NPF Avatars: Sadness and Family Intervention

[mauve]

The coast was (oddly enough) clear. There were voices coming from somewhere down the darkened halls, but Mauve seemed to be alone. Well, that was good. For a minute there, she was sure that the door would open into some evil realm of doomy doom.

Having a moment of peace (or at least something resembling peace), Mauve decided to clean up a bit. Meaning, of course, that she cast Elemental Absorb once more and torched the mess away. (SHOUT! is for sissies.) Dusting off her palms on the now-stainless skirt, Mauve set off down a random tunnel. She had no idea where to go, but she figured that she'd run into something sooner or later. That's just how things worked around here.

Sure enough, she hadn't been walking for more than five minutes when a flashing light came on over a nearby door. Mauve tapped her chin, wondering what it could mean.

"Hello, unknown lifeform!" a slightly robotic-sounding female voice hailed her cheerfully. Mauve took a step back.

"Um, hi?" she said, uncertainly. It didn't sound like Raiden, or anything Raiden would cook up, but she couldn't be too careful.

"Hi!" The voice returned happily. "You definately wanna go this way!" A door opened, and a series of blue lights tried their hardest to turn on and illuminate the passageway within. It didn't look any more or less promising than the other passageway, but the fact that it came highly recommended by Robotic Voice Number One definately set it apart from the other.

"I do, do I?" Mauve asked flatly, eyeing the tunnel. "Does this one lead to Almost Certain Doom too?"

"Possibly!" the voice continued happily. "But you can't go down that other way, so you've got no choice."

"Oh, I can't? And why's that?" Mauve asked, deciding to go the other way to spite the voice.

"Because I'm locking the door!"

Mauve could have sworn the robo-voice giggled as a somewhat-warped steel door slid down and slammed into the ground. A red light flashed angrily above it.

"Ah," Mauve said weakly. "That's a good reason."

"I know! Come on, you gotta go this way! Pe-chan's waiting!" The little blue lights tried even harder to illuminate the darkness, but half of them were flickering and a few had already blown a fuse somewhere. It was a sad display.

" 'Pe-chan?' Who is.... Y'know, don't tell me. I'm guessing I'll figure it out sooner or later. Let's make this an adventure." And with that, the mage shoved her hands in her pockets and strode down the semi-illuminated halls.

[GARUD]

Garud shook his now human head, and looked around. Premonitions was dragging him through the portal.

"I can walk dammit!"

Garud shook out of Premonition's grasp and got to his feet. He dusted himself off, and walked through the portal, recalling his staff to his side. He took one look back at Raiden. Who could be behind this? It... it doesent seem like Raiden... he would not do this of his own accord. Someone's behind this, but who? Who could control a God? Well, other than... no, it can't be! It... it's not possible... it can't. It's not, I'm sure of it. Garud shook his head, and continued with Premonitions.

[Premmy]

They stepped out and into the hallways of Mashirosen tower. It was dark, and quiet. Premonitions thought he heard voices down the hall way so he took off. He could'nt find the source of the voices so he calle dout. "HEY! Someone, who's not a psychopathic god wanna answer me?What's going on? where si everybody?" something told him that saying those famous last words would result in unpleasentness very soon. He tried to keep up his gaurd "Garud! get over here, we need find the mashirosen, soon, I think Raiden might be taking it right now."

[Raiden]

A door in the lobby Krylo and Rhiya were currently in became more apparant. It was the door that would normally lead to the cells where they would keep the temp-banned posters. However, this door would now lead into the tunnels of the Mashirosen Tower.

************************************************** *********
IC fell down from the hole he had created, and was instantly grabbed by the ankle, leaving him suspended upside down. When he looked up, he saw Raiden.

There was no chance that this was a clone Raiden.

"Inbred. Hello. I didn't expect you to come up here, especially after I left a nice tunnel for you."

Raiden looked intently at IC. The energy in his eyesockets was glowing brightly.

"If you're in here already, I can only guess that the others have gotten through. Especially since Arhra and Pedro took the Mashirosen from me."

Static seemed to jump off of Raiden's aura.

"It seems they've also activated the R.E.I. program."

************************************************** *******
The sphere on Raiden's right exploded when Phoenix's bullet collided with it. A small shockwave passed through him, sending his hair flying off to the side. His facial expression barely changed. After all, the Mashirosen was almost in the real Raiden's grasp. All he had to do now was play with them for a bit. Honestly, against both Dragonsbane AND Phoenix, he wouldn't last long with only one of his traits at maximum capabilities.

Oh well. Such is life.

"I'm afraid you're both too late to have any actual effect on the course of things. The ball has been set in motion, and has increased in speed and size to the point where none can stop it."

Raiden lifted his left hand, and swirling energies appeared in it. The energies gathered together and seemed to almost rip apart at the seems, except for a small layer holding it together.

"Let's go out with a bang."

************************************************** *******
Raiden saw Charon charging him from one side, and fireballs being tossed at him from the other.

He chuckled.

BZZZZZZZZZT!!

Raiden's electric aura had a mind of its own. His body didn't even move from his standing spot. However, electricity leapt from him, zapping Charon in the chest. The dog was flung back with a scorched torso. As for the fireballs, they had their own beams of electricity to worry about. Each fireball was struck by a thick bolt of lightning, pushing them back and away. Eventually, the fireballs burned out and fell away to cinders.

"Student. You haven't learned anything from what I taught you. Lesson 1."

Raiden turned and looked directly into Twiddy's eyes.

"You're up against a powerful opponent. You have taken damage, and are not fighting at your best. Your trump card failed. You have no hope of winning at the moment. What have I taught you to do?"

[POS Industries]

"Oh dear. That just seems rude. Um, Pe-chan?"

POS interrupted his little strategy pow-wow with Arhra, and turned back to the console. "What's the problem, Rei?"

"I have successfully begun directing the first lifeform to your location," the computer began explaining, "I like her, by the way. She's fun! Anyway, the second lifeform that came in from outside and that weird bio-reading are in the same place now, and... well...."

The monitor switched to the grainy security footage of IC being dangled upside down by Raiden. Pedro could feel Arhra approach and look over his shoulder, and the room suddenly became horribly tense as the summoner standing behind him breathed, "Oh god... Inbred..."

This is awkward, POS mind raced, Can't have Rei go ahead and start leading him here, because that would just basically be saying "Hey Raiden! Know how I've royally pissed you off twice now? Well, why don't I roll out the ol' red carpet for ya so you can come right in and play in my blood?" I could try to beam him out, but the odds of Raiden hitching a ride with him are pretty good, not to mention that I don't want to overwork the generators any more than I absolutely have to. So what else is there to.... Wait. His name is Inbred? Why am I trying to save him, exactly?

"There's nothing we can do," he finally said coldly, "Rei, cancel bringing him here. It's too much of a liability and we can't afford the risk right now."

"Okeedokee, artichokee! By the way, four more people have just entered the tower," the monitor view switched mercifully to show Garud and Premonitions, then again to display Krylo and Rhiya, "Should I still direct them to this location?"

POS nodded slightly, "Of course."

"Your wish is my command!" the voice said cheerily as she set off to work.

Pedro kept his eyes glued to the monitor in front of him, even though it had already switched back to the normal operating system. He had no desire to look up at Arhra at the moment. While he didn't know her at all, he could only assume that she and IC were friends and that the idea of sacrificing him probably wasn't something that she was at all fond of. However, as long as Raiden was busy playing with the ninja it meant more time for them to make their escape. This is, for all intents and purposes, a war and casualties are to be expected.

Please, just don't look at me like that....

[Truce]

Finally, it was ready. Though it hadn't taken long form him to lock onto Arhra's coordinates he had a little bit of trouble getting the necessary energy to make it possible. Without the Kurosen powering the city Ecurt had to rely on another source of energy. Luckily, Ecurt had prepared for this and quickly figured out a simple way to acquire such a source.

---

"Hey CJ! I'll trade you this for that Philosopher's Stone of yours!"

"Now why would I possi-ED PLUSHIE!"

---

Now, by using the red stone as a battery, it would be just a simple matter of pressing the big red button to open up a portal. "Okay Arhra, I'm opening a portal! Be sure not to attack us when we get through!"

And, with that, a fiery red portal opened up, with one end in front of Arthra and the other end appearing before Ecurt. Waving to Arhra, Ecurt was just about (dragging Fenris with him) to enter the portal before he stopped. "Wait, should we go in there, or should you guys come out here?"

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

"Hey! A conveniently-located doorway in which we could charge through!" Rhiya exclaimed in quite traditional fashion, then flopped slightly in disappointment.

"...but that means we can't do much baseless destruction to this dimension..."

Rhiya suddenly brightened again. Shivering all over, Rhiya transformed again into a rather horse-sized chaos-diamond dragon. Wings folded tightly along her flanks, she nodded enthusiastically to Krylo.

"Wha-" he opened his mouth. Rhiya grabbed him by the torso and without too much care threw him onto her back.
"I'm gonna do some baseless destruction! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Rhiya charged. She cannoned into the door like a deranged, fully-momentous mad elephant. Krylo had to duck low to avoid being painfully decapitated by the corridor ceiling as the dragon beneath him ploughed along at breakneck speed while leaving sparks and grooves where parts of Rhiya didn't exactly fit properly into the corridor. The wake of devastation Rhiya left behind her was truly to be admired at - well... it was still quite an impressive achievement without all the fire and explosive destruction other NPFers so loved to use.

Walls buckled and ceillings collapsed into groaning heaps. Plaster dust choked the air in puffs of white cloud. Rhiya seemed to both expand and shrink as she passed, making sure she thumped her spiked tail frequently across the walls. A plaster board ahead of her splintered as it fell over her diamond-hard head. Rhiya shouldered past, Krylo hunched down on her back doing his best to protect himself from further injury.

~~

They burst out - literally - a few feet away from where the ACTUAL escape door was located. The last of the escape route crumbled and collapsed behind them.

Rhiya ploughed through another two walls before realizing she was finally outside. Stopping at last (but not fast enough to save one more wall, a stapler and an office Drink Cooler), Rhiya shook herself like a dog, relieving herself of plaster, rubble, random pipes and a certain disgruntled Krylo alike.

"Oops, sorry." It was rather disconcerting to hear a dragon rumble this right after intentionally charging wrecklessly through the building and disregarding the "DO NOT RUN IN CORRIDORS" sign posted at every corner. Still, one could forgive Rhiya when she changed back into her rather attractive self and bounced over to help Krylo unbury himself from under a pile of plaster.

[Arhra]

It seemed Inbred was moderately done for. That saddened Arhra. She hadn't had too much to do with him but he seemed like an okay sort. POS couldn't meet her gaze. That made her feel even worse.

There was, however, something she could do to improve the situation. She assumed her summoning stance once more and carefully began forming the spell's parameters. About half a minute of concentration and her muttering incantations to herself later, the target of her summoning spell appeared on the ground in front of her.

A chocolate chip muffin. Yum.

As Arhra bent over and picked it up, POS blurted out a comment, "All that for a muffin?!"

As Arhra tasted the fruits of her labour, she replied around a mouthful of delicous, "Fresh from the Elemental Plane of Muffins." As she had expected, it cheered her up. She gave some exposition to POS's question, "You have to be careful with the spell or you get a stale one."

"But couldn't you use your summoning power to rescue that inbred ninja?" POS couldn't help but feel compelled to point out the obvious.

Arhra was just opening her mouth to reply when Ecurt's portal appeared. With that sudden interruption, she listened to Ecurt and then replied, "Come in here, I guess." to Ecurt's query. "We're trying to gather the others."

[Dragonsbane]

"Oh dear, Raiden, you forget that with enough force any amount of momentum can be overcome. Besides, what if this is just a clone too, hmmm?" Dragonsbane chuckled, the explosions seeming to bounce harmlessly off him, without even mussing his hair. Closer inspection revealed a shimmering indigo shield surrounding the Archmage.

He raised his hand, emerald light gathering in the palm, and looked at Phoenix, "Dear girl, please find shelter, or I cannot guarantee your safety."

With that, he fired the Disintegrate spell into the heart of Raiden's gathering explosion, the emerald rays shooting from his fingers, gathering in his palm, and hurtling toward their target much like the planet-crunching laser of the Death Star.

[PhoenixFlame]

"Negative, Dragonsbane. There is insufficent cover to properly shield myself from an explosion." Phoenix calmly responds to Dragonsbane, unslinging her plasma thrower and easily steadying the massive weapon over her right shoulder.

A high pitched electrical sound signaled the weapon had finished it's recharging cycle, and with a quick snap of the firing lever, Phoenix adds her own bolt of lethal azure to Dragonsbane's spell onslaught. The green and blue rays each impacted the Raiden clone from very similar, yet altogether different arcs.