fury empowered, Arhra II in deepest part of Kurosen Tower." The mage fell back a handful of paces in retreat, "With an army of monsters between us and the nearest exit." She gulped, looking toward the others, "And she's coming right for us." Rose smiled tightly.

"Arhra I!" Rose was suddenly behind the pseudo white mage, "Now is the time to prove the trueness of your heart! Use your invincible shield of love to protect us from Arhra II's inexplicable wrath!" The vermilion haired mage's hands were planted on the glowing girl's white clad shoulders, as she tried to - gently – encourage I to place herself between Arhra II and the rest of the group.

It was their only chance!

[Overcast]

Overcast sighed as he watched Geist go, it was fine the guy was just a summon. Plot said that if anyone was going to die almost immediately it was him. Because he didn't really matter that much. He let him leave, he could handle this with Shyria alone.

The wing lance wasn't difficult to get out of the way of, Arhra II had pretty much telegraphed her attack in both speech and in that planting of her wings behind her. The attack was powerful sure, but she would have to act a bit less like a videogame boss if she was going to kill him. He didn't even have that confidence in his Box anymore, his only weakness was being weaker.

He dove backward toward the dragoness and laid his hand upon her claws,

"Some things are more prominent then they seem."

He flipped up and touched her teeth as well. A HYPERBOLE or two might help them out. He couldn't be sure what property he was making unrealistically augmented, but seeing as these were offensive items on the destructive beast he could assume that he was making them stronger. WAY stronger, which for a dragon had to be one awesome feat.

He returned to the ground and sucked his head off blasting it Arhra II's way, and then reached into his pocket and followed the explosive head with coins that grew to gigantic size,

"ECONOMIC BOOM!"

He really had to stop giving names to his attacks. He followed behind the barrage hoping to find an opening to touch with his hands as she more than likely made easy work of the attack. He just needed one touch on that wing barrier. After all Arhra II it was made to defend her if he could UNDERSTATE it he could make sure the things became brittle and pathetic. He wouldn't LIE though, they were plenty useful as weapons and giving her a healing item was not very good.

First he had to touch her though, just one feel would do.

[mauve]

Mauve and her clones-- the ones who had survived-- spent their portion of the tower-climbey-adventure-thing seated on the staircase, playing Clue. Real Mauve got into a brief fight with one of the clones over who got to play as Miss Scarlett, but that was quickly resolved. That meant, however, that there was one fewer player. Mauve's balloon clones quickly discovered that balloons don't do well against knives, fire, lightning, or raw magical energy, all of which being things that Real Mauve had plenty of at her disposal.

The clones that survived the initial lesson were therefore quick to agree to Mauve's suggestion of playing a game instead of wasting her MP.

"Look, either roll the die and leave the Ballroom or make another accusation," Mauve said crossly to one of the clones. It shrunk back in fear, eyeing the very real knife sitting next to the game peice version.

"O-Okay," the clone stammered. She grabbed the die.

"You guys really suck at this game." Mauve grumbled. "Even more than those brain things." A sad, withered pile of dead brain goop was currently rotting in the corridor just behind them. Mauve didn't like cheaters.

"I guess this was a dumb idea," she sighed. She started scooping the game pieces back into the box. "I should probably go see what the other guys are up to anyway. I vaguely remenmber something about saving the world and a timer or something.... That was probably important..."


She folded up the game board and put it in the box as well. With a wave of her hand, the box shrunk to the size of a matchbox. She dropped it into her pocket.

Time to move on. She straightened her hat, dusted off her skirt, and started to walk away.

"Um...." one of the clones said uncertainly.

Mauve turned.

"Oh, right." She raised a hand. "I still don't like you guys. Kthnxbai."

The stairs where the clones sat erupted in flames. There was an impressive explosion. Bits of ash and charred balloon fluttered around the room like butterflies.

"Stupid wannabes..." Mauve grumbled.


(Will edit in more later I guess)

[Shyria Dracnoir]

"Whup!" Shyria yelped, narrowly doged a fatal kebabing from Arhra's wing lance. She growled, glancing down at the thin red line the lance traced across her shoulder. "So much for diploma-MPH!" she gagged as she was interrupted by Overcast's jamming his hands in her mouth.

Originally Posted by Overcast

"Some things are more prominent then they seem."

Her mortification at being manhandled by an eldritch piece of freight was tempered by the surge of power suddenly coursing through her claws and teeth. A nearly invisible shield of force projected outwards from the digits in question, a good inch beyond their normal length, all crackling with magical energy. With this, she could tear through a steel bunker like a bobcat through wet tissue paper. Sadly, she'd have to settle for the big ugly demon thing.

Originally Posted by Overcast

"ECONOMIC BOOM!"

A quick flap of her wings sent Shyria flying towards the closest of Arhra's faces alongside a torrent of monetary missiles. Another downbeat brought the dragon close enough to sink her teeth into the demoness' nose as her front talons dug into her foe's cheeks. She clamped down as hard as she could, sealing the deal by letting loose a few streams of fire into the surrounding flesh. This was going to be a bumpy ride.

[Astral Harmony]

Armored Bishoujo smirked while trying to control her anger at seeing Arhra II yet again. "Punished for my crimes? By you? I atone for my crimes by punishing evil. And evil bitches like you have no right to punish anyone else for anything. God, you're just the worst kind of person, y'know? I can't stand people like you!"

There wasn't anymore time. She had met plenty of crazy bitches before, and no one liked to listen to anyone but themselves. Armored drew both gun and sword and then opened fire directly on Arhra II. "Here, hold these bullets for me!"

Armored didn't know how powerful the Fury Pills were, but she felt like she had taken a few herself. She was so angry, but lacked the physical capabilities of manifesting her rage in a tangible form for her to drown Arhra II. The sorceress represented everything Armored hated. And Armored was done with letting her continue to exist.

[Steel Shadow]

"I see you have this all well in hand," Steel said, stepping forwards-

-and then he was on the other side of the room, past the Sorceress, a small aura of Fury coloured light swirling around him. "So I'll just go see what that countdown's all about, kay?"

He gave a vauge salute with his sword, and zipped on ahead, time folding around him like always, onwards through the broken doors and into the darkness beyond.

Surely there was no way this plan could go wrong!