NPF Avatars: Pain and Amazement

[Raiden]

Raiden looked down at the knife protruding from his neck. He reached up and pulled the blade from his neck. The large gash began to heal, but it took longer to heal then it normally would. He had begun talking before it had finished healing, which made his voice come out raspy and breathless.

"You got -huh- your own door -huh- because I thought -huh- that you would be -huh- smarter than that."

He stood up from the table and gently put his paper down. The gash in his neck healed, making his voice much cleaner. He still held the knife in his hand.

"If you were alone, then you would think through attacking the puppet. But I guess I was wrong, Mauve. You wouldn't just wait around and let things happen to keep safe."

He raised the knife up, making sure Mauve could clearly see it. Then, with a clenching of his hand, he crushed the knife into a worthless piece of metal. Blood dripped from his hand onto the floor, but that was quickly healing.

"I suppose under different circumstances, I should be proud of that. However..."

He grabbed the counter, and with a flex of his muscles, ripped the large heavy object from the ground. A hissing sound was heard as pipes and foundation was ripped apart.

"That Raiden is gone. And you just got in my way."

He tossed the giant object with relative ease in Mauve's direction.

************************************************** ********
Raiden looked at Krylo in their close combat.

"I know how many of my friends have died."

He pushed Krylo off and sliced up, then down. The mod's free hand cleanly fell from his arm, but was already regenerating before the Thunder God moved. Raiden stepped back a bit to give himself a little more room.

"None."

Without even entering a stance, the puppet attacked.

************************************************** ********
Raiden looked with a bit of pity upon Mesden. He had placed her in a place where all of her fears, no matter how slight, were exaggerated and enlargened, making even the tiniest thing feel like a paralyzing phobia. It was for her own good.

She had used the basic Rune he had taught her to drown out the sound. She was being smart about this. All he had to do was keep her here a bit longer.

************************************************** ********
Raiden looked at Rhiya as she pulled out her twin blades.

"Ah. The swords. Wonderful, wonderful."

Suddenly, he appeared behind Rhiya.

"Now, how are you going to hit me?"

Before she even had time to turn to him, he had moved again. He was now on a completely different rooftop.

"I'm over here!"

*zoom*

"Now I'm here!"

*zoom*

"Oops, moved again!"

Raiden was using his speed to zip all over the place.

************************************************** ********
Raiden was standing where he was, looking down at Ecurt and Fenris.

"Such a pity. I honestly thought you two could do better."

Raiden was holding Gleipner in his hands. He had grabbed the blade before it struck him. For a moment, it looked like he was about to attack the two, then hesitated.

"You know what? Not even worth my time."

His lips pursed, and he whistled. Suddenly, a large electric wildcat emerged from a wall.

"Raiju. Keep those two busy while I arrange for some people to keep them company."

The electric cat gave a small nod, then turned its eyes on Ecurt and Fenris.

************************************************** ********
The receptionist pressed a button on her desk, and a door behind her opened. Through the door was an office. The office was a very large and lavish one, with priceless art and sculptures lining the walls. At the far end of the office, the entire wall seemed to be a giant window. Sitting in a plush chair, looking out the window, was Raiden. He turned in his chair and looked over at Pedro.

"Ah, my 3:00 is here. Good, good. What are you doing just standing out there? Come in."

Pedro walked in, and before he could take more than a couple of steps, he was whisked off his seat by a moving chair. The chair carried Pedro through the length of the office, and stopped right by Raiden's desk. The Thunder God looked over at Pedro.

"According to my receptionist, you're a manipulative son-of-a-bitch that tries to alter a person's mind to get what you want."

The god reached into his desk, and pulled out a thick folder.

"You're just the person we need here at Electric Takeover, Inc."

Not even giving POS the chance to speak, he opened the folder.

"Now, I know your industry hasn't been doing so well, and you're in debt up to your ass. However, wouldn't it be wonderful if all those red numbers in your taxes just...went away? Join Electric Takeover, Inc., and the pay you recieve here will make any debt you had seem like paying the candy man for a chocolate."

The Thunder God was already signing a small slip of paper. When he had handed it over to Pedro, he realized that it was a check. A check with a LARGE amount of zeros in it.

"That's just your monthly starting salary. You'll also get a corner office, a house in the 'burb's, a vacation spot at the coast, and a puppy. Now, for all of this, you only have to do one thing."

Raiden pointed through the door to the sleeping Arhra.

"Get rid of the riff-raff."

************************************************** ********
Raiden continued to play the guitar as he looked over at Pyros.

"I'm sorry, little brother. I'm here to slow you down. If I told you where Raiden was, how would I be doing my job?"

************************************************** ********
Raiden didn't even move himself when the fireball flew at him. Electricity seemed to jump from his body as it enveloped the flame and put it out. Raiden gave out a chuckle.

"I know what you're thinking. That this is all an illusion. Don't forget, boy, I can read your mind. Electric synapsis, and all that junk."

The Thunder God got off the ground and sat in a cross legged position.

"And what I want is to keep you here. That's all. Simply stopping you from moving on, or at least slow you down."

[Fenris]

"Aw, horseshit!" Fenris yelled, feeling the breath of the wildcat on his face.

Suddenly, Fenris got an idea. Rummaging through his knapsack, he removed a package of catnip that said "Silly Kitty" on it, with a picture of the forumite of the same name.

Tossing the catnip at the cat, Fenris smiled to himself. 'He won't be able to resist...' he thought.

It was painfully evident when the cat slapped the package of catnip back into Fenris' face that he had thought wrong.

"I guess we have to play this rough, then..." Fenris said, pulling out the longknife, which was still the length of the knapsack, roughly the size of a katana.

'This is not a job for a hobo...' Fenris thought, running sideways away from the agile cat, hoping Ecurt would do roughly the same so they could flank the cat, even while forgetting to actually tell him to.

[PyrosNine]

"An all around adjusted slacker everyone loved, of course, Big Bro." Pyros sighed, and yawned. This was quite annoying, having to deal with some stupid puppet. But it was in his way, so he supposed he'd have to move it.

"Hmm....how very-" Pyros held up his hand and immediately fired off a flame cannon. The Raiden before him got a facefull of firey destruction, and was sent off it's feet into the nearby wall.

"-Droll."

Pyros took his flametongue off his shoulder, and readied it before him. The wicked grin of old emerged and replaced his yawn, and his eyes flashed red briefly.

[Darth SS]

Darth was in his own room of creepiness.

Raiden was standing in his way, smiling in that psychopathic way that only Raiden could. Or Edward Scissorhands. Of course this wasn't real. Through the Force, Darth could feel that others were fighting "Raiden." But he just had to be real enough to kill. Darth exhaled, and let his energy slowly come back.

He didn't go for his guns. That would just be dumb. Instead, he undid his backpack and let it fall off.

"Raiden. Pal."

His metal arm popped open and ejected a silver cylinder. Darth grabbed and snapped it down dramatically. A snap-hiss echoed through the trippy room. A scarlet blade came from the handle

"Blades and hands only. No projectiles, equal strength modifiers."

[Inbred Chocobo]

Inbred now stood at the entrance to the twisted tower. He droppedt he arm he had ripped off a flamer and used as a weapon against his buddies, and then thought his next plan of action. "More than likely there be traps waiting inside." He then looked straight up, at the top of the tower. "But there is no telling what he can do to the outside of the tower. I doubt the fall would kill me, but then again I doubt that would be all I suffered."

He pulled out a coin. "Guess I'll use this to decide." He flipped the coin, and catched it in mid-air. Or thats what he meant to do, but he missed the coin and rolled into the tower. "Guess that works too." He said as he walked in, grabbing a coin and going down a random tunnel.

[POS Industries]

"Get rid of the riff-raff."

POS cast a cursory glance behind him toward the slumbering Arhra, still looking very peaceful and mumbling something about cheese. Finally getting a chance to get comfortable, Pedro folded his legs, leaned back in his chair, and very nonchalantly turned his gaze back to the "gen-u-ine" Legendary Japanese Thunder God™ sitting at the desk before him. A sly grin crossed his face as he reached in front of him and slid the check into his view.

"Well, that's a mighty fine dollar amount you got there," POS commented, taking on a mild southern accent, "All this and a puppy, too? Will wonders never cease?"

Ah yes, he thought to himself, Smug mode...

"Pity about the name though... 'Electric Takeover'? Sounds like a middle school country line dance. Oh well, I guess it can't really be helped. After all, they can't all be POS Industries..."

Raiden's demeaner remained unchanged, still smirking right back at POS. Unflappable to the last. Would anything less be befitting of a god?

"Still, I'm curious," POS said, dropping his own grin and raising an eyebrow at his prospective employer, "As legit as I'm sure this check must be - is that Scooby Doo printed on there? - this whole thing raises an important question: Seeing as you've stolen the main source of power in the city and blown up the power plant, how precisely am I going to cash this check of yours? Now, while damning civilization to living Abe Lincoln style is a nice enough plan, the fact that you're giving me this check suggests that such a thing is, in fact, not your overall goal. So tell me, oh-captain-my-captain..."

Pedro leaned forward onto the desk in front of him, clasping his hands together in front of his chin in abject anticipation.

"What's our mission statement?"

[Raiden]

Raiden looked up after being slammed into the wall by Pyros. His guitar had burned, and a string had snapped.

"You broke my guitar, little brother..."

Raiden's glowing eyes increased in brightness, and electricity seemed to explode from his body.

"Don't anger me, little brother!"

Large orbs of intense electric power formed around Raiden's body, and went zooming at Pyros.

************************************************** ********
Raiden twirled the sword in his hand as he faced Darth.

"Of course, SS. I have no reason to play dirty."

************************************************** ********
Raiden leaned back in his comfy chair as he looked over at POS.

"The goal of Electric Takeover, Inc. is to better the lives of our customers through direct tactics and subtle marketing techniques, all of which will bring our entire community closer to the eutopia we all seek but rarely come close to grasping."

He smiled.

"Just think of the absconding of the power source as an...elimination of commercial rivals."

Raiden took the check in his hands.

"Of course, if you're having second thoughts about the job, I could always tear this check and your hiring benefit plan up, and hire another..."

[POS Industries]

POS snatched the check back as quickly as Raiden could grab it.

"No no... I'm not quite done with this yet. I'm simply curious as to the specifics of these 'tactics and techniques', as well as this 'eutopia' of which you speak. It all sounds very pretty."

Pedro placed the check back down on the desk, shuffling it back idly with the tip of his middle finger, "And a check, regardless of how many zeroes, is one thing, but I wouldn't mind getting a look at my contract. If that's not a problem with you, of course...."

The smirk had returned to POS' face, and a glint of curiousity flickered in his eye.

[Krylo]

Krylo's feet kicked off the ground to the side, sending him flying away from Raiden, the Thundergod's attack passing, harmlessly, through the mod's trailing duster. However, Krylo's--currently skeletal--hand grasped into his duster, pulling out one of his nine milimeter pistols, and, as the Raiden's sword cut through Krylo's coat, three shots rang out. one of them blasted through Raiden's elbow, temporarily severing tendons, while another two met each of his knees, disabling them and dropping the puppet to the ground.

Krylo's back hit the wall, just as Raiden's face hit the ground. The immortal puppet placed his hands underneath him, and began to push off the ground, but just as his face left the concrete floor a light metallic skid sounded.

Raiden recognized the sound, and his eyes widened, even before the grenade stopped just under his chin. Before he could react a gunshot rang out, and a bullet hit the grenade, detonating it.

Shrapnel and pure concussive force ripped through Raiden's face, chest, and arms, throwing what was left of his body--mostly a lower torso, across the room, while his damascus blade, by some strange trick of fate, was thrown directly into Krylo's stomach blade first.

The mod pulled the blade out and dropped it as he cames slowly to his feet, once more switching out his guns--now holding the forty four in his right hand and the withering blade in his left.

Raiden was already beginning to regenerate, and Krylo charged forward intent upon stabbing the--mostly--harmless corpse until there was nothing left. However, Raiden was all the way across the room, and there was a good chance he'd be well enough to dodge by the time Krylo made it that far.

[Truce]

Fenris and Ecurt didn't have exactly the best teamwork in the NPFers. In fact, one would go so far as to say that they had none at all. With that in mind it wasn't surprising that, while Fenris was dancing with the thunder kitty, Ecurt still remained in the same spot as he had been since he had thrown Gleipnir at the thunder god.

"I'm sorry pal," he said, bowing his head momentarily. "But it looks like I'll need to leave that kitty to you. I hope you don't mind."

With a dramatic wave of his hand twenty Pyros Plushies™ appeared in a semicircle in front of Raiden, each with an gleeful expression on their face not unlike one would find often on the real Pyros himself. Then, suddenly, they all threw themselves at Raiden, in an attempt to bury the thunder god in their plush.

Of course, they were just toys, and would never be able to keep Raiden down. Their true purpose was to distract him while Ecurt zigzagged towards the throne, picking up a couple of the scattered swords along the way. I have to stop you now. After all, I can't let you call in reinforcements.

...I just hope Fenris will be alright.